Hi everyone, this is Abdul Moiz. Last Friday, I accompanied Dr. Kawasaki to a Knowledge-Sharing Dialogue on Remote Sensing and GIS Technology for Water Resources Management hosted by ADB at the Japanese Representative Office of ADBI, Kasumigaseki Building.
The event was organized
for the purpose of sharing useful knowledge about the application of
cutting-edge Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies for Water Resources
Management, with the delegates from Pakistan. The delegation primarily
consisted of officials from several irrigation departments in Pakistan along
with the Chairperson of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources
(PCRWR).
There were three presenters from the side of University of
Tokyo, Prof. Dr. Shibasaki, Proj. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kawasaki and Mr. Faizan
Mahmood (former student of Prof. Dr. Shibasaki).
Prof. Dr. Shibasaki
brought the members up-to-date on the current developments in the sector of GIS
and how it was being applied to Japan in order improve our understanding of
people flow during disastrous events like the Great East Japan Earthquake in
2011. He also discussed the application of a flood warning system to Bangladesh,
were warnings were disseminated via cellphones. Moreover, the analysis of
people flow data in such an area can give a deeper understanding about the
spread of virus in a society.
Dr. Kawasaki talked
about the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable
Development. He presented the case of development of an integrated disaster
resilience system for Myanmar with a view of not only academic research but
actual implementation. Such kind of a system could also prove to be very useful
for a country like Pakistan. Three aspects were considered, hazard, governance
and community along with the limited availability of past records for such kind
of an area. Moreover, the role of Water-Energy Budget based Distributed Hydrological
Model (WEB-DHM) for the development of an early flood warning system was also discussed.
Mr. Faizan discussed how
remote sensing and GIS can be used to assess the impact of floods on crops and
the assessment of resulting crop damage.
The delegates were very
impressed with the cases of innovative applications of remote sensing and GIS
presented to them. They had two primary concerns i.e. how early warnings can be
disseminated to local population of Baluchistan (a province of Pakistan), where
flash floods are very common and how can such knowledge be shared between the
University of Tokyo and the Government of Pakistan in the future. However, at
the end of the session they were convinced that remote sensing and GIS can
indeed be adopted for improved and efficient water resources management in
Pakistan.
Following the event,
some of the delegates were very interested in having a tour of the Hongo Campus
at the University of Tokyo. So, I took the responsibility of showing them
around. I also accompanied them to lunch with the Ambassador of Pakistan at
Roppongi Hills Club, Tokyo.
The view from the top was indeed a sight for sore eyes.
In
the evening, I gave the delegates a tour of Hongo Campus and also introduced
them to Prof. Dr. Koike. They were indeed much honored to meet him personally.
