Opening and closing ceremonies of master's and doctoral programs held

  ICHARM held its sixth 1-year master program from Oct. 3rd, 2012, to Sep. 17th, 2013, titled "Water-related Disaster Management Course of Disaster Management Policy Program" organized in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). It is also the JICA course "Training for Experts on Flood-related Disaster Mitigation." This year, 12 trainees completed the training course and returned to their countries. This training aims to mitigate water-related disasters, which have become much larger and more frequent these days. It targets government officials involved in flood disaster mitigation in countries in transition. The training includes lectures, site visits and practice.

  On Sep. 13th, the closing ceremony of the course was held at JICA Tsukuba. Taketo UOMOTO, the Chief Executive of PWRI; Sen'ichi KIMURA, the Director of the Tsukuba International Center of JICA; and Prof. Shoichi ANDO of GRIPS delivered speeches. Mr. ZLATANOVIC Nikola (Serbia) made an address in reply to the speeches. The "Best Research" Award was given to Mr. BHUYAN Mohammad Arifuzzaman (Bangladesh) and Mr. TiN Myint Aung (Myanmar). Mr. ZLATANOVIC was awarded the Sontoku Award for the most dedicated trainee during the course. The Sontoku Award is named after Sontoku NINOMIYA (Japan), whose hotoku shiso, or moral thought describes the importance of returning goodness for goodness. Hotoku shiso has been the principal behind Japan's disaster mitigation endeavors: Residents do what they can to rescue and assist each other, and public bodies go beyond this.

  The commencement ceremony was held on Sep. 17th at GRIPS. The master's degree for disaster mitigation policy study was conferred on 12 trainees. In addition, Dr. Shiro HISHINUMA was awarded a Ph.D. in disaster studies. He is the first person to earn a Ph.D. from ICHARM (Photo-1). Dr. HISHINUMA has used hydrological analyses to study the Karun River basin in Iran. He identified the issues related to hydrological analysis which is particularly necessary for water resource development in semi-dry mountainous regions and the policy issues related to promoting development.

  His research results are expected to be utilized for water resource development on the Karun River, whose decline in discharge is anticipated in the near future.

  The seventh master's course started on Oct. 4th, 2013, following the completion of the previous course. This year again, 12 trainees will study in the course. On Oct. 4th, the course opening ceremony was held with attendance by representatives of JICA including Sen'ichi KIMURA, the Director of the Tsukuba International Center of JICA and Prof. Ando of GRIPS (Photo-2). On behalf of the trainees, Mr. GUNASENA Muthubanda Appuhamige Sanath Susila (Sri Lanka) spoke about what they expect from the training.

  This past October, three students joined the doctoral course. They will conduct studies on various aspects of water-related disasters, including hydrology, sediment hydraulics and economics. ICHARM is determined to continue various activities to mitigate water-related disasters in countries in transition.

(Contact: ICHARM)

Participation the 8th Integrated Workshop of the UNESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee

  Minoru Kamoto, Chief Researcher, and Yoshikazu Shimizu, Principal Senior Researcher, Water-related Hazard Research Group of ICHARM, PWRI, participated in the 8th Integrated Workshop of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) / World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Typhoon Committee (TC) in Macau, China, from Dec. 2nd (Mon.) through Dec. 7th (Fri.), 2013 (Photo-1).

  During the Integrated Workshop of the TC, a special discussion was held on Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in Nov. 2013. Presentations on Typhoon Haiyan were followed by active discussions on "lessons learned" and "future actions."

  The representative of the Philippines reported that, although they issued warnings of 6-m storm surges a few hours ahead, a risk map of expected inundation areas and information on evacuation destinations were not disseminated. Discussions included those on the necessity of urgently establisment of a warning and evacuation system that makes the most of forecasts and warnings.

  Minoru Kamoto, Chief Researcher, chaired the sessions of the Working Group on Hydrology (WGH) and summarized the country reports of the participating countries. At the WGH session, Yoshikazu Shimizu, Principal Senior Researcher, made a progress report on the project named The Study on Prediction of Debris Flow and Shallow Landslides by the Satellite Rainfall Data. Experts from Thailand commented in favor of project, recognizing it will be beneficial for their country (Photo-2).

  On the last day of the Integrated Workshop, Minoru Kamoto, Chief Researcher, presented a report of the WGH sessions at the plenary meeting (Photo-3).

  The day after the Integrated Workshop, a preparatory meeting was held toward the 46th Annual Session of the TC, which is to be held from Feb. 10th, 2016, and a summary of the 8th Integrated Workshop was made. Minoru Kamoto, Chief Researcher, joined the meeting as the chair of the WGH.

(Contact: ICHARM)