Naoki Masuhara

<p>This study is focused on 29 SDGs Future cities appointed by the Japan's government. SDGs Future city initiative has related to existing Environmental Model city and Environmental Future city initiatives so far. Based on results of counting related goals and targets of SDGs in all SDGs Future city plans, in addition to goal 7 and 11 which were focus of Environmental Future cities mainly, it is clarified that number of plans which relate to goal 8, 9 and 13 are increasing. And a different trend between the global indicator and key performance indicators of SDGs Future cities regarding the target 17.17 and difficulties to collect relevant data and to set indicators boundaries were found.</p>

In order to evaluate the potential benefit and negative impacts of urbanization on the water-energy-food nexus, analyses have been made in Asia-Pacific countries with production-consumption relationships of water-energy-food nexus. Negative correlations have been found between urbanization rates and energy consumption rates for water and food production. This is because of the difference in decision making processes of resource development as urbanization progresses. Some positive relationships have been found between water consumption for energy production and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and between water consumption for food production and hydro-meteorological conditions such as dry or wet countries.

Participatory public engagement approaches such as Consensus Conferences, Deliberative Polling , and Planning Cells have been used to try and resolve environmental disputes in Japan; however, the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches have not been analyzed adequately or comprehensively. This paper evaluates practical applications of each of the above participatory approaches and conducts a crosscutting analysis of these applications to evaluate how effectively each approach provides scientific information to participants and to consider how the quality of deliberations that occur during these processes affect their outputs. Based on existing classification of participatory processes, and methodology for public involvement in US environmental decision-making, this study compares and contrasts the processes and outcomes of 25 participatory planning case studies in Japan. After compiling a case inventory of participatory approaches, the features of one approach are documented using qualitative analysis, and the aspects of four other approaches are confirmed using crosscutting analysis. In so doing, the likely strengths and weaknesses of each approach are suggested as follows. When discussions require an understanding of scientific knowledge, the Consensus Conference tends to be more suitable than the DP approach. If the consensus of participants is expected, the Consensus Conference is also thought to be suitable. But through a DP process or Simplified Planning Cells approach, we can know the quantitative portion of each opinion through results of ballots. In sum, new participatory approach that incorporates strengths of the Consensus Conference and the Simplified Planning Cells into Local Environmental Planning is needed. Thus, the quality of consensus building could be improved. ®

&lt;p&gt;This paper clarifies a present situation of local environmental plans in Japan including environmental basic plans and new environment-related plans at city level. In order to describe history of local environmental planning, literature survey of administrative documents was conducted. Two case studies were also conducted to analyze real effects of increasing plans. Two local governments are different in terms of number of environment-related plans. There is a need not only for meta-design of environmental planning but also for avoiding citizen conference and groups which participate to planning and implementation process of environmental plans, competing one another in the future.&lt;/p&gt;