R & D ANNUAL REPORT 2016

Grouped Activities include:

▫ Community map
- Drawing layouts of their surrounding community. The same group draw out a rough map of their community on a piece of oh mah-jong paper.
- Important landmarks and locations such as residential areas, hospitals, schools, government buildings, etc and rivers, roads, crop fields, public facilities, etc.
- Each group are then assigned to identify and list out the vulnerability and risk that can be found within the map and brainstorm on how they can minimize and/or mitigate the risk
- Along with how they can convert the vulnerabilities identified into capacities.

- Duration of the activity was about 40 minutes.

▫ Body map
- Help the students to process their feelings as they had just experienced a recent disaster.
- Main body: How has the disaster affected their health?
- Heart: What emotions have they experienced during the disaster? Has it affected their feelings toward other people?
- Arms and hands: What activity have they been involved in during the disaster?
- Legs and feet: What changes are there in places where people in general can or cannot go?

Recommendation
• Disaster response from past experience and proper disaster preparedness education is a necessary factor in building a disaster resilient community.
• Normalizing disaster preparedness education and helping it to be more accessible to different schools and states will ensure a more united workforce.

CDRR team members and students who visited the school with teacher in charge

Background of Workshop:
This workshop is the follow-up from The 1st UTAR-UST Workshop on “Disaster Risk Reduction and Management on Climate Changes“, August 13-15, 2015, Sungai Long Campus, UTAR, organized by CDRR, UTAR.
The main theme of this 2nd workshop was on Hazard Management and Reduction for Changing Climate and Environment based on Recent Experiences.

Objectives:
Some of the objectives of this workshop include:

1. Promote awareness and action on disaster risk reduction due to climate change issues, such as flood, in Malaysia and Taiwan;
2. Promote multidisciplinary research collaboration between UTAR of Malaysia and UST of Taiwan;
3. Provide a platform for inter-disciplinary discussion on how to tackle on disaster; risk reduction (DRR) and disaster risk management (DRM) among multi-stakeholders in society
4. Disseminate the outcomes of multi-disciplinary discussion on DRR & DRM to the public, and start university initiatives on DRR and DRM on climate change issues.

Outcomes:
Basically, the objectives of the workshop have been achieved through the presentations and lecturers from various experts over Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia. The workshop covered the topics from different research disciplines, which included engineering, earth science, economy, social, finance and medical, has given us a better understanding how these countries handle their disasters in an effective way. Topics such as the concept of business continuity to the disaster resilience management, Disaster Medical Response System in Taiwan and Japan, Taiwan Open Data for disaster prevention and relief, all-hazard emergency management structure design for Taiwan, 3D spatial analysis and digital city for hazard mitigation, rainfall-based sediment disaster warning systems in Taiwan, etc. were among the important papers presented during the workshop and they can be the references for our country in managing disaster in the way forward. 

Titles of Presentation from UTAR:
The presentation titles cover the fields of technical engineering, economy, social, finance and medical.

Titles of Presentation from Taiwan and Japan:

Group Photo

UTAR Staff Received Token from the Taiwan Organiser

The site visit to Shih-Gang Dam, The 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan - Guangfu Junior High School and Sun Moon Lake has been conducted on the 1st day of the workshop.

(1) Shih-Gang Dam Shih-Gang Dam

Shih-Gang Dam Shih-Gang Dam is a concrete gravity barrage dam across the Dajia River in Shigang District and Dongshi District of Taichung, Taiwan, located near Fengyuan District. The dam was built from 1974 to 1977 for flood control and irrigation purposes, and stands 35.2 m (115 ft) high and 357 m (1,171 ft) long, holding a reservoir with an original capacity of 3,380,000 m3 (2,740 acre•ft).

The dam was heavily damaged in the 921 earthquake of 1999, which caused the collapse of its northern end. Subsequently, an embankment cofferdam was built to prevent water from flowing through the breach, while the collapsed section has been retained as a memorial. Since this reduces the storage capacity of the dam, it is no longer used for flood control, but remains an important source of agricultural water.

The dam was heavily damaged in the 921 earthquake of 1999

Group Photos

(2) The 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan - Guangfu Junior High School  

The 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan is a national museum in Wufeng District, Taichung, Taiwan. The museum is dedicated to the 7.3 earthquake that struck the center of Taiwan at 01:47:12.6 TST on Tuesday, 21 September 1999. The museum is located on the site of the former Guangfu Junior High School; the shell of the building forms the exterior walls of the museum and the Museum's Chelungpu Fault Gallery crosses the fault on which the earthquake occurred.

Group Photo

The 921 Earthquake Museum (formerly Guangfu Junior High School)

1. Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake is the largest body of water in Taiwan as well as a tourist attraction. Located in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, the area around the Sun Moon Lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake surrounds a tiny island called Lalu. The east side of the lake resembles a sun while the west side resembles a moon, hence the name.
In 1999, the 921 earthquake destroyed the pavilion and sunk most of the island. In recent years, due to increasing social and political awareness, more deference and recognition are being given to Taiwanese aborigines. As a result, after the 921 earthquake, the island was renamed in the Thao language as "Lalu".

Several hydroelectric power plants have been built in the Sun Moon Lake since 1919, including Mingtan Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant and Minhu Pumped Storage Hydro Power Station. When the first hydroelectric plant was finished in 1934, it was considered to be one of the most important infrastructure constructions of the time. Wujie Dam, also completed in 1934, diverts water from the Zhuoshui River to increase hydroelectric generation at the lake. The Jiji Line railroad was built to facilitate the construction.

Host Organisations:

1. University System of Taiwan (UST) 台灣聯合大學系統
2. Research Center for Hazard Mitigation and Prevention (RCHMP), National Central University (NCU) 中央大學災害防治研究中心
3. Disaster Prevention & Water Environment Research Center, National Chiao-Tung University (NCTU) 交通大學防災與水環境研究中心
4. Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research (CSRSR), NCU中央大學太空及遙測研究中心
5. Graduate Institute of Applied Geology, NCU中央大學應用地質研究所
6. Department of Civil Engineering, NCU中央大學土木工程學系
7. Graduate Institute of Hydrological and Oceanic Science, NCU中央大學水文與海洋科學研究所
8. Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. National Yung-Ming University (NYMU) 陽明大學急重症醫學研究所

Sponsors:

1. National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) 國家災害防救科技中心
2. Directorate General of Highways, MOTC 交通部公路總局
3. Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan 行政院農業委員會水土保持局
4. Disaster Prevention Technology Research Center, Sinotech Engineering Consultants, Inc. 中興工程顧問社防災科技研究中心

The 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Transportation and The Environment (APTE) aims to provide a platform of discussion for local and international experts on issues related to transport developments and their impacts on the environment. This also allows the experts from various disciplines to exchange ideas and opinions on the effective strategies and planning to mitigate the potential negative social and environmental impacts caused by transport activities. It is anticipated that the conference would create awareness to the nation on this important subject.

The APTE conference has been organized by various countries in the Asia Pacific region, such as Singapore (1998, 2004, 2007), China (2000, 2005, 2009), Indonesia (2010), Thailand (2012), and Sri Lanka (2014). This is the inaugural APTE conference in Malaysia. The MUTRF conference has been organized by various local universities. This is also an inaugural MUTRF conference organized by Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in collaboration with the Institution of Engineers Malaysia.

The papers presented were from various disciplines of transportation and highway engineering, namely traffic engineering, transportation planning, transportation safety, and pavement engineering. Papers on traffic engineering are addressing various issues and strategies to alleviate traffic congestion on roadways while papers on transportation planning are mostly investigating the impact of various land use design on transportation demand and activities. Papers on transportation safety present various strategies to make the transportation system safer and to reduce traffic accident. Papers on pavement engineering are mostly on pavement materials and asphalt concrete.

List of Papers: