IFNet_Newsletter

IFNet Newsletter July 2011 issue
Aug 2, 2011 / IFNet secretariat

FLOOD NEWS

MAJOR FLOODS on July 2011

1.Flooding in Korea and Japan
1-1 Flood in Republic of Korea
The heaviest rains in 100 years, totaled over 530mm, attacked on Seoul and its surrounding areas from July 26 to 28, resulted in leaving 60 dead and 10 missing. Because of this relentless rain, roads in the central Seoul were flooded like rivers and some subway lines stopped running.

http://reliefweb.int/node/437770
http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=118731

1-2 Flood in Japan
The same rain-front, which hit Korea, brought intensive rains in Niigata and Fukushima Prefecture of northeastern Japan. The death tolls rose to three and three people are still missing. More than 180,000 people were asked to evacuate by the authorities. This region experienced serious flood disasters in July, 2004, which resulted in the death of 16 people. The damage to human lives of this time seemed to be reduced because people in this region were still aware of severeness of 2004 flood disaster and they well prepared to evacuate from earlier stage. However, some people, who had took refugee from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, were forced to evacuate again and passed an anxious night.

http://reliefweb.int/node/438108
http://reliefweb.int/node/437976

2.Updated information about the Great East Japan Earthquake
Continuous efforts are taken by the Government of Japan on recovery and rehabilitation in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake. The Basic Reconstruction Law from Great East Japan Earthquake was approved on June 20 which aims at establishing an independent agency for reconstruction work and at setting special zones for early and smooth reconstruction. Recovery and reconstruction works are eagerly promoted under the policy direction of establishing the system to promote “Tsunami-resistant community development through multiple defense lines”.

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000161202.pdf
Cabinet Office
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/incident/index.html

3.U.S. NOAA released the report on climate extremes of Spring 2011
The spring of 2011 brought extreme weather and climate events to many parts of the United States, which include tornadoes, flooding, drought, and wildfires. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the technical report in the following website.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/special-reports/2011-spring-extremes/index.php

4.Introduction of IDI’s activities: Support of JICA training and dialogue program on climate change adaptation
Infrastructure Development Institute (IDI) supported the implementation of JICA Hyogo’s training and dialogue program “Capacity Development of Policy Making in Climate Change Adaptation in Water Sector”, which was held for eleven days starting from June 14, 2011. This program aims at strengthening the capacity of high-level administrative officers of Vietnamese government for making policy on climate change adaptation. The detailed report can be found on the following website.

http://www.internationalfloodnetwork.org/index/JICA_training.pdf

5.Fifth International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5) in Tokyo, September 27-29
ICFM is the only recurring international conference wholly focused on flood related issues. It is designed to bring together practitioners and researchers alike, including engineers, planners, health specialists, disaster managers, decision makers, and policy makers engaged in various aspects of floodplain management. The ICFM5 theme is "Floods: From Risk to Opportunity", reflective of the continued trend towards a broader understanding of how we collectively make use of the opportunities provided by floods and flooding, cope with risks posed by them and plan for and respond to flood events. It is a good opportunity for the IFNet members proactively to participate in this conference. More details can be found on the below website.

http://www.ifi-home.info/icfm-icharm/icfm5.html