Cd, Pb and Cr⁶⁺ have been categorized into Class II Specified Chemical Substances in The Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act of Japan, which have generally been used as plating metals. Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag and Sn also have widely been used as plating metals. In this study, these 9 plating metals were examined by an acute toxicity test using luminous bacteria (Vibrio fischeri). In the results, it was shown that this bioassay method is available as the screening method for soil pollution based on several legal reference values such as the soil content reference values. In addition, the correlation with the degree of acute toxicity effects on the luminous bacteria with each concentration of plating metals were found and quantified. It could allow the quantitative evaluation of the soil pollution by each of the plating metals.

Committee on survey and research in Japanese Association of Groundwater Hydrology (JAGH) comprehensively reviewed the articles in the journal of groundwater hydrology, and developed a geographic database on areas of interest appeared in articles which mention the information on local groundwater. In this database, these articles were sorted by groundwater basins or districts so that the list of articles and links to J-STAGE could be extracted by choosing an area of interest from a graphical map. As a result of database development, some bias was found in distribution of investigated areas and it was visualized both in time and space. It might come from the background of researches such as scientific trends and changes of social interests on development or environment problems related to groundwater. This database is published on the official website of JAGH and expected to contribute to future community activities, researches and practices related to the local groundwater.