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IAC News No.39,January 2016

Japan Society of Civil Engineers  International Activities Center January. 5, 2016 IAC News No.39


Noriaki Hirose
JSCE President

A New Year’s Message from the President

Seasons greetings.
Looking back to 2015, we were able to deepen ties with people from around the world at a number of opportunities. I represented Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) at the Executive Committee Meeting (ECM) of Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC) in Dhaka in March. In addition, I attended the annual conventions of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Korean Society of Civil Engineers (KSCE) in October. I also attended international events in the JSCE Annual Meeting in September including the special discussion entitled “Message to the Japanese Civil Engineering / Construction Industry from Former International Students who Studied in Japan” and the international roundtable meeting entitled “Leveraging Big Data for Infrastructure Management and Sustainable Development.” These experiences reminded me that we share common concerns in the world such as fostering young generation and climate change issues. I was also able to deepen the JSCE’s international exchanges at the World Engineering Conference and Convention (WECC) 2015 in Kyoto and communication with people from overseas who visited JSCE.

JSCE 2015, the midterm action plan, places priority on international technology value transfer, and we will continue to promote it in the coming year. A new technical committee on Trans-disciplinary Approach for Building Societal Resilience to Disasters (TC21) of ACECC, proposed by JSCE, has been approved and is expected to promote the sharing of knowledge about disaster reduction and disaster risk impact assessment among countries. We will continue to encourage young people in Japan to focus their attention overseas through activities such as the “Construction Industry Global Vision Lecture Series" and the “IAC Japanese Civil Engineers Global Leaders Symposium Series”. Also, we will stimulate the activities of overseas sections of JSCE and strengthen ties among JSCE members, who include engineers in various countries and Japanese engineers who are engaged in activities overseas. This year, we will further enhance JSCE’s activities to transcend the boundaries of civil engineering and to help improve the lives of people around the world.

It has been approved that Civil Engineering Conference in the Asian Region (CECAR), which is the largest activity of ACECC held every three years, will take place in Japan in 2019. This is an opportunity for civil engineers from various countries to get together and discuss common concerns. We will begin preparations for this conference in earnest this year, and I hope that we can count on your assistance and cooperation.

 


Global Vision Lecture Series (February 27, 2015)
 
International Roundtable Meeting in JSCE Annual Meeting (September 16, 2015)

Report on “Joint seminar on maintenance of concrete structures in Philippines”

“Joint Seminar on Maintenance of Concrete Structures in Philippines- Utilization of the Knowledge of Standard Specification for Concrete Structures of JSCE (Concrete Codes)” was held in Metro Manila on Aug. 26th 2015. The joint seminar was co-organized by JSCE Concrete Committee, JSCE Philippine Section and University of the Philippines Diliman.

The venue of the seminar was “Eastwood Richmond Hotel” located in Queson City, where is northern part of Metro Manila. The purposes of this seminar was to introduce the effectiveness of “JSCE Concrete Codes” to Philippine engineers and to spread Japanese maintenance ideas and concepts of concrete structures based on “JSCE Guidelines for Concrete NO.4 Standards Specifications for Concrete  Structures 2001 Maintenance”, especially related to highway and port structures. The time schedule of seminar is shown as below.

There were 50 of participants from the fields of Governmental works, structural designers, constructors and university faculties. They were highly impressed in the presentations of Japanese lecturers. The population density of Metro Manila is now 18,000 person/ km2, which is 3 times larger than that of Tokyo. Under this highly crowded region, there are plenty of concrete structures such as buildings, loads, highway bridges and train bridges. Now the Philippines has been in the “Construction Age” enhanced by 5 to 6 % of economic growth while they should maintain old concrete structures, which contained concrete structures founded by Japanese ODA Projects. In the seminar, the participants exchanged their ideas and opinions under the situations of above.

In the process of maintenance of deteriorated concrete structures, it is difficult to find a proper answer, and we should find adaptable systems or methods in each country with considering technical levels, cultures, climate and economy. The joint seminar successfully ended as a first step in building collaborative discussions between Japan and the Philippines, and will be continued to further examine future maintenance of concrete structures.
Special thanks to JSCE International Scientific Exchange Fund which supported the joint seminar.

※This report is also published in the JSCE Concrete Committee News Letter No.43.
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/newsletter43/index.html

【JSCE Concrete Committee, Takahiro Nishida (Kyoto University)】


Prof. Maruyama delivers a presentation about the JSCE Concrete Codes


Participants of seminar

Improving Natural Disaster Resilience in Japan－ Action Declaration and Action Plan －

1. Introduction
In order to protect people's lives and property from the threat posed by natural disasters such as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, torrential rains in Hiroshima, and other serious natural disasters that have occurred in recent years, Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) has decided to develop an action declaration and action plan to further strengthen its efforts for disaster reduction.

In December 2013, JSCE established “Research Committee on Disaster Reduction and Prevention to Realize Strong and Resilient Society” under the umbrella of the Planning Committee, with the purpose of considering how to create a “nation that is strong and resilient to natural disasters,” where people can live in peace and safety.

2. Action declaration and action plan of JSCE
In June 2015, the committee issued a report summarizing the results of their activities, called "Action Declaration and Action Plan: For the Creation of a Nation that is Strong and Resilient in regard to Natural Disasters." The JSCE action declaration and action plan in the report are as follows.

◆Action Declaration
JSCE, as an organization of civil engineering technology experts, in order to create a nation that is resilient to natural disasters, will engage in the accumulation and dissemination of scientific knowledge and present the solutions to technical challenges to communities. At the same time, we will utilize scientific and technical knowledge in order to take concrete action to protect, insofar as possible, the lives of citizens, and the economic activity and vitality of the region.

◆Action Plan
JSCE, based on their own expertise, seek consistent support and cooperation from disaster-related fields, in order to protect the safety of the country and citizens. Based on the recognition that disasters will not wait, we aim to urgently upgrade branch systems, and have decided to carry out concrete disaster reduction activities rooted in the localities (region, district), and to urgently address the pressing issues shown below:

※Development assistance for district disaster reduction plans, inspections of regional disaster reduction plans, development of disaster reduction leaders, support for disaster response capacity building and human resource development, promotion and improvement of information sharing in disasters, promotion of disaster resilient urban planning, international cooperation, etc.

※Note：Committee report, in Japanese only http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kikaku/node/87

3. Future activities for disaster prevention and mitigation

JSCE President Noriaki Hirose, Advisor Kotaro Hashimoto, and other JSCE members met with Akihiro Ota, then Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, in July 2015 to explain the content of the report. Minister Ota indicated his expectation that JSCE will carry out locally based activities, produce specific examples soon, and work in collaboration with the Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Both in Japan and internationally, JSCE will publicize its disaster reduction and prevention activities by means such as the new Technical Committee on Trans-disciplinary Approach for Building Societal Resilience to Disasters (chairperson: Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Advisor of ICHARM), whose establishment was proposed by JSCE and approved by the Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC) in October 2015.


Minister Akihiro Ota meeting with JSCE President Noriaki Hirose and Advisor Kotaro Hashimoto on July 29, 2015.

【Yoshihiro Katsuhama, Membership & Planning Division, JSCE】

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Editor's postscript

Do you know Monkey Years in the Chinese Zodiac? It is the Monkey Years in 2016. The “Monkey” indicate being witty, intelligent and having a magnetic personality, yet mischievous. And it likes to take challenges. Does this sound familiar? I hope to learn the good traits of “Monkey.” “Think wisely and act wisely in 2016,” I’m telling myself.  (Y.S)