Activity Report

27-29 May 2024 (Incheon, Republic of Korea)

ADRC participated in the Inter-Regional Dialogue 2024, with the theme "Tools and Technologies for Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment and Early Warning: Sharing Experience among Countries in the Asia Pacific Region," held on 27-29 May 2024 in Incheon, Republic of Korea. This event was jointly organized by the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Office for Northeast Asia & Global Education and Training Institute (UNDRR ONEA & GETI) in support of the Early Warnings for All initiative, which the UN Secretary-General launched in 2022 to ensure a universal coverage of early warning systems by 2027.

In this dialogue, participants from the trilateral cooperating countries China, Japan, and Korea (CJK) shared their respective experiences, tools, and technologies on multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) with other countries in Asia-Pacific region, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, and Viet Nam as well as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Kazakhstan.

The common MHEWS issues in these countries are: 1) warning information is not targeted to specific communities-at-risk; 2) warning information dissemination is usually one-way communication, and there is no feedback on whether the communities-at-risk have successfully evacuated; and 3) different warning agencies maintain their own databases that need to be integrated to achieve reliable forecast and warning.

Japan made two presentations at the plenary. One concerned the "QZSS DC Report," an early warning message dissemination service of Japan using the "Michibiki" satellites system known as "Quasi-Zenith Satellites System," presented by Mr Gerry Potutan, senior researcher at ADRC. The other concerned the "Nankai Trough Earthquake Warning Information," delivered by Mr UMETSU Togo, Policy Office International Cooperation Division Disaster Management Bureau, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan.

This inter-regional dialogue facilitated greater regional collaboration in terms of: 1) available MHEWS tools and technologies; 2) effective practices for risk reduction among disaster-prone countries in relation to early warning; and 3) community-level capacity development in disaster risk reduction between Northeast Asia and other sub-regions of the Asia Pacific region.

(2024/06/03 15:00)

20 May - 12 July 2024

Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) conducted the JICA Knowledge Co-Creation Program course entitled "Comprehensive Disaster Risk Reducion for Central and South American Countries JFY2024," from 20 May to 12 July 2024 in cooperation with JICA Kansai.

It was attended by 14 participants from 12 Central and South American countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.

The program consisted of 4 weeks of online and 4 weeks of face-to-face lectures and exercises to learn about Japanese experiences and technologies in disaster risk reduction. It also included site visits in Hyogo, Tokyo and Iwate Prefectures to observe various countermeasures including sediment-related disaster countermeasures at the Nigawa Landslide Museum and flood control measures at Kitakami River in Ichinoseki City. At the end of the course, the participants developed a draft local plan for DRR in their own countries through an 8-step workshop. After returning to their respective countries, they are expected to actively engage in DRR measures to reduce humanitarian and economic losses due to disasters.

ADRC would like to express its sincerest gratitude to all the organisations and universities that contributed to the success of this course.

(2027/07/19 15:00)

13 May 2024 (Lima, Peru)

As host economy for 2024, Peru has been hosting a series of APEC Senior Officials' Meetings (SOM) this year. During the second senior officials' meeting (SOM2), the Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG) took the opportunity to organize the 17th session of the Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum (SDMOF-17) on 13 May 2024 at Cerro Juli Convention Center in Lima, Peru. It adopted the theme, "Emergency Preparedness for Sustainable Growth and Sound Development with an Inclusive and Community Approach."

ADRC Project Director SUZUKI Koji, who co-chaired the EPWG from 2020-2023, headed the Japan delegation and introduced the project "Public private partnership for decision making support system with AI technology" in one of the SDMOF's sessions. At its core, this collaborative project advances the use of satellite big data and spatial artificial intelligence (AI) to model decision-making processes related to disaster risk reduction and management. In particular, Mr SUZUKI highlighted the following features of the project: 1) integration of social factors in applying scientific innovations, e.g., remote sensing technology, AI data analysis science, and digital twinning; 2) modeling of decision criteria for decision-making based on scientific facts, including collaboration between public and private sectors in verifying test results; and 3) real-time understanding of damage situations based on big data analysis and research prediction.

Participants of the SDMOF gained greater insights on the importance of cooperation through public-private partnerships to improve responsiveness with a focus on interoperability of information systems for decision making. Mr SUZUKI noted that the lead agency of this project is the Center for Environmental Remote Sensing of Chiba University with ADRC, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech), Oriental Consultant Global (OCG), Weather News INC., and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd as participating agencies. The project also partners with the Italian space agency, Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali (CIRA).

(2024/05/20 15:00)

9 May 2024 (Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei)

The 7th ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) + Japan Meeting was held on 9 May 2024 in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. As a part of the program, Mr SASAHARA Akio, Executive Director of ADRC, gave presentations on the final outcome of two projects: "Promotion of Database Linkage and Capacity Enhancement through Utilisation of GLIDE" and "Pilot Project on Utilisation of State-of-the-Art Communication Technologies for CBDRM and Disaster Emergency Management," which were implemented to promote the "ASEAN-Japan Work Plan on Disaster Management 2021-2025." Regarding the CBDRM activities, the delegates from Malaysia, the target country of the project, expressed their gratitude for its successful completion. Additionally, proposals for the intended next phase of these projects were explained. In the meeting, there were also reports on the progress of various activities of the ASEAN-Japan Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan. Furthermore, ADRC participated in a field visit held on the last day, which facilitated interaction among the meeting participants.

<Side Meetings with Representatives of Member Countries and Relevant Organisations>
As Brunei, the host country of the ACDM + Japan Meeting, officially became a member of ADRC on 1 May 2024, a meeting was held with the Director of Brunei's National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) to discuss future cooperation activities. We also had meetings with representatives from Malaysia, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the AHA Centre.

(2024/05/16 15:00)

1 May 2024

In response to an application from Brunei Darussalam to become a member, Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) has welcomed them as the 33rd ADRC member country as of 1 May 2024. ADRC anticipates that the active participation of Brunei Darussalam will further enhance ADRC's activities.

(2024/05/08 15:00)