News in Japan - April

Japan:
Japan launches US$4 billion Sendai Cooperation Initiative as Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction opens
SUMMARY OF THE THIRD WORLDCONFERENCE ON DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

USA:

Leveedetonations reduced 2011 flood risk on Mississippi River, study finds

RisingSea Levels Are Already Making Miami’s Floods Worse "We’re already pretty well committed to significant sea level rise. We would be more prudent to consider how to adapt to those conditions.”
Wetlands needed to reduce flooding disasters The economic benefit from converting cropland in the floodplain to wetland flood storage would be $500 million per year.

Forecasting future flooding
Daily Dam Releases on Massachusetts’ Deerfield River Reduce Downstream Flows

Model helps city planners prepare to weather large storms

California’sWasteful Water Habits Run Up Against a Dry Future – and Past

Wetlands needed to reduce flooding disasters

Netherlands:

Largeelectrical power failure in the Netherlands  (Dutch) 1 million households, Schiphol airport, train stations and hospitals among affected

Electricitywill never be 100% reliable (Dutch)

Radioand television disaster channels not functioning during electrical powerfailure (Dutch)

Largepart of North-Holland without electricity (Dutch) 20:05: Websites and apps of the public broadcasting channels are coming online again one by one – these are the disaster broadcasting channels (De websites en apps van de publieke omroep komen stapsgewijs weer in de lucht. Dat meldt de NPO. De livestreams en Uitzending Gemist werken weer).

Boskalisto construct second artificial residential island in Panama

Other:

Vanuatu:Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam

GlobalEducation Magazine World Water Day

It’sthe economy, stupid

Mastersof the Universe Disaster databases are important, but on their own they are not driving the change. Our colleague Adessou had been in a session on this theme and had spoken to say we need to get personal, look at peoples' lives and livelihoods and the everyday disasters which evidence shows are felt by people to have the greatest impact on their lives.

Research links two millennia of cyclones, floods, El Niño

Vulnerable people:

Lies,damned lies, and statistics

HelpAgelaunches Disaster Risk and Age Index at World Conference on Disaster RiskReduction

Sendai Update: Will the World’s New Disaster RiskReduction Deal Be an Empty Promise? “incomplete, incoherent, and irresponsible.” “wealthy countries are refusing to commit more money for disaster risk reduction. Never mind that climate change, for which those same wealthy countries bear the greater historical responsibility, is partly to blame for the increasing damage that poor people in poor countries are suffering because of disasters.”

I found that many sessions on the financial aspects of DRR were held, and it is agreed that all DRR plans must have a financial and maintenance aspect for them to be implemented and sustainable. However, the Sendai framework itself does not have any financial commitments.

7th WWF day 6

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 6

In the morning at 9:00 ICHARM organized the closing session of the Theme Water and Disasters. We had over 60 people turn up to the session, which launched the Implementation Roadmap with actions to be taken on this theme between now and the next WWF in Brazil, 2018. After our session, we checked up on the exhibition booth and placed the final documents online, which you can find here under 'documents'. The final closing ceremony was a massive event with over 700 people and many prizes awarded. 

7th WWF day 5

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 5

We spent most of the morning meeting coordinating our concluding session on the last day of the forum. We still had to finalize the schedule, create handouts for the audience, and place as much materials online as possible. Luckily there was a little time left over to catch up with people from the Xiamen international water law department from China, before attending two sessions and being whisked away to a dinner with the typhoon committee. 

   

7th WWF day 4

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 4

There was time to visit three sessions today in Daegu, on the topics of water justice, governance indicators, and monitoring risks.

7th WWF day 3

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 3

After visiting a session at the EXCO, today was the one day I was able to visit the political process in Gyeongju, some 100 km East of Daegu. The WWF had organized hourly buses between these towns, and as we missed a returning connection to Daegu we had the opportunity to visit the HICO venue in Gyeongju.

7th WWF day 2

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 2

I visited four events today, starting with the opening ceremony of the thematic sessions, followed by two thematic sessions on the human right of water and water policies, and finally a scientific session on climate change impact and vulnerability.

7th WWF day 1

7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea - day 1

Today was the first day of the world water forum. We joined the opening ceremony on Daegu, at the exhibition center called EXCO. As it was quite crowded, there was a special room for VIP members to view the ceremony live, and another room for additional visitors to watch it on screens. In total, the secretariat reports there were over 3,000 people attending the opening ceremony. Security was heavy as President Park of Korea and many other heads of state were present in the building. As in Japan, Korea likes the use of mascots and we were treated abundantly with examples of traditional clothing, dances, sports, and many other cultural aspects.