Main History of the institute and Natural Hazards in Niigata Prefecture

The 1964 Niigata earthquake	The Niigata earthquake caused various kinds of damage, such as the collapse of buildings due to ground liquefaction, fires at refineries, and tsunamis run-up into rivers.
The 1981 heavy snowfall	Heavy snowfall covered a wide range of northern Japan and caused more than 100 casualties.
The 2004 Niigata-Fukushima heavy rainfall	Heavy rainfall occurred in Niigata and Fukushima Prefectures. A levee breach caused disastrous flooding in urban areas. A large number of landslides also occurred in mountainous areas.
The 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture earthquake	The earthquake in the Mid-Niigata Prefecture had a maximum seismic intensity of 7 causing approximately 70 fatalities. The vulnerability of mountainous areas to earthquake damage was clearly revealed.
2006	Research Center for Natural Hazards and Disaster Recovery was established.
The 2007 Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake	The Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake was triggered by an offshore fault causing severe damages in Niigata Prefecture. In Kashiwazaki City and surrounding areas, the maximum seismic intensity of 6 was recorded.
2011	Research Institute for Natural Hazards and Disaster Recovery was established.
The 2011 Niigata-Fukushima heavy rainfall	In Niigata-Fukushima, the lower catchment of the Shinano River was largely flood after a torrential rainfall (>100mm/h). The vulnerability to lowland areas was clearly recognized.
2015	The research institute was reorganized to include four research divisions: “Cascading and Linked Multi-Hazards”, “Hazard Mitigation”, “Societal Safety Systems”, and “Environmental Dynamics”.