GADRIACTIONS
SummerSpring2018 2016
Volume1—NumberVolume6—Number
1 1

Welcome to the Sixth Issue of the GADRI Actions.
GADRI launched an in-house GADRI lecture series to bedelivered by visiting faculty of GADRI member institutes.
During the month of December 2017, Prof. Adam Rose,
Price School of Public Policy and Center for Risk andEconomic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), USA
and in January and February 2018, faculty members fromUS Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center, Indian
Institute of Institute, Roorkee, and Nalanda University ofIndia delivered lectures at the Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Uji Campus,
Kyoto, Japan.
In March 2018, GADRI organized the 10th Meeting of theBoard of Directors at the Disaster Prevention ResearchInstitute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto,
Japan. This was the last board meeting for six of ourvalued Board members representing five institutes.

Contents

Message
2nd Open
Discussion Forum
10th Meeting of
the Board of
Directors
Lecture Series

We would like to thank the outgoing Board members fortheir dedication, time and commitment vested in initializing
activities of the Global Alliance of Disaster ResearchInstitutes (GADRI) during the past two years. Without theircontinued efforts, GADRI could not have glided effortlessly
to where it is standing in the community now. We take thisopportunity to express our sincere gratitude for theirsupport and advice through the most important stage ofbuilding up and moving forward GADRI.
Following the Board meeting, GADRI held the 2nd Open
Discussion Forum under the theme of “How can disaster
research institutes significantly contribute to real world
Disaster Risk Reduction?”. Members of the GADRI Boardand newly formed Advisory Board members introduced
their respective institute activities. Prof. Toshio Koike,
Director, International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk
Management (ICHARM, Japan, delivered a special lectureon the “Proposal on Nation’s Synthesis on Disaster Risk
Reduction Supported by Science and Technology”.
We hope you will enjoy this issue of GADRI Actions.
Prof. Hirokazu Tatano and Wilma James

New Member
Institutes
Announcements

On the Cover —Photographs taken by
the Disaster Prevention
Research Institute(DPRI), Kyoto University,
Japan.
GADRI
Actionsisdesigned, formatted andedited by Wilma James.

22nd Open Discussion ForumHow can disaster research insƟtutes significantly
contribute to real world Disaster Risk ReducƟon?
15 March 2018
CollaboraƟve Research Hub – Conference Room 301
Disaster PrevenƟon Research InsƟtute (DPRI), Kyoto University
Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan

Participants of the 2nd Open Discussion Forum, Collaborative Research Hub, Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI),
Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan, 15 March 2018

3

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion ForumThe Second Open Discussion Forum under the theme of “How can Disaster ResearchInstitutes significantly contribute to real world Disaster Risk Reduction?” was held at
the Collaborative Research Hub – Conference Room 301, Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan on 15 March2018. The Forum was attended by 52 participants.
The objectives of 2nd Open Discussion Forum were to:●introduce GADRI activities, and the members of GADRI Board of Directors●

facilitate discussion between GADRI members and important stakeholders invarious disciplines of disaster risk reduction; and●identify new directions for GADRI to proceed in the next few years.

The Forum was opened with a welcome speech by Prof. Hajime Nakagawa, Director,
DPRI, Kyoto University who expressed his pleasure of hosting GADRI Secretariat at
DPRI and to note the rapid progress GADRI have achieved within three years of its
establishment.

4

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion ForumThe keynote lecturedeliveredbyProf.
Toshio Koike, Director,
International Centre for
Water Hazard and Risk
Management(ICHARM),
Tsukuba,
Japan focused on the“Proposal on Nation’s
Synthesis on Disaster
Risk
Reduction
Supported by Scienceand Technology”, an
initiative
emanated
together with the Tokyo
Statement 2017 after
the Global Forum for
Science and Technology for Disaster
Resilience held in November 2017. The
Forum was organized in collaboration with
the International Science and Technology
Society representing the Science Councilof Japan (SCJ) of the Cabinet Office ofJapan. Prof. Koike briefly described thehistory of SCJ’s involvement with the
Science and Technology Community bysubmitting a proposal committing to build
and implement disaster risk reduction incollaboration with other stakeholders. The
proposal called for incorporating scienceand technological knowledge into decision
making processes in each country. The
negotiating process of the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
gives priority to science and technology as
well as understanding, governance,
investment and build back better. The
proposal emphasizes the importance ofengagement by various stakeholders in thescience and technology community
supportedbynational,
regional,

international and the worldwide science
communities within the UN framework
covering many collaborative countries.
He stated that with the Sendai Frameworkfor Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, a
new era for DRR dawned in Sendai to
improve
understanding,strengthen
governance, encourage investments andpromote build-back-better. For each ofthese topics working groups were
established to discuss and develop policy
briefs and periodic synthesis reports.
With the Tokyo Statement 2017, it isenvisaged
toencourage
sharing
information and functions of multilingual
metadata and processes by canvassing
engagement of science and technology
communitiesineach
countryincollaboration with the international scienceand technology communities.

5

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum

6

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum
Prof. Makoto Okumura, International
Research Institute of Disaster Science(IRIDeS), Tohoku University reported on theWorld Bosai Forum 2017 held in Sendai in
November 2017. The Forum was “aimed topursue practical solutions in disaster risk
reduction through lessons learned from theGreat East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
and other disasters around the world”.
Prof.
Okumuraappreciated
GADRI
contributions by holding a session on “Vision
and Future of GADRI” and a booth at theforum. The World Bosai Forum and theInternational Disaster and Risk Conference
will be held in alternate years in Davos,
Switzerland and Sendai, Japan until 2029.
There were 93 poster sessions and nearly
1,000 participants from 42 countries andregions who attended the Forum.

The presentation by Prof. Andrew Collins,
Leader, Disaster and Development Network(DDN), Northumbria University, UK on“Allying
Disaster
Risk
Data
and
Communication” discussed importance ofvaried forms of data being appropriately
groundedinbothexperienceandconsciousness to enable communicationand engage uncertainty about hazards,
vulnerabilities and coping capacities of the
future. He also reported on the Science andTechnology Advisory Group of the UNISDRWorking Group draft proposal on datacollection, data coordination and existing
work of other global networks and alliances
committed to the goal of the SFDRR.

The
presentationon“Information
Intelligence for Disaster Reduction andemergency
Preparedness”
byProf. Wei-Sen Li, Secretary-General,
National Science and Technology Center
for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) discussed
the importance of disaster risk reduction
and management and how to find a nicheto handle emergency situations in
Chinese Taipei and covered NCDR’s
involvement with the national platforms
for disaster risk reduction.
Prof. Li
proposed a new paradigm for GADRI
would be to encourage and explore
disaster managers’ capacity building
through case studies on evidence-based
disaster risk reduction, build-back-better
trends and policies on post-disasterrecovery, internships for field study, andinvolvement
of
NGOs,
NPOs,

public-private partnerships, and sharing
regional and global mechanisms andresources for disaster risk reduction. NCDR
offers a few fellowships to members of
GADRI network to participate in its annual
capacity building international training
workshop.

7

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum
Prof. Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Instituteof Geography, National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM) made apresentation on “SFDRR, Priority
1-Understanding Risks: Contribution of
Universities to Society”. She stressed
the importance of bringing together theexpertise and experiences of countries
such as Japan and UK not only interms of natural hazards, but also thedifferent dimensions of vulnerability
and how to link with the science andtechnology community, policy making
andpractices.
Safety,poverty,inequalities, education and health all are
related to different dimensions ofvulnerability. GADRI could serve as an
advocacy
organization
presenting
Prof. Khalid Mosalam, Director, Pacific
Earthquake Engineering Research Center(PEER), University of California-Berkley,
USA delivered a presentation on “PEERat 21; the Practice of Performance-based
Engineering for Natural Hazards” which
covered details of current ongoing8

scientific evidence-based information andknowledge, and learn from its member
institutions how to implement disasterrisk strategies and how to overcome
difficulties for disaster risk reduction andmanagement.
projects and activities and emphasizing
PEER’s ready support to GADRI activities.
In particular, the annually taking place“PEER Hub Image (PHI) 2018 Challenge”
was introduced and encouraged GADRI
member institutes to be involved in its
activities. He closed his presentation witha quote by Alexander Wissner-Gross, aphysicist at Harvard “Datasets –not algorithms – might be the key
limiting factor to development of
human-level artificial intelligence.”
He stressed the importance ofsharing collected data as acommunity and benefits it could
reap in the future. PEER will help
the communities by developing
such tools to facilitate sharing thewealth of information.

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum

Prof. Charles Scawthorn, Visiting
Researcher, University of CaliforniaBerkeley, USA – presented on theplans and progress of “GADRI’s
Regional Alliances”.
With theincreased number of membershipsof GADRI covering a global
representation in Africa, Asia,
Europe, Oceania and Americas,
coordination from one location may
prove difficult. An alternative way isto actively foster creation of regional
alliances and encourage GADRI
members to organize regionally.
GADRI members become parts ofregional alliances.
Currently, the following regional alliances are established:●

North American Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (NAADRI)●

UK Alliance of Disaster Research (UKADR)●

African Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (AADRI)The North American Alliance was initiated in July 2017 during the 42nd Annual Natural
Hazards Workshop, convened by the Natural Hazards Center (NHC), University ofColorado Boulder, USA. Natural Hazards Center Director, and GADRI Board Member,Prof. Lori Peek, convened a second session of stakeholders from the potential North
American Alliance in Boulder, Colorado. Center Directors representing 13 centers in the
U.S. and Canada attended the meeting. Two of the centers were members of GADRIBoard of Directors. Accomplishments so far are discussions for a suitable name (proposed– North American Alliance for Hazards and Disaster Science), and establishment of aCharter Committee, which includes Karl Kim, Thomas Kirsch, Paul Kovacs, Lori Peek, andCharles Scawthorn. The plan is to have the North American Center Directors vote on the
proposed charter during the Center Directors meeting to be held July 8, 2018, to coincidewith the 43rd Annual Natural Hazards Workshop to be held in Colorado.
Prof. Andrew Collins Co-Chairs the UKADR, and Prof. Desmond Manatsa, University ofBindura, South Africa leads the AADRI.

9GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum
Prof. Dalila Loudhyi, Water
andEnvironmental
Engineering, University of
Hassan II of Casablanca(UHIIC), Morocco gave “AnOverview of Disaster Risk
Management
andResearch in Morocco”. The
presentation covered typesof disaster risk and major
challenges in Morocco andinstitutional fragmentationofdisasterriskmanagement. UHIIC willholdthe“FourthProf. Tatano (R) presented the GADRI Certificate of Membership forInternational Symposium
University of Hassan II of Casablanca to Prof. Mustapha Lkhider (C) and Prof.
on Flash Floods in Wadi
Dalila Loudhyi (L)Systems - Urban Flood
Risk
Management:
Mitigation and Adaptation Measures in the
Mohammedia (FSTM) were visiting DPRI,MENA Region” from 4 to 6 December 2018.
Kyoto
University.
Soon
after
the
Prof. Loudhyi and Prof. Mustapha Lkhider,presentation, the occasion was used toDean, Faculty of Sciences and Technics ofconclude the GADRI membership.

Dr. Tom De Groeve, Deputy Head, Disaster
Risk Management Unit, Joint ResearchCentre of the European Commission’s inhouse science service presentation was on“Science for Disaster Risk Management: an
EU Perspective”. Among some of the
projects introduced by Dr. Groeve, hecovered the project on Copernicus
Emergency Management Service a large
space programme in Europe on earth
observation and serve as an emergency
management which is managed by JRC.
He remarked that GADRI is an important
platform to connect with other research
centres to ensure priorities are in line withother priorities to contribute to global efforts.

10

Presentation by Dr. Glenn McGillivray,Managing
Director,
InstituteforCatastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR),
Canada was on “ICLR and Canadian
Disaster Risk Reduction” ICLR works with
the insurance community confronted byrising disaster losses and is an international
center of excellence for disaster resilience
homes, buildings and public infrastructure.
With regard to GADRI, ICLR stressed that
we all face many of the same issues andsame challenges and the importance is in
making a difference through networking,sharing best practices and working together
on projects.

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion ForumDr.
Gonzalo
Bacigalupe,
Principal
Investigator,
ResearchCenterfor
Integrated Disaster Risk Management(CIGIDEN),
presented
on“From
Addressing the Emergency to Building
Disaster Resilience: Transdisciplinary
Research Efforts at CIGIDEN” coveringresearch projects and activities.
The “Role in Disaster Risk Reduction andDevelopment Resilience” was presented
by Dr. Mahua Mukherjee, Head Center of
Excellencein
Disaster
Mitigation

Management (CoEDMM), Indian Instituteof Technology, Roorkee, India - amultidisciplinary institute focusing on
regional risks. By contributing to GADRI
projects through capacity
building,
involvement in GADRI Book Series and inresearch disciplines such as geophysical,hydrological meteorological, the instituteexpects to lean through peer co-learning,
information updating and sharing andother research opportunities.

Introduction to the Institute for Advanced
Sustainability
Studies(IASS)
waspresented by Prof. Norio Okada who
returned to Kyoto from his one-year senior
fellowship at IASS. He remarked that
IASS focuses on topics with a hightransformation need and potential; takes atransdisciplinary research approach todevelop transformative knowledge; and co-create solutions for urgent sustainability
challenges to support national andinternational decision-making processes.
Presentationon“Educating a New
Breed of Professionalfor DRR at DPMM,
Asian Institute ofTechnology(AIT):
Interdisciplinary DRR
Approach,Capabilities,
Potential
andLimitations”
wasdeliveredbyDr. Indrajit Pal,
AssistanceProfessor
andChair,
DisasterPreparedness,
Mitigation
andManagement,
Asian
InstituteofTechnology (AIT), Thailand. He gave acomprehensive view of the DPMM
programmes and activities. He discussed
on practical challenges for education indisaster management and the fewer
market opportunities for students. He
expressed his institute’s willingness tosignificantly contribute to GADRI projects
and activities.

11

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum
General Discussion was opened by Prof. Hirokazu Tatano and Chaired by Dr. Tetsuya
Takemi and Prof. Andrew Collins. With the array of impressive presentations during theday, the floor opened with very stimulating and fruitful discussions related to advocacy,Tokyo Statement 2017, GADRI Book Series, EC-JRC Science and Technology bookseries and capacity building initiatives.
How best could GADRI advocate mutual sharing of resources? A few proposals were
put forward.
It is difficult to engage national platforms and GADRI members could take the leadon collaboration and make it a possibility.
● Towards Tokyo Statement 2017 - GADRI members contribute to collection ofcountry data including institutional information, governmental conditions andimplemented data statistics.
● A journal collection of best and worst practices in disaster risk management. It is notnecessary to cover merely best practices but include bad practices as case studies
which cannot be published easily.
● In terms of strengthening communication, introduce a GADRI lecture series or
GADRI online courses on disaster risk management.
● Another option explored was to offer a course on disaster risk management indifferent disciplines. Each institute could be responsible for a lecture and the course
could be offered once a year for two weeks. This could be done through GADRI
website. It is also an opportunity for members to listen to each other and learn about
the ongoing projects, activities and results.
● Another dimension along the same lines is to talk about local disaster problems andliterally go out and show the problem – emphasise case studies.
● Possibilities for offering GADRI master classes with multiple universities involved
which could be filmed, edited and make it online.
● Encourage and foster the progress of the regional alliances. It was also noted thatwith the current GADRI Secretariat, it would be difficult to manage all members
globally.
● How could GADRI promote its objective of data sharing and facilitate to beprominent in the advocacy movement?
●

Prof. Tatano closed the session expressing his appreciation to all members, secretariat
and encouraged to enhance collaboration among each other to increase GADRI
visibility and activities.
Further, he thanked Ms. Michiko Sawai for serving the GADRI Secretariat during thepast one-year. All members together with Prof. Tatano wished her success in the next
endeavour.

12

GADRI Activities—2nd Open Discussion Forum

Prof. Norio
Germany

Okada

representing

IASS,

Dr. Tetsuya Takemi and Prof. Andrew Collins(L-R) Pr

Prof. Mahua Mukherjee, IIT-Roorkee, India

IT, T
al, A
P
t
i
j
ndra
Dr. I

nd
haila

of. Tatano, Ms. Michiko Sawai, Ms. W
ilma Ja

mes

Dr. Subhajyoti Samaddar

13

GADRI Activities—Meeting of the Board of Directors

10th Meeting of the Board of Directors
The tenth meeting of the Board of Directors took place at DPRI, Kyoto University, UjiCampus on 14 March 2018. The meeting was attended by current members of the Boardand the five new members who will start their term of office from 1 April 2018. The Directorof the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University welcomed andgreeted all members of the Board.
A few of the deliberations included the term of office of Chair of the Board, terms ofreference for the Board of Directors and the establishment of an Advisory Board and thenomination of its members. The following members were nominated to the Advisory Board:
●

●

●

●

●

●

●
●

●

●
●

●

Dr. Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler, Senior Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria
Prof. Shi Peijun, Executive Vice-President; Prof. Qian Ye, Executive Director, Integrated
Risk Governance Project (IRG-Project), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface
Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, China
Dr. Mohsen Ashtiany, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology(IIEES), IranProf. Rajib Shaw, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Shonan Fujisawa Campus(SFC), Keio University, Japan
Prof. Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Director, Institute of Geography, National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico
Dr. Kelvin Berryman, Principal Scientist, General Manager, Natural Hazards Division,
GNS Science, New ZealandDr. Walter Amman, Director, Global Risk Forum (GRF Davos), Switzerland
Prof. Wei-Sen Li, Secretary-General, National Science and Technology Center for
Disaster Reduction (NCDR), Chinese Taipei
Prof. Khalid Mosalam, Director, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center(PEER), USA
Prof. Andrew Collins, Co-Chair, UK Alliance of Disaster Research (UKADR), UK
Prof. Charles Scawthorn, Chair, North American Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(NAADRI), USA
Prof. Desmond Manatsa, Leader, African Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(AADRI), Zimbabwe

In addition, the theme and dates for the 4th Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster
Risk Reduction were confirmed.
The Fourth Global Summit under the theme of “How do we make disaster research institutes
relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction” will be held at DPRI, Kyoto University, Uji Campus,
Kyoto, Japan from 13 to 15 March 2019.
14

GADRI Activities—Meeting of the Board of Directors

Group Photo—10th Meeting of the GADRI Board of Directors, DPRI, Kyoto University,
Uji Campus, Kyoto, Japan, 14 March 2018

As the term of office of half of the current
members of Board will come to an end on
31 March 2018, five new institutes were
elected by the GADRI General Assembly.
1. Prof. Paul Kovacs, Institute forCatastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR),
Western University, Canada,
2. Prof. Rodrigo Cienfuegos, Centro
Nacional de Investigacion Par la Gestion
de Desastres Naturales (CIGIDEN),
Chile
3. Prof. Ortwin Renn, Institute for Advanced
Sustainability Studies (IASS), Germany

4. Dr. Mahua Mukherjee, Indian Institute ofTechnology, Roorkee (IIT-R), India
5. Dr. Indrajit Pal, Disaster Preparedness,
Mitigation and Management (DPMM),
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT),
ThailandOn behalf of the GADRI Secretariat and the
GADRI
GeneralAssembly,
theSecretary-General Prof. Hirokazu Tatano
expressed appreciation to the outgoing
Members of the Board and thank them fortheir dedicated service to GADRI during themost crucial period of its establishment.
GADRI hope that the outgoing members willcontinue to share and contribute towards
GADRI activities. GADRI look forward toworking with the new members of the Board
from 1 April 2018.

New members of the GADRI Board of Directors(L-R—IIT Roorkee, India-Dr. Mahua Mukherjee; AIT,
Thailand-Dr. Indrajit Pal; CIGIDEN, Chile-Dr. Gonzalo
Bacigalupe representing Prof. Rodrigo Cienfuegos; andICLR, Western University, Canada-Dr. Glenn McGillivray
representing Prof. Paul Kovacs)

15

GADRI Lecture Series

Lecture on "Measuring Economic Resilience to Natural Disasters andTerrorism" by Adam Rose
During his visit, Prof. Adam Rose, Price School of Public Policy and Center for Risk andEconomic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), University of Southern Californiadelivered a lecture on "Measuring Economic Resilience to Natural Disasters and Terrorism"at the Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Conference Hall S-519D on Monday, 4 December
2017.
During his presentation, he mentioned that resilience is a powerful strategy for reducing
losses from disasters. Its unique character pertains to how best to recover economic activity
after a disaster has struck. This can be done by using remaining resources as effectively as
possible and accelerating the repair and reconstruction of the capital stock. Further, hispresentation focused on recent advances in measuring economic resilience in a variety ofcontexts, such as electricity outages, seaport disruptions, hurricanes, and earthquakes. He
presented results of recent survey research and described their implications fordevelopment of an economic resilience index. He also explained about a broader benefitcost analysis framework for making resource allocation decisions, including trade-offs
between (pre-event) mitigation and (post-event) resilience.

Lecture on “Development of Current Practice in Site Characterization
for Acquiring Vs and Vs30” by Alan Yong
Dr. Alan Yong delivered a lecture on “Development of Current Practice in Site
Characterization for Acquiring Vs and Vc30” at DPRI, Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto,
Japan on 24 January 2018.
Dr. Alan Yong is a Research Geophysicist at the US Geological Survey Earthquake Science
Center since 2009; from 1998-2009, Yong served as Operational Geophysicist. His lecture
discussed about the main considerations for modeling seismic ground motions which
typically involve a trichotomy of effects that are partitioned into source, path, and site. Siteconditions—often representing no more than 1% of the path from the seismic source—canstrongly influence site response, thus dominate the intensity of shaking. To account for thisphenomenon, the engineering community has traditionally used the index of Vs30, the timeaveraged shear-wave velocity (Vs) from the surface to a depth of 30 meters. The lecture will
present a review of the state-of-practice for estimating Vs30, as well as select developments
for advancing measured-based Vs30 methods. The presentation will describe current
practice using multiple surface-based methods to develop robust Vs profiles to determine
Vs30 within 5-10% inter- and intra-method variability. Lastly, he introduced an ongoing 2
year old international effort sponsored by the Consortium of Organization for Strong Motion
Observation Systems (COSMOS) to develop best practices/guidelines for using noninvasive
geophysical methods when characterizing seismic site conditions will be introduced.
16

GADRI Lecture Series

Lecture on "Addressing Urban Risks in Planning of Satellite Townsof Mega Cities: Case of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA)” by
Uttam Kumar Roy
Lecture on "Addressing Urban Risks in
Planning of Satellite Towns of Mega Cities:
Case of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area
(KMA)” was delivered by Dr. Uttam Kumar
Roy, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), Roorkee, India at the
Room S-207D, DPRI Main Building, UjiCampus, Kyoto University, Japan on 15
January 2018.

or statutory/metropolitan areas becomes
extremely difficult. The presentation
explained the key strategies taken toaddress the potential risks including urban
flooding in the planning of one of suchsatellite towns, now called as New Town
Kolkata which has recently been identified
by the union government as one of theSmart Cities under Smart City Mission.

The lecture focused on mega cities aroundthe world that represents
preferred
destinations of exploding populations.
Megacities expand in faster pace thanother cities. It demands constant supply ofdeveloped land & infrastructures for new
affordable housing and variety of
employments. Often getting such land andinfrastructure within existing urban extent

Lecture on "Pollutant Fate and Transport of the Subsurface
Systems” by Prabhakar Sharma
Lecture by Dr. Prabhakar Sharma,
Assistant Professor, School of Ecology andEnvironment Studies, Nalanda University,
Nalanda, Bihar, India delivered a lecture"Pollutant Fate and Transport of the
Subsurface Systems” at the Room S-207D,
DPRI Main Building, Uji Campus, Kyoto
University, Japan on 27 February 2018.
Hispresentation
covereddifferent
anthropogenic activities near the large
water bodies which can lead to a heavy
load of pollutant on the wetland andultimately to the subsurface systems. In

order to understand the fate of thesepollutants (such as agrochemicals, heavy
metals, and other micro-size pollutants)
and their impact on groundwater bodies, it
is important to understand their transportand mobilization mechanism in thesubsurface system.
He explained the understanding of the fate
and transport of engineered nanoparticles(ENPs) released from selected commercial
products in the Indian or similar
environment (e.g., soil, wetlands, andaquifers).
17Introducing New Members
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Sciences and Technology
Houari Boumediene, Algeria
Located 15km outside of the capital Algiers, the University of Sciences and Technology
Houari Boumediene (USTHB) is a modern university that focuses Computing, Pure andApplied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Civil Engineering,Electronics, Information Technology, Process Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Brazil
The Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG) is located in the State of Paraíba, in
the north-eastern region of Brazil. UFCG is a multi-campi university, with campuses in 7
cities of the state, with 11 academic centres, 1,481 faculty members, 1,420 staff members,
over 20,000 in many different fields of expertise.

Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH), O.P. Jindal Global
University, India
JSLH is a value frame or a particular ideal of education. It emphasizes the teacher as an
exemplar. Performativity and commitment become important. A teacher becomes alegend who creates the folklore of liberal arts. The student is not a passive creature. She
is a creator and inventor of a new self or a renewed self. She is a seeker, explorer and thesyllabus becomes a map of possibilities. In a Deleuzian sense, liberal arts are not about
tracing.

School of Ecology and Environment Studies (SEES), Nalanda University,
India
The School of Ecology and Environment Studies (SEES) is one of the first schools at the
Nalanda University, which commenced its academic programme in August 2014. The
School traverses a broad range of academic pursuits across natural sciences and social
sciences, to promote education and research on the interactions between the naturalenvironment and human activities.

Center for Transdisciplinary Research, Sri Lanka
The Center for Urban Water is being set up for flood control and water management inMetro Colombo. Its primary function is the control of pumps and gates that are being
installed under the Metro Colombo Urban Development Project. Center will also assess
current and evolving future water related risks to Megapolis from urban development aswell as climate change.

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Sri Lanka
SLIIT was establishedestablished inin 1999.
1999.We
Doors
openedare opened
our doors
to to
400
400
students
students
in in
Metro
MetroCampus
CampusareinColombo.
offeredin Colombo.
Currently,Currently,
we offer
we bothoffer bothundergraduate
undergraduate
andandpostgraduate
postgraduatecourses
courses andaccommodate over 7000 students, including international students from various regions in
the world. More than 9000 alumni have
have graduated
graduated fromfrom ourthe threeinstitute’s
faculties:
three Business,
faculties:
Computer,Business, Computer,and Engineering.
and Engineering.

18

Announcements
PEER has developed the first structural
engineering dataset that incorporates
machine-learning models of detecting
and categorizing damage in images.
The PEER Hub ImageNet (PHI)
dataset tool will enhance the field andapplication of vision-based structural health monitoring for researchers and practitioners innatural hazards engineering.
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Contribute to the PHI dataset in two ways!
• NOW: Help build the dataset – provide images with or without labels and annotation at
http://apps.peer.berkeley.edu/spo/.
Contributors will be acknowledged on this site.
Call for Application for UNESCO Chair Programme on Cultural Heritage and Risk
Management, International Training Course (ITC) on Disaster Risk Management ofCultural Heritage 2018, 13th year, Ritsumeikan University
Cultural heritage is increasingly exposed to disasters caused by natural and human induced
hazards such as earthquakes, floods, fires, typhoons, theft, terrorism etc. Recent examples
include Earthquakes in Central Mexico in 2017, Central Italy and Myanmar in 2016, Nepal
earthquake in 2015, UK floods in 2015, Balkan floods in 2014 and ongoing conflicts in Syria
and Yemen. http://www.r-dmuch.jp/en/project/itc_2018.html
12th Children's Map Contest for Community Safety
Nowadays, more people are interested in ensuring that their local neighborhood is safe andsecure against accidents and disasters, including natural disasters associated withearthquakes, concentrated heavy rain, and other such things, or traffic accidents andincidents of crime. Since 2007, we at the Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural
Heritage, Ritsumeikan University have been holding an annual Map Contest for Community
Safety for children in primary schools. http://www.r-dmuch.jp/en/project/mapcontest.html
4th Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster Risk Reduction (GSRIDRR2019)
How do we make disaster research institutes relevant in disaster risk reduction
Obaku Plaza, DPRI, Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Kyoto Japan from 13 to 15 March 2019
The Fourth Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster Risk Reduction, sponsored by
the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) and Kyoto University, is the
fourth session of the Global Summit Series. The Global Summits provide a platform forresearchers, practitioners, policy makers, and other stakeholders in both government and non-governmental institutes involved in disaster risk reduction and resilience to come together todiscuss, share and exchange ideas to contribute and be relevant to the priority areas of the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. http://www.gadri.net
19

Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI)
At the commendation of the Second Global
Summit of Research Institutes held in March 2015
at the Kyoto University Disaster Prevention
Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto, Japan, theGlobal Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(GADRI) was established to support theimplementation of the Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR) andthe work of the Scientific and Technical Advisory
Group of the United Nations Office for Disaster
Risk Reduction (UNISDR). One of therecommendations was to form a researchroadmap for the next decade.
Since March 2015, over 150 research institutes in
41 states have expressed interest to become
members of GADRI.
GADRI Secretariat is currently hosted by theDisaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI),
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

To Join GADRI:
Contact GADRI Secretariat - secretariat-gadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Membership is free; and completely voluntary and non-binding.

Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes(GADRI) Secretariat
Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI)
Kyoto University, Uji Campus, Gokasho, Uji-shi
Kyoto 611-0011, JAPAN
Tel: +81-774-38-4651
Fax: +81-774-38-4254
E-mail: secretariat-gadri@dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Web: www.gadri.net
All rights reserved. GADRI ACTIONS is the property of GADRI and protected by theinternaƟonal copyright laws. GADRI ACTIONS contents may not be reprinted, copied,and distributed without the copyright holder's prior wriƩen permission.