The Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE) deals with the creation and preparation of good environments in rural areas and the production control of living things. Technologies in this field are essential for human beings and other life resources to continue to coexist on earth.

This department has four branches of: Rural Environmental Engineering (REE), Biological Systems Engineering (BSE), Biological and Environmental Information Engineering (BEIF), and Ecological Safety Studies (ESS) which was newly established in 2006.

REE seeks to achieve advances in modern technologies associated with the engineering of land resources, water resources, soil conditions, plants and air resources. It aims to encourage the efficient production of food and to conserve the environment of the earth, especially in rural areas, by harmonizing production with natural ecological systems.

BSE aims to develop advanced techniques and research on bio-engineering, biological process control, biosensing and robotics, bioenergy production, and bio-farming in outer space, by making greater use of life functions themselves.

BEIF applies the latest information technology to strive for the harmonious coexistence of life and the environment, and optimized food production. Information on the effects of changes in condition of both the geosphere and food materials is dealt with.

ESS is an associated branch of the Department of BEE in the Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (NIAES), NARO, which is located in the science city of Tsukuba.ESS conducts interdisciplinary studies on atmosphere and soil environments, the material cycle in agro-ecosystems, and ecological statistics as the basis for such studies. SAE cooperative course is in the Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services (ISAS) at the Tanashi Campus. SAE conducts research on sustainable and effective use of ecosystem services. RET cooperative course is in the Isotope Facility for Agricultural Education and Research . RET conducts research on agricultural rehabilitation in areas polluted by radioactive materials.

Laboratories

Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering

Rural Environmental Engineering
Land Environmental Engineering Improvement of agricultural productivity and sustainability through farmland engineering
Assessment of sustainability of agricultural system in terms of materials, water and energy balance
Water and material circulation in soil-plant-atmosphere continuum
Water Environmental Engineering Collapse analysis on interactions between soils and structures by finite element method
Control of greenhouse gas emission from paddy fields by water and nutrient management
Runoff analysis of water and suspended sediment from farmlands in Okinawa Pref.
Analysis of unsteady flow in open channels of varying cross sections using Chang Moll scheme
Soil Physics and Soil Hydrology Unsaturated water and solute transport through soils
Priming effect on soil organic cabon dynamics
Phytoremediation of polluted soil
Alkalization and salinization of soils in China
Effect of forest fire on soil physical and chemical properties
Erosion and conservation of low pH soils
Microbilogial effects on transport phenomena in soils
Biological Systems Engineering
Bioenvironmental Engineering Analyses of plants response (from the cell level to the canopy level) to the environment such as light quality, CO2 concentration, etc.
Control and/or analyses of plants environment (e.g., dissolved oxygen concentration in cell culture, CO2 concentration in global issue studies)
Plant factory technology (plant production in urban areas, space stations, etc.)
Utilization of advanced technologies to plant production (e.g,. water processing technology, new light sources)
Biological and Mechanical Engineering High-speed autonomous vehicle for forage production
Tree-dimensional measurement of identification of plants
Vehicle control using an omni-directional machine vision
Energy production from marine biomass by hybrid treatment
System analysis of bioenergy production and utilization
Bioprocess Engineering 　 Storage of foods and agricultural products by the application of gas hydrate and freeze drying
Prediction of dynamic change in quality of foods through NMR parameters
Evaluation of dynamic properties of micro/nano bubble water for the application of biosystems
Prediction of dynamic change in quality of agricultural products
Measurement of respiratory response of fruits and vegetables against low oxygen environment
Biological and Environmental Information Engineering
Biological and Environmental Information Engineering Remote sensing of biosphere functioning
Analysis and modeling of ecosystems
Analysis of global change effects on ecosystems
Image instrumentation for bio-monitoring
Information engineering for biological and environmental systems
Radio Enviromental Technology
Radio Enviromental Technology  
Ecological Safety Studies
Ecological Safety Studies Early detection and prediction of climate warming based on the long-term monitoring of alpine ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau
Microbial interaction in soil ecosystems
Evaluation of soil function in terms of life-cycle assessment of agricultural activities
Prediction of nitrogen load due to future food production in East Asia
Potential productivity of biofuel in East Asia and its environmental effects
Theoretical and empirical study of methods for phylogenetic estimation from DNA and amino acid sequence data
Geometric morphometrics of biological shapes and statistical analysis of shape variation