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The Ishikara River is the third longest river in the country of Japan. The river has an arcing shape to and flows for about 170miles through the Kitami Mountains. This river is the draining point for a variety of other water sources, such as Kamikawa Basin, Sorachi River Lowland, and the Ishikari Plains. The Ishikara River itself drains into the Sea of Japan, which is on the west side of the country (Brittanica, 2014). The video below shows you just how big the Ishikara River is!

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What a wonderful JAPAN - The Ishikari river in Hokkaido

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Hokkaido is home to 5.3 billion people. These people rely on the river for many different reasons. The Ishikara River is used for fishing, many people use this river as a food source. They also use the river. They use the river for drinking water. Japan actually takes care of water infrastructure which makes it clean and pure. The graph below shows just how drinkable and sanitary the water is (Goal 6, n.d.). The river is also used for recreational activity such as white water river rafting, ice fishing in the winter, and it also gives you just a place to relax.

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The Ishikara River is located on the northernmost island of Japan, called Hokkaido (Brittanica, 2014). Hokkaido is known for the variety of crops they grow. The main ones being, rice, soy, kidney beans, oats, barley, hay and white potatoes. They also produce iron, steel, wood pulp, dairy, and fishing industry. With that being said, the majority of the land around the Ishikara River goes to farmland for crops, industrialized and urban areas, and the river is used for fishing purposes.

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Pollution is a big challenge that the Ishikara River faces. This area specifically see non-point pollution. This is where pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground (What is Nonpoint Pollution, 2016). Because the river runs through the Kitami mountains, it gets a ton of snow melt. When the snow melts and the rain fall accumulates, it will eventually run down the side of the river, taking with it whatever is in it's path.

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Climate change is a big concern for the whole planet, with increasing temperature come droughts, sea levels will fluctuate, precipitation patterns will change, and much more. Increases in surface temperature will have major consequences for the hydrological cycle, particularly in regions where the water supply is dominated by melting snow or ice (Sato, 2012). Climate change will ultimately change the water cycle. The snow in this part of japan had decreased by almost fifty percent. Like I said before, the river drains into Sea of Japan. With climate changing the sea levels, river levels, lake levels will all rise causing massive floods all over the country which will ruin crop fields. It is projected that water levels will rise up to two hundred percent in the year and then decrease again by fifty to sixty percent (Sato, 2012) Many resources will be ruined because of flooding from the river. People of Japan will have to find new farming practices to keep their crops alive. Climate change greatly affects the Ishikara river and Japan as a whole because of the sheer fact that Japan is an island, as water levels continue to rise, Japan might not exist years down the road.

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The water availability in the Ishikara River is currently stable,  it is equitable, meaning that water here is safe to drink. Approximately 78% of drinking water supply is taken from rivers, lakes, marshes and so forth. It is also supplied to each house after filtering (Issues on Water Resources, n.d.). The water quality of the Ishikara River exceeds standards. If you look at the graph below, you will see that the attainment rate is much higher than in years past and that the damage done done by drinking bad water has decreased dramatically over the years (Issues on Water Resources, n.d.)

There are always factors that play a role into water availability, such as precipitation rates and changes, water shortages, decreased water stability. The changes in precipitation rates affect the water levels; if there is a year with low precipitation, the water levels will be lower than normal and years with high precipitation mean that water levels will be high.

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The Ishikari Offshore Wind Project works to incorporate renewable energy into their region. They have placed wind turbines just about 2 miles off shore in the Sea of Japan, where the Ishikara River drains into. This project has already conserved over 170 gallons of water, avoided 330,000 metric tons of CO2 and powered over 30,000 houses (Ishikari Offshore Wind, n.d.).

The video below talks about the benefits of wind energy and the environment.

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AWEA Wind Power 101: Environmental Benefits

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Hokkaido’s huge area of land, which accounts for 25% of Japan’s total cultivated area, is developed predominantly for rice, field crops, and dairy farming (Agriculture in Hokkaido, Japan, 2019). The farming would not be as good without the Ishikara river. The picture below shows the variety of crops that are grown in the area surrounding the Ishikara River as well as how production has changed throughout the years. Hokkaido makes significant contributions to a stable food supply in Japan, and produces the largest volume in major agricultural and livestock products in Japan (Agriculture in Hokkaido, Japan, 2019) Hokkaido supplie the rest of Japan with food, the sources here are stable until the water levels rise or temperatures affect the crop growing seasons.

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Current Management and Solutions for the Future 

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Current Management and Solutions for the Future 

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Japan as a country have been taking action in regards to deceasing climate change, they are doing the best they can when it comes to finding solutions. The video below talks about what Japan is doing to help decrease climate change, but in the end it is inevitable and it explains what we can do to adapt to climate change.

There are many ways to help decrease climate change such as power your home with renewable energy sources, invest in energy efficient appliances, reduce water waste, eat less meat, shrink your carbon foot print and  plenty more (Denchak, 2019)

In terms of solutions for the future, river restoration is a big focus for Japan. In Japan, restoration is a daunting business because of the high human population density, urbanization, and harsh environmental conditions, including the Ishikara River (Keigo et al, 2006). River restoration would help all aspects of this Japanese ecosystem. It would bring less stress to rice crops, it would help regulate floodplains and much more.

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The Ishikara river flows through both urban and rural areas of Japan. I talked about how pollution, specifically nonpoint pollution takes a toll on the Ishikara River. By bringing awareness on how to get rid of chemicals the right way will help with non-point pollution.

Tying Ready Player One into the Ishikari River Watershed is really interesting. Ready Player One is all about technology and advancement of technology over the past few decades. The book first mentions climate change in the first chapter, “it turns out burning all those fossil fuels has some nasty side effects, like raising the temperatures of our planet and screwing up the environment. So now polar ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and the weather is all messed up” (Cline, 2011). Like I said earlier, the rising levels in water bodies take the nonpoint pollution and run with it. Ready Player One talks about how the main character Wade, was born in a “crappy time” and use virtual reality and this game to escape having to think about messed up our world is because of climate change. As for technology, it has advanced so much in the past few years. Virtual reality is now a big part of the world. Japan has been working on technological advancements that will help with water pollution control and water purification. One high level technology treatment that they are using helps with filtering the nonpoint pollution and separating it from the non-polluted water. This Microfiltration system works towards improving and controlling water pollution, water quality and water purification. The video below goes through the process of the microfiltration system.

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СК КО-Восток

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Microfiltration skid for Process water - Presentation

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Agriculture in Hokkaido Japan. (2019, January). Retrieved from http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ns/nsi/genjyou_english_3101.pdf

Britannica, T. E. (2014, June). Ishikari River. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Ishikari-River

Cline, E. (2011). Ready player one. New York: Crown Publishers.

Denchak, M. (2019, March 13). How You Can Stop Global Warming. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all - SDG Indicators. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2018/goal-06/

Ishikari Offshore Wind. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://patternenergy.com/learn/portfolio/ishikari-offshore-wind

Issues on Water Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mlit.go.jp/tochimizushigen/mizsei/water_resources/contents/issues.html

Keigo Nakamura, Klement Tockner, Kunihiko Amano, River and Wetland Restoration: Lessons from Japan, BioScience, Volume 56, Issue 5, May 2006, Pages 419–429, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2006)056[0419:RAWRLF]2.0.CO;2

Tachibana, H., Yamamoto, K., Yoshizawa, K., & Magara, Y. (2001). Non-point pollution of Ishikari river, Hokkaido, Japan. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11724474

Sato, Y., T., Y., Y., & E. (2012). Estimates of Climate Change Impact on River Discharge in Japan Based on a Super-High-Resolution Climate Model. Terrestrial Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences,23(5), 527-540. doi:10.3319/TAO.2012.05.03.02(WMH)

What is Nonpoint Source? (2016, November 28). Retrieved from https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/nps/what-nonpoint-source_.html