Report on FY2013 JICA Training Program:
Capacity Development for Flood Risk Management with IFASICHARM implemented a JICA training program, “Capacity Development for Flood Risk
Management with IFAS,” from July 9 to August 6 in the fiscal year of 2013 in collaboration
with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
1. Background and Purpose
Water-related disasters, such as floods, have been on the increase throughout the world.
Particularly in developing countries, it is urgent to take measures for flood disasters, whichcause serious damage in many cases. However, the implementation of mitigation measures
mainly by the use of structures, such as levees, flood control basins and dams, is notnecessarily practical in developing countries, which often lack financial and human resources.
Instead, measures combining structures with non-structural means, such as flood forecasting
and warning systems and flood hazard maps, should be considered. In addition, for effective
use of flood forecasts, well-coordinated collaboration is indispensable among meteorologists,river administrators and disaster management officers who are in charge of residents’evacuation. In developing countries, this is also an issue, as those three bodies of responsible
personnel are unfortunately not always communicating well with one another.
In this training, specifically planned for meteorologists, river administrators and disaster management
officers for public evacuation in flood-vulnerable areas of developing countries, they are expected to learn
about disaster management and evacuation plans, as well as flood response cases in Japan, and to develop
an action plan for local flood management of flood vulnerable areas in the participants’ countries. The
training is designed to enhance individual flood-coping capacities and eventually to contribute to flood
damage mitigation in their countries.
For the training to create as great synergy as possible with JICA’s current and future local
flood projects, the following two conditions are considered:The target basins are those also selected for JICA local projects.

The target participants are selected from three categories of responsible personnel(meteorologists, river administrators, disaster management officials for publicevacuation) who are currently working at organizations involved in the JICA localprojects.

These conditions are intended for the following effects:○The participants will have clear visions of what they should do in their countries after1

the training, and thus be able to develop a detailed action plan.
Organizations sharing the same basin as their project target can increase collaboration○among them.
These effects are expected to increase the effectiveness of the training at ICHARM
consequently.
This is the second year of this three-year training program that ICHRM has provided since
the last fiscal year. To maximize the training effect, the following two subjects were preparedwith an emphasis on flood forecasting and warning and public evacuation:
Theory and practice on the use of the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) developed
by ICHARM

Town-Watching and production of a disaster prevention map
This year, a total of 16 trainees participated in the training; three each from Bangladesh,Kenya, Vietnam and the Philippines and two each from Thailand and Nigeria. Theparticipating countries largely sent trainees from the three categories of personnel asrequested.
The figure below shows the outline of the training program. It consists of four components: lectures,practice, study visits, and presentations and discussions.

Lectures
Disastermanagement &evacuation plans inJapan

Practice
Operation of IFAS

Study visits
Case studies offlood management

orProduction of disasterprevention map

Presentations &discussions
Flood countermeasures& evacuation plans inparticipants’ countries

Developing local flood management plans (action plans) for
flood-vulnerable areas in individual countries

Contributing to JICA flood management projects in individual countries

Outline of the “Capacity Development for Flood Risk Managementwith IFAS” training program
Note: The Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) has been developed by ICHARM in a joint effort with private consultantfirms to forecast river discharges and water levels by using automatically collected satellite data such as geographical,
land-use and rainfall data as input. Currently, IFAS ver.1.3β is available free of charge at the ICHARM homepage.

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2. Training
On July 9, all participants gathered at the JICA Tsukuba Office for the opening ceremony. At
the ceremony, Mr. Kimura, the director of JICA Tsukuba, and Mr. Kamoto, a senior researcherof ICHARM, made a welcome speech, and Mr. Bulanadi Maximo Fernad of the Philippines
also spoke, representing the participants. After that, Mr. Nemoto of JICA Tsukuba and Mr.
Kamoto led an orientation meeting, outlining the content and purpose of the training tomotivate them with clear goals. The meeting was also for the participants to get to know eachother.
During the first three days, the participants attended a series of lectures on the basic

Left: Mr. Kimura, the director of JICA Tsukuba welcomes the participants.
Right: Mr. Bulanadi Maximo Fernand speaks on behalf of the participants.

The participants and JICA and ICHARM staff3concepts of disaster management and evacuation planning in Japan, hydrological observation,and IFAS.
The series of lectures started with Prof. Takeuchi, the director of ICHARM, explaining
about the basic concept of disaster. Mr. Kamoto lectured about structural measures fordisaster mitigation and prevention in Japan. Dr. Motonaga, a research specialist of ICHARM,
gave a lecture about hydrological observation currently practiced in Japan. On Day 3, Dr.
Kibler, a research specialist of ICHARM, outlined the workings of IFAS. Another ICHARM
research specialist, Dr. Sugimoto, lectured about early evacuation. In her lecture, theparticipants were grouped by country to discuss issues and solutions on early evacuation in
their countries, and each group made a presentation in class.

Left: Lecture by Prof. Takeuchi, the director of ICHARM
Right: Lecture by Mr. Kamoto, a chief researcher of ICHARM

Left: Lecture by Dr. Motonaga, a research specialist of ICHARM
Right: Lecture by Dr. Kibler, a research specialist of ICHARM

On the 16th and 17th, the participants attended the PCM (Project Cycle Management)
training. They learned how to analyze problems and purposes, as well as budgeting andscheduling projects, which will be useful for them when they start actual projects back intheir countries.
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On the morning of the 18th, an inception report was presented by each country group. The
participants of each country prepared a draft inception report before coming to Japan, andfinalized it after discussion with a tutor assigned to each of the six country groups. The
presentation was found very productive to both the participants and ICHARM researches, forthey were able to learn a lot about participating countries through questions and comments.
In the afternoon, the participants visited the Chikusei City Hall and attended a lecture abouta local disaster management plan including activities in normal times to prepare for disasterand activities during disaster. Some of them showed interest in the disaster management
system in Japan and asked questions about how the national and municipal governments
divide the responsibility in terms of flood forecasting and warning.

Left: Lecture by Dr. Sugimoto, a research specialist of ICHARM
Right: Presentation at the PCM training

Inception report presentation

Lecture by Mr. Sudo at Chikusei City HallOn July 19, the participants visited the Japan Meteorological Agency to attend a lecture on
meteorological operations and flood forecasting in Japan. They asked many questions about
rainfall observation systems and other issues. After that, they also had a chance to see theweather forecasting section of the agency. Then, to learn flood management in an urban area,
the group went to the Arakawa Museum of Aqua (amoa), where they learned about the5outline of the Arakawa River and its brief history as a discharge channel, which was followedby another lecture at the disaster management section. All this was possible with cooperationfrom the MLIT Arakawa Karyu River Office. The participants also visited a few other sites
including the Ukima Disaster Management Station and the Shinden Super Levee.

Weather forecasting room

Briefing on the rooftop at MLIT office

Ukima Disaster Management Station

Shinden Super Levee

From the 21st to 23rd, the participants visited Niigata Prefecture to see flood
countermeasures around the downstream Shinanogawa River. The prefecture suffered fromserious flood disasters in July 2004 and July 2010. The purpose of this study trip was for theparticipants to learn knowledge and lessons about flood countermeasures in Japan andcompare them with countermeasures back home to analyze. To this end, they listened tolectures by local management officers and visited local flood management facilities andstructures to examine the damage reduction effects of countermeasures implemented after
July 2004, as well as issues still left unsolved.
On the 21st, the group visited the Shinano River Ohkouzu Museum. They were given alecture about the outline of the lower Shinanogawa River and learned about the key role of6the Ohkouzu discharge channel in flood management over the lower Shinanogawa area. The
next destination after the museum was the Toki Messe, a convention complex, where they
overviewed Downtown Niigata City, which spreads in the lower Shinanogawa River.
On the 22nd, the participants visited the MLIT Hokuriku Regional Development Bureau
located in Niigata City. They listened to disaster management officers of the bureau’s river
department, the Shinanogawa Karyu River Office, and the Niigata Prefectural Office
explaining about flood countermeasures in the lower Shinanogawa River, including structuraland non-structural measures. On the afternoon of the same day, the participants were led byofficers for a short tour to study different types of facilities and structures along theShinanogawa River, travelling upstream from the Niigata Large Weir, located the furthest
downstream, to the confluence with the Igarashigawa River. Studious participants asked avariety of questions about flood control structures such as levee size as well as hydrologicalfacilities, for example, for rainfall observation.

Left: Lecture by Mr. Suzuki at Hokuriku Regional Development Bureau
Right: Lecture by Mr. Naito at Shinanogawa Karyu River Office

Left: At Sekiya Diversion Channel (Niigata Ozeki Weir)
Right: At Toyano Drainage Pump Station7

On the 23rd, the participants visited the Sanjo City Hall, where they learned about thecity’s initiative in disaster management after the July 2004 flood disaster. They also had
chance to listen to the chief of the local fire fighting corps, ask questions and have discussion
about flood fighting. They were interested in differences in flood fighting system between
Japan and their countries and asked many questions about it, such as the relationshipbetween flood fighting corps and the fire fighting headquarters.

Left: Lecture by Mr. Ishizuka at Sanjo City Hall
Right: Discussion with the chief of the Sanjo Fire Fighting Corps

Left: along the Igarashigawa River
Right: Rice fields as temporary reservoirs in Mitsuke CityIn the afternoon, local disaster management officers of the prefectural civil engineering
department took the participants on a local study trip along the Igarashigawa andKariyatagawa Rivers, both of which are under the prefectural management. The officers
explained about the embankment part of the levee along Igarashigawa and about the role ofrice fields as reservoirs in the Kariyatagawa basin. The participants learned that rice fields
are used to temporarily store rainwater when it rains heavily.
The Niigata study tour was very effective for the participants to understand flood8management in Japan. Despite the short trip only for three days, they had chance to observevarious flood countermeasures firsthand ranging from municipal to prefectural to nationallevels.
From the 25th to the 31st, the participants parted into two groups, nine and sevenmembers each: One group for IFAS training and the other for Town Watching (TW) training.
For the first two days of the IFAS training, the group was instructed by Dr. Kibler of ICHARM.
They learned the fundamentals of IFAS operation by practicing runoff calculation for the SoloRiver basin in Indonesia. For the last three days from the 29th to the 31st, supervised bythree ICHARM researchers, Dr. Kibler, Dr. Shrestha and Dr. Kamimera, each IFAS group

IFAS training

member practiced applying IFAS to a selected river basin in his/her country to calculate
runoff. During the practice, some difficulties arose because each participant worked on adifferent basin; for example, some modifications were necessary to use local data for the IFASsystem. However, because the practice was conducted in conditions similar to actual ones, itwill be found useful when they apply the system to an actual basin back home.
The TW group worked on the production of a disaster prevention map. On the 25th, after
Mr. Kuribayashi, a senior researcher of ICHARM, outlined the TW training, the group wentto Chikusei City in the afternoon to look around the city. On the 26th, the group parted into9two smaller groups and took a more detailed TW tour around the city to collect information
for the production of a disaster prevention map. On the 29th, the TW participants practiced
producing a disaster prevention map based on collected information, and on the next day, theyvisited Chikusei City again and held a presentation meeting with city officers of the section offire fighting and disaster management. In the presentation, the group members pointed out
strengths and weaknesses of TW and discussed how TW should be used to increase disaster
preparedness. These series of activities helped them a great deal to have good understandingof TW. In the afternoon, they visited the Kurihashi district of Kuki City. The district has beenpracticing the “Marugoto-machigoto hazard map” project, in which signs are posted on power
poles around the area to show water levels during the 1949 flood disaster by Typhoon
Kathleen. They also took a look at a tall tower that shows the current water level of theTonegawa River at the Kurihashi Branch Office and a display panel to show river information
at Kurihashi Station.
On August 2, the IFAS and TW groups gathered for a presentation session to sharetraining results with each other.

10TW training in Chikusei CityProduction of a disaster prevention map

Presentation at Chikusei City Hall

Water level tower of Tone River

Presentation session

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On August 1, the participants finally started developing action plans. On the final training
day of August 6, they presented their action plans in front of fellow participants. They eachexplained how they analyzed issues in their target basins by means of the PCM method andhow they can possibly solve them by incorporating what they observed and learned in thistraining program. They are expected to continue revising the action plans at theirorganizations with colleagues and superiors through discussions and presentations, andfinally submit the revised version by mid-November.
The training program ended with the closing ceremony. After congratulatory remarks by Mr.
Kimura, the director of JICA Tsukuba, and Dr. Uomoto, the chief executive of PWRI, eachparticipant was given a training certificate by Mr. Kimura. Mr. Hossain Mohammad Mahtabof Bangladesh was selected for the Sontoku Award this time, an award that is given the mostdistinguished participant selected by the fellow participants.
Finally, Mr. Osse Obiwe Francis of Nigeria expressed gratitude for the program and staff onbehalf of the participants, which ended the closing ceremony.

Left: Congratulatory speech by Dr. Uomoto, the director of PWRI
Right: A participant receives a training certificate from Mr. Kimura

Left: Mr. Mahtab receives the Sontoku Award.
Right: Mr. Osse Obiwe Francis thanks
12 for the program on behalf of the participantsAs stated in the introduction, this training program started last year. For the second
installment of this training, we had made improvements for each participant to maximize
results from the training. One of them was to divide the participants into two groups: one for
IFAS and the other for TW. Some participants are, in fact, not used to runoff analysis withcomputer software like IFAS or are not in positions that require the knowledge to conduct
such analysis. To assign these people to the TW group was an effective way for them to learn asimple method for raising public awareness.
Another change was made in the IFAS training. To practice how to operate IFAS, theparticipants applied the system to a local river basin in their countries. The practice wasfound to be more meaningful for the participants by trying it on an actual basin. We also
continued the tutor system from the first year, in which an ICHARM researcher is assigned toeach country group to give advice on the development of an action plan or other activities.
This time, some tutors accompanied the participants on the study trip to the Shinanogawa
River basin and helped them better understand flood control measures in Japan by providingthem with additional explanation.
Post-training questionnaire to the participants found the following activities particularly
useful: a lecture on a river information system used in Japan, application practices of PCM,IFAS and TW, and a study trip to the Shinanogawa River basin. In particular, PCM, IFAS andTW require cooperation from fellow engineers and administrators when the participants try
to put them in practice. Therefore, they are expected to share knowledge and experience theyacquired in this training with others at their respective organizations through lectures andworkshops.
Last but not least, the program organizers would like to express gratitude for the greatcooperation to the governmental and municipal offices, namely, Chikusei City Hall, the Japan
Meteorological Agency, the MLIT Hokuriku Regional Development Bureau, the Arakawa
Karyu River Office, the Shinanogawa Karyu River Office, the Niigata Prefecture Civil
Engineering Department, Sanjo City Hall, and Sanjo City Fire Fighting Headquarters.

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The participants with a training certificate

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