To Climate Change
Arid areas cover more than 46% of the earth’s land area and are home to around 40% of global population. While droughts and desertification already post major agricultural challenges in these areas, climate change threatens to worsen the situation, reducing output and making it harder to meet growing food demand.
We must drastically increase global food production to meet demand over the next thirty years. Transforming arid zones into agricultural areas is part of the solution.
Open Tottori Testimonial
Now, a soil improvement agent developed though a collaboration between Tottori Resource Recycling and the Arid Land Research Center at Tottori University promises to alleviate the challenges of agriculture in arid areas. The foamed glass agent is a porous material that is produced by burning pulverized glass from used bottles mixed with a foaming agent such as shell powder or calcium carbonate. When mixed with soil, the agent increases the water retention capacity and improves aeration for more than ten years, making it possible to grow crops in areas with limited rainfall.
Since 2015, the collaboration has been testing the soil agent in the Souss Massa region of Morocco, which is known for its large-scale farms. Climate change has resulted in longer and more frequent droughts in the region over the past several decades, in turn leading to the rapid depletion of groundwater. Forecasts for a 20-30% decrease in rainfall across Morocco through the end of the century – also due to climate change – threaten to exacerbate water supply challenges in the region.
Water scarcity in the Souss Massa basin coupled with increasing water stress due to urban development were having a negative impact on tomato crops.
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Installed in bays, seaweed beds and other enclosed areas, one such technology absorbs the hydrogen sulphide generated by sludge sediments, improving the environment for living organisms. Another version of carbonated slag blocks that has a compositional makeup similar to that of coral provides a foundational base for the growth of coral and other marine organisms.
In Yokohama City, the preservation technologies were used in the sea area in front of Yamashita Park from 2013-2017. The accumulation of sludge coupled with deteriorating water quality due to algae blooms and rainfall had impacted the area’s role as a breeding ground for marine organisms.
Over the last 200 years, oceans have absorbed around a third of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity and 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases – the central cause of global warming. Over-fishing, industrial discharge and other human activities continue to exacerbate the impact. The result is extreme habitat degradation that has destroyed around a third of the world’s critical marine habitats including seagrasses, mangroves and coral reefs.
For more than a 15 years, Japan’s JFE Steel has been using steel slag – a by-product of steel making that is produced during the separation of the molten steel from impurities in steel-making furnaces – to create technologies that regenerate the marine environment.
To Preserve Marine Biodiversity
Biodiversity loss is among the biggest environmental challenges that we face today. That’s especially true in our oceans where habitat degradation threatens to push half of the world’s marine species to the brink of extinction by the end of this century. To counter that trend, a Japanese steelmaker developed restoration technologies that are regenerating the marine environment.
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Closing Segment
A broad range of companies across Japan are developing new technologies and delivering life-saving educational programs to build safer societies at home and abroad. Together, through hard work and dedication, they are innovating resilience for a better tomorrow
Resilience Through Technology
Building Safer Communities
Adapting To Climate Change
Making Agriculture Resilient Against Climate Change
Industrial Innovation To Preserve Marine Biodiversity
Climate change is among the biggest threats to the future of humanity. Already, it has led to a loss in biodiversity and threatens food production. To counter those trends, Japanese companies are developing technologies that will make our environment stronger and more resilient to the challenges at hand.
(The National Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention and Hitachi)
The region is responsible for more than 80% of Morocco’s tomatoes, which make up nearly half of the country’s vegetable exports. Using the soil agent developed in Japan, famers boosted tomato yields by 28% while conserving 50% of the water supply.
The soil agent has produced similar results in Senegal, where it boosted green bean yields by more than 70%. More recently, pilot projects in other countries including China, Somalia, Mauritania, Peru, and the UAE are testing the soil agent.
The technologies improved the marine environment and biological habitat by purifying around 8,500 kilolitres of seawater per day.
These technologies are also being used abroad. The coral reefs in the North Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, for instance, were in poor condition due to dynamite fishing and coral bleaching. In 2010, the preservation technology was used in a coral transplantation experiment, serving as a base for young coral to grow in a better location.
Center for Comprehensive Management of Disaster Information
Prof. TSUJIMOTO Hisashi
National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
Arid Land Research Center,
Division of Agricultural Production
Tottori University
Adapting
Resilient Against Climate Change
Making Agriculture
Industrial Innovation
Open JFE Steel Testimonial
Making the World More Resilient
Resilience Through Technology
Building Safer Communities
Adapting To Climate Change
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In recent years, the damage to the marine environment caused by abnormal weather conditions, which is thought to be the result of global warming, has become a very significant issue. We are confident that the use of steel slag products will contribute to maintenance of natural resources and recovery of damage.
SHINOHARA Masaki
National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
Center for Comprehensive Management of Disaster Information
Manager, Market Development Sec.
Planning & Marketing Department
Slag Business Planning Division
JFE Steel Corporation
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Through Technology
resilience
Natural disasters, disease outbreaks – while threats come in all different forms, advances in technology are making our world safer and more secure. To better prepare current and future generations, innovative Japanese companies are developing new technologies that lend to greater resilience.
Resilience Through Technology
Building Safer Communities
Adapting To Climate Change
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Open SIP4D Testimonial
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Enhancing resilience in disaster risk management requires governments, communities and businesses to work together to reduce damage, costs and recovery time in all phases of a disaster. We want to provide solutions that help handle that in multiple ways and deliver greater results
Mr. MATSUI Takashi
Senior Engineer
Hitachi, Ltd.
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Public spaces like parks are important to people in cities and suburban areas. Our goal is to develop innovations that will make those spaces more valuable while making these areas more lively and enriching everyday life.
UECHI Mitsugi
Division Manager
Furniture Division
KOTOBUKI CORPORATION
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Resilience Through Technology
Building Safer Communities
Adapting To Climate Change
Coming Soon
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By 2012, the technology proved to be a viable means for coral restoration in the area, which is home to nearly a third of the world’s coral.
By enhancing the marine environment, these technologies are helping to prevent the biodiversity loss in the ocean, in turn creating a more resilient world.
In each location, the soil agent promises to reduce the amount of water and fertilizer required in turn reducing the cost of production, or to increase the yield with same amount of inputs.
By enabling farmers to boost crop yields and overcome chronic water supply challenges in arid areas, this technology promises to make agriculture more resilient against the challenges of climate change.
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Saving water is a critical issues for agriculture, especially in the Middle East and Africa where climate change is exacerbating water scarcity. Our soil agent can help farmers save water while boosting crop yields.
National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
Center for Comprehensive Management of Disaster Information
Department of International Business
Tottori Resource Recycling, Inc.
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We must drastically increase global food production to meet demand over the next thirty years. Transforming arid zones into agricultural areas is part of the solution.
Prof. TSUJIMOTO Hisashi
National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
Center for Comprehensive Management of Disaster Information
Arid Land Research Center,
Division of Agricultural Production
Tottori University
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SAWADA Maki
Resilience Through Technology
Building Safer Communities
Adapting To Climate Change
Resilience Through Technology
Building Safer Communities
Adapting To Climate Change
Making Agriculture Resilient Against Climate Change
Industrial Innovation To Preserve Marine Biodiversity
The technologies improved the marine environment and biological habitat by purifying around 11,000 kilometres of seawater per day.
These technologies are also being used abroad. The coral reefs in the North Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, for instance, were in poor condition due to dynamite fishing and coral bleaching. In 2010, the preservation technology was used in a coral transplantation experiment, serving as a base for young coral to grow in a better location.
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Our approach to disaster resilience education is to make it fun so that it takes root in each community. We offer something that can be sustained by those who are working on disaster resilience and in a way that a variety of people can get involved.
MIYATA Junko
Chief
Plus Arts NPO
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National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
Center for Comprehensive Management of Disaster Information
The region is responsible for more than 80% of Morocco’s tomatoes, which make up nearly half of the country’s vegetable exports. Using the soil agent developed in Japan, famers boosted tomato yields by 28% while conserving 50% of the water supply.
The soil agent has produced similar results in Senegal, where it boosted green bean yields by more than 70%. More recently, pilot projects in other countries including China, Malaysia, Tanzania, Peru, South Africa and the UAE are testing the soil agent. In each location, the soil agent promises to reduce the amount of water and fertilizer required, in turn reducing the cost of production.
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