Coordination

The RIHN Center provides the foundations and platforms
for RIHN’s research activities and supportes engagement
in interactive collaborations with academic and societalstakeholders. The Center also undertakes capacity building
activities related to global environmental studies.
The RIHN Center consists of four divisions. The Laboratory
and Analysis Division develops and maintains the laboratory
facilities necessary for research and fieldwork. The
Information Resources Division maintains the RIHN researchdatabases and archive. The Communication Divisiondevelops a variety of communication strategies linking RIHN
research to academic, public and user-specific communities.
The Collaboration Division facilitates internal and external
research networking as well as RIHN engagement with theinternational Future Earth initiative and hosts the Regional
Center for Future Earth in Asia.

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Science Communication
As a national research institute, RIHN is expected to conduct exemplary science. It also must communicate its research
agenda and results to the public and contribute to public awareness and discussion of contemporary environmentalism.
A number of public symposia, seminar series, and publications are designed to reach specialist and general audiences.
Recent activities and publications include:

The Earth Forum Kyoto and the Earth Hall of Fame
Kyoto Award
The Earth Forum Kyoto invites world-renowned experts andactivists to discuss the environmental and cultural bases ofmore responsible human societies. The Earth Hall of Fame
Kyoto Award is given to those who have made exemplarycontributions to the protection of the global environment.
Organizers of the event are the International Institute forAdvanced Studies, the Kyoto International Conference Center,and RIHN.

RIHN International Symposium
An annual symposium at RIHN exploring the key concepts ofRIHN Research Programs.

Professor Peter H. Verburg, of Vrije UniversiteitAmsterdam, the Netherlands, giving the 2017
keynote address.

Trans-scale Solutions for Sustainability
20-21 December 2017
Keynote Address
Pathways to Global Sustainability: Multi-scale Tradeoffs
Peter H. VERBURG (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

The 2017 recipients of the Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award
were Prof. Miguel A. Altieri, professor emeritus of Agroecology
at the University of California, Berkely, Prof. Margaret Anne
McKean, political economist and professor emeritus at theDuke University, and Prof. Dennis L. Meadows, scientist andprofessor emeritus of the University of New Hampshire.

RIHN Regional Community Seminars
RIHN Regional Community Seminars take place in, andaddress specific environmental issues pertaining to, a particularpart of Japan.

Public seminars are held throughout the year at RIHN or in thecity center.
Environmental regeneration starting from the 'Can't help
caring' sentiment
16 June 2017
Future Design
4 July 2017

Rediscovering agriculture: Learning from the fields
4 August 2017, Graduate School of Global Food Resources,
Hokkaido University

Our environment between present and future : A discussion
with high school students
1 February 2018

Linking connectedness to the future: Change and continuity
in globally important agricultural heritage systems
12 October 2017, Shiiba Village Development Center,Higashiusuki, Miyazaki

Moving from management to care: The area capability
approach to local resources
15 February 2018

Community empowerment: How social capital helps
enhance biodiversity
24 February 2018, Kafuka Shogai Gakushukan, Koka, Shiga

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RIHN Public Seminars

China’s environmental problems and prospects for Japanesecooperation
23 March 2018

RIHN Seminars

Other Symposia

This seminar series is oriented towards researchers at RIHN,
inviting a wide range of visiting scholars to present their mostcurrent research. Seminars in 2017 included:Riverine and wetland environments: From niche construction
to nutritional archaeology
Antony BROWN, professor, University of Southampton/RIHN
Invited Scholar
28 April 2017
Digital revolution and planetary boundaries
Stephane GRUMBACH, Senior Scientist at INRIA, Director of IXXI,
Rhône-Alpes Complex Systems Institute18 July 2017
An introduction to applied systems science
Pavel KABAT, Director, IIASA
26 July 2017
The future of cities in a fossil-carbon constrained world
Stephanie PINCETL, Director, California Center for SustainableCommunities, RIHN Invited Scholar
12 December 2017
Sustainability challenges and opportunities in West Asia
Mohammed Aly Raouf, Research Fellow, Gulf Research Center
17 January 2018
A nexus approach to “water, food and energy for climate smart
agriculture
Parviz KOOHAFKAN, President, World Agricultural Heritage
Foundation, RIHN Invited Scholar
5 March 2018

RIHN Book Series: Global Environmental Studies
RIHN has partnered with Springer Publishers to establish theGlobal Environmental Studies book series. Titles in the seriesreflect the full breadth of RIHN scholarship.

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Facilities

Research rooms on the RIHN campus are designed to provide a senseof openness. The design concept is to allow implemented projects to beloosely interconnected as they occur in one large curved space 150 metersin length. The facilities help external researchers as well as RIHN researchstaff to meet one another, since they are designed with the maximizationof shared use in mind. At the center of the main building, a library andcomputer room are located for the convenience of many users, and threecommon rooms are provided for casual discussions. On the basement
floor, a cluster of fully functional laboratories has been designed withemphasis on convenience for shared use, as with the research rooms.
The separate RIHN House is a guesthouse. The assembly hall and adining lounge located to the left of the house entrance serve as meeting
spaces for the RIHN staff as well as for guests.
Appropriately for an institution researching the global environment,
RIHN is housed in a tile-roofed building suited to the Kyoto landscape,where as many as possible of the trees already on the site have beenretained. Lighting and air-conditioning also employ the latest designs tominimize the building's impact on the environment. The design has won
acclaim, receiving awards from the Illumination Engineering Institute ofJapan, the Japan Institute of Architects, the Green Building Award fromMIPIM Asia, and the Architectural Institute of Japan.

Management
RIHN researchers work across thebreadth of global environmental
studies. If the diverse knowledge
they produce is the warp, thenthe unifying weft is provided byfield measurement, laboratory
analysis, data and information
management, and academic andsocial communication of research
progress and results. In maintainingand supporting RIHN research
capacity to collect and analyze data
and to communicate research innumerous professional and publicfora, the RIHN Center enhances ourcollaborative research around theworld and contributes the kind of
integrated knowledge that can solve
global environmental problems.

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Laboratories
RIHN research projects are multidisciplinary and multimethod; incommon they share the need forhigh quality physical observationand chemical and biological analysisof the surface environments of theearth. As a national institute, RIHN
houses eighteen basement laboratories
designed to address this need. There
are state-of-the-art laboratoriesdedicated to microscopic, DNA andstable isotope analysis. Additional
facilities include two fieldwork
preparation rooms for storage andmaintenance of observational andsampling equipment, three lowtemperature rooms for organism andice core storage, three incubatorrooms for storage of organisms
requiring specific temperatures, anda clean room in which samples canbe processed in a contamination-freeenvironment.

Instruments
RIHN research projects conduct avariety of studies around the world
and collect a diverse range of samples
that contain valuable information thatwill help illuminate human-natureinteractions. Stable isotope andDNA data in particular can give very
precise descriptions of how materials
and species interact, change, andmove through time and space. In
addition to maintaining state-ofthe-art laboratories, the Laboratory
and Analysis Division of the RIHN
Center continues to develop new
methods of data analysis andapplication. In conducting thisresearch in collaboration with RIHN
projects, universities and affiliatedinstitutions throughout Japan, thedivision enhances the sophisticationof experimental techniques andexchange of research information,and promotes the shared use offacilities.

Exhibition Hall
Entrance Hall

Dining Hall

Lecture Hall

Seminar Rooms

Main building
Administrative Office

RIHN Center

Library
Research Rooms

Water Garden
Wooden Deckand Garden

Main entrance hall

Garden Covered withFallen Leaves

Detached “floating”
room

Low Temperature
Sample Storage

Project Rooms

Library(Two-Tier)

BiologicalLaboratory
Isotope Analysis
Laboratory

Basement laboratories

Clean RoomExperimental Laboratories

The RIHN House with one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments
for guest researchers and their families.

2F
Main Entrance Hall
Administration
Lecture Hall
Seminar Rooms
Dining Hall

2F1FEmployee Entrance
Research Project Rooms
RIHN Center
LibraryMedia Center1F
B1F
Basement
Laboratories
Book Repository
Field Research Equipment and Facilities
Cold Storage47