On one of my spontaneous Google Maps-guided drives in Okinawa (whereby I select a destination solely by the cartographical intrigue it presents), I found myself at a small harbora glorified boat landing, reallyon Hamahiga Island, one of many small islands connected to Okinawa Island by overwater roads and bridges (figure 19). ), which is full of anthropomorphized cartoon tetrapods (figure 30). Promoted as sustainable greener sea defense, TetraPOT is an ingenuously semi-hollowed-out tetrapod designed to allow mangrove trees and other plants to grow from it such that their natural root systems intertwine to help anchor the tetrapods for more natural, and more natural-looking, shoreline protection. Tetrapotsa fishing fashion brand from Okinawa co-founded by fishing enthusiasts and the well-known Okinawan drummer Takazato Satsohi of the punk rock band Mongol800now sells a large line of Tetrapots-branded clothes and fishing gear featuring a classic tetrapod figure as part of its trademark (figure 36). 2017. Public outcry over the concrete encasing Japans coasts is something I expected to find when doing this research; a vibrant community of tetrapod lovers was not. A fanaticism for coastal engineering and its tetrapods is much more in otaku style. New York: Hill and Wang. Shizen to tomoni [With nature]. For example: in the US, beach nourishmentwhere sand from outside locations is used to fill in eroding beacheshas long been a popular plan of attack for coastal defense schemes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZJRFwJMFqE. It might be only a matter of time until we see tetrapods featured in a travel guide to Okinawa. [1] The images presented here are intended not as endpoint evidence, but rather as visual cues to thinking about life with tetrapods beyond the surface and outside the obvious. But probably the greatest cost Japan pays for its years of prodigal concrete use is the loss of priceless coastal scenery.. Widespread consideration and use of habitats for coastal protection still face significant challenges including: a) uncertainty around the effectiveness of habitats under different hydrodynamic and ecological conditions; b) a lack of synthetic information about the costs and effectiveness of projects that restore or manage habitats for coastal All Betonblock moulds are made of high-quality steel and feature a rust, impact and scratch-resistant powder . Tsunamis pose a substantial threat to coastal communities around the globe. Still, it is no surprise that inhabitants of Japan, geographically squeezed into settlement on coastal plains while at the same time exposed to seasonal typhoons and occasional tsunami, have operated under a bunker mentality and have enthusiastically deployed coastal armoring as a key defense against natures maritime threats. Urban access points to the seaeven those used for leisure activitiesforego attempts to minimize or camouflage use of tetrapods given the density of surrounding seaside development in need of protection from storm surges. His publications include Civilization and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan (2000) and Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa (2012). Because of their enormous weight and the large numbers needed for any given project, tetrapods are not factory-made and distributed. [12] The majority of sandy public-access beaches on Okinawa Island, on the other hand, have been engineered, shaped by the effects of groins, seawalls, and jetties constructed from the shoreline. Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan. No need to register, buy now! The data given indicates that the structures were installed between 1974 and 1983 using tetrapods and another type of wave block known as a dorosu (dolos), both from Fudo Tetra. Okinawa-ken. Nihon Shha Nagatame Burokku Kykai. One of its examples of an artificial reef installation is from Kunigami, the northernmost section of Okinawa Island.[20]. I understand that I will receive no SBP or RCSBP benefits upon the death of my parent/sponsor. Growth, Construction, and the Environment: Japans Construction State. Japanese Studies Bulletin 15 (1): 2635. The Allied occupation of Japan had just ended in 1952, and it was not until 1955 that the Japanese governments Economic White Paper announced that Japans per-capita gross national product had surpassed its prewar levels. [20] See details at http://www.shouha.jp/case1/100/102/243.php. Japan Tetrapod Corporation was among the wave of contractors arriving in Okinawa to modernize its infrastructure, including its coastal protection. [21] Fudo Tetra and the NSNBK are well aware of this criticism and have acted to blunt and preempt it by researching more ecological and aesthetically appealing approaches to coastal armoring and showcasing what they frame as natural symbiosis between nature and concrete. Tetrapodistas: Beauty Beheld in Huge Concrete Forms. Japan Times, July 22. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2007/07/22/general/beauty-beheld-in-huge-concrete-forms/. [17] In a handful of colorful pages, the leaflet captures this recent emphasis on coastal armor units working to protect and enhance the natural as much as the human world. In Japan, this technique can be found in some locations, but the severity and frequency of natural disaster means that it simply cant provide enough support to be used as a primary means of protection. Wiki. A few were taken on an iPhone 6s+ because circumstances dictated it. In its brief historical outline of wave-dissipating blocks in Japan, the Nihon Shha Nagatame Burokku Kykai (Japan Wave-Dissipating Block Association; hereafter, the NSNBK) highlights the 1960s as the decade of their rapid spread in Japan, following the 1960 publication of government plans for coastal protection and the first of a series of seaport development plans in 1961 (Nihon Shha Nagatame Burokku Kykai 2017, 4). We have some national parks where were trying not to use the concrete sea walls or anything like that in order to preserve the scenery. Within the year, a plush tetrapod was manufactured and marketed as a gray felt-covered cushion called Tetogurumi. Or, as graphic designer Kobayashi Ryo explained, Tetrapods are massive and practical but at the same time sexy when you look at their curvilinear beauty. The Damages of Coastal Dikes and River Levees and Their Restoration. Coastal Engineering Proceedings 1 (7): 964986. 1. He is working on a third book-length project, Multiple Exposure: Photography in Postwar Okinawa, 19451975, which aims to bring into conversation for the first time the business, production, and product of Okinawan, mainland Japanese, and American photography of Okinawa and its people. For a demonstration of cheap and easy fishing among tetrapods with minimal gear, check out this video of two locals on the coast of Kadena Town, Okinawa, the site of the largest U.S. Air Force base in Asia at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GplKXLOUlmw. The tetrapod had proven itself and had reached a level of acceptance that, as Danel concluded, can be said to have entered the field of standard practice (Danel and Greslou 1962, 481). However, screenshots of the original post with images can be found on Gigazines reportage of the incident at http://gigazine.net/news/20091030_danchidanchi_dpz/. Trapping sand to rebuild eroded shorelines or maintain current shoreline form. All of the images are mine unless otherwise indicated. It sold well online and in selected boutiques. Such a critique is as legitimate as it is common, and I share in the sense of loss it implies, but stopping short at the surface of the image does little to advance insights into how tetrapods have proliferated and how they have been accommodated and exploited by life around them. Those giant jacks aren't merely artistic. Rather, the molds used to make them, available from Fudo Tetra in sizes from 0.5 to 80 metric tons, are leased, and the concrete is poured onsite. I had noticedeven photographedtetrapods during trips to Okinawa but had never really looked at them closely, let alone clamber among them. 2007. The material of a tetrapod is concrete and its shape is formal, which cant be found in nature. A If you look closely at tourist guides to beaches in Okinawa, however, tetrapods are sometimes visible in the background, especially of public-access beaches, because most of those photos have been artificially enhanced. I discuss this long-standing trade associations work later. And boy, arent they popular. Yoshinori Okuyama, Director General of the Sendai Bay South Coast Office, talks Ars through breakwater barriers. Unfortunately, the tetrapods did nothing to mitigate the slumping. Okuyama, pictured here with a colleague from the Sendai Bay South Coast Office, proves there is a lot of literature on the topic. disadvantages: causes more danger than the prevent because they alter ocean currents and disrupt the natural cycles of erosion and deposition that form and reshape the coast. Astonishingly, she begins, despite their unsightly impact on natural scenery, the Internet is full of geeks who appear to love tetrapods. Wijers-Hasegawa relates finding online romantic odes to tetrapods and other expressions of their allure among fan sites. Were not trying to completely stop the waves from coming in a tsunami, thats impossible, says Okuyama. Whats more, other companies have caught on, with things like Tetrapod-shaped ice molds now available for purchase. [16] Nihon Shha Nagatame Burokku Kykai, http://www.shouha.jp/about/ (my translation). A chronological examination of the proceedings of the Conference of Coastal Engineering, the flagship international gathering of field specialists, offers hints about the tetrapods foothold in Japan. Even if Japan Tetrapod Corporation had been able to lease its tetrapod molds to local construction companies, there was no locally owned, large-scale cement production in Okinawa until 1964. Japan was not among Danels examples, but by the late 1950s the sort of sea monster with four tentacles could be spotted here and there in Japanese waters, where they would later proliferate to a globally unprecedented extent along Japans approximately 30,000-kilometer coastline. These countermeasures encompass hard measures to physically prevent tsunami impacts such as different types of seawalls or . As the accompanying commentary explains, they show not only the coral growth observed accumulating on the wave blocks from the late 1980s but also the blocks before and after a major bleaching event in 1998 that weakened and killed coral throughout the area. In addition to stuffed Tetrapods, the company also sells a range of Tetrapod-themed t-shirts, including one that plays on the iPod font. Today, the structures have an almost omnipresence anywhere land meets the sea. [8] Fudo Tetra itself offers twelve different types of wave-dissipating blocks, including the Tetrapod, the granddaddy of them all. In fact, Tetrapods have become such an ingrained part of the Japanese landscape that theyve even gained some footing as a pop culture touchstone. Sea walls usually have promenades so people can walk along them. [11] Onsite Journal of the Naha Airport Project website maintained by the Okinawa General Bureau overseeing the project at http://www.dc.ogb.go.jp/Kyoku/information/nahakuukou/genbanikki.html. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages. More than 1,000 of these Tetrapods cushions have been sold at shops across Japan since the companys quest began, and happy plushy owners include former Tetrapod engineers and coastal workers looking for a kawaii (read: twee) way to honor their profession. http://www.shouha.jp/50th/data/leaflet.pdf. Post-World War II reconstruction further sharpened this convergence of economic-driven human settlement (including artificial interferences such as dams for hydropower and upstream flood control projects) and geographical-meteorological conditions prone to threatening this pattern of rapid growth. On that timeline is the organizations 2007 leaflet Shizen to tomoni (With nature), whose artwork and catchphrases currently adorn its homepage. the average value of a sine wave is zero; These structures accumulate sand transported by wave-driven longshore drift, depositing it on the updrift side of the structure, thus building up the beach on the updrift side at the expense of the loss of deposits on the downdrift side. The tetrapod is a symbol of artificiality. Not all love for tetrapods is technical. That all changed during a photo walk one night in June 2018, thanks to three stray cats skipping along the tetrapods that buttress a promenade along the harbor in Naha (see aerial Google Maps image [figure 10]), where I took figure 9, 17, and 18. [11], Of course, not all of the engineered coastline in Okinawa is armored by tetrapods, but much is. Otaku hobbyist culture is the most obvious context in which to find the most serious subset of tetrapod enthusiasts. The tetrapod's shape is designed to dissipate the force of incoming waves by allowing water to flow around rather than against it, and to reduce displacement by allowing a random distribution of tetrapods to mutually interlock. . Ganbokens profile indicates an early fascination with tetrapods that blossomed with the introduction of the Internet and led to his August 2006 creation of the Shha Burokku Mania Site, which became the CDOI in 2009. The largest recent coastal armoring project in Okinawa is associated with the construction of a second runway at Naha International Airport. Always appearing in flocks, the Tetrapods interlocking design feels like an upgraded version of piling up rocks to stop water from eroding the coast. The consensus among enthusiasts is that it is popular for two reasons: first, tetrapods attract within easy reach species of marine life that usually inhabit rocks and reefs offshore, thus offering greater variety of catch near the shore; second, fishing among tetrapods is flat-out cheap and simple. So why then was there not wider use of tetrapods in places like Ise Bay prior to Typhoon No. 1961. With the aid of your textbook and creative minds, present the coastal protection measure on the blankA4-sized paper given to you in any creative way you can think of. Moreover, 1950s Japan was still a time of getting by and making do, not one of adopting cutting-edge industrial innovations for coastal protection. Eleven months after Ganboken created the Shha Burokku Mania Site, Japan Times contributor Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa picked up on this quirky cultural trend and wrote about it in a short article, Tetrapodistas: Beauty Beheld in Huge Concrete Forms (Wijers-Hasegawa 2007). tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages immune modulators herbs / icd 10 code for squamous cell carcinoma of scalp The wall receives direct impact and this weakens the structure over time. In hopes of encouraging more nuanced thinking about the relationships between natural and built environments, I consider the ways local wildlife and human culture have, for better or worse, reacted and adapted to the spread of this curious concrete form. huntington financial advisors address; importance of tyler's model in curriculum development; australian pine cone deaths per year; how to wear medals on a blazer uk Tetrapods represent the latest refinementor evolutionary step, if you willto this particular approach to securing coastlines for human life and exploitation. It is an industrial product, but it is still cute. In the modern period, ports and new industries associated with overseas import-export accelerated this development and further concentrated populations and commerce near coastlines. After the earthquake and tsunami hit [in 2011], weve been rebuilding everything, but a lot hasnt come back yet, Yoshinori Okuyama, Director General of the Sendai Bay South Coast Office, noted. What is Tetrapod ? Washed ashore by the millions onto the beaches of the outlying Taketomi, Iriomote, and Hatoma islands, hoshizuna are collected as common souvenirs. Large-scale port development throughout the country did not take off until the early 1960s. Hard engineering approaches to coastal management tend to be expensive, last only a short amount of time, are visually unattractive and unsustainable. At Naminoue Beach in Naha, for example, tetrapodded seawalls conspicuously compete with crisscrossing highway overpasses in asserting a concrete presence (figures 15 and 16). 2018. The tetrapod crown (the smallest clade that includes lissamphibians and amniotes) first appears in the fossil record in the Early Carboniferous. (What are wave-dissipating blocks? Common factors to apply single layer concrete armour units are: Danel, Pierre, and Louis Greslou. The seawall, as you might imagine, is a tall, sloped structure intended to keep the sea and the land somewhat apart. clearwater, bc restaurants; jeffreys prior python. Traditional, long used and with proven effectiveness. This has manifested, in large part, in the re-installation of these Tetrapods (and all of their concrete kissing cousins, like seawalls) along the most vulnerable coasts. With promises to close the gap between development of Okinawa and that of the mainland, the Japanese government has, since reversion, provided Okinawa Prefecture support for infrastructure construction that has arguably gone beyond what is needed. With a manga-style tetrapod as his avatar, Ganboken has been tweeting since June 2013 (figure 32). He plops a big packet in front of me written in dueling English and Japanese about the challenge and benefits of various breakwater barrierssea walls, concrete headlands, Tetrapods, and the like. Common, too, is critique of well-known influence-peddling and corruption within Japans construction industry, which keeps the concrete flowing; Id like to move beyond those controversies. His photos were accompanied with text describing quasi-erotic attraction for the objects, proclaiming that after that [writing an article on appreciating out-of-water tetrapods] my passion for tetrapods hasnt cooled. Elsewhere, othershuman and animalhave actively evolved their lives around them. In coastal engineering parlance, their function is armoring, and tetrapods are often referred to as armor units. Tetrapods were not intended to be stand-alone structures, but such installations do exist on beaches in mainland Japan and Okinawa. The few cases of minor damage were largely attributable to building below manufacturer recommendations because of budget shortfalls. Plus, no manmade structure is completely immune from destruction in the wake of a tsunami. Japan, on the other hand, has what Fuminori Kato of the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management describes as steep coasts, where mountains run directly into the sea and tectonic plates meet nearby. Sarah Baird is a writer and editor based in New Orleans. Hesse, Stephen. A disadvantage is that when they are used, it is hard to find a beach to go to where you can see the coast. 2007. [14] In fact, the latest trends in ecological engineering for coastlines include the development of bio-enhanced submarine concrete structures that actively foster marine life growth on them, effectively serving as scaffolding for the creation of reefs. Many ana-zuri enthusiasts appreciate the opportunity to fish for species that would otherwise require a boat to reach their natural habitats, but tetrapod critics claim that the fish drawn to tetrapods for shelter and to feed on the smaller marine life also drawn to tetrapods are often invasive, upsetting natural ecologies. I always liked shapes, but that feeling was different from any other time. Another man also professed his attraction to the shape of tetrapods, buying a railway model kit only for the tiny plastic tetrapods that were included in it: I was just fascinated by their shapes. The bulk of the article is an interview with freelance photographer, writer, and industrial-form aficionado yama Ken, coauthor of Kj Moe (Factory affection), a photo book catering to factory and industrial-site otaku. The vian Accords that ended the Algerian War in 1962 included provisions for the French to retain control of Mers-el-Kbir until 1977, but they withdrew earlier, in 1967. It has supported conservation and beautification efforts by donating portions of sales of silicone bracelets to coral transplantation projects and through activities such as organizing coastal cleanups. I intend to explore the full impact and sustainability of such formations in future research. But how has human and animal life there evolved around this evolution in coastal protection? DISADVANTAGES. That is not to say they do not possess their own brutalist beauty in an industrial setting (figures 9 and 10), incite geometrical wonder through sheer scale of deployment to a vanishing point (figures 11 and 12), or offer opportunities for provoking ironic and un-ironic juxtapositions (figures 13 and 14). That puts things in a tenuous position when a hurricane or other natural disaster arrives as a one-off tool for destruction. Approaches, aims, advantages and disadvantages: Managed retreat Sometimes seen as the 'do nothing' approach. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages . Its inventor, Eric Mowbray Merrifield, did not patent the design. It unapologetically presents an understanding of natural environment with humans fully in it, and does so in a persuasive way. This photo essay seeks to make some of these circumstances and forces visible through, ironically, what the images might lead us to think about beyond their overt visual content. Providing or enhancing important shoreline habitat. He gestured to a scrubby patch of trees where a veritable forest once stood. Here I want merely to highlight briefly the NSNBKs efforts (also reflected in Fudo Tetras own advertising) to define coastal armoring as critical for human life in Japan and as protectiveeven nurturingof marine life and coastal ecosystems. I think the attraction of tetrapods, art student Kobori Motohiro opined, lies in their contrast with nature. [3] A major French naval base, Mers-el-Kbir gained notoriety for the British Royal Navys attack on it July 36, 1940, to liquidate the French fleet before it fell into German hands after the fall of France the previous month. It also includes the animal without four feet like a snake as they descend from a common tetrapod ancestor. The weight and interlocking design of tetrapods work effectively against extreme weather conditions, dissipating the force of the water well. It is no wonder that dams, highways, and coastal armoring appear more cutting-edge than most residential and commercial buildings in this local manifestation of what critics refer to as Japans Construction State.[9] Ironically, whereas Okinawa was behind the mainland in tetrapods per capita because of U.S. bases before reversion, it is now ahead of the mainland in tetrapods per capita, in part because of the compensation politics of U.S. bases after reversion. There was no indication why one lone tetrapod had been placed on the pavement, but it acted almost like a signpost or display piece (figure 21). The landscape here has the underpinnings of recovery but still feels largely decimated: housing foundations lay bare while weeds and wildflowers grow chest-high. Note the connection between a safe and secure society (which in this context means physically safe and economically secure) and a preserved marine environment within a redefined ecosystem that naturalizes artificial structures. And as one might imagine, tetrapod-themed goods are well established in Okinawa as well. Photos of their beaches are often highlighted in tourism promotion for the entire prefecture. In this video we will discuss about tetrapods. The tetrapods had met expectations, sometimes in the face of brutal storm surges. Despite the fact that such construction did a better job of standing up to storms, Okinawans resisted it for private residences because of climate, cultural, and economic reasons. As in the case of Kansai International Airport (for which Fudo Tetra provided the seawall armoring), the runway is being built on an artificial island created by landfill secured with a perimeter of seawalls reinforced by tetrapods. I took out a panoramic pinhole film camera and my iPhone. Coastal areas are used for tourism, fishing, industry, trade and transport. How are sea walls used to protect the coast? ADVANTAGES. This summary of evidence provides indicative costs and guidance for coastal erosion and flood management activities. The usage of tetrapods in lieu with seawalls produce better results in coastal protection as seen below: The presence of tetrapods in front of the seawall not only reduces the amount of. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages. Coastal Protection Works and Related Problems in Japan. Coastal Engineering Proceedings 1 (7): 904930. [25] yama Kens post is archived at http://s04.megalodon.jp/2009-0429-1819-50/portal.nifty.com/2008/02/15/b/. Absorbs and deflects wave energy back to sea. [7] Japanese Registered Trademark 1184901. Im changing the way people see it.. By mid-2017, a clear outline of the tetrapodded perimeter materialized (figures 3 and 4). They often increase erosion in other places further down the coast. And with the earthquake that occurred this week in Fukushimaan aftershock of 2011, experts believethis effort seems more pressing than ever. Also, it is manufactured by pouring concrete into molds. along with their cute fake seagull companions. Hosoi, Masanobu, Yasuteru Tominaga, Hiroshi Mitsui, and Tsutomo Kishi. For as many photos I have taken of picture-postcard landscapes, seascapes, and cultural sites, there are as many images of urban ephemera, coastal effluvia, and junkyards. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages. Labeled compensation politics, these funds appear to many as de-facto bribes in exchange for hosting U.S. bases. Disadvantages Waves are still powerful and can break down and erode. Some of the benefits of soft stabilization approaches include: Maintaining natural shoreline dynamics and healthy sand movement across a coastal cell. [23] The name Engan Beitai puns on the name of the Japanese jietai (land, sea, and air self-defense forces) by replacing rikuj/kaij/kk (land/sea/air) with engan (coast) and substituting the tai (force) of jietai with tai (body or object); tetrapods are the coastal defense forces. The efforts by the industry to cast wave blocks as environment-friendly and even environment-enhancing correlate with growing general public awareness of the environmental impact of coastal development. Eroding Diversity Away: The Ogimi Seawall. Presentation at the 21st Meeting of the Japanese Coral Reef Society, November 2018. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329164306_Eroding_diversity_away_The_Ogimi_seawall. The highlights of the history of wave blocks in Japan presented by the NSNBK in an illustrated pamphlet produced for its fiftieth anniversary follow a thematic arc starting in the 1960s with depictions of research and development, coastal preservation policy statements, and various coastal engineering projects and then moves on to foreground the harmonious protection and even enhancement of natural environments through wave block technologies from the 2000s. [15] Drop a line in a deep gap between tetrapods and hits can be frequent, especially in Okinawan waters where a relative abundance of fish thrive (figure 27). Okinawa ni okeru jutaku kz-zai no rekishi-teki hensen ni kansuruksatsu [Consideration of underlying historical changes in house building materials in Okinawa Prefecture]. Indeed, if not for the shrine and its sacred association with nirai kanai, the overseas mythical paradise of the gods, the entire area might have very well been further landfilled for commercial use or to expand the walkway to the park that lies nearby to the south. This is the core message of the NSNBK website, which gives dozens of detailed examples of the flow of natural symbiosis between marine life and wave blocks throughout Japan. For example, several species of crabsincluding eviscerated ones that had seemingly fallen prey to predatorsare easily spied above and below the waterline, joined by a variety of barnacles, limpets, snails, slugs, worms, algae, seaweeds, birds, fish, and humans. That means domestic areas arent as prone to the type of seismic activity that propagate earthquakes and tsunamis. Fishing from jetties and seawalls is also not unusual, but ana-zuri (hole-fishing) among tetrapods has its own well-developed leisure-sports culture in Japan, with an ardent following in Okinawa (figure 25). If concrete had a life, I think a tetrapod is the orthodox way that concrete should evolve (quoted in Hesse 2007, 9). 1960). In March 1951, Danel filed for a U.S. patent, which was granted in October 1956 for Artificial Blocks for Structures Exposed to the Action of Moving Water (figure 1[5]). Ah, tetrapods! And while breakwater barriers also can be found in places like England, Morocco, andyesthe US, Japan seems to have most readily embraced their functionality. Appearances, be damned: this country believes Tetrapods work in the fight against erosion. [19] Data and commentary for this example are available at http://www.shouha.jp/case1/100/103_1/168.php. [27] Order your Okinawan fishing fashion at http://tetrapots.com/. For some fans, its emotional and physical. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2015. [9] See, for example, McCormack (1995). Seen from the perspective of tetrapods, Okinawa is the most evolved prefecture in Japan. Reducing wave energy impacts at or seaward of the shoreline.
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