2 results
26 - Climate policy assessment using the Asia–Pacific Integrated Model
- from Part IV - Policy design and decisionmaking under uncertainty
-
- By Mikiko Kainuma, National Institute for Environmental Studies Onogawa, Japan, Yuzuru Matsuoka, Kyoto University Japan, Toshihiko Masui, National Institute for Environmental Studies Japan, Kiyoshi Takahashi, National Institute for Environmental Studies Japan, Junichi Fijino, National Institute for Environmental Studies Japan, Yasuaki Hijioka, National Institute for Environmental Studies Onogawa, Japan
- Edited by Michael E. Schlesinger, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Haroon S. Kheshgi, Joel Smith, Francisco C. de la Chesnaye, John M. Reilly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tom Wilson, Charles Kolstad, University of California, Santa Barbara
-
- Book:
- Human-Induced Climate Change
- Published online:
- 06 December 2010
- Print publication:
- 11 October 2007, pp 314-327
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
It is predicted that global climate change will have significant impacts on the society and economy of the Asia–Pacific region, and that the adoption of measures to tackle global climate change will impose a large economic burden on the region. Also, if the Asia–Pacific region fails to adopt such countermeasures, it has been estimated that its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) will increase to over 50% of total global emissions by 2100. To respond to such a serious and long-term threat, it is critical to establish communication and evaluation tools for policymakers and scientists in the region. The Integrated Assessment Model provides a convenient framework for combining knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, and is one of the most effective tools to increase the interaction among groups.
The Asia–Pacific Integrated Model (AIM) is one of the most frequently used models in the Asia–Pacific region (Kainuma et al., 2003; Shukla et al., 2004). The distinctive features of AIM are: (1) it involves Asian country teams from Japan, China, India, Korea, Thailand, and so on; (2) it has detailed description of technologies; and (3) it uses information from a detailed geographic information system to evaluate and present the distribution of impacts at local and global levels. Besides preparing country models for evaluation at the state and national level, we have also developed global models to analyze international economic relationships and climate impacts in order to evaluate policy options from a global viewpoint.
Use of multi-beam sonar to map seagrass beds in Otsuchi Bay on the Sanriku Coast of Japan
- Teruhisa Komatsu, Chiaki Igarashi, Kenichi Tatsukawa, Sayeeda Sultana, Yasuaki Matsuoka, Shuichi Harada
-
- Journal:
- Aquatic Living Resources / Volume 16 / Issue 3 / July 2003
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 July 2003, pp. 223-230
- Print publication:
- July 2003
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Seagrass beds play an important role in coastal ecosystems as primary producers and providers of habitat and environmental structure. Therefore, mapping seagrass beds is indispensable in the management and conservation of sound littoral ecosystems, and in the development of sustainable fisheries in coastal waters. Multi-beam sonar is often used to map bottom topography. We developed a mapping method to quantify the volume of seagrass using a multi-beam sonar. Seagrass beds were scanned with the multi-beam sonar and quadrat sampled to verify the distribution of seagrasses. We used software to discriminate seagrass signals from echoes to obtain a topographic profile of the bottom without seagrass; this was then subtracted from the topography including the seagrass. We then mapped seagrass distribution, calculated seagrass volume, and estimated biomass using volume and quadrat samples. We applied these methods to map a seagrass bed of Zostera caulescens in Otsuchi Bay, on the Sanriku Coast of Japan, during the growing season of 2001. A transducer was attached to a boat (one gross ton) equipped with a differential-GPS, a motion sensor, and a gyrocompass. The vessel completed a grid survey scanning whole seagrass bed with an area of 115 m × 156 m at bottom depths between 2 and 8 m within about 40 min when traveling at a speed of 1.5 m s–1 (3 knots). The multi-beam sonar was able to visualize three-dimensional seagrass distribution without interpolation and easily to estimate area and volume occupied by the seagrass using hydrography software. The results indicated that Z. caulescens was distributed at bottom depths of 6–7 m with a surface area of 3 628 m2 and a volume of 1 368 m3. The mean biomass of above- and below-ground parts of seagrass were estimated to be 28.6 gDW m–2 (range 26.6–30.9) and 15.9 gDW m–2 (range 14.1–17.7). Our study demonstrated that multi-beam sonar is effective for mapping and quantifying the spatial distribution of seagrass beds, and for visualizing the landscape of the seagrass canopy.