Friday, December 21, 2018

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2018 [9th Dec - 15th Dec]

Hi everyone, this is Moiz, D2 student from Kawasaki Research Group. I'll be writing about my attendance at AGU2018 held at Washington D.C., one of the biggest scientific conferences for Geoscience enthusiasts, for presenting my work on 'Understanding the Reliance of Kurobe River's Cascaded Dam System on Seasonal Snowmelt Runoff using a Distributed Hydrological Model'. Kawasaki-sensei, Ralph-san, and Wei-san also participated in the conference with me.

Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Presenting my work (Photo credits: Kawasaki-sensei)


I was able to get a lot of feedback from a lot of peers, particularly those from Switzerland, Norway, and China in addition to others, most likely due to the existence of high hydropower potential in these areas. Besides my poster, there were a ton of poster presentations and oral presentations from very diverse specializations in geosciences, so there was always something to look forward to.

There were also a ton of memorials and monuments in close vicinity of the convention center, so in my free time, I could get a chance to visit some of the more famous ones such the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial among many others.

U.S. Capitol


Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument
I was also surprised to find quite a lot of Pakistani restaurants in D.C., perhaps more than even compared to Tokyo. I could always try some food from my hometown in D.C. quite easily.

Dinner at Pakistani Restaurant

Thanks to AGU, we were also able to visit the Smithsonian Museums at nighttime (the museum are usually closed at night). These museums were huge so we could only visit 2 out the 4 museums, the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. But I found these museums to be one of the most detailed museums I have probably ever been to.

Air and Space Museum

Museum of Natual History

All in all, it was a pretty good experience to attend AGU for the first time and meet so many peers who are also interested in the similar kind of research as me, and visiting Washington D.C. was also pretty fun.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Field Trip in Yangtze River, Day 2

Hello everyone, this is Liu Chang again giving you a brief summary on our second day field trip. Because we arrived quite late yesterday due to foggy weather, we plan to have a rest in the morning and start our trip after lunch.

Chongqing is famous for its delicious spicy food, so we visit a small restaurant near our hotel and have a fascinating lunch. The boiled fish is not so spicy but fresh and active. And the tofu is sweet with special favor in it. Although Prof. Shiroyama has been to China many times, she still announces the fish to be the best.
Delicious tofu lunch
 After that we get to the cable car. The cable car was first built in 1987 to help tourist across Yangtze River. The old operating system is remained in the waiting place. Although the weather is quite foggy, the view from the cable car is still beautiful. And Chongqing has a special emotion under this foggy weather. One small finding during the journey is that the slope of Chongqing is quite steep and building construction here seems to be very hard.
Old Operating Panel

View from the Cable Car

Outside the Cable Car

Construction Site
 Later we go to the Three Gorges Museum. It is a big museum of four stories, as we have limited time, we just visit the first floor in detail. One exhibition was about culture in “Nanman” region. Based on the historical records, combined with literature and culture relics all the exquisite relics in this exhibition are displayed with background. Some high-grade ritual and music bronzes are quite precious.



 Another exhibition is about the construction of Three Gorges Dam. To clarify the political attitude of this exhibition I would like to quote as following: “The Three Gorges Project is a long-cherished dream of the Chinese nation. The success of the Project lies in the migration from the Three Gorges area. Under the guidance of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, local part committees and governments, confronted with all the obstacles and difficulties, prioritized the migration politically. In response, the migrants gave the full support for he national project with practical action to leave their homes. This is known to the Chinese as the spirit of the Three Gorges migrants which contributes to the great feat of massive migration.”

One truth of above statement is that there were 1.29 million migrants during the construction. Two whole cities and ten towns were moved to other places. More than 1,600 companies changed their places. This only takes about ten years. Reading about this reminds me of Yanba Dam in Japan which spend more than 50 years for migrating 1,000 people. Reviewing the situation of migrating has brought me a lot of considering. We live with a powerful government, and sometimes power is required to do something magnificent.

So, most of the exhibition is the residuals of old Three Gorges region. We can see many stones and statues rescued from underwater.
Rescued Statue Wall

Rescued Statues

Famous Stone Wall carved by Yangtze River
 Then we go to visit Zhougong Mansion. It was a building for Chinese Communists during 1938 to 1945. Professors from history and economic department have had a passionate discussion about it.
Outside View of Zhougong Mansion
 Finally, we visit Ciqikou Ancient Town. This used to be a center of porcelain trade, now it has become a combination of restaurants and stores just like many other ancient towns. But Prof. Shiroyama find an interesting museum collecting food coupon! As a Chinese, it’s still the first time I’ve ever seen a real food coupon in real. Food coupon is a kind of certification 1950s~1990s purchasing goods and food (oil, rice, cloth, etc.). During that time, you can not live without this coupon. This can be a quite good teaching material when you learn about modern Chinese economic history.
Hot Pot Sauce in Ciqikou Town

Food Coupon Collection
 Later, we find another store which sells picture-story book and food coupon! I remember that my father used to keep a lot of picture-story books. And I’ve even read some of them myself. Some of the picture-story books are derive from movies, some from fairy tale. I even find some Japanese movie story books among them! In last century, this kind of story books is like website nowadays. They are quite precious in many meanings.
Picture-story Books
 Although we came back from dinner very late, we somehow still managed to catch the ship in Chongqing Port. And we drink wine together to celebrate this success.

Field Trip in Yangtze River, Day 1

Hello everyone, this is Liu Chang, M2 student writing about our field trip in Yangtze River (長江) basin. For your brief information, this field trip was planned by Prof. Shiroyama from Faculty of Economics. Therefore, Prof. Kawasaki, Sam-san and I will join this trip with professors who majored in economics and history. As we have arrived in Wuhan (武漢) yesterday night, we are planning to visit Hankou Customs House Museum and leave for Chongqing (重慶) in the afternoon.
Schematic Map of Three Towns in Wuhan
Because we are about to talk a lot about history, some geographical information will certainly help. One important thing is that Wuhan (武漢) is consisted of three towns known as Hankou (漢口), Wuchang (武昌) and Hanyang (漢陽). These three towns are separated by two rivers: Yangtze River (長江) and Han River (漢江).
Hankou Customs House Museum
As you can see from the photo above, the museum was used to be Hankow Customs House. You may wonder why the building looks in a western style. That is a good question. The construction of the Hankou Customs House was started in 1922 and completed in January 1924. With a reinforced concrete structure, the House covered a total floor area of 1,499 m2. Its four-story main building and five-story bell tower reached a total height of 45.85 meters. In terms of architectural style, it features the classical Greek style and European Renaissance style.

Why we built such building in Hankou? This has things to do with Chinese history. In the late Ming and early Qing, Hankou had become one of the four famous towns in China with advantageous central location, accessibility to the rivers and being at the crossroads of nine provinces. It was a major national inland trading port for its thriving handicraft industries and booming economy in this period. During the Second Opium War, Hankou was forced to be opened as a treaty port as required in the Treaty of Tianjin and the Convention of Beijing. In March 1861, Hankou was officially opened as a treaty port and maintained by British people. Concessions of many countries are built after that. British (1861), German (1895), Russian (1896), French (1896) and Japanese (1898) have all built their international settlement here. Hankou had witnessed invasions by foreign powers one after another, and Wuhan had undergone unprecedented changes in the fields of economics, politics and culture.
Concessions in Hankou
 Therefore, this Museum has collected documents and items which recorded this period (1861~1949) and we can have a touch of history in this small building.

The Receipts of he Export and Transit Tax of the Shanghai Customs (1939)


The Voucher of the Clearance and Shipping Permits of Tianjin Customs (1937)

Passport (1891)
 Although it sounds not so comfortable for local people to know their land being rented to foreigners by force, it is still a kind of modernization. The Hankou Customs adopted the organizational structure of British customs in which a “commissioner” served as the executive chief, under whom were the deputy commissioners and assistant managers. Based on the nature of the work, the Hankou Customs comprised seven departments including the General Affairs Dept., Secretary Dept., Accounting Dept., Inspection Dept., Port Management Dept., and the River Management Dept.

The main functions of the Hankou Customs included examining, assessing, taxing, inspecting the imports and exports, and managing the non-trading mailed articles of residents and foreign settlers across the national boundaries. Its responsibilities also included port administration, channels maintenance, water diversion, meteorological observations, postal service, quarantine, customs brokers management and so on. The museum reconstructed the office where they deal with imports and exports. There is even a video game teaching you how to declare your cargo.
Reconstruction of Customs Office
 Rest of the Museum is about the development of Wuhan after Xinhai Revolution (1911). With the modernization brought by foreigners, Wuhan ushered in its heyday of the financial industry. Many well-known domestic and foreign financial institutions gathered in Wuhan, making it a famous financial center next only to Shanghai in modern China.
China Industrial Bank (1936)
 Another interesting thing is about one photo of inundation condition in 1931. The building was Wuhan City Hall, but sadly we cannot find the residuals nowadays. But the height seems to match with our simulation result. So, it’s quite encouraging for us to see this photo.
A Picture of the Municipal Government of Hankou in the Flood (1931)
 And some models showing civilization from 1949 to 2014 is also fascinating. Maybe it’s not so correct, it’s still nice to see such development of this old city.
City Area in 1949
City Area in 1978
City Area in 2014

 During lunch, we are invited by professors from Central China Normal University. The food is so delicious. We felt even guilty not being able to finish them.
Lunch at Central China Normal University
After waiting for 3 hours in the airport. We finally arrive in Chongqing at around 9 pm. Then we have a nice hot pot for dinner. The spicy food and beautiful light impressed me deeply.

Dinner Street

Hot Pot

Night View of Central Chongqing


Tuesday, November 27, 2018


Hello everyone, It’s Gouri and sorry for the delayed update.

I have participated to the World Social Science Forum (WSSF) for three days from 26th September at Fukuoka with Kawasaki sensei and Shimomura-san.

The program includes multiple parallel sessions regarding various aspects of poverty by academic experts throughout the world along with poster sessions. There I too have done a poster presentation on “Assessment of socioeconomic impact due to floods in local scale; A case study in Sri Lanka” based on my research findings.

At the Poster Session
I have enjoyed not only the conference but also the Fukuoka area. There are several beautiful places around and I could visit the Fukuoka port with Shimomura san. It was a really nice experience to walk around Fukuoka port and surrounding area. Moreover, we tasted some local conventional dishes in Fukuoka. “ Motsunabe” is one of Fukuoka’s local dish which boiled in a pot of motsu (offal) of cows and pigs filled with leek, cabbage, and bean sprouts and then flavored with soy sauce and miso. We went to a “Motsunabe” restaurant for dinner one day. Not only “Motsunabe”, but also “Hakata ramen” is also a famous local food in Fukuoka. We have tasted “Hakata ramen” too.


The “Motsunabe” restaurant


“Motsunabe” pot

 “Hakata ramen” dish
Fukuoka Fort
Fukuoka Fort

It was a really nice experience to participate for the WSSF and visit Fukuoka area.

 

Sunday, November 4, 2018

黒部川見学

こんにちは.学部4年の西原です.

10/28,29に川崎先生と川崎グループ所属の5人で,関西電力のご協力のもと現地見学を行いました.今年の9月からグループに加わったChauthuriさん,Sardorさんにとっては初めての現地見学となり,私にとっても初めての黒部川訪問となりました.

北陸新幹線
1日目は北陸新幹線で黒部宇奈月温泉駅まで行ってから,富山地方鉄道に乗り換えて宇奈月温泉駅まで行き,宇奈月温泉の旅館で1泊しました.今回宿泊した旅館は,先生がお世話になっている方とつながりがあるらしく,手厚い歓迎を受け地元料理と地元の名酒をごちそうしていただきました.日本の伝統料理は初めてだというSardorさんも美味しそうに食べていて,安心しました.
地元・富山の魚介料理

翌日,まず宇奈月駅からトロッコに乗り欅平駅まで向かいました.私たちで乗ったのは工事車両で関西電力の関係者のみが乗車していたのですが,10両繋いでいる車両が満席で驚きました.さらに線路沿いには冬季に線路が冠雪しても上流部に行けるように冬季歩道が整備されていて,冬には毎日「逓送さん」と呼ばれる人がダム管理所に物資を供給するのだと聞いて,黒部川の環境の過酷さと,発電所を守り続ける職員の気概を感じることができました.
黒部峡谷鉄道は一般の旅客輸送も行っていて欅平までは行くことができます.2024年には欅平~黒部ダムルートが一般開放されるという話もあるので楽しみです.
黒部峡谷鉄道のトロッコ
欅平駅に到着すると,線路はトンネル内に入り,これより上流は一般の人は立ち入ることができない区域となります.私たちはトロッコを乗り換え,欅平上部駅から黒部第四発電所駅まで向かいました.
その途中,高熱隧道と呼ばれる岩盤が熱を帯びているエリアを通過しました.このエリアに関するエピソードは『高熱隧道』というノンフィクション小説にまとめられているそうで,時間があるときに一読してみようと思いました.
また仙人谷ダムもこの途中で通過しました.人気の全くしない峡谷に忽然とあるダム.後ろには所狭しと並ぶ紅葉した樹木.まさに仙人が出てきそうなこの幻想的な風景を見て,黒部に魅せられた,という当時の工事関係者の発言の意味が少し分かったような気がしました.
仙人谷ダム
黒部第四発電所を見学した後はインクライン,バスを乗り継いで黒部ダムを訪問しました.黒部ダムは発電所が点検のため停止しているおかげで本来は行っていない観光放流を行っており,そして今回は特別にキャットウォークから間近でその放流を見ることができてとても貴重な体験となりました.昼食はもちろんダムカレー!
ダムカレー
今回の現地見学では黒部川水系の上流にあるダム群や発電所群を全て見ることができました.私の卒業論文のテーマには黒部川のダム操作に関するものが含まれているため,堆砂の状況であったり運用に関する様々な制約条件であったりを五感で感じることができ,研究に対するモチベーションを上げることができ,少しでも貢献したいという思いを強くしました.
最後に,このような機会を作っていただいた関西電力の関係者の方々にこの場を借りて感謝を申し上げます.