JSCE Newsletter No.18, May 2005

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Committee

N e w s lette r
No. 18 May 2005

2004 Sumatra Offshore Earthquake and the Indian Ocean Tsunami
Establishment of Special Committee toresearch the damage caused by 2004
Sumatra Offshore Eart hquake and theIndian Ocean Tsunami
1. AimThe establishment of this Special
Committee is aimed to make an assessment of thereality of the damage caused by Sumatra Offshore
Earthquake and Indian Ocean Tsunami and, as wellas to organize the achievements as the data fordisasterprevention
improvement
againstearthquakes and tsunami, to provide cooperation forthe concerned countries by the overseas cooperationagreements and make proposals for the measuresagainst huge earthquakes from our experiences inJapan based on the JSCE’s activities for Hanshin
Awaji Great Earthquake and Niigata-ken Chuetsu
Earthquake and so on.
The huge ocean trench type earthquake
which took place off the coast of Sumatra Island on
December 26, 2004 and the great tsunami which
occurred subsequently attributed to the earthquake
caused unprecedented catastrophic disaster to theIndian Ocean coastal nations as well as to thenorthern part of Sumatra Island, which is the closest
spot to the epicenter. As those disaster-stricken
countries are still developing and not well equippedwith the alarm systems to the earthquake/tsunami,
Japan, with her world’s most advanced scientifictechnology in the fields of earthquake/tsunami
disaster prevention/mitigation, is expected toprovide multilateral and active cooperation for therestoration and reconstruction projects and thedisaster prevention planning.
On the other hand, imminence of hugeocean trench type earthquakes in the Eastern Sea,
the South-Eastern Sea and the Southern Sea has
been pointed out in our country and the envisioned
damage and the broad outline of countermeasures
have just been drawn up mainly by the specialist
research group in the Central Disaster Prevention
Conference. The Sumatra Offshore Earthquake has
made the simultaneous occurrences of those threehuge earthquakes realistic and the necessity forworking out new countermeasures is now asked for.
JSCE has been making proposals forearthquake resistance improvement of civilengineering structures such as the earthquake
Also available on web: www.jsce.or.jp

resistance standards and the reinforcement inaddition to the damage investigation at the time of
the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquakes in 1995, andhas been making contributions actively to theinfrastructure development with high quality ofearthquake resistance. As well, in November 2004,
JSCE established a special committee to work out arole which JSCE should play to address huge
earthquake disasters such as the Tokai Earthquake.
In addition, pertaining to the Niigata-ken Chuetsu
Earthquake which occurred in October, 2004, JSCE
implemented a prompt and extensive site
investigation, made progress reports, and is now
drawing up of the final report and working on newproposals to be made.
2. Main Activity Plans
The following items shall be carried into
effect with coordination among the concernedorganizations.
1. Collection of the wide-area basic data.
2. Establishment of the archives
3. Site investigation
4. Building an international network
5. Public release of the investigation outcomes.
3. The Committee Members
Chair of the special committee is
Fumihiko IMAMURA, Professor of Tohoku
University. The Committee shall be made up oflearned experts in/outside the society who areneeded for the investigation. Selection of themembers shall be made by the discussion between
the Chair of the Committee and the JSCE Executive
Director. In operating this committee, sufficient
cooperation and coordination shall be sought with
the Joint Sub-Committee on the Tsunami Damage
Estimation and Mitigation Technology Study by theEarthquake Engineering Committee and the Coastal
Engineering Committee, and the Special Committee
on Studying Responses to Huge Earthquakes
Disasters.
4. Duration
The duration of the Committee shall be
about six months from January 5, 2005. Progress
reports shall be made as needed.
From "Letter of Intent for the establishment ofSpecial Committee"

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JSCE Newsletter No.18, May 2005

JSCE's Activities after the disasterby Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami
JSCE established the ‘Special Committee
to Research the Damage Caused by the 2004
Sumatra Offshore Earthquake and the Indian
Ocean Tsunami’ immediately after the disaster, anddispatched investigation and assistance teams to theregion.
The activities are follows; the activities
will be reported on the JSCE website.
<2004>
Dec. 26

Occurrence of the Sumatra Earthquake
and the Tsunami*Set up emergency meeting at JSCE headquarters,
and send letters to affected countries<2005>
Jan. 5Jan. 14

Established the Special Committee
Held a Debrief session by immediate
investigation team including JSCEmembers
Feb. 27
Dispatched a JSCE investigation team-Mar.8 to Sumatra Island
Apr. 1
Held a Debrief session by theinvestigation team
Apr. 12
Dispatched a JSCE assistance team for-17 disaster prevention
April 23 Dispatched a JSCE investigation team-30
to Nias Island, Indonesia

CICHE-JSCE Joint Seminar Report

The seminar began with the opening
speeches by Prof. J. C. Chern and Prof. Shigeru
Morichi, presidents of each society. Firstly, Prof.
Taketo Uomoto, Univ. of Tokyo, gave a keynote
lecture on "New technologies on maintenance ofconcrete structures ". Then, ten research lectures(each 5 from Taiwan and Japan) were presented.
The proceeding for the seminar was
publis hed, in which five papers each from JSCEand CICHE are included. There were 115
participants in the seminar. It is expected that thisseminar promote future collaboration anddevelopments among engineers and researchers ofJapan and Taiwan.
Finally, we would like to express oursincere thanks to Prof. Y. W. Chan and the otherstaffs of CICHE who kindly arranged for theseminar.
By Koji SAKAI (Kagawa University)"JSCE Guidelines for Concrete"
The Japan Society of Civil Engineers
announces the availability of new publications onconcrete.
JSCE
haspublished
many
recommendations, standards and standard
specifications in Japanese. The new publications
are the English version series.
These new publications may be utilized
at the overseas-project and also as the teachingmaterials for educations.
Title List:
No.1

The CICHE (Chinese Institute of Civil andHydraulic Engineering ) - JSCE (Japan Society ofCivil Engineers) Joint Seminar on ConcreteEngineering was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, inconjunction with the Annual Meeting of CICHE on
December 3, 2004. In past years, a strong
relationshiphasdevelopedbetween
theconstruction industry of Taiwan and Japanese
professional engineers. In order to enhance further
collaboration, the seminar was planed on the basisof the agreement of cooperation between CICHEand JSCE.

Recommendationsfor
DesignandConstruction of Concrete Structures Using
Electric Arc Furnace Oxidizing Slag
Aggregate
No.2
JSCE Standards on Test Method forDiffusion Coefficient of Chloride Ion inConcrete
No.3
Standard Specifications for Concrete
Structures-2002 "Structural Performance Verification"
No.4
Standard Specifications for Concrete
Structures-2001 "Maintenance"
No.5
Standard Specifications for Concrete
Structures-2002 "Seismic Performance Verification"
For orders, please contact:
MARUZEN Co. Ltd.,
Export Department
P.O. Box 5050 Tokyo
100-3199 JapanFax:+81-3-3278-9256
E-mail:t_kaneko@maruzen.co.jp(From left) Prof. K. Sakai, Prof. S. Morichi,
Prof. J. C. Chern and Prof. Y. W. Chan
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Also available on web: www.jsce.or.jp

JSCE Newsletter No.18, May 2005

JSCE Study Tour Grant 2004
Nagendra prasad. Adhikari
Recipient of JSCE Study Tour
Grant, 2004
Nepal Engineering Association

Japan Society of Civil Engineers isincreasingly gaining popularity due to its active
participation in the promotion of civil engineering
discipline in national as well as international arena.
It’s creative and diverse activities in thefield of civil engineering have enabled it to stand as
the most active professional societies in the world.
JSCE has just completed its 90th birthday and it isobvious that one will expect a lot from the pioneer
institution like JSCE for the betterment of mankind
in the years to come. Among the varieties ofcooperation with other like minded institutions,‘Study Tour Grant’ is one that comes under“International Scientific Exchange Fund” which isawarded to enhance mutual unders tanding and cooperation between JSCE and overseas societies of
the civil engineering discipline. It was my goodluck that I was awarded the highly reputed JSCE
study tour grant for the year 2004. Indeed, it was agreat honor to Nepal Engineers’ Association andpersonally me. I am very much grateful toInternational Affairs Section, JSCE for its
incredible support in designing a perfect study tour
schedule considering my subject of interest, i.e.
disaster related activities and organizations, on highlevel. I am quite hopeful that this award has at least
paved a way for the amicable relationship between
our two professional organizations.
I experienced the Study Tour extremely
inspiring and fruitful as it offered an opportunity toobserve Japanese technology. What I noticed
minutely was the geo-physical features of Japanthat is manifested by its dynamic tectonic activities.
Japan has been involved in the war against natural
disasters for hundreds of years in the name offloods, typhoons, earthquakes, landslides and otherhazards. These sorts of disasters have compelled theJapanese people to cope up with such adversesituations. Moreover, high seismic activities, poor
topography along with complicated soil conditions
and high population density have coerced Japan todevise advanced civil engineering constructions toadapt suitably. Japan faced the most devastating
earthquake of the century named Kobe earthquake,
1995. It is believed that if the disaster of the same
scale would have occurred in other regions besides
Japan, the loss would have been beyond ourimagination.
I was highly impressed when I was taken
to pay an observation visit to Kansai International
Airport. It is indeed a revolutionary civil creationthat is also recognized as one of the ten great civilengineering achievements of the 20th century for its
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construction technologies as well as environmental
conservation efforts and social and economicalcontributions. Regarding the Weighted EquivalentContinuous Perceived Noise Level (WECPNL), 70
are kept within the sea area, which meets theenvironmental standards of surrounding areas.
Likewise, Kansai International Airport Land
Development Co. Ltd. has been certified ISO 14001,
an international standard for environmental
management. Approximately 160,000 take- off andlandings per year of the first phase airport isexpected to reach a level of 230,000 take -off andlandings after the completion of second phase
construction.
The next remarkable feature of Japanesesociety that I noticed about is its fascinating culture,social norms and values. It was a great pleasure tomeet so many interesting and kind people during
my stay in Japan who really have a genuine mutual
respect for others. The most attractive part that one
can observe about the modern Japan is its researchoriented culture. It was found that majority ofuniversities, construction companies, consultancies;
government development organizations have theirown research wings that enhance the standard ofcivil engineering and construction business in Japan.
The civil engineering profession is getting morechallenging in the context of Japan as they aredirecting their efforts towards above and under thewater surface as they are lacking the ground spacefor civil constructions.
Despite our geographical distance, our twocountries (Nepal and Japan) bear similar
geographical features i.e. both falls under the active
tectonic zones. Nepal also faced two devastating
earthquakes in 1934 and 1988 that claimed tens of
thousands of people and property worth millions.
From the latter earthquake, Nepal has also paid aserious attention in mitigating the adverse impacts
posed by such disasters. Besides earthquake,
Nepalese are regularly suffered by floods,
landslides and fires. Nepal can learn different
techniques and technologies from Japan in thisconnection as Japan has been able to counter muchof its ill-fates by its self developed technology andmuch more could be copied from its experience.
In short my Japan study tour was not onlya unique and exclusive opportunity to get the directview of Japanese development in the field of civilengineering and have industrious discussions witherudite colleagues but also to see and feel abeautiful country very closely and get familiar with
its rich custom and culture.

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JSCE Newsletter No.18, May 2005

Shaking Grounds
My Profession Life in JapanMINESAWA GEORGE VULPE
Research & Development Group
Datamark DivisionHakusan Corporation

The passion for civil engineering was“inherited” from my father, Prof A. Vulpe and fromthe hundreds of books on his study room shelves.
I was fortunate to join the “Gh. Asahi”
Polytechnic Institute in Iasi, Romania. The schoolof Civil Engineering has a long tradition, excellingin the field of reinforced concrete structures andseismic engineering. The University had educatedmany generations of engineers, teaching them tofulfill their career dreams by trying daring projects.
Their contribution is defining the landscape inevery Romanian city as well in many other placesin the world. During my studies I concentrated on
the rehabilitation of RC structures deteriorated byseism. I also had the opportunity to work first handwith British design standards during the research
project conducted at Sheffield Hallam Univ., UK.
The definitive moment of my career was
the admission to the graduate program of School ofEngineering at Yokohama National University. The
three years spent in pursue of understanding andnumerical modeling of concrete behavior wereyears of endeavor and elevated professional
satisfaction. The exceptional role of Prof. Tatsuya
Tsubaki in formatting me as an engineer I always
gratefully acknowledged. Also it shall bementioned the warm and dedicated atmosphere in
the department with the professors being interested
in the progress of all and each of the students. The
results of the research were published in thedissertation thesis for the degree of Doctor inengineering and a number of journal papers
including JSCE Journal of Structural Engineering.
Of dear memory is my participation to the 1st JSCE
Summer Symposium where I was honored with theCertificate of Excellent Presentation.
In my desire to work closer to the field ofearthquake engineering, I joined Hakusan
Corporation. The company is the major supplier ofearthquake monitoring networks in Japan and iswell known through its “Datamark” line ofearthquake
monitoringandtelemetering
instruments.
Here I could bring my contribution toseveral major projects for volcano and earthquake
data analysis. The largest one was the multi-yearly
project for the detection of crystal anomalies thatprecedes the earthquakes. The project envisioned
by Principal Researcher Yamamoto of NIED
(National Institute for Earth Science and Disaster
Prevention) is contributing to the in-depth
understanding of earthquakes and it opens thepossibility of forecasting such events. Workingtogether with the other engineers at Hakusan, I felt
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the satisfaction of providing the right tools that theresearchers need for the analysis of real-time data.
At 35, my near future plan includes myparticipation to a project for earthquake monitoringof S-E Asia via satellite network, to connect in realtime tens of observation points. This project will
allo w us to utilize the earthquake engineeringexperience of Japan and will lay the foundations ofa project in which Japanese and international
researchers will work together to prevent tragedies
such the S-E Asian tsunami. Also, I am interested
in finding new applications for the newly developed
Datamark line of structural monitoring data-loggers.
I hope that the years to come will be as interesting
as they are now.
I am a great admirer of the Japaneseculture and of the way of living and working inJapan. I shall mention how honored I feel to begranted the Japanese citizenship. It gives me astrong motivation to try to contribute more to thesociety as an engineer in the earthquake disasterprevention.
I shall acknowledge the Japanese
Universities (YNU, TIT, TU) contribution to theeducation of graduate students from Romania andthe financial support by the Ministry of Educationof Japan, which provided us with the best
environment for learning and research. Every one
graduate had become a sincere admire and advocateof Japan in the world. I do hope to bring my modest
contribution to build bridges between the nations
and cultures.

Publications
ARTICLES (From Dec. 2004 to Mar. 2005)
Concrete Library No. 116: An Example of Design
Calculations Based on JSCE Specifications forConcrete Structures -Reinforced Concrete Deck in
Open-Piled Pier-: Examples of Maintenance
Activities Based on JSCE Specifications forConcrete Structures (in Japanese), March 2005,Pages 192, Price: JPY2,520-, ISBN4-8106-0517-5
Concrete Library No. 117: An Example of Design
Calculations Based on JSCE Specifications forConcrete Structures-Highway Bridges-(in Japanese),
March 2005, Pages 321, Price: JPY2,730-, ISBN48106-0515-9
Concrete Library No. 118: An Example of Design
Calculations Based on JSCE Specifications forConcrete Structures -Railway Constructions- (inJapanese), March 2005, Pages 321, Price:
JPY2,730-, ISBN4-8106-0515-9
For orders, please 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 your comments, suggestions and contributions
to: iad@jsce.or.jp
JSCE Website: http://www.jsce.or.jp
Editorial Board:
Public Relations Subcommittee,
International Activities Committee, JSCE
Also available on web: www.jsce.or.jp