DESCRIPTION WATER RIGHT INTERMEDIATION NETWORK SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM THEREFOR TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to a water right intermediation network system for promoting the distribution of assignments, loans and the like of water rights.

In this specification and accompanying drawings, a term"river"is defined to include lake, swamp and pond, other than river, and"database"is designated as DB, and "sub-database"as SDB for simplifying the description.

BACKGROUND ART The water right refers to the right of using river water, which is permitted based on the River Act. The use of river water includes a common use aspect such as swimming, fishing, and navigation of ship, and a local, exclusive use aspect such as water intake for agricultural water and urban water. The term"water right"is often used in utilization of river water.

A number of water-right disputes found in the history were solved by establishing the river management organization administered by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, i. e., the organization in which first-class rivers are directly administered by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and second-

class rivers and quasi-rivers are managed by local autonomies. Under such management organization, the demands for water associated with rivers, classified into a variety of applications such as power generation water, city water, industrial water, agricultural water, miscellaneous water, and so on, are recorded and disclosed by these applications. The amounts and qualities of river water are published in a flow chronological table and a water quality chronological table based on data taken by water level meters and periodic water quality measurements.

Under such a circumstance, water shortage could arise for a variety of causes associated with meteorological changes, movement of population, advance of industrial activities, and the like. For example, in the progress of high economic growth in Japan, the use of water supply and sewerage was expanded, and the construction of dams was aggressively promoted corresponding thereto. However, in spite of such highly advanced water utilization, an unexpected abnormal shortage of water would result in the lack of water supplied to big cities. Since the lack in water is inevitably supplemented by agricultural water, the River Act provides an article which requests entitled parties for mutual conferences for adjusting water utilization in the event of shortage of water. However, it cannot be said that such conferences serve in its fullness.

On the other hand, the water right has been regarded as a mere official water use right, and a private economical value has been denied. However, with the

pervasive recognition that the development of water resources will be limited, agricultural water users and city water users have held a conference in urbanized regions, and concluded that the agricultural water users turn over surplus water, resulting from the diversion of agricultural land into housing land, to the city, and the city bears the expense for agricultural water utilization facilities required therefor. In other words, the problem of stable supply of water to highly populated cities causes the economical value of water right to come to the front.

Consequently, an indication has been made that"the gradually enhanced economical value of water right"would be a future issue of the water right ("Discussion on Present Water Right"written by Hiroyasu Shimura, published by Tokyo University Press, June 25,1982).

Considering that the assignment and loan of water right have not been matured, though it has long been recognized that a change in the social structure causes the water right to have an economical value, and that the construction of dams becomes more and more difficult, a mechanism has been needed for smoothing the demand and supply of water by mutually interchanging exclusive use rights represented by water rights locally associated with rivers, for example, a surplus of agricultural water resulting from the diversion of agricultural land into housing land is utilized in cities and industrial zones in which the lack of water is anticipated.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION This invention has been proposed in view of the circumstance as described above, and it is an object of the invention to provide a water right intermediation network system for smoothing the supply and demand of river water, and promoting the distribution of water rights by intermediating assignments and loans of a portion or entirety of water rights.

To achieve the above object, in one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a water right intermediation network system for intermediating a water right between a water right owner who wishes to assign or loan a water right and an acquisition/borrowing applicant who wishes to acquire or borrow a water right, characterized by comprising: water right information accumulating means responsive to a registration of a water right assignment or loan from the water right owner for accumulating information on a water right subjected to the assignment or loan; and notifying means for notifying the water right owner if a water right for which acquisition or borrowing is requested has been stored in the water right information accumulating means.

Also, to achieve the above object, in another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a management server connected through a communication network to a water right owner who wishes to assign or loan a water right and to an acquisition/borrowing applicant who wishes to acquire

or borrow a water right for intermediating a water right, the management server characterized by comprising: water right information accumulating means responsive to a registration of a water right assignment or loan from the water right owner for accumulating information on a water right subjected to the assignment or loan; and notifying means for notifying the water right owner if a water right for which acquisition or borrowing is requested has been stored in the water right information accumulating means.

In a still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a water right intermediation network system for intermediating distribution of a water right, such as assignment, loan, acquisition and borrowing, characterized by comprising: a water right owner computer provided at a water right owner; an acquisition/borrowing applicant computer provided at an acquisition/borrowing applicant who wishes to acquire or borrow a water right; and a management server connected through a communication network to the water right owner computer and the acquisition/borrowing applicant computer, wherein the server comprises: river information accumulating means for accumulating contents of a river ledger related to water rights which exist in a predetermined water system or region; assignment/loan offerer information accumulating

means for accumulating assignment/loan offerer information entered from the water right owner computer when the water right owner wishes to assign or loan a water right thereof; search means responsive to the assignment/loan offerer information for searching the river information accumulating means for water right information related to a water right associated with an assignment or a loan; water right information accumulating means for accumulating a water right associated with an assignment or a loan, as a water right subjected to the assignment or loan, based on the assignment/loan offerer information and the water right information; determining means for searching the water right information accumulating means based on an entry from the acquisition/borrowing applicant computer to determine whether or not a water right desired by the acquisition/borrowing applicant exists in the rights subjected to assignment/loan; notifying means for notifying the result of determination made by the determining means; and acquisition/borrowing applicant information accumulating means for accumulating information related to the acquisition/borrowing applicant.

In other aspect of the present invention, there is provided a management server connected through a communication network to a water right owner computer provided at a water right owner and to an acquisition/borrowing applicant computer provided at an

acquisition/borrowing applicant who wishes to acquire or borrow a water right, characterized by comprising : river information accumulating means for accumulating contents of a river ledger related to water rights which exist in a predetermined water system or region; assignment/loan offerer information accumulating means for accumulating assignment/loan offerer information entered from the water right owner computer when the water right owner wishes to assign or loan a water right thereof; search means responsive to the assignment/loan offerer information for searching the river information accumulating means for water right information related to a water right associated with an assignment or a loan; water right information accumulating means for accumulating a water right associated with an assignment or a loan, as a water right subjected to the assignment or loan, based on the assignment/loan offerer information and the water right information; determining means for searching the water right information accumulating means based on an entry from the acquisition/borrowing applicant computer to determine whether or not a water right desired by the acquisition/borrowing applicant exists in the rights subjected to assignment/loan; notifying means for notifying the result of determination made by the determining means; and acquisition/borrowing applicant information accumulating means for accumulating information related to

the acquisition/borrowing applicant.

The present invention further provides a computer readable program for use in a water right intermediation network system for intermediating a water right between a water right owner who wishes to assign or loan a water right and an acquisition/borrowing applicant who wishes to acquire or borrow a water right. The program is characterized by causing a computer to function as: water right information accumulating means responsive to a registration of a water right assignment or loan from the water right owner for accumulating information on a water right subjected to the assignment or loan; and notifying means for notifying the water right owner if a water right for which acquisition or borrowing is requested has been stored in the water right information accumulating means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 shows a diagram illustrating a general configuration of a water right intermediation network system according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a diagram showing a variety of databases provided in a management server in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram illustrating a procedure for registering an offer of a water right assignment or loan in the network system illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 shows a flow diagram illustrating a procedure for registering an application for a water right

acquisition or borrowing in the network system illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 shows a diagram showing a variety of auxiliary screens which can be displayed on a computer by the management server in Fig. 1.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Fig. 1 is a diagram generally illustrating the configuration of a water right intermediation network system according to this invention. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the water right intermediation network system comprises computers la, lb,..., 1k of at least one assignment/loan offerers a, b,..., k who wish to assign or loan a portion or entirety of water rights possessed by themselves ; computers 2A, 2B,..., 2M of at least one acquisition/borrowing applicants A, B,..., M who wish to acquire or borrow a water right for water intake or the like; and a management server 3 which is connected to the computers la-1k and 2A-2M through the Internet 2. The management server 3 opens a web page for intermediating assignments and loans of water rights. The management server 3 is connected to a meteorological information transmission station 5 through an appropriate communication line 4 as required. The meteorological information transmission station 5 notifies the management server 4 at appropriate times of meteorological information such as the amount of precipitation in each of regions along a river for which a water right has been established. In this

specification, the web page opened by the management server 4 on the Internet is simply called the"web page." Here, the water right assignment/loan offerers a-k include enterprises which possess exclusive industrial water utilization rights; local autonomies which possess exclusive water supply utilization rights; and business entities which possess rights for exclusively utilizing river water, such as an agricultural group which possesses an exclusive agricultural water utilization right. The acquisition/borrowing applicants A-M include enterprises, local autonomies, agricultural groups and other business entities which wish to newly acquire an exclusive water utilization right for a river, or expand previously possessed exclusive water utilization rights.

For supporting the operation of the water right intermediation network system illustrated in Fig. 1, the management server 3 is provided with a variety of databases (DB) including a group of assignment/loan offerer information DBs 6; a group of acquisition/borrowing applicant information DBs 7; a river information DB 8; a meteorological information DB 9; a water right information DB 10; an auxiliary information DB 11; and an intermediation result DB 12; and a web page file 13 for displaying the web page on any of the computers la-lk, 1A - 1M which accesses the management server 3.

The group of assignment/loan offerer DBs 6 in the management server 3 are comprised of assignment/loan offerer information DBs 6a-6k which have been created

for respective water right owners a-k who wish to assign or loan their water rights, and have registered in the management server 3 through the Internet 2 to that effect.

Each of the assignment/loan offerer information DBs 6a-6k accumulates information for identifying an associated water right owner who wishes to assign or loan his water right, for example, the site of the water right associated with the assignment/loan, and the name or title and address of the water right owner.

The group of acquisition/borrowing applicant information DBs 7, in turn, accumulate information on parties who wishes to acquire or borrow a water right and have registered in the management server 3 to that effect, and is comprised of acquisition/borrowing applicant information DBs 7A-7M corresponding to the respective acquisition/borrowing applicants A-M. The acquisition/borrowing applicant information DB 7A-7M accumulate the name or title and address of a party who wishes acquisition or borrowing, and data required for acquiring or borrowing a water right, such as the site of a water right which the applicant wishes to acquire or borrow, a desired payment for the acquisition or borrowing, a desired amount of intake water, a desired borrowing term, and the like.

The river information DB 8 provided in the management server 3 accumulates information of the same contents as the river management ledgers created and managed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and transport or local

autonomies which are responsible for management of the rivers, for example, the names of rivers for which water rights have been established, purpose of water utilization, positions of intake ports and the like, amounts of intake waters, intake methods, flow rates, and water levels.

The meteorological information DB 9 accumulates information related to the meteorology including the amounts of precipitation in respective regions, provided by AMEDAS or the like, received from the meteorological information transmission station 5. The water utilization right information DB 10 accumulates water utilization right information which is created for water utilization rights registered in the management server 3 by the assignment/loan offerers as subjected to assignment/loan by referencing the information accumulated in the river information DB 8 and meteorological information DB 9.

The auxiliary information DB 11 accumulates graphical information related to a map of whole Japan, graphical information on respective rivers found in the map of whole Japan, and bibliographical information for an application for an act desired for a procedure of an assignment or a loan. The intermediation result DB 12 accumulates data related to assignment/loan offerers and acquisition/borrowing applicants in a temporal order or by region when any one of water rights subjected to assignment/loan is selected as a water right for which acquisition or borrowing is desired.

The web page file 13 accumulates data related to the

contents of the web page which can be viewed on a computer possessed by a water right assignment/loan offerer or an acquisition/borrowing applicant. This data is linked to the assignment/loan offerer information DB 6, acquisition/borrowing applicant information DB 7, river information DB 8, meteorological information DB 9, water right information DB 10, and intermediation result DB 12, and the contents are updated as required.

In the following, the general operation of the water right intermediation network system illustrated in Fig. 1 will be described with reference to Figs. 3 and 4. Fig. 3 illustrates an operational procedure of the management server 3 when an assignment or a loan of a water right is registered, wherein it is assumed that a water right owner for example, wishes to assign or loan a water right.

Accordingly, the water right owner a initiates a browser on his computer la to view the web page (step S1), and enters information on the assignment/loan offerer a in a field "OFFER ASSIGNMENT/LOAN OF WATER RIGHT"on the web page (step S2). Here, the information on the assignment/loan offerer refers to the site of a water right involved in the assignment/loan, and the name or title and address of the owner of the water right.

When the assignment/loan offerer a enters predetermined information at step S2, the management server 3 accumulates the information in the assignment/loan offerer information DB of the assignment/loan offerer a (step S3). Next, at step S4, the management server 3

acquires information related to the water right owned by the offerer a with reference to the river information DB 8 using the information entered by the assignment/loan offerer _a, and acquires meteorological information at the site of the water right of the offerer a with reference to the meteorological information DB 9 (step S5).

After acquiring required information at steps S3, S4 and S5, the management server 3 assesses the payment for the water right for which the offerer a wishes to assign or loan at step S6, and accumulates information related to the water right of the assignment/loan offerer zu including the information acquired at steps S4 and S5 and the payment assessed at step S6, in the water right information DB 10 at step S7.

The foregoing steps S1-S7 are repeated each time a party who wishes to assign or loan a water right views the web page to enter predetermined information, and the assignment/loan offerer information DB 6 is created for each offerer.

Fig. 4 illustrates an operational procedure of the management server 3 when an applicant who wishes to acquire or borrow a water right registers to that effect. Assuming herein that an agricultural group M wishes to acquire or borrow a water right, the acquisition/borrowing applicant M initiates a browser on its computer 1M to view the web page (step S10), and enters on the web page the name of a water system or a region in which a desired water right to be acquired or borrowed has been established (step S11). In

response to the entry, the management server 3 searches the water wright information DB 10 using the name of the water system or region entered by the acquisition/borrowing applicant M as a key at step S12 to examine whether or not a water right available for assignment or loan exists in the water system or region entered by the applicant M (step S13).

When the result at step S13 reveals that water rights available for assignment or loan have been registered in the water system or region, the management server 3 displays a list of these registered water rights on the web page (step S14). Then, the acquisition/borrowing applicant M determines whether or not a desired water right to be acquired or borrowed is included in the list of water rights displayed on the web page (step S15).

When the applicant M determines at step S15 that there is the desired water right to be acquired or borrowed, the applicant M selects the water right for which he wishes to acquire or borrow from the list of water rights, and enters information related to the acquisition/borrowing applicant M into the management server 3 through the Internet 2 (step S16). Here, the information related to the acquisition/borrowing applicant refers to the name or title, address, telephone number and the like of the applicant M. Upon receipt of the information entered by the acquisition/borrowing applicant M at step S16, the management server 3 notifies the assignment/loan offerer of the water right selected by the applicant M that the

applicant M wishes to acquire or borrow the water right through the Internet 2 or another appropriate communication means at step S17, and simultaneously accumulates the information related to the assignment/loan offerer and the acquisition/borrowing applicant in the intermediate information DB 12.

On the other hand, when the acquisition/borrowing applicant M determines at step S15 that there is no water right which he wishes to acquire or borrow in the list of water rights displayed on the web page, the acquisition/borrowing applicant M enters information related to a water right which he wishes to acquire or loan, and information related to the applicant M on the web page (step S18). Upon receipt of the information, the management server 3 accumulates the information entered at step S18 in the acquisition/borrowing applicant information DB 7, and describes on the web page the name or title of the acquisition/borrowing applicant M, and whether the applicant M wishes to acquire or borrow a water right in this water system or region (step S19).

Turning back to step S13, when the management server 3 determines that there is no water right associated with assignment or loan in the water system or region entered by the acquisition/borrowing applicant M, the management server 3 displays on the computer 1M of the acquisition/borrowing applicant M that there is no water right associated with assignment or loan in the water system or region specified by the applicant M (step S20).

Accordingly, the acquisition/borrowing applicant M enters information related to a water right which he wishes to acquire or borrow, and information related to the applicant M on the web page at step S18. Then, as previously described, at step S19, the management server 3 accumulates the information entered at step S18 in the acquisition/borrowing applicant information DB 7, and describes on the web page the name or title of the acquisition/borrowing applicant M, and whether the applicant M wishes to acquire or loan a water right in this water system or region.

Subsequently, each time an offer for assigning or loaning a water right or an application for acquiring or borrowing a water right is newly entered, the procedures are repeated as described in connection with Figs. 3 and 4 to update the contents of the assignment/loan offerer information DB 6, acquisition/borrowing applicant information DB 7, water right information DB 10, and intermediation result DB 12.

In this manner, the distribution of water rights is promoted, and a business entity which operates the management server 3 can receive predetermined commissions from an assignment/loan offerer when accepting an offer of assignment or loan for a water right, from an acquisition/borrowing applicant when accepting an application for acquisition or borrowing of a water right, or both of a water right owner and an acquisition/borrowing applicant when a contract is established for an assignment

or a loan of a water right.

Now, referring to Fig. 5, description will be made on some of auxiliary screens which can be displayed on the web page by the management server 3 with reference to the aforementioned variety of DBs when a request is made from any of the assignment/loan offerers a-k and acquisition/borrowing applicants A-M. First, a whole Japan map screen 11 and a river and lake screen 12 are screens which are displayed on a computer of an acquisition/borrowing applicant by the management server 3 at appropriate step in Fig. 4 with reference to the auxiliary information DB 11 when the acquisition/borrowing applicant makes a request, such that the acquisition/borrowing applicant can confirm the site of a water right associated with assignment or loan on the map.

A water right assignment/loan offerer information screen 13, and a water right acquisition/borrowing applicant information screen 14 are screens which are displayed on a display of an assignment/loan offerer or an acquisition/borrowing applicant in response to a request when the web page is viewed at step S1 in Fig. 3 and at step S10 in Fig. 4 for displaying which water right is subjected to assignment/loan or acquisition/borrowing.

These screens are displayed by the management server 3 with reference to the water right information DB 10 and acquisition/borrowing applicant information DB 7.

A water right assignment/loan condition comparison screen 15 is displayed for helping to select an optimal

water right by processing the information used for displaying the aforementioned water right assignment/loan offerer information screen 13 to mutually compare water rights in terms of assignment or loan conditions.

The management server 3 displays the contents of the intermediation result DB 12 on a water right intermediation result screen 16 in response to a request from an assignment/loan offerer or an acquisition/borrowing applicant for providing reference information when the assignment/loan offerer or acquisition/borrowing applicant determines whether or not the assignment/loan offerer registers an offer of a water right assignment or loan or the acquisition/borrowing applicant registers an application for a water right acquisition or borrowing.

The management server 3 can further display an act request screen 17 on a requester's computer for requesting a business entity which operates the management server 3 for an act of a contract procedure (including a notice to a river/lake manager) related to a water right assignment or loan, based on data stored in the auxiliary information DB 11, when a request for the act is made on the web page from the assignment/loan offerer or acquisition/borrowing applicant. This screen displays a field for entering the name of the assignment/loan offerer or acquisition/borrowing applicant who requests the act for the procedure, and a charge for the act.

While the water right intermediation network system according to the present invention has been described in

connection with one embodiment thereof, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment as described.

For example, in the foregoing description, the management server 3 opens a web page on the Internet such that assignment/loan offerers la-lk and acquisition/borrowing applicants 1A-1M interact with the management server 3 through the web page. Alternatively, email-based communications may be made between the management server and the assignment/loan offerers and acquisition/borrowing applicants. In this case, the web page file 10 shown in Fig. 2 is eliminated, and an assignment/loan offerer may transmit information related to his water right to the management server 3 through an email, and the management server 3, responsive to the email, provides information related to the water right, for example, in the form of attachment file through an email. Similarly, an acquisition/borrowing applicant may send his application to acquire or borrow a water right to the management server 3 through an email, and the management server 3, responsive to the email, notifies the acquisition/borrowing applicant of water rights previously registered for assignment or loan through an email.

Also, while the Internet 2 is used in the network system of Fig. 1, a public telephone network may be used instead. In this case, communications are made between the management server 3 and assignment/loan offerers and acquisition/borrowing applicants through telephones or facsimiles.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As will be understood from the foregoing embodiment of the water right intermediation network system according to the present invention, this invention is particularly advantageous in fluidizing water rights, which have not been fully distributed, based on their economical values to effectively utilize rivers and lakes in accordance with amounts of intake water and actual uses as well as in developing a new business for a business entity which operates the network system to gain commission incomes through intermediation of water rights.