I reviewed recent trends of acoustic surveys of wildlife. The following six topics are summarized. 1. Characteristics of animal call, 2. Equipment for collecting acoustic data, 3. Visualization of acoustic data, 4. Detection of animal calls from recorded data, 5. Classification of taxa by machine learning, 6. Application of automated recording technology to wildlife research. Autonomous recording units and automated processing are promising tools for objective and efficient wildlife surveys in environmental impact assessment.

本稿では，近年進歩が著しい海洋観測機器と，同様に小型化，高性能化が進む海中移動体である自律型無人潜水機（ autonomous underwater vehicle：AUV）及び水中ドローン（遠隔操作無人潜水探査機，Remotely operated vehicle：ROV）を利用した海洋調査手法について，その有効性を従来の観測手法と比較・検討した結果についての概要を報告する。

環境アセスメント分野においては大気や水を含む様々な現象や地物の調査が必要とされている。環境アセスメントで要求される調査項目は，ドローンの有無によって変わるものではない。一方，ドローンを用いることで調査のIT 化，省力化が進んだり，調査時の危険性をある程度減らせる可能性も高い。また，従来，計測が困難であった調査項目でも，空からドローンで近づくことで計測できる事象もたくさんあると思われる。ドローンの応用技術は，ドローンのために特別に開発されたと言うよりは，人工衛星を用いたリモートセンシング技術や有人航空機を用いた空中写真測量技術を基礎としている事が多いために，ドローンでなければできない応用は何か，また，ドローンに求められる技術開発は何かが必ずしも明確ではない。そこで，本論文では，環境アセスメント分野でのドローンの応用例と，質の良いデータを取得するためのドローンの運用技術に関し述べる。

This paper briefly reviews current methodology and practices of the environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding approach using a universal PCR primer pair MiFish, which co-amplifies a short fragment of fish DNA (around 170 bp from the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene) across a wide variety of taxa. This method has been applied to biodiversity monitoring using eDNA shed from fish and, coupled with next-generation sequencing technologies, allowed to perform massively parallel sequencing of several hundred eDNA samples simultaneously. Since the publication of its technical outline in 2015, this method has been widely used in various aquatic environments in and around the six continents, and MiFish primers have been demonstrably shown to outperform other competing primers. Additionally, I introduce the latest information on the government-led initiatives of biodiversity monitoring using MiFish eDNA metabarcoding.

The environmental impact assessments are conducted to the projects that “changes the shape of the terrain or that involves the construction of a new structure, or that is engaging in other similar activities” by the procedures in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Law. After the construction of the project by the proponent, the constructs should be used for the original purposes in accordance with the way and method that settled during the assessment. We consider the some actual examples of the way and method after the constructions.

As researches on the community acceptance of woody biomass power plant are not sufficient, surveys were conducted to reveal it by analyzing occurrence of disputes, complaints, the level of impact perception and annoyance. From a newspaper article survey, 8 reports were hit by using keywords with “biomass and opposition”, including an article reporting the odor issue. Among 21 questionnaire sheets from municipalities, complaints occurred in 3 cases where local people concerned about noise, vibration due to lumber carrier vehicles, safety of lumber storage etc. The statistical analysis based on field surveys showed that the correlation was found between the distance and impact perception. However, results tend to be different in the two cases, suggesting that they are affected by site characteristics particularly of topography.