The Second Plenary Session
for the Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters(Concept Note)
1. BackgroundIn late May 2017, severe floods and landslides occurred in the Kalu and other river basinsof Sri Lanka, resulting in devastating damage to lives and properties. To assist in flood
recovery, the government of Japan dispatched the Japan Disaster Relief Expert Team. As it
anticipates more flood events in the future, effective flood management is needed to prevent
damage by using the latest information based on advanced science and technology.
In addition, under the global scheme of the International Flood Initiative (IFI), the platform
on water resilience and disasters needs to establish as a significant framework incollaboration with the organizations relevant to flood management of the countries. As part ofthis effort, the “Plenary Session for the Platform on Water and Disasters” was held on August24, 2017, in which all organizations relevant to flood management in Sri Lanka participated.
At this Session, a basic consensus was reached on the concept of the Platform in Sri Lanka.
It was also agreed that four target actions (Early warning, Adaptation planning for globalchange, Economic effect of disasters, and Contingency planning and mainstreaming) would
be implemented in three river basins of Kalu, Kelani and Malvathu.
Since the flood season starts in May this year, the preparation for flood disasters is urgently
needed. For this reason, the Second Plenary Session will be an opportunity:・ To reflect and recognize the outcomes of the First Plenary Session
・ To share the knowledge on the recent progress of the four target actions both by
Sri Lanka and Japan.
・ To discuss and develop the planning about future collaborative work to be well
prepared for the coming flood disasters

12. Discussion points(1) Economy
To analyze and promote investment and financing for water- related disasters, Prof.
Naoyuki Yoshino, Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute, will deliver a presentation
on estimation of disaster effect by use of regional GDP data.

(2) Climate change
To build an end to end cooperative framework for climate change adaptation, we need todevelop relevant data archive and integrated assessment tools that accelerate holistic
understanding of changing risks, and quantify and reduce the related uncertainty.

(3) Ensemble rainfall predictionTo provide information of coming heavy rainfall in advance, numerical weather prediction(NWP) for 72 hours has been operated once a day using a regional NWP model. Theensemble prediction system (EPS), which is composed of multiple forecasts, has started
operation by considering forecast uncertainty. ICHARM will provide the forecast data andNWP technology to responsible organizations.

(4) Flood forecasting
To provide the real-time as well as forecast river discharge and inundation information,
Water-Energy Budget-Rainfall Runoff Inundation (WEB-RRI) Model has been set-up forKalu river basin. 9 real-time rain gauges were installed since 2015 in and around the basin
for better utilizing real-time satellite rainfall products from JAXA. Outputs from WRF model
have also been utilized for extending the lead time of heavy rain and flood early warnings (~72 hrs in advance). Recently, an operational flood forecasting system is implemented at theirrigation department by the support from ICHARM and JAXA. Discussion will be on
improving the present system by the support from ICHARM, utilizing the outputs forreal-time operations, and expected future collaborations.

(5) Sediment disasterAn occurrence of landslides will be predicted by using critical rainfall conditions for thelandslide occurrence, and real-time rainfall or predicted rainfall. Key of the prediction is how
to determine the critical rainfall condition based on the local data. It is required to share bothdata and technology. ICHARM will provide the technology of the landslide prediction.
2(6) Contingency planning
To discuss about the identification of pilot area for implementing demonstration project onContingency Planning in Sri Lanka and how to implement including identification of key
organizations to be involved in. Also to discuss on current situation of implementing
contingency planning such as availability of national act/law for supporting contingency
planning

in locallevel,

guidelines,

available

contingency planning,

responsibleorganizations etc.

(7) Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters
To formulate and promote the framework of “Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters”
for implementing all components i.e. Data archiving, Rainfall prediction, Flood forecasting,
Climate change, Economic assessment, Sediment disaster, and Contingency planning. As
the first step of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary efforts for contributing topolicy-making and local communities, institutional structure of the Platform and focal pointof each participating organization will be discussed.

(8) Data management and archiving
To discuss about the data sharing policy among the Sri Lankan organizations and ICHARM,
and creation of dataset list which organization has which dataset in Sri Lanka3

3. Second Plenary Session for the Platform on Water Resilience andDisasters(1) Time: Wednesday, March 28, 2018 (13:00 ~ 17:00)(2) Venue: Auditorium at Irrigation Department (Colombo, Sri Lanka)(3) Participant organizations:
Sri Lanka: Irrigation Department
Disaster Management Center (DMC)
National Building Research Organization (NBRO)
Meteorological Department
Survey Department
Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development
Ministry of Mahaweli Development & Environment
Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLLRDC)
Japan:ICHARM
ADBI (remote)
University of Tokyo
JAXA
JICA

(4) Agenda:(Group Photo)
13:00 – 13:10

Opening

13:10 – 13:15

Review of the First Plenary Session

13:15 – 13:45

Special lecture on economy

13:45 – 14:20

Report of progress from Japan side

14:20 – 15:00

Presentation from Sri Lanka side

15:00 – 15:20

Coffee Break

15:20 – 16:50

Discussion

16:50 – 17:00

Closing4

Proposed Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters
as part of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction(draft)VisionPlatform envisions a future wherein decisions and actions for reducing water-related
disaster risk are well supported by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained risk
communication.
MissionTo realize its Vision, Platform works to connect the demand for sound and timely
decisions and actions taken by policy-makers and local communities with the supply ofdisaster risk information that is generated from integrated risk assessment and riskchange identification based on well archived data and statistics. In doing so, Platform
strengthens data integration and analysis functions by facilitating data and information
accessibility and application to decisions and actions within and across many different
stakeholders.
Scope
Decisions and actions for reducing risk on water-related disasters, including floods,
landslides and droughts, rely, and will continue to rely, on the ability of expert
communities to collect and archive data from various sources and combine these withsocial and economic analyses. Platform strengthens experts’ capability of datacollection and archiving, integrated assessment and risk change identification andstakeholders’ capacity for making maximum use of these data and information provided
from the experts. Platform contributes to institutional and infrastructural design andinvestment including land use management and climate change adaptation (staticapproach) and to effective response and recovery (dynamic approach).
Implementation Strategy and Schedule
Platform follows the IFI spiral-up implementation strategy and works in tandem withInternational Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018-2028. In its
demonstration phase, Platform focuses on 3 river basins, Kalu, Kelani, Malvathu;
develops data integration and analysis functions by which the stakeholders work
together with science communities at local and national levels; creates actionable5information supporting in policy-making and community of practice; reflects integrated
data and information to institutional and infrastructure designs and community actions;and shares innovative benefits created by interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary efforts.
Then, Platform will make a design of a prototyping phase and implement the plan
through multi-stakeholder collaboration. Responding to requests from Platform,
international development agencies and donors should prepare for technical andfinancial supports to Platform. These efforts should be expanded up to a national scaleand should be strengthened for operational use.

6(Draft)
Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters
Data Sharing Guidelines

Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters (PLATFORM) recognizes that the societal
benefits arising from its cooperative activities can be fully achieved through the sharing of
data, information, knowledge, products and services among the participants in PLATFORM
at least. PLATFORM also associates itself with the trend towards open data worldwide while
agency policies or legislation preclude the sharing of data as Open Data. In order to set up
data sharing guidelines which balance the interests of both data users and providers in thelight of the above mentioned constraints, it is considered useful to divide PLATFORM data
into the following three categories as a first step:Category 1: Data sets are shared as Open Data by default.
Category 2: Data sets are fully shared only among the PLATFORM Participants
Category 3: Data sets are shared with those who get a permission from the data provider.
All PLATFORM data users are requested to follow the guidelines as below:
1.

If there is any data policy indicated by the data provider, that policy always has
priority over this Guidelines.

2.

PLATFORM data are to be used only for the public interest, scientific research oreducation. Commercial use and exploitation of PLATFORM data sets areprohibited3.

Any modification or change of the original PLATFORM data sets is prohibited.

4.

Any re-export or transfer of the original data sets to a third party is prohibited.

5.

Whenever PLATFORM data sets are used for publication of scientific results, theauthor(s) shall send a copy of the respective publication, preferably in an electronic
form or in a separate printed version, to the PLATFORM CONTACTS as indicatedbelow.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Whenever PLATFORM data sets are used for any academic presentations, and any
publication of scientific results, the author(s) shall specify the following acknowledgement
and if the data provider has their own acknowledgement quotation, the author(s) shall use7both acknowledgements.
“The PLATFORM data set is archived and provided under the framework of the Platform on
Water Resilience and Disasters in Sri Lanka (PLATFORM).”DISCLAIMER
1.

PLATFORM data provider is not liable for any losses or any damage when
PLATFORM data sets are used.

2.

PLATFORM data sets and related information are subject to change without anyprior notice.

3.

PLATFORM will not support for any additional processing or analysis of thePLATFORM data sets.

CONTACTS
Irrigation Department:
Disaster Management Center:
National Building Research Organization:
Meteorological Department:
Survey Department:
Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development:
Ministry of Mahaweli Development & Environment:
Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation:
ICHARM:

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