Course in Regional Environmental Management

The curriculum of regional environmental management course is roughly divided into the regional system field and the environmental policy field. However, considering prospects for the field, the following topics are arranged by creating a loose combination of three fields in environmental system, regional economy, and environmental policy.

Research FiledResearch Contents
Environmental System The goal of this field is water, air, waste and environmental risk as key topics, to develop methods for the improvement of environmental quality where sustainability is prerequisite. Research themes are outlined below:
(1) Optimum distribution of water resources, selection of optimum technology for waste water management and reuse, streamlining of treatment, disposal, and reuse planning of sewage sludge;
(2) Planning of atmospheric environmental conservation based on material balance of carbon and nitrogen, creation of a sustainable society model;
(3) Clarification of the present situation and detection of issues concerning waste flow from generation to disposal to recycle, establishment of recycle system for reducing waste, proposals for various systems in the achievement of the zero waste society;
(4) Establishment of social risk management model.
Economic theory and policy for the development of an environmentally sustainable regional economy will be the research focus. Business economy and policy of conservation oriented agriculture, making the concept of carrying capacity and evaluation method into policy, environmental evaluation and energy analysis of economic activities, sustainable resource management, ideal management form of regional resources and environment, and actual state and potential of systems in which environmental consideration is built into business such as forest certification and ISO 14001 environment management system will also be studied.
Regional Economy
Environmental Policy Policy studies, which have put too much emphasis on tactical aspects in the past, will be presented by covering strategic aspects such as environmental management. Information dissemination from both citizen and administration perspectives and the democratization and systematization of environmental management will be the particular focus. Specifically, the international interchange and comparison of awareness among social classes on environmental management of housing and city, the compilation of scientific and technical information for the improvement of environmental management effects, and rising awareness of concerned people that is essential in the policy execution process will also be studied. Recognizing the fact that the extent of environment is expanding, understanding issues of adjustment with existing policy, process of minimization of policy subject, in other words, issues on conflict management at the scene of participatory policy execution, and new systems of international aid that indigenize local and global existing development policy, citizen participation in environmental management, consensus building, self-management method, actual status of the creation process of non-profit organizations and the analysis of role, empirical research, and environmental event organization will also be studied. The approach to understanding, evaluation, and utilization of environment mentioned above in policy making will be reviewed.