SURVEY SHOWS DIFFERENTPERCEPTIONS TO SEA LEVELRISE AMONG NATIONS .. 2

Volume 3
ISSUE No. 8

April 2008

 ICHARM SENDS RESEARCHERS
TO NYUZEN FOR HIGH-WAVE
DAMAGE ASSESSMENT ... 3
 HOW IS THE MASTER’S COURSE
GOING? ......................... 4-5
 ICHARM W ELCOMES NEW
MEMBERS ...................... 6
 CYCLONE SIDR INVESTIGATION IN
BANGLADESH................. 7
 PWRI AND ICHARM FOREIGNRESEARCHERS ENJOY A
FLAVORFUL AND BEAUTIFULSPRING ......................... 8

ICHARMewsletter

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

Message from the Director

On the occasions of the second anniversary of the establishment of
ICHARM on 6th March and of the UN World Water Day on 22nd
March, ICHARM would like to express our deep grief to those who
suffered from natural disasters in the past years, and recommit ourselves
to further devotion to the improvement of water management for disasterrisk reduction in alliance with all the organizations sharing the common
objectives.
These two years have been a difficult but steadily developing period for
ICHARM. We now have 27 staff members with 21 professional
researchers, including seven internationally recruited experts. Our threepillars of activities are research, training and information networking.
Our research interests vary from flood risk analysis to flood hazard
mapping, from climate change impact, glacier melting, to tsunami
management as well as local studies in Nepal, Bangladesh, thePhilippines, Sri Lanka and the Mekong River basin, based on the
different abilities of ICHARM’s researchers.

Developing an early flood warning system using satellite observations
and advanced forecasting models together with information
dissemination tools is one example of the ongoing research activities at
ICHARM.

ICHARM has already achieved
great success in the part oftraining. More than 50 trainers
from over 10 countries have been
trained in our Flood Hazard
Mapping training course. We areespecially happy to see the firstyear ICHARM Master’s Course
students (ten from five countries)
working very hard towards
successfully completing thecourse in September.
Regarding information networking, it is worth mentioning that
ICHARM played an important role in the first Asia-Pacific Water
Forum and is making a considerable contribution to the coming World
Water Development Report. Moreover, signing the Memorandum ofUnderstandings to develop mutual cooperation with various partners andhosting the International Flood Initiative (IFI) secretariat are some of thenotable activities that ICHARM is currently prioritizing to develop morewidespread and effective information networking.
ICHARM is stepping into its third spring since the foundation in March
2006. The ceremonial event will be held at the ICHARM auditorium on
17th April 2008 while beautiful cherry blossoms (so called Sakura inJapanese) cover many area of Japan. The event will be held inconcurrent with the Tsukuba Science Week, inviting people from thelocal community, including many high school students. This is an open
forum where ICHARM staff researchers will speak to the audience,
especially to young people, and exchange dialogue on broad subjects on
disasters, water, environment, climate, etc. The event will be repeatedevery year around the ICHARM foundation day.
With many hopes and enthusiasm, ICHARM has started its third year
for water disasters reduction with you.

Kuniyoshi Takeuchi
Director, ICHARM

Survey Shows Different Perceptions to Sea Level Rise among Nations
In some European countries, sea level rise was part of the agenda for planning tidal flood
defense and coast management even before global warming began being highlighted.
The River Bureau of the Japanese Ministry ofLand Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) has
formed a sub-committee consisting of 13
academic experts to discuss a new policy forclimate change adaptation for flood control. The
policy is scheduled to be officially adopted insummer 2008 after reflecting public opinions.
ICHARM is proving technical assistance to thesub-committee secretariat. One of the supports is
to analyze other countries’ adaptation strategies
that can be useful to build public consensus
when the Japanese government plans to
implement similar strategies.
A joint team of the River Bureau, the National
Institute
for
Land
and
InfrastructureManagement and ICHARM conducted a survey
on adaptation policy/planning examples, such as
the Thames River 2100, in European countries
by interviewing with key persons. One of theunexpected findings is that European countries
have different perceptions to sea level rise thanthat of Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency
reports in a climate watch report that no
significant sea level rise has been observed inseas around Japan because of complex tidal
currents (see figure), while Europe sees clear sea

Source data for the graph at:
WWW.DATA.KISHOU.GO.JP/KAIYOU/SHINDAN/A_1/SL_TREND/SL_TREND.HTML

level rise throughout the last century. In Europe,
sea level rise was always part of the agenda forplanning tidal flood defense and coast
management even before global warming began
being highlighted.
Another interesting finding is that retreat plans
based on the “Making Space for Water” policy
are generally highly regarded by experts but notalways supported by the public. This finding
could affect a decision-making process when apossible retreat plan is discussed with theJapanese public.

THE HIGH-LEVELPANEL ON WATERDISASTERS,UNSGAB
2nd meeting28-29 January, 2008
Seoul, S. Korea
The 2nd meeting of the High-Level Panel on Water Disasters/UNSGAB (United Nations Secretary General Advisory
Board) was held in Shilla Hotel in Seoul, hosted by chairman Han Seoun Soo, president of the Korean Water Forum. The
chairman opened the meeting with warm greetings. He informed that he would be nominated as the prime minister by
President-elect Lee Myung-bak that morning. He requested his excuse and asked Mr. Salvano Briceno, Director of
UN/ISDR to serve as the chair. Mr. Salvano accepted and the meeting went on for one day and a half. Mr. Han again
welcomed high-level experts in his dinner reception that evening, where all of the participants had an opportunity tocongratulate him for his official appointment the next day. It was the greatest and most exciting experience for the Panel.
The Panel discussed many subjects and produced a list of ideas that should be included in the final recommendation. Oneof them was the proposal of introducing Disaster Risk Assessment as a compulsory step to proceed any development
projects including those of ODAs. The next meeting is scheduled on 9-10 June in Marseille. More information can be foundin Newsletter Vol. 41 of the Japan Water Forum at: http://www.waterforum.jp/eng/newsletter.html
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ICHARM Sends Researchers to Nyuzen for High-Wave Damage Assessment“Even concrete blocks covering the gentle slope revetment and a steel inland lock were blown away and destroyed,
which clearly indicated how strong the waves’ impact was.” As for the evacuation of those requiring assistance during adisaster, the town had already made a list of them before andprepared a pilot assistance system to provide them with necessary
help in time of emergency. The system worked successfully asplanned.
Based on the investigation and interviews, the team pointed out thefollowing: Information sharing and cooperation should be further enhanced
between national organizations and disaster mitigation personnel in
prefectural and local municipal offices.
 One man in his 80s was reported to die during high waves. He
went out to see how the ocean looked like after the evacuation
recommendation was issued, and went missing. He was later founddead near a destroyed shed. A high-wave disaster like the recent one
rarely occurs; the last time it occurred was 31 January 1970, about
40 years ago. The key is how to increase residents’ awarenesstowards such a disaster as can be easily slipped away from people’s
memory.

High waves caused serious damage to part of Nyuzen Town inToyama Prefecture on 24 February 2008, when an intense winterpressure system moved in over Japan. The huge waves totally
destroyed one private house; half destroyed two, partially damaged
four, and flooded 53 above and 83 below the floor level. On 29
February, ICHARM sent a team of researchers for damage
investigation and interviews with local municipal personnel. The
following is the outline of the results.

 Quantitative criteria for public offices to make appropriate
decisions concerning coastal disasters, such as tsunamis and highwaves, should be developed as they have concerning flood disasters
in rivers, so that the offices will be able to make decisions based ondata and provide a better timing for evacuation.
 There is a pine-tree forest near a Nyuzen settlement. The forest is
one to two meters higher than the surrounding ground and isconsidered to be an effective protection against high waves, storm
surges and tsunamis.

Of the investigation points in Nyuzen, Ashizaki was the mostseriously affected. Even concrete blocks covering the gentle slope
revetment and a steel inland lock were blown away and destroyed,
which clearly indicated how strong the waves’ impact was. The teamconducted interviews at Nyuzen Town Office and the Kurobe River
Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism (MLIT). The interview results revealed the following facts:
 In general, when a river is under the national government’s direct
management, the government is responsible for providing the river’s
water level information to relevant municipal offices in case offlood. Municipal heads will then decide, based on the provided
information, whether evacuation recommendations or orders should
be issued or not. On the other hand, in case of high wave, wave
height information is available on MLIT’s web site but is notprovided directly to municipal offices, although such information isnecessary for those offices to alarm residents or to encourage
evacuation.

Pine-tree forest near a settlement

 Nyuzen Town Office does not have quantitative criteria for
appropriate actions in case of coastal disasters, such as high waves.
Because of that, although a high wave warning had been issued by
the Japan Metrological Agency before the issuance of an evacuation
recommendation, the town couldn’t make critical decisions based on
the warning. Instead, the town issued an evacuation recommendationand order based on the actual wave overtopping status of that time.
 The evacuation recommendation and order were notified to
Nyuzen residents through a disaster management communications
system uniquely developed in the area and public relation vehicles,
as well as the town’s broadcasting facilities. However, some of theresidents did not evacuate.

3How is the Master’s course going?
(See also ICHARM Newsletter No.7)
ICHARM is conducting a Master’s course, “Water-related Disaster Management, Disaster
Management Policy Program,” jointly with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). Students are working very
hard on their assignments!

Yasuo Kannami, Pacific Consultants Co., LTD., Japan
It is a great opportunity for me to participate in this program because not only I can learn special knowledge about
disaster management policy, but also can exchange ideas or information with overseas participants and experts in
ICHARM.
I am studying in Tskuba, Japan, but I can experience the atmosphere of studying abroad to some extent because
the participants are from different parts of the world.
I hope I can earn a master's degree in disaster management successfully and put my knowledge to practical use invarious opportunities.

Md. Aminul Islam, Assistant Engineer, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Bangladesh
I came to Japan on 30th September, last year for the one-year Masters Program on Flood-related Disaster
Mitigation. It is a great opportunity for me to study in a foreign country and to gather knowledge and experience.
I feel proud as a participant of this course conducted by ICHARM. I am grateful to all experts and staff of
ICHARM for kind cooperation regarding my study. I am also enjoying my stay in Japan because of different tours
and festivals organized by JICA. I am studying well here in a comfortable environment of the Tsukuba
International Centre (TBIC).

Ye Li Li, Bureau of Hydrology, Ministry of Water Resources, China
It’s a great pleasure for me to get such a great opportunity to participate in this Master’s degree course in Disaster
Management. As all know, China is suffered from water-induced disasters every year, and sustainable mitigation
work is essential to us. I am really thankful to JICA, PWRI and ICHARM, which are transferring practical as wellas technical knowledge related to such mitigation measures to us, which are going to be very useful to me and to
my nation.
Japan is suffered from almost all types of water-induced disasters, and Japanese people have much more
knowledge and experience in this field. Gaining knowledge by learning here is really upgrading my knowledge inthis field. Application of this upgraded knowledge is going to be very useful later on to conduct water-induced
disaster mitigation work in my professional career.
Last but not least, I would like to pay my sincere thanks to all the members of ICHARM and JICA who have been
making such a great effort to support our studies.

What’s this？
Izumo Shrine“Sazare Ishi”

Field Trip in Izumo and Hiroshima on 12-14 March
Sightseeing Shipin Matsue

4

Dai Minglong, Division of Hydrology and Water Resources,
Bureau of Hydrology, ChangJiang Water Resources Commission
As a participant from China, I’m very happy to have an experience of studying and living in ourneighboring country — Japan.
ICHARM gave us a well organized course. Many famous professors, scholars, and experts gave us
interesting lectures, which expand my mind and gave me lots of new knowledge, and I greatly appreciate
the well considered schedule. Before coming to Japan, I worked as a designer, and sometimes I needed
hydraulic formulas. Because of my lack of hydraulic knowledge, I only calculated just following certain
procedures, not deeply understanding why. I have learned from Prof. Ishikawa how these formulas weredeveloped. I now also know some new hydrological developments, technologies and how to express manyhydrological terminologies in English, which I have learned from Prof. Jaya. I have also learned from Prof.
Fukuoka the fundamental concepts on how Japanese have developed their rivers. In addition, I come tolearn about many new fields such as sabo works, super levees, reservoir management, environment science,
policy making, community capacity building, flood hazard mapping, etc. All of them can help me greatly
after I return to China.
Tsukuba International Center (TBIC) is a comfortable place with good living conditions. I can exercise,take part in some cross-cultural activities, visit primary schools, take a bus tour to some beautiful places,
and make foreign friends.
This will be a memorable experience in my life.

Khanindra Barman, Water Resources Department, Govt of Assam, India
It is a great opportunity for me to participate in the one-year Master’s degree program of Water-related Risk Management Course of Disaster
Management. Secondly, I am feeling proud to be the first batch of the above program of ICHARM. The program of this course is very well organized
by GRIPS, ICHARM and JICA. This program is very encouraging and challenging. Professors and researchers of ICHARM, PWRI, GRIPS, anddifferent national and international organizations (Tokyo University, UNESCO, etc.) are very experienced and helpful to us. Stay in Japan (Tsukuba,
Tokyo etc) is also very interesting because I can interact with so many friends from different parts of the world.
This training program gives me an opportunity to learn about various disasters and its mitigation measures. My participation in this program will giveme additional knowledge and skills for my future flood management work. I will be always grateful to ICHARM, GRIPS, JICA and the Japanese
government for offering me this nice opportunity.
Discussing on the Plan of Hii River in Izumo City

Group Photo at Nukui Dam

Professor Emeritus Takahasi Lectures on “Men who Worked for Mankind”
ICHARM invited Dr.Yutaka Takahasi, professor emeritus of Tokyo University and seniorprogramme adviser of United Nations University, to give a lecture entitled “Men who Worked
for Mankind (Civil engineers who worked for people)” on 22 January 2008. The professor’s
lecture followed a movie with the same title.
He has lectured over 50 times on this topic in Japanese, but it was the first time for him to do it inEnglish. It was a truly rare opportunity for the audience as well as for him.
Professor Takahasi highly praised three Japanese engineers for their achievements in his lecture.
He also encouraged civil engineers and researchers in the audience to take pride in their current
and future civil engineering works.

5

ICHARM Welcomes New Members

Dr. Pham Thanh
HAI,
Researcher,
Hydrologic
Engineering
Research Team

Dr. Pham Thanh HAI from Hanoi, Vietnam, joined ICHARM as a researcher for the Hydrologic Engineering
Research Team in February 2008. In the team, he is involved in the development of worldwide flood and inundation
analyses and simulations, as well as the generation of global flood risk maps.
In 1992 after gaining his Bachelor of Engineering at Vietnam Water Resources University, he worked for theVietnam National Institute for Hydraulic Engineering Investigation and Design of the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD),Vietnam. He got his master’s degree in engineering in 1999 and doctoral degree from
Gifu University in 2002. During that time he focused his research on methods to predict and evaluate multifunctionalroles of forests, flood prevention capacities of watersheds, erosion processes of river banks, and stream channelchanges during floods.
From June 2003 to March 2006, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher for the National Institute for RuralEngineering, Japan. He was involved in the development of a 2D-FEM simulation model for inundation processes in
low-lying areas and applied it to Tonle Sap and the upper part of the Mekong Delta.
After that, he went back to Vietnam and worked as a lecturer in the Laboratory of River and Coastal Engineering,
Faculty of Hydrology and Water Resources, Water Resources University, MARD-Vietnam.

Mr. Yuya Kanno joined ICHARM as a researcher for Hydrologic Engineering Research
Team on 1st April 2008. He is currently involved in research on reliability improvement ofdischarge observation data using innovative sensor technology.
He was first assigned to the Ishikarigawa Development and Construction Department of the
Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau after graduating from the Civil Engineering
Department of the Nippon Engineering College of Hokkaido. At his first office, he contributed
his expertise to Ishikari River improvement projects and sabo projects in the upper Toyohira
River. He was also engaged in flood control and facility management of the Kanayama Dam in
the upper Karachi River. For a last few years, he was involved in planning a low water
management project which is part of a river development plan for the Ishikari River system.

Mr. Tomoyuki Noro,
Deputy Team Leader,Disaster Prevention TeamMr. Tomoyuki Noro joined ICHARM from April 2008 as a Deputy Team Leader of Disaster
Prevention Team.
He has been working for investigating and planning of sediment related disaster countermeasures atthe branch offices of MLIT in Kagoshima, Niigata, Tokushima .
After working at the Secretariat of The Central Disaster Management Council of the Cabinet Officesince 2001, he moved to the Erosion and Sediment Control Division, NILIM where he had been
studying a precipitation index for the early warning system.
Until March this year, he had been dispatched as a JICA expert to Yogyakarta, Indonesia for 2 years
to help the sediment related disaster countermeasures which the Indonesian government pushedforward.
It is his honor to work in ICHARM and help making a global network to reduce the water related
disaster, which is the ICHARM’s goal.

Mr. Yoshiki Shiraishi joined ICHARM as an interchange researcher of the Hydrologic
Engineering Research Team.
His main research theme now is to make a flood risk evaluating system using the
precipitation data.
After graduating the Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, he entered CTI
Engineering Co., Ltd. in April 2001. He worked Kyushu Office of CTI, where he was assignedriver planning, river development basic policy, the flood assumption area mapping in Kyushu.

Dr. Jun Magome,
Researcher, Hydrologic
Engineering ResearchTeam

Mr. Yuya Kanno, Researcher,
Hydrologic Engineering
Research TeamMr. Yoshiki
Shiraishi,Interchange
researcher,
Hydrologic
Engineering
Research
Team

Dr. Jun Magome joined ICHARM as a researcher for Hydrologic Engineering Research Team.
He was awarded the Doctoral Degree in 2004 from University of Yamanashi in the field of
Hydrology and Water Resource Engineering, and continued to work for Research & Education on
Integrated River Basin Management in Asian Monsoon Region as a COE researcher. Main research
topics are establishment of hydrological databases especially for GIS based global reservoirs and lakes
database, development of surface water quantities e.g. water storage in reservoirs and lakes by satellite
remote sensing, development of hydrological model for integrated river basin management andeducation activities on advanced hydrological technology based on internet and on-site training.
With these backgrounds, he is willing to contribute to the ICHARM – development of real time
global monitoring and forecasting system on flood disaster etc.

6The team first visited some of the heavily-hit
towns/villages by Sidr, such as Sharankola,
Pirojpour and Mathbaria. They are locatedalongside of the Baleswar River in the southwestern part of Bangladesh.

Cyclone Sidr Investigationin Bangladesh
The Cyclone Sidr investigation team wasorganized by the Japan Society of Civil
Engineers (JSCE) from 17 to 24 January 2008.
This team was composed of eight members fromvarious universities and organizations. Katsuhito
Miyake, senior researcher of ICHARM, was oneof them.

SATELLITE–BASEDPRECIPITATIONGSMaPICHARM has conducted joint
research with JAXA, one of the
GSMaP developers, to verify theapplicability of GSMaP for earlyflood warnings in developing
countries with scarce rainfall
information .
The final report of the “Global
Satellite Mapping of Precipitation(GSMaP) ”was presented at theJapan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA), Tsukuba Space
Center on the 13th and 14th ofFebruary. “GSMaP” is global
rainfall distribution data observed
using artificial satellites.
In this report symposium,
presentations were made on eachprocess to estimate global rainfall
for GSMaP. More information
about GSMaP is available at:
http://www.radar.aero.osakafuu.ac.jp/~gsmap/

The team collected many pieces of important
information through the field survey, some ofwhich are: (1) towns/villages along the Baleswar
River were heavily-hit by storm surges which
deeply intruded (over 100km) from the rivermouth; (2) cyclone warnings reached many local
people through the effective efforts of CPP(Cyclone Preparedness Program) and otherinformation channels; (3) the level of structuralprotection, such as river dikes/polders andcyclone shelters, in the affected areas, local
resident expert most of them to be improved.
The team then had a series of meetings withdisaster-related organizations located in Dhaka,
which was also fruitful. The team members are
currently working on a joint report on theinvestigation, which will include somesuggestions for improving Bangladesh’s
preparedness for cyclones. The report isscheduled to be presented in Dhaka.this spring(Also see a report by senior researcher Tanaka in
ICHARM Newsletter No.7)

NARBO
GENERALMEETING
The 3rd General Meeting andworkshops of the Network of Asian
River
Basin
Organizations(NARBO)
were
held
in
Solo/Surakarta, Indonesia, on 2022February 2008. Deputy Director
Akira Terakawa of ICHARM,
participated in the meeting alongwith some 100 people from 61
organizations in 14 countries. He
made an official announcement
about ICHARM’s participation in
NARBO
topromoterisk
managementofwater-related
disasters as part of integrated water
resources management. The general
meeting accepted nine newmembers including ICHARM; now
the NARBO members have reached
65 in total. As an Interregional
Knowledge Partner, ICHARM willcontribute to the organization, forexample, by sending lecturers toworkshops and accepting trainees
in its training courses.

Community-based Flood Hazard
Mapping Project in Nepal
A week long field survey in the West-Rapti River basin in
Banke, Nepal, was conducted by ICHARM jointly with the
Nepal Development Research Institute from 18 to 24 March
2008. The main objectives of the survey were to observe thesituations of recent flood disasters in the basin and to validate
the results produced through inundation models and remotesensing. This event was also used to identify agenda items forthe next phase research. The ongoing research in the WestRapti River basin is a part of local flood study series of
ICHARM, and a first phase study report is yet to be prepared.
The survey team comprised three ICHARM researchers – Dr.
Rabindra Osti, Hironori Inomata and Toshikazu Tokioka – and
Nepal-NDRI researchers.

2nd Coordination Meeting for 5th World Water ForumThe 2nd Coordination Meeting for the 5th World Water Forum (WWF5) was held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 7-8
February 2008. Senior Researcher Katsuhito Miyake attended the meeting from ICHARM. The Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and the Japan Water Forum (JWF) also sent members to
the meeting. This meeting was attended by some 400 participants from 221 organizations, according to theForum organizer. It was announced that six key themes and 22 topics were already identified for discussion
during WWF5, which will be held in 16-22 March 2009. In this coordination meeting, discussions were
centered on the following points: (1) Framing of the issues; (2) Formulation of topic questions; (3) Provisionof a list of session ideas; (4) Identification of stakeholders. Miyake served as chair for one of the topic
discussion on “Managing Disasters” under the theme of “Global Changes and Risk Management.”
Enthusiastic discussion by approximately 60 participants successfully brought out concrete ideas fororganizing this important topic. It is expected that session plans and expected outputs from WWF5 will becrystallized at the next coordination meeting, which is planned to be held in June 2008.

7

PWRI and ICHARM Foreign
Researchers Enjoya Flavorful and Beautiful Spring

Dr. Tadahiko Sakamoto, PWRI chief executive, and Professor
Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, ICHARM director, invited foreign
researchers in PWRI, including the master’s course students, to atea ceremony and cherry blossom viewing on 4th April.

Disaster after the Hurricane
Katrina

Coming Events:
 ICHARM’s open day for public visit on 17 April 2008
 2nd meeting of the Advisory, Management Committee of International Flood Initiative prior to the 4thInternational Symposium on Flood Defence in Toronto Canada 5-8 May, 2008
 International Conference on Water Related Disaster Reduction, Tajikistan , 27-28 June 2008

ABOUT USThe International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) is under the auspices of U5ESCO in Tsukuba, Japan. The mission of ICHARM is tofunction as the Centre of Excellence to provide and assist implementation of best practicable strategies to localities, nations, regions, and the globe to manage the riskof water related disasters. ICHARM 5ewsletter is quarterly and non-commercial publication to develop information networking on water-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 Institute

ICHARM
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