Sustainable Regional Promotion Project

Project Leader

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

Project Organization

Dune Ecosystem Group

Leader: Prof. Dai Nagamatsu, Faculty of Agriculture

“Academic contributions to sustainable utilization through the elucidation of the characteristics of sand dunes and coastal ecosystems”

Societal and Economic Fluctuation Group

Leader: Prof. Hiroki Yamashita, Faculty of Regional Sciences

“Elucidation of social, economic, and cultural characteristics of drylands and regional issues by using specialized knowledge and methods of the humanities and social sciences”

Promotion and Incubation of Regional Industry Group

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

“Contributions to the revitalization of the Tottori region through innovative human resource development education programs and research on solving regional issues and utilizing resources”

Project Introduction

“From arid regions and developing countries to the Tottori region, where the birth rate is declining and the population is aging, we will approach various issues in promoting sustainable regional development with expertise from various disciplines including engineering, agriculture, and humanities and social sciences, and accumulate research seeds to create the impacts on our society.”

1. Dune Ecosystem Group Group

Our focus is on the Tottori Sand Dunes, which is the origin of research at the International Platform for Dryland Research and Education. To that end, we will promote the elucidation of sand dune dynamics, unique ecosystems, their interactions, and the history of human use; we also aim to make multifaceted academic contributions to the sustainable utilization of sand dunes, which are important regional resources.

2. Societal and Economic Fluctuations Group

We aim to elucidate the characteristics and changes in the society, economy, and culture of drylands, and contribute to solving regional issues by focusing on Mongolia, which is the main target area, while learning about advanced cases in countries such as Australia and the United States. We will do so by utilizing a variety of area studies expertise and methods from fields such as geography, law, economics, sociology, education, and statistics.

3. Promotion and Incubation of Regional Industry Group

We aim to contribute to regional revitalization and sustainable development based on collaboration between industry, academia, government, and international organizations. We will do so through the development and expansion of innovative educational programs for human resource development, promotion of research on solving local problems and resource utilization, and the acquisition and utilization of research results.