A Study on the Relationship between Abandoned Agricultural Land in Naka City, Ibaraki Prefecture and Changes in Agricultural Land Development between the Early Taisho Era and the Heisei Era

Abstract

This research is taking Naka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, as a case study, the objectives of this study are: 1) to understand and organize the history of agricultural development from the early Taisho era to the present day by dividing it into periods through a literature review; 2) to analyze the increase and decrease of agricultural land due to development in each period using maps from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, and to clarify the relationship between the period of development of agricultural land and its degradation with reference to the locations of present-day abandoned agricultural land; and 3) to integrate the results of 1) and 2) and to examine the causes and social background of abandonated agricultural land. In conclusion，the decline of the rural landscape centered on rice paddies did not begin in recent years, but the agricultural landscape has been continuously changing since the Taisho Era due to the conversion of upland field into paddy fields. The factors contributing to the decline in rice paddies differed from period to period.