Assessment of alternative land resource utilisation towards Net-Zero and regional revitalisation through the circulating and ecological sphere in depopulated city regions in Japan: a case study of Hachinohe City Region

The circulating and ecological sphere (CES) concept promotes a self-reliant decentralised society by utilising regional resources to achieve decarbonisation. The concept is particularly relevant to depopulated areas across Japan facing a continuous increase of underutilised agricultural land that br...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability science Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 2151 - 2168
Main Authors: Sato, Haruno, Mitra, Bijon Kumer, Dasgupta, Rajarshi, Hashimoto, Shizuka
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.09.2023
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Agriculture
agrivoltaic systems
Agrivoltaics
Alternative energy sources
Carbon neutrality
Case studies
Cities
Climate change
Climate Change Management and Policy
Decarbonization
Earth and Environmental Science
electricity
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Fisheries
food availability
Food supply
issues and policy
Japan
Land resources
Land use
land use change
Landscape Ecology
Local communities
Net zero
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaics
Population decline
Public Health
Regional development
Regions
Renewable energy
renewable energy sources
Renewable resources
Rural areas
Society
solar collectors
Solar energy
Special Feature: Just and Sustainable Transitions in Net-Zero Asia
Special Feature: Original Article
stakeholders
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
Transmission lines
Urban areas
Urban regeneration
Japan
Alternative land use
Hachinohe City Region
Circulating and ecological sphere
Revitalisation
Depopulation
Net-Zero
ISSN:1862-4065, 1862-4057
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The circulating and ecological sphere (CES) concept promotes a self-reliant decentralised society by utilising regional resources to achieve decarbonisation. The concept is particularly relevant to depopulated areas across Japan facing a continuous increase of underutilised agricultural land that brings environmental, social and economic challenges. This study recognises such land as a locally available resource to be re-utilised under the CES framework and mitigate issues in a depopulating community. Using the case of the Hachinohe City Region in Japan, this paper explores alternative land-use scenarios and identifies policy interventions to implement a desirable scenario that would contribute to the localisation of Net-Zero and regional revitalisation. The scenarios developed based on land-use change analysis, policy reviews and stakeholder interviews were: (1) an energy-dominant scenario (installing a photovoltaic system) and (2) an agriculture–energy combination scenario (installing an agrivoltaic system). The analysis shows that under both scenarios, Hachinohe City Region can achieve 100% renewable energy. There are other benefits, including job creation and, in the case of the agriculture-solar scenario, contribution to domestic food supply resiliency. The study recommends three policy interventions: (1) collaboration amongst the members of the city region to achieve its own carbon–neutral electricity supply; (2) investment for areas without transmission lines to fully benefit from their regional resources; and (3) support for local initiatives where local communities co-manage the resources and co-benefit from them. Based on the results, the paper further highlights the potential of the CES approach to deliver just transition from a spatial perspective.
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ISSN:1862-4065
1862-4057
DOI:10.1007/s11625-023-01388-z