Asian Water Cycle Symposium 2016 (AWCS2016) - Day 1

The Asian Water Cycle Symposium was held at the Takeda Hall of Tokyo University, partly in commemoration of ICHARM's 10 year anniversary. Over 100 visitors from in and outside Japan joined to share experiences of water related issues in their countries.

The first panel debate led by Dr. Johannes Cullman, Director of the Climate and Water Department from the WMO, focused on Flood and Drought in the Asia Pacific Region. He emphasized that an Integrated approach to Water Resources Management can contribute to DRR by: 

1. Informed risk based approach (cycle of disaster management)
2. Long term perspective (adaptive strategies, flexible measures)
3. Building partnerships in Asia Pacific Region 

In the afternoon a flood session was held consisting of several parts. The first was the explanation of the International Flood Initiative of which ICHARM manages the secretariat. Next, experts from different AWCI member countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand) presented the current status and countermeasures against floods. 

This was followed by presentations and discussions on flood early warning systems. ICHARM has developed flood runoff/inundation forecasting models (IFAS/RRI) for insufficiently gauged regions, and this part explored how using the models turned out in practice. It was found that for setting up operational Flood EWS, not only model development but also capacity building is very important. 

The part on flood disaster risk management had the Philippines as country of interest. ICHARM has developed several flood risk maps with local governments in the Pampanga river basin, and wants to continue to monitor their effectiveness. The three experts were invited to discuss their opinions on 1) "How national, provincial and municipal governments can assist local communities in reducing flood disaster risk directly or through municipalities, and what are the challenges", and 2) "What kind of data / information is further needed to support the activities of each organization, and how data management system should be improved or established to collect, analyze and share data on water related disaster risk information."

  

The day concluded with a reception and simultaneous poster viewing session.