Fishway Research Group

1. Objective of the research group

Japan belongs to the Temperate Zone and has a good climate. People accordingly enjoy abundant nature. However, a large part of the land is mountainous and the river system has rapid stream, which falls into the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

In ancient society, flood mitigation was a major factor of concern. And Japanese society was successful in controlling the flood, which turned to the era of economic reform and depended the country on agriculture, especially rice production. This dependence on agriculture lasted several decades, which impact on developing riverbank protections and constructing weir for irrigation. In recent year, all along Japan, many dams have been constructed due to various purposes like, power generation, flood control etc. which have adverse effects on natural fishway.

Due to various developmental works of river systems, many rivers have been totally modified from their original layouts by loosing natural phenomenon. We have established fishway research foundation to undertake various studies, which will help natural fishway along the river systems. These studies include, fish biology, expertise in fishway, and fish nest.

2. History of the research group: "The International Fishway Meeting in Gifu '95" was held in Gifu City on the fall of 1995. Various organizations of Gifu prefecture, which have participated in the technique exhibition in the meeting, became the nucleus to found this Research Group in 1997. Since then, members have been increased and currently 11 private organizations are the members of the research group.

3. Activity of the research group

The headquarters of the research group is located in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Gifu prefecture has natural landscape with full of varieties, ranging from the peak of the Japan Alps having more than 3000m elevation to. Noubi plain having 0 m elevation.
Gifu prefecture has a beautiful district called Isewan where three river systems Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi rivers meet together and flow around the prefecture, is a rich heritage of nature. In addition, Gifu prefecture has a beautiful picturesque Hijan-Nousui, which is a combination of mountainous Hida and riverine Mino districts. A river administration in Gifu prefecture has established which undertakes various activities to mitigate flood and protect riverbanks from natural disaster.

Under our research environment, we have already performed the following activities:

-Inspection: An inspection of the mounted fishways and the fishing methods has been investigated. The members of the research group have participated in this inspection.
-Seminar: We have arranged several seminars in each summer and invited national experts to deliver lectures
-Announcement: We have been promoting our activities to the members of the group and Gifu Prefectural administration and introducing a model of fishway. We welcome others to join hands with us.
-Research: We have been organizing research meetings all along the year in scheduled dates.

　International symposium on Fishways '90 in Gifu. Proceesings

　International symposium on Fishways '95 in Gifu. Proceedings

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