Abstract
The changes in land coverage on the Suo district, Yamaguchi Prefecture, were observed by MOS-1/ MESSR to trace back the process of its industrial development and predict analogous cases in Northen-East Asia.
The salt fields in the Seto Inland Sea were almost all replaced with industrial sites in the course of the intensive growth age during 1960s and 70s. The satellite observations have revealed that the salt fields in the Tokuyama 'and Kudamatsu areas, southern half of Suo, are exclusively used for indus-try. It is also found that some of the salt fields in the Mitajiri and Yamaguchi areas, the western half of Suo, are still left to be industialized. The Kunsan area of South Korea was chosen as a representative case. By overlaying an old map onto the recent LANDSAT TM image, the changes in the past half century were examined. The successive changes in the geographical features were also
investigated using the time series LANDSAT data from 1979 to 1987. It revealed that there are significant changes in land aspects as well as coastal lines due to the consecutive reclamation work.
The capability of the Kunsan area as an industrialized site was discussed from various angles in connection with the Japan's experience regarding the industrial development in the Seto Inland district.
