CURRENT STUDIES ON HYDROLOGY IN JAPAN

Abstract

This is a brief review of the geographers' contributions to hydrology in Japan made after 1969. The author had already published reviews in 19661) and 19682) on the same topic. A commission on hydrology was established in 1967 in the Association of Japanese Geographers (Nippon-Chiri-Gakkai). This commission (Chairman: Yokichi Mino-Ishikawa), corresponding to the Commission on IHD in IGU, stimulated many hydrologic and hydrographic studies in Japan. Taking this opportunity of issuing a special volume for hydrology in the Geographical Review of Japan (Chirigaku Hyoron), the author compiled a summary of the original articles on hydrology by geographers. The purposes of this paper is restricted only to show the current trend of hydrologic researches through published works without making any comments on item. Titles of all full papers published since 1968 to 1971, as well as short summaries and abstracts during this period are listed on the last pages of this volume. He expresses his sincere thanks for their kind collaboration to Messrs. Isamu Kayane, Shigemi Takayama, Tadashi Arai, Makoto Aramaki, Kazuki Mori, Noboru Hida and Masahiro Shoda. During this period, two attractive international conferences were organized and worked out by geographers. The first one was the International Conference on Land Subsidence3)4) in Tokyo in 1969 (President: Kiyoo Wadati, General Secretary: Soki Yamamoto) and the second was the Asian Regional Conference of the International Association of Hydrogeologists in Tokyo in 1971 (President: Soki Yamamoto). One book entitled “Water Circulation on Alluvial Fan”5) was published in 1971. This book shows a top stage of progress in the systems approach to hydrology and geography with various new technics, including tritium analysis and electric analog models. They discussed ground water balances in connection to surface water on the Kurobe Fan, Toyama Prefecture.