Contents

Volume 3 No.4
ISSUE No. 11

ICHARM►2

Activities of ICHARM►3

Research Projects►4-5

Training►6-7

Conferences and Meetings►7

Visitors to ICHARM►8

New Publications►8

Coming Events

January 2009

第1巻

第1号

発行日

ICHARM
Newsletter

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR WATER HAZARD AND RISK MANAGEMENT
under the auspices of UNESCO

Message from Director
Happy New Year!

ICHARM’s challenge to localism.

The year 2009 is the year of the Ox, a symbol of slow but
steady move. ICHARM will continue a steady and strong
move forward if the steps are not necessarily very fast.
Based on the previous achievements as well as thecommitments, ICHARM has started another busy year inhigh spirit for its mission. Our biennium action plan 20082010 is on our webpage.
Among the commitments, the Integrated Flood Analysis
System (IFAS) is one of ICHARM’s top priority areas. As
described in the previous issue of ICHARM Newsletter, theproject is the symbol of ICHARM’s localism commitment,
promoting the local ownership of flood forecasts. Here is abrief description for the readers who are not yet familiar tothe project:

ICHARM is also committed to the quality improvement of
its Master’s Degree course in water–related disastermanagement. This year, the students started their thesis
work as early as last December so that they can learn moreproactively about their own interests during lessons.
ICHARM will start another short-term flood-preparedness
training course this year. This is an extension of theprevious hazard mapping course with new focus on
capacity development of institutions
rather than
individual personnel. We believe that institutional capacity
development is one of our most important challenges toenhance flood preparedness at the national and regional
levels.
In the area of information networking, ICHARM is
coordinating the Water and Disaster session at the 5thWorld Water Forum. Also, as the secretariat of theInternational Flood Initiative (IFI), ICHARM is planning toorganize a flood session at the 2nd Global Platform forDisaster Risk Reduction of ISDR.
Requests to ICHARM are increasing in number andvariety, and we will faithfully respond to them as much as
we can.

IFAS is a hydrological simulation system to use globally
available data as the default input to make flood forecasts
available anywhere in the world, including basins with noground observations. Also, in this system, local flood
forecasts can be further improved by using locallymeasured ground observations. This feature of the system
will help develop a sense of local ownership of flood
forecasts through the self-learning of the usefulness ofmodels and data provided by the system, and eventuallylead to a locally-managed early warning system which isefficient and effective.

On 10 November 2008 in Geneva, I had an opportunity
to present the project during a science lecture at the WMO
13th Commission of Hydrology. It seemed widely
welcomed with strong interest. I was pleased to receive
quite a few positive reactions. Similar reactions were also
noticed at the International Conference on Water Scarcity,
Global Changes and Groundwater Management
Responses, which was held in Irvine, California, on 1-5
December 2008 and jointly organized by the US IHPNational Committee and University of California, Irvine.
Another commitment is to produce a set of flood
preparedness indicators. This will serve as a basic tool toassess and monitor the status of local flood preparedness.
The indicators will be one of the most importantcomponents in ICHARM’s tool development for flood risk
assessment, and make a considerable contribution to

Kuniyoshi Takeuchi
Director of ICHARM

1

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 3 No.4

Activities of ICHARM
Research and Training activities at ICHARM
Since its establishment on 6 March 2006, ICHARM has been pursuing a course of excelling in three areasof activities, namely, research, training, and information networking.
A. W. Jayawardena
Research and Training Advisor
A.W. Jayawardena has been teaching in the Department of Civil Engineering,
the University of Hong Kong for over 25 years
He is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers, U.K.
He has served as a member of the Engineering Panel of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council,
University Grants Committee, HKSAR, China, anda member of the International Panel to evaluate UNESCO's contribution to the World Water Assessment Programme

ResearchResearch primarily aims at water-related hazard mitigation that encompasses hydrological and hydraulic modeling andanalysis, flood inundation analysis, catchment-scale water quality modeling and analysis constitutes the core areas of activity.
More specifically, the current research projects include the use of satellite observed rainfall data in hydrological models
applicable to areas that have sparse or no ground measured data, interfacing hydrological model outputs with GIS such as
Google Earth for displaying inundation areas as a function of time, flood hazard mapping using a 2-D hydrodynamic model thatuses finite elements in space, depth-area-duration analysis of radar-measured and ground-measured heavy rainfall data,
development of tsunami hazard mapping and guidelines for coastal forestation aimed at tsunami disaster reduction, assessmentof the impact of climate change on flood disaster risk andadaptation measures for vulnerable areas, development of an
automatic measurement system for water/sediment discharge,
development of a manual for satellite- based data processing andrelated educational material, development of enhancements for the
Water and Energy Transfer Process (WEP) model for material
cycle studies, hydroinformatics, and non-linear time series analysis
including the study of chaos. ICHARM is also contributing to theWorld Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) including
Key devices for the systems underPreparation for a test run:participating in the preparation of the 3rd World Water
development: a sediemnt
the unmanned boat (center) is lifted
samplerof
USGS(left)
and
down
to
the
river while the two men
Development Report (WWDR). On the knowledge dissemination an unmanned boat with ADCP (right)
get the sediment sampler ready.
front, ICHARM is also contributing through scientific publications.
Since its establishment, ICHARM research staff have authored or coDevelopment of measurement systems for
authored no less than 23 peer reviewed papers in reputed
water/sediment discharge with NILIM *international journals, and presented findings in several reputed*NILIM= National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management
international scientific conferences.

Training
The major activity on the training front is the one-year Master’s Degree Programme in collaboration with the National Graduate
Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which started in October 2007. The firstbatch of 10 students (Bangladesh-2, China-3, Nepal-1, India-1 and Japan-3) graduated in September 2008, and the second
batch of 8 students (Bangladesh-2, China-2, Ethiopia–1, Indonesia-1, Nepal-1, and Thailand-1) started their studies in October
2008. Short-term training activities include a “Flood Hazard Mapping” course attended by
78 government personnel from 9 countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao DPR, Malaysia,
Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam) during the period from 2004-2008, the“Comprehensive Tsunami Disaster Prevention” course attended by 11 government personnel
from India, Indonesia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka during June-July 2008 through the sponsorshipof the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) and JICA, andcontribution to the “River and Dam Engineering” training course every year since 1973.
ICHARM has also contributed to the follow-up activities through the “East & Southeast Asia
Regional Seminar on Flood Hazard Mapping”, first held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during 79 February 2007 and for the second time in Guangdong, China, during 30 January to 1
Flood Hazard Mapping
February 2008, each of which was attended by over 50 participants from the region. In
Training Course
short, ICHARM is committed to programmes in the pursuit of knowledge and capacity
development.
2

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 3 No.4

Research Projects►The "Debris-flow dewatering brakes" project in the Philippines completed
Disaster Prevention Research Team

(From downstream)(From upstream)

Debris-flow dewatering brakeTechnology transfer for the benefit of communities indeveloping countries is an important part of ICHARM’s activities.
The implementation of “debris-flow dewatering brakes” in thePhilippines is one such example (see a related article in the
ICHARM Newsletter No. 10 for more information). The trial
implementation of a dewatering brake finally completed
successfully in December 2008 under the initiative of ICHARM. To
disseminate this simple, effective technology to the entire
Philippines and other countries, ICHARM is planning to introduce itthrough seminars and other opportunities in the near future.

►ICHARM Surveyed Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Impacts in High Himalaya
International Technical Exchange TeamICHARM sent an investigation team to a Nepalese Himalayan region in September 2008 to investigate glacial lake outburst flood(GLOF) impacts on local areas. Melting glaciers contribute to the development of glacial lakes, which may eventually burst due to avariety of reasons and cause enormous damage to communities residing in the downstream areas. ICHARM includes GLOF issues in
its priority agenda, understanding that the issues are highly susceptible to ongoing global climate changes. ICHARM has started
research on the issues to contribute to updating scientific norms and filling current knowledge gaps in GLOF impact assessment andmitigation measures.
The survey team comprised of local geologists and other experts was led by Research Specialist Rabindra Osti and successfully
conducted a two-week-long investigation at an altitude of as high as 4800 m in High Himalaya. The team particularly focused on
the Tam Pokhari glacial lake outburst flood in Mt. Everest region, which caused considerable damage to the downstream areas in
September 1998. Osti and his team members walked around the lake and along the Inkhu River originating from the glacial lake
and assessed GLOF impacts on the area. They observed and analysed dam failure conditions, GLOF marks, associated erosion,
deposition depths and geomorphological changes as well as other geological features of the area. The team also interviewed local
people to understand problems they are facing and their perception on GLOF.

Measuring a GLOF deposited sediment mass

Investigating the moraine dam breached portion►JOINT WORKSHOP OF JAPAN AND VIETNAM FOR DISASTER PREVENTIONS andInvestigation of Coastal Erosion in Nam Dinh Province
International Technical Exchange TeamThe Joint Workshop of Japan and Vietnam for Disaster Preventions was held on 19 November, 2008 at Hanoi, Vietnam. Shigenobu
Tanaka, team leader of the International Technical Exchange Team, was sent to attend the workshop. It was the first workshop in
which the two countries had discussions and exchanged ideas and opinions about water-related
disasters and their countermeasures. It is expected that both countries will closely cooperate forthe implementation of effective countermeasures for such disasters in Vietnam. Tanaka, who
also had worked as the Head of the Coastal Engineering Department of the Public Works
Research Institute, gave a presentation on disaster situations due to coastal erosion as well as
countermeasures taken in Japan to cope with such situations. After the workshop, advised by Dr.
Dao Xuan Hoc, vice minister of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, hevisited the coast of Nam Dinh Province, one of the most severely eroded coasts in Vietnam. The
picture right shows a sinking church at a coastal site. It was relocated there from the originalsite in 1890. The church has actually been re-relocated to a safer place and currently stands
inside the embankment.
A church relocated and built in 1890 is sinking due tocoastal erosion in Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam.

3

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 3 No.4

Training
Reports from Past Participants
We have recently heard from people who were involved in ICHARM training programs. We would like toshare their interesting reports in this section.

Dr. Teuku Alvisyahrin is an ex-trainee of the "UN/ISDR Comprehensive Tsunami Disaster
Prevention Training Course," conducted by ICHARM in June 2008. He is a university lecturer in
the Faculty of Agriculture of Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia. Recently, we have received
the first activity report from him after he returned home.

Activities after ICHARM Comprehensive Tsunami Disaster Prevention Training 2008
Upon returning from the Comprehensive Tsunami Disaster Prevention Training, which was organized by ICHARM and held in JuneJuly 2008 in Tsukuba, Japan, I participated in a roundtable meeting with my colleagues at the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation
Research Center (TDMRC) of Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, to share my experience in the training and updatethem with the current state of tsunami disaster management strategies employed in Japan. Community-based disaster risk
reduction management (CBDRM), notably the lifeline of Japan’s success story in tsunami disaster risk reduction, stimulated an intense
discussion among TDMRC members looking to adopt a similar strategy for Aceh.
In order to increase people’s awareness in disaster prevention and risk reduction, I helped organize a disaster education EXPO
held in August 2008 in conjunction with the inauguration of the new TDMRC building in Meuraxa, Banda Aceh. The event was
attended by 20 local, national, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the Indonesian Red Cross,Indonesian Meteorological Agency, United Nations Development Program, American Red Cross as well as governmental institutions
involved in disaster prevention initiatives. One of the highlights in the EXPO was the introduction of disaster risk reduction games tokids as a part of important disaster early-education for the community. Disaster awareness training was also held for 40 principals
of elementary schools around the Banda Aceh municipality and Aceh Besar District. The training included preliminary discussions on
the integration of disaster education in the school curriculam.
I had the honor of chairing the 3rd Annual International Workshop and Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
organized by TDMRC in December 2008. The workshop brought some 250 tsunami disaster experts, researchers, and disastermanagement policy makers and practitioners from around the world to Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh. It was a great
opportunity for the participants to update their knowledge of the post-2004 tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in
Aceh, and to listen to informative presentations on the latest state of science and strategies pertinent to tsunami disastermanagement initiatives. The participants also had the pleasure of welcoming an ICHARM research team represented by Dr. Dinar
Istiyanto, who is currently working as research specialist at ICHARM.
Recently, TDMRC has received a request from the RESTORE Project of the University of Waterloo, Canada, to conduct a training
based on lessons learnt from the 2004 tsunami disaster and recovery in Aceh for 23 senior faculty members from three universities
and two senior staff members from a governmental institution in Sri Lanka. It is scheduled to be held in February 2009 in Banda
Aceh. It is TDMRC’s first international training as an organizer, and I am honored to serve as a member of its steering committee of
this very important event. The committee members, including me, hope to emulate a format similar to that of ICHARM’sComprehensive Tsunami Disaster Prevention Training in the coming training for Sri Lankan scientists.

Keynote by Prof. Tanaka of
Kobe Univ. (Dec. 2008)

Hyogo Building (Dec. 2008)

Disaster Games for Kids
(Aug. 2008)

AIWEST-DR 2008 Participants4Ms. Toyomi Tsuruta is an ex-coordinator of the 2006 Flood Hazard Mapping Training
Course, conducted by ICHARM. She is now in Costa Rica helping the country strengthen its
disaster preparedness as a member of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV).
She contributes to ICHARM newsletter reporting on her activity in Costa Rica.
Issues in Community-Based Flood Mitigation in Costa Rica
A year and a half have passed since I started working in strengthening local capacity for disaster prevention in Costa Rica as aJapan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). I am honored to be given the second opportunity to write about my experience
for the ICHARM newsletter.
What I have realized while working in this country is that the concept of “community disaster prevention” or “self help” and“mutual help” are not yet common. Even though the Cañas river basin, where I live and work, has been repeatedly damaged byfloods, people commonly believe that ”the government” has the prime responsibility to attend disasters when “they have
happened”. In order to let the locals realize that there are many things that they themselves can prepare to reduce flood damage,I have carried out several workshops in the communities on the subjects of provision of emergency bag or sandbag preparationand so on.
The Cañas river basin is also a pilot site of the JICA’s technical cooperation project, Project on Capacity Development for Disaster
Risk Management in Central America “BOSAI”, since 2007. In that scheme JICA and National Commission for Emergencies (CNE) in
Costa Rica have been constructing early warning system, and now the sirens have been installed in the flood prone communities,
which both municipality and residents long wanted. However, it
will be of no use if the residents do not know reacting
appropriately when they hear the alarm sound. We’ll have tocontinue visiting the communities to make them realize that it isultimately their responsibility to protect their lives andproperties from disasters.
There’s no panacea for disaster prevention. Japanese culture of
BOSAI (disaster prevention) is based on hundred years’ historyof suffering from and fighting against natural disasters. We
The most frequently and heavily flood- have to keep working on the problems here patiently with aWorkshop on provision ofdamaged community, Bebedero
emergency bag
long-term perspective in order to ferment the culture of BOSAI
in this country.

Report on JICA Training"The 5th Flood Hazard Mapping in East/Southeast-Asian Region, 2008"
A five-week-long JICA training course, entitled “The 5th Flood Hazard Mapping in East/Southeast-Asian Region," was heldfrom 28 October through 28 November in 2008. This training is organized by ICHARM as a five-year programme, and the year
2008 was the final year of the training.
The training is designed for engineers and administrative officials working for organizations responsible for flood control andriver management in East and Southeast Asian countries. A total of 10 trainees from Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Thailand, and Vietnam participated in the 2008 course. Eight more students joined the course from the one-year
Master’s course, which is also currently ongoing at ICHARM.
Lectures and practical exercises, including GIS operation and inundation analysis, were given by professors invited fromuniversities and UNESCO-IHE, other experts from JAXA, and ICHARM researchers. To learn flood management in Japan, they
took a field study trip to the Chubu Region in the main land of Japan, and observed a Kasumitei (a discontinuous levee along
the Toyo River), the Kiso-Sansen National Park, and a river improvement project site along the Miya River. In Ise City of Mie
Prefecture, which is one of the trip destinations, they attended lectures given by the deputy mayor of Ise City, the vice principalof Ominato Elementary School, and a community leader of Ominato District. The trainees were very impressed to know that thebasic concepts of disaster management – "self-help", "mutual support" and "public assistance" – were deeply instilled into theresidents' groups.
As the final output of this course, each trainee developed an action plan for disaster management for his/her country. They aresupposed to report the action plans at their organizations in their home country.
Although the 2008 training course completed the five-year programme,
ICHARM is getting ready to launch a
new training course in the field of flood
management as athree-year
programme under the title of "Local
Disaster Management Plan by using
Flood Hazard Map." The course isdesigned so that trainees can learn
disaster management by combining
hazard maps with flood forecasting
and warning. The target population is
Discussion and presentation
those working at organizations
by participants

5Group photo at the Closing Ceremony

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 3 No.4

Conferences and Meetings
4th APHW and 3rd GEOSS-AWCI ICG meeting- Beijing, China (3-5 November)
The 4th Conference of the Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources (APHW) was held during 3-5 November
2008 in Beijing, China. About 300 researchers from 25 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region attended the conference. ICHARM
convened two of the seven special sessions. One of the two sessions was on “catchment-scale water and material cycle studies with
WEP and its future potential”. It was jointly convened by ICHARM, the Chinese Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower
Research (IWHR), and the Korean Institute of Construction Technology (KICT). Kazuhiko Fukami, team leader of the Hydrologic
Engineering Research Team, and Dr. Yangwen Jia of IWHR served as the co-conveners. Research Specialist Hemantha Rajapakse
presented the implementation of material-cycle components to the basin-wide physically-based distributed hydrologic model, or the
WEP model. Through seven presentations at this special session, it was confirmed that the promising future of WEP would be further
enhanced through internationally cooperative studies and implementations of the model.
The other special session convened by ICHARM was on “best practices in water related disaster mitigation and management.”
Research and Training Adviser A. W. Jayawardena served as the chair of the session, and also introduced overall ICHARM
activities. Researcher Hironori Inomata presented two research topics on a statistical downscaling of GCM outputs on precipitationand on a self-correction method for satellite-based precipitation data. Fukami also presented
two research topics on flood-flow observation by using non-contact current meters and on flood-flow characteristics observed by using acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP).
Many research topics related to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems-Asian
Water Cycle Initiative (GEOSS-AWCI) were also introduced in other special sessions. In one ofthose sessions, Fukami delivered another presentation on the development of the Integrated
Flood Analysis System (IFAS) as an implementation tool for Global Flood Alert System (GFAS)Streamflow.
The 3rd International Coordination Group Meeting for GEOSS-AWCI on 6 November 2008
immediately after the 4th APHW conference. Fukami also participated in this meeting andserved as a co-chair of the Flood Working Group. The meeting reached the agreement that
Presentation by Fukami oneach member country would further proceed with the demonstration projects and plan capacity
GFAS-Stream flow with IFAS
-building seminars to implement them.

13th session of the Commission for Hydrology (CHy-XIII) of WMO- Geneva, Switzerland (4-12 November)
The 13th Session of the Commission for
Hydrology (CHy-XIII) of the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) was
held during 4-12 November 2008 in
Geneva, Switzerland. Director Kuniyoshi
Takeuchi, Deputy Director Akira Terakawa
and Kazuhiko Fukami, team leader of theHydrologic Engineering Research Team,attended the CHY-XIII as members of the
Scientific lecture by Takeuchi
Japanese delegation. Takeuchi made ascientific lecture titled “Local Ownership ofFlood Forecasts through IFNet/GFAS” on 10 November in the main hall, which
led the session to adopt the Resolution 4 (CHy-XIII) of the “Hydrological
Forecasting and Flood Management” to support the operationalization of GFAS(Global Flood Alert System) by testing and validating global precipitation
products and information, suitable for various geographical regions.

Result Management Council of the Global
Facility for Disaster Reduction& Recovery-Copenhagen, Denmark (11 November)
The Results Management Council of the Global
Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery
was held on 11 November 2008 in
Copenhagen, Denmark. The council wasorganized by the World Bank. Kazuhiko
Fukami, team leader of the Hydrologic
Engineering Research Team, as an observer anddelivered a presentation on the Integrated
Flood Analysis System (IFAS), a free software
package to implement GFAS-Streamflow
proposed by the International Flood Network(IFNet).
Many of the council members
expressed strong interest and expectations forthe implementation and capacity building of
early warning systems for flood disastermanagement through IFAS.

Regional Workshop on Developing Partnerships for Water and Climate Change Adaptation- Selangor, Malaysia (1-5 December)
The Regional Workshop on Developing Partnerships for Water and Climate Change Adaptation was held during 1-5 December
2008 in Selangor, Malaysia. The main organizer of this workshop was the National HydraulicResearch Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) and the Network of Asian River Basin Organizations(NARBO). The workshop participants were mainly from the member countries of theKnowledgeHubs, which is the APWF’s network of the regional water knowledge hubs.
Researcher Hironori Inomata attended the workshop and presented ICHARM’s overall activities
and research topics on climate change. Through the workshop, each participant sharedvaluable information about problems and challenges on climate change in each country andestablished closer partnerships. On the final day of the workshop, each country proposed an
action plan for climate change adaptation. Many countries expressed strong expectations forJapan to provide further cooperation for them. For more information, visit the NAHRIM website.
Group Discussion
6

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 3 No.4

15th Session of Asia-Pacific Regional Space
Agency Forum APRSAF- Hanoi, Vietnam (9-12 December)

2nd international Symposium on Shallow Flows(ISSF2008)- Hong Kong (10-12 December)

The 15th Session of Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum(APRSAF-15) was held during 9-12 December 2008 in Hanoi,
Vietnam. Kazuhiko Fukami, team leader of the Hydrologic
Engineering Research Team, made a report on the activities ofFlood Working Group of the Sentinel Asia Project of APRSAF,
such as the implementation of IFNet/GFAS on a Web-GIS
system on the Digital Asia. At the step-2 phase, the Flood WG
will be engaged also in applications of satellite-based rainfall
data to flood forecasting in developing countries. In theplenary meeting, it was recommended that the step-2 activitiesof the Sentinel Asia should be promoted, that a new activity“Space for Application for Environment (SAFE) should beinitiated, and that the development of APRSAF’s satellite should
be promoted.

The 2nd international Symposium on Shallow Flows, one of theconferences of the American Society of Civil Engineers, was heldin Hong Kong during 10-12 December 2008. Several topics
related to river flow and turbulence flow were discussed in the
symposium. Research and Training Adviser A. W. Jayawardena
and Research Specialist Atsuhiro Yorozuya of the Hydrologic
Engineering Research Team participated to present theirresearch results at the conference. Jayawardena made apresentation on low flow characteristics, which is related towater resources, while Yorozuya made a presentation on flow
characteristics during flooding, which is related to flow
measurements.

3rd Annual International Workshop & Expo on Sumatra Tsunami
Disaster and Recovery- Banda Aceh, Indonesia (17-19 December)International Workshop on Typhoon
and Flood Research- Taipei, Taiwan (18-19 December)

The 3rd Annual International Workshop & Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster andRecovery (AIWEST-DR) was held during 17-19 December 2008 in Indonesia.
AIWEST-DR was jointly organized by the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation
Research Center (TDMRC) of Syiah Kuala University of Indonesia and Kobe
University of Japan. About a hundred participants from Japan, the Netherlands,
the USA, Bangladesh and Indonesia attended the workshop at Banda Aceh City.
Oral as well as poster presentations covered a wide variety of topics including
disaster management, disaster preparedness and education, disaster engineering,and simulation and numerical modeling. Dinar Istiyanto, research specialist of theInternational Technical Exchange Team, delivered a presentation based on his
paper entitled “Sustainable Tsunami Disaster Risk Reduction and Utilization of
Tsunami Hazard Map (THM).” In the end, all the participants were in agreementthat in the future the workshop should bearranged to encourage more active
involvement of local governments in finding
solutions for building a future society that has
strong resilience to tsunami and similardisasters. On the last day of the workshop, ahistoric tour took the participants to several
memorial places related to the Sumatra
tsunami disaster in Banda Aceh City. Alongwith this, they were also given a chance toDinar presented his paper
see the reconstruction progress in several
in the workshop.
parts of the city.

Deputy Director Akira Terakawa wasinvited to make a presentation at theInternational Workshop on Typhoon andFlood Research. The workshop wasorganized by the Atmospheric Science
Department of the National Taiwan
University and the Taiwan Typhoon andFlood Research Institute Preparatory Office
as a part of the preparatory activities forsetting up a new institute in the National
Applied Research Laboratories in Taipei. In
the presentation, Terakawa introduced theoutline of ICHARM activities, focusing on the
explanation of the recently developed
Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS). The
system is to be disseminated as a flood
forecasting tool by making use of satellitebased rainfall information. ICHARM will
promote mutual collaboration with the newcenter, scheduled to be established in
January 2009.

Visitors to ICHARM
Dr. Joan Pope visited PWRI
Joan Pope, lead technical director and program director for the Civil Works Research andDevelopment in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), visited Tsukuba on 12 November
2008. After a courtesy visit to Chief Executive of PWRI Tadahiko Sakamoto, Dr. Pope wasgiven a briefing on the outline of PWRI activities from Satoshi Ueda, director of the Planningand Research Administration Department. Then she gave us a lecture on the outline ofresearch activities of USACE, which was followed by several presentations of PWRI
researchers from the Construction Technology Research Department, Water Environment
Research Group, Hydraulic Engineering Research Group and ICHARM. ICHARM and theInstitute of Water Resources of USACE concluded an MOU for mutual collaboration in 2007,
and Dr. Pope’s visit to PWRI was a good opportunity to deepen understanding of bothsides’ activities.
7

Dr. Pope (right) and
Chief Executive Sakamoto

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 3 No.4

New Publications
Publications since ICHARM Newsletter Volume3. No.2 (ISSUE No. 9)
Refereed publications
Takeuchi,Kuniyoshi(2009):Flood Disaster Preparedness Standard, Proceedings of the International Conference on “Water, Environment, Energy and Society(WEES2009)”, New Delhi, India, January 12-16, 2009, vol II, pp 672-675.
Jayawardena, A. W. (2009): Challenges in Hydrological Modelling – Simplicity vs. Complexity, Keynote Paper, Proceedings of the International Conference on“Water, Environment, Energy and Society (WEES2009)”, New Delhi, India, January 12-16, 2009, vol I, pp 549-553.
Jayawardena, A. W. (2009): How global is “global warming”?, Poster paper presented at the Environment and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, January 5-7, 2009. Abstract on p151
Jayawardena, A. W., Xu, P.C., and Li, W. K. (2008): Rainfall data simulation by hidden Markov model and discrete wavelet transformation, Stochastic
Environment Research and Risk Assessment (SERRA), DOI: 10.1007/s00477-008-0264-0
Rabindra Osti and Shinji Egashira(2008) Method to improve the mitigative effectiveness of a series of check dams against debris flows, Hydol.Process. 22,
4986-4996, DOI: 10.1002/hyp.7118
Rabindra Osti, Shigenobu Tanaka and Toshikazu Tokioka (2008) The importance of mangrove forest in tsunami disaster mitigation, Disasters, DOI: 10.1111/
j.1467-7717.2008.01070.x
Rabindra Osti, Shigenobu Tanaka,,and Toshikazu Tokioka (2008) Flood hazard mapping in developing countries: problems and prospects, Disaster Prevention
Management, Vol. 17 No.1, 2008, pp 104-113, DOI 10.1108/09653560810855919
Jayawardena, A. W. (2008): Low flow characteristics of some small catchments, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Shallow Flows(ISSF2008), Hong Kong, December 10-12, 2008. Abstract on p148; full paper in CD-ROM
Yorozuya,A.,Fukami,K.,Shibata,N.,Kanno,Y.,and Imamura,H.(2008) : Flow characteristics in actual river based on field observations using ADCP, The Second
International Symposium on Shallow Flows(ISSF2008), Hong Kong, 10-12 December, 2008. Abstract on p49; full paper in CD-ROM
Masayuki Watanabe, Junichi Yoshitani, Tomoyuki Noro, and Yoganath Adikari (2008) ”Debris-flow Dewatering Brake”: An Efficient Tool to Control Upstream
Debris-flow to Secure Road Transportation and Community Safety, Proceedings of The First World Landslide Forum, Tokyo, Japan, November 18-21, 2008, pp
661-663
Rabindra Osti, Shinji Egashira and Shigenobu Tanaka(2008) Threats of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods to Mountain Communities: A Hidden Scientific Truth,
Proceedings of The First World Landslide Forum, Tokyo, Japan, November 18-21, 2008, pp451-454
Yoganath Adikari, Masayuki Watanabe, Tomoyuki Noro and Junichi Yoshitani(2008) The Importance of an Indexing Method for Holistic Landslide Disaster
Management, Proceedings of The First World Landslide Forum, Tokyo, Japan, November 18-21, 2008, pp45-47
Non-refereed publications
Fukami,K.,Yorozuya,A.,Yamaguchi,T.,Imamura,H. and Tashiro,Y.(2008): Possibility of flood flow observation using non-contact current meter and its
operational use, 4th Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources(APHW), Beijing, 3-5 November, 2008
Yorozuya,A.,Shibata,N.,Imamura,H.,Kanno,Y. and Fukami,K.(2008): Flow characteristics of flood flow and influences to flow discharge measurement, 4th Asia
Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources(APHW), Beijing, 3-5 November, 2008
Rajapakse,H.,Inomata,H. and Fukami,K.(2008): Effects of surplus fertiliser loading on stream and subsurface water quality in Yata River Basin, Japan: An
integrated, 4th Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources(APHW), Beijing, 3-5 November, 2008
Inomata,H.,Takeuchi,K.,and Fukami,K.(2008): Accuracy of atmospheric general circulation model and application of statistical bias correction method, 4th Asia
Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources(APHW), Beijing, 3-5 November, 2008
Fukami,K., and Sugiura, T.(2008): Development of an Integrated Flood Analysis System(IFAS) for poorly-gauged rivers, 4th Asia Pacific Association of
Hydrology and Water Resources(APHW), Beijing, 3-5 November, 2008
Magome,J.,Fukami.K.,Inomata,H.,and Takeuchi,K.(2008): Flood risk forecasting for poorly-gauged basins in the Mekong River using statistical approach
coupled with distributed hydrological model, 6th Annual Mekong Flood Forum, Phnom Penh, 27-28 May, 2008
Shiraishi, Y., Fukami,K., Inomata, H. and Kachi, M. (2008): Applicability of a correction method for real time flood forecasting based on satellite-based rainfall
information, 4th International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG), Beijing, 13-17 October 2008

Coming Events“3rd East & Southeast Asia Regional Seminar on Flood Hazard Mapping 2009”
ICHARM will hold the 3rd follow-up seminar of the “Flood Hazard Mapping Training Course” on 17–19 February,2009 in
Manila, Philippines.
In this seminar, ex-trainees will report on the current situations of Flood Hazard Map (FHM) development in their countries andtheir activities after completing the training course. They also discuss how to make and disseminate FHMs effectively in theircountries. The seminar will help their future activities related to FHMs.
Taking a retrospective look at the “Flood Hazard Mapping Training Course”, which came to end in 2008, ICHARM and theparticipants will have an extensive discussion on the needs and perspectives for FHMs and flood management in Asian countries.
The results of this seminar will be reported at the ICHARM website.

“5th World Water Forum”
The World Water Forum (WWF) is the world’s largest water-related event held every three years. It is an open, all-inclusive multi-stakeholder process, aiming at raising the importance and understanding of water issues and proposing concrete solutions toaddress global challenges. As one of its information networking activities, ICHARM is acting as a key player of the 5th WWF to beheld in March 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey, specifically as a coordinator for the topic entitled “Managing Disasters”. Four sessions withthe following titles are planned to be organized under this topic:
1. Trialogue session
2. Technologies for water-related disaster management
3. Risk management under changing situations
4. Emergency water management during and after disasters/conflicts
For more information on the topic and the 5th WWF, visit the 5th WWF website at http://www.worldwaterforum5.org/.

Copyright (c) 2008 Public Works Research InstituteSubscribe/unsubscribe to our mailing list, please contact us.
1-6 Minamihara, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8516, Japan
Tel: +81 29 879 6809 Fax: +81 29 879 6709 Email: icharm@pwri.go.jp
URL: http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp

8