Digital city for disaster reduction - Development of pictogram system for disaster management

The purpose of this study is to apply digital city concept for the development of a pictogram system for natural disaster reduction. Long lasting and tangible achievement of IDNDR is needed which may be used in all over the world for many coming generations. As Neurath said "Words divide, pictures unite", pictograms could be a powerful communication tool as well as an educational tool to improve global disaster awareness. In this project, we formed a multi-disciplinary team to compile "A Database of Pictograms for Natural Disaster Reduction", which we intend to release our copyrights to be used widely and freely as an achievement of IDNDR through internet. We developed the lexicon and grammar of the pictograms for natural disaster reduction. Over 700 pictograms in use were collected for evaluation, and new designs were also added to complete the list of concepts related to natural hazards and their disaster management. Home page will be introduced for worldwide participation in this project as a first step towards the digital city for disaster reduction.