This study aims to evaluate zero-emission activities in the food manufacturing industry quantitatively and to identify problem areas based on the evaluation results. After selecting sub-industries such as beer manufacturing industry, seasoning making industry and flour milling industry for evaluation, we set the indicators respectively in three categories to construct the framework and propose the method for the evaluation of the zero-emission activities. The zero-emission activity is evaluated in two steps (the industry specification evaluation and the entire evaluation).
The findings of this study can be summarized in the following two points:
(1) As the industry specification evaluation by DEA, there are differences in each company as for the efficiency of zero-emission activity in beer manufacturing industry and seasoning making industry. However, in seasoning making industry and flour milling industry, 50% of the factories including the ones which achieved the zero-emission are below average DEA efficiency value.
(2) As the entire evaluation, all of factories are classified into 4 assemblies such as advanced, positive, ineffective and negative ones, and the problems of each assembly and factory are identified.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the decision-making processes in evaluating the need for a forest environmental tax by setting up a new model based on the HSM (Heuristic Systematic Model), using the date of social research and through a structural equation modeling. In addition, we examine the varying effects that the level of interest in local forests and forest environmental tax had on the decision-making process through multiple group analysis.
We had the following results: the trust in local government’s forest management and the policy effect of a forest environmental tax was a direct factor in evaluating the need for forest environmental tax; the policy effect had a greater influence than the trust; the procedural fairness in introducing a forest environmental tax indirectly contributed to the evaluation of the need for a forest environmental tax by exerting an effect on the trust and the policy effect; the trust for low interest group in local forests had a relatively greater influence when compared to high interest group; the trust was not a factor at all in judging the need for a forest environmental tax for the high interest group.

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Properties of estuary sediment change dramatically by repetition of flushing events under management of the river flow. The dynamics of fine sediments in the Tonegawa river estuary were studied from analyses of physicochemical properties and bacterial community structure of sediments throughout flushing, static and transitional periods. In flushed period, coarse sand occupied the estuary sediment in place of fine sediment flushing out to the sea with flood. In static period, fine sediment dominated in almost all points and sedimentation of labile organic matter (LOM) and amorphous iron (Fe_o) gradually spread from river mouth towards upstream in connection with the intrusion of saline wedge and the estuary circulation. The following explanation for chemical dynamics of estuary environment in the Tonegawa river was lead from the evidence obtained by bacterial community structure. The rapid decomposition of LOM by sulfate and/or sulfide reducing bacteria generated anaerobic condition with produce of hydrogen sulfide and release of reductive Fe(II), which reacted to dominate precipitation of iron sulfide. The chemical properties of estuary sediment were strongly influenced by the river flow and the dynamics of saline wedge.

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The investigations of the water quality of the Umeda River in the Aichi prefecture of Toyohashi city, were examined once a day for one year and more intensively at the time of 18 rainfall events to evaluate the annual runoff loads of the total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorous (TP). The river water level was recorded automatically at 10-minute intervals. Compared with clear weather days, loads of TN and TP during heavy rain increased 28 and 102 times at most. The appropriate annual runoff loads of TN and TP were calculated using the following methods: the constant-concentration/flow method, the constant concentration method, and the LQ method using either the logarithmic method or the direct method. Annual runoff loads of TN and TP obtained from a detailed survey were 474t/year and 60t/year. A better estimated annual load of TN was obtained by LQ methods (the direct method) based on low flow and high flow, respectively. On the other hand, the annual load of TP was obtained by the LQ method (the direct method). Continuous observation data will be needed to obtain the appropriate values for the load from diffused pollution sources.

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Ropes are recognized as an insidious ocean pollutant. Using a two-stage monitoring method, we estimated the proportion of ropes in marine debris: the weight of whole debris items including short ropes ( ≧6mm diameter, ＜5m length) that accumulated on a 5-m length of beach was measured 198 times; and the weight of polyolefin long ropes ( ≧0.3m length) that washed up on a 500-m length of beach was investigated monthly for 3 years. The weight of polyolefin ropes was estimated based on diameter and length due to the difficulty in disentangling ropes. On the beaches of Tottori Prefecture, the weights of accumulated short ropes, resin pellets and non-foamed plastic fragments were 9.92, 0.13, and 6.75 kg/hm, respectively; the weights of washed-up long ( ≧0.3m) and medium sized (0.3-5m) ropes were 35.1 and 15.1kg/(hm･Y), respectively. The half-lives of these items on beaches are not thought to be significantly different, suggesting that ropes are the heaviest debris in the Sea of Japan. Polyolefin ropes degrade to form fine fiber, which has a far larger surface area than polyolefin resin pellets. Therefore, ropes are considered to be the worst type of marine litter.

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This paper shows an estimation of global agricultural water demand including spatial distribution of crop species. Since agriculture accounts for 85 % of world water usage, methods for estimating the requirements of irrigation water are strongly desired for agricultural water resources management. Using a hydrological land surface model and taking into consideration different crop species, we estimated the water demand of irrigation activities. Cropping calendars for five types of crops (rice, wheat, soybean, maize and cotton) were specified by phenological analysis of NDVI. Statistical data of crop types and irrigated land were merged in a global map of irrigated areas in order to set the fraction of irrigated land for each type of crop. The main results are: i) In many countries, the analyzed annual water demand corresponds to statistical data, and large amounts of water are required in Asia, North America and Europe. ii) Water demand for agriculture is governed by three main factors: crop types, soil physical properties and climate conditions. Of the five types of crops, rice requires the biggest amount of water while cotton requires the least under the same conditions of precipitation. Finally, it was proven that our method can consider the differences between crop types and is useful for agricultural water resources management at basin scale.

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The authors attempted to describe structure of surface water use in the Yellow River Basin of China, whose situation was difficult to be understood with a lack of actual data, in directly comparing structure of water resource demand and supply estimated by Onishi et al. (2006) and structure of ground water use estimated by Ichinose et al. (2009) in the each region. 35 municipalities which were almost included in the Yellow River Basin were picked up and they were classified into 12 small catchments in focusing on the geographical location and the similarity of shape of structure of water resource demand and supply (expressed as bar graphs). In the upstream areas surface water is mainly used and share of agricultural use is small, therefore, seasonal variability of ground water use is small. On the other hand, in the middle stream and the downstream areas share of ground water is large and share of agricultural use is large, therefore, seasonal variability of ground water use is large. Especially these characters are obvious in the Loess Plateau. In addition, surface water is mainly used again in the most downstream areas.

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As the result of huge-scale irrigation project, serious water scarcity has occurred in the Aral Sea Basin. Millions people are suffering especially in the downstream. The Aral Sea has shrunk to 10％ from 1960’s level. Sustainable irrigation project is required and this project has to be based on information about quantity of water resource and water demand in irrigated farm. These information are necessary as basic and scientific information for sustainable development.
In this study, historical change of water and heat balance in the Aral Sea Basin is analyzed from 1961 to 2000 by land surface model SiBUC, which can analyze water demand for irrigation in physical way. Since expanding irrigated area and desiccation of the Aral Sea were considered in the water balance analysis, drastic increase of water demand in irrigated farm can be analyzed. Finally, decreasing water inflow to the Aral Sea and historical change of the area are accurately reproduced.

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Irrigation accounts for about 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and 90% of consumptive water use globally. The irrigation water use is projected to continue increasing due to　production of foods and biofuels in the future. In this study, we focused on the estimation of the temporal change in net irrigation water requirement from river, large reservoirs, medium-sized reservoirs and Non-renewable Non-local Blue Water (NNBW) for the period of 1960-2000 using the integrated global water resource model (H08). Our estimation of the net irrigation water requirement which is withdrawn from four resources　(river, large reservoirs, medium-sized reservoirs and NNBW) has increased from 1960 to　2000. Global net irrigation water requirement which accounts up to 49-60% has been most dependent on medium-sized reservoirs since 1976. The water requirement in India and USA is heavily dependent on medium-sized reservoirs and NNBW.

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