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EFFORTS TO IMPROVE DESERT ENVIRONMENT

Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) started a new national Research Project for Sustainable Coexistence of Human, Nature and the Earth, titled Advanced Prediction System and Counter Measures of Regional- and Meso-scale Water Cycle (Global Water Cycle Project : GWCP). Purpose of this project is to make a master plan for the improvement of desert environment. This project will continue from March 2002 until March 2007. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) of main contractor organizes an interdisciplinary project team with Frontier Research System for Global Change (FRSGC), Kyoto University, Tottori University and Sophia University (see Fig. 1). Main philosophy of this project is to create a sustainable water cycle between sea, land and atmosphere in the region of “Coastal desert”, such as Asir region near the Red Sea. It is expected that results of this project will be applied to many arid area in Middle East, Africa, India, China and so on.

Fig.1 Combination of each task group