Let's Talk about .. Events in UNWCDRR 2015

On January 15, 2015, I joined the Tokyo Conference on International Study for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience 2015 (ISDRRR2015) at The University of Tokyo. I found the information in the poster session mentioned about the interesting international symposium.

This symposium is Disaster Management Policies - Preparedness against Large Tsunamis and Earthquakes etc.

National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and UNESCO will hold this international symposium on March 14, 2015 (Saturday)

Date: March 14, 2015
Time: 13:00-20:00 (Reception desk opens at 12:45)
Venue: Sendai City AER TKP Garden City Sendai, Hall D (30th Floor)
Language: English/Japanese with simultaneous translation equipment

- "GRIPS Disaster Program & a Policy Proposal after 2011 Tohoku Earthquake" (by Adjunct Prof. Shigeru Morichi, GRIPS)
- "Japanese National Government Policy on Disaster Management (DM)" by Mr. Hiroto Izumi, Special Advisor to PM)
- "Updated DM Policies of Large Cities in Japan" (by Prof. Fumio Takeda, GRIPS)
- "Landslide Dams formed by Earthquake and their Countermeasures" (by Prof. Hiroshi Ikeya, GRIPS)
- "Japan's Crisis Communication and Foreign Responses during the nuclear disaster" (by Senior Prof. Keiichi Tsunekawa, GRIPS)
- "Comparison of Reconstruction System of the Queensland Flood and of the Great East Japan Earthquake" (by Prof. Hajime Inamura, Tohoku Institute of Technology)
- "Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Reduction" (by Ms. Chikako Takase, Director of UN Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD))
- "Public Opinion in Areas Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake" (by Assoc.Prof. Kazunori Kawamura, Tohoku University)
- and more

If you are interested in this symposium, please contact to Prof. Shoichi Ando (ando@grips.ac.jp) by March 3, 2015.

Let's Talk about .. IMPAC-T Final Workshop

During November 11-13, 2013, I received a fruitful invitation to join the Final Workshop of IMPAC-T at Sendai, Japan, through the kind help from Assoc.Prof. Shinjiro Kanae (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Assoc.Prof. Daisuke Komori (Tohoku University), and Asst.Prof. Shinichiro Nakamura (the University of Tokyo), as well as Mr. Weerayuth Pratoomchai (Ph.D. student at Tohoku University), who introduced this project to me.

                                               

Along the way to the workshop

Registration of the workshop

IMPAC-T stands for Integrated study on Hydro-Meteorological Prediction and Adaptation to Climate Change in Thailand. It is a project established since 2008 with the support from SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development). It is a collaborative projects between JICA, JST, the University of Tokyo, Kasetsart University with the researchers from many organizations such as Kasetsart University, KMUTT, Chulalongkorn University, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tohoku University, etc.

Prof. Taikan Oki (The University of Tokyo) gave an opening speech

This workshop is the final one before the final public symposium, IMPAC-T International Symposium “Coping with Climate Change Effects by Science and Technology” during January 27-28, 2014 at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand. Thus, this workshop is not open to public and is considered to be one of preparation for the symposium.

Through these 3 days, not only seeing various new research from both Japanese and Thai researchers, I can make some networking and contacts with people in this area via the help of Dr. Chaiwat Ekkawatpani (KMUTT).

My seniors at Tohoku University and me

Let's Talk about .. GLIDE

As same as other types of data, primary key is necessary to identify the unique item or instance. For the area of disaster, each disaster is also assigned unique identifier, so-called "GLIDE". GLIDE = GLobal unique disaster IDEntifier.

The format of GLIDE is AA-BBBB-CCCCCC-DDD-[EEE]; while AA is "Hazard Code", BBBB is "Year", CCCCCC is "Serial Number", DDD is "ISO Country Code", and [EEE] is "Optional State/Province Code"[1].

For example, 2011 Thailand Floods has GLIDE as "FL-2011-000135-THA".

GLIDE has been used proposed by Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC). For more information you can find from http://glidenumber.net

Ref.
[1] Asian Disaster Reduction Center. (2005). GLIDE (GLobal unique disaster IDEntifier). In T. Jeggle (Ed.) Know Risk. (p. 80) Leicester: Tudor Rose.

Let's Talk about .. 2011 Tsunami affected area in Sendai in 2013

On May 11th, 2013, I got an opportunity to join the tsunami damage and reconstruction site visit in Miyagi prefecture (宮城県) with the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) (災害科学国際研究所), Tohoku University (東北大学), Japan. I would like to thank Assoc.Prof. Anawat Suppasri and Tohoku University for this great opportunity.

This (AEARU) site visit trip was leaded by Assoc.Prof. Anawat Suppasri and Prof. Yuichi Ono from IRIDeS with facilities support from Tohoku University's staffs.

After 2011 East Japan Great Earthquake and Tsunami, many areas in Sendai were still inundated, especially rice fields. Sendai is considered as an important rice producer in Japan. Currently, the situation has been better.  

The first place we went to was Onagawa Hospital. This hospital was used as the shelter during the disaster. However, the water arrived the first floor of the hospital even if it is located on the cliff. You can see the mark indicated the high of water level at the entrance of Onagawa Regional Medical Center (女川町地域医療センター) in my photo below the photo of Onagawa Hospital.

 Assoc.Prof. Anawat Suppasri explained the impact of tsunami. Most of the buildings in this area were attached and submerged by water. One of the ruined building still stands there. It was a bank located in this area.

This train passed when we were moving to the next place.

Although there are breakwater along the coastal area, but the scale of 2011 tsunami was very large, that is why many areas were damaged.

 Kadonowaki Elementary School in Ishinomaki was our next stop. This school was burnt during 2011 tsunami. Actually, tsunami arrived only around the first flood of the school but there was burnt car flown to school with fire and caused the whole school burnt. Luckily, the students were informed to evacuate.

A short break was there with this Kamen raider.

Then, we moved to Arahama village in Wakabayashi. The Arahama Elementary School was used as an official evacuation shelter.

A new tsunami memorial was established, together with the list of deaths.

Next, we went to Hiyoriyama Minato Shrine (日和山 湊神社分霊). This shrine is located on the hill. Before walking up, we walked to the back of the hill to see the stone inscriptions indicated the previous tsunamis.

Then, the last destination was Iwanuma city. The idea of establishing an artificial hill, so-called "Millennium Hope Hills", was proposed in order to reduce the energy of tsunami in the future. For the current progress, they have built an experimental hill. They are checking if there is any reaction from the combination of various material of garbages.

Acknowledgements
Special thank Assoc.Prof. Anawat Suppasri, Prof. Yuichi Ono, all Tohoku University staffs.

Ref.
[1] Suppasri, A., & Mas, E. (2013, May 13). Field guide of tsunami damage and reconstruction site visit in Miyagi prefecture. Miyagi: International Research Institute of Disaster Science.