We would like to report on the 12th Gathering with Dam Lovers in Agigawa Dam & Yahagi Dam with Dam Curry, held on November 23, 2019.
More than six years have already passed since the first meeting with dam enthusiasts in February 2013. Having visited almost all the dams in the jurisdiction of the Chubu Branch of the Japan Water Agency (come to think of it, I don't think I have visited any dams on the Atsumi Peninsula...) at the 11th meeting, we returned to the Agigawa Dam, the venue of the first meeting, for the 12th meeting, as a return to our roots.
Conference room in the Agigawa Dam Management Office
Now that everyone has assembled at the Agigawa Dam management station, it is time to begin.
Agigawa Dam Outline
First, the director gave an overview of the Agigawa Dam. The photo shows a comparison of the effect during the Tokai torrential rainfall (right) and a rainfall equivalent to the Tokai torrential rainfall when the Agigawa Dam was not in place (left). The effect is obvious.
Public relations challenges as a dam manager
Next, the Deputy General Manager of the Chubu Branch Office explained again the purpose of this meeting. I am aware that there are many issues to be addressed, including my own. Since there are many requests for on-site tours and I myself am not good at explaining flood control, we have not had any classroom lectures, but I would like to continue to explore various ways of doing so.
Top (Crest)
Rain was forecast for that day, but it cleared up before dawn and it was a tremendous blue sky. It was also nice that the peak of the fall foliage season had arrived. (The pictures don't do the leaves justice, though.)
The 30 participants were divided into five groups to tour each facility. While some participants were satisfied that they were able to hear detailed explanations from staff members by dividing them into groups, others said they ended up in groups with people they did not know because they had not been informed in advance that they would be divided into groups.
Pre-gate winders for orifice gates
The shutters of the spare gate winder room of the orifice gate have been opened and it looks like a showroom.
Radial gate winders
Then we go inside the radial gate winder room.
radial gate
Each person puts on a safety belt and looks at the radial gate. It is a large gate, 8.2m high by 9.925m wide. The gate has never been opened except for inspections since the start of management. Even during the torrential rain in Tokai, the gate has never been opened. Some people wanted to see the flap gate up close.
orifice gate
It is a 5.0m high x 5.0m wide hydraulic high pressure radial gate. We were able to observe it all the way from the cylinder part at the top.
rim tunnel
This tunnel was built to inject cement milk, called grouting, into the bedrock during construction. It was not originally included in the course, but we were asked to open it because we all looked like we wanted to take a look. The photo shows the left bank side, but there is also a rim tunnel on the right bank side.Bank length（It seems to be about (362m) long.
corridor connecting an annex to a pond-side building (in traditional palatial-style architecture)
Since this area is open to the public for regular tours, an explanatory panel is posted here.
Part of temporary drainage channel
It is part of one of two temporary drainage channels used during construction.
Administrative power generation (Agigawa Power Plant)
The power needed to manage the Agigawa Dam is provided by the Agigawa Power Plant. Surplus power is sold to the public.
View of the flood discharge from the control center
View of the levee from the balcony of the control center. This is a good spot to get a bird's eye view of the embankment. It is usually off-limits to the public, so it is a very special spot. Incidentally, the temperature rose sharply to about 20 degrees Celsius that day, and countless ladybugs were flying around in the air to the point of being unpleasant. If you are not careful, you may find them attached to your cheeks.
Simulator Operation
This is a simulator experience of dam operation. This is a special experience for us to understand how nervous the staff at the control center are operating during a real flood.
There wasn't enough time to get an explanation, and I wasn't sure, but if possible, I would like to take a pre-teaching course and take my time for about 2 hours.
Eat Agigawa Dam Lake Curry.
As in the first meeting, we moved to the Disaster Prevention Museum to eat the Agigawa Dam Lake Curry. We regret that we had to eat in a hurry due to a lack of time, and that some people got lost because we did not make it clear to them where to eat.
Yahagi Dam Management Office
Move to Yahagi Dam from the person who ate Agigawa Dam Lake Curry.
Briefing at Yahagi Dam
Inside the Yahagi Dam management office, you will watch a video for an overview of the Yahagi Dam and receive a supplementary explanation from the dam manager.
Afterwards, we were given a tour of the operation room. Photography was not allowed in the operation room, but it was very impressive to see the Kronolo left on the white board at the time of the flooding caused by Typhoon No. 24 in 2008. The chronolo is a proof of war history. I think it is left as a source of pride for the staff.
corridor connecting an annex to a pond-side building (in traditional palatial-style architecture)
Take the elevator down to the audit corridor.
Go to the catwalk.
Then we went outside to the catwalk. I thought it would be a normal tour course, but to my surprise on the day of the tour, I was allowed to tour all over the downstream side.
Permanent flood discharge gate room
It passes through each of the three gate chambers of the three conduit gates. The cylindrical one in the middle is a hydraulic cylinder.
conduit gate
It is amazing to see the conduit gate up close like this. I have no words to describe it.
Just below the conduit gate
Each person will visit directly under the conduit gate.
Freedom Catwalk
It reminded me of the Open Day event at the Kosibu Dam, as the participants could visit the dam almost freely along the designated tour route. Photography was also free, so participants were taking pictures from various locations as they pleased.
Catwalk Row
Everyone is happily walking down the catwalk.
The Last Staircase
This is the last stairway back to the management office. After almost a year of not using any elevators or escalators on my commute to work, I feel much more comfortable going up and down the stairs.
Watching over the participants in front of the administration office
We are almost at the finish line! I went through the second catwalk from the top from the left bank, went down to the third catwalk once, went up to the first catwalk, and moved from the right bank to the left bank.
opinion meeting
At the end of the session, we asked participants to fill out a questionnaire while we had time for an exchange of opinions and a Q&A session.
I think it was a very intense day.
Questionnaire Results
Here are just a few of the results of the survey. I have also tried to be honest about what I thought of the feedback I received.
Q. This is your 12th gathering.
Recently, the number of newcomers has been increasing, and I have the strong impression that the base of dam enthusiasts has broadened, as I can see from Twitter and Instagram.
Q. How was your visit to the Agigawa Dam? (Good and bad points).
I was disappointed that I was left alone in a group with no one I knew. If you are going to assign groups like that, I wish you would have announced it at the time of application.
I am really sorry about this. We will take this into consideration next time. However, I would like to make it possible for enthusiasts to interact with each other, so I thought it would be a good idea to be proactive and talk with people even if you don't know them. (I am also very shy, so if I were in the same position...)
I would have liked to have seen the area directly downstream. The introduction of the dam was long and there was not enough time to see the dam.
Oops, you can freely go directly downstream. There is also a shrine at the top of a landslide downstream, so please look for it the next time you visit the Agigawa Dam.
We have received many other comments, and they seem to have been well received.
Q. How was the "Gathering with Dam Lovers" in general? (Good points, bad points)
There was no interaction among the participants. There was a strong sense of congeniality among acquaintances. The circle of dam lovers is not expanding. It is difficult to have a carefree conversation between people inside and outside.
I thought there would be at least a simple H/N (handle name) self-introduction.
One person wrote, "It was very friendly and everyone treated me like a friend," while another mentioned challenges in terms of interaction.
It's not easy, even though I personally try not to be exclusive. But maybe from next time on, it would be good to have a brief self-introduction. (I'm sure you'll ask me to devote that time to the tour...)
Q. What are your expectations for future "Gatherings with Dam Lovers"?
I thought they were all enthusiasts, but I hope the gathering will be friendly to beginners as well.
I think it is inevitable that many different people will participate when the number of participants reaches 30 after 12 sessions so far, but I wonder if the beginners felt that this visit was too difficult for them. However, I personally think that it would be good to hold a beginners-only event somewhere in combination with a classroom lecture.
Also, in this section, there are several people who just want to observe, and several people who each want to have a classroom or study session, so perhaps it would be better to hold the visit and the classroom or study session separately.
Q. Regarding dam operations in the event of flooding due to typhoons or fronts, what sites on the Internet do you visit to check dam activity?
Based on information from Yuho Hoshino on Twitter.
This became a reality when I half-jokingly said to the secretariat, "I think there are people who say they are Mr. Hoshino's Twitter." In fact, I often refer to his tweets, so I think there are surprisingly many such people. (Otherwise, I don't think he would have that many followers.)
...and thank you very much for writing so many other comments, too many to mention here. We have shared the results of this survey with the people at the Japan Water Agency, and we hope to be able to use them as a reference for future events.
We would like to thank the Chubu Branch of the Japan Water Agency, the Agigawa Dam Management Office, the Yahagi Dam Management Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and all the dam enthusiasts who participated in this event. We hope you will join us again next time when we hold the 13th meeting!
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