Project News

The introduction of activities by three short-term experts assigned to this technology cooperation project.

Mr. Taketoshi Matsunaga (River Information Management & Plan)
Mr. Taketoshi Matsunaga has been performing activities as a short-term expert on River Information Management Plan in FCSEC since June 2008. His assignment term consists of 1.8 months (June to August, 2008), 3.1 months (September to December, 2008) and 1.8 months (January to March, 2009), totaling 6.7 months. During the fiscal year of 2007, he was also assigned to FCSEC, as a short-term expert on River Planning Information Technology, three times for 4.9 months in all. He has worked over fairly long periods as the short-term expert, and come to be known well enough to be sometimes misunderstood as the long-term expert in DPWH.

Since last year he has been mainly in charge of working out the flood control master plan (FCMP) and providing guidance in the collection and management of information on rivers, as well. Concerning FCMP, he has been giving guidance in making FCMP of three rivers as pilot project sites, namely the Kinanliman, Digmala and Santa Fe Rivers, in this cooperation project. At the same time he has been carrying out activities energetically to enhance C/P's abilities toward the Master Plan and Feasibility Study of Flood Control and Drainage Projects of Selected River Basins Nationwide, targeting for twelve principal rivers and planned to be launched in 2009 by DPWH. He also lectured on flood control planning in the training course for the 9th and 13th regional office staffs of DPWH, held in September 2008.

Dr. Rokuro Kobayashi (Hydraulic Experiment)
Dr. Rokuro Kobayashi, a short-term expert on the hydraulic experiment, has been carrying out the following two experiments by effectively making use of the functions of FCSEC Hydraulic Laboratory, and giving guidance to the C/Ps.

1)The hydraulic experiment of the Digmala River as one of the pilot projects being implemented by FCSEC

2)The hydraulic test on vegetative riverbank protection work

His term is from September to the end of December, 2008.
On December 9, these experiments were demonstrated to the concerned staff of DPWH, the University of Philippines, the Mapua Institute of Technology, JICA Philippines, and other related agencies.

1)The hydraulic model experiment of the Digmala River
The Digmala River, running through Nueva Ecija Province, is one of the Pampanga branches—a steep river course with its lower part of about 1/65 to 1/120 slope. Its characteristic is that after running out from the mountainous area, the river course rapidly widens forming a braided channel, and narrows rapidly before joining the Pampanga River. This about 11 km river course is reproduced basically as a distorted model with scales of 1/500 horizontally and 1/100 vertically. Possible flooding spots and countermeasures against shortage of discharge capacity of the river within this reach.

2)The hydraulic test on vegetative riverbank protection work
The basic experiments are being carried out to examine the possibility of applying sodding work, which is used as slope protection work, to a riverbank slope protection work. Method to increase the function of current-resistance is examined by using different kind of grasses, or grass combined with COCO nets or with Cobble Stones with SODA (facine) work. A part of the prototype riverbank slope protection work (0.3m width, 1m length) is set in the flume, and the state of protection work is observed during the current velocity being increased in a range of 0.5 - 2.5m/s..

Mr. Hideki Sawa (Flood Control and Sabo Engineering)
Mr. Hideki Sawa has been dispatched to FCSEC since September, 2008 for the purpose of giving the technical guidance to DPWH staff members, especially FCSEC's C/Ps in terms of facility design and construction management for Pilot Project (totally three areas), which is being implemented this year.
His assignment term comprises 3 months (September to December, 2008), 2 months (January to March, 2009); or 5 months in all.

Pilot Project is being implemented in three areas, that is, the construction of riverbank and bank protection work in the Kinanliman River (Region 4, Real City, Quezon Province); the construction of riverbank and spurdike in the Digmala River (Region 3, Bongabon City, Nueva Ecija Province); the construction of Sabo dam in the Santa Fe River (Region 2, Nueva Vizcaya Province).

Furthermore, on the basis of the knowledge obtained through the facility design and construction management in Pilot Project, he is giving the technical guidance to the C/Ps concerning the revision work of Technical Standard, Manual and Guideline, especially "DESIGN Guidelines Criteria and Standards", which is commonly known as "Red Book" in the field of flood control in DPWH.