USMCA2006

The 5th International Symposium on New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia (USMCA2006)

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, and the International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS), Instituteof Industrial Science (IIS), theUniversity of Tokyo, Japan, coorganized the Fifth International Symposium on New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega cities in Asia (USMCA-2006) at Phuket on November 16 ~ 17, 2006. The symposium was sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan; the Center for Sustainable Urban Regeneration, the University of Tokyo, 21st Century Center of Excellence Program (COE), Japan; the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand; Siam City Cement, Thailand; and Index International Group Co., Ltd., Thailand.

The two-day long program of the symposium was arranged in two plenary and ten technical sessions, in which four keynote speeches and twelve special lectures were delivered by invited distinguished academicians and researchers from several Asian countries. The symposium was inaugurated by Dr. Pennung Warnitchai, School of Engineering and Technology (SET), AIT and it was followed by the welcome address of Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean of SET, AIT and the opening speeches of Dr. Takashi Moriyama, JAXA, Dr. Surachai Ratanasermpong, GISTDA and Prof. Taketo Uomoto, ICUS. The keynote speakers for the plenary sessions were Prof. Tsuneo Katayama (Department of Architecture, Tokyo Denki University, Japan), Dr. Suvit Vibulsresth (GISTDA), Dr. Absornsuda Siripong (Marine Science Department, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) and Prof. Mehedi Ahamed Ansary (Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh).

A total of 64 papers were presented in technical sessions covering a wide range of issues in the areas of urban safety including flood risk management, sustainable infrastructure management, earthquake, fire, tsunami, disaster mitigation and environmental impacts. Several presentations were made on newly developed advanced tools and methodologies for addressing these issues.

For the first time, ICUS prepared the Excellent Young Researcher Award to encourage activities of young researchers in the field of urban safety engineering. The winners of this award were Dr. Hong Huang (IIS, the University of Tokyo), Ms. Kulapramote Prathumchai, Geoinformatics Center (AIT), and Dr. Kawin Worakanchana (IIS, the University of Tokyo).