Course in Global Environmental Management

The aims and contents of the course

This course aims at fostering professionals, who can contribute solving the international environmental problems. Bringing both foreign and Japanese students together, the advanced knowledge and skills for international cooperation, research and investigation in fields, resource management, environmental education, and human capacity building are provided and the related researches are conducted. Consequently, this course is taught in English.

The students accepted in this course

Foreign students as well as Japanese students who wish to be experts in the international environmental issues are accepted in this course. The foreign students who have not yet decided their own field of study are also very welcome to enroll in this course. Since comprehensive schooling on basic environmental science will be provided in the early stage of the course, the students could have time to find their specialty while receiving introductory education. Therefore, the students enrolled in this course are able to transfer to other courses after finding out their specialty and a supervisor.
Applicants for master course can determine their supervisors during the entrance time and July.

The lectures in this course

1. Advanced course in Comparative Environmental Pollution: This lecture deals with various environmental chemical pollutions, occurred in many countries of the world. Background level monitoring, causality of pollutions, and countermeasures are discussed.
2. Advanced course in Influence of Global Warming: By surveying evidences of the global warming appearing in various places in the world, evaluation of the influence, the mitigation and the adaptations are discussed.
3. Advanced course in International Environmental Change: This lecture teaches how the regional environment have been modified in the world since the occurrence of civilization, and discuss about meaning, necessity and capability of recovering nature with reference to prehistoric environment.
4. Advanced course in fostering Human Resources for Global Environmental Management : The versatile framework for education and training program is studied in especially African and Asian perspectives and contexts. Contents, ways of delivery and evaluation for the effectiveness are studied through actual training program in Hokkaido University and elsewhere
5. Advanced course in Sustainable Society: Key components and their inter-relationship for establishing sustainable society are explored. As tools for measuring sustainability, system for indicators and indexes for sustainability and new novel way for evaluating sustainability are also developed.

Entrance Examination

For master’s degree course

1. Foreign Language Exam: English (Questions given in English) or/and TOEFL(PBT) score(> 470)
2. Specialized Subjects: Form (a) (Questions given in English)
   Essay on environmental science and issue. (Notice: Complete and submit this essay in the first 60 minutes of the exam of specialized subjects .)
   Selective questions:
   Select and answer any two questions out of the twelve questions in the following subjects: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geo-science, Mathematics and Environmental science. (Notice: Two questions are given for each subject.)

For doctor’s degree course

English Exam and Interview
(We strongly recommend for foreign students to contact the supervisor candidate in prior to submitting the application form.)

Requirement for Completion

Master Course

• Optional subject:
  more than 18 credits by taking subjects offering from this course, Division of Environmental Science Development, and Common Course of Graduate Schools. Subjects taught in English are only countable.
• Compulsory subjects:
  Seminar in Environmental Science Development(Course Seminar) 4 credits Special Research I (completion of master’s study, writing the master thesis and the oral presentation） 8 credits Laboratory Works, Internship（Lab. and field works for global environmental management）4 credits

Doctoral Course

Completion of doctoral study, writing the doctoral thesis by English, and the oral presentation.
A part or the whole of the thesis should be published in the international journal.

Staff in this course (Specialty)

• Tatsufumi Okino, Prof. (Natural Products Chemistry)
• Watanabe Teiji, Prof. (Geoecology and Field Informatics)
• Ishikawa Mamoru, Assoc. Prof. (Physical geography, Environmental study of the frozen ground regions)
• Kazuhiro Toyoda, Assoc. Prof.
• Ram Avtar, Assoc. Prof. (GIS, Forest Ecosystem, Sustainability Science, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation)
• Jorge Garcia Molinos, Assoc. Prof. (Global Change Ecology, Disturbance Ecology, Macroecology)
• Takafumi HIRATA, Assoc. Prof. (Marine Ecology, Remote sensing)
• Yuichi HAYAKAWA, Assoc. Prof. (geosciences, geomorphology, geoarchaeology)

• Shiro TSUYUZAKI, Prof.
• Tomonori SATO, Assoc. Prof.
• Junjiro NEGISHI, Assoc. Prof.
• Shin-ichiro NORO, Prof.
• Yasuhiro YAMANAKA, Prof.
• Masayuki SENZAKI, Assoc. Prof.
• Tong LIU, Assist. Prof.

Examples of the theme for Master’s thesis

1. Study on mitigation technology and observational & analytical methods for a selected pollutions with chemicals by comparing status in Japan, student’s own country and elsewhere.
2. GIS map development for world pollution with chemicals: Pollution status, environmental legislation, standards, technology, industrial structure and others are GIS mapped for each countries and it is tried to uncover rooted causes for pollutions.
3. Any actions for Sustainable society has to be led by sound measures for sustainability conditions. Development of sustainability evaluation method is carried out with special focus on local sustainability.
4. Traditional and local knowledge based sustainable environmental management is studied for establishing new harmonious human-nature system especially from Japanese “SATOYAMA” system.
5. Wise local resource utilization seems to one of better alternative option for reestablishing sustainable locale in modern era . A systematic way to uncover local resource and usage are developed and applied to somewhere in Hokkaido.
6. Local circulation system of goods, services and currency for sustainable community development will be developed and applied for checking appropriateness in Hokkaido.
7. Based on biogeochemical studies in a certain region where human has modified a natural system, a student is expected to locate impact of human activity in a material balance and to find more reliable developing method to achieve a sustainable society associable with a natural system.
8. Present conditions and causes of environmental deterioration in the developing countries.
9. Balancing marine ecosystem conservation and human activities such as fisheries and marine tourism in coastal regions including coral reefs in Asia.
10. others.

If you have any questions on the education and activity of this course, please contact with the staff and their homepages shown below.

• Dr. Teiji Watanabe: twata (at) ees.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Tatsufumi Okino: okino (at) ees.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Ishikawa Mamoru: mishi (at) ees.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Kazuhiro Toyoda: kazuhiro (at) ees.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Ram Avtar: ram (at) ees.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Jorge Garcia Molinos: jorgegmolinos (at) arc.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Takafumi Hirata: tahi (at) arc.hokudai.ac.jp
• Dr. Yuichi Hayakawa: hayakawa (at) ees.hokudai.ac.jp

Office Hours of GEM’s Staffs

We opened our office hours as follows. We are ready to see students of not only GEM course but also other courses in these hours. Please visit us in these hours frankly.

• Dr. Tatsufumi Okino:
• Dr. Teiji Watanabe:
• Dr. Mamoru Ishikawa: every Fri. 16:00-18:00
• Dr. Kazuhiro Toyoda:
• Dr. Ram Avtar:
• Dr. Jorge Garcia Molinos:
• Dr. Takafumi Hirata:
• Dr. Yuichi Hayakawa: