Fundamental Study on Natural Land Use Suitability Classification in Rural Area

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to classify the relationship between land use and natural conditions and to clasify the features of changes of land use in rural areas. The case study was carried out in Chino city, Nagano prefecture. In order to evaluate the natural conditions, the area was divided into natural land units based on land form and soil type. The natural land units map and the land use map were overlayed and the area of each land use in each natural land unit was measured. The Relation between natural conditions and land use was interpreted by location quotient. Analysis was carried out at two planning levels. The upper levels intended for the whole area of Chino City, whose area is266km2, and the lower is intended for the Tamagawa and Izumino regions in Chino City, whose area is 6.7km2. In this study the former level is called “city level”, and the latter is called “village level”. It became clear by analysing the relationship between natural land units and present land use that here are characteristic relationship between them at each level. The changes in land use were also analyzed. At the “city level”, the changes of the past 50 years were investigated. 5% of the area of Chino City has changed in 50 years. The land use appears to be stable at the “village level”, the changes from farmland to other land use of the past10 years were investigated. The changes were strongly influenced by natural conditions as well as economic conditions. From these results it was thought to be necessary in rural land use planning: (1) to grasp the natural conditions corresponding to the planning level, (2) to consider the capacity of the natural land unit as a land use item and the selective extension of land use items as a natural land unit, and (3) to consider the effect of natural conditions on the changes of land use.