On Nov 23 in 2008,Professor Xu invited  Naoki Katoh，who is the professor in Kyoto University,to give a report about emergency manegement.

Topic :

The Quickest Flow Problem in Dynamic Networks and Related Topics: A Theoretical Approach to Evacuation Planning in Urban Areas

Abstract

Recently, the Sichuan earthquake occurred in China and tragedy fell upon many people. Also, in 2004, the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake occurred which triggered devastating tsunamis It is needless to say that in Japan a big earthquake occurs very frequently, e.g., the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 and after this there were several big earthquakes. Moreover, not only earthquakes but also diverse disasters occur and cause serious damages in many countries. Therefore, it is very important to take measures in advance against large-scale disasters such as big earthquakes, conflagrations and tsunamis. Especially, evacuation planning in emergency situations is important since it is a matter of life and death. However, evacuation planning has been done based on intuition and experience.