Functional analysis and estimate of irrigation and drainage system as social common foundation for the coexistence of rural and urban areas

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Agricultural policy has veered recently in parallel with the transformation of Japanese society. The main objective of agricultural policy had been the food production until now, but the realization of multifunctionalities of agriculture, which are by-products of agriculture, has been paid attention in late years in addition to food production. Furthermore, aside from agricultural policy as industrial policy, national land management has been very important from a standpoint of the coexistence of agricultural and urban areas. Thus, multifunctionalities of agriculture have an important meaning in agricultural policy as national land and regional policies. In this research, we focused on specific functions of agriculture, which were flood control, climate mitigation (prevention of air temperature rising), and prevention of soil loss by agricultural lands, irrigation ponds, and water channels. The investigated field site had irrigation system using agricultural ponds and was located in Sennan region in Osaka Prefecture, in which agricultural water utilization played important roles in common social platform in a region. We conducted various hydrological and meteorological observations and analyzed using measured data.As a result, it was found that irrigation facilities, such as irrigation ponds and water channels, played a role not only as agricultural platform to produce food, but also as regional social platform to supply wide-ranging services such as regional security and amenity to overall community. Especially, in urbanized area, in which both farmers and non-farmers occupy, irrigation facilities fulfill an important role as common social platform. In addition, because the social capital is very important to exert multi-functions of agriculture and irrigation facilities, the establishment of the social capital is requisite in each region. Land improvement districts, which are organizations to manage irrigation facilities by farmers, are potential social capital.