JSCE Newsletter

No. 5, March 2001 1

Annual Conference of JSCE inSendai, 2000

From left, Mr. Kim (President, KSCE), Mrs. Kim,Mrs. Hwang, Dr. Hwang (President, JSCE KoreaSection), Dr. Chern (President, JSCE TaiwanSection), Dr. Li (President, CICHE), Ms. Lee (VicePresident, IE, Singapore), Dr. Chang (Supervisor,CICHE)

The 2000 JSCE Annual Conference washeld at Tohoku University, Sendaikita Campus inSendai from September 21 to 23. During three days,6,593 participants gathered from all over Japan andfrom overseas as well for this grand event. TheConference featured special lectures by PresidentMichio Suzuki and Prof. Yoichi Higuchi ofWaseda University. In addition, it provided varioustechnical presentations including a total of 3,890annual academic lecture presentations, 21 issuespresented by the ad hoc committees of JSCE in thepanel discussion, the annual banquet, and thestudent union meeting.

The most remarkable was the “Year2000 Declaration of Sendai on Social OverheadCapital and Civil Engineering (draft)–CivilEngineers’ Resolution”, which on this occasionserved to redefine the ideal condition of socialoverhead capital provision of Japan today.Through lively discussions, lights were shed on the

significance and the basic concepts lying behindthe provision of social overhead capital, taking inopinions of many civil engineers as well as those ofthe panelists. The Declaration has been officiallyapproved in the 4th Board of Directors Meeting inNovember 2000.

The International Activities Committeehosted the following events, which were joined byPresident Suzuki and President-elect Prof. Tambo,along with participants from Korean Society ofCivil Engineers (KSCE), Chinese Institute of Civiland Hydraulic Engineering (CICHE) and TheInstitution of Engineers, Singapore (IES).Presidents of Korea and Taiwan Sections of JSCEattended the 1st International Section Meeting.Opinions were exchanged among the visitinginstitutions/societies regarding problems ofcommon interest. Various opinions were expressed,resulting in a very productive discussion.

International Events by IAC1st Day (September 21)・International Lunch・Panel Discussion on "International Activities of

JSCE" （Coordinator： Prof. Kamon）・International Dinner

2nd Day (September 22)・ Roundtable Meeting "Activation of

Cooperative Societies and Institutes"(Coordinator：Prof. Fujino)

・First International Section Meeting・JSCE　Annual　Banquet

ASCE 2000 Annual Conference

The ASCE 2000 Conference was held inSeattle, USA from October 18 to 21. PresidentSuzuki and six other JSCE members participated inthe event. In the International Session, JSCE gave apresentation on “Advanced Japanese Technology –A Preview of CECAR (Civil EngineeringConference in the Asian Region) 2001 – Tokyo” toattract participants to the 2nd CECAR. The Maglevmodel was displayed with cooperation of Central

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No. 5, March 2001 2

Japan Railway Company and OverseasConstruction Association of Japan in an exhibitionparallel to the Conference, to draw youngergenerations to the 2nd CECAR Technical Visit.International Roundtable provided a discussion one-commerce in the Construction Industry, a timelytopic, when global concerns are turned toward ITrevolution. Opinions raised in the discussion havebeen summarized in the ASCE website. TheJapanese traditional calligraphy was a greatattraction for Westerners in the International Gala.

KSCE 2000 Annual Conference

KSCE International Roundtable Meeting(President Suzuki, JSCE ＆ President Kim, KSCE)

The Korean Society of Civil Engineerswarmly welcomed President Suzuki, and two otherJSCE members at the KSCE 2000 AnnualConference held from October 27 to 28 inYongpyong Resort, Korea. The opening ceremonyand the plenary session were held on October 27.President Suzuki made a brief speech as anhonorable guest at the Banquet in the evening ofOctober 27, representing the sole participatinginternational society.

On October 28, President Suzukiconferred a JSCE Fellow Membership on President

Kim of KSCE, the first among internationalmembers. Prof. Hanamura made a presentation on“Environmentally Friendly Effort on Highways inJapan” at the Round Table Meeting, under the maintopic of “Environmentally Friendly InfrastructureDevelopment in Asia”. KSCE also introduced itsenvironmentally friendly efforts in Korea on soilcontamination, garbage disposal, and other relatedissues.

CICHE 2000 Annual Conference

Meeting with Public Construction Commission inTaiwan

The CICHE 2000 Annual Conference washeld in Taipei on December 2. President Suzukiand two other JSCE members participated in thisevent. Prior to the Annual Conference, an opinionexchange took place with the Public ConstructionCommission on the execution system for publicworks and other topics of interest. TheInternational Roundtable was one of the programsin which ASCE members joined for a livelydiscussion. JSCE International ActivitiesCommittee presented its views on how JSCE mayprovide useful information to societies andinstitutions abroad, in time when bilateralcooperation is being transformed into suchmultilateral council like ACECC.

JSCE Technical Committee NewsHydraulics Committee

1. Activities of the Committee

The original purpose of the committeewas to edit a handbook of hydraulics, but from1956 onwards, the range of the committee'sactivities extended considerably. Starting withhydrology, various specialist subcommittees wereformed; since 1988, three permanent research

ASCE International Session

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No. 5, March 2001 3

subcommittees in Fundamental Hydraulics,Environmental Hydraulics, and Hydrology, havebeen entrusted with organizing cooperativeinvestigations and reviews on various topics. In1998, the fourth such subcommittee wasestablished to coordinate activities related to RiverEngineering. In addition, the committee hasorganized a subcommittee to provide technologicalguidance for development and management ofdomestic rivers, and temporary teams to surveyflood-sediment disasters, both domestic andoverseas.

Frequent conferences and workshops havebeen organized: annual conferences on hydraulics,annual summer workshops (in cooperation with thecoastal engineering committee), annual fluvialdisaster symposia, Association for GlobalEnvironmental Hydraulic Research (AGEHR)symposia and annual water symposia.

2. Publications

a. Handbook of Hydraulics:From 1956 onwards, revision of the

hydraulics handbook was entrusted to asubcommittee that has produced six revisions ofthe handbook, the most recent in 1999, along withtwo versions of a complementary edition ofpractical examples. The third edition of workedexamples will be published soon.

b. Annual Journal of Hydraulic Engineering:Starting from a small collection with only

22 papers in 1956, the annual hydraulicsconference has met 44 times as of 2000; receivedcontributions now number over 200 and are beingpublished in the JSCE Journal of HydraulicEngineering. Prizes for outstanding papers byyoung researchers as well as for the mostoutstanding paper have been established.

c. Texts of Annual Summer Workshops:Starting in July 1964, annual summer

workshops have been held for the benefit of youngresearchers and technologists. Two four-daycourses are offered, one on river and damengineering, the other on coastal and harborengineering. The course texts are sold inconsiderable numbers even to non-attendees.

d. Journal of Hydroscience and HydraulicEngineering (JHHE):

Starting in April 1983, this biannualEnglish-language journal has publishedoutstanding research works from Japan andoverseas, and now enjoys a considerableinternational reputation.

3. International Activities

The committee actively interacts withinternational professional societies in the areas offluid dynamics and water resources. Notably strongis the connection with the Delft-based InternationalAssociation of Hydraulic Engineering andResearch (IAHR) as well as with the InternationalAssociation of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).

Prof. S. Ikeda, Chair, Hydraulics Committee

(Dr. Syunsuke Ikeda is a Professor at theDepartment of Civil Engineering, Tokyo Institute ofTechnology. His major research areas aresedimentation, ecological hydraulics and rivermechanics. He is currently organizing the UK-Japan Joint Research on Flow and SedimentTransport in Two-stage Channels and the 2nd IAHRSymposium on River, Coastal and EstuarineMorphodynamics to be held in Obihiro inSeptember, 2001.)

Advanced Shield TunnelingMethods in Japan

In Japan, most of the mega-cities arelocated in coastal areas, where many undergroundstructures, such as subways, utilities andexpressway tunnels, are being constructed in softand water bearing soil layers. The shield tunnelingmethod has been utilized extensively and fine-tuned to safely construct tunnels of various sizesand sections in variable soil conditions or verycongested underground without affecting thesurface conditions and existing structures. Thisarticle highlights some of the most advanced shieldtunneling technologies.

Non-Circular Tunnel Sections

In urban areas, where a conventionalcircular section tunnel would be impossible due to

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No. 5, March 2001 4

DPLEX Shield Machine

Wagging Cutter Shield Machine

Multi-Circular Face Shield Machine

constraints from existing structures, a non-circulartunnel section is often a solution. The methoddeveloped to achieve this is the DPLEX ShieldMethod. Groups of cutters rotate with eccentricityalong the perimeter of the shield face to excavatetunnels with an oval or rectangular shape. TheWagging Cutter Method with a pair of reciprocallyrotating cutters is another way to achieve the samepurpose. A semi-rectangular section subway tunnel,approximately 9-m wide and 6.5-m high, is beingconstructed in Kyoto using this method.

Multi-Micro Shield Machine

Shield Machine for MSD Method(Penetrating ring is extended for coupling)

The Multi-Circular Face Shield Method has beendeveloped and used to construct a wide rectangulartunnel for a subway station in Osaka Business Park(17.3-m wide x 7.8-m high).

The Multi-Micro Shield Tunneling(MMST) Method has gone through practical testconstruction at Trans-Kawasaki Route ofMetropolitan Expressway. This project is toconstruct approximately 15-m wide and 14-m hightunnel sections by utilizing a combination of smalldiameter shield machines.

Dealing with Lack of Land Space forArrival Shafts

In a densely populated area, it is quitedifficult to secure land space for a shield machinearrival shaft in many cases. It is also impractical toconstruct arrival shafts in a water area.

The Mechanical Shield Docking Method(MSD) makes construction of shield tunnelingpossible without shafts. The steel shell of oneshield machine is pushed forward into the othermachine coming from the opposite direction andthe two machines can be coupled mechanically.

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No. 5, March 2001 5

Very Large Diameter and Very DeepTunnels

Tunnels with very large diameter in morethan 10-m have been accomplished using thesemethods. The 9.4-km long Trans-Tokyo BayTunnel completed in 1997 utilized shield machinesof 14.14-m in diameter. The Metropolitan AreaOuter Discharge Channel Tunnel employingapproximately 12-m diameter shield machines iscurrently under construction. The shafts for thisproject are as deep as 69-m to 74-m below grade.

Natural Disasters in Japan:Flooding in Tokai District and

Earthquake in Tottori Prefecture

On September 11 and 12, 2000, TokaiDistrict (Nagoya and the surrounding area)experienced an unusually heavy rainfall caused bya typhoon. The accumulated precipitation reachedas much as 600-mm in some areas. It was 1.2 timesas much the normal precipitation for an entiremonth of September.

The damages included inundation ofbuildings, failure of revetments, landslides, debris,and mudflows. About 78,000 houses wereinundated. Flooding of this scale had not occurred

Accumulated Precipitation for September 11 and12, 2000 (in mm) near Nagoya

for the last 18 years in Japan. The Shinkansen(Bullet) trains were stopped for 24 hours becauseof the continuous heavy rainfall, and over 50,000passengers had to spend a night in the strandedtrains. It was the longest stoppage since theopening of Shinkansen system in Japan. Theaccumulated precipitation map for September 11and 12 is shown in the figure above.

Coupling Shield Machines by MSD Method

During Excavation

After Coupled

<Penetrating Shield Machine><Receiving Shield Machine>

Skin PlatePenetrating Ring

Thrust Jack

Rubber Ring

Segment Segment

ExtensibleCutter

Thrust Jack

Slide Cutter

Thrust Penetrating Ring

Slide Cutter

Pull in Cutter

ReceivingChamber

Nagoya City

Nagoya

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No. 5, March 2001 6

Earthquake Damages in Tottori Prefecture

In the afternoon of October 6, 2000, avery strong earthquake (M7.3 JMA) occurred inTottori Prefecture in western Japan. About 100people were injured, but there were no fatalities.The maximum seismic intensity measured on JMAscale was 6+ at the epicenter. The quake was felt

over a large area of western Japan. The seismicintensity on JMA scale in Kyoto and Kobe was 4,and 3 in Osaka. There were many aftershocksincluding those over 800 occurring from October 6to 8. The strongest aftershock was at M5.4 (JMA)on October 8. Damages include slope failures, sandliquefaction, various building damages, and majorcracks in roadways. An example of road and sloperelated damage near the epicenter is shown on theleft.

Trend of IT Revolution in Japan'sConstruction Industry

Information Technology (IT) is expectedto not only enlarge the market scale of IT industryitself and bring about economic effects on otherindustries, but also to provide a greaterenhancement in productivity and managementefficiency. The Japanese Government has recently

Utilization of IT in Transportation System

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No. 5, March 2001 7

been promoting active utilization of IT in everysector for attaining sustainable economic growth.

In line with the directives of theGovernment, vigorous efforts to introduce IT intopractice have also begun in Japanese constructionindustry. This includes not only the implementationof CALS/EC programs aiming at starting electronicprocurement in public works but also a change ofpublic works administration from hardware(equipment and facilities) to software.

IT indeed can play a very important rolein various fields of the construction industry,including efficient and effective maintenance ofroads, rivers, and sewerage systems with the helpof optical fibers, emergency management andenvironmental management utilizing GeographicInformation Systems (GIS), etc. IT can also bevery much instrumental in Public Involvement (PI)for public works projects such as collectingopinions from citizens through the Internet duringthe planning phase of an urban development masterplan. Especially, IT can efficiently be applied inimprovement of road functions, which helps builda highly efficient physical distribution systemamidst today's international competition. Today,nations around the world are attempting to developand refine the Intelligent Transportation Systems(ITS) as shown in the figure. Marching hand inhand with other developed nations, Japan is alsostriving to employ various advanced IT systems,such as the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)system in highway infrastructures. The radio

communication system of ETC, has obtained theapproval of international standard from theInternational Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Memoirs of Study Tour to Japan byMs. Lee Bee Wah (Vice President,Institution of Engineers, Singapore)

I was overjoyed, when I was given theannual study tour grant by Japan Society of CivilEngineers (JSCE) in the beginning of this year. Itwas my first trip ever to Japan. I would like to takethis opportunity to thank JSCE for its generosity ofgiving me this annual study grant.

With Mr. Miyoshi on left and Mr. Matsuo on right

Utilization of IT in Watershed Management

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No. 5, March 2001 8

I quickly scheduled my trip, at first, tryingto coincide with the school holidays in Singapore(so that I could bring along my family members).Then, it was re-scheduled due to my commitmentsback home. Finally, I made my trip to coincidewith the JSCE International Conference. Thedecision made was correct because it gave me theopportunity to meet with the JSCE representativesfrom Korea and Taiwan as well. The exchange wasindeed very beneficial as the Institution ofEngineers, Singapore is also outward looking andwould like to learn from other similar organizations.

Upon arriving in Japan, I wasoverwhelmed by the hospitality rendered by all theofficials from JSCE and the organizations I visited.My study trip went on very smoothly and it wasreally an eye opener for me. Along the way, I madequite a lot of friends and I hope that in future wecould meet again.

The writing of my report on the study touris in progress. I hope to submit my report very soonand any feedback from your members would behighly appreciated. Once again, I would like toexpress my gratitude to JSCE. Your study tourgrant is highly commended and I wouldrecommend other civil engineers to vie for thisstudy grant.

English Graduate Program atHokkaido University

Hokkaido University is the most recentUniversity to offer a graduate engineering programin English. The English Graduate Program inSocio-Environmental Engineering (EGPSEE) wasestablished in 1999 and enrolled its first batch ofstudents in October 2000. For further information,visit the homepage:http://www.civil.hokudai.ac.jp/egpsee/index.htm

Or write to:EGPSEEGraduate School of EngineeringHokkaido UniversitySapporo 060-8628, JapanFax: 81-11-7067291E-mail: egpsee@eng.hokudai.ac.jp

Book Review

ARTICLES (From July 2000 to December 2000)

Coastal Engineering Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3, No. 4,World Scientific Publishing Co., Ltd., September

2000, December 2000, Total 430 Pages: PriceUS$ 250 (4 issues) ISSN 0578-5634

Concrete Library International, No. 35, JSCE,December 2000, 307 Pages: Price Yen 2,625(US$ 35) ISSN 0913-4913

Journal of Hydroscience and HydraulicEngineering, Vol. 18, No. 2, JSCE, 2000, 178Pages: Price Yen 3,150 (US$ 41) ISSN 0912-2508

Journal of Global Environment Engineering, Vol. 6,JSCE, September 2000, 116 Pages: Price Yen6,000 (US$ 75) ISSN 1341-1268

Structural Engineering/Earthquake Engineering,Vol. 17, No. 2, JSCE, October 2000, 124 Pages:Price Yen 2,039 (US$ 27) ISSN 0289-8063

For all orders, contact:MARUZEN Co. Ltd.Export DepartmentP.O. Box 5050Tokyo 100-3199JapanFax: +81-3-3278-9256E-mail: k_itoh@maruzen.co.jp

Send your comments, suggestions andcontributions to: iad@jsce.or.jp

JSCE Website: http://www.jsce.or.jp/e/index.html

Editorial Board:

Chief editor: Hiroshi Mutsuyoshi (Saitama University) Editors: Kaneko Iuchi (Pacific Consultants International) Jun Nobuto (Shimizu Corporation) Katsumasa Ohori (CTI Engineering Co., Ltd.) Takefumi Takuma (Kajima Corporation) Bimal B. Adhikary (Saitama University)