A dataset of 137Cs activity concentration and inventory in forests contaminated by the Fukushima accident
Shoji Hashimoto, Naohiro Imamura, Ayumi Kawanishi, Masabumi Komatsu, Shinta Ohashi, Kazuya Nishina, Shinji Kaneko, G. Shaw, Yves Thiry
Abstract
Abstract The majority of the area contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident is covered with forests. We developed a dataset for radiocaesium ( 137 Cs) in trees, soil, and mushrooms measured at numerous forest sites. The 137 Cs activity concentration and inventory data reported in scientific journal papers written in English and Japanese, governmental reports, and governmental monitoring data on the web were collated. The ancillary information describing the forest stands were also collated, and further environmental information (e.g. climate) was derived from the other databases using longitude and latitude coordinates of the sampling locations. The database contains 8593, 4105, and 3189 entries of activity concentration data for trees, soil, and mushrooms, and 471 and 3521 entries of inventory data for trees and soil, respectively, which were collected from 2011 to 2017, and covers the entire Fukushima prefecture. The data can be used to document and understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of radiocaesium in the affected region and to aid the development and validation of models of radiocaesium dynamics in contaminated forests.