Building Up a Common Recognition of City Development in the Southern Part of Kofu Basin under the Initiative of Knowledge Brokers with the Cooperation of Experts

Abstract

Extreme weather caused by global warming has caused an increase in the number and intensity of heavy rain disasters. Almost half the area of the Kofu Basin, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, is expected to be flooded by the largest expected rainfall in the basin. Approximately 310,000 people live in the inundation area, and the formulation of a wide-area evacuation plan in the event of a flood is an urgent issue. In the southern part of this area, where the estimated inundation depth is 5–10 m, a new station of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen Line, which will start operation in 2027, is planned, and urban development centered on the station is expected. In order to build a sustainable city that is resilient to floods in such a flood hazard area, the author established a study group on urban development consisting of knowledge brokers—professors at University of Yamanashi—and experts with the participation of local government observers. The group has proposed a future image of sustainable Kofu Basin under the initiative of knowledge brokers with the cooperation of experts. The group attempted to put into practice the concept of sustainable cities presented by the author. As a result, by the unusual town development activities of the study group, perspective drawings that provide the participants a common recognition of the city development were successfully created.

A Spatial Improved-kNN-Based Flood Inundation Risk Framework for Urban Tourism under Two Rainfall Scenarios

“…FIR is a comprehensive system combining natural hazards, vulnerability, and exposure [13]. Natural hazards refer to the frequency and intensity of hazards, and vulnerability denotes the susceptibility of the exposed elements to hazards, while exposure indicates population or assets located in flood-prone areas [11,14]. Many effective approaches have been used in FIR, such as expertise-based methods like analytic hierarchy process [15][16][17][18], probability-based evaluations like Bayesian networks [13,19], machine-learning-based approaches like neural networks [20][21][22][23][24], and hydrological and hydraulic models [25][26][27].…”

Role of Community-Led Planning for Effective Wide-Area Regional Evacuation

“…Therefore, in addition to "protecting" and "evacuating", developing cities that can escape or overcome floods and minimize damage (i.e., measures to "dodge" flood hazards) is crucial. Thus, the countermeasure, "dodge", which involves building cities that can maintain their function and minimize damage to inhabitants' property and lives, is essential for urban sustainability [4].…”

“…To build a sustainable, flood-resilient city in such a hazardous area, the author established an urban development study group [5], which has proposed a future sustainable Kofu basin under knowledge brokers' initiative and with experts' cooperation. The group applied the concept of sustainable cities presented by the author and proposed building detention/retention basins, a nature museum, stay-type leisure facilities, raised ground created by banking, artificial land and high-rise buildings, and a transportation network -thus forming constituent elements for a sustainable, flood-resilient Kofu basin [4].…”