Relationship between human population density and urban land use as an indicator of urbanization in landscape ecological approach and its regional differences in Japan

Abstract

We analyzed whether the relationship between population density and urban land use rate differs depending on the region by the third mesh unit. When calculating the number of urban meshes based on population density and land use criteria, the number of urban meshes based on population density criteria was slightly larger than the number based on criteria of land use in many prefectures. However, in Hokkaido, there was atendency that the number of urban mesh is small with criteria based on population density. Pearsonʼs correlation coefficients between population density and urban land use rate were calculated for each prefecture, and as a result, a high value of 0.82 on average wasobtained, but relatively low values of around 0.6 were obtained in Hokkaido and Iwateprefecture. We analyzed whether these differences influence the prediction model of the number of woody plants in Kanto district and Hokkaido. Population density was estimated as a significant variable in the prediction model of Kanto district, but in the Hokkaido the opposite result to the Kanto model was obtained. When population density and urban land use rate are used as an index of urbanization, it will be necessary to recognize that therelationship has regional differences.