Issues and proposals related to infrastructure
maintenance will be identified with SIP as the
starting point, but the aim is to establish
mechanisms by which the regions can address issues
of infrastructure maintenance on their own even
after SIP has ended, as well as mechanisms to
support collaboration so that the regions can help
each other.
Fig. 1. Regional Implementation
Support Teams in the SIP Infrastructure Program
Cooperative human resource
development by industry, government, and academia,
with universities playing the central role
Moderator:
First, what
sorts of activities are the teams doing with regard
to human resource development?
Rokugo:
In the case of Gifu, collaboration among
industry, government, and academia began 15 years
ago, and a training program for infrastructure
maintenance experts (ME) was established 10 years
ago. Its purpose is to train human resources having
the necessary skills for infrastructure inspection
and repairs through collaboration among Gifu
University, the prefectural government, and
organizations related to the construction industry.
Human resource development needs to be a key theme
when considering the future of regional
collaboration, and I believe that universities need
to play a central role in these activities.
The ME program provides a venue for engineers with
high aspirations to gather together from industry,
government, and academia and exchange useful
information. I believe that the existence of this
framework has contributed to the relatively high
level of success in the regional implementation
activities of SIP.
Matsuda:
Nagasaki University established the
Infrastructure Lifetime Extending Maintenance
Research Center in 2007, even before the needs for
infrastructure inspection, diagnosis, and
preservation had become so pressing. This center
prepares human resources to work in the area of road
maintenance in a program known as "Michimori." A
decade has passed since the center was launched, and
graduates of the road maintenance training program
had begun to advocate for creating some mechanism to
find practical applications for the results of
technical development and research, in addition to
inspection and diagnosis. So when we heard about
support for implementation under SIP, we realized
that this would be just right for us and we applied
to participate.
The road maintenance training program provides three
levels of training: "Michimori," who have the
ability for overall road maintenance; "Specified
Michimori," who have the ability to diagnose the
level of soundness of steel bridges and concrete
bridges; and "Assistant Michimori," who have the
ability to conduct inspections. In addition, there
is a program called "Michimori Auxiliary" which
gives the general public an opportunity to help out.
Residents can join the "Michimori Auxiliary" by
completing about three hours of training, and then
if they see some problem with a road, they can send
a photo from their smartphone. When this message is
received, the university notifies the appropriate
road administrator. This is also useful as an
awareness-raising activity because it encourages
people to watch over and take care of the public
civil engineering structures that were built with
their tax money.
Chun:
Ehime University started an ME training
program in FY 2014, in addition to Gifu University
and Nagasaki University. As Dr. Rokugo also
mentioned, this program has gathered people who have
very high aspirations, and this naturally has
resulted in an environment that facilitates
conversations that transcend the barriers of
industry, government, and academia. This has been
the basis for an emerging trend of interest in
establishing venues for discussion between Ehime
University and the municipalities of Ehime
Prefecture, and meetings for exchange of opinions
among universities in the four prefectures of
Shikoku, the prefectural governments, and the
Shikoku Regional Development Bureau. These kinds of
opportunities for discussion have helped to develop
a shared awareness among industry, government, and
academia of infrastructure for the sake of
residents. I find it extremely significant that
mechanisms have been put in place for the seamless
sharing of views from a wide range of standpoints.
I feel that one of the major achievements of SIP at
Ehime University has been the sharing of information
that only locals could know, such as "this section
is constantly traveled by vehicles loaded right up
to the limit," or "this bridge was built as a test
of technologies that were new at the time and these
problems have arisen," with opportunities to talk
with each other about ways to resolve the problems.
Sometimes the stated views are quite demanding for
SIP members who handle technical development, but
these are expressions of the heartfelt desires and
hopes of municipalities for new technologies to meet
their needs.
Shimozato:
Okinawa is a region of subtropical islands
with high temperatures and high humidity, and it
experiences a great deal of salt damage. Two bridges
have collapsed because of the deterioration caused
by said damage.
These bridges did not show obvious damage on the
outside, but internally, they were heavily corroded.
Nothing was done to stop these bridges from
deteriorating so badly that they actually collapsed,
because the municipalities did not have any civil
engineers to take appropriate measures. SIP is
responding to this situation with teams mainly from
University of the Ryukyus in two programs: training
core human resources, and developing manuals for
dealing with recurrent deterioration and repeated
repairs.
In the program to train core human resources, a
bridge preservation master team has been formed in
which administrator engineers and university
personnel together observe the structures and
perform actual diagnoses. For advanced technologies
developed by SIP to be deployed in the field, I
believe it is important to incorporate the needs
that emerge through this kind of implementation by
core human resources, along with statements offered
by diagnostic engineers in the field, such as the
kinds of data they want to obtain for use in
checking proof strength.
Addressing regional issues such
as earthquakes, salt damage, and depopulation
Hisada:
In the Tohoku region, the 2011 earthquake
struck a severe blow to infrastructure, and there is
a sense of crisis as to what future steps should be
taken to maintain infrastructure with consideration
for its residual damage. In response, the
Infrastructure Management Research Center was
established in 2014, based on a cooperative
agreement for infrastructure maintenance and
disaster prevention by Tohoku University and the
Tohoku Regional Development Bureau in December 2013.
The scope of cooperation has been further expanded
since then, and we have signed agreements with 14
organizations, including the prefectural governments
of Miyagi and Yamagata.
Since joining SIP in 2016, we have been working to
determine the technical needs and requests of local
governments and connect them with developed
technologies. Unfortunately, maintenance tends to be
postponed in the Tohoku region because
reconstruction is still the priority there. However,
it is possible to introduce new technologies when
building new infrastructure, such as the extension
of Sanriku Expressway. Still, even within the six
prefectures of the Tohoku region, in Akita and
Yamagata on the Sea of Japan coast, the fact is that
high hurdles still exist for introduction of new
technologies.
Shimozato:
We are also working on preparation of an
inspection manual that will target salt damage and
recurrent deterioration in a way that is close to
actual practice. A technical committee of the
Okinawa branch of JSCE-West Japan transported some
removed bridge members to the University of the
Ryukyus and used technologies developed by SIP to
investigate the depth of internal damage, and the
results will be compiled and related to the residual
proof strength. Initially, this will be handled
under JSCE, and as more cases of actual bridges are
studied, we will develop a manual for this era in
which it has become necessary to deal with recurrent
deterioration and repeated repairs. Eventually, I
would like to see this expanded to include not only
the main island of Okinawa, but also remote islands
and other countries in Southeast Asia.
Because our region experiences many typhoons, we are
also working on using SIP technologies to introduce
constant wind stability monitoring for long bridges
and fatigue evaluation for road and bridge
structures such as light poles.
Ushijima:
Unlike the other teams, our Hokkaido team is
specializing in water infrastructure, especially
water supply for small rural communities. Homes in
Hokkaido have tended to be widely scattered ever
since the land was settled, and the population
decline in recent years has increased the level of
isolation, so the infrastructure is extremely
inefficient.
We are collaborating with organizations such as
municipalities, NPOs, and individual water
cooperatives to implement projects, rather than the
Regional Development Bureau. We've just heard about
a situation where there were no civil engineers to
perform inspections, and the situation is similar
with water supply, as some municipalities have only
one person in charge. It would be difficult for us
to comply with efficiency rules prescribed by the
national government with cities in mind.
During the past year, the SIP team has investigated
several water cooperatives. Almost all of these have
handled management independently, taking care of
everything themselves from initially laying the
water pipes to repairs. Meanwhile, they have some
deficiencies with regard to asset management; for
example, they tend to have almost no funds set aside
for repairs. In many cases, these water facilities
are used in agriculture as well as residential use,
but there are differences in the situation of
agricultural water for business use versus water for
residential use, and problems arise in relation to
the allocation of repair costs. Our goal is to
provide good support for those needs and make use of
local resources in developing a mechanism for
maintenance, and we will consider technical
development on that basis in relation to SIP
technologies.
Promoting interest in civil
engineering to increase the future supply of
maintenance personnel
Moderator:
You have mentioned several programs for human
resource development, including ME training. There
is a declining number of young people who will enter
civil engineering and supply the human resources
that will be needed in the future.
Rokugo:
It is important to create an environment
where civil engineering graduates can use their
specialization to engage in productive work.
Incorporating new technologies, such as those that
are being developed by SIP, is one way to make it
more interesting.
Chun:
To encourage the introduction of new
technologies, I think that it would be good to have
incentives in areas such as infrastructure
maintenance inspections, so that builders would
receive additional points in the evaluation of
completed projects ordered by the national
government or prefectures. If an environment is
created where it is easy for industry, government,
and academia to adopt new technologies, and there
are mechanisms for that to continue on an ongoing
basis, I think the educational systems would also be
developed as a result. That, in turn, would also
help to increase openness in the civil engineering
industry overall.
Matsuda:
In Nagasaki, we began a human resource
development association for the construction
industry three years ago with collaboration among
industry, government, and academia, and we have been
working on improving the working environment to
attract more young people and providing scholarships
to high school students from remote islands who want
to attend university for civil engineering.
We are also offering internships to civil
engineering students at industrial high schools. The
instructors have Michimori qualifications, and the
training given to the interns is between the level
of Assistant Michimori and Michimori Auxiliary. A
good environment has developed there.
Hisada:
In Yamagata Prefecture this year, a new civil
engineering department was established at the
prefectural industrial technology junior college.
This program will provide training in infrastructure
maintenance, and advantages are provided for
employment within the prefecture. Yamagata
previously had no college or university with a civil
engineering department, and the program was
established in response to urging by the governor,
who expressed a sense of crisis regarding
infrastructure maintenance. Through collaboration
with the civil engineering department, students will
be able to learn the latest technologies, including
SIP technologies, in their classes; and when they
are employed in the field, these technologies are
likely to be adopted more widely in the region.
Rokugo:
In prefectures where there is no college or
university with a civil engineering department, we
need to raise our voices in calling for the
establishment of civil engineering departments for
the sake of the future of civil engineering.
Hisada:
The Council on Competitiveness-Nippon (COCN)
has recommended curriculum changes and restructuring
of the curriculum in civil engineering education at
universities in order to cover new areas, such as
"i-Construction" and productivity improvement
technologies, in addition to conventional areas of
the curriculum, such as structural dynamics and
materials. They recommended similar changes at high
schools, and another idea is for departments to
develop a curriculum that focuses on developing
human resources with an interest in information and
communications technology (ICT), as well as
conventional civil engineering departments.
Shimozato:
From the standpoint of human resource
development, another problem is that the price of
maintenance diagnostic services is too low.
Consultants who are asked to provide diagnostic
services do not make a profit unless repair work is
ordered. This situation does not make sense,
considering that there are economic advantages if
repairs are not needed and the economic losses of
construction costs and traffic restrictions can be
avoided. The compensation of engineers with
technical capabilities needs to be improved. It's
fine to let the general public get involved and
cooperate with inspections as volunteers, but who is
responsible when there are defects? Because it has
to be the administrator who makes the final
determination, it is still ideal to conduct in-house
education of engineers, as they do at Shuto
Expressway and JR.
Expanding opportunities for
practical application through coordination with the
national conference
Moderator:
New technologies and regional cooperation are
the themes of Japanese Congress for Infrastructure
Management. What are the views of the Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in this
regard?
Yasuhara:
Japanese Congress for Infrastructure
Management was established for two purposes. One was
the practical purpose of developing ways for
administrators to reliably maintain infrastructure
in the midst of deteriorating systems. The other was
to develop a new social paradigm in which the
citizens of Japan will see infrastructure
maintenance as something that concerns each of them
personally and seek solutions for issues that affect
all of us. It is called a "national conference" as a
way of reflecting this sense of creating a movement
in its name.
It has been pointed out that until now, there was no
venue for administrators and residents to exchange
information and hold discussions aimed at resolving
issues. At the national conference, forums are held
with the primary goal of creating such a venue and
providing a platform. At the forum on the topic of
technical development, representatives of local
governments speak about maintenance issues and their
needs; presentations are given in response by
engineers and companies that have solutions; and
thereafter the participants engage in further
discussion. After last year's forum, this was taken
to the point of local governments implementing
matched technologies in the field on a trial basis.
This is not a grassroots activity, but there was a
good response from the participating local
governments and companies which found it useful for
their own planning, and it seems to have been
effective.
At present, there is a high level of interest from
private companies that see expansion of the
maintenance market as a business opportunity. In the
future, we hope to encourage greater use of this
venue by local governments as well. Therefore, we
plan to expand the congress activities to rural
areas.
In this expansion into rural areas, we want to
promote more active use of technologies developed by
SIP. Therefore, we hope to increase collaboration
with the researchers who are involved in SIP,
including Regional Implementation Support Teams.
Rokugo:
We are aware of the role that universities
should play in collaboration among local
governments, industry, government, and academia.
However, it is difficult for young researchers to
achieve a track record of research, even if they are
involved in SIP regional implementation. It would be
appreciated if organizations such as JSCE could
provide venues for presentations.
Hisada:
In the sense of being an open platform for
matching between the needs of local governments and
companies' technologies as solutions, our regional
bases whose mission is to support implementation
have basically the same purpose as the national
conference. The opportunities for practical
applications will be increased by introducing SIP
technologies at regional forums.
Moderator:
At present, the SIP technologies are
basically still under development. Would it be
feasible to introduce them to the national
conference at the so-called prototype level?
Yasuhara:
In the case of trial implementation that I
mentioned earlier, the technology was at a
relatively high level of completion, but it appears
that the price would need to be reduced for it to be
implemented by local governments that are
experiencing difficult financial circumstances.
Because the business model still has these kinds of
problems, it could be considered as a prototype that
is still under development. In this sense, I hope
that the congress will be able to grow alongside a
wide range of technical development including
developing technologies.
Hisada:
When companies engage in business development
based on a prototype, that also gives rise to
opportunities for local governments to attract
businesses. A company may encounter resistance if it
tries to suddenly establish a foothold in local
industry, but if a proposal for business development
using a particular technology comes from the local
government, it can be accepted more easily by the
community, and this contributes to the local
economy.
Chun:
On the side of SIP technologies as well, I
think that in the future, there may be a stage when
we will want to obtain technical support from the
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and
Tourism in establishing some conditions for the
application of new technologies.
Shimozato:
The Japanese government has strict
requirements for certification of new technologies.
It goes without saying that a new technology does
not yet have an established track record, but
businesses in the prefecture will ask us to first
consult with the Public Works Research Institute or
the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure
Management, and while we are trying to respond to
their requests, the new technology loses its newness
and becomes just another technology. In my opinion,
Japan's mechanisms for the introduction of new
technologies are not adequate.
Hisada:
In our questionnaire survey of local
governments, many respondents stated that they feel
more able to adopt a new technology if it is
registered with the New Technology Information
System (NETIS).
Moderator:
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism is currently making
preparations for certification of technologies in
the form of a new NETIS, including the SIP budget. I
think it's good to provide information on the flow
of certification and introduce new technologies at
the national conference.
Shimozato:
I wonder about the possibility of creating a
mechanism for certification by SIP, where a regional
implementation team would report on the ways that a
particular technology has been used.
Rokugo:
In fact, we are now making plans for
evaluating the applicability of SIP technologies
based on the results of field tests, with
participation from government officials as well.
Shimozato:
We carefully analyze every piece of data and
evaluate it in committee. Participants in our
discussions include experts in institutional design.
It would be an interesting development if that kind
of opportunity arises. That would truly provide
support for implementation.
Matsuda:
If a way to evaluate developed technologies
is established, that could lead to increased
utilization of SIP technologies not only within
Japan but also in other countries. It is important
to create a mechanism to sustainably carry on with
the efforts of SIP, without being limited to human
resource development.
Moderator:
Infrastructure maintenance and disaster
prevention and mitigation technologies were
identified by the Council for Science, Technology
and Innovation of the Cabinet Office as one of the
research and development areas that should be
targeted for investment in FY 2017. It is my hope
that we will produce solid results with the Regional
Implementation Support Teams and achieve a good
transition to the next SIP.
[Article by
Mie Mikami]
[Photos by
Ayumi Sano]
This article is translated from
JSCE Magazine vol.102 No.10 October 2017 and
partially changed for this Special Edition.
