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22,150,000 Yen (FY1997;7,106,000 Yen)
The purpose of the study is to develop a framework and methodologies of environmental accounting in physical term, on which environmental indicators for setting and reviewing policy performance targets can be developed and calculated. International activities on environmental indicators, indicators of sustainable development, and environmental accounting were reviewed, and characteristics of major methodologies and their relationship with others within these fields were identified. Amongst them, this study focused on physical material flow accounting as a methodological framework. A Japanese material flow account was compiled along with the harmonized framework for international comparison study with the United States, Germany and flue Netherlands. In this international joint study, direct inputs of resources from the nature to an economy as well as so-called "hidden flows" behind direct flows were quantified. Indicators such as DMI (Direct Material Input) and TMR (Total Material Requirement) were proposed, and their trends in past 20 years were presented and inter-compared among four countries. An overview of Japanese material flows, which includes inputs, outputs and their balances, was also figured out. A framework of three dimensional, environmentally extended Input-Output table was designed towards a more comprehensive physical account for the next phase of the study. Case studies of physical accounting in municipal level were also carried out.
Sustainable development, Environmental indicators, physical accounting, material flow