22　May,2006
Case Station-Field Campus (CASiFiCA):
An Innovative Approach for Implementation-Oriented Disaster Research and Education   

N. Okada
Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan

How has it developed?

Until early July,2004 when people met in Ravello, Italy for the 4^th IIASA-DPRI Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) Forum, the Case Station-Field Campus (CASiFiCA) Scheme had gradually been developed as a conceptual spin-off of the IDRiM research activities  Then with further refinements made, it was first proposed officially in mid January, 2005 at the Kobe WCDR Conference. A special thematic session was organized by Okada and others, and it gained a broad level of attention from the session participants, and the Kobe Conference referred to CASiFiCA as a promising approach for innovating disaster research and education towards implementation..

MEXT-funded CASiFiCA Poject

It was quite fortunate that in April 2005, our research proposal based on this scheme was successfully approved as a research grant in aid, “kaken”, provided by the Japanese government (MEXT). Since then, the CASiFiCA scheme has constantly been given a preliminary trial to transform it from a conceptual construct to real outcomes.

What is special about the MEXT-CASiFiCA?

What makes this three-year (2005-2008) MEXT-CASiFiCA project special as compared to similar preceding ones already put into practice? The uniqueness of this CASiFiCA approach is specifically described by the MEXT research project as follows:

To strategically achieve the above objectives and outcomes, the following five countries have so far been selected as our target regions in the world. They are Japan, China, India, Nepal and Turkey. From each country a research institution to serve as the regional research center called “Case Station” has been chosen and registered primarily on a voluntary basis, and their actual test fields (either outdoor survey areas or indoor working places including governmental or non-governmental bodies) have been identified as “Field Campus”.Each case station is stationed as a regional research core and engaged in continuous monitoring of “advocacy models (tools, policies and more soft and process-oriented knowledge and technology). This entire research process to be managed at the case station over time, has to be systematically synchronized with accompanying implementation-oriented research activities to be continuously conducted at its field campus(es), where young scientists and PhD students are encouraged to carry out their on-field IDRiM study. To academically support them to fulfill their study, remote co-supervision and advice from senior scientists and experts who are expected to belong to our NEXUS-IDRiM network community and asked to offer their guidance within an agreed scheme. In this manner it is expected that such fields provide them with a globally-networked field campus which is envisioned as an innovative scheme for implementation-oriented higher-education in this new century.

1. DPRI, Department of Urban Management, and Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University　and Japan sub-station: Osaka University

2. Beijing Normal University (China)

3. National Society for Earthquake Technology - Nepal (NSET)

4. Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society-India (SEED)

5. Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Bogazici University, Turkey

1. About CASiFiCA

2. CASiFiCA Framework

3. CASiFiCA MEXT

4.CASiFiCA e-colloquium

5. CASiFiCA template