TAINAN, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Disaster Prevention Research Center of National Cheng Kung University, which was set up after Typhoon Herb devastated central Taiwan in July, 1996, celebrated its 15th anniversary on Oct. 25 by looking back on its achievements.
Cheng-Lun Shieh, director of the research center, said the study of disaster prevention in Taiwan started after the 1990 Typhoon Ofelia, which caused approximately 40 deaths.
With the support from Council of Agriculture, the investigation of potential debris flows was initiated in the following year. From 1991 to 1996, 485 potential debris flows were investigated. The number increased to 1,420 by 2001.
Before and after the flood caused by Typhoon Mindulle and Typhoon Aere in 2004, the research center took satellite photos from Formosat-2, an imaging processing system. In Dec. 2004, it captured images of the South Asia Tsunami off the West Coast of northern Sumatra.
In addition, a 27GB data of 28 images was processed within 2 weeks after the Sichuan earthquake, mainland China, in May 2008.
Typhoon Morakot, which hit southern Taiwan in August, 2009, led to 683 people dead, 45 injured, 76 missing and NT$16.5 billion in agricultural loss. In response, the NCKU research center conducted surveys of landslide dams in the affected areas.
Right after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011, Shieh has made donations to a calamity relief fund and signed memorandum of understanding with Public Works Research Institute, one of Japan’s research institutes, to develop public works technologies and social capital.
“Global warming may aggravate, climate change may worsen and unknown disasters are lurking, propelling us to move forward,” Shieh said.
Hwung-Hweng Hwung, president of National Cheng Kung University, commented that the Disaster Prevention Research Center was established when he was the director of the Research and Services Headquarters.
“I’m pleased the center has grown from a few staff members to a professional team of about 40 people. And it has been rated a top research center among the total 68 research centers and was given the award of excellence in academic and industrial collaboration by the university.”
A three-day international symposium was held following the celebration, in which 40 experts and scholars from five countries participated. It focused on three topics, including Asian Cloud Network on Disaster Research, Coping with Extreme Flood and Sediment-related Disasters and Typhoon Morakot and 311 Earthquakes in Japan.
The NCKU Disaster Prevention Research Center was established in Oct. 1996, after Typhoon Herb brought tremendous rainfalls and caused severe floods and sediment-related disasters especially along the Chen-Yu-Lan River, Nantou County, on July 31 the same year.