[HCG29-01] Iitate Revitalization: Industry and Research partner to provide real solutions for the future
★Invited Papers
キーワード：Disaster recovery, soil science solutions, Education, Non-government orgainization, Industry collaboration
The people and ecosystem services of the Iitate region of Japan were dealt a crushing blow in March, 2011 as radioactive snow contaminated homes, farmland, and forest alike. With so many disasters like this around the world, it is often difficult if not impossible to make a difference, no matter how your heart aches for the people and environment affected. This situation was different. Combining an ever-present passion to help, with people who had the ability and connections to help, METER Group partnered with a dedicated group of NGO scientists and individuals to help Iitate on its course to recovery. The problem to solve was one uniquely suited to METER Group, who was founded on a deep understanding of soils and their importance in the world. Initially only able to supply instrumentation, METER’s donated weather and soil monitoring systems popped up at homes and in fields throughout the district, thanks to efforts of a few dedicated individuals. After initial success, more instruments were donated, and field campaigns executed to quantify the recovery efforts like hydraulic conductivity of government-revitalized fields. Trips to the village and to the displace people centers quickly ignited a desire to tell the story and so inspired two different movies; produced to highlight the plight of the quickly forgotten ecosystem and people that depend on it. Although METER played a comparatively small role in highlighting these challenges, simply having the opportunity to measure, monitor, reform and eventually tell the story of this great area has fed METER’s passion for changing the world in which we live.