The first research meeting for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's research project "The Importance of Habitat Continuity in Rivers - Research on Impact Assessment and Conservation Measures for River Ecosystems" was held.

On Thursday, April 7, 2022, the first research meeting of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s River Erosion Control Technology Research and Development and River Ecology General Research Research Group (Research Director: Professor Hiroshi Hakoyama) was held.Three members of the Chikuma River River Office, six members of Nagano University, two members of the Nagano Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, and four members of Shinshu University attended, and we had our first discussion about this year’s research.

In this research, we use the Chikuma River system as a field and aim to clarify the effects of disturbances in river ecosystems and the presence of river structures on habitat continuity and the health and sustainability of populations and communities. We are also developing automated camera observation devices and their power sources for fish migration and species identification in fishways and waterways, and developing methods for evaluating the trade-offs between flood control and conservation, such as evaluating the flood control effects and biodiversity functions of each levee and flood control basin structure. Through interdisciplinary research on mathematical models, genome analysis, field work, and river engineering with a focus on ecology, we hope to produce results that will be useful for the Chikuma River and flood control management nationwide, and contribute to flood control in the basin and multi-natural river management.