One of the causes of environmental problems is that environmental loads caused by humans could exceed spatial or temporal areas that are recognizable by human beings. The purpose of this research is to propose a scheme to accurately understand local activities by considering the reality of environmental loads caused by people's living activities. Details include; finding new exchange values for environmental conservation activities (e.g., energy saving, 3R, local cleanup, environmental education) using the " Community currency " method; providing economical incentives to citizens who contribute to those activities; and examining whether the information with Eco-money record/history is an effective environmental indicator to show the degree of contribution to the environment.

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This paper described the development process of a WebGIS-based environmental information system for public participation in the Lake Biwa watershed. As a result, many citizens' monitoring data had been shared with the WebGIS, but its small use was found on their own initiative. Through action research, in order to obtain the better advantage of GIS tools in environmental improvement activities, not only the system development-oriented, but also it is important to make arrangements for letting them know these tools will help their activities. The improvement based on the above-mentioned points affected its higher use on their own initiative.

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This study conducted attitude surveys towards all groups carrying out environmental beautification activities called Volunteer Support Programs (VSP) along national highways in Kyushu region, and examined the evaluation and effectiveness of VSP. Participating groups were divided into three namely residents groups, corporations, and other groups, and factors influencing VSP's evaluation and effectiveness were analyzed for each type of groups. As a result, it has become clear that (1) most groups consider positively on the effectiveness of VSP, and (2) the factors influencing the effectiveness of VSP differ for each type of groups.

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The Seacoast Law in Japan was revised in 1999 the aim of incorporating the twin objectives of maintenance and conservation of the coastal environment and reasonable use of the coast by the public, in addition to the existing purpose of coastal protection. With these revisions, it is hoped that maintenance will be pushed forward for promoting use of the coast. In this study, we performed fact-finding of the regulations in place in 39 prefectures having coastline, regarding the provision of coastal facilities that can be used year-round. We analyzed examples of year-round facilities to ascertain the requirements and regulations involved in installing such facilities. Installation conditions included (i) ensuring safety by securing coastal protection and (ii) ensuring public access. Clearing these conditions should enable installation of coastal facilities that can be used throughout the year.

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Technology innovation plays a central role in decoupling economic growth from resource consumption and environmental degradation. Since technological lock-in is one of the main barriers to the promotion and dissemination of technology innovation towards sustainability, it is necessary to design policies that can both trigger the innovation and competitiveness of an economy. This paper analyzes the evolution of environmental policies in Japan and their effects on technology innovation using the dioxin problem and the recycling of wastes as case study. The paper discusses the importance of such policies for improving the technology-push demand-pull relationship. The paper shows that thanks to the effectiveness of these policies the government overcame the dioxin problem and promoted the spread of alternative technologies for waste recycling. Finally the paper stresses that policies must go beyond the end-of-life approach and tackle the origin of the problem, that is, unsustainable production and consumption patterns.

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In order to comply with the product environmental regulations such as WEEE, RoHS, and EuP direction, the manufacturers are required to promote material-product chain management in cooperation with the material and parts suppliers. In this paper, we conducted principal component analysis of the corporate environmental responses in electronics and automotive parts manufacturers to meet the environmental requirements for their products. The results clarified the different response patterns in accordance with the supply chain characteristics.

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Although some researches on hydroelectric project in developing countries have been done before, the research from a management point of view has not yet done. This paper discusses the price setting of the project, which is one of the important elements of project management. In some villages in Southern Shan State, Myanmar, where is discussed in this paper, the electric bill is inexpensive compared with other commodity prices. The fact that all household pay the same amount of the bill means that publicness is considered to be more important than profitability. However, it is important to secure both publicness and profitability in order to sustain the project.

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We develop an integrated optimization model that combines an ecological component and an economic model. We conduct trade-off analysis on northern spotted owl habitat protection and timber production. Since the quality of owl habitats depends on spatial connectivity of a certain vegetation condition, we develop a spatially explicit optimization model that can evaluate spatial patterns. Through the comparison of optimal solutions under different scenarios, we found the following: 1) expanding riparian reserves increases the quality of owl habitats, however, easing a riparian reserve constraint significantly increases the net present value (NPV) of timber production and may still maintain the quality of owl habitats. 2) without regulations regarding habitat protection, land managers achieves the highest NPV of timber production, while the quality of owl habitats deteriorates.

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In this paper, we quantified 'CER short risk' of CDM projects using project approval data published by UNFCCC.We drew a frequency distribustion chart of 'CER approval ratio' for each type of projects, and found that different types of projects have different averages and variances of 'CER approval ratio'.Additionally, we estimated the amonts of CER issued until 2012, using " Bayesian model " which reflects already realized amounts of CER as well as the distribution of 'CER realization ratio' for each individual CDM project.

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This paper aims to identify the barriers to the implementation of CDM projects in Indonesia. I focus on the effects of national regulations and implementation of legislation on CDM project development. Results from my analysis confirm that domestic factors such as the weak enforcement of regulations (and related political risks) and difficulties arranging project finance have reduced the quantity and quality of CDM projects in Indonesia.

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The purpose of this study is to construct the carbon cycle model in urban open spaces , to examine utility and the problem in the future of the carbon cycle model. Actually, it is organized past researches data related to flow and stock of the carbon in urban open spaces , to construct the carbon cycle model by system dynamics model. As a result of the operating the carbon cycle model, it is grasped to be able to estimate the fluctuation of the amount of carbon storage and carbon emissions at the both the past and the future. Moreover, in order to improve the carbon cycle model in urban open spaces, the problem is constructed the model which is reflected the effect of various schemes related to planning of urban open spaces.

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This paper deals with mesh analysis of 2000-2005 population in Nagoya Metropolitan Area, to clarify population dynamics just before the population decline era. Main results are as follows: (1) Population has increased 3.2% for 2000-2005, but population decrease meshes account for 35.4%. The distribution of the population increase and the decrease meshes is like the mosaic. (2) The difference of population density between the population increase and decrease meshes has become small. (3) 8 types of land-use were categorized by cluster analysis. By comparing the distribution of the population decrease mesh and the land-use pattern, it makes clear that population re-centering in the downtown of Nagoya city and suburbanization in metropolitan suburbia, and population decline in the central district and suburbanization in local cities.

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Recently there are many problems of living environment with the densely built-up area and the urban sprawl in local cities in China which have achieved rapid economic development. The improvement of living environment is required in terms of the city planning in the future. In this paper, we investigated the present evaluation of living environment for the city planning area of LangFang in HeBei using the multicriteria evaluation within geographic information system. As a result, we grasped the unequal state of living environment in whole area. We found that the method of evaluation was a means of evaluating living environment variously and objectively according to objectives of the future planning, and it was useful for drafting the planning in local cities in China.

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Bohai Sea, gulf of China, is abundant in fishery resources. However, water quality of the gulf is being rapidly deteriorated. In order to draw up effective measures for pollution control, present situation of pollution should be clarified. This paper estimates COD emission from the coastal area. It is shown that emissions from paper industry and food industry are exceedingly large. An environmental input-output analysis implies that these sectors' environment-friendly reform of production process will not give negative impacts on the economy.

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The studies of judgment proof problem are based on analyses using the models in which firms' activities are fixed, although the activities are variable for them and, in the court, their negligence is not always judged by the formalized care in the previous studies. Furthermore the studies have not used numerical method, because likely probability and damage function can not be decided as the definition of care is inappropriate. This paper denotes result of analysis by numerical method using the model in which firms' care is decoupled with the formalized one and firms' activities are variables. It shows that, even under negligence rule, judgment proof problem is more serious than in the previous studies.

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The shortage of landfill site for the municipal waste is a serious problem, and municipalities implement the policy to control exhaustion and increase recycling. However, municipalities should examine the costs and benefits of these policies, because these policies tend to increase their financial burden. By using the stated preferences method, this study estimates the benefits of landfill's life prolongation, especially focusing on social cost and its delay of new site location. As a result, the social cost of new site location is estimated as 14,000 yen per household. Furthermore, the utility function of delay of site location is estimated by quadratic function and that it will become the maximum of 13 years later.

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This study examined the causal structure forming willingness to pay (WTP) for historic landscape restoration from possible natural and man-made disasters in Kyoto. The result of structural equation modeling can be summarized as follows: (1) the respondents who recognize functions the historical landscape conserve the comfortable environment and the regional culture and history tend to have higher values to the landscape and are also aware of higher risks of natural disasters that could destroy the historical landscape. Such respondents having these evaluations stated higher WTP. (2) Kyoto residents tend to state higher WTP through direct and indirect pathways. The result suggests there is a strong regional effect on WTP reflecting Kyoto residents' affection on their daily environments and cultural-historical backgrounds. (3) The positive income effect on WTP consists of the direct effect based on paying capacity and the indirect effect on the basis of rich knowledge of culture and history.

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This study sent out a questionnaire about CO₂ reduction by planting of trees to residents of detached houses. The results of questionnaire indicated that when information was included about " CO₂ reduction by planting trees " ,there was a significant difference in the number of respondents who selected the plan for CO₂ reduction, compared to those who did not receive the information. In addition, providing information about CO₂ reduction resulted in increased awareness of people concerning greenery and the environment. Therefore it was suggested that providing information on this topic will promote the use of greenery around detached houses as a countermeasure to global warming.

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Based on ninety-five-sector input-output tables for China for 1992, 1997 and 2002, this paper calculates the direct and indirect household energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions and analyzes the impacts of different household lifestyles on China's energy use and CO₂ emissions during the period 1992-2002. Results reveal that more than 55% of household energy use and 58% of associated CO₂ emissions were indirect during the period. Annual energy use sustaining urban residents' lifestyle increased to 24GJ per capita and associated CO₂ emissions reached 2.4t per capita and it was 19.7GJ to sustain rural residents' lifestyle and associated CO₂ emissions was 1.8t per capita in 2002. Though the intensity of household energy use and associated CO2 emissions declined, the total accounts had been rising slightly due to the increasing household consumption activity, number of households and change of expenditure structure, which surpassed the improvement of energy efficiency.

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The purpose of this research is to explore effective strategies for climate change adaptation in the small island developing states. I analyzed the case studies of Tuvalu and Samoa from four viewpoints: 1) climate change impacts; 2) characteristics and costs of adaptation; 3) national policy and institutions; and 4) financing systems for adaptation. The research shows that Tuvalu needs reactive, top-down, high-cost adaptation. Tuvalu has a low capacity to implement adaptation measures, and the effective financing system for adaptation in Tuvalu is one in which recipients are regional organizations. Samoa needs anticipatory, relatively low-cost adaptation. With Samoa's relatively high capacity to implement adaptation, its effective financing systems are those in which the donor is the Global Environmental Facility, and the recipients are national and local organizations.

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This paper focuses on the changes in the strength of upper cold air currents during El Niño and La Niña events as a factor affecting dust storms near the Gobi Desert and yellow sand transport to Japan. In springs of recent years, the number of yellow-sand events in Kyushu decreased during El Niño events and increased during La Niña events. This was observed in 2003 (El Niño) and in 2006 (La Niña). Stronger upper cold air currents made the temperature lapse rate greater, and atmospheric instability produced dust storms. In spring 2006 (La Niña), the strong upper cold air currents passed near the Gobi Desert many times, and this may have caused an increase in the number of dust-storm days in Mongolia. The number of dust-storm days in Mongolia and the number of yellow-sand events in Japan have shown a positive relationship since 2000.

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The purpose of this paper is to develop the mathematical model for optimal riding plan on bicycle by NLP. Our model includes three characteristics: rider's power, bike type, and slope, and under these conditions, rider choices the riding plan to minimize his/her exhausting level. Comparative statics and simulating some numerical examples on computer show the property of optimal riding plans.

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This study aimed to determine the effect of the map and some materials on modifying attitude and travel behaviors and clear to have the relation to travel behavior and emotional attachment to local area. We set Hirakata- Kuzuha area at case study After preparing the map and some materials, a behavioral plan method was adopted. Effects were evaluated according to the theory of reasoned action. The results were analyzed by comparing the psychological parameters before and after the study. The results revealed that the MM group increased the frequency of riding bus and the frequency of going to parks.

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We investigated every factors on residents participation in Jichikai (neighbourhood association) activities, as typified by the maintenance of regional resources. In order to examine a linkage between residents' participation and their evaluation for the associations, we composed Jichikai Evaluation Scale. This scale is based on 6 questions about the acceptability of the associations for residents' participation. The results are as follows; 1) All activities are related with " the degree of neighbourly companionship " , " the farmer " and " the participation to the other association " factor. 2) Many activities are related with Jichikai Evaluation Scale. This result suggested that the improvement of residents' evaluation for Jichikai could promote its activities.

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The aim of this study is to verify how the services provided by the nature-experience-type facility influence the visitors' satisfactions, and to evaluate its management policies, from a viewpoint of consumer behavior studies which apply marketing theory and propose management by objectives. The study has clarified which services are more effective in attracting revisits and an ideal priority order for future improvement and provision of the services. It has also evaluated the management policies of the facility and revealed the tasks for future study to contribute to the management of the facility.

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A questionnaire for municipal administrative officials regarding successful examples of nature restoration activities and their effects on rural regions showed that officials viewed the activities as beneficial for environmental improvement, which is the original purpose of these activities, evaluated the social impact of those activities as high. Furthermore, administrative officials gave an exceptionally high rating to the activities in terms of their PR effects, and it was estimated that the effects are strengthened through activities involving the promotion of interaction between citizens, activities in which the community and neighboring communities play the main role, and activities in intermediate rural regions. In order to continue and expand such nature restoration activities with the support of local municipalities, it is important to incorporate activities which will attract the attention of the mass media and activities in which administrative officials are able to participate directly.

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The aim of our research was to shed light on the ecological effects of fascine bank protection work and dry masonry revived eco-friendly technology through investigation of resultant changes in Genji-firefly habitation. Counting of the number of adult individuals in their flight showed a 562.4% increase from 2000 to 2003, and their presence was confirmed only in the eco-friendly section of the target channel. A lot of Spawning was done in the eco-friendly section. Specifically, the fascine protected parts of this section accounted for 80% of the spawning. Besides, 70% of the spawning made use of moss on the fascine works to lay eggs on. Larvae also showed a wider distribution year by year. However, not unlike adult fireflies in their flight, most of them were confirmed in the eco-friendly section. Their exclusive attraction to this section is considered to be partly attributable to the non-airtight structure of the fascine bank protection work and dry masonry has a concomitant function of providing fireflies with their copulation-spawning grounds and pupation grounds.

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The present study is a survey of vegetation and composition of species in the river bed and on the river shore of the Amakawa River, a small river with a series of three types of channel works. Comparison of vegetation in each facility type section showed that the number of species was larger in the section where there were only revetment works, and significantly smaller in the sections where the river bed was also concreted. As for species composition, in the section where the river bed was covered by concrete brick in order to prevent bed-erosion, annual plants such as Persicaria thunbergii and Bidens frondosa were dominant, and the ratio of alien species was high. It was found that even very small changes in the shape of each facility led to small changes in sedimentation which led to changes in the composition of species. In river bed and river shore vegetation management, it is important to consider how even slight changes in the shape of erosion-control works will influence vegetation.

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Protected temple and shrine forests, where natural vegetation can persist for number of years, are valuable in Japan. Such forests, however, have gradually diminished due to urbanization and other human intrusions. Documenting the changes in species compositions observed during the past 30 years in lucidophyllous forests around the temples and shrines in Kanto ,Japan, can aid conservation efforts in these forests. On comparing the past and present species compositions, the following patterns were revealed: (1) bird-dispersed species from natural forests as well as ornamental and garden species had increased, and (2) deciduous secondary forest species had decreased. From these findings, it is deduced that succession shifted to include ornamental and garden species.

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The purpose of this work was to examine longitudinal distribution of fishes and related to environmental conditions in a small basin.We investigated in a small channel reached at 2.5km. On September Lefua echgonia, Phoxinus lagowski steindachneri, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus distributed to the upper stream. Where as Zacco platypus, Gnathopogon elongatus elongates and Carassius sp. distributed to the lower stream .Based on the results of PCA and correlative analysis,it was found that water temperature specially influenced on distribution of these fishes. L. echgonia and P. lagowski steindachneri showed a tendency to appear in lower water temperature. Z.platypus, G. elongatus elongates and Carassius sp.,however, showed a tendency to appear in higher water temperature. Water temperature tended to rise from upper stream to down stream .Thus, it seemed that the selection of water temperature related to the longitudinal distribution of fishes and water temperature was an important matter for conservation of fish community.

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We discussed the status of the lizards (Plestiodon japonicas and Takydromus tachydromoides) as an indicator of the habitat of small animals in urban areas. The lizards were recorded by visual encounter surveys at 13 investigation sites of green spaces in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture from May to October in 2007, and there qualities of habitat were evaluated. The encounter frequency was calculated, it was very high at the home gardens. The analysis of the regulation factor for population density, it showed the significance that P. japonicus was correlated to the area rates of the porosity structure on the surface and the percentage of green spaces in surrounding on the each investigation sites.

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It have been well documented that many fish species that inhabit paddy field zone move to temporary waters for breeding, but life history of fishes that inhabit farm ponds have received little attention. We conducted an investigation in order to clarify the utilization of the water-network including a farm pond by fishes. As a result, in the beginning of irrigation period, fish such as loach and crucian got out of the farm pond and moved to the irrigation channel and the paddy field, along with rainfall. Therefore it was thought that the fish that inhabit farm ponds also move to temporary waters for breeding. In addition, breeding in the paddy fields or irrigation channels could be advantageous for native fish species that inhabit farm ponds, when exotic piscivorous largemouth bass inhabit the same ponds.

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We studied food habits of exotic largemouth bass and fish community in twelve farm ponds in Isawa Ward, Oshu city. The main prey of bass with rich fish community was fish, whereas bass with poor fish fauna preyed mainly insects and zooplanktons. Population number of native fish, Pseudorasbora parva, in ponds with bass was significantly less than those in ponds without bass. Furthermore, the size distributions of Japanese crucian carp, loach and freshwater common goby in ponds with bass were different from those in ponds without bass. It seemed the impact of bass predation influenced to not only population number but also body size of native fishes such as cyprinids and benthic fishes seriously.

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In this paper, we observed wind-dependent movement of heat island in summer in Tokyo metropolitan area, by analyzing METROS, wind direction and velocity data of AMeDAS. The result showed that the heat island around the center of the Tokyo and east of Saitama were led into the leeward direction. At the daytime of a southern wind day, Sagami plain becomes cool island, and area from Tokyo to Kumagaya becomes strong heat island. On the other hand, in north wind day, heat island can be seen at the coastal area. These heat island movements quickly responded to the rapid change of wind direction.

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The urban heat island is mainly caused by increase of air conditioning load with increase of surface temperature and heat radiation in the night related to large amount of absorption of solar radiation in the daytime on the external surface. As a method of mitigation of these effects, construction of insulation and cool surface materials with high reflectance are effective. In this study, heat transfer of rooftop surface constructed with high reflectance waterproof sheet and thermal insulation in combination is evaluated by using test objects assuming several conditions of rooftop structure at the outdoors.

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In order to reduce fossil-fuel consumption to cope with global warming, solar energy use technologies become increasingly important in recent years. This paper presents the result of a comparative evaluation of the solar water heater and the photovoltaic power generation system installed on the roof of a detached house. The evaluation was conducted based on "exergy" as an index to express the qualitative difference between electric power and thermal energy. The results of this study showed that the energy efficiency of the photovoltaic power generation system is lower than that of the solar water heater, whereas the exergy efficiency of the photovoltaic power generation system is higher than that of the solar water heater.

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In order to mitigate environmental problems, it is necessary to reconsider economic process of production, consumption and disposal, and to fully utilize limited resources including wastes. This paper comprehensively evaluates effects of introduction of biomass technology to the Lake Kasumigaura basin, Ibaraki, Japan, from the viewpoint of the environment and the economy, supposing also use of existing technology and measures already taken by Ibaraki prefecture, local government. In addition, this paper considers the feasibility of biomass technology as a measure for environmental policy. According to results of dynamic optimization by a comprehensive evaluation model, continuous annual 1% growth of Gross Regional Product (GRP) for 10 years from 2004 is likely to be consistent with Total Nitrogen (T-N) reduction of 5,000 tons and greenhouse gas reduction of 3.5 million tons. Increase of 1% in prefectural budget for environmental policy enables additional T-N reduction of 420 tons and greenhouse gas reduction of 500,000 tons.

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In recent years, installation of wind turbines is increasing all over the world. One of the increasing strategies is repowering of old wind turbines. But wind power projects have much uncertainty, such as the natural risk and institutional risk. In this research, a wind power project is evaluated using the real options which can measure the managerial flexibility. As a case study of evaluation, the timing of project continuation and repowering is investigated about the Nakayama Toge wind power generation facilities. We showed that using real options in the investment of wind power projects is one of the new decision making approaches, and repowering strategy is important due to large demand to replace old wind turbines.

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In this study, the cost, energy consumption, CO₂ emission and final waste disposal of the incineration system and the combined system of garbage biogasification and incineration were investigated. These parameters in the two waste treatment systems were examined from the stages of the collection, transportation, intermediate treatment, ash transportation, landfill and recycling by using of the LCA technique. The costs of the CO₂ reduction and energy consumption were converted to the economic costs and the total costs of these two systems were calculated respectively. The total cost of the garbage methane fermentation system was found to be lower than the incineration system, which indicated the better applicability of the former system.

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Establishing " Low carbon society " on large cities as well as numerous small cities is important for global climate change. On the other side, the Japanese forestry industry has been significantly affected by increase in low-price timber imports and short of work force. These reason cause poor maintenance of the coniferous forests. In this paper, sustainable heat energy supply system for hothouse cultivation is examined by considering proper man-made forest management plans. It is estimated that 161% of energy demand of hothouse cultivation can be supplied from man-made forest with sustainable management on case our study area, Inami town, Wakayama prefecture, Japan.

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In recent years, the iron and steel scraps generated in Japan have increasingly exported to China, which causes price hike of the scraps. As the electric furnace manufacturer in Japan makes crude steel from iron and steel scraps mainly, it has been facing rising production cost. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two policy options for maintaining domestic recycling system, the tax reduction for electric furnaces manufacturer and the export taxation for the scraps. The evaluation is done by using a Japan-China Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) model. The results of the evaluation suggest that the tax reduction policy causes the price hike of the scraps and makes recycling difficult for other industries. On the other hand, the export taxation lowers the domestic price of the scraps and makes recycling less difficult for other industries.

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In order to clarify what types of measures for reducing solid waste are adopted by manufacturing firms in Shiga Prefecture, how the characteristics of firms influence the types of the measures adopted, and what those adopted measures accomplished, we conducted a survey with 234 firms. The sizes and industrial sectors of the firms appear to influence what measures are adopted. About a half of the firms evaluate such measures as satisfactory. About twenty percent of the firms are found to enjoy the reduction in production costs thanks to the measures related to waste reduction. Measures leading to such cost reduction were examined.

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In recent years, a large number of Japanese used electric household appliances have been exported to Asian countries, and that has bad effects on constructing the recycling-based society of Japan, and that causes severe pollutions in Asian countries. This paper proposes the Extended Exporter Responsibility (EER) to solve that problem. The system of EER is that the Government levies the waste products export surcharge on a used electric household appliance exporting to Asia, and gives that surcharge back to Asian countries. We have verified mathematically that EER can internalize the external cost and can achieve the optimum distribution of the social cost and the maximum economic welfare between national recycle and international recycle.

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This study focused on Indonesian palm oil process from plantation to Crude Palm Oil mills and compared the characteristics of bio-waste utilization with other country mills. And also it aimed at developing an environmental impact inventory of palm oil production process and getting insight of low environmental impact bio-waste utilization methods by comparing with several bio-waste usages. The results showed that eutrophication, climate change and acidification problems were recognized as main environmental impacts. Countermeasures for Palm Oil Mill Effluent must be an effective method from the perspective of tackling with eutrophication and climate change problems. Then Inputs of bio-wastes to plantation can reduce environmental impacts by reducing chemical fertilizer inputs.

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In this paper, quantitative environmental effects of utilization of waste cooking oil as bio diesel fuel (BDF) were analyzed using waste input-output table of Wakayama prefecture. The result revealed that: i) prefecture-wide collection of waste cooking oil could reduce direct and indirect carbon dioxide of 1692ton-CO₂; ii) on the other hand, transportation-derived carbon dioxide emission greatly increases associated with expansion of the oil collection area; iii) carbon dioxide reduction cost could reduce by nearly 8% in the case of limited collection of household-derived oil by comparison of prefecture-wide oil collection.

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The purpose of this paper is to assess the reality of over application of livestock excreta into agricultural land and to present effective measures on it. Targeting Awaji Island as a case example, the amount of over application was estimated through statistical analysis, and 6 scenarios for improvement were established. As a result, the amount of over application was estimated as 160,000 ton/year (3,600 ton/tear of nitrogen). Also, reduction effect in 6 scenarios were; 2,900 ton/year in "Establishment of methane fermentation facility", 29,000 ton/year in "Compost recycling for moisture content adjustment", 29,000 ton/year in "Strengthening connection between farming and livestock", 45,000 ton/year in "Using idle fields", 22,000 ton/year in "Decrease of feeding animals", and. 124,000 ton/year in "All measures adoption". These results will help to determine an effective political measure in other areas.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the circumstances of garbage collection sites analyzing the relationship with their forms and neighboring land uses in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, as a case study. As a result, garbage collection sites were classified into five types. Several factors were extracted which were considered promoting or restricting inappropriate garbage disposal in garbage collection sites, such as box-typed form or neighboring collective housing as promoting factors, and net-and-container-typed form or neighboring single-family house as restricting factors.

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Environment-dependent measurements of personal VOC exposures were conducted by 14 subjects for one day by changing sampler for each microenvironment, i.e. commuting, office and home. Among 11 VOCs analyzed, benzene, p-dichlorobenzene and toluene showed particularly high concentration ratios to the standard and/or guideline values set by the Japanese ministries. The results indicated the heavily-traveled arterial streets were suspected as the major sources of benzene exposures during commuting while the moth repellents etc. were suspected to increase p-dichlorobenzene exposure at home for some subjects. Meantime, the exposure sources of toluene, which generally has a variety of source origins, could be specified by this method. In this study, the ratios of specific exposure were also calculated. By such information, the subjects can efficiently reduce their exposures to VOCs by avoiding and/or improving the polluted microenvironments.

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Monte-Carlo simulation was performed to estimate the influence of numbers of observed fields in relation to counting errors of the phase contrast microscopy (PCM) method for measurements of asbestos fibers concentrations in air. By repeatedly observing 2,000 fields of virtual samples having several concentrations, relative standard deviations (RSD) as to counting fibers were estimated. Without depending on concentration levels, RSD was significantly decreased with an increase of observed numbers of the fields (up to approximately 300 fields). Even if 20% of RSD was acceptable and fibers were uniformly deposited on a virtual sample, it was necessary to observe around 300 fields in order to achieve a sufficient quantification limit to measure an environment level. It was also suggested that the PCM method should be automated to observe such many fields.

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It is important to consider regional characteristics in LCA for regional evaluation. To do this, a Regional Database reflecting regional characteristics is indispensable. Thus, this study aims to find an effective method in making a regional database. Firstly, we examined a way to consider environmental effects that reflect regional characteristics, such as levels of region and industry, pollutants, etc. Moreover, we suggested a method that requires the consideration of select industries, and making a database for electric power as a priority industry. As a result, it is clear that considering regional characteristics is important, and that making a regional database is necessary for this.

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