Masahisa Nakamura - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Masahisa Nakamura

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH, 1991

Journal of Environmental Conservation Engineering, 1997

This chapter includes three papers which discuss international collaboration toward a global envi... more This chapter includes three papers which discuss international collaboration toward a global environmental system. Of course, as is common, the three papers take different views to the areas that need international collaboration.

A multiobjective branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed for use in analysing multiobjective fixed... more A multiobjective branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed for use in analysing multiobjective fixed-charge network-flow problems which are found coaaonly in water resources planning situations. Also proposed is a multiobjective imputed value analysis which makes use of the branch-and-bound tree structure and allows the comparison of the importance of facilities in the network as represented by individual arcs or .sets of arcs, The mathematical formulation and the analysis procedure of the method are described, and the potential usefulness of the method is demonstrated using two hypothetical example problems dealing with regional wastewater treatment and residual management systems, A FORTRAN program for implementing the algorithm

Ecological sanitation (EcoSan) is one of the effective concepts of sustainable sanitation for bot... more Ecological sanitation (EcoSan) is one of the effective concepts of sustainable sanitation for both waterrich and water-poor areas. Urine diversion dehydration toilet (UDDT) is a toilet system under this concept which can be used to recover resources such as nutrients and can also be an alternative to improve the sanitary situation in low income countries. A reconnaissance survey, structured questionnaire survey, key informant interviews, participatory approaches such as focus group discussion (FGD) and mass gathering were carried out in Kenya to assess social acceptance and scope of scaling up of UDDTs. The results showed that almost all respondents among UDDT users and non-users have overcome social and cultural barriers to accept UDDTs. Users were spontaneously applying EcoSan products as fertilizers to their agricultural lands. It is recommended to develop a strong interlinked and a coordinated system with market creation among the stakeholders to replicate UDDTs.

Lakes and Reservoirs: Research and Management, Jun 1, 2006

Although environmental management projects typically must collect large quantities of data and in... more Although environmental management projects typically must collect large quantities of data and information from a variety of related fields, these data and information often are not used effectively. In this study, an experimental version of a knowledge management system (Learning Acceleration and Knowledge Enhancement System) was developed to solve problems related to the acquisition and accumulation of large quantities of information being applied to an international project on lake management. Two functions were incorporated in the system, including (i) a function for previewing retrieved documents so that the information obtained using a specific search word could be easily accessed; and (ii) a thesaurus function to facilitate the sourcing and understanding by decision‐makers and other stakeholders of information in unfamiliar, but related, fields of study. As these functions enable users to search for data and information in fields that might be unfamiliar to them, the application of knowledge management to projects involving environmental issues can be a valuable tool for such projects in the future.

Springer eBooks, 2020

This chapter presents the historically evolved basin governance challenges facing the Lake Biwa–Y... more This chapter presents the historically evolved basin governance challenges facing the Lake Biwa–Yodo River Basin, specifically focusing on (1) the basin-wide water quality improvement achieved and the remaining challenges, with particular focus on the reduction of nonpoint source pollution; (2) a newly introduced program on Integrated Flood Risk Management and its potential basin-wide adoption; and (3) the historically evolved people–community–government relationships in the Shiga Prefecture. For the above purposes, an overview of the Basin with respect to its geography, geohydrology, and socio-demography is first presented. It also attempts to address the historic transformations of land–water linkage structures and the resulting appearance or disappearance of lentic (static, impounded) and lotic (moving, flowing) flow regimes. In the concluding section, the earlier sections will be reflected within on the concept of the “Ecosystem Service Framework” as a tying thread theme for addressing the future basin governance challenges.

Kankyō shisutemu kenkyū, 1997

This paper analyzes the introduction of transferable discharge permits for industrial phosphorus ... more This paper analyzes the introduction of transferable discharge permits for industrial phosphorus effluent control in Japan through a case study of Lake Biwa. We review the laws and the regulation system that is built on uniform, technology-based standards and show that such standards can be economically inefficient because they ignore differences in marginal abatement costs for individual polluters. It is found that there are significant variations in marginal abatement cost for industrial phosphorus removal that are not accounted for under the current type of regulation. A transferable discharge permit system that accounts for such differences is proposed and implementation problems are discussed.

Water Science and Technology, 1991

Lake Biwa is situated in the uppermost reach of the Yodo River Basin and occupies one sixth of th... more Lake Biwa is situated in the uppermost reach of the Yodo River Basin and occupies one sixth of the prefectural territory of Shiga. In the downstream reach of the basin are such metropolises as Kyoto and Osaka, and the issues involving development and conservation of Lake Biwa have been extremely important for Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka and other suburban municipalities within the basin as well as in the neighbouring areas like Hyogo Prefecture. Throughout history, there were a number of upstream-downstream conflicts of interests. The Lake Biwa Comprehensive Development Plan, a plan involving development of a new water resource amounting to 40 m 3 /sec for Osaka and Hyogo, together with compensatory public work projects for Shiga, has been under implementation for almost 20 years and is about to be completed. The social and economic situations have changed over this period, and the actual demand for water has proven to be not as much as the prediction 20 years ago, based on which the plan was originally formulated. There had been claims against the Plan that a large-scale development plan involving lowering of the lake level by as much as 1.5 to 2.0m might cause irreversible damage to the lake. The paper reviews various issues evolved over years with respect to development and conservation of Lake Biwa - Yodo River Basin and the Comprehensive Development Plan.

Lakes and Reservoirs: Research and Management, Mar 1, 2020

The Union of Kansai Governments is a special local public entity cre

Journal of Japan Society on Water Environment, 2020

Making use of relevant Geographic Information System (GIS) data, an attempt was made to analyze t... more Making use of relevant Geographic Information System (GIS) data, an attempt was made to analyze the changes in the magnitude and spatial distribution of the land-based sources of nonpoint pollution loads for the entire Lake Biwa-Yodo River Basin over the 18-year period between 1991 and 2009. Specifically, the magnitudes per unit area of the runoff coefficient and of the COD, T-N and T-P pollutant loads, respectively, were computed and displayed as GIS visual images. The resulting GIS outputs indicate that the runoff coefficient increased along the riparian zones of rivers and around the lakeshore in the middle and lower basin regions, except for the mountainous regions. This implies that the pollutants flow directly into the immediately adjacent receiving waterbodies. Also, the trends of water pollutants were found to be affected by the unit load. The runoff coefficient and the COD loads were related with the progress of urbanization, indicating that the increase and decrease in T-N and T-P pollutant loads were caused by the conversion of land mainly from paddy agriculture to other agricultural purposes. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the results displayed in the form of GIS outputs are useful not only for numerical assessment but also for the assessment of spatial distributions.

Lakes and Reservoirs: Research and Management, Sep 1, 2012

This study introduces the emerging integrated ecosystem management approach known as Payments for... more This study introduces the emerging integrated ecosystem management approach known as Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) as utilized for lake and reservoir basin governance. PWS is built on the central concept of providing economic incentives to watershed stakeholders to assist in management efforts. It channels conservation payments from downstream payers to finance conservation activities conducted by upstream payees. The upstream conservation activities are expected to enhance ecosystem functions, thereby improving water‐related ecosystem services desired by downstream stakeholders. Information on 163 PWS projects in 34 developing countries through the year 2008 was collected and analysed, including their common goals, processes, outcomes, scientific assumptions and socioeconomic rationales. This study recognized one unique PWS characteristic, namely the role of intermediary organizations (i.e. brokers) in integrating the economic incentives of upstream payees and downstream payers in order to facilitate their transactions by means of contracts. Although 75% of the reviewed PWS projects have focused on rivers, and only 10% have considered lakes and reservoirs, the similarity of the intermediary functions performed by lake management organizations and PWS intermediary organizations suggests a greater potential for the future application of PWS designs in lake basins. Drawing on components in the field of New Institutional Economics to interpret the intermediary function within the PWS framework, a three‐part PWS design with 15 steps is proposed in this study for lake basin governance, with a Costa Rican PWS scheme serving as an illustration. This study seeks to communicate the scientific and socioeconomic frontiers for developing locally suitable and integrated watershed governance structures to lake management organizations and other watershed stakeholder groups.

Journal of environmental conservation engineering, 1997

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Dec 1, 1998

Kankyō shisutemu kenkyū, 1991

Lakes and Reservoirs: Research and Management, May 1, 1995

The need to control and manage the effects of urban, industrial and agricultural development on L... more The need to control and manage the effects of urban, industrial and agricultural development on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, led to the formation of the Lake Biwa Comprehensive Development Project (LBCDP). This article describes the nature and effects of the development, how the LBCDP was conceptualized, implemented and managed, and comments on its effectiveness. Although the basic objective of the project was to promote development of the Keihanshin region by providing additional water, other important objectives included the conservation of the natural environment, the promotion of public welfare, and the restoration of water quality. To achieve objectives on a sustainable basis, extensive political, legislative, social, technological and environmental matters needed comprehensive consideration. This article considers such matters in detail.

Water Resources Research, Aug 1, 1979

A branch-and-bound method for use in planning regional wastewater treatment systems is extended t... more A branch-and-bound method for use in planning regional wastewater treatment systems is extended to include a methodology for generating and evaluating alternative plans. Since many planning issues are related to a specific configuration of regional facilities, economic trade-offs among alternative plans are evaluated using imputed values of individual facilities or groups of them. The imputed values, or bounds on them, are calculated from information contained in the branch-and-bound tree using an 'imputed value incidence matrix.' The general approach, which can be applied to other public facility location problems, is designed to aid an analyst in gaining more insights into the problem under study than obtainable from conventional optimization methods. The procedure is designed for use within a larger planning process where the steps are to generate, to evaluate, and to elaborate on alternative plans. The method is illustrated using the regional wastewater system for DuPage County, Illinois.