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Adaptation to Global-Warming-Triggered Water Disasters Measures Taken by Science Council of Japan
Syunsuke Ikeda*,**
*Member and Secretary of Third Division, The Science Council of Japan
**Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
Received:December 5, 2008Accepted:December 15, 2008Published:February 1, 2009
Keywords:adaptation measures, climate change, social change, water-related disasters, international cooperation
Abstract
As pointed out by Assessment Report 4 of IPCC, global climate change will increase the magnitude and frequency of water-related disasters such as flooding, surge and drought. In addition to this the social changes such as population problems in Japan will aggravate the vulnerability to the disasters. Two concepts to cope with the water-related disasters triggered by climate change are adaptation and mitigation. Though abatement of GHG gas emissions has been eagerly argued, Japan should be more concerned with and take the initiative both for mitigation and adaptation. As adaptation measures for water-related disasters, 3 measures are proposed in this paper; building disaster-awareness societies, building physical/social structures, and adaptation R&D. In addition to them, it is necessary to bring reconstruction of the national land into medium- and long term views as paradigm shift. In this paper, the following recommendations are proposed for the adaptation: the Japanese government should be aware of the importance of adaptation and strongly promote adaptation to mitigate water-related disasters, and the government should also cooperate in establishing adaptation in sustaining development of Asian monsoon areas and development programs.
Cite this article as:S. Ikeda, “Adaptation to Global-Warming-Triggered Water Disasters Measures Taken by Science Council of Japan,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.4 No.1, pp. 3-6, 2009.Data files:
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http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/26/8/39889422.pdf - [3] Commission of the European Communities, “Adapting to climate change in Europe — options for EU action,&rdquo 2007.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0354:FIN:EN:PDF - [4] External Review Panel, “Preliminary Review Comments on IPET Volume VIII,” ASCE, 2008.
http://www.asce.org/files/pdf/erp_letter_4-15-08_FINAL.pdf
