Last Update: Sep. 17, 2009

Reliability assessment of facilities and establishment of river management technologies

　The division is investigating methods for assessing the reliability of river levees and river structures and is conducting studies for improving the reliability of river control facilities. New observation methods are being developed, which use new technologies such as flow monitoring instruments and bed-load discharge meters, to improve the reliability of data and thus the reliability of facility design and control. Channel analysis models that can well reproduce changes of the river bed during floods are also being developed, in which long-term movement of sediments, vegetation and other river channel properties are also reflected. These studies will enable appropriate channel designs to be drawn and rational control methods to be proposed. The results will be reflected in guidelines and manuals.

• Improving the precision of discharge monitoring
• Predicting changes of river courses and control methods (sediment movement, vegetation, etc.)
• Assessing the safety of river levee and investigations for improving their reliability

Revision of maintenance and control standards based on surveys of damages

　Damages to river control facilities during floods are surveyed, and their analytical results are reflected in technological and maintenance and control standards. Data needed for river control, including data on damage, are being collected and evaluated to establish a maintenance and control system of a cycle type.

• Investigating the mechanisms of damage by surveying actual damages
• Revising technological standards using the data of damages surveyed
• Investigating maintenance and control levels and preparing a maintenance and control database
• Revising the structure ordinance, design guidelines and channel design guideline

Establishment of flood control plans from the viewpoint of basins and damage mitigation technologies

　Methods for improving flood control facilities are being investigated by assessing changes in external forces caused by climate changes, such as global warming, and related to flood control in rivers, such as rain, flood properties and the water level at the river mouth, and investigating their effects on the reliability of river control facilities, such as river levee. The division is also investigating technologies for mitigating damages, such as flood flow control, aid technologies for mitigating damages, such as supporting evacuation of people from flooded areas, and other methods for mitigating flood damages in the entire basin. As a tool to assist the enormous work to deal with global warming, a common platform for software programs (common platform for water and materials cycle models in basin and hydraulic databases) is being developed to effectively use the existing software resources.

• Assessing the effects of climate changes on rivers and risks
• Investigating national protection measures
• Developing damage mitigation technologies such as flood flow control

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