The regional landscape is a product of close long-term interrelationships between the natural environment and human culture and lifestyles. In recent years modernization and accompanying changes in lifestyles are drastically impacting traditional landscape patterns, including forest landscapes. This study utilizes GIS data to understand how Japanese forests have changed over a long period. Using LUIS (Land Use Information System) as land use and land cover data was obtained for all of Japan, for 1990, 1950 and 1985. Changes noted over this 85 year time period were correlated with various environmental factors. As various environmental factors, we used climatic data, altitude data, and land form data. The vast majority of areas retained some type of forest cover over the entire 85 year period. Of these, a little more than half retained the same forest type, while the other showed a change in type. Areas that retained broad-leaved forest concentrated in the cool temperate zone, and mixed forest concentrated in the warm temperate and semi temperate zone, on steep mountainsides at elevations between 250 and 1000 meters. On the other hand, many sections of broad-leaved forest changed to mixed forest due to the timber plantation policy. Some areas changed from forest to urban or agricultural land between 1900 and 1985. The greater metropolitan areas surrounding Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, where the growing demand for food caused forest to change to paddy and dry field in the surrounding areas. In eastern Hokkaido is an area where broad-leaved forest changed to large-scale pasture and agricultural land concentrated in the cool temperate zone, and at lower elevations with relatively flat and volcanic ash sand plateau topography. The greatest changed area from other land use to forest, was from open area to forest between 1900 and 1985.

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The changes of the land use at Satoyama in suburban areas were quantitatively clarified by using GIS. The changes in remarkable land uses were five of the following. (1) The 5.0 km² coniferous forests have been changed into the broad-leaved forest from 1947 to 2006. The area was 66% of the area that was the 7.6 km² coniferous forests in 1947. (2) The 1.9 km² of forests and rice fields etc. have been changed into the villages from 1947 to 2006. It was the highest figure from 1969 to 1977 (the Period of Japan's Economic Growth) that the 1.5 km² of forests and rice fields etc. have been changed into the villages. (3) Chiefly the 2.1 km² of the coniferous forests and the broad-leaved forests have been changed into the golf courses from 1947 to 2006. It reaches 84% area of the whole land uses that the coniferous forests and the broad-leaved forests have changed into the golf courses. Especially it was the highest figure that the 0.7 km² forests, etc. changed into the golf courses from 1957 to 1969. (4) The 3.1 km² of the mainly coniferous forests and the broad-leaved forests have been changed into the wastelands from 1947 to 2006. It was from 1977 to 1986 that changing to the wastelands was most advanced. It was understood that the areas (1.1 km²) changed from the forests into the wastelands was wider than that (0.4 km²) from the abandoned rice fields by policy of reducing acreage or aging. (5)It is not so wide area that the changes from rice fields into the forests through the investigation periods from 1947 to 2006.

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"Green corridor along the waterside", the tree-planting project by local people is ongoing along the Aidumaogawa River, the second-class river of Aichi Prefecture. Considering the trends on the awareness of biodiversity promoted by the Convention of the Biological Diversity COP 10 held in Aichi prefecture, every project is recommended to take into account of the point of view of biodiversity. However, most tree-planting activities tends to focus on greening but not the biodiversity of the ecosystems up until now. Therefore, we conducted the research to clarify the effect of the tree-planting project on the biodiversity from the view points of "Ecological enhancement of the river space", "Establishment of forest ecosystems", and "Connectivity of the forest ecosystems", considering the hierarchy of biodiversity, which refers to diversity of ecosystems, species diversity and genetic diversity. The three methods, the HEP using an insect-eating bird, the Food Chain Box Method and the Connectivity Analysis, were successfully applied to evaluate the significance of the tree-planting activity on the enhancement of biodiversity along the Aidumaogawa River. These methods would be useful also for monitoring and other cases.

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