On June 4, 2020, the “Innovation Base of Earthquake Engineering Comprehensive Simulation” held a “Cloud Report”, and invited Prof. Yoichi Watabe, Professor of Division of Civil Engineering at Hokkaido University in Japan, to present a report named “Geotechnical issues in Japanese land-reclamation projects and marine soil characterization”.
This report was hosted by Associate Prof. Jie Xu from the School of Civil Engineering. Prof. Mingjing Jiang, Vice Dean of the School of Civil Engineering, attended the report and delivered a welcome speech.
By way of an online classroom, Prof. Yoichi Watabe introduced the history of some typical large-scale man-made airport islands in Japan. He also presented reclamation technologies which overcame various severe conditions such as thick soft clay deposit, large water depth, material shortage, short construction period, etc.
The audience at the meeting learnt about the strain rate effect in the long-term consolidation behavior evaluated in association with the isotache concept. After the report, Prof. Yoichi Watabe and the audience conducted an online discussion on related issues.
A total of 115 teachers and students participated this “Cloud Report”, including 12 teachers, 53 graduate students, 21 international students and 29 undergraduate students.
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Fig.1. Online group photo of some participating teachers and students |
Introduction to Prof. Yoichi Watabe:
Professor Yoichi Watabe graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1990 and he obtained Doctor of Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1995. Then, he joined to work at Port and Airport Research Institute (formerly Port and Harbour Research Institute under the Ministry of Transport), Japan. He engaged geotechnical research activities as a key member of Soil Mechanics Laboratory (1995 to 2002), as the Leader of Geotechnical and Geo-environment Research Group (2002 to 2012), and as the Director of Geotechnical Engineering Field (2012 to 2016). After his working carrier for more than 20 years at Port and Airport Research Institute, he moved to Hokkaido University as Professor of Division of Civil Engineering in 2016. From 1997 to 1999, he was also a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Laval University, Quebec, Canada. He has been invited many technical committees for Port and Airport construction projects under the Japanese ministry. Particularly, his contributions were notable for the construction of the second phase island and maintenance of the first phase inland of the Kansai International Airport and the new island for the fourth runway “D-runway” of the Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport). His main research topics have been consistently on soft soil engineering. He started his research with centrifuge modeling when he was a student of Tokyo Institute of Technology; however, he has been using “conventional” equipment as an engineer, such as triaxial apparatus and oedometer, after joining to Port and Airport Research Institute. His research outcome on determination method for soil parameters has become a part of Japanese design code for port facilities corresponding to the performance-based design. From 2010 to 2014, he was the secretary of Japanese Geotechnical Society and contributed to the organization of the 15th Asian Regional Conference of ISSMGE (International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering). He chaired ISSMGE-technical committee: TC217 on “Land Reclamation” from 2015 to 2019, and currently, he chairs a new ISSMGE-technical committee: TC214 on “Foundation Engineering for Difficult Soft Soil Conditions” from 2020.
(Corresponding：Dazhi Dang)
