Cities like Tokyo with sprawling underground facilities need better measures to minimize casualties should subways or shopping areas become flooded by heavy rains, according to a United Nations University researcher.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Srikantha Herath, senior academic program officer of environment and sustainable development at the U.N.U. in Tokyo, said in an interview with The Japan Times that the past few decades have seen a rush of construction of such structures in numerous developed countries, largely due to limited space above ground. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>But he warned that the potential risks from flooding have not been recognized fully by the public in such countries, including Japan.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'Japan has one of the largest number of underground transportation –

in the world," said the Sri Lankan, an expert on hydrology and a former University of Tokyo professor. "If you think that a bank of a big river in the city broken (by heavy rains) and whole underground spaces like subways are flooded, it is very scary and (such a situation) can cause much panic."

Herath is one of the experts who will be attending the upcoming forum in Kobe on the impact of natural disasters on urban cities and strategies to tackle such situations. The World Conference on Disaster Reduction of the U.N. will run Tuesday to Saturday.

The scholar pointed to the fact that the Dec. 26 earthquake and ensuing tsunamis that struck the Indian Ocean region were unexpected in terms of scale.

Similarly, extremely heavy rains or floods never before experienced could strike underground structures, Herath said, adding he expects that measures to tackle such hazards will be discussed at the Kobe conference.