Abstract
Rural planning (rural improvement) has now been implemented for 15 years, and it seems to be time for a review. I accordingly take up two subjects for discussion as follows.
1. It is expected that non-farming demands for land use will continue to rise in future, so a method of agricultural land-use planning should be established and institutionalized. This method should be a zoning device, defining zones for good agricultural land, reclamation, water resources, nature conservation, settlements and others.
2. Agriculture and forestry account for over 80% of the land. The decline of agricultural and mountain villages could therefore lead to a waste of land. Rural policies have been successful in making villages richer and more comfortable place to live in, but the problem is to devise an organisational system to maintain and manage the improved villages. In recent years, many interchanges between rural and urban residents have become active, and it seems to be a sensible idea to integrate the co-operation of urban residents for creating vigorous rural communities.
In addition to the above, many other rural planning problems have piled up. This is a challenge for the Association, and I hope that its members, with a variety of academic disciplines, can work together to build new rural communities for the 21st century.
