Developing sustainable society is of primal importance to human survival. It requires ecologically responsible management of land, water and resources as its foundation. Science of Landscape Ecology that holistically examines ecosystems, including influences of human activities, envisages a firm understanding of the environment as a dynamic entity, and can be applied in the installation, operation, maintenance and renewal of social apparatuses in the development of sustainable society. 'Milieu' in its strict sense is considered as the paradigm of‘Lifeworld’ (Lebenswelt) shared among the local inhabitants. Therefore, undertaking comprehensive research in the domain of Humanities is a prerequisite to Landscape Ecology that has traditionally been practiced within the parameter of Social Sciences and upon the foundation of Natural Science. Doing so should prove of vital significance in expanding the possibilities of Landscape Ecology. In this paper I will examine integration of the study of 'Milieu' in the practice of Landscape Ecology. I will then discuss how designing the environment in which human lives take part should function as a practical tool for the development of sustainable society, and evaluate the roles of 'Milieu' formation in future practices of Landscape Ecology.

The Südgelände, originally a freight rail yard, today is a conservation area and nature-park in which urban industrial nature is both protected and accessible to the public. A concept of limited intervention transformed the already existing tracks into paths. These were complemented by the addition of a metal walkway construction traversing the four hectares of nature conservation area. It provides the general public access to the site without any direct impact on the vegetation. In order to preserve the immense diversity of flora and fauna a typology of space was defined. The different succession stages characterising the transformation from rail yard to wilderness were to be kept and continued by using various maintenance interventions. The remnants of the former train use are still visible.

We clarified how visiting students evaluated the satoyama way of life in the Hira Mountain Range, and investigated how the perception of the value of the satoyama way of life is related to new uses of natural resources, which have been increasing during the last few decades thanks to citizen activity. In our study, 147 university students were asked to write an essay on the theme ‘What is attractive about the satoyama of Hira?’. We extracted all expressions connected to what was perceived as being a valuable feature of the satoyama way of life from the essays, and sorted and analyzed them according to their meaning and based on their context. We then examined the keywords and category axis to determine what was perceived as valuable in the satoyama way of life. The word that appeared most frequently in the essays was ‘nature.’ The expressions that indicated the most highly valued features of the satoyama way of life were ‘nature as it is,’ ‘connection with nature,’ and ‘the way nature is used.’ We grouped the main expressions used in relation with the value of the satoyama way of life into the following five categories: ‘as in ancient times,’ ‘quiet and peaceful,’ ‘ abundant/diverse,’ ‘reasonable,’ and ‘connected. In the same way as the people who take part in citizen activities, the visiting students also highly valued the fact that the satoyama way of life allows people to be in close touch with the natural and cultural features of satoyama. Moreover, they pointed out that adding new elements to the traditional satoyama lifestyle in a thoughtful way will even further increase the value of the satoyama way of life. We can conclude that whenever projects aimed at changing or creating landscape elements, lifestyles, and land uses in countryside landscapes and villages are discussed or proposed, it is highly important to take into full account values such as those found in the five categories of our study including ‘reasonable’ or ‘as in ancient times’.

Vernacular Landscape design and regional planning methods were discussed based on examples of interesting landscape and our design projects and approach methods from landscape ecology. The process and characteristics of designing a city park for vernacular and biodiversity was discussed. Public space design usually has limiting conditions. Thus, history, culture, land shape, vegetation should be adapted to the design when we think about better landscape design. Featured landscape attract people and are easy to preserve. In this paper it is discussed how "usual landscape" is situated within the history and nature of an area, and how it should be designed.

“Fudo” is the Japanese concept indicating a dynamic linkage between environments and human beings. Understanding a structure of Fudo is the essential for designing a rich living place. An aim of the article is to explain how the landscape ecology can be a strong tool for reading a context of Fudo at a target region. First, a philosophical framework of the Fudo is summarized according to literatures written by Tetsuro Watsuji, Augustin Berque and Toshio Kuwako. It is pointed out that Fudo type can be identified through clarifying dynamic and circular relationships of nature-human being-method-tool/technology. And a critical situation of landscapes of Japan is also shown from an aspect of Fudo. The situations indicate a necessity of landscape design with a concept of the Fudo; future landscape should be designed on a base of history of the place. Finally, some actual cases, how the landscape ecology is used in a process of deciphering the structure and process of Fudo, are shared.