News in Japan - June

USA

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? Researchers look for ways to predict response to hurricane evacuation orders (USA)

"Social and environmental cues influence behavior," said Sarah DeYoung, postdoctoral researcher at DRC who was the lead author of that paper and has just accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Georgia. "But we understand, too, the temporal nature of that," Davidson said. "It's not like people make a decision on Day 1 and follow through with that. They see what happens and change their minds, too."

Flooding kills at least 23 in West Virginia (USA)

New study shows impact of human-made structures on Louisiana's coastal wetlands - Researchers use satellite data to quantify wetland loss

Netherlands

https://twitter.com/Du_Knitter/status/738237664948834304/photo/1 Dutch A74 highway closed due to flood/mudflow.

Other

Sudden onset of storm in Germany as viewed from racetrack

Heavy rain in Germany leads to 4 deaths (Dutch) Over 40 people were rescued from life threatening situations. One of the four victims was a male firefighter. The weekend before 35 people were struck by lightning.

Thousands of evacuations due to floods in France (Dutch) Over 5,500 people were evacuated, firefighters responded to 10,500 calls for help, and one 86 year old woman reportedly drowned.

Europe flooding: Five dead as waters rise in Germany and France

El Nino made a nuisance of itself in 2015
Parts of Philippines may submerge due to global warming
New data set establishes global flood risks more accurately (Dutch)

Vulnerable people

Revamped labor guidelines to issue sterner warning against LGBT discrimination (Japan)

News in Japan - June

USA

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? Researchers look for ways to predict response to hurricane evacuation orders (USA)

"Social and environmental cues influence behavior," said Sarah DeYoung, postdoctoral researcher at DRC who was the lead author of that paper and has just accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Georgia. "But we understand, too, the temporal nature of that," Davidson said. "It's not like people make a decision on Day 1 and follow through with that. They see what happens and change their minds, too."

Flooding kills at least 23 in West Virginia (USA)

New study shows impact of human-made structures on Louisiana's coastal wetlands - Researchers use satellite data to quantify wetland loss

Netherlands

https://twitter.com/Du_Knitter/status/738237664948834304/photo/1 Dutch A74 highway closed due to flood/mudflow.

Other

Sudden onset of storm in Germany as viewed from racetrack

Heavy rain in Germany leads to 4 deaths (Dutch) Over 40 people were rescued from life threatening situations. One of the four victims was a male firefighter. The weekend before 35 people were struck by lightning.

Thousands of evacuations due to floods in France (Dutch) Over 5,500 people were evacuated, firefighters responded to 10,500 calls for help, and one 86 year old woman reportedly drowned.

Europe flooding: Five dead as waters rise in Germany and France

El Nino made a nuisance of itself in 2015
Parts of Philippines may submerge due to global warming
New data set establishes global flood risks more accurately (Dutch)

Vulnerable people

Revamped labor guidelines to issue sterner warning against LGBT discrimination (Japan)

ICWRER day 3

I presented today, on the final conference day of the International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research. But first we enjoyed a keynote speech from Mathias Kondolf from the University of California, Berkeley, who talked about "Maintaining and Restoring Sediment Load Downstream of Dams". This included the tedious and costly process of re-sedimentation on the Rhine river, and current geomorphic impacts on the Mekong Delta. 

ICWRER day 2

The second day of the International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research in Kyoto featured two keynote speeches. The first, from Prof. Hubert Savenije from the Dutch Delft University of Technology, touched upon drought models and root zone storage. He explained how different drought models led to opposite results for the Netherlands, and a local model often functioned better than a global one. He further set out his theory how most of the traditional ground storage models did not account for root storage correctly. These models assume that plants would use the entire soil depth to grow roots in, when in practice this was not the optimal growth strategy for plants. In fact, especially in moist areas, there is no need for plants to have deep roots as they can already gather enough moisture from the top soil layer, and then invest more in growing above ground. 

ICWRER day 1

The International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research opened on Sunday, June 5th with a welcome icebreaker. The actual conference was opened the next day with a keynote speech from Prof. Eiichi Nakakita from the Kyoto University, who spoke on the SOUSEI project, that ICHARM is also a part of, which has as goal to integrate research activities on climate change and natural hazards.  

Another presentation of importance today was given by Guillermo Q. Tabios III, who chaired the topic of Sustainable Water Resources Management (G14). His presentation was titled "Multipurpose, Single High Dam versus Multiple Dam System for Balog-Balog Irrigation Project in the Philippines", and detailed the costs and water usages of several dams in the Philippines.