Basic Study on Regional Characteristics of Waterfront Area in Ehime Prefecture by Agricultural Settlement Unit of Agriculture and Forestry Census

Abstract

We extracted the communities located in the coastal area and clarified the characteristics of them using the 2015 Agriculture and Forestry Census data and the results of the national census, taking Ehime Prefecture as an example. We categorized them used the employment rate data by industry and analyzed the agricultural area types of the communities included in each type. As a result, of the total 3,284 communities, 628 (19%) were coastal communities, and 23% (340,000) of the population lived there. In addition, from the viewpoint of agricultural area type, it was found that the ratio of hilly agricultural areas is high and agricultural land is often used as upland in coastal communities. As a result of cluster analysis using the ratio of employees by occupation as a variable, coastal communities were classified into 6 clusters. As a result, it was found that in the coastal area, mountainous agricultural communities are areas where fishing industry is thriving, and flatland agricultural communities are mostly citrus-cultivated areas using slopes. The high proportion of hilly agricultural communities is due to the development of relatively large orchards and the narrowness of the forests found on the islands and peninsulas. As a result, the number of communities not included in the mountainous agricultural area increases due to the increase in the cultivated land ratio or the decrease in the forest field ratio. Furthermore, it was found that many communities specializing in primary industry are in areas with high geographical isolation, and that the number of workers per community is small in these communities.