The infrastructure ministry decided Monday to introduce an environmental assessment program allowing residential participation in the planning of public flood-control dam projects, ministry sources said.

The program would be the government's first to introduce environmental assessments from the planning stages of a public project.

The ministry expects to draw up necessary guidelines by next September, which will be reflected in plans for future dam construction on large rivers, the sources said.

Under the plan, the ministry would hear opinions from local residents during a stage at which several proposals are being considered for a single flood-control dam project.

The move aims to increase the transparency of the decision-making process, the sources said.

A total of 109 major rivers are likely to be targeted for the environmental assessments, which will be carried out whenever construction plans are made or reviewed for the rivers.

On Monday, the ministry also established a panel to study methods to be used in the environmental assessments.

Led by Yuichi Ono, head of the Kitakyushu Museum and Institute of Natural History, the panel will decide whether the assessments will include categories such as water quality and environmental impact on plants and animals.

The panel is also expected to determine which species, such as birds of prey, should be subject to the assessments, the sources said.

In addition, it will discuss methods to compare several plans by applying the plans to actual rivers and studying their environmental impact. The ministry will solicit opinions from local residents and academics both at the time a plan is adopted and when the results of the assessment are available.

The ministry will also reveal to the public the number of houses to be affected and construction costs associated with each project, the sources said.