G-Cans in Japan - Tokyo Metropolitan Outer Underground Discharge Channel

Coming up first is a holiday to Japan with a visit to the world famous G-Cans! (More information here and here; with more pictures here.) In Japanese this is called the 首都圏外郭放水路 shutoken gaikaku hōsuiro, and it's a massive underground system of interconnecting tunnels and basins for excess water. To walk around inside this structure is going to leave a lasting expression to be sure.

Japan altitude and tectonic plates map

Click to enlarge these maps:

The Netherlands becomes Japan!

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

Videos and information on Dutch high water

City of Nijmegen:

City of Deventer:

Provinces Limburg and Gelderland:

Province of Limburg:

Rules for high water prevention measures per river can be accessed here.

News - January

Nu.nl reports:

• 2010 year with most natural disasters in the past 2 decades

The UN ordered a research from the CRED in Belgium, and they have found 297.000 deaths due to natural disasters in 2010. The Haitian earthquake was responsible for 222.500 deaths, followed by the heatwave in Russia with 55.000 deaths.

Looking at the most costly disasters, the total of costs is estimated at 80 billion euro. The earthquake causing a tsunami in Chili ranks at the top, followed by floods and landslides in China and Pakistan.

207 million people were affected by natural disasters; 89 percent of the affected areas was in Asia.

Source >>>

The Dutch government reports:

• Expansion of the province Zuid-Holland into the ocean

The project Zandmotor (Sand motor), for which I approved one of the many necessary permits, has started today. 21.5 million cubic meter of sand are applied at one point of the coast. Natural effects of wind, waves and sea currents will spread out this sand along the coast line. This project is thought to naturally enhance water safety and enlarge the recreational area of the coast, while costing less as there is no longer the need to locally add sand every 5 years. 100 hectares of new land are expected to come into existence.

Movie >>>

Research institute Deltares reports:

• New version of OpenMI released

Integrating environmental models to test sustainability and impacts of policies is now even easier with the new version of OpenMI. Details >>>

Magazine H2O reports:

• Enclosure Dam not up to standards

Provinces Friesland and Noord-Holland have informed the minister of Infrastructure and the Environment that the Enclosure Dam in the North of the Netherlands once again fails to meet the legal safety standards. Corresponding sluices and drain resources also didn't comply with the standards. It is now up to the government to take adequate measures. More>>>

• Water board de Dommel starts e-panel with civilians

The water board de Dommel, in the South of the Netherlands, has initiated an online civilian panel in order to have the activities of the water board connect better with desires of civilians. People joining the survey receive a free 'shower coach', which aids in reducing water usage. More>>>

• Military aircraft F-16 aids in dike movement inspections

The water board Peel and Maasvallei in the South-East of the Netherlands has had the aid of an F-16 to determine possible dike movements. The aircraft used the Recce-Lite system, and the results were good: all dikes in the area are stable. More>>>

Japan's aging representative for the rest of the world?

News Watch 9 has a report about the 'Japan Syndrome', the rapid aging of society, commented on by Henry Tricks, head of the Tokyo office of The Economist. Find the movie here (Japanese) and the article from The Economist here (English).

News - December

The magazine De Ingenieur reports:

• Plan for evacuating the Netherlands

Pierre Belanger from Harvard University states that the Netherlands should have better evacuation plans, and proposes a sequence that starts with rural areas, then urban areas and finally city centers. He points at New Orleans where 1.5 million people where moved in 36 hours.

• A new book:

'De Bostatlas van Nederland Waterland' or The Atlas of the Netherlands with a focus on water has been released. (ISBN 978 9001 90203 2)

• Using emotions when judging high-risk technologies

Sabine Roeser from the University of Twente and Technical University Delft pleads to use emotions when judging high-risk technologies to decrease the gap between scientific experts and the public. Many new technologies are not accepted by the public due to misinformation about the risks involved. Experts should investigate what risks the public sees and prove the results of failure of new technologies have less sever effects as imagined.

The magazine H2O reports:

• The economic importance of delta technology

A research performed by Panteia and Blueconomy show the total turnover in the sector delta technology for the Netherlands is 7.5 billion (Dutch: miljard) euro. About 4 billion comes from the international market, which is 6% of the total market of 120 billion euro (2008). Given climate change and increase in population, the expected growth is 15 billion euro per year.

• A new model predicting evacuation outcomes

The company HKV Lijn in Water had created a new model called EvacuAid, that has many variable parameters and lets users see how many people are evacuated from a certain area, from 0 to 48 hours after the call for evacuation. It also forecasts the number of casualties, based on results in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Interestingly enough the model shows preventive evacuation could cost more casualties than 'vertical evacuation' (where people are told to move up a floor or sit on their roof), depending on the area and the time available for evacuation.

• Results from the first 5 Space Studio meetings along the Rhine

The water board Rivierenland, covering the Eastern part of the Rhine, has created meeting rooms where spatial planners and water experts can meet and share plans. These so-called Space Studio meetings have taken place in 5 municipalities and focused on problems at the local level. Everywhere multiple solutions were thought up for the separate problems, and this success has led to the extension of the meetings to another 5 municipalities.

The Dutch government reports:

• The Future of the Enclosure Dam

The Department of Public Works is developing a plan for the future of the Enclosure Dam in the North of the Netherlands. Three different alternatives are being constructed based on meetings between provinces and other governors, environmental reports and expected costs. The ultimate choice will also depend on finances and agreements between parties. More >>>

• A movie about the SBW (Strengths and Taxes of Weirs) Program:

A movie will be released about the SBW, a program form the Department of Public Works. Three of the nine research areas are explained in the movie, along with how the results are used to enlarge water safety in the Netherlands. Link to the video >>>