JSCE Newsletter No.10, March 2003

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Committee

NewsletterNo. 10March 2003

“Civil Engineering” Dec. 2002 Feature Article:“Prepare for Big Earthquakes” (Summary)Eight years have passed since the Hyogo
ken Nambu Earthquake in 1995. In the January
2000 issue, Japan Society of Civil Engineers
focused on the lessons from the disaster andpublished a special edition "Lessons from the Great
Hanshin Earthquake – What could be taken over tothe 21st Century?" At the same time, the Central
Disaster Prevention Council carried out a reexamination of the estimated epicenter region ofthe virtual Tokai Earthquake in June 2001. The
earthquake investigation committee of Japanese
government released information on some active
faults and long-term occurrence probability of an
ocean trench type earthquake. The opportunity to
see related articles on newspapers also increased.
Such a field is the boundary region among thephysical science, engineering, and social science.
These academic fields need to cooperate inpreparing for the big earthquakes to come.
This article entitled "Preparing for big
earthquakes" will present the current conditions
and issues relevant to the earthquake disasterprevention technology.
First of all, the generating mechanism of a
big earthquake is explained. In this section, theoccurrence of the earthquake in Japanese Islands,
the ocean trench type earthquake, and the inland
type earthquake are described intelligibly.
The measure towards utilization of theNowcast Earthquake Information in theMeteorological Agency is introduced. Nowcast
Earthquake Information is to presume "earthquake
occurrence information," "epicenter information,""prediction seismic intensity information," and"earthquake
attainment
prediction
timeinformation," before the main shock reaches fromthe observation data, which is P wave promptly
caught at the observing point near the epicenterregion immediately after the occurrence of anearthquake. The Meteorological Agency isplanning to distribute Nowcast Earthquake
Information starting from the autumn of 2003 tousers in certain areas in Japan.

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The damage assumption based on risk
management is also described. Since many of theengineering- institutions are aimed at the publicbenefit, it is difficult to describe everything basedon profits and it is still more difficult to describe
the performance by the rate of return. However, itis coming to a point where public institutions
cannot be discussed without the economicalefficiency. Therefore, while introducing themethod of describing the performance of earning
assets, seismic investment is described in terms of
the applicability to an engineering-works
institution for example. Next, the life cycle
earthquake loss cost is explained. Japan is a world
leading earthquake frequent occurrence country.
Therefore, an earthquake risk is mentioned to oneof the important risks to an engineering-works
structure. If there is a risk, you have to make adecision about the countermeasure. The earthquake
risk on life-cycle management is related to thedetermination of seismic ability. That is, although
the expense will increase if seismic ability is madehigh, the possibility of loss by the futureearthquake decreases. On the contrary, if a
performance is made low, a future earthquake risk
will increase. Therefore, the necessity of evaluating
a future earthquake risk as earthquake loss costcomes out to the investment expense for a seismicimprovement. When the demand seismic ability ofa structure is considered in the frame of risk
management, the life cycle earthquake loss cost
will be evaluated.
Furthermore, the new trial for theearthquake disaster prevention technology over theearthquake disaster measures by the government orlocal authorities and a new earthquake disasterprevention technology for the lifelines, among
other issues are described.
Summary by Editorial Committee on“Civil Engineering” (Group D)

1

JSCE Newsletter No.10, March 2003

U.K. Section of JSCEThe U.K. Section of JSCE, established inLondon on October 19, 2001, has experienced thefirst official operational year since the first Annual
Meeting was held on March 22, 2002.
During the last twelve months until thesecond Annual Meeting scheduled in March, 2003,
the U.K. Section has managed the following
development activities:
1) Seminar “Japanese ODA and Africa” (April,2002)
2) Seminar “Project Management Example in theU.K.” (November, 2002)
3) Site Visit “Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Section 2,
Contract 220, London Tunnel Project Site”(February, 2003)

London Tunnel (Inside)

ASCE 150th Anniversary Report
The ASCE’s 150th Anniversary was heldfrom November 3-6, 2002 in Washington D.C. The
participants from JSCE were Dr. Kiyoshi Kishi,President, Dr. Masanori Hamada, Vice President,Dr. Satoru Madono, Member of JSCE International
Committee, and others, including myself.
At the International Round Table onNovember 3, on the theme of “Corruption in the
Build Environment: Implications of Transparency
on Engineering Quality,” as JSCE, after thegreeting from President Kishi, Prof. Madono madea presentation on the importance of humanresource cultivation. The Opening Ceremony washeld at the Washington Convention Center on the4th. At a technical session titled the “Past, Present& Future of Reliability-Based StructuralEngineering Worldwide,” I made a presentation
introducing the present status of reliability designin Japan.
At the "Lessons from the Kobe
Earthquake and Following Practices of Earthquake
Engineering," chaired by Dr. Hamada, JSCE
introduced our work on the Japanese antiearthquake designs after the earthquake. At theHonorary Member’s Lunch on the 6th, Professor
Emeritus Itoh Manabu, Tokyo University, andProfessor Emeritus Maeda Yukio, Osaka
University, were elected as Honorary Members.
By Fuminao Okumura(Railway Technical Research Institute)

2The JSCE-EIT Joint Seminar on
Steel Bridges in Bangkok

Opening Speech by EIT President Dr. Karoon

The JSCE-EIT (Engineering Institute ofThailand) Joint Seminar was held in Bangkok on
January 10, 2003, on the theme “Advanced
Engineering for Long-Life Steel Bridges.” Theseminar began with the opening speech by EIT
President, Dr. Karoon Chandrangsuno, which wasfollowed by 12 presentations (7 from JSCE and 5
from EIT). About 100 Thai engineers attended theseminar. After the seminar, Japanese delegateswere invited to visit two steel factories and twoconstruction sites. The seminar is the first of its
kind and one of the efforts that JSCE International
Activities Committee started making recently topromote the cooperation and/or stimulate theinteraction with the societies/institutes having acooperative agreement with JSCE.
By Eiki Yamaguchi(Kyushu Institute of Technology)

Japan to Host 3rd World Water
Forum
From March 16-23, 2003, Japan hosted
the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, Shiga andOsaka. The World Water Forum drew over 24,000
participants and over 130 Ministers from aroundthe world to participate in the Ministerial
Conference held on the occasion of the Forum.
Water issues are crucial as the world
population continue to grow. Water issues will bea key component to achieving sustainable
development and peace, as concerns grow overtransboundary water conflicts.
The 3rd World Water Forum included
Sessions: encompassing a broad range of issues
important to the water sector; Regional Days: todraw global attention to local, national, andregional issues; and Dialogue between Participantsand Ministers: to link Forum outcomes and theMinisterial Conference; the Senior Officials
Meeting and Ministerial Conference to produce theMinisterial Declaration and discuss solutions toglobal water issues.
Info:http://www.worldwaterforum.org/
By Sam Baron(Chuo University)

Also available on web: www.jsce.or.jp

JSCE Newsletter No.10, March 2003

Report From Flood Disaster
Investigation Team to Europe

Damages caused by the flooding of Gard River (righttributary of Rhone)

Heavy floods broke out in Germany,
Czech Republic and Austria in mid-August,followed by another incidence in France in
September 2002. The damages were extensive inall sites. In Czech Republic, a total of 220,000
people took refuge, 15 lives were lost, and the costof the damage is estimated to amount to 3 billion
euros. In Germany, damages were seen in scatteredsites along Elbe and its tributary rivers. However,
the greatest damage was sustained in Dresden
where fifty square km was covered with water and12,000 people evacuated. The estimated cost ofdamage in Germany is 9.2 billion euros. Thedamages along the Danube River in both Germanyand Austria were relatively small but thecharacteristic is that the damage is instead seenalong the tributary rivers. The cost of the damage isestimated at 2.5-3 billion euros in Austria. Theflood in the southwest region of France claimed 24
lives and caused damage estimated at 1.12 billion
euros.
In Japan, ten institutions* concernedweighed the situation heavily and held
deliberations on guidelines for conducting field
investigations. They jointly formed the “Year 2002
Flood Disaster Investigation Team to Europe.” Theteam split into four groups (Elbe A, Elbe B,Danube, and Rhone) and conducted field
investigations in their respective sites between Nov.
7-17 and between Jan. 8-17 for follow-up
investigations.
Following is the brief summary of thereport from the investigation team. It covers wide
range of topics from the differences in riveradministration system to flood insurance policies inthese countries as well as in comparison to Japan.
Austria has a nationwide flood control
policy, aiming for minimum river development
through “Water Care.” On the contrary, in France
and in Germany, river administration is left to theriverbank owners and states respectively.
Following the disaster, France is aiming to enhance
information distribution while maintaining thesame flood prevention framework. In Germany,
there is a project under way to implement anationwide flood protection plan involving federal

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and state governments to secure more flood zones
and further enforce land utilization regulations.
These two objectives are in fact the general aims of
all countries, which sustained damages from theflood. Japan should also further promotecomprehensive flood control measures, and riveradministrators should actively carry out
improvement of retarding basin within the floodzones.
Flood insurances in disaster-stricken
countries are covered by private sectors. For
example, in France, an insurance system calledCatNat, which was established after the great floodof 1981, enjoys a high purchase rate. In all fourcountries, financial compensation was provided tovictims. In Germany, the federal government madespecial one-time arrangement to provide 100%
compensation for damaged houses.
Mass media played a vital role in Europe
by providing appropriate information to nationaland international community about the floods andthe damages they incurred. The media also had apositive influence on volunteer activities andencouraged donations to victims. As for the role ofmedia in implementing disaster measures, the event
created an opportunity to discuss how to provide
appropriate and useful information efficiently.
There is much that Japan could learn fromthis experience. As was the case of the Danube
River, overflow of tributary river waters havecontributed to the great damage caused by thefloods in Europe. In preparing future hazard maps
in Japan, we must learn from this event and take
into consideration the possibility of tributary river
overflow. Also, the flooding of underground urban
space in European cities signals us the need tofurther advance measures against flooding ofunderground space in Japan.
The measures taken in response to thefloods in Europe are also noteworthy. For example,Japan should learn from the wide use of Internet inEurope to convey information regarding disasterprevention. The active role of specially trained
volunteer organization such as “technicalassistance group” in Germany should be studied.
The complete report can be obtained at theJSCE library. The summary of the report is alsoavailable at the JSCE website at
http://www.jsce.or.jp
By Kengo Sunada(Chairman of Committee on Hydraulics, JSCE)-------------------------------------------------------------*Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure and Transport, Cabinet Secretariat,
National Institute for Land and InfrastructureManagement (NILIM), Public Works Research Institute,
Disaster Prevention Research Institute Kyoto University,
Japan Institute of Construction Engineering, Foundationof River and Watershed Environment Management,
Foundation of River & Basin Integrated
Communications Japan, Infrastructure Development
Institute – Japan3

JSCE Newsletter No.10, March 2003

JSCE Study Tour Grant 2002

In this opportunity, I would like to express
my thanks to the officials of the InternationalAffairs Section of JSCE for their kind effort andtheir attention. And finally I must express my deepgratitude to all the members and officials of JSCEand IEB for selecting me and giving me the chanceto visit Japan.
By S.M. Parvez Mohit(Japan Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd.)

Invitation to 3rd CECAR
S.M. Parvez Mohit

Celebrating its 75th Anniversary, Japan
Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) is allotting aseries of Study Tour Grants to the similarsocieties/institutes of different countries to visit
Japan. In continuation with last 10 years, last year
in 2002, JSCE invited me as a member of theInstitute of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) for theStudy Tour Grant 2002 to Japan.
It is quite helpful to get such an
opportunity to visit Japan as an engineer from adeveloping country like Bangladesh, and it is avery important way to enhance mutual
understanding between colleagues in different
cultures and different parts of the world, and tolearn from each other’s experiences how theproblems are solved. It is also much moreinteresting to get a view of current projects andtechniques by means of study visits to the sites of atechnically developed country like Japan anddiscussion with the engineers involved.
The study tour took place from October 7
to October 11 2002. Its itinerary was designed tohave a well-balanced mix of visits to a university
research center, some governmental and somepublic research institutes and finally someconstruction sites in and around Tokyo
Metropolitan area.
Among many differences between civilengineering practice in Bangladesh and Japan, themain ones are the scale and the size of projects.
Japan has only 20% of its land, a very limited
space, to construct their infrastructures and otherfacilities. So their main objective is to save thespace, utilize the underground and construct highrise structures. Earthquake force is something we
do not always consider in Bangladesh, but we must
consider the wind force as it occurs during
cyclones in Bangladesh.
After returning to my country I wrote thisreport on my visit to Japan. This report presents myexperiences and my thoughts during my visit inTokyo. Although my visit in Japan was very short,
it was a wonderful and most valuable opportunity
in my life. During my visit I got a chance to get acloser view of the civil engineering activity inJapan and to see the beautiful country, meet its
hard-working and friendly people and to learn tosome extent about the culture and traditions ofJapan.

4Following the 2nd CECAR (The 2nd CivilEngineering Conference in the Asian Region)
which was held in Tokyo in April 2001, the 3rdCECAR is going to be held in Seoul, Korea,
August 16-19, 2004. JSCE has been heavily
involved in this conference and ACECC (AsianCivil Engineering Coordinating Council), which isthe administrative organization for this conference,
as one of the founding members since itsestablishment.
CECAR provides the civilengineering profession with an important
opportunity to discuss how the future infrastructurein harmony with the Asian region should be, topromote the information exchange on the various
issues such as the needs for research anddevelopment for the future civil engineering, and toestablish international partnership to seek ways tosolve problems in the Asian region. The updated
information will be introduced on the JSCE
website. I would like to ask for as many people’sparticipation in the conference as possible. Your
cooperation with us would be highly appreciated.
By Fuminao Okumura(Chairman of Committee on ACECC, JSCE)

Publications
ARTICLES (From December to February 2003)
Concrete Library International No.40, JSCE,December 2002, CD-ROM, Price: ¥3,150,ISSN 1347-2119
Standard Specifications for Concrete Structures2002, Seismic Performance Verification (inJapanese), JSCE, December 2002, 133 pages +CD-ROM, Price: ¥6,000, ISBN4-8106-0244-3
For all orders, contact:
MARUZEN Co. Ltd., Export Department
P.O. Box 5050 Tokyo 100-3199 Japan
Fax: +81-3-3278-9256
E-mail: t_kaneko@maruzen.co.jp
Send
yourcomments,suggestions
contributions to: iad@jsce.or.jp
JSCE Website: http://www.jsce.or.jp

andEditorial Board:
Public Relations Subcommittee,
International Activities Committee, JSCE

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