Analysis of the Green Spaces used on Outings by Urban Elementary Schools in Hokkaido

Abstract

The main objects of this paper were to clarify the characteristics of behavior on outings by urban elementary schools and to know what green spaces were used by the purpose and how. Places for outings used in the year 1983 were suggested by elementary schools in 32 cities of Hokkaido.
Usually the schools went on outings twice a year (in spring and autumn) and the most common number in the group was between 100 and 199. Although usually the outings were on foot, about half of the outings in the large cities were by reserved bus or other means of transportation.
Based on the analysis in Sapporo, the mean distance from the schools to the places used for outings when on foot was about 3km, and when using other transportation was about 10km.
Classifying the places used for outings, we showed that urban parks were popularly used and that there were a lot of differences according to natural environment of the cities.
From the results, we can point out that it is important to consider behavior on outings when planning urban green spaces.