Parks In Japan Research Articles

Mapping Earth Hummocks in Daisetsuzan National Park in Japan Using UAV-SfM Framework

Mapping Earth Hummocks in Daisetsuzan National Park in Japan Using UAV-SfM Framework

Effectiveness of Non-Geotagged Social Media Data for Monitoring Visitor Experience in a National Park in Japan

In the pursuit of sustainable national park management, park managers need to understand the interests and activities of their diverse visitors in order to conserve the natural environment and offer a better visitor experience. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of using non-geotagged social media data from posts by park visitors for park management in comparison with geotagged data, which has been studied more extensively. We compared (1) visitors’ sociodemographic characteristics between geotagged and non-geotagged social media users through an onsite survey in Nikko National Park, Japan, and (2) the content of geotagged and non-geotagged photos shared within the study area on X (formerly Twitter). Our results showed that visitors in their 30s and 40s and foreign visitors had a greater tendency to use geotags. Non-geotagged photos more frequently and deeply capture nature-based activities and interests, including activities on trails, such as mountain climbing and hiking, and an interest in diverse animals and plants and landscapes that are less accessible. These findings indicate that non-geotagged social media data may have less age and nationality bias and advantages over the more widely-used geotagged data in capturing various nature-based experiences offered by national parks. Leveraging both geotagged and non-geotagged data can enable park managers to implement sustainable practices catering to a broader range of visitor interests and activities, contributing to the overarching goal of sustaining the natural environment while also enriching the visitor experience within national parks.

Trends and Issues in the Application of Park-PFI in 45 Parks in Japan

Trends and Issues in the Application of Park-PFI in 45 Parks in Japan

Methodology for probabilistic tsunami-triggered oil spill fire hazard assessment based on Natech cascading disaster modeling

A novel modeling methodology is presented for cascading disasters triggered by tsunami hazards considering uncertainties. The proposed methodology focuses on tsunami-triggered oil spills and subsequent fires, a type of natural hazard-triggered technological (Natech) event. The methodology numerically simulates the time-varying behavior of tsunami-triggered oil spill fires for numerous stochastically generated scenarios and performs a probabilistic mapping of the maximum radiative heat flux as a quantitative measure of the fire hazard. To enable these assessments, probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments are extended to include the tsunami-induced movement of oil storage tanks, resulting oil spills, tsunami-driven oil fire spread, and thermal radiation from fires. The uncertainty of the earthquake fault slip distribution, oil filling level of storage tanks, and fire starting time and position is incorporated into the new assessments. To demonstrate the methodology, a realistic case study is conducted for a coastal petrochemical industrial park in Japan conditioned on possible offshore moment magnitude 9.1 earthquakes. Contrary to typical tsunami direct impact assessments, the results highlight the cascading effects of tsunamis and large variability in key output variables concerning oil spills and fires. This indicates that the methodology is useful for deepening stakeholders’ understanding of tsunami-triggered cascading disasters and improving risk reduction plans.

What on-site landscape experiences attract potential visitors to a site? A Japan–Korea cross-cultural comparison

ABSTRACT In the age of big data, social media’s influence on on-site landscape experiences is growing, and the relationship between on- and off-site landscape planning and management is becoming more important. The study’s objectives were: 1) to identify scenic hotspots based on on-site visitor experiences, 2) clarify landscape preferences and attractiveness based on photographs taken at scenic hotspots, and 3) examine similarities and differences between Japanese and Korean visitors in terms of landscape preferences and attractiveness. The data were collected using geotagged visitor employed photography from 153 visitors to the Takao Quasi-National Park in Japan were used to understand off-site appreciation, and compare Japanese and Korean visitors’ experiences. Photo-based questionnaires were completed by 42 Japanese and 40 Korean respondents. We collected 1,645 geotagged photographs, and performed a GIS analysis with network-based kernel density estimation to identify scenic hotspots. The data extracted from the photo-based questionnaire were used to analyze the relationship between on-site and off-site experiences, as well as similarities and differences between the Japanese and Korean participants. The data were analyzed using means, Welch’s t-test, Wilcoxon sum-rank test, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and Kendall’s correlation analysis. The results identified nine scenic hotspots, and revealed that the photographs that the Japanese visitors preferred to take would not necessarily attract tourists, nor were they the same as the scenic spots and objects the Korean visitors found attractive. As international tourism expands, cross-cultural research on on- and off-site experiences and preferences has become increasingly important for forest landscape management and sustainable tourism.

Impact of user fees for visitors to national parks in the presence of alternative sites

This study proposes an approach using the Kuhn–Tucker model to determine the extent to which the number of visitors to a recreational site would decrease if a user fee were introduced. This approach is promising in terms of consistency with economic theory and computational feasibility, assuming alternative recreational sites exist. An empirical analysis of national parks in Japan shows that a 1000 JPY fee would hardly decrease the number of visitors to a national park, whereas it would decrease the number of visitors to another national park over 45%. The results show that recreational sites with relatively high price elasticities experience a significant decrease in the number of visitors even with low user fees.

장기미집행 공원 문제 해결 방안에 관한 비교법적 연구

Urban parks are facilities that play an important role, such as providing space for residents in urban areas to engage in social and cultural activities and providing emotional stability. In particular, since it provides green area in urban areas, the importance of urban parks is further emphasized at a time when interest in the environment is high like these days. Urban parks, which play an important role in urban areas, have only confirmed the site of urban parks and have not been constructed as urban parks for a long time. In particular, if the urban park site is private land, the problem of infringement of property rights occurred because the landowner could not perform all development activities. Invalidation of Determination of Urban or Gun Planning Facilities was introduced in July 2000 to solve the problem of property rights infringement in long-term unexecuted park areas. Invalidation of Determination of Urban or Gun Planning Facilities means a system in which a Determination of Urban or Gun Planning Facilities becomes invalid if an urban park site has not been constructed as an urban park for 20 years. Since this legal system has been subject to effective not only private land but also national and public land, the area of urban parks is on the verge of seriously decreasing. To solve this problems, Act On Urban Parks and Green Area and the National Land Planning and Utilization Act were revised to preserve urban parks by introducing Special Cases concerning Developing Activities in Sites for Urban Parks in which the private sector participates in the construction of urban parks and Designation of Urban Natural Park Zones. Despite these efforts, the site area, which is a long-term unexecuted park, reaches 403.9㎢ nationwide, so it is necessary to solve the problem of long-term unexecuted urban parks. However, the finances of local governments are insufficient to turn long-term unexecuted urban parks into urban parks. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a legal system that allows private sector can construct and manage urban parks with private capital. In order to introduce a system in which private sector can construct and manage urban parks more actively, Park-PFI in Japan is compared. Park-PFI is a legal system prescribed by the Act on Urban Parks in Japan that openly recruits private sector to construct and manage profitable facilities such as restaurants and stores in urban parks and constructs and manages facilities that cannot be profitable. Park-PFI can effective in solving the problem of long-term unexecuted parks by reducing the financial burden of local governments by participating in the creation and management of urban parks. To solve problem about long-term unexecuted urban parks, the writter suggests to compare Korea's urban park legal system with Japan's Park-PFI, derive implications, and present measures suitable for solving long-term unexecuted urban parks.

장기미집행 공원 문제 해결 방안에 관한 비교법적 연구

Urban parks are facilities that play an important role, such as providing space for residents in urban areas to engage in social and cultural activities and providing emotional stability. In particular, since it provides green area in urban areas, the importance of urban parks is further emphasized at a time when interest in the environment is high like these days. Urban parks, which play an important role in urban areas, have only confirmed the site of urban parks and have not been constructed as urban parks for a long time. In particular, if the urban park site is private land, the problem of infringement of property rights occurred because the landowner could not perform all development activities. Invalidation of Determination of Urban or Gun Planning Facilities was introduced in July 2000 to solve the problem of property rights infringement in long-term unexecuted park areas. Invalidation of Determination of Urban or Gun Planning Facilities means a system in which a Determination of Urban or Gun Planning Facilities becomes invalid if an urban park site has not been constructed as an urban park for 20 years. Since this legal system has been subject to effective not only private land but also national and public land, the area of urban parks is on the verge of seriously decreasing. To solve this problems, Act On Urban Parks and Green Area and the National Land Planning and Utilization Act were revised to preserve urban parks by introducing Special Cases concerning Developing Activities in Sites for Urban Parks in which the private sector participates in the construction of urban parks and Designation of Urban Natural Park Zones. Despite these efforts, the site area, which is a long-term unexecuted park, reaches 403.9㎢ nationwide, so it is necessary to solve the problem of long-term unexecuted urban parks. However, the finances of local governments are insufficient to turn long-term unexecuted urban parks into urban parks. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a legal system that allows private sector can construct and manage urban parks with private capital. In order to introduce a system in which private sector can construct and manage urban parks more actively, Park-PFI in Japan is compared. Park-PFI is a legal system prescribed by the Act on Urban Parks in Japan that openly recruits private sector to construct and manage profitable facilities such as restaurants and stores in urban parks and constructs and manages facilities that cannot be profitable. Park-PFI can effective in solving the problem of long-term unexecuted parks by reducing the financial burden of local governments by participating in the creation and management of urban parks. To solve problem about long-term unexecuted urban parks, the writter suggests to compare Korea's urban park legal system with Japan's Park-PFI, derive implications, and present measures suitable for solving long-term unexecuted urban parks.

A new feather mite of the genus Pelargolichus (Acariformes: Pterolichidae) from the Oriental White Stork Ciconia boyciana (Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae) in Japan

A new feather mite Pelargolichus orientalis sp. nov. is described from the Oriental White Stork, Ciconia boyciana Swinhoe, 1873, one of the world’s most endangered bird species. This mite species was collected from feathers of the Oriental White Storks bred in the Tama Zoological Park in Japan. The native population of the Oriental White Stork and feather mites associated with this bird had been extinct in Japan since 1986. Wild individuals of this bird species were transported from the Eurasian Continent to Japanese breeding facilities, and in the 2000s, a small wild population was restored. The new mite species is presently distributed in natural fields in Japan along with its introduced host population. This study presents the first record of the feather mite genus Pelargolichus in Japan.

Eurocentric cultural theme parks in Japan: domestic tourists’ perspectives on place branding

ABSTRACT During the Bubble Economy era, cultural theme parks were constructed in rural Japan for economic rejuvenation. These cultural theme parks or gaikoku mura (foreign villages) embrace foreign cultures and landscapes rather than rollercoasters. They offer Japanese tourists the foreign travel experience adapted and modified for the Japanese market. Set within place-based branding, imaginaries, and authenticity, this paper compares the Eurocentric theme parks of Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki and Yufuin Floral Village in Oita. Opening in 1992, Huis Ten Bosch is a large-scale cultural theme park based on Nagasaki’s historical connection to the Netherlands. Recreating Dutch cities and landscapes, it offers hotels, restaurants, shops, and attractions. Within the hot springs area of Yufuin, the Floral Village opened in 2012, modelled after The Cotswolds, UK. Houses with storybook architecture contain souvenir shops and tea rooms featuring characters from British literature and Studio Ghibli anime. Based on site visits, photographic documentation, and qualitative sentiment analysis of comments written by visitors on TripAdvisor, the paper investigates the perceptions of Japanese tourists. They are positive about Huis Ten Bosch with developers having successfully created and branded a Dutch environment, while mixed messages at Yufuin demonstrate the importance of product-market match for these ‘exotic’ attractions.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Analyze Non-Human Drawings: A First Step with Orangutan Productions.

Simple SummaryUnderstanding drawing features is a complex task, particularly concerning non-human primates, where the relevant features may not be the same as those for humans. Here, we propose a methodology for objectively analyzing drawings. To do so, we used deep learning, which allows for automated feature selection and extraction, to classify a female orangutan’s drawings according to the seasons they were produced. We found evidence of seasonal variation in her drawing behavior according to the extracted features, and our results support previous findings that features linked to colors can partly explain seasonal variation. Using grayscale images, we demonstrate that not only do colors contain relevant information but also the shape of the drawings. In addition, this study demonstrates that both the style and content of drawings partly explain seasonal variations.Drawings have been widely used as a window to the mind; as such, they can reveal some aspects of the cognitive and emotional worlds of other animals that can produce them. The study of non-human drawings, however, is limited by human perception, which can bias the methodology and interpretation of the results. Artificial intelligence can circumvent this issue by allowing automated, objective selection of features used to analyze drawings. In this study, we use artificial intelligence to investigate seasonal variations in drawings made by Molly, a female orangutan who produced more than 1299 drawings between 2006 and 2011 at the Tama Zoological Park in Japan. We train the VGG19 model to first classify the drawings according to the season in which they are produced. The results show that deep learning is able to identify subtle but significant seasonal variations in Molly’s drawings, with a classification accuracy of 41.6%. We use VGG19 to investigate the features that influence this seasonal variation. We analyze separate features, both simple and complex, related to color and patterning, and to drawing content and style. Content and style classification show maximum performance for moderately complex, highly complex, and holistic features, respectively. We also show that both color and patterning drive seasonal variation, with the latter being more important than the former. This study demonstrates how deep learning can be used to objectively analyze non-figurative drawings and calls for applications to non-primate species and scribbles made by human toddlers.

The role and significance of parks during one year after the COVID-19 pandemic in Japanese newspaper articles

COVID-19 has led to demands for a different lifestyle. Parks are required to respond to complex needs, such as promoting their use while preventing infection. This constitutes an opportunity for citizens to rediscover the appeal of the park, which is accessible to everyone. Therefore, this study aims to comprehensively understand the role and significance of urban parks in Japan and apply this understanding to improvement and management based on the changes in usage and user comments for urban parks. Specifically, we investigated both the objective viewpoint, such as the current state and actual usage of urban parks, and the subjective viewpoint, such as the comments and opinions of park users using the text data of newspapers from January 2020 to March 2021. In addition to changes in the number of people infected, the survey found positive feelings about living in a park as people are forced to refrain from living, although negative opinions were found about the park. Accordingly, we can understand the process by which people again realize the need for the urban parks itself.

Research on post occupancy evaluation of Oze National Park in Japan based on online reviews

ABSTRACT With the development of internet, online reviews are user-generated content posted in the web-media era and can extract meaning from the comments through data-mining technology. The study uses python crawler to collect reviews and conduct post-occupancy evaluation on Oze National Park (ONP), a natural conservation in Japan. Content and semantic network analysis were adopted to study the high-frequency words and their relationships. Latent Dirichlet Allocation was utilized to uncover the dimensions of the comments. The conclusions were as follows: 1) Japanese tourists focused on landscape plants and nature, while the Chinese focused on facilities and experience, English concentrated on hiking activity. 2) The Ozegahara Plateau route and the Lake Ozenuma route were the two main courses in ONP. 3) 48% of the concept of the landscape of ONP was conveyed to the users. 4) Male tourists focused on location information and landscape, while females were concerned about the process and experience. The single-visitors paid attention to the road and boardwalk. Family tourism concentrated on experience and time while friends and couple-visitors preferred to perceive action. 5) The Lysichiton Americanus had become a basic feature of ONP, and visitors were satisfied with the landscape and experience.

Decline in the alpine landscape aesthetic value in a national park under climate change

Alpine landscapes are projected to be degraded under climate change, which would threaten their benefits to society. Previous studies, however, have been limited to aesthetic change, and it remains unclear how much the aesthetic change would affect human welfare. To address this issue and gain insights into climate change adaptation policies, we conducted a choice experiment survey using digitally manipulated images based on climate change scenarios and natural scientific knowledge in a mountainous national park in Japan. We uncovered that park visitors appreciate the alpine landscapes that include snow patches on mountains and some types of alpine flowers by analyzing the data from 445 respondents. Conversely, both the invasion of alpine vegetation by dwarf bamboo and the disappearance of snow patches due to climate change substantially deteriorated the perceived aesthetic benefits from alpine landscapes. The economic loss caused by climate-induced landscape degradation was estimated at more than 100 USD per visitor, at maximum; the disappearance of snow patches and invasion by dwarf bamboo reduced the benefits by approximately 13 USD and 101 USD, respectively. Our findings suggest that sustaining the aesthetic value of alpine landscapes in national parks via climate change adaptation has potentially significant economic benefits. By supposing that the mountain national park attracts 70,000 visitors in summer, climate change would cause as a minimum of eight million USD economic loss at the park without appropriate measures annually. Our findings highlight the importance of climate change measures by considering climate change impacts on social benefits associated with alpine landscapes.

Habitat selection of large herbivores evidenced as threats to alpine ecosystem

Across the globe, increasing populations of Cervidae have the potential to modify ecosystems. Long-term grazing pressure by deer not only alters vegetation but also affects ecosystem functions and interspecific interactions. It is recognized as a significant factor in ecological degradation. Alpine vegetation (i.e., alpine meadow) is an icon of alpine ecosystems and has thrived for centuries without the presence of large herbivores in Japan. However, in the alpine zone (>2700 m a.s.l.) of the South Alps National Park in central Honshu, Japan, sika deer (Cervus nippon) were first seen in the 1990s; thereafter, the vegetation noticeably changed starting in the 2000s. Nonetheless, virtually no information exists on habitat selection by these alpine sika deer. Here we analyzed (1) the altitudinal movement patterns of alpine sika deer, (2) the significant environmental factors affecting their habitat selection, and (3) estimated the relative probability of their habitat use via resource selection functions (RSF). The mean altitudinal difference between summer and winter home ranges was 1186 m, and the alpine sika deer arrived at the alpine ridgeline in June when the snow cover at >2400 m a.s.l. rapidly decreased. The mean altitude in the summer home range was 2635 ± 135 m. Alpine meadow, followed by Betula forests and tall grasslands, were preferred habitats by deer. The deer also preferred areas where snow melted in late spring and early summer. The deer's core habitat, indicated by higher RSF values (≥0.65), covered 45.2% of the study area, mostly distributed in the alpine zone. Our estimates clearly suggest the urgent need to prioritize specific areas for the conservation of the alpine vegetation in the South Alps National Park in Japan.

A case of mycobacteriosis associated with Mycobacterium pseudoshottsii in aquarium-reared fish in Japan.

In 2019, several aquarium-reared fish died at a sea life park in Japan. Necropsy revealed micronodules on the spleen in the dotted gizzard shad (Konosirus punctatus). Seven of 16 fish exhibited microscopic multifocal granulomas associated with acid-fast bacilli in the spleen, kidney, liver, alimentary tract, mesentery, gills, and/or heart. Bacterial cultures yielded isolates from the dotted gizzard shad and a Japanese sardine (Sardinops melanostictus). Microbiological and molecular biological examinations revealed the isolates as Mycobacterium pseudoshottsii. To our knowledge, this is the first isolation of M. pseudoshottsii from aquarium-reared fish.

I Wanna Draw Like You: Inter- and Intra-Individual Differences in Orang-Utan Drawings.

Simple SummaryDrawing has increasingly been proposed as an enrichment activity for captive primates in zoological parks and research institutes. The monkeys and apes are free to use the materials at their disposal and are not constrained or conditioned to show this behaviour. This provides a good opportunity to collect drawings by non-human primates and allows for comparative studies between hominids. This study is based on 749 drawings recovered from five orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus) at Tama Zoological Park in Japan, where caretakers regularly facilitated drawing activities for the apes. Analyses showed that individuals differ in their drawing style, especially in the colours used, the space they filled, and the shapes they drew. One individual, Molly, did more complex drawings than other individuals and drew differently according to the seasons and her age. This study is the first to reveal such individual differences and can give some clues about the emergence of drawings in human beings.This study analyses 749 drawings by five female Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus) at Tama Zoological Park in Japan. We searched for differences between individuals but also tried to identify possible temporal changes among the drawings of one individual, Molly, who drew almost 1300 drawings from 2006 to 2011. An analysis of the drawings was carried out after collecting quantitative and qualitative variables. Our findings reveal evidence of differences in the drawing style of the five individuals as well as creative changes in Molly’s drawing style throughout her lifetime. Individuals differed in terms of the colours used, the space they filled, and the shapes (fan patterns, circles, or loops) they drew. Molly drew less and less as she grew older, and we found a significant difference between drawings produced in winter, when orang-utans were kept inside and had less activity, and those produced during other seasons. Our results suggest that the drawing behaviour of these five orang-utans is not random and that differences among individuals might reflect differences of styles, states of mind, and motivation to draw.

Potential Analysis of the Attention-Based LSTM Model in Ultra-Short-Term Forecasting of Building HVAC Energy Consumption

Predicting system energy consumption accurately and adjusting dynamic operating parameters of the HVAC system in advance is the basis of realizing the model predictive control (MPC). In recent years, the LSTM network had made remarkable achievements in the field of load forecasting. This paper aimed to evaluate the potential of using an attentional-based LSTM network (A-LSTM) to predict HVAC energy consumption in practical applications. To evaluate the application potential of the A-LSTM model in real cases, the training set and test set used in experiments are the real energy consumption data collected by Kitakyushu Science Research Park in Japan. Pearce analysis was first carried out on the source data set and built the target database. Then five baseline models (A-LSTM, LSTM, RNN, DNN, and SVR) were built. Besides, to optimize the super parameters of the model, the Tree-structured of Parzen Estimators (TPE) algorithm was introduced. Finally, the applications are performed on the target database, and the results are analyzed from multiple perspectives, including model comparisons on different sizes of the training set, model comparisons on different system operation modes, graphical examination, etc. The results showed that the performance of the A-LSTM model was better than other baseline models, it could provide accurate and reliable hourly forecasting for HVAC energy consumption.

Climate-induced species range shift and local adaptation strategies in a temperate marine protected area, Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park, Shikoku Island, western Japan

In temperate seas, expansion of reef-building coral distribution, decline of macroalgal beds, and changes in constituent species for coral communities and/or macroalgal beds mainly due to increase in sea surface temperature have been reported. Not only mitigation but also adaptive responses are important for the measures against climate change. Consideration of adaptive measures depends on local conditions such as the degree of environmental change and industrial structure is necessary when measures are implemented. This study focused on the marine protected area (Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park in Japan) and its surrounding area. This area is characterized by a very large north-south gradient in water temperature and the distribution of corals and macroalgae along it. The purpose of this study is to consider what adaptive measures are suitable for each region and industry in response to changes in coastal ecosystems (coral community and macroalgal bed). Future (assuming the end of this century under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios) changes in the potential distribution area of coral, macroalgae, and their consumers were projected using simulated sea surface temperature with a high-spatial resolution. After projecting the coastal ecosystem changes and assessing the contemporary use of coastal ecosystem, we give examples of what specific adaptive measures should be taken in each area for three fields, i.e., biodiversity conservation, fisheries, and tourism. Assuming the 2090s, though drastic changes in coastal ecosystem are not projected compared to the present state under RCP2.6 scenario, as coral distribution shifts north, feeding damage by crown-of-thorn starfish is projected to become a problem. Therefore, expansion of protected areas and promotion of conservation activities are major challenges for coral ecosystem conservation. On the other hand, under RCP8.5 scenario, it is important to take appropriate conservation measures for macroalgae since coral growth becomes difficult to achieve and grazing pressure on macroalgae increases due to extreme elevated water temperature. Moreover, creation of alternate or new tourism resources will be needed. This research represents projected scenarios of coastal ecosystem changes with a high spatial resolution and adaptation measures based on the changes for each municipality.

Can Video Traps Reliably Detect Animals? Implications for the Density Estimation of Animals without Individual Recognition

Several statistical models have recently been developed to estimate animal density using camera trappings without individual animal recognition. However, most models assume that detection by camera traps of animals passing a specific area of the camera view is perfect. A recently developed REST model (Nakashima et al. 2018; Journal of Applied Ecology 55: 735–744) also depends on the trapping rates and staying times within a specific area. We tested whether commercial camera traps provided unbiased estimates of these parameters by conducting an experimental trial using a domestic dog in a city park in Japan. Additionally, we tested the effects of camera angle on the estimation of these parameters using the Bushnell camera. The Bushnell camera captured the dog 96% of the time, while the Ltl-Acorn camera missed about half of his passes. The staying time was underestimated by 4% using the Bushnell and overestimated by 25% using the Ltl-Acorn camera. The bias in density estimation was < 10% using the Bushnell camera. Camera angle did not affect detection probability, while the downward-angled cameras underestimated staying time due to the delayed trigger. We hope to share the results with manufacturers to make camera traps more suitable for animal density estimation.