The state of a street tree management plan and a citizen participation system in local Japanese government

Abstract

In this study, we will understand the actual situation of street trees maintenance management systems in local governments in Japan and the development status of street trees maintenance management plans and management guidelines. Next, this study was to understand the current state of the street trees maintenance management system and its impact, and to investigate the problems of citizen’s participation in street trees maintenance management. As a result, street trees maintenance work is mainly done in the civil engineering road sector. In large local governments, staff specializes in landscaping, while in small local governments, it’s mainly civil engineering. In addition, most street trees management methods are outsourced by contractors, with less than half direct management by staff. The policy to maintain street trees is positioned in many local government green master plans. Since 2015, local governments have developed conservation plans for street trees and are working on sound conservation. Since the 2000s, local governments have been working on maintenance management systems with the participation of residents. Most of them are road beautification activities based on adaptive systems. In the future, the challenge will be to further expand the system and raise citizen’s interest and value perception.