IAC News

Japan Society of Civil Engineers  International Activities Center November 28, 2013 IAC News No.14

 

JSCE’s the 100th Anniversary Celebration on Contribution of Infrastructure to Life of Affluence

Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), as Public Interest Incorporated Association, celebrates its 100th anniversary in November 2014. In the past 100 years, the Society has seen dramatic changes in society as well as civil engineer’s responsibility to society in the last 100 years. While facing several social issues such as frequent natural disasters, natural resources, energy relating problems and environmental problems, we civil engineers have realized that we have to develop our antenna to catch diversified needs for us and to continue our best efforts to respond to those needs in order to our contribution to society, holding a broad and long-term perspective. As looking back on the past achievements and international technical exchange, we would like to examine future civil engineering and its responsibility at an International Symposium under the theme Contribution of Infrastructure to Life of Affluence to be held during the100th Anniversary Celebration.

We will carry out two international meetings: Roundtable Meeting (RTM: 3rd Asian Board Meeting) in which experts will be invited from Asian countries on November 19 and 20, and International Panel Discussion (IPD) on the aforesaid theme on 20th.  The RTM will discuss civil engineering contribution to natural disaster prevention and mitigation. The IPD will invite experts in civil engineering and related fields overseas and discuss disaster infrastructure maintenance and management, responses to global warming, the realization of disaster-resilient society, effective approaches and solutions for issues on infrastructure management, and farther, each countries’ efforts and future disaster plans.  Through the discussions, we will examine and indentify the civil engineering to be in the coming century.

These international meetings will be hold at JP Tower Hall and Conference, which is located across from JR Tokyo Station. Attendance will be free of charge. Reception will start at 18:00, free of charge as well. We look forward to meeting many of you.

Please take a look at the tentative projects hosted by International Program Committee (Table-1). The projects 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 were selected from among the proposals submitted by the public under JSCE’s regional chapters and committees’ call for project proposals to commemorate 100th Anniversary.

“16th International Summer Symposium” and “Workshop for Asian Young Engineers”, will be offered at 2014 JSCE Annual Meeting to be held at Osaka University in next September. These meetings will be excellent opportunities for young engineers to present their projects and exchange ideas and views with each other. Your participations are very welcomed. http://www.jsce-int.org/node/236
Thank you very much.
 

ASCE 143rd Annual Civil Engineering Conference Report

ASCE 143rd Annual Civil Engineering Conference 2013 was held in Charlotte, North Carolina from October 10-12, 2013. JSCE delegation consisted of seven members including Kotaro Hashimoto, JSCE President and Hirofumi Ohnishi, JSCE Executive Director participated in the conference. The delegates had a meeting to discuss the matters on cooperation in ASCE 144th Annual Civil Engineering Conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal and in JSCE’s 100th anniversary celebrating events. Additionally, they had a meeting with persons in charge of Report Card for America's Infrastructure for creating the Report Card which JSCE Committee on Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal is studying. They also had a meeting with city officials of Charlotte regarding the role of civil engineers, and so on.

At the opening ceremony on October 10, ASCE President Gregory DiLoreto reported ASCE’s activities and projects in the past year. He said that one of the remarkable things was media had reported 11,000 times about ASCE 2013 Report Card in six months after its release in March. DiLoreto also emphasized that civil engineers should serve as ‘global leaders’ aiming to improve the quality of life. In the following key note address, the former anchor on CNN international, journalist Ali Velshi highly evaluated ASCE Report Card 2013 which also could contribute to improve cost-effectiveness, not only evaluated the current condition of America’s infrastructure. He said lack of concern for these new efforts about infrastructure was a problem. The conference included General Sessions, Industry Leaders Forum and Business Meeting. In particular, there were many sessions about Report Card both at federal and state level, following the release of ASCE 2013 Report Card.

On the second day of the conference ―October 11, JSCE delegates had a meeting with Brian T.Pallasch and Emily Fishkin who were responsible for creating ASCE Report Card. They provided very useful information on specific work procedures and contents of establishing assessment committee, collecting data, method of evaluation, expense, etc., for the launch of JSCE Report Card in future.

Afterwards, Luncheon Meeting was held, and ASCE and JSCE agreed on mutual exchanges for JSCE’s 100th anniversary celebrating events and ASCE 144th Annual Civil Engineering Conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal to be held in Panama. JSCE requested ASCE to provide a lecture at International Symposium on November 20th, and to participate in JSCE 100th Commemorative Ceremony on November 21st, 2014. Mr. Hashimoto, JSCE President handed out the invitation to ASCE to attend the JSCE’s 100th anniversary ceremony. Meanwhile, ASCE 2014 Annual Conference will be held in Republic of Panama from October 7- 11, 2014. Introducing the historical relationship between Japanese and Panama Canal that Mr. Aoyama, the 23rd President of JSCE, was involved in the construction of the Panama Canal, JSCE proposed to provide an anniversary lecture on 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal.

Opening Ceremony

Meeting about Report Card

ASCE President Mr. DiLoreto and his wife, JSCE President Mr. Hashimoto and JSCE delegates (At International Dinner on Oct.10)

At the closing session, Fred Berger, ASCE 2014 Annual Conference Chair, introduced The Panama Canal expansion project using video. 2013 Annual Conference closed with a promise to meet again in Panama and 2014 Annual Conference Committee took over the role. I hope many members’ active participation for the success of the anniversary events of ASCE and JSCE to be held next year. Your support is greatly appreciated.

 

2013 Koran Society of Civil Engineering (KSCE) Annual Meeting Report

Koran Society of Civil Engineering (KSCE)’s annual meeting (KSCE 2013 Conference) was held in High 1 Resort, Gangwon-do, Korea for three days from October 23 to 15. JSCE delegation of 6 members- Mr. Kotaro Hashimoto, JSCE President, Mr. Asao Yamakawa, JSCE IAC Director, Dr. Kazuya Egami, JSCE IAC Korea Group Leader, Prof. Yasushi Sasaki, Emeritus professor, Saitama University, Mr. Takehiko Hatsuku, Shuto Engineering Co., Ltd, and Mr. Tachibana, IAC staff member, went to participate in the conference.

Day1: We with other international guests went on a technical tour to visit IPO Weir which was built on a branch of Hangang River as part of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project by the bus arranged by KSCE. At the K-WATER maintenance office, staff members explained that project and the maintenance and operation of the weir, and visited its facilities. The round part of the weir was copied the image of bird’s egg, in which a sluice operation room was placed. As the other ones were designed to represent local areas in that project, the IPO Wier was the same, which provided the local residents with an oasis.

Day 2: We attended the opening ceremony, and then the Civil Engineering Leader's Network. Later, a bilateral meeting between KSCE and JSCE was carried out. In the meeting, both parties discussed JSCE’s 100th Anniversary Celebration International Roundtable Meeting and commemorative ceremony and future collaboration. Prof. Jongsung Sim the KSCE President kindly accepted our invitation to the 100th anniversary celebration.
At the International Roundtable Meeting, four speakers including Prof. Sasaki delivered presentations under the theme "Environmental Design Aquatic Plants in Urban Streams." The audience enjoyed their discussions, but at Prof. Sasaki who referred to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, changed their postures and listened to him attentively. After all four discussions, the audience made many questions and comments and exchanged ideas with those speakers. The meeting closed successfully.

IPO Weir

Prof. Sasaki delivers a presentation at IRM

Day 3: We left the hotel at 6:00 a.m. with JSCE Korea Section Presidents Dr. Kyung-Book Park and Prof. Dong-Uk Lee and headed out to the Soyang Dam the largest rock-fill dam in the East Asian region, constructed in cooperation with Japan forty year ago. The dam served a multi-purpose dam: flood control, water supply to the Seoul metropolitan area and hydraulic power generation. According to the K-WATER, the dam which offered nice walking and cycling courses and beautiful views for boat-riding attracted over 1 million visitors a year.
 

Then, we visited Korean Expressway Corp. Chuncheon Office, and learned their road maintenance and projects such as the Seoul-Chuncheon expressway PPP project and the ongoing 10-km-long tunnel construction Korea’s longest tunnel. We also gained the information of traffic control system, traffic volume guarantee systems, and issues on private investment for renovation and maintenance. We traveled 250km in the morning. It was a long yet worthwhile trip for us. Before leaving for home, we had a lunch meeting with Japanese engineers who were worked in Korea with the support of the Japanese Embassy. We had a pleasant and informative exchange of information and ideas with them.  

Meanwhile, we were watching the paths of two typhoons which were approaching Japan and got a little uneasy that we would not get home in time. But our worries were in vain, and we returned home safely with a lot of good memories.

Last, but not least, we would like to thank Dr. Park and Prof. Lee for the warm hospitality, kind assistance and support. Thank you so much.

 

JSCE 2013 Annual Meeting International Session

 

 

IAC Current News  (Kotaro Hashimoto The 101st JSCE President)

◆I attended 2013 ASCE’s and KSCE’s annual meeting

I attended ASCE’s 143rd Annual Civil Engineering Conference held in Charlotte, N.C on October 9 to 12. During that conference, a meeting between ASCE and JSCE was held. I with the JSCE delegation had a discussion with ASCE executives including Mr. Gregory E. Di Loreto the 2013 President, Mr. Randall S. Over the 2014 President, Mr. Andrew W. Herrmann the 2012 President and Mr. Fred Berger the Annual 2014 Conference Chair. We handed them an invitation to JSCE’s 100th Anniversary Celebration to be held in next November and also put forward a proposal to deliver a keynote speech on Mr. Akira Aoyama who had participated in the Panama Canal construction project at ASCE’s next annual conference in which the 100th Anniversary of Panama Canal would be celebrated. That proposal was accepted by them. 

Besides participating in the annual conference, we had other purposes, which were to learn about ASCE’s infrastructure Report Card and about the roles and responsibilities that civil engineers carried out within City of Charlotte. We were fortunate to the opportunities to meet the persons in charge of the infrastructure report card and the City of Charlotte. The meetings were very useful and productive, and we came to realize the meanings of the report card that we intended to produce in order to improve the public’s knowledge and understanding of the state of Japan’s infrastructure, and to remind ourselves that we should remain neutral and objective in collecting and analyzing data.

Then, on October 23 to 25, I went to KSCE’s 2013 Convention held in High 1 Resport in Gangwon-do in Korea. We gave a brief idea and invited JSCE’s 100th Anniversary as we did to ASCE, in a KSCE-JSCE meeting. KSCE accepted the invitation and further discussed future collaborations with JSCE as well.
I visited Korea Expressway Corp Chuncheon Office and Soyanggang Dam　on the last day of my trip. Both were efficiently operated and maintained, that I saw there.
Last, but not least I would like to thank Prof. Dong-Uk Lee, the JSCE Korea Section president for his kindness, effort and time spent in translating “Special Act for the Safety Control of Public Structures (2011, 2012) into Japanese, which Dr. Kyoung-Soo Kim CEO of Korea Infrastructure Safety and Technology Corp discussed at the International Panel Discussion, 2013 JSCE Annual Meeting in this September. I am greatly impressed by his effort that was spent in completing the translation of such a vast amount of text in a short period of time. Thank you so much, Prof. Lee. I will use it as a reference for examining issues at Japan’s infrastructure maintenance and renewal. 
Thank you very much.
 

What's Happening

●Dec 23: Korea-Japan Joint Symposium on Road Bridge Maintenance and Management in Seoul

 

Updates

●The summary of feature articles in the JSCE Magazine is available on the JSCE website.
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine
●Concrete Committee International Newsletter No. 35
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/Newsletter.htm
●Mr. Daisuke Saito of JSCE UK Section was recognized for his presentation on “Double Deck Prestressed Composite Truss Bridge Design” at IABSE “Future of Design 2013” on Sept. 12.
http://www.iabsekempfod.com/young_engineers.html
●Center for Promoting Japan-Vietnam Civil Engineers Collaboration opened@ NUCE, Hanoi
http://vnctimes.com.vn/portal/news/2013/11/7699/
 

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Y's  Murmuring

The president and IAC members are busy traveling from one country to another like globe-trotters to attend JSCE’s friends’ societies in this autumn. The president flew for 13 hours to have a meeting with the ICE President in London just a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to IT-oriented generation, we enjoy emailing, twittering, smart-phone-talking every day. Cell phones, smart phones, and IPad, these high-tech gizmos are our glorious achievements, and much smarter than users. Then, why do we take time to go see and talk with our friends face to face? Sharing the same time and place, looking at each other’s eyes, and listening to each other’s voices., something there more than we talk with the gizmos. Well, seeing is worth a thousand words, and treasure every encounter, for it will never recur.