NEWSLETTER
Volume 4 No.1 ISSUE No. 1230 April 2009

CONTENTS
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2

News

►

4

[Special Topic]
5th World Water Forum►

6

Information Network►

7

Training programs► 10 Research activities► 12 Coming Events

Message from Director

April is the start of a new fiscal year in Japan and comes around with cherry
blossoms every year. ICHARM staff, including myself, and Master’s course students
celebrated the new start by viewing cherry blossoms while having a tea ceremony. It
was an enjoyable and refreshing time in our busy schedule.
In March, I visited Leipzig in Germany to participate in Leipzig University’s 600th
anniversary and its memorial conference on “Risk and Planet Earth - Vulnerability,
Natural Hazards, Integrated Adaptation Strategies.” After that, I also attended the
5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. In both cities, I witnessed a great mixtureof cultures in spirit and power. All my visits were very successful in extending ICHARM
contributions to a wider community and discussing the hottest matters with potential
partners for future collaboration.
ICHARM considers that the following three events are particularly important: 1) the
successful publication of the UNSGAB HLEP report on “Water and Disaster”
presented at WWF5 by Dr. Han Seung-soo, HLEP founding-chair and currently
prime minister of the Republic of Korean, 2) the implementation of the ICSU IRDR
program guided by an ICSU report entitled “A Science Plan for Integrated Researchon Disaster Risk - addressing the challenge of natural and human-induced
environmental hazard,” and 3) the UNESCO and NARBO publication of “IWRM
Guidelines at River Basin level.” They are important because they will surely promote
the implementation of necessary actions that are already committed by policy
makers.

Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Director of ICHARM

Group photo on 1 April

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009News
ICHARM Open Day 2009
On 14 April 2009, ICHARM organized a special public event as part of the PWRI Science
Week and invited students from Takezono High School and Namiki Junior and High schools.
The occasion was also meant to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of ICHARM on 6 March and theWorld Water Day on 22 March. This is the second time that ICHARM invited high school
students for a tailor-made two-hour program. For the first time, the ICHARM auditorium waspacked to its full capacity with 65 students and three teachers.
After a welcome address by ICHARM Director Kuniyoshi
Takeuchi, the visitors were treated to a two-hour program led
by ICHARM Researcher Hironori Inomata, who is not only aserious research but also a gifted entertainer (a rare combination of talents!). The program
included a video presentation on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, quizzes about water, selfand country introductions by researchers and graduate students from Bhutan, Ethiopia,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Nepal, followed by poster
presentations about natural disasters in their respective countries. Enthusiastic students
continued their quest for knowledge on disasters at the poster session by having face to faceconversations with foreign researchers.
Let’s try “Water Quiz” !

Poster session by foreign
researchers at ICHARMICHARM concludes MOU with Yamanashi University
Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi visited the International Research Center for River Basin Environment(ICRE) of Yamanashi University on 27th March and signed Memorandum of Understanding on“Research cooperation for integrated water-related disaster management at river basins indeveloping countries” with Prof. Kengo Sunada, Director of the ICRE.
This research cooperation aims to promote collaboration between ICHARM and ICRE forinteractive effect to achieve their missions.

Prof. Sunada of ICRE (left) andTakeuchi signing the MOU

Prof. Reiko Kuroda visits ICHARM
Prof. Reiko Kuroda of Tokyo University, Vice-President of ICSU, visited ICHARM and PWRI on
2nd April.
ICSU (International Council for Science) was founded in 1931 to promote international scientificactivity in the different branches of science and its application for the benefit of humanity. On its
29th General Assembly in 2008, ICSU approved an international research program, Integrated
Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), which addresses the challenge of natural and human-induced
environmental hazards.

Prof. Kuroda (right) and Dr. Sakamoto,Chief Executive of PWRI

Dr. Kuroda is a professor of the Department of Life Science, of
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University ofTokyo. She obtained B.Cs. from Ochanomizu University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University ofTokyo in Chemistry. Her research on chirality (left and right handedness) is widely known in theworld and she was awarded prizes such as Saruhashi Prize and Nissan Science Prize. She served
as a member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy of the Cabinet Office.
Prof. Kuroda (center) with Director
Takeuchi (left) anda researcher Mr. Tanimoto of Soil
Mechanics Research TeamShe gave a lecture entitled "Science in the 21st century" in the seminar (see also page 11). About
50 people attended the seminar and had an active discussion with her. She also visited PWRI
laboratories concerning dams, earthquakes and water contamination, and exchanged views on the
new ICSU program.

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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

News

New members join ICHARM this April
Dr. Kazunori Wada, director of the Planning and Research
Administration Department of PWRI, has been also assigned tobe the observer of ICHARM activities.
He started his career at the Ministry ofConstruction (now MLIT). In 2001-2002, he was the
Director of the MLIT Kofu Office. In 2003, he wastransferred to the National Institute for Land andInfrastructure Management (NILIM) as a researchcoordinator for watershed management. He
earned his doctoral degree from Yamanashi
University in 2005, and became a professor of Ehime
University in 2006, where he also served as the founding vicedirector of the Center for Disaster Management Informatics
Research. In 2007, he came back to PWRI .

Mr. Kei Kudo (Chief Researcher)At the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport
and Tourism (MLIT), Mr. Kudo mainly worked in
the area of river improvement works, including
research, planning and implementation, at the
MLIT headquarters and branch offices in Tohoku,
Kanto, and Kyusyu regions.

His specialty covers hydraulics, water resources, flood control,
coastal management, history of civil engineering, and climatechange caused by global warming.

For the last three years, he worked at the Planning Departmentof the Foundation of River & Basin Integrated Communications(FRICS).

In 2003, he was prized with the Seiko Nakamura LiteratureAward for his book, Shingen Embankment, which is a historicalembankment along the Kamanashi River in Yamanashi
Prefecture and has been protecting the area from flooding for
more than 450 years.

At ICHARM, he is in charge of planning training programs incooperation with the International Technical Exchange Team.

Mr. Takahiro Kawakami （Exchange researcher, Hydrologic
Engineering Research Team)Mr. Go Ozawa (Exchange researcher,

Hydrologic Engineering

Mr. Kawakami studied the rainfall run-off
process of a small head-water basin at theGraduate School of Environmental Sciences,
University of Tsukuba. After graduating, hestarted working at an information systemcompany and continued working there until hemade a career change to the Japan Water
Agency in October 2007.

After graduating the Graduate School of Scienceand Engineering of Chuo University, Mr. Ozawa
was employed by CTI Engineering Co., Ltd. in
April 2006. He worked at the CTI Kyushu Office,where he was mainly involved in river planning,
basic policy-making in river development,
anticipated inundation area mapping, and floodforecast system development for rivers in the Kyusyu region. He
also conducted flow analysis for an optimal spawning habitat
for ayu, or sweetfish.

Research Team)At the agency, he was assigned to the Hitokura Dam Office inHyogo Prefecture, where he was involved in a variety of work
including general affairs, procurement, publicity, dam
management, and low water management.

His main research theme at ICHARM will be the use of satellitebased precipitation information in ungauged basins.

His main research theme at ICHARM is the improvement of
reliability in flood assessment and run-off analysis using theIntegrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS).

Ms. Akemi Saito, chief staff of PWRI, joined ICHARM as chief
office manager.
In her previous position in the Research andPlanning Section, she was mainly responsible forinternational projects and had many chances towork with ICHARM researchers and officeassistants. At ICHARM, she will be continuously
helping ICHARM staff with contracts and otheroffice management duties.

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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Special Topic

5th World Water Forum-March 2009, Istanbul, TurkeyICHARM’s Contribution to the forum

ICHARM organized “Managing Disasters”
topic at the Fifth World Water Forum
The Fifth World Water Forum (WWF5) was held from 16 to 22 March 2009 in
Istanbul, Turkey. ICHARM, together with the Japan Water Forum (JWF), served
as a topic coordinator at the forum. This was the highlight of the continued
activities with which ICHARM and JWF were tasked as the topic coordinators by
the WWF5 organizers since 2008.
The sessions related to “Managing Disasters” were held from 17 to 19 March at
Director Takeuchi reports the results at thethe WWF5 venue in the Feshane area, including the opening and closing sessions
thematic wrap-up session
and four specific sessions under this topic as follows:
1) Trialogue session (conveners: Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water
Management of the Netherlands, Commission of Scientific and Industrial Research of South Africa, Royal Haskoning),
2) Technologies for water-related disaster management (conveners: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism ofJapan, Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey)
3) Managing water-related risks in changing climate (conveners: World Meteorological Organization, Ministry of Land, Transportand Maritime Affairs of Korea),
4) Water management during and after disasters/conflicts (conveners: International Committee of the Red Cross, etc.)
All sessions were fully attended and lively discussions were held. On 18 March, Deputy Director Akira Terakawa participated in thesession “Technologies for water related disaster management” as one of the panel members, where he made a presentation on theoutline and dissemination activities of Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) as a tool for supporting the first step of flood
forecasting effort even in the basin with no realtime hydrological data and geographical data. At the closing session on 19 March,
Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi introduced “Key Sound Bytes” and “Recommendations of the Topic,” which were welcomed and acceptedby the audience. The results of the topic discussions were then successfully fed directly into the thematic wrap-up and also theministerial roundtable discussions.

The “Managing Disasters” sessions attracts a large
audience

Mr. Yoshiro Mori, JWF President andformer Prime Minister of Japan,
speaks at the opening session

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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Special Topic

IFI Workshop in the 5th World Water Forum(21 March, Istanbul)
The International Flood Initiative (IFI) workshop on “Charting Global Agenda for Meeting Today’s Flood Management Challenges”
was held as one of the 5th World Water Forum side events in Istanbul on 21 March 2009. In response to increasing worldwide
flood disasters and related damages, this workshop was organized by the IFI to catalyze global agenda toward Integrated FloodManagement. The main conveners of the event were UNESCO, WMO, UNU, UN/ISDR, and ICHARM as the IFI Secretariat. Other IFI
partners, such as IAHS, IAHR and ICLR, also took part in the workshop.
Mr. Bruce Stewart from WMO-CHy was the chair of the session at the workshop. The session had dual sections. In the first section, theworkshop started with a presentation by Ali Chavoshian, research specialist of ICHARM, to introduce IFI activities. Hıs presentation
was followed by those of other representatives on their flood-related activities. The speakers included Bruce Stewart and Avinash
Tyagi of WMO, Srikantha Herath and Janos Bogardi of UNU, Arthur Mynett of IAHR, Slobodan Simonovic of ICLR, and Kuniyoshi
Takeuchi of ICHARM.
The second part started with a presentation by ICHARM Director Takeuchi on IFI commitments. He highlighted two specific IFI
commitments in the “Water and Disaster” report published by the high-level expert panel on water and disaster of UNSGAB as
follows:
A- National government to promptly develop people-centered warning systems, comprehensive flood risk maps and assessments
linked to communication systems such as cell phone networks. These systems to include observation and warning for flash floods. The
panel requests WMO and UNESCO (via International Flood Initiative) to assist governments in undertaking the proposed actions andinvite international financial institutions to support the fulfillment of the proposed actions. (Item No. 2 in annex 1, list of actions)
B- International Flood Initiative and international hydrological and hydraulic institutes to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of
disaster prevention measures and develop disaster preparedness indices for implementation by local authorities. (Item No. 30 inannex 1, list of actions)
The participants also reported progress and had discussions on three main IFI activities
as well as discussions on future plans. Three main activities discussed in the workshop
were:
1- IFI briefs: A multilingual publication (about 2, at most 4, pages) to communicate
flood issues and available solutions to governments and policy makers.
2- IFI reference series: A kind of guidebooks and manuals to fulfill gaps andelaborate in detail on flood issues and solutions for practical use. (Reported by
Mr. Tyagi)
3- IFI web tutorials: Web-based education and training. (Reported by Mr. Herath)
IFI workshop in Istanbul
Before closing the workshop, dates for the 5th International Conference on FloodManagement (ICFM5) were discussed and decided to be 27-30 September 2011.
The next meeting of the IFI AC/MC will be held at the WMO Headquarters in Geneva on the occasion of the 2nd Global Platformfor Disaster Risk Reduction to be held on 16-19 June 2009.

High-Level Expert Panel on
Water and Disaster
The High-Level Expert Panel (HLEP) on Water and Disaster met on 17 March 2009 during the 5th World Water Forum held in
Istanbul, Turkey. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Director of ICHARM is one of the 21 experts of HLEP in disaster preparedness and response
and international issues. The panel declared six urgent imperatives and forty actions to alleviate human suffering and increase theresiliency of the global community to disasters. The panel was chaired by the H.E Han Seung-soo , prime minister of the Republic ofKorea, and attended by high-level delegates, such as Mr. Salvano Briceno, formor director of UNISDR, Loic Fauchon, president of
WWC, and other high-level government officials and experts. The following are a few of the important actions formulated by thepanel where ICHARM must play a role:- National governments should mainstream and integrate disaster potential assessment and risk reduction within their development
plans to promote economic growth.
- National governments must develop people-centered warning systems.
- IFI and international hydrological and hydraulic institutes should examine prevention measures and develop disaster
preparedness indices.
HLEP was first convened at the request of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) in 2007,
and has been a very important platform where experts can advise high-level government officials on water and disaster.

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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Information Network
Date, Venue

Event

25-27
February
2009,
Philippines

Meeting on Action Plan
for Water and Climate
Change16-18
February
2009, Tokyo

4th International
Workshop on
Precipitation Retrieval
Algorithms Using
Satellite Microwave
Radiometer, Radar and
IR Data

9-13 February Field trip to Mekong
2009, Vietnam Delta, Vietnam

4-7 February
2009, Kyoto

The 3rd Global Earth
Observation System of
Systems (GEOSS) AsiaPacific Symposium andthe 4th International
Coordination Group
Meeting of the GEOSSAsian Water Cycle
Initiative (AWCI)CD Project for RBOs in
28 January-4
Water Resources
February 2009Management &Indonesia
Technology
The 41st Annual
19-24 January
Session of the ESCAP/2009,
WMO Typhoon
ThailandCommittee (TC)
16 January
2009, Tokyo

The 3rd GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium was held on 4-6 February 2009 at the Kyoto
Research Park in Kyoto, Japan, followed by the 4th International Coordination Group
Meeting of the GEOSS Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) on 6-7 at the same
venue. Team Leader Kazuhiko Fukami and Senior Researcher Tomonobu Sugiura of
ICHARM participated in those two conferences.
At the GEOSS Symposium, the following six sub-sessions were held to explore how tostrengthen collaboration in the improvement of observation, prediction and data
sharing in the fields of climate change, water resource management, ecosystem
maintenance, and disasters under the theme of "Cross-cutting Data Sharing in the AsiaPacific Region."
WG1:Monitoring and Predicting Climate Change
WG2:Water Cycle in the Asia-Oceanic Region
WG3:Monitoring Changes in Ecosystem, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
WG4:Earth Observation and Data Sharing for Disaster Management
WG5:Toward Actual Collaboration among Climate, Water Cycle and Disasters
WG6:Necessity and Possibility of Observation, Forecast, and Data Sharing throughthe Interdisciplinary Collaboration of "Ecosystem - Climate Change - Disaster"
Fukami explained ICHRAM's activities as an example of regional coordination in the
WG5 session, while Sugiura delivered a presentation entitled "IFNet-GFAS" in WG4
to explain about the utilization of satellite information to reduce flood hazards.
In the meantime, the GEOSS-AWCI meeting focused on data archiving andintegration, prediction model applications and capacity building programs. At thismeeting, Fukami played a leading role in "Floods WG" and made a proposal ofholding training seminars using the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS), which has
been developed by ICHARM as a flood forecast system using satellite-based rainfall
data for poorly gauged basins in developing countries.
Related website: http://www.editoria.u-tokyo.ac.jp/awci/4th/index.html

Kakushin Research
Activity Report
Conference

Team meeting of the 1st
15-16 January
Asian Water
2009,
Development Outlook
Singapore
2010
International
12-16 January Conference on
2009, Chile Hydroinformatics in
Chile
ICHARM Researcher
10-24 January participated in JICA
Project in Jordan for Arid
2009,
Land Sabo and Water
JordanManagement
8-9 January
2009,
Tokyo

The 3rd Global Earth Observation System of Systems(GEOSS) Asia-Pacific Symposium and the 4th International
Coordination Group Meeting of the GEOSS Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI)ICHARM Researcher participates in JICA Project in
Jordan for Arid Land Sabo and Water Management
Deputy Team Leader Tomoyuki Noro of ICHARM visited Jordan for two weeks (10-24
January) as one of the short–term experts for the project which the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) started there two years ago. This JICA
project is to implement sediment erosion control technology for sediment-related
disaster prevention and water resources management in the arid land. Noro was sent
there for a short-term assignment as one of the four experts in debris flow, landslide,and sabo planning, observation and monitoring. In charge of observation andmonitoring, he checked the results of the reservoir depth measurement conducted by
the Jordanian team and confirmed that they were satisfactory. He also explained theneed for a survey in the upstream area of the reservoir to estimate the unstablesediment volume in the valley. In addition, he made a presentation to introduce the
ICHARM-developed Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS), which can help improvehydrological measurement in sparsely gauged
courtiers. Jordan is one of such countries with lessthan ten ground rain gauges covering in its
widespread catchment of 4,500 km2.

Third Annual Workshop
on Disaster Reduction
Hyperbase - AsianApplication (DRH-Asia)

For more details and information,
visit our website:
http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/news/
activities.html

The Mujib Dam, one of the project's modelsites, is located in the central part of
Jordan6

JICA is planning to provide a capacity development
program for the country to become able toindependently conduct sabo planning and facility
design, as well as training programs for arid-areaafforestation planning and water resourcesmanagement technology. The entire project isscheduled to end in March 2010.

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Training programs
Third East & Southeast Asia Regional Seminar on Flood Hazard Mapping in thePhilippines 17-19 February 2009, Manila, The Philippines
ICHARM co-hosted the 3rd East & Southeast Asia Regional Seminar on Flood Hazard Mapping on 17-19 February 2009 at Edsa
Shangri-la Hotel in Manila, the Philippines, with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Philippine Atmospheric,Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).
ICHARM has held this annual event since 2007 to provide an opportunity for those whocompleted the JICA Flood Hazard Mapping (FHM) training course to get together to reportand discuss the current progress and issues on FHM and to promote FHM-related activities
in the participating countries. The training course was conducted by ICHARM for the past
five consecutive years.
Thirty-one people, mainly ex-trainees, participated in the seminar from various Asian
countries, including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nepal, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. The diversity of the participants’ nationalities andviewpoints made discussions interesting and insightful.

The participants exchanged various viewsin the general discussion.

The opening ceremony was held in the presenceof honorable guests. The participants sang theFilipino national anthem and were greeted by Dr. Prisco D. Nilo, director of PAGASA, and
Dr. Jayawardena Amithirigala, Research and training advisor of ICHARM. A few otherguests, including Mr. Norio Matsuda (manager of JICA Philippine Office), Mr. Hirosato
Yoshino (second secretary of the Japanese Embassy), and Hon. Estrella F. Alabastro(secretary of the Department of Science and Technology of PAGASA), also made an
opening speech at the ceremony. The seminar was televised in a local news program.
The opening ceremony was followed by a special
Group discussion
lecture by Ms. Susan R. Espinueva of PAGASA on“Community-Based Early Warning System.” Sheconcluded her lecture by saying, “The success of anearly warning system is implicit in the operative capability and the response of the community
which operates it.” Her remark was of great importance especially to the ICHARM staff,
because the concept was exactly in line with the promotion of “Local Practices,” one of
ICHARM’s focus areas. It certainly reminded them of the crucial role of the community indisaster management.
Ms. Susan R. Espinueva of PAGASAOn the following day, the participants visited Kawit City in Cavite Province, located south ofgiving a lecture
Metro Manila, and received a presentation by Ms. Anabelle L. Cayabyab on communitybased FHM activities led by JICA. Her presentation revealed that the community was involvedin not only hazard mapping itself but also activities to enhance disaster preparedness on a local basis, including the Town Watching
exercise as part of the mapping process. The seminar participants also learned that community leaders felt grateful for the FHM
activities. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that FHM had made more progress in the Philippines than expected.
On the last day, five primary issues on FHM were given to the participants for discussions, which helped them learn more about andgain better understanding of FHM.
One of the findings from this seminar was that theparticipating countries have already demonstrated a fairly
high FHM capability, although they are not still fully selfsustainable and need support from overseas organizations
such as JICA. The next step should be to promote the effective
use of flood hazard maps to mitigate flood damage. In thissense, the Philippine’s Kawit City is an excellent pilot case of
FHM, which should be introduced as a good example to othercountries to disseminate FHM.
For
moredetails:
training/2009-seminar.html

Participants of the regional seminar

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http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Training programs

Water-related Risk Management Course
Disaster Management Policy Program2008-2009
Message from Master’s students
It has been six months since the 2008-2009 Master’s course students joined. They have completed a series of lectures, experienced
field surveys, and now started to work on their own research topics. They have already got used to the life in Japan and well
prepared for the remaining six months, which will be their hardest but most productive period.
Khorsuk Banluesak (Meteorologist/Hydro-Meteorological Group, Thai Meteorological Department, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology), Thailand
Living and studying in ICHARM are extremely far away from my normal life.
We have to do everything in the short time which is tough for me. However, among the experts here, it is a very
good opportunity to gain knowledge from them then apply that to our individual study and our work. This course is aiming tocountermeasure for flood-related disaster. So far, we have learned a lot of things in various subjects, some are fundamental andothers are applications. To be successful in disaster mitigation, we need both of them.
Biswas Robin Kumar (Assistant Engineer/ Bangladesh Water Development Board), BangladeshTechnology is always advancing for the betterment of mankind. Being a citizen of a developing country like Bangladesh, I was not well up to date regarding the modern technological development all around the world in the field of
disaster countermeasures. I am extremely elated to pick the opportunity to study about the disaster in ICHARM. The
designed course of this organization is practical oriented and will be helpful for me in coming days to serve mycountry effectively and efficiently.
I am thankful to all the members of ICHARM for providing a pleasant environment of knowledge accumulation.
Jin Ke (Section Staff of Office of Flood Control and Drought Relief/Taihu Basin Authority of Water Resources), China
I am so proud to participate in this Master Program. China is a developing country which is suffering from frequent
natural disasters. Huge amount of losses are caused by natural disasters each year. Japan is a developed country
which has abundant experiences of disaster management and mitigation. Learning advanced technologies andexperiences from Japan would surely contribute to the sustainable development of China.
During my stay, ICHARM invited professors from different research institutes. They taught me lots of related theories, together withthe causes, phenomena and prevention methods of different natural disasters. Theoretically discussing and practically application
combined perfectly.
This is my first chance to study abroad. I learned plenty of specialized theories and advanced disaster mitigation methods, and haveformed a scientific way of thinking. Thanks to JICA, thanks to ICHARM, thanks to GRIPS, for giving me such a great learning opportunity. I would go on devoting myself to hard studying and striving for more progress.
I believe in that the learning experiences here would momentously impact on my working ability after my returning to China.
Simatupang Maruli Tua Gregorius (Engineer / Directorate River, Lake and Reservoir DG of Water Resources, Ministryof Public Works), Indonesia
To be one of the participants in this “Flood-related Disaster Mitigation Master Program” is a great promising opportunity. I can learn a lot about flood and its mitigation and also special knowledge about mitigation policy. It is an interesting experience to study in Japan especially in ICHARM. Change information, experience and knowledge between
all participants from other countries are one of the valuable things. Study in ICHARM is a big challenge because I can learn about
flood from the experts. I hope all the knowledge which I acquire here can be implemented in my works specially to reduce the flood
hazard in my country. Study in Japan is a thrilling and excited, because everything are organized well by ICHARM and JICA. The
hospitality of Japan makes my stay become more pleasant.
Last but not least, I would like to say sincerely thanks to all of lecturer and staff in ICHARM for great support during my study and to
JICA by giving me a chance to study in Japan. And also for all my friends, participants, for the great time that we spent together,helping and support each other, this is an unforgettable moment in my life.

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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Training programs

Current situation
Master’s course students has just started their individual studies tomake master thesis.
They work with an assigned ICHARM researcher.
The researcher gives professional advice and support. That will
help students to acquire proper skills to conduct surveys and write
reports.
Course structure

Snapshots

Lecture by Prof. Fukuoka, Chuo Univ.

Lecture by Prof. Oki, Tokyo Univ.

Discharge channel in Metropolitan Area
Outer Underground

Lecture on
Ohashi river improvement works

In front of “Sabo dam”
at Hiroshima city

Construction of Hii river divergent
channelCultural activities
Cherry blossom viewing
PWRI Chief Executive Tadahiko Sakamoto and ICHARM Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi invited foreign researchers at PWRI,
including the Master’s course students, to a tea ceremony and cherry blossom viewing on 4 April.

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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Research activities
ICHARM Research & Development Seminar
ICHARM R&D seminars are held regularly at the ICHARM auditorium and give informative lectures about various topics.
This issue reports the 15th-19th seminars.

15th A special Lecture on Sediment Hazard Management -Dr. Shinji Egashira (23 January 2009)
Dr. Egashira, a Japan’s leading expert in sediment hazard management, gave interesting lectures on two research topics:“Importance of Introducing Sediment Transport Process in River Planning” and “Theoretical Tools for Sediment Management.” Thelectures were well received by the audience, including ICHARM researchers and students currently enrolled in the ICHARM Master’s
degree program in disaster management.
In his first lecture, Dr. Egashira presented the actual cases of sediment-related disasters around the world: a debris-flow disaster in
Venezuela, Nagano landslides in Japan, river-bank cutting in the Mekong delta, river shifting in the Kizu River of Japan, sedimentrelated problems in the Juho River of Taiwan, etc. He emphasized the importance of maintenance of river environment andmorphology while considering sediment hazard management. Later, he introduced the theoretical basis for analyzing sedimenttransport processes, including debris-flow models, and their roles in predicting such natural phenomena.
Sediment-related hazards are serious concerns worldwide because a large portion of the world population facing these problems.
Mud and rock slides, landslides and debris flows occur very frequently and cause devastating impacts on mountain regions. Riverbank cutting and river aggradation or degradation pose major threats to low-lying areas. They are extremely challenging issues toscientists and engineers. Despite this reality, there are very few researchers working in the field, and Dr. Egashira, a former
professor of Kyoto and Ristumeikan Universities in Japan, is one of the precious few.

Debris-flow dewatering brakes -a promising tool for disaster management in developing countries16th -Mr. Masayuki Watanabe (27 January 2009)
Mr. Watanabe, coordinator of disaster mitigation research at ICHARM, spoke about the recentlycompleted "debris-flow dewatering brake" pilot project. The project was conducted at a debris
flow-prone site on Kennon Road connecting Manila and Baguio City in the Philippines. Watanabe
led the project in collaboration with ADB and the Philippines’ Flood Control and Sabo Engineering
Center of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
In the seminar, he emphasized the importance of dewatering brakes to secure road communicationsin the mountainous region, stating that brakes would be efficient and effective to prevent sedimentrelated disasters. He also listed advantages of debris-flow brakes, such as low cost, simple design,
easy repair and maintenance, and use of local materials for construction. Elaborating on theirmechanism and functions, he also told the audience how the structure first came into being andstated that it had been tested in three pilot projects in Japan and proven effective.

Mr. Watanabe giving a lecture.

The pilot project was completed in November 2008, which was actually earlier than planned thanks to great local cooperation. A
ceremony to hand over the facility to the Filipino Government and a seminar on the importance and effectiveness of the project anddebris-flow brakes were held in March 2009 (see also page 11).

17th Koshi Flood Disaster 2008 -Ms. Mandira Shrestha (9 February 2009)
ICHARM invited Ms. Shrestha , water resources specialist of the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development, Nepal, to speak at the 17th ICHARM R&D.
The Koshi River is a transboudary river originating from the Tibetan Plateau of China throughNepal to India. It forms the largest river system in Nepal, draining a total area of around 60,000
km2. The river is also known as the “Sorrow of Bihar”. After a catastrophic flood in 1954, Nepal
and India signed a treaty in flood management, and built a barrage across the river for flood
control and implemented an irrigation system by building
several kilometers of river embankments to protect people,
infrastructure and fertile agricultural land.

Flood situation of Koshi river (2008.8)

Ms. Shrestha giving a lecture.

On 18 August 2008, in the middle of the monsoon, the left
embankment about 12 km from the barrage breached, which led to another catastrophic flood in
Nepal and India. The Koshi River completely changed its course, flowing through villages andsettlements and inundating fertile land. About 200 people lost their lives in Nepal and India,
70,000 were displaced in Nepal, and over four million were affected in India. The presentationby Ms. Shrestha provided the audience with the details of the Koshi flood disaster, the mitigation
measures taken, and the present status of the river.
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ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

Research activities
18th Science in the 21st century -Dr. Reiko Kuroda (2 April 2009)
Dr. Kuroda, professor of the Department of Life Science of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
the University of Tokyo, and vice president of the International Council for Science (ICSU), visited
ICHARM and gave a lecture entitled "Science in the 21st century" in the 18th ICHARM R&D Seminar.
She introduced the World Conference on Science, which UNESCO and ICSU co-organized at
Budapest, Hungary, in 1999. The Conference adopted the "Declaration on Science and the Use of
Scientific Knowledge". The preamble of the declaration has four pillars: (1) Science for knowledge;knowledge for progress, (2) Science for peace, (3) Science for development, and (4) Science in society
and science for society. She emphasized the importance of the fourth pillar and explained that thestatement actually reflects her original idea about science and society. She told the audience that she
had written a newspaper article on the very same idea in 1996.

Prof. Kuroda giving a lecture.

In addition, she introduced ICSU and its activities. ICSU's mission is "strengthening international science for the benefit of society". To
do this, ICSU mobilizes the knowledge and resources of the international science community for the benefit of society. She also put
stress on the importance of monitoring and talked about a new research program called the International Research on Disaster Risk
(IRDR) led by ICSU on a global scale.

TPU Global COE Program: New Frontier of Education and Research in Wind engineering and IAWE
19th Activities on Wind-related disaster reduction - Prof. Yukio Tamura (7 April 2009)
The speaker was Professor Tamura of Tokyo Polytechnic University (TPU), who is also the Director of the TPU Global Centre of
Excellence (GCOE) on the “New Frontier of Education and Research in Wind Engineering", and is the current President of theInternational Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE). During his lecture, in addition to giving a historical background to “WindEngineering” and the establishment of IAWE in general, he highlighted the specific efforts made by his research team towards
mitigating wind related disasters in collaboration with international research teams from around the world. It was interesting to notethe link between fluid mechanics related to wind engineering and the structural design of buildings. In the education and capacity
building front, the activities that Professor Tamura’s GCOE is pursuing are inspiring to ICHARM, which also aims to become a GCOE
in water related disaster management.

► 20th ICHARM R&D Seminar 11 June 2009 (Thu) at ICHARM
Mr. Neil R. Britton of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is scheduled to speak on ADB’s
disaster management policies.

Turn-over ceremony and Seminar on Debris-flow Countermeasures in the Philippines
The project of "Testing and Demonstrating a Technology to Cope with Debris-flow in Mountainous Regions"
ICHARM held a ceremony on 25 March 2009 in Baguio, the Philippines, to turn over a debris-flow control structure to the
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of the Philippines. ICHARM provided technical assistance to construct thestructure, which completed in December 2009. This type of structure is called “debris-flow brakes” and designed to reduce theenergy of debris flows by removing their water content. They are expected to be an efficient debris-flow control tool for disasterprone areas in developing countries because of their structural simplicity and low construction cost.
ICHARM also held a project report seminar on March 27 in Manila. At the seminar, ICHRM staff reported on the debris-flow brakeproject and exchanged opinions and issues in disaster management with participants from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology
and Seismology (PHILVOCS) and others.
The Flood Control and Sabo Engineering Center of DPWH, which took over the structure from ICHARM, will play the central role inmonitoring the structure to verify whether it can stop debris flows safely.

Debris-flow dewatering brake, or"Debris-flow break" fromdownstreamTurn-over ceremony in Baguio, Mr. Masayuki Watanabe,
Coordinator for disaster mitigation research of ICHARM(left) and Mr. Resito V. David, Director of FCSEC (right)

11

Discussion at the seminar in Manila

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 4 No.1 y 30 April 2009

IFI Newsletter
The first issue of the IFI Newsletter has been published in March 2009 by the IFI
Secretariat at ICHARM. In this issue you will read about IFI news and coming
events as well as two interviews with IFI partners. IFI Newsletter is a semiannual
and non-commercial publication to develop information networking and promote
the exposure of IFI activities. It is distributed via e-mail. For subscription please
send your request to info@ifi-home.info
It can also be downloaded from the IFI website (http://www.ifi-home.info).

Now accepting applications for admission of
2009‐2010 GRIPS and ICHARM/PWRI Disaster Management Policy Program
Water‐related Risk Management Course till 5 June.
This course is jointly offered by ICHARM/PWRI and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) with support
from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The course is conducted in English and helps students earn a Master’s degree in disaster management in one year after
acquiring required credits. (See activities reports of the course 2007‐2008 at http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/training/
masters_course.html)
The admissions office is accepting applications for the term 2009‐2010.
Course period : from October 2009 to September 2010
Application deadline : 5th June 2009(Fri) 16:00
Apply to : Admissions Office, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
For more information including eligibility and necessary documents for application,
visit http://www.grips.ac.jp/pstudents/inter_programs/disaster.html

Coming Events
7th Annual Mekong Flood Forum 13-14 May 2009, Bangkok, Thailand
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) will conduct the 7th Annual Mekong Flood Forum on 13-14 May 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The theme for the forum is the “Integrated flood risk management in the Mekong River Basin” . This year’s theme reflects the needfor integrated approaches to flood risk management in the Mekong River Basin. ICHARM is planning to make a presentation at theforum and introduce our various activities related to flood risk management. For details, visit the forum website: http://
www.mrcmekong.org/MRC_news/7th-annual-mekong-flood-forum.htm

GPM Asia Workshop on Precipitation Data Application Technique 13-15 May 2009 Tokyo, Japan“GPM Asia Workshop on Precipitation Data Application Technique” will be held from 13th to 15th May in Tokyo, Japan.
The study on applicability of satellite-based precipitation data to flood forecasting in developing countries and the development of
the “Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS)” will be presented at the workshop.

20th ICHARM Research & Development Seminar 11 June 2009 Tsukuba, Japan
Mr. Neil R. Britton of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is scheduled to speak on ADB’s disaster management policies.

Seminar on “Debris-flow break” 12 June 2009 Tokyo, Japan
Lecture by Mr. Masayuki Watanabe, Coordinator for disaster mitigation research of ICHARM on the outline of Debris-flow breaktechnologies mainly targeted to the members of foreign Embassies in Tokyo.
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