Establishment of USACE IWR Partnership with UNESCO IHP International Center for Water Hazards and Risk Management (ICHARM)

U.S.-Japan Signing Ceremony of Partnership Agreement between USACE IWR and PWRI-ICHARM under the auspices of UNESCO during the 17th IHP Intergovernmental Council Mtg., 3 July 2006 (L-R): Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Director of ICHARM; Thein Ni-Ni Khin, Chief, Sustainable Water Resources Mgt., UNESCO-IHP; Maria Donoso, Regional Hydrologist, UNESCO, IHP; and Robert Pietrowsky, Director of USACE IWR.

PARIS, FRANCE - July 3, 2006. A partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Institute for Water Resources (IWR) and Japan’s International Center for Water Hazards and Risk Management (ICHARM) was officially launched at a signing ceremony held during the 17th Intergovernmental Council Meeting of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) in Paris, France.

The partnership instrument, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two institutions, was signed by ICHARM Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi and IWR Director Robert Pietrowsky at an event sponsored by the IHP Secretariat and hosted by Andras Szollosi-Nagy, Deputy Assistant Director-General and IHP Secretary.

ICHARM was established by the Japan Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) as part of its Public Works Research Institute (PWRI), and was formally established as an IHP Category 2 Center under the auspices of UNESCO in March 2006.  The mission of ICHARM is to function as a Centre of Excellence for providing and assisting in the implementation of best practicable strategies to localities, nations and regions world-wide to manage the risk of water disasters.

The partnership agreement documents the mutual interest of PWRI - ICHARM and USACE IWR have in reducing damages from floods and coastal storms through an integrated flood management strategy encompassing both structural and non-structural measures which are applied from a watershed/ systems perspective. The partnership will focus on promoting research, capacity-building and enhancing the use of effective water resources management policies for water hazard and risk reduction though twelve areas of potential collaboration:

1. Flood damage reduction, flood plain management and IWRM
2. Infrastructure development and related engineering design standards
3. Hydrologic &risk analysis, flood mapping and systems analysis modeling
4. Flood disaster prevention, forecasting, evacuation & reconstruction
5. Landslides, debris flows, storm surges and tsunami modeling
6. Water quality, hazards remediation, health and safety
7. Environmental restoration and flood-related eco-hydrology
8. Consensus building and conflict resolution
9. Water policy, governance and institutional aspects
10. Sustainable development, land use planning and management
11. Capacity building and training
12. Educational methods and systems

In particular, the launch of the partnership is expected to strengthen the ability of ICHARM and IWR to collaborate on the upcoming International Flood Initiative (IFI), a major global program being launched by UNESCO-IHP.

Additional information on ICHARM can be found at:  http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/ .

More information on the UNESCO IHP Intergovernmental Council Meeting and other IHP programs can be found at  http://www.unesco.org/water/ .