News in Japan - May

GEJET:
Fukushima finds 16 new cases of thyroid cancer in young people

Japan:
Ground swells near Mount Hakone
Local governments curbing drones

USA:
Marshes, reefs, beaches can enhance coastal resilience
Texas and Oklahoma: 3 dead after record rains unleash dangerous flooding

Netherlands:

Delft coastal researchers win US challenge with spectacular movie Drones at the Beach

Other:
'Substantial' El Nino event predicted
Scientists have compiled a new database of coastal flooding in the UK over the last 100 years
Satellite image reveals Langtang river valley Nepal is vulnerable to flood risks

Nepal earthquake: People flee as landslide blocks river

Feature: Quake-hit Nepal unlikely to see schools reopened as per gov't timeframe

http://earthquake-report.com/2015/04/25/massive-earthquake-nepal-on-april-25-2015/ Deadly Nepal Gorkha/Kodari earthquakes – At least 8,381 people killed (May 14)

Keep front gardens green to mitigate flooding

Vulnerable people:
Flood aftermath linked to post-traumatic stress, study shows "The study found the strongest predictors of depression were prior mental health, repair time and self-efficacy (confidence in their ability to cope)." "Survivors said they were more confident they could cope with difficult circumstances in the future and they had found the experience had strengthened their relationships and social networks."

Volcanic eruption in Japan

This morning there was a volcanic eruption on Kuchinoerabu island where about 110-150 people live. It is located about 1,111 km away from Tsukuba (same distance as e.g. Maastricht -Barcelona/Rome/Warsaw).

The plume gases have come up to 9,000 m high, a significant height interrupting the flight plans of several airlines. While the island is located a mere 15 km from the larger Yakushima, popular among tourists, it still takes an hour to get there by boat. Reports are a ferry from Yakushima picked up around 100 people already and evacuated them.

Previous eruptions of the Shindake (New Peak, 新岳) include last year, August 4th 2014, with no casualties. Among other known eruptions (in 1980, 1976, 1974, 1973, 1972, 1968-69, 1966, 1945, 1933-34) only this last one in 1933 led to 8 deaths.

See also:

Volcano erupts on Kuchinoerabu isle off Kagoshima, prompting evacuation order

UPDATE 2-Volcano erupts on Japanese island, evacuation ordered, airlines diverted

Kuchinoerabu-Jima volcano (Ryukyu Islands, Japan): new eruption and pyroclastic flow

NHK news (Japanese)

Warning level 5, evacuate from the Japan Meteorological Agency:

Article in Japan Times:

WWF7 newspaper article on ICHARM's concluding session

The Japanese drainage system newspaper (Gesuido shimbun, 下水道新聞) published an article (22nd of April) about ICHARM's activities during the WWF7 last month. It shows a picture of the concluding session we organized on the final day with ICHARM's director Prof. Koike sitting on the left.

The approximate translation is as follows (verified by an anonymous Japanese ICHARM employee): 

ICHARM discussed the proposed roadmap to disaster prevention and mitigation of water-related disasters

On the 17th of April the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM, with as Director Toshio Koike, Professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School) reported the summary of the seven sessions on water-related disasters where discussion has taken place during the 7th World Water Forum as Thematic Process, corresponding to the theme of "Adapting to change: Monitoring risk and uncertainty for resilience and disaster preparedness." Views were exchanged on the Implementation Roadmap, a plan that contains the future goals and efforts on this theme.

The proposed roadmap covers the following goals and requires water-related stakeholders around the world to voluntarily pursue related efforts:

▽ understanding of water-related disaster risks

▽ governance strengthening for risk management

▽ investment in reduction of water-related disaster risks for disaster mitigation

▽increased "building-back better" in disaster rebuilding, rehabilitation and reconstruction plans

The roadmap is accompanied with specific actions so as to periodically consolidate such efforts and share information. 

Director Koike, who participated in the said Thematic Process, said “We will review the progress of each of the efforts at ICHARM and actively share such information”.

 The roadmap will be announced in mid-May.

Published Paper

The journal Water Policy has published an article by Sangeun Lee and myself titled "Assessing the vulnerability of different age groups regarding flood fatalities: case study in the Philippines". It is still in press, as uncorrected proof.

Abstract
This study aimed to identify age groups vulnerable to flood fatalities and quantify their vulnerability by means of statistical methods. First, the study obtained data of 122 victims directly resulting from five flood disasters in the Philippines over the period 2010–2013 which was used to compare the number of flood fatalities in each age group with the population numbers. The chi-square goodness-of-fit test shows that only one age group, people aged less than and up to 70, was vulnerable to flood fatalities. Vulnerabilities of people aged less than and up to 70 and over 70, respectively, were quantified in terms of mortality, i.e., the ratio of flood fatalities and affected people. This study obtained two lognormal distribution curves moderately describing histograms built with samples on the mortality of the two age groups. Based on probabilistic parameters of the selected lognormal distribution curves, the study concludes that people aged less than and up to 70 have more than three times the vulnerability to the risk of flood fatality than people aged over 70. It is also suggested that the age dependency ratio, which is widely used to consider demographic vulnerability in flood vulnerability studies, should not be applied to the Philippines.

Journal ref: Water Policy, 2015
Received: 12 May 2014
Accepted: 7 August 2014
Published online (uncorrected proof): 13 April 2015
DOI:10.2166/wp.2015.089

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.