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The Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS) at Chiba University was established in April 1995 as a national joint-usage facility attached to the university. In 2010, it was officially recognized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as the only Joint Usage/Joint Research Center in the field of environmental remote sensing.

The origin of the Center dates back to 1963, when the “Institute of Natural Color Technology (INCT) ” was founded under the Faculty of Engineering. It was reorganized in 1986 as the “Remote Sensing and Image Research Center (RSIRC) ”, and later evolved into its present form. For more than 60 years, CEReS has contributed to the advancement of Earth environmental science, grounded in its academic expertise in satellite-based remote sensing technologies, data analysis, and image processing.

At the time of its establishment in 1995, the Center consisted of three research divisions and one development and operations division. Following the incorporation of the university, it was reorganized to strengthen project-based research initiatives. In 2021, a five-division system was introduced to conduct program-based research addressing issues such as climate change, environmental change, disasters, and food security. Furthermore, from October 2025, the Center will expand into an eleven-division system, establishing a new research structure centered on the integrated analysis of global environmental big data.

Within the framework of the MEXT Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities with Regional and Distinctive Strengths (J-PEAKS), for which Chiba University has been selected, CEReS is positioned as a core research hub that supports the university’s future vision through research on global observation big data integration and analysis. The Center also promotes data-driven Earth environmental diagnosis and prediction science, in alignment with international environmental goals such as the Paris Agreement, the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.

In the current era of accelerating global environmental change and increasingly frequent natural disasters, Earth Environmental Science based on satellite remote sensing plays an essential role as a scientific foundation that supports broad developments from basic research to social implementation, driving interdisciplinary and collaborative studies.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the many domestic and international researchers, partner institutions, and predecessors who have supported CEReS over the years. We will continue to devote our efforts to promoting interdisciplinary fusion research and creating new academic fields in the years to come.

Chiba University Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS)
Director: Prof. Katsumi Hattori