Project News

Poster Presentation

The earthquake evaluation team, consisting of Kyoto University, the National Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) and the Department of Geology and Mines (DGM), produced a poster presentation for an international conference, the Joint Scientific Assembly of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI) 2017, held in Kyoto, Japan. The poster, entitled "Design and Implementation of the National Seismic Monitoring Network in the Kingdom of Bhutan", is about the earthquake monitoring networking initiated by the team. The first author of the poster, Dr Shiro Ohmi, attended the conference on 1-2 August 2017.

• The poster (PDF/2.94MB)

Title: Design and Implementation of the National Seismic Monitoring Network in the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Authors: Shiro OHMI⁽¹⁾, Hiroshi INOUE⁽²⁾, Jamyang CHOPHEL⁽³⁾, Phuntso PELGAY⁽³⁾ and Dowchu DRUKPA.⁽³⁾

Affiliations:

(1) Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

(2) National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Tsukuba, Japan.

(3) Department of Geology and Mines, Ministry of Economic Affairs (DGM), Thimphu, Kingdom of Bhutan.

The poster displayed on the wall of the DGM office

Making 12 Specimens

The Department of Culture (DOC) began by making 12 small specimens of rammed earth and stone on DOC premises. The specimens are designed to compare the strength of the structures using different forms of reinforcements. A series of experiments will be conducted in September by a joint team of engineers or structural engineers from the DOC, Nagoya City University, Kagawa University and Nihon University.

Left: DOC engineers measuring the land area. Middle: Craftsmen ramming earth. Right: The 12 completed specimens.

Earthquake Contingency Planning Workshop run by the DDM and the UN

The Department of Disaster Management (DDM) and the United Nations (UN) in Bhutan organized a workshop on Earthquake Contingency Planning, held 29–30 August in Paro city. A total of 102 participants from the project departments, JICA Bhutan office, disaster-related organizations and international agencies attended the workshop. The aim of the workshop was to prepare for earthquakes in Bhutan and to work on a scenario of the most significant impacts in order to save earthquake-vulnerable people in Bhutan. The project members, such as those from the DDM and the DGM, contributed to the workshop by delivering presentations about the incident command system for disaster response, the coordination mechanisms and the earthquake-monitoring network in Bhutan.

Presentation by a DDM official