Regional and Industrial Development Project

Project Leader

Assoc. Prof. Hiroshi Yajima, Faculty of Engineering

Project Organization

Resource Management Group

Leader: Assoc. Prof. Satoshi Tsuchiya, Faculty of Engineering

“Infrastructure planning and resource management for development of drylands”

Industrial Development and Promotion Group

Leader: Prof. Katsuhiko Shimizu, Platform for Community-based Research and Education

“Product/service engineering design for promotion of industry and region”

Social and Economic Change Group

Leader: Prof. Hiroki Yamashita, Faculty of Regional Sciences

“Investigation of dynamic changes and challenges related to socio-economic aspects of drylands by regional sciences approach”

Cultivation-Environmental Instrumentation and Measurement Group

Leader: Prof. Kotoku Ohmi, Faculty of Engineering

“Development of plant growing technology for areas with poor cultivation conditions”

Project Overview

“Contribute to the sustainable development of drylands by a variety of expertise: engineering, regional sciences and humanities”

In drylands, people have limited water sources and they are constantly facing water scarcity. Regional development is slow in some of such areas due to low levels of infrastructure development and other technologies. However, people have lived in such disadvantaged areas for a long time forming their own lifestyle and culture. We utilize the diverse expertise of the project members and conduct research that contributes to the sustainable development of drylands. Resource Management Group is conducting research on water circulation systems, wastewater recycling, and infrastructure planning and management for regional development, from the civil and environmental engineering perspective. Cultivation Environment Measurement and Control Group is pursuing new plant cultivation technology through development of technologies of more precise measurement of cultivation environment and design and control of optimal cultivation environment to alleviate the negative impact of future global climate change on places with the worst cultivation environment. Industrial Development and Promotion Group contributes to industrial promotion and regional revitalization through the education program for innovation and human resource development (Kenya, etc.), support for the rights and utilization of research results, and for the industry-academia-government collaboration. Social and Economic Change Group investigates an ideal future of drylands with the expertise of social sciences and humanities through a study of socio-economic and cultural characteristics, issues and challenges of the target area, and comparison with the cases of the developed countries.