This year, On-site Practice I was held in Kyoto city and Lake Biwa ("Biwako", Shiga prefecture).

Theme:
Water supply of Kyoto and Water quality of Lake Biwa
 
Water is the most fundamental element for all living forms, therefore the one of the most important resource for human society. As one of major cities in Japan, Kyoto has about 1.5 million of population. This requires massive amount of water to make people's life. However, Kyoto does not have enough large river to meet the demand in upstream of the city. Therefore, water supply of the city of Kyoto is almost completely depends on the water from Lake Biwa. Lake Biwa, situated in Shiga Prefecture, is the largest lake in Japan, with huge catchment area. It has enough capacity to provide water to Kansai metropolitan area, in which Kyoto and Osaka are included.  However, due to the progress of industrialization and increased use of chemical fertilizer and washing detergent, the water quality of Lake Biwa was rapidly degraded during 1960's and 1970's. Degradation of water quality brought serious issue on water supply in Kyoto and other cities in Kansai area. By taking several actions in many levels of sectors, water quality of Lake Biwa is now improved than that of at the worst time. But, this incident shows that it is important to secure also the water quality, not only securing the quantity, to realize solid and stable water supply.

Group work:
This course provides an example for considering the way of resource management by showing the cause, the counter measure actually taken, then the result or current situation. Then, the course askes to students to think about further improvement as a group work.
Find the issue to be solved for improving the water supply of Kyoto. Discussion has to be made with the fact on the current situations/conditions of water supply system and the result from your questionnaire survey. Show some possible solutions if possible.

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  Schedule
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April to June
10 lectures given by 9 professors

Saturday, June 20
Study water supply facilityies in Kyoto city.
- Visit Keage Purification Plant and Keage Power Plant
- Explanation by Prof. Motoi Wada (Graduate School of Science and Engineering)

Early July
Questionnaire survey

Saturday, July 22
Study at Lake Biwa
10:30-12:00  Visit Lake Biwa Museum
13:30-15:00  Visit Aquatic Plants Garden

Thursday, July 27
16:40-18:10  Final group presentation