The Research Center for Urban Safety and Security (RCUSS) was established on May 11, 1996, about one year following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

The mission of RCUSS is to make contributions in building safe and secure urban society by developing the visions towards such society and by conducting researches and educations on suitable methodologies and frameworks in realizing such society.

The urban society needs to be above of all a safe and secure place to live, while it serves various and extensive functions for lively industrial, economic and cultural activities, as well as comfortable and pleasant living environments.

The urban society is however composed of huge and complex societal and infrastructure systems, accompanied by problems such as urbanization and overcrowding.

Thus such society is highly vulnerable to the natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, as well as to the environmental destruction and pollution due to human and industrial activities.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake has taught us, through painful sacrifices of people and society, that urban cities are highly vulnerable to disasters and that integrated and holistic researches are required on building a safe and secure urban society. Kobe University that was the only multidisciplinary national university in the quake-stricken area has thus proposed to establish the RCUSS to orchestrate interdisciplinary and integrated researches, both in hardware and software aspects of society, with the aim of creating genuinely safe and secure urban society.

The Ministry of Education has granted this request by renewing and expanding the former Reclamation Engineering Research Institute at Kobe University