Abstract
Under the revised Land Improvement Law, the land improvement projects that consider harmony with the environment have come to be expected. However, for example, farmland consolidation projects with environmental consideration do not have most of results yet and consequently there are few cases in which effects of such consideration were inspected. Hence, the environment-conscious and water supply functions of the irrigation canals around Kuroda settlement in Kinomoto-cho, Shiga which have been improved in harmony with the environment by the government-operated irrigation scheme as a pioneer project were investigated as a case study. As a result, it was confirmed that the canals with environmental consideration contributed to species diversification of fish and shellfish and conservation of their population at least more than conventional concrete canals like a bench flume. On the other hand, the risks on water delivery through the canals, such as increase of the water leakage and roughness coefficient, were substantiated.
