As we will see, there are people who consider tetrapods beautifuleven cuteregardless of context. Growth, Construction, and the Environment: Japans Construction State. Japanese Studies Bulletin 15 (1): 2635. Sea walls usually have promenades so people can walk along them. Like its seagrass-green and ocean-blue company logo, Fudo Tetras public face exudes environmental friendliness as it presents itself as a steward of Japans beautiful natural patrimony. It has not publicly stated a position on the tetrapods on Okinawan coasts. In this framing, from the viewpoint of a tetrapods function, there is no difference between the natural and the human. But probably the greatest cost Japan pays for its years of prodigal concrete use is the loss of priceless coastal scenery.. Journal of the Japanese Forest Society 97 (3): 143152. [14] The combination of creatures and their forms of interaction also distinguish the particular ecological environments that tetrapods generate. It might be only a matter of time until we see tetrapods featured in a travel guide to Okinawa. The elegant combination of its physics, fabrication, installation, economics, and effectiveness is seductive to engineers, contractors, policymakers, and artists alike. 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. 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. The Tetrapod. Coastal Engineering Proceedings 1 (8): 469481. Only by reading the text does the viewer realize that what at first glance appears to be a visual record of environmental damage caused by artificial marine structures is the oppositeit is presented as proof of side benefits to nature, of collateral undamage. But, when touring the island, analog film camera slung over my shoulder,[2] I have not always been a typical visitor. They often increase erosion in other places further down the coast. Evidence suggests that tetrapod limbs evolved from the fins of fish, along with modifications to the surrounding muscles, allowing the animal to rise off the ground and walk efficiently. https://apjjf.org/-Stephen-Hesse/2481/article.html. clearwater, bc restaurants; jeffreys prior python. Tetrapods protecting a marina on Crete, Greece. [16] Nihon Shha Nagatame Burokku Kykai, http://www.shouha.jp/about/ (my translation). The aim here is modest: to open up thinking in several directions about this prominent form of coastal development, one that seems to fly in the face of Okinawas public image as a place of abundant natural beauty and tropical resort beaches. She quotes a man, whose website displayed several kinds of tetrapods: Why did I come to like such a thing? It is still active today with more than seventy-seven thousand total visits. 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. Public beaches in Okinawa enhanced in this way typically display two or three groins or seawalls designed to generate one or two defined areas. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages. In the modern period, ports and new industries associated with overseas import-export accelerated this development and further concentrated populations and commerce near coastlines. [20] See details at http://www.shouha.jp/case1/100/102/243.php. 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). Unfortunately, the tetrapods did nothing to mitigate the slumping. [27] The brands catchphrase is Save the Ocean, Love the Ocean, and its identity is formed around fishing, street fashion, ocean conservation, and coastal beautification. Yoshinori Okuyama, Director General of the Sendai Bay South Coast Office, talks Ars through breakwater barriers. Disadvantages Waves are still powerful and can break down and erode. The few cases of minor damage were largely attributable to building below manufacturer recommendations because of budget shortfalls. Elsewhere, othershuman and animalhave actively evolved their lives around them. 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. Tetrapods Coastal protection measures 60 20. It sold well online and in selected boutiques. To see some of that gear in (successful) action on the tetrapods of Tomari Port in Naha, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZJRFwJMFqE. They are a long-lasting and durable option for water erosion control methods. A tetrapod is a form of wave-dissipating concrete block used to prevent erosion caused by weather and longshore drift, primarily to enforce coastal structures such as seawalls and breakwaters. With a manga-style tetrapod as his avatar, Ganboken has been tweeting since June 2013 (figure 32). 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]). Chinen Yoshiyuki and Shiba Masami. With limited local timber suitable for construction and a rise in prices in the mid-1960s for timber imported from mainland Japanlimited by U.S. policy on Japanese business in Okinawaconcrete became more cost-effective than timber. 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. [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. This latter phenomenon opens the way to the creation of artificial reefs, a whole other category of wave blocks and business that the NSNBK website features. Much of Fudo Tetras 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report emphasizes its partnership with nature and efforts at improving civil engineering technologies and construction techniques for the sake of natural and human environments. 1. 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. 2019. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages . I dont share this groups self-interested, uncritical positionor more precisely, its sidestepping of legitimate critique through aggressive promotion of benefits without addressing environmental costsbut I view its research projects and public relations campaigns as a fascinating intersection of culture, media, politics, economics, science, and technology worthy of closer study. And combined with sea level rise, significant erosion can be devastating to a coastline. Dozens of photos from longitudinal studies of the ecological effects of block installations serve to demonstrate empirically that sea life thrives with them as they foster an ecosystem with an outstanding natural symbiosis function and preserve the marine environment, thus contributing to a safe and secure society (Nihon Shha Nagatame Burokku Kykai 2007, 2). 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. Hearing and middle ear structures appeared. At that time, complications arose. Tetogurumi was taken off the market for over a year until public demands for its return brought it back, this time properly licensed. In presenting another paper at the 1960 conference, Hosoi Masanobu and his colleagues compared the damage to coastal dikes in Ise Bay caused by the 1959 typhoon to that of an earlier smaller typhoon in 1953, supporting this impression. This, of course, hasnt stopped some people from lamenting about the jarring nature of the visually bleak coastal additions. It also includes the animal without four feet like a snake as they descend from a common tetrapod ancestor. Life with Tetrapods: The Nature of Concrete in Okinawa. The advantages of Betonblock tetrapod moulds. A few were taken on an iPhone 6s+ because circumstances dictated it. It is simultaneously majestic and odd. Advantages Effective at protecting the base of the cliff. Split yourselves up into nine groups and each group will be assigned to work on one coastal protection measure. Given the design, it is more suited to such environments as mangrove estuaries (like those in Taiwan and the southern Ryukyus) than ocean coasts. Its so lovely! He even philosophizes about the existential tension felt walking over them, knowing that something dropped between them is irretrievably lost. Sem categoria. As a piece of engineering, its design represents a brilliant example of midcentury modern form and function. A marker for the Grave of Amamichu (a female deity credited, along with her partner, Shirumichu, with creating the first inhabitants of the Ryukyu Islands) on one of the outcroppings drew my interest, but I ended up spending far more time on the other outcropping where the lifeforms among the tetrapods stacked along the outer wall of a wide concrete extension captured my attention (figure 20). The Japanese know all this too well. McCormack, Gaven. A reader recognized the pattern as the one that he had posted on another website before yamas post on Daily Portal Z. Part of. I spent perhaps a half-hour marveling at the nimbleness and familiarity these strays displayed quickly appearing, disappearing, and reappearing through the openings among the concrete blocks that seawater lapped against just a few feet below. In his spare time, he enjoys film and wet plate collodion photography using a wide range of vintage analog cameras. After that night, I began to wonder about the capacity of tetrapods to create new, unplanned habitats, and started to seek out creatures who have adapted to living with them. 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. This large coastal protection structures can be built using different types of construction materials such as rubble mound, granite masonry, or reinforced concrete. [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. [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. The contrast with the thinner, but more discreetly engineered and more natural-looking Uza Beach to the south is also evident (figure 5). 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. Before looking at what this particular odd artifact is doing in Okinawa, lets review its origins and global spread. 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. 2010. 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). [9] See, for example, McCormack (1995). 29 de outubro de 2022 0 comments examples of . And when I ask about the Gulf Coasts current problem with erosion (a complex situation encompassing massive tasks likesediment management), Kato says that, unlike in Japan, the interior of the US seems to be working against the coast as much, if not more, than the ocean. His publications include Civilization and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan (2000) and Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa (2012). Whether on fieldwork forays or personal photo walks, I tend to look for things not commonly looked at and linger longer than the time it takes to snap a shot with a smartphone. Pacific Northwest notwithstanding, the majority of the United States coastline doesnt run along any major faults. The key phrase here is kanky no seibi (improvement of the environment). Those concrete slabs covering the exposed clay back sides on Ise Bays dikes were the innovation, despite being made obsolete by the advent of the tetrapod worldwide. By contrast, little attempt is made to mask the vast majority of tetrapods at industrial sites and commercial ports (sea and air) or along miles of coastal roads and walkways where function precedes aesthetics (figure 8). Making tetrapods couldn't be easier with a Betonblock mould. Ah, tetrapods! 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). Concrete coastal installations can also be lethally dangerous to swimmers and surfers, as well to shipping and recreational boaters. 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/. 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. BUILDING SEAWALLS Seawalls absorb the energy of waves before they can erode away loose materials. Conditions are so different, its almost impossible to compare the two places, Kato says. Under contemporary conditions of advanced consumer capitalism in a country chock full of technological knowhow, design sense, artistic creativity, ardent hobbyists, tinkerers, and aficionados of all things cute, the transformation of this coastal armor unit into art piece, plush toy, brand logo, and object of desire should not be, upon reflection, too surprising. Kerr, Alex. Labeled compensation politics, these funds appear to many as de-facto bribes in exchange for hosting U.S. bases. But the first step of recovery from the 2011 tragedy has been heaping up a stronger defense for the regionstarting with protections from the sea. Influence-peddling and corruption in Japans construction industry is, as Kerr details, well known. In their examples of then-recent coastal protection measures, Homma and Horikawa mentioned a last-ditch effort to reinforce and raise the height of a slumping breakwater in Niigata with the use of 4-ton tetrapod blocks. Some of the benefits of soft stabilization approaches include: Maintaining natural shoreline dynamics and healthy sand movement across a coastal cell. Fudo Tetra exists today as a general contractor for civil engineering projects and has a portfolio that includes expressway interchanges, viaducts, railway tunnels, dams and levees, sewer systems and waste water processing plants, gas and electrical power facilities, airports and artificial islands, ports, and coastline facilities. This pastime represents a very particular human adaptation to the way marine life has adapted to the presence of tetrapods. Various coastal management strategies are employed, each coming with a number of advantages and disadvantages. In his eyes, the Mississippi Rivers flow into the Gulf (largely polluted with fertilizers and contaminants) is destroying the ecosystems resilience at an annual clip. 2015. Even the camera flash didnt scatter them. Ganbokens impulse for comprehensive and in-depth recording of data about the hobbyist object is classic otaku and, as someone researching the world of tetrapods, Im grateful for it. After testing various designs, he dubbed the one that hit the sweet spot in satisfying these goals the tetrapod.[4] The first real-world application of this invention was completed in early 1951 at Casablanca, Morocco where 256 tetrapods, each weighing 15 metric tons were positioned over two existing jetties to protect the cooling water intakes of a thermal power station (Danel and Greslou 1962, 473). Posted on October 29, 2022 . [4] The fascinating details of the physics, engineering, and economics that make tetrapods such a successful and elegantly simple design are beyond the scope of this article. 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). The combination of ease, low cost, and species variety is, however, compelling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GplKXLOUlmw, http://www.shouha.jp/case1/100/103_1/168.php, http://www.shouha.jp/case1/100/102/243.php, http://www.fudotetra.co.jp/csrreport.html, http://ganboken.blog26.fc2.com/blog-category-2.html, http://s04.megalodon.jp/2009-0429-1819-50/portal.nifty.com/2008/02/15/b/, http://gigazine.net/news/20091030_danchidanchi_dpz/, Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. Nakagusuku-wank wank kanky hozen keikaku ni kansuru akushonpuran [Action plan concerning the Nakagusuku Harbor port environmental protection plan]. It stops the waves from beating down on the shore, whether during a gales of a tsunami or the daily lap of erosion. 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. Reversion opened the floodgates to mainland businesses and brought massive construction to Okinawa, buoyed by special development funds and finance loans from Tokyo. See, for example, the products of the recent Israeli startup company ECOncrete at https://econcretetech.com/. Tetrapods and other types of [concrete] armoring can cause more damage than they prevent, because they alter ocean currents and disrupt the natural cycles of erosion and deposition that form and reshape coasts, Stephen Hesse argues in a 2007 Japan Times article. [25] yama Kens post is archived at http://s04.megalodon.jp/2009-0429-1819-50/portal.nifty.com/2008/02/15/b/. tetrapods coastal protection advantages and disadvantages. [22] Fudo Tetra CSR Report, 2018, available at http://www.fudotetra.co.jp/csrreport.html. 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. 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. The manifestations of this love are too numerous and too variedand too fascinatingto present a full survey here, but I would like to conclude by introducing this phenomenon as a next-stage evolution of tetrapod-generated ecologies, moving onto land and inhabiting the world of popular culture and consumer goods in which tetrapods have become cute and cool. In any case, locals looking to cool off from city heat, though perhaps chagrinned at having to share the shoreline with so much concrete, seem to accept the circumstances and make the best of such bits of beach in urban areas. The title and the cross-section drawing included in the patent application highlight the first important thing to understand about tetrapods: they were designed as secondary structures to shield primary structures (seawalls, jetties, rubble-mound breakwaters, and building foundations) against deterioration caused by wave action. Tetrapods fall into a more specific category of object that captures me and vice versa: odd artifacts. If the absence of algae is prolonged, the coral becomes overly stressed and vulnerable to dying. 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. 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). (While the Institute says that somewhere between 8-10 percent of Japanese coastlines are covered by concrete armoring, other outlets have estimated it may be upwards of 50 percent.). But the wall itself holds less interest to me than its supporting cast members a few hundred yards out into the water. Tetrapods still form a core of Fudo Tetras business, and the company holds the rights to the trademark Tetrapod, which was originally applied for in 1971 and granted in 1976. The founder and mastermind behind the company Maniapparelwho asked that his name and likeness not revealed due to a strict day jobhas made it his off-the-clock mission to make the Tetrapod feel accessible to the masses. [3] Danel and his team aimed to improve on three main aspects of the walls: their hydraulic properties (stability of components, overall strength of structure, reduction of wave overtopping, wave reflection), construction properties (weights of materials, ease of fabrication, simplicity of installation), and cost. [24] The word moe is a slang term from otaku circles connoting a strong affection among typically male fans for typically cute female fictional characters depicted in manga, anime, and video games. Demand for concrete even for residential construction doubled between 1965 and 1971, the year before Okinawa reverted to Japanese rule (Chinen and Shiba 2015, 148150). Whereas rocks would, eventually, wash away, the weight and puzzle-piece styling of the Tetrapod allows them to stand firm against the elements, come what may. 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. The answer is likely economic. ADVANTAGES. [5] Figure numbers refer to image order in the accompanying photo essay, which may be accessed online at https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-30/figal. 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 The passed-over, half-baked, and discarded draw my attention as much as the landmarked, well-designed, and highlighted. 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. In coastal engineering, a tetrapod is a four-legged concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters. 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. . The Tetrapod has a relatively compact shape, with generously-propor- tioned transition sections between the legs and the central "body" of the block, which give it considerable strength ; both experimental breaking tests and work site experience have shown steel reinforcement to be un- necessary, which is a great advantage for any constructional [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. Whats more, other companies have caught on, with things like Tetrapod-shaped ice molds now available for purchase.
jamie dinan, daughter
High-pressure air pump: dual function of blowing and suction, with
