NIES annual report 2011.

For the Foreward:
This annual report is an official record of research activities at the National Institute for Environmental tudies (NIES) in fiscal year 2010 (April 2010 to March 2011), the fifth year of our second five-year research plan as an incorporated administrative agency.
The massive earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011 and the subsequent accident at the nuclear power
plant resulted severe environmental damage in the East Japan. NIES continue to extend our sincerest sympathies to all the victims of the disaster, and have, since March 29, been contributing to recovery efforts as the Disaster Rescue and Recovery Headquarters on the three fronts of disaster waste management measures, cooperation with local environmental research institutes and timely and appropriate information provision. The “Great East Japan Earthquake Information Page” in our homepage introduces the initiatives which our institute is undertaking towards rescue and recovery efforts for the disaster.
This fiscal year, all research units have pursued research in various fields based on the five-year plan formulated in 2006. About half of NIES’s researchers have been involved in four priority programs: Climate Change, Sustainable Material Cycles, Environmental Risk, and the Asian Environment. The other half have performed fundamental and pioneering studies in the six research divisions – Social and Environmental Systems, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Health Sciences, Atmospheric Environment, Water and Soil Environment, and Environmental Biology – as well as in the Laboratory of Intellectual Fundamentals for Environmental Studies.
Through collaboration with researchers both nationally and internationally, we have produced a number of outcomes for a wide range of environmental issues at the local, national, regional, and global levels. Our research activities and our outreach activities, such as the dissemination of research findings and other environmental information through press releases, our homepage, public symposia, and open campus days, have given us a high reputation as a government-funded institute.
It is my sincere hope that the readers of this report will maintain an interest in NIES and will offer comments and suggestions on our activities; such input is invaluable for the continuous improvement of our work.
OHGAKI, Shinichiro.
President
October, 2011