The event was attended by the Rector of the National University of Engineering, Dr. Alfonso López Chau, along with representatives from participating and collaborating institutions, including the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI), the National Institute of Civil Defense (INDECI), the Directorate of Hydrography and Navigation (DHN), and the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP).

The Peruvian mission arrived in Tokyo on February 14. They visited the University of Tokyo on the morning of the 15th, and in the afternoon, they traveled to Kobe, where they had a technical meeting in working groups on Thursday the 16th. Leaders of the cooperating institutions participated in the meeting, including CISMID-UNI, INDECI, and CENEPRED, from the Peruvian counterpart.

On Friday 17th, they made a technical visit to the National Institute for Earth Science Research and Disaster Resilience (NIED) in Miki, where they participated in the test of a full-scale building. Eight hundred sensors were installed on the steel structure with BRB to monitor its structural health (SHM). Several systems were tested in the trial, including one of the algorithms developed for the SATREPS Lima project.

On Saturday 18th, CISMID researchers traveled to Kyoto, where they toured its streets to see its old buildings reinforced in case of earthquakes.

On the 20th and 21st, they visited Sendai and toured the areas affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Finally, they returned to Tokyo, and from the 22nd to the 24th, they carried out activities at the University of Tokyo and the Tsukuba NIED.
Dr. Carlos Zavala, a principal investigator of the Peruvian counterpart, commented:

“We have been able to verify the efficiency of the mathematical algorithms used in the SATREPS project, so, using the sensors we manage, we will be able to evaluate the behavior of the infrastructures in the event of a catastrophic earthquake”… “Face-to-face meetings are important because they allow us to make decisions for the following phases of the project.”

Lima will be the next venue for the meeting, where the third Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) will take place on December 19.

The Protocol Ceremony  started at 10:30 am following welcome remarks given by MSc. Fernando Lázares, general director CISMID; MSc. Wilfredo Gutiérrez, DeanFIC-UNI; Mg. José Gonzáles, Executive Director APCI; Mr. Tomoyuki Odani, Deputy Resident Representative of JICA in Peru; Mr. Ryosuke Yamakura, Counsellor, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Japan in Peru; Dr. Arturo Fernando Talledo Coronado, Vice-Rector for Research of UNI; and a brief summary of the project by Dr. Carlos Zavala, principal researcher from CISMID.

The program had the following Technical Presentations:

On August 8-10 2022, CISMID received the visit of the Japanese counterpart of the SATREPS 2021-2026 project “Development of Integrated Expert System for Estimation and Observation of Damage Level of Infrastructure in Lima City”. Led by Dr. Koichi Kusunoki, the delegation of 11 researchers arrived in Lima to visit the study area and carry out the JCC (Joint Coordination Committee) event.

On the first day, the group of researchers toured the district of Chorrillos and visited CISMID, SEDAPAL and COEN INDECI-Chorrillos, where they had a meeting in working groups.

On the second day of activities, the Japanese mission visited the southern zone of the study area and held coordination meetings with CENEPRED and the Housing Ministry. These visits to the participating institutions of the project allow to strengthen ties of friendship and reaffirm common objectives.

On the third day, in the morning, the second Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) was held. Leaders of each working group presented the progress of their research lines, at CISMID Convention Center “Ichiro Tanahashi”. These presentations were also presented in the afternoon with the presence of participating institutions in the project, in the workshop titled: “Advances in the development of an Integrated Expert System for the Estimation and Observation of the Damage Level of Infrastructure in the Metropolitan Lima Area” held in the Lima Convention Center.

Representatives of the institutions involved in the project attended the event, such as the Japanese Embassy in Peru, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Peruvian International Cooperation Agency (APCI), the Housing Ministry, the National Center of Estimation, Prevention and Reduction of Disaster Risk (CENEPRED), the National Institute of Civil Defense (INDECI),the Potable Water and Sewage Service of Lima (Sedapal), the Hydrography and Navigation Directorate (DHN), the National University of Engineering (UNI) and the Civil Engineering Faculty FIC-UNI.

Dr. Zavala, principal researcher for the Peruvian counterpart explained:

“The project started in October, we are in the first year since the beginning of the project and we still have 4 years lef; of course, we hope to have the system already tested after three and a half years. However, as we have been working virtually, we have made a good progress in algorithms and in many other things”.

That concluded the activities of the Japanese delegation of the SATREPS 2021-2026 project in Peru. Dr. Koichi Kusunoki, principal researcher for the Japanese counterpart, commented about the experience of working with CISMID researchers:

“We have a long history of collaboration, more than satisfied years. The first generation was Professor Kuroiwa and Professor Ishiyama from Japan, who develop the cismid itself; the second generation continued the friendship. Now, we are in the third generation, we still walking together, quite friendly. The location between Perú and Japan are just opposite sides of the earth, but we are walking together, that’s quite important. Then, in the future we need to continue this kind of good collaboration, so to achieve that we need to bring young people for the fourth generation; this time they met together, and that’s very nice”.

On Monday, March 14, researchers from the University of Tokyo and CISMID met online to share their progress and future activities, in compliance with the objectives of the project “Development of Integrated Expert System for Estimation and Observation of Damage Level of Infrastructure in Lima City”.

The virtual meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee (“Joint Coordination Committee” -eJCC) was attended by the dean of FIC-UNI, Msc. Wilfredo Gutierrez; the deputy resident representative of JICA in Peru, Mr. Tomoyuki Odani; the executive director of APCI, Mg. Jose Antonio Gonzalez Norris; the Ambassador of Japan in Peru, Dr. Kazuyuki Katayama; and the UNI Vice President for Research, Dr. Arturo Fernando Talledo Coronado.

The project implemented by the SATREPS 2021-2026 program, has the objective of creating an integrated expert system to estimate the level of damage in infrastructure before an earthquake, and to observe the level of damage in a post-earthquake scenario using information technologies to protect the lives of citizens by offering different levels of information. The project is divided into 4 working groups, with researchers involved from both countries and different participating institutions.

• Group 1A Topic: Seismology and Seismic Ground Movement, led by Dr. Zenon Aguilar and Dr. Hisao Kondo. Its objective is to develop intensity maps and ground movement for the city of Lima, in real-time.
• Group 1B Topic: Flood Forecasting System and Tsunami Damage for Lima, led by Dr. Miguel Estrada and Dr. Shunichi Koshimura. Its objective is to develop a system of potential flood scenarios, and improve the prediction capacity in Lima.
• Group 2A Topic: Real-time damage assessment systems for buildings, led by Dr. Carlos Zavala and Dr. Koichi Kusunoki, has the objective of developing a safety limit assessment method for Peruvian buildings, and a damage assessment system for damage to hospital buildings in real-time.
• Group 2B Topic: Vital lines services and road infrastructure, led by Mag. Jorge Gallardo and Dr. Yoshihisa Maruyama. Its objective is to develop a real-time damage assessment system for water, sewage, and urban road systems.
• Group 3 Topic: Development of the integrated disaster information system, led by Dr. Miguel Diaz and Dr. Masashi Matsuoka. The objective is to develop a GIS database for the Lima area; develop damage monitoring methods for post-disaster assessment, using earth observation data; and create a GIS platform to support decision-making in disaster management.
• Group 4 Topic: Development of human resources to effectively use the integrated expert system, led by Eng. Miguel Yamasaki and Eng. Francisco Ríos. The objective is to strengthen the capacities of decision-makers and government officials in the use of the expert system, to take the appropriate measures according to the possibility of an earthquake or tsunami, in different scenarios.

The meeting ended with final comments by Dr. Keiko Tamura and Dr. Koichi Kusunoki, who highlighted the history of cooperation of more than 100 years of exchange between Peru and Japan, with projects as important as this one, which will have an impact on life in the Peruvian population. They emphasized the excellent work of the team of scientists that make up each of the working groups and commented on the intention of organizing a next face-to-face coordination meeting when the restrictions due to the pandemic cease

SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development), is a science and technology diplomatic initiative that promotes joint research between Japan and developing countries using science and Japanese technology.

The project led by CISMID-FIC-UNI and the Seismic Research Institute of the University of Tokyo-Japan proposes the development of software that integrates existing observation data in real-time, from national technical-scientific institutions. This expert system will use the seismic scenarios previously developed in the SATREPS 2010-2015 Project and the existing Early Warning System (developed by IGP, DIHIDRONAV, INDECI, and MTC), with data from the exposed infrastructures, such as main transport routes identified by the MTC and remotely observed by CONIDA, in addition to the information produced by CISMID-FIC-UNI from its seismic networks.

This project will develop artificial intelligence algorithms for handling existing observation data in real-time. To do this, it will design an appropriate seismic intensity scale for the different types of Peruvian infrastructure, based on the diagnosis of vulnerability and risk. In this way, it will be possible to generate a rapid evaluation of the damage to vital lines, roads, bridges, essential buildings, and houses, in order to propose information on evacuation routes and places of refuge.

This system will help decision-makers, who will use pre-earthquake scenarios to test their capabilities and develop contingency plans; and post-earthquake scenarios, to provide a quick and efficient response.

The Peruvian counterpart will be divided into the following working groups:

• System for Early Analysis. This group will work to analyze earthquake and tsunami intensities throughout the affected area in a pre-event stage through simulated scenarios, and in a post-event stage through a quasi-real-time update of the observed intensities.
• Infrastructures: Structures, vital lines, and roads. It proposes a damage intensity scale for the Peruvian case, based on the type of current infrastructure, vital lines, and roads, due to the high risk resulting from the vulnerability of the city of Lima. The information produced by this team will be an input for decision-makers who manage disaster response so that they can efficiently manage public resources.
• Disaster information technology. Improve the GIS platform with structure inventory. The existing database will be improved, with complementary information and integrated into the new platform to be developed. Through a geomatic platform that will integrate satellite technology.
• Disaster risk management. The information generated by the integrated expert system will be used to help decision-makers carry out efficient reforms that mitigate risk during emergency preparedness and disaster response.