No.41
March 1, 2016

No.27

IntroductionoftheCommittee
Hydroscience and Hydraulic Engineering

onProf. Eiichi Nakakita (Kyoto University)

Chair of Committee on Hydroscience and Hydraulic Engineering
The predecessor of the present committee of hydroprefectures. In March 2015, the 59th conference was held

engineering is the investigation committee for hydraulics

in Waseda University. 249 articles were selected from 317

formulary. The committee was established in 1940 as thesubmitted papers by 206 reviewers including 62 editorial

second investigation committee of Japan Society of Civil

committee members.

Engineers. The committee, however, was once dissolved in1942 after the publication of the formulary. The committee◆Symposium of Advances in River Engineering

was reorganized in 1946 and became a standing

Symposium of Advances in River Engineering aims tocommittee

after

develop and spread river engineering techniques throughpublishing the first copy of the hydraulics formulary inresearch presentations and panel discussions on river

1949. In 1955, Coastal Engineering Committee became anrelated issues. Therefore, cooperation among public

independent committee, but the range of target issues hasagencies, universities and private companies, pioneering

become wider and wider as time goes by. Therefore, theinterdisciplinary fields and activities in actual fields isname was changed to “Committee on Hydroscience andimportant. In June 2015, the 21st symposium was held in

Hydraulic Engineering” in 2003. Research activities,

the University of Tokyo as usual. Presentations andsurveys and publications about river or water resource arediscussions were carried out with 499 participants. A

conducted by the above committee, 4 sub-divisions by field

journal named “Advances in River Engineering” was alsoand interdisciplinary meetings. Some activities arepublished.

named“CommitteeofHydraulics”

introduced below.
◆Water Symposium◆Conference on Hydraulic Engineering

Citizens, private companies, public agencies and JapanIn 1956, 22 papers were presented in a conference ofSociety of Civil Engineers exchange opinions on benefits

hydraulic research society. The conference was held atand problems of water for human beings or nature in orderPublic Works Research Institute and was the 1stto propose “Suitable relationship between water andConference on Hydraulic Engineering. After then, variety

human.” The 1st Water Symposium was held in Tottoriof hydro engineering topics have been introduced andPrefecture in 1996 and the 20th one was held in Fukui

discussed, but data on rivers, the revolution of measuring

Prefecture in August 2015. Keynote speeches, panel

and analysis techniques and the improvement of research

discussions and presentations by children were carried out

environments have diversified research targets year by

and 550 participants joined.

year. After the 42nd conference was held at Tottori
University, the conference is often held in several

IAC News No.41, Mar.1 2016

Poster presentations in “Symposium of Advances inRiver Engineering”

Musical performance by nursery school students
introduces the relationship between them and riverscomplex

Report on “River Technologies for Innovations
and Social Systems” –Examples in disastermitigation and environmental conservation– Inconjunction with the 9th Joint InternationalSymposium on Disaster Risk Management.

managementcompany,

gave

presentations

followed by meaningful Q&A sessions.
In the opening session, the organizing committee chairand representatives of the collaborators and sponsors
addressed the purposes and meanings of river technology.

An international symposium on “River Technologies forIn the first session, Dr. Isobe (President, Kochi Univ. ofInnovations“RiverTechnology) delivered a keynote lecture on improvedTechnology”) attended by approximately 100 participants,

coastal zone planning to reduce the effects of tsunami

was organized by the River Technology Organizing

disasters. Next, Dr. Mimura (Deputy Director General,Committee, in collaboration with the WFEO-CDRM andJICA) talked about the implementation of Japanese

local engineering organizations (JFES, JRRN, JSCE, andpractices

relatedAIJ), supported by Japanese government agencies andutilizationin

Asian regional organizations (SCJ, Japan MLIT, and

UN-Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The thirdARRN) on November 28, 2015 from 9:00–18:00 in Kyoto,presenter,Japan, prior to the 2015 World Engineering Conference

introduced an empirical study on the effect of investments

and Convention (WECC 2015). This symposium comprised

to mitigate flood and sediment disasters in Japan. Dr.

opening and closing sessions, three sessions covering

Chavoshian (Director, Iran UNESCO Regional Centre)

river/watersheddisasterthen reported on the current state of a salt lake in the arid

conservation,aandSocialSystems”(hereafter,mitigation,environmentalDr.

toflooddeveloping
Tsukahara

management
countries(Prof.,

toandwaterachieve

KyushutheUniv.),

enhanceand semi-arid West-Asian region under climate change.

information exchange and public awareness of river

Finally Dr. Lai (Senior Researcher, Taiwan National

technologies worldwide. The 10 guest speakers, whose

Cheng-Kungbackgrounds were related to disaster mitigation, river

severe-typhoon-induced landslides and flood disasters,

engineering,experts

and the development of an early warning system inconsultation with policy makers in regional and municipal

Taiwan. The second session was composed of fivegovernments, including a CEO of a ferry and resort

presentations. Mr. Stroeks (Senior Advisor, Embassy ofandpanelinternational

discussion

tocollaboration,

IAC News No.41, Mar.1 2016Univ.)

talkedabout

deep-seatedNetherlands) reported on the Netherlands’ delta program

The panel discussion in the third session led by Dr. Tamai

for extreme weather under climate change and the(Chair, River Technology) including four other panelists,utilization of hydropower. Dr. Tsuchiya (Secretary General,was based on the presentations delivered in the prior

JRRN) then talked about the utilization and conservation

sessions. They discussed the innovative river technologies

of rivers in the modern age in Tokyo over approximately

and concepts that could mitigate the severe impacts of150 years, including the management of landfills ofclimate change and maintain river biodiversity. Finally, Dr.

disaster debris following the Great Kanto Earthquake andTamai proposed a new concept in the field of river

air strikes during the World War II. Following this, Dr.

technology that merged two challenging issues, namely

Jang (Prof., South Korea Daejin Univ.) talked about arisk management for severe floods and environmental

flood control plan in the Seoul metropolitan area, focusing

conservation for river aquatic systems. A committeeon the conservation of river aquatic systems. Dr. Wu

member gave a closing address at the end of the(Deputy Mayor, Kaohsiung city, Taiwan) then reported onsymposium. The material presented in the symposium canpractical transformation in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, with abe viewed at http://river-innovation.net/index_en.html.

focus

on

greeneryandwater.

Finally,Mrs.

Pichaironarongsongkram (Chair, Chao-Phraya Express【 Nobuaki Kimura, WFEO-CDRM Deputy Secretary

Boat, Thailand) discussed water transportation and its(Kyushu University)】

historical development along the Chao-Phraya River.

A presenter and the audience
Panel discussion【Acronyms】
1) AIJ：Architectural Institute of Japan
2) ARRN：Asian River Restoration Network
3) JFES：Japan Federation of Engineering Societies
4) JICA：Japan International Cooperation Agency
5) JRRN：Japan River Restoration Network
6) JSCE：Japan Society of Civil Engineers
7) MLIT：Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism
8) SCJ：Science Council of Japan
9) UN-SDGs：United Nations - Sustainable Development

Speakers and committee members(Note) The organizing committee for “River Technologies forInnovations and Social Systems” has the copyright for thesephotos.

Goals
10) WECC2015：World Engineering Conference andConvention in 2015, held in Kyoto, Japan11) WFEO-CDRM：World Federation of Engineering
Organizations - Committee on Disaster Risk
Management

This symposium was financially supported by theRiver Improvement Fund (Japan River Foundation).

IAC News No.41, Mar.1 2016

IEB-JSCE Joint Seminar on Advances Bridge
Engineering

cerebrate the centenary of the Hardinge Bridge, which is a100-years-old railway bridge recovered from damages
during the liberation war in 1971. With that as a backdrop,

A joint seminar on bridge engineering between The

the theme of joint seminar was selected as “Towards

Institute of Engineering, Bangladesh (IEB) and Japan

Owning a Resilience Infrastructure”.

Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) convened on 22 August
2015, at Dhaka in Bangladesh. Selected 12 papers wereMinisters of Finance, Railway, Science and Technology ofpresented,engineers,

Bangladesh Government graced the opening and closing

researchers, and students participated in the seminar.

ceremonies of the conference. Mr. Sasahara of the first

From the JSCE party, researches on the steel-concrete

secretary of Embassy of Japan in Bangladesh and Mr.

composite truss bridges and steel box girder bridges, wereToyama of JICA Bangladesh office attended as guest

introduced, which will be constructed in Bangladesh in thespeakers. Emeritus Prof. Nagai of Nagaoka University of

immediate future,Technology, Prof. Ueda of Hokkaido University, and Dr.

andabout

80

professional

Kasuga of Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Company
This joint seminar was held as part of organized sessionsdelivered keynote addresses. The joint seminar, whichin the IABSE-JSCE Joint Conference on Advances Bridge

attracted

Engineering-III (ABE-III) being held in parallel on 21 andconcluded with great success.

334

participants

over11countries,

was22 August. The ABE-III is a joint conference between theInternational Association for Bridge and StructuralEngineering (IABSE) Bangladesh group and JSCE on【Prof. Yoshiaki Okui, Chair of the Committee on HybridStructures(Saitama University)】bridge engineering. The conference was organized toSession of Joint Seminar

IAC News No.41, Mar.1 2016

Keynote address by Dr. Kasuga

What’s Happening
・2016/3/21-22
The 2nd MES-JSCE Joint Symposium (Yangon, Myanmar)・2016/3/25-27

Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC)
30th Executive Committee Meeting (ECM) (New Delhi,India)

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Editor’s postscript
This is the last issue of the International Center News in theacademic year 2015. How have you spent the academic year
2015? I feel that time flies faster as I get older. March is very
near and literally time flies like an arrow. From April in thenew academic year, I would like to actively challenge newresearch and technological development while keeping in
mind that ‘youthful years pass quickly before one
accomplishes much learning.’（H.I.）

http://www.jsce-int.org/IAC_network[Comments and Questions] JSCE IAC: iac-news@jsce.or.jp
Please send us your feedback and comments to help us improve theIAC news. We look forward to hearing from you.

IAC News No.41, Mar.1 2016