Faculty Members
IHARA Tomohiko
(Associate Professor/Division of Environmental Studies)
Department of Environment Systems/Environmental Social Systems
Career Summary
1998: Graduated from the University of Tokyo
2004: Received Ph.D. (Engineering) from the University of Tokyo
2004: Research scientist (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))
2010-2014: Part-time lecturer (Tokyo University of Science)*
2012-2013: Guest researcher (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)*
2012: Associate professor (University of Tokyo)
2012-present: Visiting research scientist (AIST)*
2012-present: Researcher (Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST))*
* additional post
Educational Activities
College of Arts and Sciences (Junior Division, Undergraduate):
"Social Innovation and Artifact Design"
Faculty of Engineering (Senior Division, Undergraduate):
"Mathematical Practice"
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences (Graduate School):
"Environment Systems"
"Life Cycle Impact Assessment"
"Environment Systems II"
"Seminars on Environment Systems"
Research Activities
We analyze environmental issues in our society based on life cycle thinking (LCT) and evaluate the effectiveness of concrete regional/personal-level countermeasures on the society. The followings are examples of our research.
1) Statistical analysis of the relationship between urban climate and energy demand + evaluation of the amount of electricity saving and CO2 emission reduction in our society by energy-saving technologies using a building energy model [1-2].
2) Macro analysis of the relationship between urban climate and human health based on epidemiological study and public health statistics + understanding its physical physiological process using human body sensing [3-6].
3) Assessment of impact of environmental burdens from consumers?f daily lives on our society + evaluation of environmental improvements to the society by ecofriendly activities [7-8].
Literature
[1] Ihara T, Genchi Y, Sato T, Yamaguchi K, Endo Y. City-block-scale sensitivity of electricity consumption to air temperature and air humidity in business districts of Tokyo, Japan. Energy, Vol.33, No.11, pp.1634-1645, 2008.
[2] Ihara T, Kikegawa Y, Asahi K, Genchi Y, Kondo H. Changes in year-round air temperature and annual energy consumption in office building areas by urban heat island countermeasures and energy-saving measures. Applied Energy, Vol.85, No.1, pp.12-25, 2008.
[3] Ihara T, Kusaka H, Hara M, Matsuhashi R, Yoshida Y. Estimation of mild health disorder caused by urban air temperture increase with midpoint-type impact assessment methodology. Journal of Environmental Engineering (Transactions of AIJ), Vol.76, No.662, pp.459-467, 2011. (in Japanese with an English abstract)
[4] Ihara T, Kusaka H, Takata T, Hara M, Genchi Y. Impact assessment of human health and energy consumption caused by urban climate change. The 91st American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, 2011.
[5] Ihara T, Genchi Y. Environmental impact assessment of urban heat island phenomena based on endpoint-type life cycle impact assessment methodology. Journal of Environmental Engineering (Transactions of AIJ), Vol.73, No.634, pp.1407-1415, 2008. (in Japanese with an English abstract)
[6] Okano Y, Ihara T, Genchi Y. Evaluation of environmental impacts on disturbed sleep by nighttime urban heat island phenomena using surveys via the Internet. Journal of Heat Island Institute International, Vol.3, pp.22-33, 2008. (in Japanese with an English abstract)
[7] Ihara T, Motose R, Kudoh Y. CO2 emissions from consumers' daily lives from the viewpoint of time use. The 9th International Conference on EcoBalance (EcoBalance 2010), 2010.
[8] Ihara T, Motose R, Kurishima H, Kudoh Y. Analysis of CO2 emissions from daily life and consideration on the low carbon daily activities in Japan. The 4th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM 2009), 2009.
Other Activities
The Institute of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan (ILCAJ)
Heat Island Institute International (HI3)
Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ)
Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER)
The Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan (SHASEJ)
Center for Environmental Information Science (CEIS)
Japan Society of Biometeorology (JSB)
Japanese Society of Sleep Research (JSSR)
Japanese Society of Fatigue Science
International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC)
Future Plan
We'd like to clarify the problems in modern society and develop regional/personal-level countermeasures to address these problems through research activities in order to really solve the environmental issues facing our society today.
Messages to Students
I welcome stongly motivated individuals interested in life cycle thinking and research who are capable of setting their own goals independently.