News in Japan - April

GEJET:

Court finds Miyagi City responsible for tsunami death of student

Haunting Photographs of Residents Returning to Daily Activities in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone

Court dismisses demand to halt Sendai reactors A Japanese high court has dismissed a request by residents to suspend operations of 2 nuclear reactors at the Sendai nuclear plant in southwestern Japan. The Miyazaki branch of the Fukuoka High Court gave its decision on Wednesday.

USA:

5 Dead in Houston as Flash Floods Leave Thousands Stranded and Without Power All five victims were found inside vehicles submerged in high floodwaters. “Houston residents should avoid travel at all costs today.”

Greenspoint Evacuees Grapple With Uncertainty of What Comes Next (USA)

Quake risk in parts of central U.S. as high as in fault-filled California 

Disaster plans often neglect historic preservation (USA) In Florida, for instance, they found that 23% of the sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places are located in a 100-year floodplain. Most communities have not integrated historic preservation into their disaster management plans. Their survey of state hazard mitigation plans found just 40 percent included a representative from historic preservation on the core planning team while 60 percent did not. "Many disaster mitigation plans make no mention of historic resources," Rumbach said. "As more and more communities bank on historic resources to benefit the local economy, this needs to be remedied." Economics aside, he said, many communities draw a sense of identity from these historic sites and can become unmoored when they are damaged or destroyed.

Increased flooding, accelerated sea-level rise in Miami over last decade, new study shows

Netherlands:

Dutch public works department reinforces coastline at Zandvoort (Dutch) 2.4 million cubic meters of sand are being applied to the coast of Zandvoort and Bloemendaal. This previously happened in 2004 and 2008. The sand is deposited 750 meters from the beach at a depth of five meters. Wind, waves and currents then gradually spread the sand towards the beach. The work takes place over a length of 7.5 kilometers along the coastline, without disrupting beach visitors.

Snow in North of Netherlands and Randstad (Dutch) including fierce hail storms, leading to serious traffic accidents.

News in Japan - February

USA:

History Doesn’t Repeat Itself—Not Here, Anyway (USA). After discussions and deliberation between cities, states, and the federal government, many of these flood-damaged and flood-prone lands were converted into open space through government acquisitions, or “buyouts.” After 1993, parks and fields were created where homes had once stood. These areas were now easier to maintain and protect. Children could play football or soccer. Families could picnic in the summertime and build snowmen in the winter.

Record Missouri flooding was manmade calamity, scientist says Most news reports blamed it on the heavy rain, but a professor of earth and planetary sciences says analysis of the flood data shows much of the damage was due to recent modifications to the river. The flood on the middle Mississippi River, in turn, was remarkable for its short duration and the time of year. "It was essentially a winter flash flood on a continental-scale river," Criss said. "The Mississippi has been so channelized and leveed close to St. Louis that it now responds like a much smaller river." "In the meantime," he said, "inaccurate Federal Emergency Management Agency flood frequencies based on the assumption that today's river will behave as it has in the past greatly underestimate our real flood risk and lead to inappropriate development in floodways and floodplains." "The heavy rainfall was probably related to El Niño, and possibly intensified by global warming. But new records were set only in areas that have undergone intense development, which is known to magnify floods and shorten their timescales. "People want to blame the rain, but this is mostly us," Criss said. "It's a manmade disaster." During the New Year's flood, roughly 7,000 buildings near St. Louis were damaged, two interstate highways were closed for several days, the community of Valley Park was evacuated, and two Metropolitan Sewer District plants were swamped so that sewage was dumped directly into the water. The flood killed more than 20 people in Missouri and Illinois, caused several hundred million dollars of damage, and left millions of tons of debris in its wake.

The best way to protect us from climate change? Save our ecosystems There is now clear evidence that intact forests have a positive influence on both planetary climate and local weather regimes. Forests also provide shelter from extreme weather events, and are home to a host of other valuable ecosystems that are important to human populations as sources of food, medicine and timber. In Vietnam, 12,000 hectares of mangroves have been planted at a cost of US$1.1 million, but saving the US$7.3 million per year that would have been spent on maintaining dykes. In Louisiana, the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 led to an examination of how coastal salt marshes might have reduced some of the wave energy in the hurricane-associated storm surges. Data have now confirmed that salt marshes would have significantly reduced the impact of those surges, and stabilised the shoreline against further insult, at far less cost than engineered coastal defences. With this data in hand, discussions are now beginning around how to restore the Louisiana salt marshes to insulate against future extreme weather events.

Flavour of Dutch dialogues gets into 1 billion dollar US disaster resilience plans Morris has been closely involved in the competition and emphasises the tremendous Dutch influence in these projects. In particular, he mentions the climate adaptive approach that focusses on disaster prevention, and on the involvement of many stakeholders right from the start. "This is a distinct Dutch approach to urban planning", says Morris. "Also the involvement of landscape architecture shows the Dutch influence in these projects". "With the two competitions the housing department provokes the states and the local communities to think about their future and the social-economic development. The US is well organized on reactive disaster response. The competitions made them think of the future and long term planning for smart investments." 

Netherlands:

First high water to pass over to the new side channel in Lent (Dutch)

Vulnerable People:

Survey reveals money, health fears of single Japanese women in nonstaff jobs

Other:

India caste unrest: Ten million without water in Delhi

UNISDR Science and Technology Roadmap

Terms of Reference of the Scientific and Technical Partnership for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030

Reconnecting a River A case study of conservation efforts in Mexico's Colorado River Delta

NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Warm Temperatures in 2015

Floods are natural, they don't have to lead to disasters

Four billion people face severe water scarcity, new research finds

Nature Crucial to Combatting Impact of Climate Change on Water

Cyclone Winston: Death toll rises to 29 as clear-up begins

A map of the most vulnerable places on the planet

Thousands of pieces of data demonstrate that sea levels, extreme phenomena are evolving independently

Salt marshes will persist despite rising seas, study predicts

UN agricultural agency helps Pakistan cope with natural disasters such as floods, quakes, droughts

With a 21 percent share of the national gross domestic product (GDP) and a 45 percent share of Pakistan's total workforce, it is crucial that agriculture be able to prevent and mitigate the impact of disasters.

Human-made climate change helped cause south of England floods, say scientists anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions increased the risk of the once-a-century wet January in 2014 by 43% (uncertainty range: 0-160%). The heightened risk of rainfall found in the meteorological modelling led to an increase in the peak 30-day river flow of 21% (uncertainty range: -17-133%) and about 1,000 more properties at risk of flooding (uncertainty range: -4,000-8,000).

Borrowed Time on Disappearing Land (Bangladesh) “These migrants should have the right to move to the countries from which all these greenhouse gases are coming. Millions should be able to go to the United States.” Making matters worse, much of what the Bangladeshi government is doing to stave off the coming deluge — raising levees, dredging canals, pumping water — deepens the threat of inundation in the long term. In an analysis of decades of tidal records published in October, Dr. Pethick found that high tides in Bangladesh were rising 10 times faster than the global average. He predicted that seas in Bangladesh could rise as much as 13 feet by 2100, four times the global average. “The reaction among Bangladeshi government officials has been to tell me that I must be wrong,” he said. “That’s completely understandable, but it also means they have no hope of preparing themselves.” “There is no doubt that preparations within Bangladesh have been utterly inadequate, but any such preparations are bound to fail because the problem is far too big for any single government,” said Tariq A. Karim, Bangladesh’s ambassador to India. “We need a regional and, better yet, a global solution. The family reunited on the road the next day after the children spent a harrowing night avoiding snakes that had sought higher ground, too. They drank rainwater until rescuers arrived a day or two later with bottled water, food and other supplies. In the weeks after the storm, the women of Dakope found firewood by wading into the raging river and pushing their toes into the muddy bottom. They walked hours to buy drinking water. “I don’t want to stay here (slums) for too long,” Mr. Gazi said. “If we can save some money, then we’ll go back. I’ll work on a piece of land and try to make it fertile again.” But the chances of finding fertile land in his home village, where the salty rivers have eaten away acre upon acre, are almost zero.

News in Japan - January

Japan:
20 years after Kobe quake, world rethinks disaster risk Earthquakes expose economic vulnerability to disaster events like no other natural hazard, with the possible exception of recurring extensive floods. They also demonstrate the futility of trying to implement building codes without the buy-in of the private sector. The private sector is responsible for 70 to 85 percent of overall investment in most economies.  

USA:
Going with the flow: Is river basin management misguided?
Rescuing farmland after a flood

Other:
Pakistan's coastal villagers retreat as seas gobble land
Greenland Ice: The warmer it gets the faster it melts
Better dam planning strategies
Long list of sustainable development goals likely to stay, UNDP says
Russia's forests overlooked in climate change fight

China sets 2020 "artificial weather" target to combat water shortages

Malawi floods raise fears of cholera outbreak, poor harvest
Thousands stranded in Malawi as floods trigger "slow tsunami"

More rains, more deaths as floods across southern Africa set to worsen Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of 16 million, has been hardest hit, with at least 176 confirmed dead and 121,000 displaced.
States, donors must do more to tackle rising disaster risk - UN According to a 2013 report from the London-based Overseas Development Institute, the international community spent $13.5 billion on reducing the risk of damage from disasters in the past two decades - just 40 cents for every $100 of aid.
Toward Resilience: A Guide to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

IFAD grant for flood-based farming in Africa and Asia

Gates foundation sees huge gains against disease, poverty by 2030

Africa can end hunger by 2025 with effective policies - FAO official

Mozambique says death toll rises after heavy flooding

Oysters and magroves protect Bangladesh against floods (Dutch)

Board game puts new spin on competitive land-use dynamics

News in Japan - December

GEJET:
Kindergarten to pay Y60 million over 3/11 tsunami deaths

Japan:
7 die, troops called in as heavy snow hits Japan

USA:
Desalination out of Desperation
Colorado River Delta greener after engineered pulse of water

Improving forecasts for rain-on-snow flooding (USA)

'Tipping points' for sea level rise-related flooding determined (USA)

Other:
Pakistan's women worst prepared in region for natural disasters - NGO
Typhoon-proof homes in Vietnam build hope for disaster-prone areas
Typhoon-hammered Philippines in 'fight for our survival'
Eat less meat, dairy to slow climate change, study says - TRFN
Eight challenges for science and society to shape a sustainable future
Thai, Myanmar villagers fear secretive Salween dam project
Philippine rescuers struggle to reach villages after typhoon "folded homes like paper"
"Whiplash" typhoon a cruel blow for already poverty-stricken central Philippines Nearly 13,000 houses were destroyed and more than 22,300 damaged on the eastern island of Samar after the storm hit on Saturday before making its slow journey across the country. The Red Cross said it had received reports of 35 deaths, but has confirmed only 22. "This house was destroyed during Yolanda," resident Pedro Mainiti told local TV, using the Philippine name for Typhoon Haiyan which struck last November, leaving more than 7,000 dead or missing. "I haven't recovered yet and here goes another storm." The government has so far only built 550 of the 205,000 promised permanent houses for Haiyan survivors, according to the rehabilitation agency.
French mayor Rene Marratier jailed for role in deadly flood The former mayor of a French seaside town has been sentenced to jail for four years for ignoring flood risks before a storm that killed 29 people. the court said that Marratier knew La Faute-sur-Mer, a west coast resort in the Pays de la Loire region, was at risk of flooding. However, he "deliberately hid" the risk so that he could benefit from the "cash-cow" of property development.
SPECIAL REPORT-In Jakarta, that sinking feeling is all too real
The Aftershocks Seven of Italy’s top scientists were convicted of manslaughter following a catastrophic quake. Has the country criminalized science? time-risk blindness
Aceh's unfinished recovery

Mudslides, flash floods kill at least 53 in Philippines

Dozens die as Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines battered by storms

Vulnerable people:
Poverty takes on a new look in today's Japan
Another low for Japan's gender gap, as only 15% of election candidates are female Only 169 of the 1,093 candidates from eight major parties were women - far short of the administration's stated goal of having 30 percent of public- and private-sector leadership positions filled with women by 2020. A 2014 report on the gender gap by the World Economic Forum said Japan has one of the worst levels of gender equality in the developed world, ranking it 104th of 142 countries assessed.

One in five develops mental disorder (Dutch)

More people live below the poverty line (Dutch)

News in Japan - November

GEJET:
All spent fuel removed from Fukushima Daiichi No. 4 unit pool
TEPCO unable to stop tainted water flows into tunnels

Japan:
Snow-capped Mt. Ontake still spewing smoke, ash
Nishinoshima eruption one year on Japan Coast Guard officials say that as of October 16th, the island measured 1,550 meters east to west and 1,700 meters north to south. That is 8.6 times larger than it was before.
Hakuba ski resorts quell rumors of quake damage

Japan quake shunts city one foot southeast

The magnitude 6.7 quake, which hit a little after 10 p.m. on Saturday night local time, left dozens of people injured, seven of them seriously. Public broadcaster NHK reported that over 300 people are still living in evacuation shelters as of Tuesday morning. According to the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, Hakuba slipped southeast towards Tokyo by approximately 29 centimeters (about one foot) due to the quake. The city also sank by around 12 centimeters. The quake's epicenter was about five kilometers (three miles) underground near Hakuba. The area has since been hit by multiple aftershocks, including one Tuesday morning that had a magnitude of 4.1.

Netherlands:
World Bank wants the Netherlands to play a more prominent role in addressing global water issues

USA:
Upgrading infrastructure could reduce flood damage
East coast, U.S. hurricanes can flood the Midwest

Other:
Flooding could worsen Pakistan's water shortage, experts warn
670,000 smog-related deaths a year: the cost of China's reliance on coal
L'Aquila quake: Scientists see convictions overturned
Air pollution slashes India's potential grain yields by half- study
Sri Lanka landslide deaths linked to early warning failures

Life goes on in Tacloban one year after Typhoon Haiyan

Ground water depletion driving global conflicts - NASA scientist

Weather forecasters predict better services for women
Investing in resilience can no longer wait

Vulnerable people:
40.3% of Japanese youth depend on parents for income: survey

Published paper

The journal Water International (since 1975) has published my article titled "Transboundary water law and vulnerable people: legal interpretations of the ‘equitable use’ principle". This could be the focus of a future postdoc.

Abstract

Vulnerable people require additional measures to ensure their water capabilities, as they have certain characteristics making them more vulnerable than others. As pointed out by recent studies, transboundary water access laws and policies do not sufficiently address the needs of vulnerable people. The prevailing legal arrangements often only address extrinsic vulnerability and forgo focusing on intrinsic vulnerability, which creates the need for different transboundary water legislation. This paper shows how international treaties can address the right to certain water capabilities by considering not merely the current but also future global populations into the creation of their transboundary agreements.

DOI:10.1080/02508060.2014.951827

Volume 39, Issue 5, 2014, pages 743-754
Received: 12 May 2014

Accepted: 30 Jul 2014

Published online: 02 Sep 2014
2013 Impact Factor: 0.639

UN online discussion on legal rights to water and sanitation

The UN has an interactive discussion online about the legal rights to water and sanitation. It is running from January 29 to March 10.

Anyone with internet access can join the discussion on the forum, read the related legal documentation provided on the website and even add their own information and polls. The forum is moderated by Virginia Roof (Adviser on human rights to water and sanitation) and Inga Winkler (Legal adviser on human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation). Let's all share our ideas on how we can ensure everyone has water access!

Environmental Ethics

Today was the first of 2 special lectures on Environmental Ethics, from the Environmental Diplomatic Leader program at Tsukuba University. Open to all without registration, I joined to learn more about ethical considerations in environmental policy.

The main question of environmental ethics is, given the facts, should we act, and then, what should we do?

Also important is how to answer these questions. Science and technology often refer to risk assessment or cost/benefit analysis to determine policies. This leads to the main conflict: who decides what is acceptable risk, and are all risks equal? Many environmental issues are often only handled by technological scientists, but those bearing the risks are often not included in decisions.

Often in global politics we are confronted with the right of the strongest, 'justice is the advantage of the stronger', or 'might is right'. Ethically, we should respect the dignity of each individual and consider ourselves better than other people. How can this practically lead to policies that we all can agree on, if we are to respect everyone's values? Theoretically a free market might lead to everyone's preferences being satisfied, but the rights of minorities cannot be protected without additional measures.

The lecture covered several historic streams of thoughts and explored modern day questions, such as 'does it make sense to talk about human rights of future generations who do not yet exist, and what about animals?' Should we then look at individual animals, or at species as a whole? Concerning climate change, the big question was, if we don't know the exact consequences, what should we do? Some people argue to act on the side of caution, while others say, we don't know what will happen so why do anything at all?

In my opinion, having rights also includes a responsibility for safeguarding those rights for yourself and the world. This links to the new Future Earth initiative: "Future Earth is a new 10-year international research initiative that will develop the knowledge for responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and for supporting transformation towards global sustainability in the coming decades. Future Earth will mobilize thousands of scientists while strengthening partnerships with policy-makers and other stakeholders to provide sustainability options and solutions in the wake of Rio+20."  Sounds interesting? Sign up to be on their committee before March 14 and actively participate in the future of the planet.

The Netherlands becomes Japan!

And Japan surprisingly becomes Sudan, when population sizes are linked to country sizes.

News - August

The area affected by the Pakistan floods can now be seen on the website of BBC dimensions in comparison to other countries, so you get an idea of how much soil and how many people really are affected. The UN estimates that there are currently 17.2 million people in need of assistance and 800.000 people are cut off from aid over land, and therefore has asked for 40 additional helicopters.

Yesterday the Netherlands experienced a day of torrential rainfall, after which it has become abundantly clear how too much water can disrupt daily life. Many areas had 50 mm of precipitation within hours, as opposed to it falling during the entire month of August. Coincidentally yesterday also a media event was held after all, on both radio and television channels, to raise money for Pakistan. Over 16.1 million euro was collected, mainly from private donations. The government promised an additional 2 million euro during this event.

Also this week, the ministry of Transport, public works and water management has provided 250 million euros to reinforce weak spots in the Dutch sea defense in areas of the province North-Holland. That's 125% more for floods that may very well never occur, but it's better than nothing.

In the mean time Freerice has also made a change to its website. In the beta version it is now possible to keep track of your daily scores and compare them to others'. If you feel you'd rather provide aid in a physical form rather than money and you don't have a helicopter in your back yard, Freerice is a sure way to do some good whilst getting smarter.

Pakistan floods and aid funds

Voanews shows the extend of the recent Pakistan floods:



The Dutch government reports that 14 million people (8% of the total population) are affected by the floods and the UN organisation OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) needs about 357 million euro to provide aid for the coming three months. In 1953 nearly the entire South-West of the Netherlands suffered a similar flood where 1834 people died. The Netherlands received aid from all over the world, including Pakistan. What is the Netherlands doing to aid Pakistan now?

Many Dutch media reported outrage at the lack of a national television charity event, but given the money such an event would cause (around 1 million euro), charity organisations feared such an event might end up costing more than the money it would raise given that it is holiday season. However, the national account used for gathering individual donations, giro 555, has been opened on the 13th of August and has collected 2.5 million euro during the first 5 days already. Earlier events that did have a television charity event raised 208 million euro for the tsunami in 2004-2005 and 155 million euro for the Haiti earthquake in 2010.
The national government has donated 3 million euro in response to the UN request for aid. Additionally, according to the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs, Pakistan has been receiving Dutch international aid since 1957. The current aid program focuses on environment and water, proper governance and human rights, and has a budget of about 50 million euro per year.

Meanwhile, the Japanese ministry of foreign affairs has provided about 11.2 million euro and helicopters for the recent floods.
Additionally the nornmal yearly aid donated via the Official Development Assistance (ODA) program is divided into three categories, namely loans, grants and technical cooperation. In 2008 the figures spent on these were 438, 55.6 and 10.8 million euro respectively.

To help the UN get the money and goods to help out the people in Pakistan, you can help out too by playing the games at Freerice.