Lesson Learned from Catastrophic Floods in Western Japan in 2018: Sustainable Perspective Analysis

Natural hazards have a significant impact on the sustainable development of human society. This paper reports on the catastrophic floods in western Japan in 2018. Continuous rainfall resulted in catastrophic floods, leading to 212 deaths, damage to more than 2000 houses and 619 geological disasters in 31 prefectures. The causes and contributing factors of these catastrophic floods are analyzed. The analysis of the causes of typical natural hazards provides an important lesson for hazard prevention and management. To adapt to climate change and prevent natural hazards in the future, the preliminary investigation and sustainable perspective analysis in this paper suggest the importance of the construction of a spongy city and the establishment of an early warning system with the help of information science and artificial intelligence technologies (ISAIT); we also highlight the urgent need to improve and strengthen the management of infrastructure.