Distinguished
Delegates and Ladies and Gentlemen:
This is my great
pleasure to attend the opening ceremony of
the Second International Conference on Estuaries and Coast
(ICEC-2006) here in Guangzhou. On behalf of International
Center for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) and
International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), I
would like to express my hearty congratulation to the
organizers, International Research and Training Center on
Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) and Pearl River Water
Resources Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, P. R.
China (PRWRC). I thank you very much for your kind
invitation.
IRTCES was established in 1984 as the first UNESCO Category
II Center to support the International Hydrological Program
(IHP). Twenty two years later, on 6 March this year, our
Center ICHARM was established in Tsukuba, Japan as one of
the eleven brothers of the UNESCO Category II Centers.
IRTCES is the eldest brother. We have a big brother too,
that is, the UNESCO Category I Center, Institute for Water
Education (IHE), the Netherlands established in 2003.
Well, however big the big brother is, IRTCES is the eldest.
We always respect and learn from you.
IRTCES is the
center of excellence of sediment research and training in
the world. I learned that it has trained some 500 engineers
all over the world on sediment related subjects. It has held
nearly fifty international workshops and conferences. It
serves as the secretariat of International Symposium on
River Sedimentation (ISRS) established 1980 and the
secretariat of World Association of Sedimentation and
Erosion Research (WASER) established Three Gorges Dam in
2004.
Ladies and
Gentlemen:
ICHARM would
like to work with IRTCES. ICHARM serves as the center of
excellence to provide and assist implementation of the best
practicable strategies to reduce the water related disaster
risk at all scales of localities of the world. The main
focus of the initial phase is flood related disasters
including sediments, debris flow and tsunami. The main means
of assistance is capacity building and connecting localities
with the implementation agencies. Special attention will be
paid to the diversity of local realities and to solve the
real problems. We call it as a localism approach.
Estuary and
Coast problems are part of main interest of ICHARM. Sediment
is one of the main causes of global land deformation and
material retardation. Its discharge amount is believed as
much as 60 billion tons every year equivalent to 1 % of the
world total reservoir storage. It flows down to the coast
and form the coast line. If it is too much, it closes the
estuary and fills the harbor. If it is too little, the coast
line has to retreat and hinterlands are endangered.
Estuary and
Coast are serving for great number of people and economic
activities of the world. Its safety and sustainable
management is part of the main theme of the intensifying
global change. ICHARM shares the interest with all of you
here as estuary and coast are also the important subject
area of water related disasters. As the director of ICHARM
and former president of
IAHS I
would like to express my sincere wish for the symposium to
be successful and we can find a common area of activities
where we can work together to best manage Estuary and Coast
as the strong partner to help the people in Asia and the
world.
Kuniyoshi Takeuchi, Director of ICHARM |