Groundwater in Kurobe, Japan,  is essential but diminishing due to reduced recharge areas from levees, dams, and impermeable clay-filled rice paddies. Increased groundwater extraction and heightened flood risks from stronger storms worsen the issue.

The proposed plan tackles these challenges by restoring floodplain functions, implementing infiltration and retarding basins for recharge and flood management. The design involves reshaping the landscape with microtopography to guide water flow, transforming the Yoshida River into a wide, shallow stream to slow water and enhance infiltration, and creating ponds, meandering rivers, and Japanese cedar-forested islands that integrate with existing buildings and flood-prone areas.

This approach aims to restore water balance, reduce flooding, and repurpose Kurobe’s declining rice paddies.