Stakeholder Meeting in Bangladesh, Aug 6, 2014

Summary

• Venue: Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Stakeholder Meeting of Bangladesh's prototype was held in Dhaka on August 6, 2014. 29 participants from 17 organizations, including government officials, GIS experts, university researchers and engineers, joined the meeting. Dr. Mohammed Abed Hossain, Associate Professor, IWFM, BUET, conducted the stakeholder meeting.

Prof. Md. Munsur Rahman, Acting Director of IWFM, BUET opened the floor and said that it was very important to obtain scientific knowledge from both local and global scale. He emphasized that Bangladesh could be benefitted from Japan's experience on sedimentation process in the estuaries to investigate the phenomena in Bangladesh's coastal areas. Self-introduction from the participants was followed by opening remarks from Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and JAXA.

Mr. Md. Joynal Abedin, Superintending Engineer, IWRM, LGED introduced main activities of LGED and drew participants' attention to recent spate of major disasters in Bangladesh due to the climate change. He also expected productive comments from the stakeholder meeting. Mr. Yutaka Kaneko, EORC/JAXA reported successful launch of two satellite, GPM and ALOS-2 and plan of public release of their data. Finally he stated his expectation for operational use of results of SAFE activities.

After introduction of SAFE Overview presented by Mr. Ko Hamamoto, EORC/JAXA, Dr. Mohammad Asad Hussain, Associate Prof, IWFM, BUET and Md. Sohel Rana, Sr. Assistant Engineer, LGED reported the final results and outcome of their SAFE prototyping. Their final report consisted of three parts. As part-1, Md. Sohel Rana reported recent coastline changes at the Eastern part of the Meghna Estuary from PALSAR and Landsat images. He used the combination of PALSAR images of research area and tidal water level calculated by the model, and identified the coastline changes. He concluded the rate of accretion had slowed down at the four major offshore islands at the eastern part of the Meghna Estuary during the recent three years. At the second part, Dr. Mohammad Asad Hussain reported analysis result of seasonal variation of erosion-accretion around Urir Char Island using PALSAR images. By using his developed models (Ocean tide model + non-linear shallow water model, wave and river discharge) and PALSAR images, he grasped seasonal trend of research area; erosion in Mar-July and accretion in Sep-Jan. Next, Dr. Mohammad Asad Hussain reported the results of hydrodynamic and morphological modeling for cross dam impacts in the final part. As a result of his modeling, he showed four simulation options (including no cross-dam) of residual flux after cross dam construction and observed option-1 will least influence the present residual flux. He also simulated impact of Sea Level Rise on sedimentation at the targeted site.

Then, Prof. Yoshimitsu Tajima, University of Tokyo introduced impact analysis of morphology change on storm surge disaster in Bangladesh. He calculated the impact of land-shapes on inundation as well as impact of different track on inundation (one track was the simulated cyclone 'Sidr' case). In conclusion, he noted that newly developed land might decrease inundation on the landside of the land whereas it may increase the inundation area on the seaside of the land and extent of such impact depended strongly on the track of cyclone.

In the last presentation, Prof. Md. Munsur Rahman, Acting Director of IWFM, BUET introduced the Bangladesh-Japan research overview of the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) named 'Research on Disaster Prevention/Mitigation Measures against Floods and Storm Surges in Bangladesh'. He wrapped up his presentation with the words that we could obtain fruitful results from integration of several researches and initiatives including SAFE prototype rather than only from one project. Following that, Engr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim, LGED made closing remarks and expressed his appreciation to all of the participants.

Agenda and Presentation Materials

Moderator: Dr. Mohammed Abed Hossain

Photographs

Stakeholder Meeting in Bangladesh

Welcome Address (Prof. Md. Munsur Rahman, Acting Director of IWFM, BUET)

Opening Remarks (Mr. Md. Joynal Abedin, Superintending Engineer, IWRM, LGED)

Opening Remarks (Mr. Yutaka Kaneko, EORC/JAXA)

Introduction of SAFE Overview (Mr. Ko Hamamoto, EORC/JAXA)

Results of SAFE prototype: Investigation of sedimentation process and stability of the area around the cross-dams in Meghna estuary (Md. Sohel Rana, Sr. Assistant Engineer, LGED)

Results of SAFE prototype: Investigation of sedimentation process and stability of the area around the cross-dams in Meghna estuary (Dr. Mohammad Asad Hussain, Associate Prof, IWFM, BUET)

Impact of morphology change on storm surge disaster (Prof. Yoshimitsu Tajima, University of Tokyo)

Introduction of "Research on Disaster Prevention/Mitigation Measures against Floods and Storm Surges" (Prof. Md. Munsur Rahman, Acting Director of IWFM, BUET)

Closing Remarks (Engr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim, LGED)

Exchange the Gifts

Group Photo