Research Trends and Results

Proposition of Information Sharing System between
the Citizens and River Management Administration
IWAMI Yoichi, HeadTSURUTA Mai, ResearcherEnvironment Department, River Environment Division(Key words)Cooperation with citizen, Information sharing, River environment management, River environment research

1.

Introduction
Now that there are more significance is being placed in
the cooperation with the citizens and the riveradministration, such as making use of citizens’
knowledge in various field, careful handling based on thelocal situation, developing the inhabitants’ consciousness
on the river and outlying area (recognition of thesignificance of the river as region-specific publicproperty), respective area has a series of ongoingcooperationin the environment management,environment research and so on.
However, as problem in such cooperation is also
pointed out, one of the proposed solutions is the need forthe information sharing. In this research, we areproceeding on the development of the Information
sharing system through the Internet to comprehend theactual state and problem in information sharing on theriver environment among the citizens and rivermanagement administration and realize the means toshare information easier.
2. Situation of the information transmission andinformation needed by citizens
After having implemented the round-table talk andsurvey by query among the civic associations, the results
were as the following;- Various means (such as websites, mail, bulletin,
phone call, workshop, etc.) are used to send andcollect the information from various entities such as
the river management administration, other civicassociations, association members and so on. Further
more, such means are selected one by one to beappropriate for the objective and occasion.
- River management Web is posting little informationneeded by the civic association (e.g. a riverenvironment conservation a group who wants tohave detailed information on maintenance andmanagement such as the river repair, grass mowing,etc.) Or, it’s difficult to know the location ofinformation.
- It needs to have a general web page of the river, forpeople interested in the river can easily use.
3. Development of the river environment information
sharing system
The system design has been aimed at easy accessibility,
objective and general information on river environment

possessed by the administrative agency such that making
it easier to gain access to the information needed by theperson interested in the river. At the stage of design,
frequency on hearing about the needs of system
functionality and the like from the civic association is thepurpose as the main user is being conducted.
【Function and characteristics of the System】
・ Information on the river organisms, water quality andflow that was highly needed by the civic associations,survey results of the MLIT (data) can be sought
through the map (WebGIS). Water quality and flow
data are also displayed by graph.
・As the function of a window to the required information,
the outline of various sites have been introduced onsuch as sites concerning the river organisms, water
quality and flow, the site held by the local rivermanagement staff and the site held by the civic
association and the like who are active on the river. It isalso possible to search through the WebGIS.
Trial operation which is aimed at certain area is being
conducted. From now on, research is being done into how
to improve the system on keeping cooperation between
civic associations through discussion and query survey.

Fig. River Environment Information Sharing System(Top page)【Reference】River Environment Division HP（Posted papers
related to this report. Information Sharing System site
will be made public.）
http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/dbg/index.htm