The Seventh Steering Meeting under the JSPS Project（2014.5.26）

The Seventh Steering Meeting under the JSPS Asian Core Program "Research and Education Center for the Risk Based Asian Oriented Integrated Watershed Management" was held on May 26, 2014 at the Hotel Equatorial Melaka, Malacca, Malaysia.

The Japanese delegation was headed by Professor Yoshihisa Shimizu, coordinator of this program from the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. Accompanying him were 11 steering members including administrative staff.  There were ten members from the Malaysian delegation. They were led by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Awang Mahmud in charge of research and innovation, and Coordinator Prof. Nik Sulaiman, both from University of Malaya. The Malaysian delegation included concerned researchers.

The Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, and related Japanese universities have worked on this project with leading Malaysia universities since 2011.  The project is supported by the Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS) for five years. We focus on watershed management and risk control around Asia. We target to find better solutions for impending vital problems as well. As we acknowledge the importance of fostering the next generation of leading researchers, we aim to create educational programs for both researchers and engineers.　The programs provide opportunities for them to have access to high quality resources and practice their skills on a continuous basis to attain our goal.

The purpose of this meeting was to exchange important information and knowledge on environment risk and watershed management.  Each group leader reported progress about a textbook which will be published and released to related institutions by the end of next March.  The meeting was closed on a successful note with words from Prof. Shimizu.  On the next day, we toured the lake on Malaya University campus, where a cleanup project is being conducted.  There they discussed matters of mutual interests.

The activities will be followed by the 4th Comprehensive Symposium which is scheduled to be held in Malaysia around December. Furthermore, the eighth steering meeting will be held in Japan around February.  We look forward to fostering deeper academic exchanges beyond merely bilateral ties.