Outline

Research coordination, collaboration promotion and control of overall progress of issues will be conducted to achieve the overall objectives of the project. The research achievements produced for each topic will be integrated to provide coastal zone management methods that can achieve sustainable coastal zone use in the 21st century. To this end, the objectives and guidelines for each topic will be presented, and a model that integrates nature, society and the humanities will be proposed.

Subtopic (1) Establishment of integrated numerical models for coastal sea management

Description of Research (FY 2014 – 2016 Achievements)

(1) Summary
Through Team Leaders conferences and Advisory Board meetings, we coordinated and summarized individual topics and promoted research. Research achievements were widely publicized through public events and symposiums with individual topics. Research achievements were also posted on the website and available to all people. In FY 2016, the International EMECS Center sponsored the ICM and Satoumi Special Session at the 11th International Conference on the Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS 11) in St.Petersburg, Russia, at which exchanges of views with researchers from overseas countries were encouraged.
(2) Development of integrated numerical models
1)In FY 2014, we developed models successfully to reproduce observations of transparency and bottom layer DO in Osaka Bay, and nutrients distribution in winter in the Harima-Nada and the relationship with seaweed cultivation. We also built a model to identify the mechanism for eliminating hypoxia in Dokai Bay. In FY 2015, based on the models constructed in FY 2014, we developed a) Transfer efficiency model for the Seto Inland Sea targeting sand eels and anchovy and b) Ideal cultivation model for Shizugawa Bay targeting oyster cultivation.
2) Development of integrated model for Shizugawa Bay
In FY 2016, we developed an integrated model for Shizugawa Bay by incorporating the achievements of the social science and humanities research in Topic 4 into the ideal cultivation model for Shizugawa Bay built in FY 2015.
3) Development of flow, water quality and ecosystem model for the Seto Inland Sea
In order to develop an integrated model for the Seto Inland Sea in FY 2016, we collected and organized the basic conditions data (such as water temperature, salinity, nutrients concentration and so on) and constructed a basic model.

Description of Research (FY 2017 Plan)

(1) Summary
We continue to promote research by holding Team Leaders conferences and Advisory Board meetings to coordinate and summarize individual topics. Research achievements will be widely publicized through public events and symposiums with individual topics. Research achievements will also be posted on the website and available to all people. We will also present research achievements on occasion of the 4th International Satoumi Workshop to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia and the symposium of the Japan-France Oceanographic Society to be held in Bordeaux, France.
(2) Development of integrated numerical models
1) Application of the integrated model for Shizugawa Bay
We will expand the integrated model for Shizugawa Bay constructed in FY 2016 to develop a prediction model incorporating environment and economy into land utilization patterns in the Shizugawa Bay watershed, water exchange patterns between the bay and the open ocean, and cultivation patterns in the bay. The goal is to predict and create the ideal cultivation patterns based on land use change, in order to achieve healthy coastal ocean and vital coastal zones.
2) Development of integrated model for the Seto Inland Sea
Based on the flow, water quality and ecosystem model for the Seto Inland Sea constructed in FY2016, a) a new model will be developed to calculate N and P concentrations, chlorophyll-a concentration, zoo plankton density, sand eel and anchovy abundance and total fish catch in the Seto Inland Sea with data on TN and TP loads into the Seto Inland Sea in 2015. Based on this model, an integrated model for the Seto Inland Sea will be developed in FY 2018.