2019-07-08

[public] 1.53M views, 57.0K likes, 474 dislikes audio only

Tom Scott

If you believe the hype, then the Metropolitan Area Underground Discharge Channel stops Tokyo flooding. It doesn't. But it is one colossal part of a huge network of flood defences that protect a city that would otherwise be... well, very wet.

MORE ABOUT THE DISCHARGE CHANNEL:

The Discharge Channel's site (in Japanese): http://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/edogawa/gaikaku/

Advice for English-speaking visitors:

https://matcha-jp.com/en/4002

REFERENCES:

"Below sea level" and "aging levees": http://www.kensetsu.metro.tokyo.jp/content/000028631.pdf [PDF, parts translated in https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/climate/tokyo-floods.html ]

"All that protects the two and a half million people": https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180823/p2a/00m/0na/007000c

Discharge channel stats: http://www.japanriver.or.jp/EnglishDocument/DB/file/004%20Kanto%2079(T.O-12).pdf [PDF]

THANKS TO:

Local fixer: Yamada Masato

Post translator: Dominic Jacobs

Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin)

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