SISF Foundation

SISF Family on Home Coming Program in July 2016, Kazusa Arc 

Alumni SATOM Scholar Cambodian Team

20th Anniversary of Sato International Scholarship Foundation 

SISF magazine, No. 18, June 2015 !!!

SISF magazine, No. 18, June 2015 !!!

May 31, 2014 Overnight trip to Chiba

May 31, 2014 Overnight trip to Chiba

June 01, 2014 Overnight trip at Tokyo Station

May 31, 2014 Overnight trip to Chiba

November 16, 2013 Certificate Ceremony

 December 14, 2013 Rakugo Event

 November 16, 2013 Certificate Ceremony

Water

What Is Water?

Water (H₂O: one molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom) is a transparent fluid which forms the world’s streams, lakes, oceans and rain. Water is a tasteless, odorless liquid at standard temperature and pressure. The color of water and ice is very slight blue hue, although water appears colorless in small quantities. Water vapor is essentially invisible as a gas.

The volume of water one Earth would be about 332,500,000 cubic miles or 1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, lakes, rivers, icecaps, glaciers, soil moisture, atmosphere, aquifer, and even in human’s body. About 71% of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5% and freshwater has only about 3.5% of all Earth’s water. Over 68% of freshwater is locked up in ice and glaciers, and other 30% is underground water. Fresh surface-water sources, such as rivers and lakes, only constitute about 22,300 cubic miles (936,100 cubic kilometers), which is about 1/150^th of one percent of total water. he water is used for domestic, industrial, irrigation, livestock, mining, public supply, thermoelectric power, and aquaculture.

Terminology

Condensation: is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water. Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is responsible for the formation of clouds.

Precipitation: is the water released from the clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It is the primary connection in the water cycle that provides for the delivery of the atmospheric water to the Earth. Most precipitation falls as rain.

Evaporation: is the process by which water changes from liquid to a gas or vapor. Heat is necessary for evaporation to occur by breaking the bonds that hold water molecules together, which is why water easily evaporates at the boiling point (100°C), but evaporate much more slowly at the freezing point.

Open channel flow: is the flow with a free surface, such as flow in a river or in a partially full pipe.

Transpiration: is essentially evaporation of water from plant leaves. Studies have revealed that transpiration accounts for about 10% of the moisture in the atmosphere, with oceans, seas, and other water bodies providing nearly 90%, and a tiny sublimation.

Evapotranspiration: is the water lost to the atmosphere from the ground surface, evaporation from the capillary fringe of the groundwater table, and the transpiration of groundwater by plants whose roots tap the capillary fringe of the groundwater table.
Sublimation:  is the conversion between the solid and the gaseous phases of matter, with no intermediate liquid stage.

Infiltration: is the process by which precipitation or water on ground surface enters the subsurface soils and moves into rocks through cracks and pore spaces.

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Hydrology

Hydrology

Hydrology is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on the Earth including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability. The domains of hydrology include the fields of hydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology, drainage basin management, and water quality. The hydrologist can engage with in various activities such as earth and environmental science, physical geography, geology, civil and environmental engineering, hydraulic modelling, flood mapping, catchment flood management plans, shoreline management plans, estuarine strategies, coastal protection, and flood alleviation.

The Water Cycle (Source: http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html)

Branches of Hydrology are:

☞ Chemical hydrology is the study of the chemical characteristics of water.

☞ Ecohydrology is the study of interactions between organisms and the hydrologic cycle.

☞ Hydrogeology is the study of the presence and movement of groundwater.

☞ Hydroinformatics is the adaptation of information technology to hydrology and water resources applications.

☞ Hydrometeorology is the study of transfer of water and energy between land and water body surfaces and the lower atmosphere.

☞ Isotope hydrology is the study of the isotopic signatures of water.

☞ Surface hydrology is the study of hydrologic processes that operate at/near Earth’s surface.

☞ Drainage basin management covers water storage, in form of reservoirs and flood protection.

☞ Water quality includes the chemistry of water in rivers and lakes, both pollutants and natural solutes.

☞ Oceanography is the study of water in oceans and estuaries.

☞ Meteorology is the study of atmosphere and weather including precipitation as snow and rainfall.

☞ Limnology is the study of biological, chemical, physical geological of all inland waters.  

Hydrological Models

Hydrological Models are simplified and conceptual representations of a part of the hydrologic or water cycle for hydrologic prediction and understanding hydrologic processes and behavior of hydrologic systems to make better prediction and to solve the major challenges in water resources management. There are two major types of hydrologic models can be distinguished:

☞ Stochastic Models are the black box systems, based on data and using mathematical statistical concepts to link a certain input to the model output. Commonly used techniques are regression, transfer functions, neural networks and system identification.

Surface Water Concept (wikipedia)

☞ Process-Based Models (known as deterministic hydrological models) represent the physical processes observed in the real world including surface runoff, subsurface flow, evapotranspiration, and channel flow. 

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Land Cover VS Land Use

What difference between Land Cover and Land Use?

Land Cover refers to the surface cover on the ground, whether vegetation, urban infrastructure, water, bare soil or other; it does not describe the use of land, and the use of land may be different for lands with the same cover type. For instance, a land cover type of forest may be used for timber production, wildlife management or recreation; it might be private land, a protected watershed or a popular state park. Land cover can be determined by analyzing satellite and aerial imagery. Land use cannot be determined from satellite imagery.

Land Use refers to the purpose the land serves, for example, recreation, wildlife habitat or agriculture; it does not describe the surface cover on the ground. For example, a recreational land use could occur in a forest, shrubland, grasslands or on manicured lawns. Land Use expresses how humans use the biophysical or ecological properties of land. Land use includes the modification and/or management of land for agriculture, settlements, forestry and other uses including those that exclude humans from land, as in the designation of nature reserves for conservation.

It is often impossible to observe land use by examining only land cover by remote sensing as illustrated in the figure. For example, the land cover type of trees might indicate a land use type of plantation or a land use type of conservation.

source: http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/154142/

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Research and Future Plan

I am Sophal Try from Cambodia. Currently, I am enrolling in Ph.D course at Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan. My major here is Disaster Prevention Engineering. My research mainly focuses on flooding in the Mekong River Basin. 

In front of Clock Tower, Yoshida Campus, Kyoto University.

I have graduated degree in Department of Constructional Disaster Prevention and Environmental Engineering, Kyungpook National University, South Korea. I have graduated my bachelor of Engineering in 2014  from Rural Engineering Department, Institute of Technology of Cambodia, majoring in Water Resources Engineering and Rural Infrastructure. The reason which pushes me to apply for scholarship to study in Republic of Korea is that I love Korean culture, food, drama, landscape and especially KPOP.

My passion now is to continue doing research in order to find the solution for current natural disaster which always happens in area along Mekong River Basin. Nowadays, flooding always happens during rainy season while people face with drought during dry season. As an involved person, I have to find an effective solution to solve this problem. Therefore, I have chosen to research on Assessment of Human Pressure Flooding in Mekong River Basin. Mekong River flows along six countries: China, Myanmar, Lao, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I do hope that the result of this research will help million of people who are stockholders with Mekong River Basin.

          

Last but not least, I do hope that I can take a part to this solution to help humanity. After finish my study, I am going back to my home country, Cambodia, to share my knowledge and experience to my next generation through being a lecturer, research and involve with NGOs or development partners.    

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The Voices of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

This was really impressed me that I was asked for an interview during my Short-Term Exchange Program at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (STEP@TUAT 2013-2014). Here you are the link: http://www.tuat.ac.jp/~intl/voices/entry04.html. The following is the the original text from Voice of International Students at TUAT.

Voices

Passing on the knowledge on environmentally friendly irrigation technologies to Cambodia's next generations

Try SOPHAL From Cambodia

The reason for choosing TUAT as my exchange program destination was a simple one: TUAT had a long history in the agriculture field and very high research achievements. Moreover, I had a professor back in my university who is a former graduate from TUAT and also recommended the STEP Program for me.

 Currently I live in the Fuchu International House, which is a 10-minute walk from Fuchu Campus. Exchange students from Thai, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Russia and other countries also live there, which makes the environment very international and fun. The Global Cafe is also a good place to meet and interact with Japanese students, but most of them are a bit shy to speak in English, which makes communication difficult at times. But once you befriend them, we overcome these difficulties together and everything turns out just fine.

Under STEP Program, I have been able to take a wide variety of classes in English, related to both Agriculture and Engineering, such as environmental pollution, materials engineering and many others. I've also been able to join a lab related to my interests and even got assigned a desk where I can research my interest themes. Under the supervision of Professor Tasuku Kato, whose field is Water Environmental conservation in irrigation?and drainage, I have been able to do some experiments and participate in field works. At Prof. Kato's lab, there are 2 Cambodian students and 2 Indonesian students, which makes the environment a bit international, too. Prof. Kato has a vast fieldwork experience in Asia and is fluent in English, so I have no communication problems at all. The other members of his lab are also very friendly and easy to talk to.

I want to deepen my knowledge on irrigation systems in rice fields and also on water supply for agricultural purposes. One of the merits of TUAT in my opinion is, without a doubt, its facilities. Equipment that I did not have access to back in my university in Cambodia, such as HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) analyzer allows me to perform high level experiments in a daily basis. Moreover, field trips, as the one we had to Inbanuma in Chiba Prefecture, allowed me to take part in a study about the water utilized in irrigation systems, which is a good base for future experiments and also helps improving my analytical skills. After coming to TUAT, I was able to think about my future in a clearer way. My will now is to continue my studies up to PhD and eventually become a professor in Cambodia. I think getting in contact with cutting edge technologies broadened my vision and made my dreams even bigger. Cambodia is still a developing country and the awareness towards the environment is still very low. I think it is my mission to help educate the next generation of Cambodian young leaders, not only in matters of the irrigation models I learn here, but also in raising the environmental awareness as it is in Japan nowadays.

Profile

Try SOPHAL From Cambodia

From Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Currently enrolled in the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Try is in the 5th year of his undergraduate studies in Water Resource Engineering. His interest is in Irrigation Systems. At TUAT, he is enrolled in the 1-year STEP Program for 2013-2014. He is 23 now.

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