International Flood Initiative (IFI)-News Archive Part 3

- IFI reference series: A kind of guidebooks and manuals to fulfill gaps and elaborate in detail on flood issues and solutions for practical use with respect to ongoing activities at WMO and various other available texts.

- IFI web tutorials: web-based education and training with respect to the available e-courses at UNU and UNESCO-IHE.

In order to promote the exposure of IFI activities, it was agreed that the IFI Secretariat at ICHARM should publish IFI newsletters and periodical reports. They can be distributed using the UNESCO-IHP network as well as WMO-CHy and other relevant networks. The next meeting of the IFI AC/MC will be held at Geneva-WMO Headquarters on the occasion of the 2^nd Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (16-18 June 2009).

13 August 2008: The International Flood Initiative mapping activities report has been published. The IFI mapping activities are prepared based on the reports submitted by the IFI partners. In total 51 flood related activities are submitted to the IFI Secretariat by UNESCO, WMO, UN/ISDR, UNU, IAHS, IAHR, ICLR and ICHARM. The following are some results of the IFI mapping activities exercise:

- Research activities (39 activities) is a dominant type of activity, compared with education, information networking and technical assistance.

- Flood risk management (44 activities) is the major topic compared with the flood vulnerability, governance & participation and early warning & emergency management.

- Two-thirds of the flood activities scope is regional and international scale.

- There is 7 activities from 4 different organizations aligned on extreme events and large floods.

- A table of 11 activities are listed there as future opportunities to consider in the IFI Action Plan.

The original reports is available upon request. Please send us your request for the original report of Mapping Activities to the IFI Secretariat at ICHARM.

31 July 2008: Science Council of Japan compiled a proposal entitled "Adaptation to Water-related Disasters Induced by Global Environmental Change" (PDF, 530KB).

29 July 2008: The 5th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5) will be held in Tsukuba, Japan in 2011. The ICFM5 will be hosted by the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM under the auspices of UNESCO) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan.

May and June, 2008: IFI partners submit their IFI -related activities to the secretariat using the same format (MS-Word, 28KB). To see the list of the activities login here by entering you user ID and password.

May 5, 2008: The second IFI Management Committee (IFI-MC) meeting was held at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), in Toronto on Monday, the 5th May 2008. At the outset, the participants selected Mr. Salvano Briceno, Director of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), as the Chair. Click here to see the list of the participants and meeting Agenda.

It was decided that the next meeting of the IFI-AC will be held in conjunction with ICHARM’s international advisory board meeting in Tsukuba, Japan on October 2nd.

May 8, 2008: The IFI session with the title of "Strategy for mainstraeming flood risk reduction in society" was held successfully in the 4th International Symposium of Flood Defence, Toronto, Canada on May 8, 2008. The panelists: Avinash Tyagi (WMO, Director of Division of Hydrology and Water Resources), Yuichi Ono on behalf of Sálvano Briceño (ISDR Executive Director), Andreas Schumann (UNESCO), Erich Plate (UNU), Kuniyoshi Takeuchi (Director of ICHARM).