No.32
June 1, 2015

No.27

JSCE’s Contribution to the 3rd UN
World Conference on Disaster RiskReduction

Masahiko ISOBE, Dr. Eng.
102nd JSCE President

The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk

As part of the public forms of the 3rd UN WCDRR, JSCEReduction (The 3rd UN WCDRR) was held in Sendai,

held on March 16 the forum “That has been done by theMiyagi, from March 14 to 18. The United Nation General

Japanese Civil Engineers since Mar. 11, 2011” under the

Assembly designated the 1990s as the International

leadership of Prof. Akira Mano of JSCE Tohoku Chapter,

Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) and held

the chairman of the Joint Academic Research Group for

as part of the review of IDNDR the first UN WCDRR in

the Great East Japan Earthquake, JSCE. That forum

Yokohama in 1994, the second one in Kobe in 2005, anddiscussed the post-disaster recovery and reconstruction

the third one on the above dates and place. Japan, theefforts made by several organizations and groups,

natural disaster-prone country, that has made every effort

earthquake-related wastes and debris managements into minimize disaster risks hosted past UN WCDRR. In thedetail, and then a training program on disaster risk

third conference, the post-Hyogo Framework for Actionmanagement.

Moreover,2005-2015 was adopted as the Sendai Framework fororganizations

andgroups

Disastercontribution

toprocessing

RiskReduction

2015-2030

andDeclaration.

Sendaiit

introduced
which

madelarge

the105significant

amounts

ofearthquake-related waste and debris within the fixed
timeframe. The JSCE President recognized them for theirProf. Isobe with other panelists at the Working Session

IAC News No.32, Jun.1 2015

MLIT’s disaster-reduction-themed exhibition.

great efforts and works with an appreciation certificate inpresentations made by representatives from five countries,front of the audience. JSCE had never given appreciation

Japan, the Philippines, Turkey, the United States, and theandofNetherlands. The JSCE President worked with theseorganizations/groups at one time until then; in otherspeakers as a coordinator. He moreover participated as awords, because of its unique nature being a public interest

panelist in the Working Session on “Underlying Risk

incorporated association, JSCE could cite and appreciate

Factors” on March 16. In all the above meetings, heseveral those who worked for public interest.

delivered a clear and consistent message: it is possible torecognition

tosuchalarge

numberbe adopted widely in the world the two-level disaster
Prior to the above forum, the public form “Towards

management concept that combine “hard” (structural)

Mitigating Loss Caused by Mega-Disasters” took place on

toward comparatively frequent hazards (Level 1) andMarch 15, co-hosted by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,“soft” (non-structural) measures toward maximum level

Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and JSCE. Dr. Hanhazards (Level 2) in order to reduce/mitigate natural

Seong-Soo of UN Special Envoy for Disaster Risk

disaster risks and to protect human life and property fromReduction and Water and Prof. Yoshiaki Kawata of Kansai

all potential hazards.

University delivered keynote speeches, followed by theEarthquake, and we believe that it will be meaningful toReport
on
Asian
Civil
Engineering
Coordinating Council (ACECC) 28th ExecutiveCommittee Meeting in Dhaka ： JSCE wasapproved to be the host of the 8th Civil
Engineering Conference in Asian Region(CECAR 8) in 2019show other Asian countries how resilient Japan hasbecome.

Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC)
28th Executive Committee Meeting (ECM) was held in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, from March 27 to March 29, 2015.
The major activities of the ACECC are described on pp.
128-129 of the JSCE magazine Civil Engineering, Vol.
100, No. 5, May issue.
JSCE’s proposals, reports and others chiefly regarded
the following two items:
1) Presentation of a bid to host the 8th Civil Engineering

Mr. Hirose (center), president-elect,presentation with a speech.

opens

JSCE’sConference in the Asian Region (CECAR 8) in Japan

Mr. Noriaki Hirose, the JSCE president-elect, began the2) Proposal to set up a new JSCE-led Technicalpresentation with a speech. Prof. Kusakabe, ACECC

Committee (TC)representative for JSCE, laid out Japan’s vision of theCECAR. The presentation stressed that, because theThe CECAR 8 is scheduled for 2019. In 2020, Tokyo will

ACECC is a unique organization that cooperates withhost the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This will be a

the decision-makers and financial institutions in eachgreat time for CECAR’s participants from Japan andcountry to improve Asia’s social infrastructure, theoverseas to witness the progress of the preparationsCECAR should be a unique international conference

immediately before the games. Moreover, 2019 willthat encourages the members to communicate and sharemarkthat vision. To realize this vision, JSCE promised thateightyears

sincetheGreat

IAC News No.32, Jun.1 2015

EastJapan

industry, government, and academia will work together

selection of a new Chair, the activity policy, etc., will beto establish an implementation system and draw upreported.

programs that serve a broad range of participants inThe 29th ECM is scheduled for October 2015 in Gunsan,different positions and across different generations.

Republic of Korea.

This message was accepted and JSCE was approved tobe the host of the CECAR 8 in 2019.
The JSCE has held three round-table conferences todate and led discussions on initiatives concerning
disaster management in the Asian region (RTM on
Disaster Management (Asian Board Meeting)). Also,
JSCE has showed its leadership and made a significant
impression in the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster
RiskReduction

andthe“JapanBosai(disastermanagement) Platform”; accordingly, Japan is expectedto continue to play a central role in the area of disasterrisk reduction and mitigation.

Prof. Kusakabe（right）, the ACECC’s Japan representative,
makes a presentation.

Prof. Eiki Yamaguchi, the JSCE ACECC committeechairman, proposed that these initiatives be carried out【 Mr. Nakano Masaaki, Secretary General, JSCE

as part of the activities of the ACECC’s new TC, and theACECC Committee】

proposal was approved. At the next meeting, thesuffered such catastrophic storm surge disasters before

2014 PICE-JSCE Joint Seminar：Seminar on
Field Surveys, Analysis and Mitigation
Strategies for Typhoons and other CoastalHazards in the Philippines and Japan

Haiyan because of geographical characteristics of the bay;(v) since the disaster caused by Haiyan was the “firstcatastrophic event” for most of residents, they did notevacuate even though they recognized the warnings before

Coastal Engineering Committee of Japan Society of Civil
Engineers (JSCE) and Philippine Institute of Civil
Engineers (PICE) conducted the PICE-JSCE joint survey
for severe storm surge disaster caused by 2013 Typhoon
Haiyan. Through the survey and following analysis, wefound various characteristics of this catastrophic disastersuch as: (i) disaster levels vary locally along the coast; (ii)besides inundation due to storm surge, storm waves had
significant impact on various area such as the east coast ofEastern Samar; (iii) combination of storm surge andstormy waves amplified the severe coastal disaster aroundwest coast of San Pedro bay; (iv) while the damaged area
has frequent attacks of typhoons, the area had not

the disaster.
Following the successful Joint Survey and the following
various analysis, this Joint Seminar was held on

IAC News No.32, Jun.1 2015
A presentation is delivered by a Committee member.November 28th, 2014 at Quezon City, the Philippines. The

several journal papers for Special Issue of Coastal

seminar had fourteen speakers, the seven from JSCE andEngineering Journal.

the other seven from PICE, and presented various topics
such as: (i) wrap ups and important findings of the joint●2014 PICE-JSCE Joint Seminar >>>Program Download

survey results; (ii) physical mechanisms of the disasterbased on numerical analysis and experiments; (iii) ongoingand future recovery plans after Haiyan; (iv) examples ofcoastal disasters and coastal protections in Japan; and (v)futurescenarios

andcorresponding mitigation

andadaptation strategies. The seminar had 84 participants【 Prof. Yoshimitsu Tajima JSCE, Coastal Engineering
Committee】

including members of JSCE and PICE and especiallymany engineers from Department of Public Works andHighways (DPWH), who took key roles in the recovery
process of damaged area due to Haiyan. After theThe 2014 PICE-JSCE Joint Seminar Speakers

presentations, all the participants had discussions about
the future tasks toward coastal protection and mitigation
strategies on both countries and possible collaborative【Prof. Yoshimitsu Tajima, JSCE Coastal Engineeringresearch and works between JSCE and PICE. Part ofCommittee】

discussions and presentations will also be published as

What’s Happening

IAC News Subscription・2015/6/12-13
The Institution of Engineers, Pakistan’s Annual Convention & Civil
Engineering Congress (Karachi, Pakistan)

The IAC News is one of the communication tools to share informationand ideas with the members. We would like to invite you, your friends
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・2015/6/18-20
2015 MACE Annual Meeting (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
・2015/7/8-10
EIT Civil Engineering Meeting (Pattaya, Thailand)

Updates・The summary of feature articles in the JSCE Magazine is available on
the JSCE website.
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine
・Concrete Committee International Newsletter No. 41
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/Newsletter.htm
・Journal of JSCE
The Journal of JSCE is the collection of research papers which canbe viewed on the JSCE website.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/journalofjsce
・JSCE 100th Anniversary Postal Stamp was released in September,2014.
http://jsce100.com/node/250 (Japanese Only)
EuropeanCouncil of Civil Engineers (ECCE) has released the 2nd・
book in ECCE Book Project, ”Footbridges-Small is beautiful.” 17
footbridges are contributed from JSCE:
http://www.ecceengineers.eu/

IAC News No.32, Jun.1 2015

Editor’s postscript

The other day, I took my kids to the park nearby after along interval. Before I stopped them, they took off their
shoes and ran to the waterside.
Still in May…I think I still have time before summer
comes, but it seems that summer has already begun forthem. Enjoy your summer, guys! (S.O.)[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.