The University of the Philippines Los Baños-Interdisciplinary Studies Center for Water (UPLB-IDSCW), in cooperation with the School of Environmental Science and Management-Continuing Education and Training Division (SESAM-CETD), organized a webinar entitled “Flood Disasters Resilience and Sustainability under Climate Change” in February 7, 2023 via Zoom and Facebook Live. 

This webinar is co-sponsored by the International Centre in Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), Public Works Research Institute (PWRI), National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS)-Hybrid Water-related Disaster Risk Assessment Technology for Sustainable Local Economic Development Policy (HyDEPP). The UPLB-IDSC for water invited Japanese Professors Dr. Masaru Sugahara, Director of GRIPS and Dr. Toshio Koike, Executive Director of ICHARM and Chair, of the River Council of Japan.

Dr. Rico C. Ancog, Dean of SESAM expressed his gratitude to the UPLB-IDSC for Water and CETD for holding this webinar, as well as to Dr. Sugahara and  Dr. Toshio Koike for providing their insights in this very relevant topic. “This webinar fits very well to the mandate of SESAM, to contribute in the science of climate change, as well as disaster risk reduction and management” Dr. Ancog said.

For his part, Dr. Fernando C. Sanchez, Jr., former UPLB Chancellor and now Project Director of HyDEPP-SATREPS Philippines, thanked Drs. Sugahara and Koike for sharing their ideas in policies and policy implementation by Japan to achieve and sustain disaster resilience under climate change. “Our webinar this afternoon will provide this opportunity to identify practices in Japan, with the help of ICHARM, PWRI and GRIPS which we might draw inspiration to adopt starting with our local communities”, Dr. Sanchez said.

A building and urban disaster management policy specialist, Dr. Sugahara said his presentation entitled “Disasters in the World and Japan” is part of the project supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan with the aim of promoting better understanding of the Japan’s policy among specialists and students in other countries. To date, Dr. Sugahara said the Tohoku earthquake in March 2011 was Japan’s worst disaster that happened in recent time. The earthquake and tsunami that struck the eastern coast of northern Japan caused more than 19,000 deaths or missing people. 

“Recently, the government developed key measures, such as the amendment the river basin management plans and system, promote relocation from hazardous areas, development evacuation bases and mitigate damages, early recovery and reconstruction”, Dr. Sugahara stressed.

Meanwhile, Dr. Koike, an awardee in 2008 by World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environmental Protection for his contribution in the IPCC Nobel Peace Prize, said that the river act of Japan was amended in 1997 focusing on improvement and conservation of river environment and also incorporate the opinions of local residents.  

In his presentation entitled “Flood Disasters Resilience and Sustainability under Climate Change”, Dr. Koike said the planning system includes three steps: first, the basic river management policy; second, the river improvement plan; and third, the implementation of river projects. 

For disaster management, Dr. Koika, said the Science Council of Japan recommended that the scientific community should develop an online synthesis system to promote disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. According to Dr. Koike, the scientific community should foster facilitators– to do exploration, collection, archive and search scientific information to enable them to predict, simulate and visualize. “This could help our science community to develop the integrated scientific knowledge”, Dr. Koike stressed.

In her closing statement, Dr. Patricia Ann J. Sanchez, SESAM Professor and Program Manager of HyDEPP-SATREPS Philippines said that the strategies presented by the Japanese professors are practical and can be easily adopted in the Philippines. More than 160 participants joined this webinar via Zoom and FB Live. The recording of this webinar can also be watched on SESAM’s Facebook page at https://facebook.com/UPLBsesam.