IISEE NewsletterMay 30 2016
Number 133

In This Issue

International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering BRI Japan
1 Tachihara Tsukuba Japan 305-0802

tel+81-29-879-0678 facsim+81-29-864-6777

 The 3rd Latin
American Earthquake
Engineering Course
Has Started

Bienvenidos a Japón (Welcome to Japan)
The 3rd Latin American Earthquake Engineering
Course Has Started

 Reports on Kansai
Study Trip

By Dr. Toshiaki Yokoi, Mr. Mizuo Inukai andMr. Takashi Yamashita of IISEEIISEE Net andTraining
IISEENETThe opening ceremony of the 3rd Latin American Earthquake Engineering
Course was held at the BRI Hall from 11:15 to 12:00 on Thursday, May 19. 16
participants from 8 countries such as Chile (2), Colombia (2), Dominican
Republic (2), El Salvador (3), Mexico (1), Nicaragua (2), Peru (2) andVenezuela (2) join the IISEE trainingcourse.

IISEE-UNESCO Lecture
NoteIISEE E-learning
Synopsis Database
Bulletin Database
Dr. Sakamoto, The President of BRI

The ceremony was conducted withinterpretations by two JapaneseSpanish interpreters and started by
the introduction of the BRI and JICA
executives and IISEE staff members.
After that, Mr. Katsuhiko Haga,
Director General of JICA Tsukuba andDr. Yuzo Sakamoto, the President ofBRI made their welcome speeches.

Dr. Sakamoto introduced the historyand role of BRI and he told to the Latin American Course participants that BRI
is now ready to welcome them. At last, Mr.PRIETO VILLARREAL Joel Antonio
from Chile made a speech on behalf of all the participants.

Earthquakes
The 2011 off the Pacificcoast of Tohoku
Earthquake
Reports of Recent
Earthquakes
Utsu Catalog
Earthquake Catalog

In April we had a series of earthquakes of magnitude 6-7 hit Kumamoto andOita of Kyushu, Japan and also in Equador. Latin America is a quake prone
region as same as Japan. However,technologyofearthquake-proof
construction is not widely obtained inthe area, and buildings’ collapse
causes huge damages to the human
lives and properties. This course is
executed in the aim of reducing
damages from future earthquakes byenhancing and disseminating theearthquake-resistant technology in theMr.PRIETO VILLARREAL Joel Antonio
participants’ countries.
from ChileThen, all of the course will be
conductedinSpanish
languagethrough Japanese-Spanish interpreters, and the lecture notes in Spanish arehanded out to the training participants. The participants are not requested tohave a good command of English in their application qualifications. For further
information on this Latin American training course, e-mail to us via
iisee@kenken.go.jp.
We heartily wish all good luck to their training course.
¡ Buena suerte ! (Good luck!)

Call for Papers
IISEE Bulletin is now
accepting submissionsof papers for the seismology, earthqu ake
engineering, andtsunami. Developing
countries are targeted,but are not limited.
Your original paperswill be reviewed by theeditorial members andsome experts.
NO submission fee isneed.
Try to challenge!!

Enjoy, Now

Group Photo at the Opening Ceremony

Reports on Kansai Study Trip

(1) Mr. Amar BENFEDDA (Algeria, Seismology Course)
Our study trip to Kansai region is more thanscientific information concerning earthquakes orimprovement our knowledges in seismology.
In very simple word “We discovered Japan”. This
coexistence and mixture between very deep history
and the present time was very amazing. We went
back from the longest suspension bridge in the worldin 21 century to very deep in history, to 8th century,
it was really like time travel. In this short period, wefeel the overlapping sensations, it is not easy, forme, to express them with my modest English. As
mentioned in Wikipedia: “The Kansai region is thecultural and historical heart of Japan”.
By visiting the museum of "Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation
Institution", the manner in which the damages that were presented, it wasreally great and allowed us to feel a little of how the Japanese people
experienced.
In seismology field, all visited places as Uemachi fault system in Osaka, Nojima
fault Museum and “Three-Dimensional Full-Scale Earthquake Testing Facility”,
all those visited places contribute in disaster mitigation in order to protect thetwo parts that forms the society, human and its construction.
Finally, it was very good and memorable study trip, and it will burn forever inour minds, thank you very much. The Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said: “Allahwill not be merciful with the one who is not merciful to others”

Contact Us
The IISEE Newsletter isintended to act as ago-between for IISEEand ex-participants.
We encourage you tocontribute a report andan article to this newsletter. Please let us
know your current
activities in yourcountries.
We also welcome yourco-workers and friends
to register our mailinglist.
iiseenews@kenken.go.jp
http://iisee.kenken.go.jp

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http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/
nldb/(2) Mr. Greyving Jose Argüello Miranda (Nicaragua, Tsunami Disaster
Mitigation Course)
During this study trip we learned about thecountermeasures to disaster prevention and mitigationthat are used in different cities or towns in Kansai area
(Kobe, Wakayama, Yoshida Machi, Numazu) such as
floodgates, sea walls, break waters, tsunami towers,
tsunami buildings, and hazard maps. We also learned
how they teach the citizens about disastermanagement through trainings, and drills in order toprepare for disasters. We visited all these places andlearned about the countermeasures already installed intheir cities, town and municipalities, and their future
projects for disaster prevention. We also learned their experience of facingwith disasters such as storm surges, typhoon and tsunamis. Another importantthing that we learned was how to make and interpret hazard maps. The mostimpressive things for me were how they prepare for disasters and how theyhave improved their warning system from their experience with naturaldisasters occurred in the past, which are very useful to know about the projects
for keeping proactive human activities in the city and avoid the people
migrating to other cities. The fast recovery process after the disaster and thecontingency plans are good examples for us to adopt in our countries in orderto enhance and strengthen our disaster management plans and to protect thelives of the people living close to the coastal areas.

(3) Mr. Amos Fimiamba (Papua New Guinea, Earthquake Engineering
Course)Our Study Trip to Kansai Region from April 18 -21st,2016 was very interesting, enjoyable and a great
learning experience for us. We visited the Osaka
Prefectural Government Building, the oldest governmentbuilding which is 90 years old from 1926 when it isrenovated until its current construction work to retrofit
to improve its seismic performance.
The visit to Disaster and Human Renovation Institution(DRI) in Kobe has been very emotional by seeing thelive videos and pictures of the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake on January, 17th 1995, which affects thelives of people, and recovery and improvement work
carried out just after the disaster. The World largest shaking table that wevisited was very interesting, how the large scale equipment is used to analyze
the seismic performance of the building. The highlight of the study trip is thevisit to Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the height that we take to view the bridge.
More on that, the preservation of the fault in Nojima Fault Museum has givenme the opportunity in life in seeing the visible damage fault can cause.
The visit in Kyoto, to several temple buildings and castle and type of material
used in the constructures during Edo Period is very magnificent and thechallenges and techniques used in retrofitting was a good learning experience
compared to modern structures.
I would like to thank JICA, IISEE and BRI for making this study trip a successful
one and once in a life time experience which is educational and memorable.