R&D Project

Goal 8 R&D Projects (Selected in FY2023)Artificial generation of upstream maritime heavy rains to govern intense-rain-induced disasters over land
Project manager (PM)KOTSUKI ShunjiProfessor, Institute for Advanced Academic Research / Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University
Summary of the project
This project aims to develop a weather control technology that mitigates heavy-rainfall-induced economic damages by artificially generating heavy rain over the upstream ocean. Given the limitations of directly altering the atmosphere, we explore a weather control method for intentional generation of heavy rains with optimization of manipulations. We will also promote social science research on legal issues and environmental risk assessments in order to accelerate the practical application of our results. By 2050, we aim to establish a weather control technology that society can accept.

Figure. A conceptual image of the strategy to mitigate heavy-rain-induced disasters. This project aims at generating heavy rains over upstream ocean artificially with optimally combining manipulations, leading to weakened rains over land.
Milestone by year 2032
- We establish a flamework to identify cost-effectiveness of weather control implementations.
- We conduct legislative and institutionalization proposals for getting national-international social consensus.
- We develop weather control equipments, verifying their effectiveness by small-scale experiments.
Milestone by year 2027
- We develop a method to optimize manipulations for weather control, and evaluate the method for mitigating rainfall over land with computational simulations.
- We identify feasible weather control candidate(s) and show their prospects for solving ELSI.
- We complete to develop a flood damage estimation model for entire Japan.
R&D theme progress reports
Performers
Theme [1] | OHTSUKA Toshiyuki | Kyoto University |
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Theme [1] | OGURA Masaki | Hiroshima University |
Theme [2] | MATSUOKA Daisuke | Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology |
Theme [2] | KERA Hiroshi | Chiba University |
Theme [3] | TOKUDA Keita | Juntendo University |
Theme [3] | SUSUKI Yoshihiko | Kyoto University |
Theme [3] | IMOTO Yusuke | Kyoto University |
Theme [4] | OKAZAKI Atsushi | Chiba University |
Theme [4] | KOTSUKI Shunji | Chiba University |
Theme [4] | KANEMARU Kaya | National Institute of Information and Communications Technology |
Theme [5] | YASUNAGA Kazuaki | University of Toyama |
Theme [5] | HAMADA Atsushi | University of Toyama |
Theme [5] | HIRAGA Yusuke | Tohoku University |
Theme [6] | MASUNAGA Hirohiko | Nagoya University |
Theme [7] | SHIGEMOTO Tatsuya | Doshisha University |
Theme [7] | KONDO Takuya | The University of Kitakyushu |
Theme [7] | FUKUSHIGE Satoko | Okayama University |
Theme [7] | KAMURA Yuji | Shimane University |
Theme [7] | HORI Tomoharu | Kyoto University |
Theme [8] | YAMADA Masafumi | Kyoto University |
Theme [8] | YAMADA Shinji | Sompo Risk Management Inc. |
Theme [8] | KAZAMA So | Tohoku University |
Theme [9] | TACHIBANA Koji | Chiba University |
Theme [9] | IKKATAI Yuko | Kanazawa University |
Theme [9] | KITAZAKI Masako | Musashino Art University |
Theme [10] | FUNATOMI Takuya | Nara Institute of Science and Technology |
Theme [10] | KUBO Hiroyuki | Chiba University |
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- Summary of the project (232KB)