A FRAMEWORK FOR THE SUCCESSFUL RIVER ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT MEASURES - VERIFICATION THROUGH CASE STUDIES IN JAPAN AND ABROAD -

Abstract

The river environment management measures of today have been originated from some pioneering river works conducted to meet the request from the residents around 1970-1990 when the environmental issues were the serious social concerns. Establishing a framework for the successful river environment management measures will provide the useful indicators toward the adequate river management under the changeable socio-economic conditions of the future. This paper proposes the framework and verifies its adaptability to some pioneering river works in Japan and abroad. As a result, it was revealed that the directions of river environment management measures were influenced by the backgrounds of the times and the regional characteristics. And showing the purposes and the effects clearly was a good incentive to promote the river works. Especially, by establishing the partnership between the river authorities and the residents through close communication, the ownership of the rivers as the properties and symbols of the regions was fostered, which led to the continuous utilization of the rivers by the communities.