Volume 3 No. 3
ISSUE No. 9
X 2-4 ICHARM activities to solve waterrelated
problems
X 2-4 ICHARM activities to solve waterrelated problems
X 5 Research reports at international
conferences
Research reports at international
X5
conferences
X 6 Research activity
Reporton ICHARM
event research
Introduction
to anopen
ICHARM
X6
project
X 7 Reports on “ICHARM R&D Seminar”
ICHARM open event
X 8 Report on training activity
ICHARM R&D Seminars
X7

August2008

X 9 Against global warming
Comprehensive Tsunami Disaster
X8

Prevention Training Course

X 10 ICHARM publication list
X9

Adaptation to global warming

X 10

ICHARM publication list

ICHARM
Newsletter

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

Message from the Director

The 4th International Symposium on Flood Defence (ISFD4)
was held in Toronto, Canada during 6-8 May 2008. It was aunique symposium focusing solely on floods. About 250 people
gathered from a number of countries especially from USA,
Canada and the Netherlands. Many presentations were given bypracticing engineers and administrators of local flood
management offices. It was a great occasion where practitionersof different nations discussed about their everyday problems andexperiences. During the Symposium, ICHARM was requested
to host the next meeting in Japan. Considering this unique andvaluable nature of the meeting, ICHARM has decided to takethe honor of hosting the 5th International Conference on FloodManagement (ICFM5) in Japan in 2011. Note that the name of
the meeting was changed from “International Symposium on
Flood Defence” to “International Conference on FloodManagement” to broaden the scope. We are pleased to include
the pre-announcement of the Conference in this issue below. We
sincerely ask your cooperation for the success of the next
Conference.
During 19-23 May 2008 another unique international conference
was held on Ecohydrological Processes and Sustainable
Floodplain Management at our sister institute, the European
Regional Centre for Ecohydrology (ERCE) under the auspicesof UNESCO in Lodz (pronounced “Woodge”), Poland. The
conference brought together more than 100 hydro-ecologists,hydrologists, geo-morphologists, river engineers, etc. Hydroecology is considered as a tool for Integrated Water Resources
Management and for sustainable floodplain management.
ICHARM likes to support such direction.
The 18th session of the UNESCO International Hydrological
Program (IHP) Inter-Governmental Council was held in Paris
during 9-13 May 2008. The Council welcomed the proposals ofTurkey, Brazil, Portugal, Dominica, USA, Germany and
Kazakhstan to establish UNESCO Category II Water Centres.
ICHARM wishes that the new centres will soon be establishedand start working. We are especially keen to work with theInternational Centre for Integrated Water Resources
Management (ICIWaRM) hosted by Water Resource Institute of
US Army Corps of Engineers, with whom we have already an
MOU signed.
Another good news in this Council was that ICHARM
exchanged MOUs with two very important UNESCO water
centers: UNESCO-IHE and Regional Centre for Urban Water
Management (RCUWM), Teheran for better collaboration. With
UNESCO-IHE Director Prof. Richard Meganck and then with
RCUWM Director Farhad Yazdandoost, I exchanged signaturesof MOUs. We have already various collaborative activities
started or planned.
Finally, I am very happy to report that professors of ICHARM
Master Course on water-related disaster management policy are
now busy reviewing the drafts of the master theses for all ten
students to finally submit their theses to National Graduate
Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) late August. With those
hard working students, ICHARM members are working hard
despite hot and humid weather of Tsukuba.
Kuniyoshi Takeuchi
Director, ICHARM

ICHARM activities to solve water-related problems
18th UNESCO-IHP Intergovernmental Council Held
The 18th Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP) was held at the
UNESCO Headquarters on June 9-13. Thirty-six council member countries including Japan participated in the meeting along with
41 non-council members (observers) and 23 international organizations. The council meets biennially to report and discuss IHP
activities, future strategies, collaboration with other international or non-governmental organizations, and other important issues.
Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, also a member of the Japan National Committee for UNESCO and Deputy Director Akira Terakawa
took part in the Japan delegation from ICHARM.
In this 18th meeting, the council adopted the implementation of the Seventh Phase of IHP Strategic Plan (2008-13). Also, sevencountries – namely Turkey, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, the United States of America, Germany and Portugal –proposed the establishment of new UNESCO water-related centres. The council decided to endorse the proposed centres andadopted a resolution to proceed with preparation for the approval at the UNESCO General Conference.
Additionally, during the lunch break after the first day’s morning session, a signing ceremony was held for the MOUs of mutual
collaboration between UNESCO-IHE and ICHARM and between RCUWM and ICHARM in front of the council participants.
With the MOUs signed, mutual collaboration will be promoted, including the exchange of lecturers for training courses, planningand implementation of joint research projects, and other areas.

Dr. Meganck, Rector of UNESCO-IHE (right) and Dr. Takeuchi,
Director of ICHARM, shake hands after signing the MOU.
Behind them is Dr. Szöllosi-Nagy, Director of Water Science
Division, UNESCO.

Council meeting in session (at UNESCO HQs)

The second International Flood Initiative Advisory/Management
Committee Meeting HeldThe second IFI Advisory/Management Committee (AC/MC) was held on 5th
May at the Institute of Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) in Toronto, Canada.
From ICHARM, Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Chief Researcher Katsuhito
Miyake and Research Specialist Ali Chavoshian participated in this meeting.
The IFI was launched in 2005 in order to realize coordinated activities among
relevant international organizations in pursuing integrated flood management.
The key IFI members are UNESCO, WMO, UN/ISDR, UN University, IAHS
and IAHR. ICHARM is providing a secretariat function to this important
initiative.
The participating organizations are determined to promote activities in four
important areas, namely research, education and training, information networking
and technical cooperation.
For more information please see the IFI link: http://www.ifi-home.info
2

IFI meeting at ICLR (Toronto)

ICHARM’s commitments to World Water Development Report
ICHARM together with other partners works closely with World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) on drafting the World Water
Development Report 3 (WWDR3) “Water in a Changing World”. During the last week of April, over 80 writers, contributors, chapter
coordinators, members of UN-Water, and the Technical Advisory Group for the WWDR3 from 26 countries met to discuss the state of theworld’s freshwater resources at the new WWAP headquarters in the Villa La Colombella in Perugia, Italy, where Adikari represented
ICHARM. An important step in the development of the WWDR3, the meeting brought experts from around the world to discuss draft final
chapters and a set of messages for the world’s decision and policy makers responsible for governing water resources.
The Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Umbria Region (Italy), Assessore Lamberto Bottini welcomed theparticipants and were also greeted and welcomed to the week of discussion and working sessions on the third report by Mr. Olcay Ünver,
Coordinator of WWAP and Dr. András Szöllösi-Nagy, Director of the Division of Water and Secretary of the International Hydrological
Programme of UNESCO. The report presents a new approach to monitoring and reporting on water issues, which are vital to meeting
global development goals of access to clean water and better sanitation for the world’s poor. Developed through a more participatory
process which includes inputs from hundreds of experts around the world and public comments, the report will take a more holistic
approach to freshwater monitoring and reporting. The recommendations and messages discussed during the meeting will be a vital part ofdeciding how the world can better manage this important global resource. The WWDR3 will be launched during the opening day of the
5th World Water Forum to be held in Istanbul in March 2009.
For more information please see WWAP link: http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/news/index.shtml#wwdr3

The participants of the WWDR3 integration meeting at WWAP HQin Perugia, Italy (April 2008) UNESCO- M.Ravassard

ICHARM researchers sent to help flood mapping manual development
ICHARM Chief Researcher Katsuhito Miyake and Research Specialist Rabindra Osti weredispatched to a consultation meeting held at the headquarters of the World MeteorologicalOrganization in Geneva on April 24-26. The meeting was organized by WMO’s AssociatedProgramme for Flood Management to develop a flood mapping manual. ICHARM has beenworking on flood hazard mapping for developing countries through a multidisciplinary
approach, and therefore sent the two researchers to the meeting to contribute the experienceand knowledge in the field to the international community.

Presentation by Research Specialist
Rabindra Osti (center)

Pre-announcement of the 5th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5)
The 5th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5) will be held in Japan in 2011. The ICFM5 will be hosted by theInternational Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of UNESCO, supported by the Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan.
The ICFM5 is the subsequent of the past four successful International Symposiums on Flood Defence (ISFD). The first one was held in
Kassel, Germany in September 2000. The 2nd ISFD was held in Beijing, China in September 2002, followed by the 3rd ISFD in
Nijmegen, Netherland in May 2005. The ISFD4 was held in Toronto, Canada in May 2008.
The International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM) is the new title of the International Symposiums on Flood Defence (ISFD).
This is the only international conference fully focused on flood issues so far, and it is the best place to share your research result,experiences and achievements in flood management with other researchers, engineers and policy makers.
3

Launch of Asia-Pacific Water Forum Knowledge Hubs
ICHARM Chief Researcher Katsuhito Miyake attended the launch of regional knowledge hubs
(KHs) convened on 26 June at the Public Utility Board in Singapore. During the Asia-PacificWater Summit held in December 2007 in Beppu City, Japan, it was declared that KHs beestablished in order to contribute to meeting various needs in the water sector. Following thisdeclaration and after the selection from candidate KHs, it was finally decided that 12 KHs willbe established under the framework of the Asia-Pasific Water Forum. ICHARM was assigned
as KH for disaster risk reduction and flood management.
ICHARM, together with its colleague KHs, is now expected to further contribute to solving
various water-related problems in the Asia-Pacific region by deepening the level ofcollaboration with related agencies, such as Asian Development Bank.

Presentation on the role of ICHARM as KH
by Chief Researcher Miyake

Regional Consultation Meeting on Water-related Disaster Management
ICHARM Chief Researchers Katsuhito Miyake and Kazuhiko Fukami participated in a regional consultation meeting on water-related
disaster management at the Public Utility Board in Singapore on 27 June. The meeting was held after 12 regional knowledge hubs (KHs),
including ICHARM, were newly established. It was a great opportunity for ICHARM to have discussion with invited participants andexplore the possibilities of future collaboration. Among the new KHs, ICHARM was one of the only two organizations that wereallocated time for such an opportunity. The chief researchers had fruitful discussions with a number of participants from the Asia-Pacificregion. In particular, the participants expressed high expectations for ICHARM to extend its support for satellite-based flood forecasting
systems and capacity building (training), which the institute has been providing since its establishment.
Additionally, the Asian Development Bank announced that it would launch a new regional technical assistance scheme in collaboration
with ICHARM.

ICHARM concludes a memorandum with FCSECICHARM filed a memorandum with the Flood Control and Sabo Engineering Center (FCSEC) in July 21, 2008, to further strengthen thepartnership between the two agencies. ICHARM has been exchanging information concerning water-related disaster reduction withFCSEC. The agencies took another step forward to secure closer cooperation.
FCSEC, established under the Department of Public Works and Highway in the Republic of The Philippines, is an organization
responsible for the implementation of various projects to develop technical and administrative capabilities against flood and sedimentrelated disasters. Japan has been providing financial and personnel help to support the agency.
Under the agreement, ICHARM and FCSEC will cooperate with each other in research, training, symposiums, information networking,and personnel exchange in the field of water-related disasters.

ICHARM researcher joins a survey team to help Vietnam become
disaster-resilientBank erosion(Quang Nam)

ICHARM dispatched Senior Researcher Noro for a preliminary survey for a disastermitigation project in central Vietnam. The survey was conducted for two weeks from
June 24 to July 7, 2008.
The project is organized by JICA to develop the country’s organizational capacities forcommunity-centered disaster management. It will be first carried out in the provinces ofThua Thien Hue and Quang Nam, implementing different countermeasures for floods,
sediment-related disasters and bank erosion during the next three years.
The Vietnamese government formulated the "National Strategy for Natural Disaster
Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020" in 2007 with a special focus on theimplementation of countermeasures for water-related disasters to support their soaring
economic growth.

4

A mansion built at a landslide-disaster site
(Thua Thien Hue)

Research reports at international conferences
ASCE World Environmental & Water Resources Congress
The World Environmental & Water Resources Congress was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, between the 12th and 16th of May. ICHARM researchers(Team Leader Kazuhiko Fukami, Senior Researcher Sugiura and Research Specialist Yorozuya participated to present their research results in the
congress. So far, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) and the National Institute of Land andInfrastructure Management (NILIM) have conducted joint workshops every year since 1992.
In the congress, for the purposes ofpresenting the outputs to the public, threeoral sessions and a poster presentation
were held as the Japan-US Collaboration.
In the session of “Water-Related Disasters
and Flood Hydrology” (moderated by Mr.
Bales of USGS and Fukami), Sugiurareported about the Integrated Flood Alert
System (IFAS), which was developed in ajoint project with several consultationcompanies. Also, in the poster session,
FukamiandYorozuyapresented
techniques related to water discharge
measurement.

Main structure of IFAS ver1
Rainfall data

Satellite-based rainfall data
3B42RT(NASA)QMORPH(NOAA)
Ground-based rainfall data

Modeling

Creation of channel network
Estim ation of param etermodel Ver2.0
Runoff analysis PWRI-distributed(tentative default engine)

Display of results

Mr. Fukami in front of the poster

The 6th annual Mekong Flood ForumThe 6th Annual Mekong Flood Forum was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 27 to 28
May 2008 and discussed integrated approaches and applicable systems for medium-term flood
forecasting and early warning in the Mekong River Basin. There were about 130 forum
participants from the National Mekong Committees and line agencies of the Mekong River
Commission (MRC) member states (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam), anddialogue partners (China and Myanmar), and regional and international scientists, experts
organizations and communities, and donors.

Director Takeuchi made the keynote address

From ICHARM, Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Hydrologic Team Leader Kazuhiko Fukami, and Research Specialist Jun Magome participated in thisforum. Director Takeuchi made a keynote speech entitled “Flood Forecasting for Best Management of Floodplain”. Magome presented the latest
research results on “Flood Risk Forecasting for Poorly Gauged Basins in the Mekong River Basin using a Distributed Hydrological Model and a
Satellite-derived Precipitation Dataset”. Furethermore, Fukami and Magome introduced ICHARM activities, such as the Integrated Flood Alert System(IFAS), evaluation of satellite precipitation monitoring and estimation methods, and simulation of flood inundation and capacity building activities.
The forum was a great opportunity for The MRC member states and international organizations to share their recent research and development in flood
management and water-related disasters, such as planning of the Mekong regional flash-flood guidance and early warning systems and the Flood Asia
Network by USAID/OFDA.

The 5th annual meeting of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)
The 5th annual meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) was held at Busan, Korea, during 16-20 June 2008. Hydrologic Team
Leader Kazuhiko Fukami and Research Specialist Jun Magome of ICHARM attended this international conference. As a convener, Fukami organizeda special session named “Earth Observations for Integrated Flood Management,” and discussed with participants the importance of earth observations,such as global data, satellite information for decision making to cope with flood-related risks. Magome presented on coupling of satellite observation
and a distributed hydrological model. This special session was strongly related to ICHARM’s research topics and very helpful in sharing latest
research topics especially with Asian countries and getting useful comments from participants for ICHARM’s future research activities. In addition,other valuable research topics were also discussed with participants in this AOGS 2008 meeting.

5Introduction to an ICHARM research project
Development of a water/sediment discharge measurement system
The River Division of the National Institute of Land and Infrastructure Management(NILIM) and the Hydrologic Engineering Research Team of ICHARM have started ajoint project associated with water/sediment discharge measurement. In the project, it isnecessary to measure 1) water discharge and riverbed shear stress with an ADCP
mounted on an un-manned boat, and 2) sediment discharge in terms of quantity andquality. For safe and reliable measurement, the Hydrologic Engineering Team has
improved measurement equipment, including 1) a boat (originally developed by
NILIM’s River Division led by Dr. Kinoshita) and 2) a sediment sampler (originallydesigned by USGS as TR-2 Bedload Sampler). The field test conducted this past May
especially produced a promising result, thanks to Tone River’s excellent discharge rateof about six meters per second after an intensive rainfall. The team will continue
improving the instruments for safer and better measurement. If there is any question orcomment, please contact us suimon@pwri.go.jp

An improved ADCP-mounted radio controlled
boat in a field test during flooding

ICHARM
R&D open
セミナー報告ICHARM
event
Report on “ICHARM R&D Seminar”

ICHARM belatedly celebrated the second anniversary of its establishment and the World Water Day concurrently on April 17, 2008.
ICHARM was established on March 6, 2006 as a category II UNESCO Centre and the World Water Day falls on March 22 every
year. The celebration was belated due to logistic reasons which compelled ICHARM to hold it to coincide with the Tsukuba Science
Week which is an annual event.
The celebration was unique. In addition to the normal ‘open day’ activities for the public which included poster presentations andexplanations, ICHARM invited high school students from two schools in the Tsukuba area - Takezono High School and Namiki
High School - for a tailor-made program specially targeted towards high school students. About 45 enthusiastic students and theirteachers were presented with a multi-faceted multi-media presentation about climate change, water, environment and water related
disasters in English Language by seven researchers led by Research Specialist Ali Chavosian of Iran. The other ICHARM
researchers came from Bhutan, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
ICHARM intends to continue inviting high school and other students in future open day celebrations.

Explanation by Research Specialist
Yoganath AdikariGroup photo with the participants

6

ICHARM R&D Seminars
ICHARM occasionally holds the “ICHARM R&D Seminar” to help ICHARM’s research and development activities. Below are thesummaries of the recent two seminars.

Two flood management specialists talk on devastating impacts oflarge-scale floods
ICHARM invited two flood management specialists to give talks on latest studies onlarge-scale flood impacts on Japan in the 12th ICHARM R&D Seminar held on July 8,
2008, for researchers at the Public Works Research Institute and the National Institutefor Land and Infrastructure Management.
The first lecturer, Prof. So Kazama of Tohoku University, gave a talk on his recent
research projecting flood/sediment-disaster damage increase throughout Japan in theyear of 2050. He estimated that the annual flood damage would increase by one trillion
JPY, based on a numerical simulation using a national-scale hydrodynamic model and afrequency analysis of historical short-term extreme rainfall data. He also identified
locations at which their landslide risks had shifted from low or medium to high due tomore intensified rainfall.
The second lecturer, Mr. Koji Ikeuchi of the Cabinet Office, gave a talk on projected
human and property losses by a large-scale flooding reviewed by the Taskforce on
Large-scale Floods of the Central Disaster Management Council. Mr. Ikeuchi acts as
secretary of the taskforce and leader of a joint study project between the Cabinet Officeand the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on this issue. He demonstrated
damage projection for the first time in Japan using a newly-developed hydrodynamic
flooding simulator combined with a damage estimator for the Tonegawa-Arakawa River
Basins located in Tokyo and its vicinity. He reported that the casualty may be up to
6300 people and also pointed out that the present pumping system would be inadequate
to drain a huge amount of floodwater when a 1/1000 flood occurs in this region. Mr.
Ikeuchi also found that this projection was, unexpectedly, very sensitive to artificial
structures and pumping drainage operations. In order to attain adequate projection
reliability for public release, he replaced commonly used digital elevation data with
Lidar data and incorporated unmapped agricultural drainages. He further developed
realistic fuel-supply scenarios for pumping stations in case of flooding. He also showed
the high vulnerability of today’s electricity-dependent society based on his survey
results by exemplifying hospitals and other facilities which are heavily dependent onelectricity but have done little to protect their electric systems and emergency power
generators from flooding.

Presentation by Prof. So Kazama of
Tohoku University

Mr. Koji Ikeuchi of the Cabinet Officeat Q&A sesion

For the outline of the Central Disaster Management Council, visit:
http://www.bousai.go.jp/1info/pdf/saigaipanf.pdf

Major shift in approach on disaster risk reduction

Lecture by Dr. Yuichi Ono of
UN/ISDR (Left)-from response & relief oriented activities to reducing risk and vulnerability forsustainable developmentOn occasion of the 13th ICHARM Research and Development seminar on July 10th, 2008;
Dr. Yuichi Ono of UN/ISDR was invited to give a lecture to the ICHARM research staff. He
spoke on “International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and its activities related to waterrelated disaster risk reduction” which was attended by ICHARM research staff, someparticipants form National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM) andPublic Works Research Institute (PWRI) as well. Dr. Ono talked about UN efforts to deal
with disasters; ISDR, its system and evolution and ISDR activities. During the lecture Dr.
Ono stressed that an approach on disaster risk reduction from response & relief focused
activities to reducing risk and vulnerability for sustainable development oriented shift istaking place. He also touched on the topics such as climate change, Hyogo Framework foraction, International Flood Initiative, UN-Water, World Water Development Report andWorld Water Forum.
7Comprehensive Tsunami Disaster Prevention Training Course

Participants and ICHARM staffs smile for a picture in front of the ICHARM main entrance.

UN/ISDR is currently implementing a two-year project of the “Building Resilience to Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean” funded by theEuropean Union to promote tsunami countermeasures in Indian Ocean countries. In those countries, it is needed to develop humanresources who can manage tsunami countermeasures, such as structural measures, early warning systems and local disaster mitigationplans, etc.
Japan has a long experience with tsunami disasters, such as the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Tsunami with a casualty of 22,000, and has been
making major efforts to enhance tsunami disaster prevention.
Under the circumstances, ICHARM has conducted the “UN/ISDR Tsunami Disaster Prevention Training Course” as one of the
UN/ISDR projects from 2nd June to 11th July with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to make gooduse of Japanese experience of tsunami countermeasures for developing countries. There were 11 course participants from four
countries, including India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. They were section-chief–level government administrators andresponsible for promoting tsunami disaster mitigation in their home countries.
During the 1st, 2nd and 4th weeks, the participants mainly had lectures and exercises on tsunamis, coastal vegetation, and other tsunamirelated issues. In the 3rd and 5th weeks, to learn tsunami countermeasures and the actual condition of local disaster mitigation in Japan,
the participants visited two tsunami-prone areas, the Sanriku coast area and Kii peninsula, and interviewed local municipal personnel
and residents. The participants were not only amazed to see gigantic structures, such as tsunami breakwaters and sea walls, but also
overwhelmed by local people’s high awareness toward disaster mitigation. In the last week, they made presentations on their actionplans, and the training ended successfully.
For a detailed report on the training course, visit the ICHARM website.

Temporary evacuation tower in Kushimoto Town

Lecture by Prof. Shuto of Nihon University

8Adaptation to global warming
Japanese Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism’s Panel concludes a climate-change
adaptation policy report
The Panel on Infrastructure Development concluded a policy report entitled “Climate Change Adaptation Strategies to Cope with Water-related
Disasters due to Global Warming” in June 2008. The panel, consisting of experienced scholars and experts, is one of the advisory bodies under the
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Adaptation strategies to cope with water-related disasters due to global warming werediscussed for about a year in the River Sector Committee and the Subcommittee on Climate Change Adaptation for Flood Control. The panel
published the report to conclude the discussion.
The policy report contains four chapters: I Common recognition, II Intensifying external forces Impacts on national land and society, III Basic
directions of adaptation strategies, and IV Implementation of adaptation measures. The following is a brief summary of the report;
z
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Neither adaptation nor mitigation alone is sufficient. It is necessary to build "a strong society adapted to water-related disasters (waterdisaster adaptation society)," in which sustainable socio-economic activity and livelihood are possible through an appropriate
combination of adaptation and mitigation.
Projections of 100-year precipitation change based on intermediate-level global warming scenarios show that the future precipitation
would increase 1.1 to 1.3 times, possibly 1.5 at the maximum. This future precipitation increase may sharply lower the flood safety levelsof the present plans, i.e. reducing a current 1/200 level to 1/90-1/145, resulting in higher risks of inundation and flooding.
It is extremely difficult to completely protect everything from intensified water-related disasters. Therefore, the adaptation goal should be
to minimize damage through efforts to achieve "zero victim" in most areas, and to also achieve "avoiding the paralysis of state functions"in economically and politically important areas.
Social and economical impacts caused by water-related disasters due to climate change should be evaluated as disaster risks to clarify thevulnerabilities of land structures and social systems. Based on the disaster risks, consensus among stakeholders should be built andappropriate adaptation measures should be selected.
Structures prevent external forces from causing human and property damage, when such forces are within their design capacities,
allowing people to continue regular social and economic activities. Therefore, it is important to keep improving structural capacities asmuch as possible and continue prioritizing the prevention and minimization of damage through structures.
It is important to build "a water-disaster adaptation society" with primary focus on energy efficiency, urban environment, and the
reduction of flood disaster risk in addition to economic efficiency and convenience.
Mitigation and restoration/rehabilitation measures for large-scale disasters with emphasis on crisis management need to be implemented
along with preventive structure/facility construction.
Adaptation strategies should be promoted mainly around strategic investment in preventive measures, clear prioritization, preparation ofroad maps, adoption of a flexible approach, cooperation with related organizations, development of new technologies, and contribution to
the international community including the Asia-Pacific region.

ICHARM supervised the English translation of this report. Although the staff tried hard to translate the meaning of the original Japanese contexts
into English during the supervision, the English version is still not necessarily easy to understand. An explanatory guide is scheduled to be
published to help understand the report better.
Advanced cases in other countries have strong influences on consensus-oriented policy-making processes and participatory planning withstakeholders. ICHARM welcomes case reports from all over the world describing actual plans or designs which include adaptation strategies toclimate change. Send your case report to ICHARM at: icharm@pwri.go.jp

A proposal issued by Science Council of Japan
Subcommittee on Measures against Water-related and Sediment Disasters
due to Global Environmental Change, Committee on National Land,
Society and Natural Disasters, Science Council of Japan issued a proposal
on “Adaptation to Water-related Disasters due to Global Environmental
Change” on 26 June 2008. This proposal was prepared aiming at the G8
Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan during 7-9 July 2008. The proposal
addresses that:(1)
In addition to mitigation measures, the importance of adaptation
should be strongly recognized and promoted to mitigate waterrelated disasters by global environmental changes.
(2)
In the field of international contribution, i) reduction of death
tolls is important through early warning technology,
institutional development and capacity development and ii) the
principle should be promoted that all the development
assistance should include the component of disaster risk
assessment.

9

Imja Tsho of Nepal（photo by ICHARM in February 2008）

ICHARM publication list
The following is a list of peer-reviewed papers written by ICHARM researchers in the past 3 years .
If you need information about the contents, please ask the authors directly.
Contact icharm@pwri.go.jp, and we will forward your e-mail to them.
Adikari Y., Kikuchi S. Makinow T. and Araya T. (2007): Naturally re-vegetated forest governed by mudflow induced sediment
heterogeneity. New Forest, 33(1):53-65
Ali Chavoshian (2007): Hydrological Modeling of Large-scale Ungauged Basin Case Study: Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) Basin, Myanmar,
IHP publication, No.7, 43-48
Barker, S., Robarts, R., Yamashiki, Y., Takeuchi, K., Yoshimura, C., and Muguetti, A.C. (2007): UNEP-GEMS/Water Programmewater quality data, GEMStat and open web services-and Japanese cooperation, Hydrological Processes, 21(9), 1132-1141
Fernando, D. A. K. and Jayawardena, A. W. (2007): Use of a supercomputer to advance parameter optimisation using genetic
algorithms, Journal of Hydroinformatics, Vol 9 No 4, 319–329
Fukami, K., Yamaguchi, T., Imamura, H., and Tashiro, Y. (2008) : Current status of river discharge observation using non-contact
current meter for operational use in Japan, World Environmental & Water Resources Congress 2008, Honolulu, May 12-17
Fukami, K., Fujiwara, N., Ishikawa, M., Kitano, M., Kitamura, T., Shimizu, T., Hironaka, S., Nakamura, S., Goto, T., Nagai, M. andTomita, S. (2006): Development of an integrated flood runoff analysis system for poorly-gauged basins, Proceeding of the 7thInternational Conference on Hydroinfomatics (HIC2006), vol.4, 2845-2852
Hapuarachchi, H.A.P., Takeuchi, K., Zhou, M.C., Kiem, A.S. Georgievski, M., Magome, J. and Ishidaira, H. (2008): Investigation of
the Mekong River basin hydrology for 1980-2000 using the YHyM, Hydrological Processes, 22(9), 1246-1256
Inomata, H. and Fukami, K. (2008): Restoration of historical hydrological data of Tonle Sap Lake and surrounding areas, Hydrological
Processes, 22(9), 1337-1350
Ishidaira, H., Ishikawa, Y., Funada, S. and Takeuchi, K. (2008):Estimating the evolution of vegetation cover and its hydrologicalimpact in the Mekong River basin in the 21st century, Hydrological Processes, 22(9), 1395-1405
Ismail-Zadeh, A. and Takeuchi, K. (2007): Preventive disaster management of extreme natural events, Natural Hazards, 42(3), 459-467
Jayawardena, A. W., Xu, P.C. and Li, W. K.(2008): A method of estimating the noise level in a chaotic time series, Chaos, American
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11

～News from ICHARM～International Flood Initiative (IFI) website has been launched
The official website of the International Flood Initiative (IFI) has been launchedby the IFI Secretariat at ICHARM. Please visit at: www.ifi-home.info
The International Flood Initiative (IFI) is a joint initiative in collaboration withsuch international organizations engaged in flood management as UNESCO(IHP), WMO, UN/ISDR, UNU, IAHS and IAHR. To coordinate IFI activities,
the IFI Secretariat is currently located at ICHARM, Tsukuba, Japan.
The following are some features of the IFI website:
z IFI coming events and recent developments
z IFI resources and publicationsz Independent site search function, site map, RSS feed, Links andindividual mail service.
Any comments to improve the design and contents of the site are most welcome.
Please ask the webmaster of your organization to link to the IFI website.
IFI Web site

For more information, please contact Research Specialist Chavoshian at
info@ifi-home.info.

New member!!
Researcher Hideo Yamashita joined ICHARM as a member of the International Technical Exchange Team.
His current research theme is the application of satellite topography data to flood risk assessment.
After graduating from the Department of Global Engineering of Kyoto University (the Undergraduate Course
Program of Civil Engineering), he joined the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in April
2008, and was assigned to ICHARM this June. Besides research work, he is also in charge of the Flood Hazard
Mapping training course, which will start at the end of this coming October, and newsletter editing.

Announcement of ICHARM Open Symposium and International Conference:zz

On 30th September, ICHARM will hold an open symposium “Local Practices of Integrated Flood
Risk Management under Changing Natural and Social Conditions” in Tokyo.
From 3rd to 6th November, ICHARM will hold a special session in the “the 4th APHW (Asia Pacific
Association of Hydrology and Water Resources) Conference” in Beijing, China.
(For more information please see ICHARM website)

Coming Event in ICHARM:ABOUT US
9 1st October, 2008

the 2nd ICHARM

Advisory Board Meeting

9 2nd October, 2008 the 3rd IFI AC/MC

Meeting

9 3rd -8th October, 2008

GFAS kick-off
training course for Global Flood Alert
System

9 From 6th October,“2008-2009 Waterrelated Disaster Management Course ofDisaster Management Policy Program”

The International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) is under the
auspices of UNESCO in Tsukuba, Japan. The mission of ICHARM is to function as the Centre of
Excellence to provide and assist implementation of best practicable strategies to localities,
nations, regions, and the globe to manage the risk of water related disasters. ICHARM
Newsletter is quarterly and non-commercial publication to develop information networking onwater-related disaster. It is distributed via e-mail. They can also be downloaded from our
website.

Subscribe/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
Copyright (c) 2008 Public Works Research Institute12