Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the direction of conservation and sustainable management and use of terraced rice field landscapes. We analyzed the forming process of terraced rice field landscape by the change in spatial features of the landscape. Terraced rice field lots and distribution of levee trees and forests were focused as the spatial features. Landscape elements were identified using aerial photographs from 1976 and 1995. The mesh analysis had been adopted to solve the change pattern of the terraced rice field landscape. As a result, a present terraced rice field landscape had been formed through two different changes in relations with the local residents. One change is abandonment of cultivation and expansion of forest. Another change is readjustment of rice field lots.
