Relationships between Land Use and Demographics in Metropolitan Suburbs:Case Study on the Kanazawa-ku Area in Yokohama City

Abstract

　　A reduction in the populations of suburban sprawls of metropolitan areas has been forecast as a situation where populations proceed to decline in Japan.　Above all, the large-scale population of Yokohama City is expected to decline and countermeasures for management in residential areas because of population reduction are becoming a pressing issue.　Already, in the west of Yokohama City, the population decline has started, and problems with vacant houses and an aging population are arising.

　　This study focused on the Kanazawa-ku area, which is an area in Yokohama City that has shown early population declines, to investigate the current situation of land use by utilizing GIS data.　This study aimed to clarify the relationships between land use in suburban residential areas of the Tokyo metropolitan area and identify demographics by using GIS data such as topography from micro and macro perspectives.　We hypothesized that an increase or decrease in the aging index of residential blocks correlates with topographical and urban development factors.

　　Results of the survey confirmed that the aging index did not progress uniformly on every residential block.　Moreover, we divided the aging index into old-age and youth-age population ratios to analyze the principal components, the factors related to the increase or decrease in old-age and youth-age population ratios were different.　The analysis showed that it is difficult to sustain residential areas due to a higher aging index in residential blocks characterized by high ratios of detached housing.　The novelty of this study confirms that the increasing area of an aging index overlaps the residential areas planned during the period of high economic growth in Japan.

JEL Classifications:J11, R30, R52