Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Hideharu Kurita | | Title | The transition of rural landscapes in the urban fringe area: A case study of the Kanto Plain, Japan | | Affiliation | National Institute for Rural Engineering | | Authors | Hideharu Kurita, Makoto Yokohari | | Keywords | Aerial photography, Land management, Landscape change, Rural landscape, Urban fringe area | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Introduction
While the Japanese population and economy was growing rapidly in the 1960-1990’s, agricultural lands in urban fringe areas, increasingly came under the influences of expanding and sprawling urban areas. Farmlands and woodlands in these urban fringe areas are faced with a number of serious issues. Perhaps most importantly, the abandonment of cultivation and management practices has seriously degraded many environmental and ecological functions of these areas. To solve the complex and pervasive problems confronting these areas, it is imperative that we first understand the transition of rural landscapes in urban fringe areas. Following upon this premise, this study has two main objectives: first, to analyze and explicate land use and land cover change through the examination of aerial photographs and second, to explain the how the transition of land management practices by local residents has affected land use change and cover.
Methods
Land use and land cover were examined using aerial photographs from 1947, 1974 and 2000. To classify land covers, different agricultural use and management conditions were examined. Land use and land cover changes were analyzed with GIS. To clarify land management practices according to each land cover, interviews were conducted with local residents. The contents of these interviews related to kinds of crops cultivated, description of agricultural practices, and the amount of labor invested in each agricultural practice. Responses were then organized according to each classified type of land cover. Two topographically different sites in the urban fringe of greater Tokyo were selected for study area.
Results
The results of this study indicate that the transition of agricultural landscapes can be contributed to three broad changes in land management practices.
1) Laborsaving: In improved paddy fields and crop fields on upland, agricultural working time was greatly reduced. This change was primarily caused by land improvement and the mechanization of farm work.
2) Intensification: Parts of dry fields on upland were shifted to intensive agricultural land use (i.e. formerly un-intensive land uses practices, such as wheat and sweet potato fields, were shifted to more intensive uses, such as seedlings fields).
3) Extensification and Abandonment: The management of dry fields and orchards on slopes (e.g. chestnut orchards) were shifted to extensive management. The cultivation and management of woodlands and unimproved paddy fields were abandonment. These changes were caused by the decreased value of agricultural usage and labor force in agricultural commune. |
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