A Century-Long Ex-Post Evaluation of a Countermeasure for a Serious Pollution Problem in Japan

Guangwei Huang, Yiqi Fu, Han Xue and Huibin Li
Additional contact information
Guangwei Huang: Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo 102-8554, Japan
Yiqi Fu: Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo 102-8554, Japan
Han Xue: Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo 102-8554, Japan
Huibin Li: Systems Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd., Tokyo 158-0097, Japan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Current environmental literature provides insufficient information and analysis on how today’s environmental state was shaped by countermeasures to pollution taken in the last century, which could be characterized as a century of environmental degradation. Such a look back is crucial to better understand and predict how policy and countermeasure choices today may shape the world in the future. Following this line of reasoning, the present work conducted a post audit on the long-term consequence of a countermeasure against a major heavy metal pollution case caused by the operation of the Ashio Copper Mine in Japan. It examined this issue from both environmental and societal perspectives by document analysis, field investigation on the heavy metal concentration in the soils of a heavy mental catchment area and questionnaire survey on the public knowledge with regard to the copper mining contamination case as well. It shed new light on how environment may evolve via the interaction with human activities by identifying drivers behind major changes. It also revealed a gap between the reality and the public perception towards the consequence of the copper contamination. Such insights will deepen the discussion on what is sustainability and motivate further study to pursue sustainable development.

Keywords: heavy metal; phytoremediation; ex-post evaluation; driver; Watarase Retarding Basin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4385/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4385/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4385-:d:185140

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().