STUDY ON EFFECTS OF CONTACT LEVEL TO REGIONAL ENVIRONMENT DURING TRAVEL ON EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO LOCAL AREAS

Abstract

Many studies showed that those who have place attachment toward a place tend to have sense of responsibility to that place or that local community, and to engage in regional activities actively. Despite its importance, place attachment has not yet well studied in planning of public works. In this study, we hypothesized that people's daily encounters with environment and neighbors affect their attachment toward their living areas. To examine this hypothesis, we carried out a panel-questionnaire survey. The result showed that it takes more time to build emotional attachment and sustainement desire toward a residential place than to have preference to that place, and “multiple existences of shrine and temple” had a significant positive effect on developing place attachment.