URBANIZATION AND LAND READJUSTMENT ON THE CASE OF THE LOWER BASIN OF THE KISO RIVER

Abstract

The urban and the rural land uses are competing with each other in the metropolitan area. The present writer has pointed out the necessity of the adjustment between the urban and the rural land uses on the basis of the wide-area land readjustment for the purpose of drawing up the programs of urbanization in the metropolitan area around Nagoya City on the lower basin of the Kiso River. The urbanization in this area has been remarkable especially since 1955; the population in the area, 10-20kms. around Nagoya City (Kanayama), increased during the year 1955-64 about 30-35 percent resulting the marked decrease of farm land (fig. 1). The number of the farm houses decreased from 60, 211 (1960) to 57, 248 (1965) and the rate of the specialized farming households showed a half reduction from 28.8 percent to 14.4 percent of the total farm-households. Meanwile the farmers have been carrying out two movements against the trend of urbanization: one is the organization of side work farmers by agricultural co-operation activities (e. g. in the rural area of Nagoya, Ichinomiya and Bisai cities) and the other is the active agricultural management by the land readjustment and the introduction of big tractors in the low damp land (“rice plus vegetables” type land-use in the division of the agricultural area in fig. 2). We must therefore remark the various forms of the adaptation for land readjustment, considering the difference of the influence of urbanization on agriculture in each areas. The percentage of the readjusted land is 38.6 percent……the total of the cultivat ed area is 40, 415 ha. and the readjusted area 15, 632 ha. (1899-1960) ……according to our investigation. But the aims of land readjustment up to the present are, in many cases, the raising of the farm rent by the landowners (esp. in the natural levee regions, 1-10 meters above the sea), the improvement of water service and sewerage and the settlement after the disasters such as Ise Bay Typhoon (esp. in the delta districts, 0 meter above the sea) (fig. 3). It is quite recently that the land readjustment has been executed for the urbanizing factors such as the development of cities and the building of railways and roads. We have picked up the cases of land readjustment in the rice district (Onogi section, Nagoya city) and the field-and mulberry-growing-district (Kochino section, Konan City). The result of our investigation shows that the land prices have risen, that the number of side work farmers has increased, and that the residential sections have been remarkably developed, in those districts (figs. 6 and 9). Those cases shows the common characteristics so far as the land readjustment is considered as the preparation for urbanization. Without programs of land readjustment, the conditions of cultivation would be worse and the residential sections would naturally sprawl. But the land readjustment only for the agricultural management without any consideration of urbanization would be forced to be readjusted by the development of cities. In short we must prepare the policy to adjust synthetically the planning techinques of roads, the size of sections and land consolidation as the principal elements of land readjustment for the prospective cities (e. g. in fig. 11) and to change the rural land readjustment to the urban land readjustment according to the process of urbanization.