<i>-Editorial-</i> SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE HEAVY RAIN EVENT OF JULY 2018 IN WESTERN JAPAN

Abstract

The unprecedented heavy rainfall that occurred in western Japan in 2018 caused flooding, inundation, and sediment disasters extending over a wide area, resulting in various types of damage to lifelines, transport systems, diverse structures and so on, and exposing problems that extend across many sectors. One of the major roles of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers is to compile disaster survey data regarding the frequent occurrence of increasingly severe disasters in recent years and then share this information widely with the public. In order to contribute to the development of disaster prevention technologies and academic fields, this special issue is devoted to a collection of reports and preliminary research papers regarding the 2018 heavy rain event in western Japan. Some of the Japanese papers have been translated into English and posted on the Journal of JSCE.

River Stage Modeling with a Deep Neural Network Using Long-Term Rainfall Time Series as Input Data: Application to the Shimanto-River Watershed

“…For instance, quasi-stationary squall lines stayed over northern Kyushu from 5 to 6 July in 2017, setting new 6-and 12-h precipitation records [4]. Also, water vapor associated with a tropical cyclone circulation flowed into a stationary front from 28 June to 8 July 2018, releasing devastatingly heavy rainfall over western Japan and breaking 48-and 72-h precipitation records [5].…”