Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Integrated Flood Risk Management: Basic Concepts and the Japanese Experience, Taylor＆Frnacis Group・Routledge, 2022.11
The author has been the Director and Advisor of the International Center for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) at the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, since its establishment in 2006. D. and M.A. programs in collaboration with the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and JICA, and has trained 7 doctoral students and 110 M.A. graduates by 2016. I also assisted many of these students. The author continues to teach at ICHARM and the number of graduates continues to grow.
In the first half of the book, the author gives an overview of the evolution of the basic concept of water resources and water-related disaster prevention, focusing on UN activities related to development and the environment. In the second half, the author explains the valuable experience of Japan in this context, including its historical and cultural background, and touches on future prospects. As hydro-meteorological extreme events become more and more intense, the world has high expectations for Japan's disaster prevention technologies and policies, and this book will be especially useful for foreign students related to water-related disaster countermeasures, those who are in charge of lectures for overseas trainees, and those who have overseas projects.
Water-related disaster management tends to be localized and focused on general affairs due to its nature, but this book is valuable for its background and vision from a global perspective, including the United Nations. Glocal (global + local) is one of ICHARM's mottos: in 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster occurred, and in 2016, the Kinugawa River levee broke in Joso City, a neighbor of Tsukuba City, flooding 40 square km of the city. The photo on the cover shows the Chikuma River breaking its bank at Hoyasu in Nagano City during Typhoon No. 19 in 2019. At that time, the Nagano Shinkansen Train Center was flooded. These suggest the need for a flexible and comprehensive strategy from a broad perspective, rather than adhering to conventional responses, which is also connected to the recent River Basin Disaster Resilience and Sustainability by All strategy in Japan. At the end of the book, the author talks about Sontoku Ninomiya, who was based in Sakura-machi, Mooka City, Tochigi Prefecture, near Tsukuba City, as a founder who provided essential ideas and management tools for disaster recovery and development in impoverished areas. We are confident that his thoughts are fully conveyed to our graduates who have begun to work in various parts of the world.
Minoru Kamoto, Chief Engineer, Japan Civil Engineering Consultants Association
Former Chief Researcher, ICHARM