Major Topics in FY 2010

I. Hosting / Co-hosting of International Conferences, etc.

The Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI) promotes widely ranging exchanges with researchers both in Japan and abroad, and collaboration with research agencies both in Japan and abroad, through hosting, co-hosting, actively participating in international conferences, etc., and promoting
research overseas. Examples of international conferences, etc., hosted or co-hosted by PARI in fiscal 2010 are as follows:

(1) International Symposium on Recent and Future Technologies in Coastal Development (December 14 to 16, 2010: Yokohama city)

In recent years, large-scale projects in which international hub ports/harbours and international hub airports are built in coastal regions have been actively implemented both in Japan and abroad. Japan has also promoted and carried out large-scale projects such as the Kansai International Airport and the Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport). Therefore, we conducted a symposium in cooperation with the Kanto Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) to review past coastal region development projects and the technology development that supported them, and to discuss the latest trends and future directions of technology development.
Many students and young engineers in the private sector also attended this symposium, providing an opportunity to educate young engineers and engineering students and to improve technology through academic discussion.

International Symposium on Recent and Future Technologies in Coastal Development

(2) The 7th International Workshop on Coastal Disaster Prevention (January 26, 27, 2011:Tokyo)

International Workshop on Coastal Disaster Prevention

We conducted this conference in cooperation with MLIT and the Coastal Development Institute of Technology. The conference was attended by researchers, engineers, and administration personnel, etc. from 11 countries: America, Italy, Indonesia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Chile, Turkey, Japan, Fiji and Mexico.
In this workshop, attendees discussed how to respond to tsunami disasters that may occur in the future, including restoration after disasters, aiming to improve tsunami disaster prevention capabilities in the world, through introducing past efforts in Japan and other countries to prevent and recover from disasters. In addition, personnel in charge of disaster prevention in national and local governments presented their work on disaster prevention.

(3) International seminar on the strategic maintenance and management of harbour and port facilities

On February 22, 2011, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we conducted an international seminar on the strategic maintenance and management of harbour and port facilities in collaboration with the Port Technology Group. The group engages in activities under 21 Japan-ASEAN transport collaboration programs, which MLIT has implemented since 2002. The seminar was held jointly with MLIT, the Ocean Policy Research Foundation and Malaysia's Ministry of Transport.
With attendance by a total of 54 persons including researchers and engineers from Malaysia, Japan and eight ASEAN countries, opinions were actively exchanged at the seminar. PARI plays an important role in this seminar; four researchers from the institute presented their research.

II. Implementation of Administrative Support

PARI conducts funded research on technical issues faced by national and local governments, sending researchers to technical committees that they establish. PARI has worked to solve technical issues in implementing public projects.
For the re-expansion project for Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport), we established a project team within PARI and have worked in cooperation with its implementing agency, the Kanto Regional Development Bureau of MLIT. Toward its implementation, we clarified points of concern in
its design, as well as technical issues and their solutions.
As for the re-expansion project for Haneda Airport, for which PARI provided full support, runway D began operating in October 2010. We will continue to provide technical support for the proper long-term maintenance and management of the airport.

Provided by Tokyo International (Haneda) Airport: JV, Runway D, Haneda re-expansion

III Local Research/Technical Support in the Event of an Earthquake/Tsunami Overseas

Height of tsunami traces based on local research

PARI researched the 2011 Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake and also sent researchers to overseas areas that have suffered from earthquakes and tsunamis.
Aiming to investigate the tsunamis and resulting damage on the Southern Sumatra Island (Mentawai) Indonesia Earthquake (M 7.7), which occurred on October 25, 2010 and caused over 500 deaths or missing people, we sent research officers from PARI to the affected area. We also conducted joint research with the Indonesian government's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, and the JST-JICA team, which consists of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (November 5 to 7, 2010). In this research, we examined the height of the tsunamis by surveying their traces on the South Pagai and North Pagai Islands. We also interviewed residents to determine how the tsunamis hit the areas and how people evacuated.

IV Conclusion of Research Cooperation Agreements with Research Agencies

Concluded a research cooperation agreement with NEES

PARI has increasingly collaborated with research agencies both in Japan and abroad, aiming to improve the quality and efficiency of research. We have already concluded cooperation agreements with 17 agencies.
Based on the agreements, we implemented activities such as interactions among researchers, joint research, lecture meetings, and exchange of scholarly information and research publications in common fields between PARI and other research agencies.
In FY 2010, we concluded the following research cooperation agreements:
In July 2010, we concluded a research cooperation agreement with the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) of the U.S., in order to promote joint research using NEES’s 14 earthquake- and tsunami-related research facilities and PARI’s three facilities.