vi
sustainability among major Japanese universities, played a key role in the establishment and development of GPSS and offered it strong support both fi nancially and
academically. GPSS, initially started as a Master’s program, became a Ph.D. program in 2009. In 2011, GPSS was awarded an exclusive educational project from
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology (MEXT), Japan, under
the scheme of “Program for Leading Graduate Schools” and is now in the process
of strengthening its Ph.D. components.
The Department of Urban Engineering (UE) was established in 1962 in the
Faculty of Engineering at UT with the aim of dealing with complex urban issues in
holistic ways and providing a strong practical basis for urban planning and environmental technology/management. Over the past 50 years, UE has gained an excellent
reputation internationally and academically in relevant fi elds. One of the characteristics of their curriculum is a strong emphasis on studio and/or laboratory work.
This enabled UE to develop diverse sets of teaching modules in case studies and
experiential learning. Another point is that UE has been accepting students from all
over the world since its early stages and has accumulated know-how in education
for international students. In 2012, UE was accepted for MEXT’s “Re-Inventing
Japan Project” and is currently working to develop a new international collaboration
scheme for student exchange.
The encounter of GPSS and UE brought about a unique educational challenge:
The Asian Program for Incubation of Environmental Leaders (APIEL).
This book, consisting of eight chapters, is a summary of APIEL’s four years of
educational challenges. The structure of the book is as follows. The overall picture
of APIEL is in Chap. 1 , which describes how APIEL was established with its aims
and core concepts. The objective of APIEL is to incubate an environmental leader
who can resolve complex problems.
The concepts of the environmental leader, reviewed through a discourse on leadership, are defi ned in Chap. 2 . The history of the development of environmental
education and leaders is also discussed in this chapter. Some personal experiences
from professional environmentalists are included as well.
In APIEL, future environmental leaders were incubated through compulsory
courses which consisted of lectures and fi eld exercise. “Environmental Challenges
and Leadership in Asia” is one of the compulsory courses that was specially developed for APIEL. Detailed information about this course is given in Chap. 3 .
Chapters 4 – 7 provide examples of APIEL’s fi eld exercises, namely, the Thailand
Unit, the Oasis Unit, the GPRD Unit, and the Cambodia Unit, respectively. This series
of chapters showcases a variety of fi eld exercises and different perspectives. These
fi eld exercises were established by UT in collaboration with counterpart universities
in other countries. The approach for establishing the fi eld exercises, characteristics,
lessons learned, and outcome of the fi eld exercises is described in each chapter.
Finally, feedback from collaborating counterpart universities and alumni is
refl ected in Chap. 8 .
As can be seen from the above history and the book itself, a huge amount of time,
human resources, thought, and effort had been invested before APIEL started, and
Preface
sustainability among major Japanese universities, played a key role in the establishment and development of GPSS and offered it strong support both fi nancially and
academically. GPSS, initially started as a Master’s program, became a Ph.D. program in 2009. In 2011, GPSS was awarded an exclusive educational project from
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology (MEXT), Japan, under
the scheme of “Program for Leading Graduate Schools” and is now in the process
of strengthening its Ph.D. components.
The Department of Urban Engineering (UE) was established in 1962 in the
Faculty of Engineering at UT with the aim of dealing with complex urban issues in
holistic ways and providing a strong practical basis for urban planning and environmental technology/management. Over the past 50 years, UE has gained an excellent
reputation internationally and academically in relevant fi elds. One of the characteristics of their curriculum is a strong emphasis on studio and/or laboratory work.
This enabled UE to develop diverse sets of teaching modules in case studies and
experiential learning. Another point is that UE has been accepting students from all
over the world since its early stages and has accumulated know-how in education
for international students. In 2012, UE was accepted for MEXT’s “Re-Inventing
Japan Project” and is currently working to develop a new international collaboration
scheme for student exchange.
The encounter of GPSS and UE brought about a unique educational challenge:
The Asian Program for Incubation of Environmental Leaders (APIEL).
This book, consisting of eight chapters, is a summary of APIEL’s four years of
educational challenges. The structure of the book is as follows. The overall picture
of APIEL is in Chap. 1 , which describes how APIEL was established with its aims
and core concepts. The objective of APIEL is to incubate an environmental leader
who can resolve complex problems.
The concepts of the environmental leader, reviewed through a discourse on leadership, are defi ned in Chap. 2 . The history of the development of environmental
education and leaders is also discussed in this chapter. Some personal experiences
from professional environmentalists are included as well.
In APIEL, future environmental leaders were incubated through compulsory
courses which consisted of lectures and fi eld exercise. “Environmental Challenges
and Leadership in Asia” is one of the compulsory courses that was specially developed for APIEL. Detailed information about this course is given in Chap. 3 .
Chapters 4 – 7 provide examples of APIEL’s fi eld exercises, namely, the Thailand
Unit, the Oasis Unit, the GPRD Unit, and the Cambodia Unit, respectively. This series
of chapters showcases a variety of fi eld exercises and different perspectives. These
fi eld exercises were established by UT in collaboration with counterpart universities
in other countries. The approach for establishing the fi eld exercises, characteristics,
lessons learned, and outcome of the fi eld exercises is described in each chapter.
Finally, feedback from collaborating counterpart universities and alumni is
refl ected in Chap. 8 .
As can be seen from the above history and the book itself, a huge amount of time,
human resources, thought, and effort had been invested before APIEL started, and
Preface