Hiroaki Goto (D1), Department of Urban Engineering, received The Outstanding Academic Presentation Award at The 45th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Natural Disasters

On 24th September 2026, Hiroaki Goto (D1), Hiroi Laboratory, Department of Urban Engineering, received The Outstanding Academic Presentation Award at The 45th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Natural Disasters.

The Outstanding Academic Presentation Award at The 45th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Natural Disasters

The Outstanding Academic Presentation Award will be presented to young researchers (those aged 35 or younger as of December 31, 2026, or students) who deliver excellent presentations.

About awarded research  
Title：

An Analysis on Evacuation Behavior in the 2025 Ofunato City Wildfire
Abstract：
The 2025 Ofunato City wildfire recorded the largest burned area in Japan since 1989. As research on wildfire evacuation is still developing, and knowledge regarding evacuation behavior remains limited, this study aimed to clarify evacuation behavior through a questionnaire survey (67 items, with a response rate of 34%). Compared to urban fires, it is common that the main trigger of fire awareness is information provided by municipalities. In contrast, the difficulty of perceiving wildfire danger made information provided by the municipality critically important. In addition, evacuation order provided by the municipality contributed more to early evacuation than communication among neighbors. These results highlight distinctive behavioral patterns during large-scale wildfires and underscore the need for the development of efficient information dissemination systems and community-based evacuation strategies to improve evacuation in wildfire-prone areas across Japan.

Your impression & future plan

I am deeply honored to receive the Outstanding Academic Presentation Award at the 45th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Natural Disaster Science.
When I first joined this project on entering graduate school last year, wildfire was an extremely rare phenomenon in Japan, and I had little idea of what a wildfire actually entails or how evacuation and recovery efforts should be conducted. Under such circumstances, I was able to compile my research into a meaningful outcome thanks to the dedicated guidance of my laboratory professors, enlightening exchanges with researchers from other universities, insightful reports from Ofunato City officials, and invaluable firsthand accounts from affected residents.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved. Moving forward, I remain committed to advancing my research to contribute to the recovery of Ofunato City and to the enhancement of disaster prevention capabilities across various regions.