Dam Card
"Dam Card" is celebrating its 10th anniversary in July of 2017 since its first issue. The dam card highlighted the allure of the dams, which are mostly located in the mountains and not noticeable among majorities of people. This presentation centered on the features of dam cards and addresses why they are so attractive.
What is Dam Card?
The dam card was originally made and given to the visitors to the dam to encourage them to come to the dam site and become aware of its functions and its purpose. It was given as a means of water resource area vitalization. The MLIT at that time was seeking for such effective means of advertising the dam functions and put into that idea and additional opinions from dam enthusiasts and created the card first on July 20, 2007.
At first, dam cards were made for 111 facilities across the country, MLIT-managed and JWA-managed combined. (25 JWA facilities were included.) Nowadays, some local governments and public agencies and some hydroelectricity generating companies are also issuing such dam cards. The number of cards issued reached 604 facilities as April 1, 2017. Card suppliers are listed on the MLIT website.*
Secrets behind why dam cards are attracting dam-goers
1. Standardized spec. and design
One of the features of the dam card is just one standardized design, descriptions, size, and shape whichever card you pick throughout the nation. Information contained on the front and the back is different. The front side shows an attractive picture from the proper angle. The cart are mostly horizontal type but there are some vertical type ones. All the JWA cards are made in horizontal type.
On the top right corner there are some alphabets to indicate dam functions (purpose), and dam type symbol within the picture frame. The use of the symbol is standardized. Such abbreviations are also used by dam operation practitioners, including JWA for their internal documents.
The back side of the card shows the descriptions of the dam, including the basic information such as dam height, gross storage capacity, and also "random information", "special technology used" which are quite technical, mainly used among dam experts.
The reason why there are so much information contained in the dam card is because it is considered as the compact information material on the project.
2. No card is given unless you visit the site
2nd unique feature of the card is that you will never obtain the card unless you physically go to the dam. And you cannot obtain another card for your friend or any others.Now and then, any number of people come to the dam facility site, seeking for the particular dam card. The card inclines to invite more dam-goers to visit the site because of the hardship of access to the facility. Many dam enthusiasts are eager to come and get the updated version which are usually released at the time of anniversary or some other special event. There are some cases where the cards are handed out during the construction period based on the completion image and the update version is released upon its completion.
3. Introduction of AR (=augumented reality) dynamic image of the site
JWA has introduced some dynamic image of the sites to give its viewers more attractive picture of the dam site with latest AR technology. Such sites include the Musashi Canal and Miso River Dam, etc. AR technology is used for the Pokemon Go, the latest application game. JWA is the first organization to adopt this latest motion technology for such a card. So when you shoot such a card with the smartphone with this application downloaded, you can see quasi-dynamic picture of the dam site.
Last, but not least…
Before concluding this presentation, we would like to touch upon the thoughts of staff working for the construction, operation and/or management for those facilities. They are all proud of working for the facilities around the clock, all the year round. They feel more than happy to work on site if more and more people come to the facility to familiarize themselves with our facility.
The dam card of just 55 cm2 contains the compacted essential facility information.
We all wish more visitors come to our places and water resource areas and get one for your own memory.
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