CURRENT STATE ANALYSIS OF MUNICIPAL RIVER MANAGEMENTS -EXAMPLES OF NAGASAKI PREFECTURE-

Abstract

 According to the River Law in Japan, municipalities are to manage Class C rivers and Non Statutory rivers. Basically, the Class C rivers require river management mutatis mutandis to the River Law. In this study, we investigated the current situation and issues of local river management focusing on the independent water systems in Nagasaki. We conducted statistical analysis, interviews and field surveys. As a result, we found that the management and the manager's burden are different between rivers connected to the Class A or B water systems and that of the independent water systems. Though municipalities are addressing such difficulties as the lack of personnel and river inspections, it may be difficult to achieve the management required by the River Law only by the river managers. On the other hand, the active maintenance by residents played an important role to keep rivers in good status. Considering current situation of rural small rivers, we propose to introduce a river management system that incorporates residents as well as to establish a river management archive to share information among river managers, residents and stakeholders.