//WORKING GROUP 1

Food System Mapping & Modeling

About This Group

Who feeds us? How are we eating? How does our food impact the environment? How could we eat in the future? These are the questions we try to answer in Working Group 1. 

We take a closer look at the way food and agriculture work today to learn how we can create ecologically and socially sustainable agrifood systems. We also assist the other Working Groups by providing information about food production and consumption at our different project sites. 

Because food and agriculture are linked in complex ways, we use a range of methods in our research. These include for example GIS and land use analysis, spatially and conceptually mapping formal and informal food flows, participatory foodshed mapping, consumer surveys, ecological footprint modelling in collaboration with the Global Footprint Network, and modelling of potential future diets.

Main Members

Kazuaki Tsuchiya

Assistant Professor, The University of Tokyo 

GROUP CHAIR

I am interested in how the linkages between urban lifestyles and local and global ecosystems lead to environmental changes and health issues. I believe that food, the focus of the FEAST project, is the key to untangling lifestyle-ecosystem linkages.

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Yuji Hara

Associate Professor, Wakayama University

GROUP CHAIR

Yuji Hara graduated from the Department of Geography, and did his Master Degree in Landscape Planning at The University of Tokyo, where he received his PhD in 2007. He specializes in landscape ecology/planning and anthropogenic geomorphology in the context of Asian rice culture, and conducts extensive field research in Wakayama/Osaka, Bangkok, Metro Manila, Tianjin and other Asian cities. Recently he has been involved in and investigating the Minabe-Tanabe Ume System, the GIAHS site in Wakayama, central Japan.

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Christoph Rupprecht

Senior Researcher, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

HEADQUARTER

I study the diverse entanglements of living beings, especially through the lens of food and agriculture. My interests include degrowth, more-than-human geography, sustainable food systems, informal green space (such as vacant lots and street or railway verges), urban ecology, and environmental justice.

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Kimisato Oda

Researcher, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

HEADQUARTER

I study the relationship between people and riparian nature in areas of human activity such as cities and agricultural villages, with a focus on the Lake Biwa hydrological system. Using food as point of entry, I want to learn more about how characteristic regional food culture is connected with aquatic organisms, especially fish.

Ni Hui

Junior Researcher, Kyoto University

I specialize in International Agribusiness and Agricultural Development, Sericulture and silk industry.

Katsunori Iha

Research Economist, Global Footprint Network

I am seeking a life where I can laugh, think and connect others through soil.

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Ayako Kawai

PhD student, Australian National University

My interest is in bio-cultural diversity conservation, and my PhD project is about 'how to transmit local crop variety seeds, seed saving skills and related culture to next generation in Japan'. It would be great if I can contribute to improve the situation around local crop variety conservation. I currently live in Canberra, and am trying to get a farm plot so that I can start practicing organic farming & seed saving.

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Louis Augustin-Jean

Visiting Scholar, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Louis Augustin-Jean is currently Visiting Scholar at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and was formerly Associate Professor in Development Economics at the University of Tsukuba. His current research interests are in the field of the economic sociology of food (the sociology of food markets in China; geographical indications in Asia) as well as food safety and food risks.

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Publications and outputs