About shiNchi
Backgrounds of the Project:
Initiatives for Environment, Energy, and Community Development in Shinchi
The target town in this project, Shinchi, has promoted the reconstruction from damages by tsunami accompanying the Greater East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and has accommodated those who evacuate from areas devastated by Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident. Shinchi was designated as Eco-Model City as part of the “FutureCity” Initiative by the Japanese Cabinet in FY2011, and it has implemented policy planning and projects of “Smart Hybrid Town”. In addition, it has promoted building a center for the newly reconstructed town through infrastructure development by land readjustment projects in the vicinity of Shinchi Station accompanying the reconstruction of JR Tokiwa Line after the GEJE, as well as an enhancement of living environments including public facilities, housing construction, and so on.
In the vicinity of Shinchi Station, Smart Community Project has been launched with a key concept of combined heat and power utilizing natural gas as a main resource, taking advantage of its location where Soma-Iwanuma Natural Gas Pipeline laid out from Soma LNG Base to Sendai. In addition, NIES is in a middle of accumulating extensive monitoring data regarding actual energy use in residential districts within Shinchi, and it has promoted to develop community energy systems and to consider leading community development for the reconstructed town in coordination with corporate groups.
In the meantime, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo started its cooperation in 2016, with regard to various community development projects planned for districts in the vicinity of Shinchi Station, referring to the Urban Design Center (UDC) method. It is based on its achievements and practical knowledge of community development in Urban Design Center Kashiwa-no-ha (UDCK) that plays a central role for infrastructure development, smart city development, and facility enhancement in land readjustment projects in the neighborhood of a railway station at Kashiwa-no-ha District of Kashiwa City in Chiba Prefecture where Kashiwa Campus of the University of Tokyo is located.
As abovementioned, parallel initiatives regarding Environment, Energy, and Community Development have been promoted in Shinchi, and it is expected to be a model for Fukushima Reconstruction by materializing local community innovation based on the University’s knowledge and technology as reconstruction knowledge.