This study aimed to clarify factors affecting the conservation activities of Satoyama landscapes of suburban areas，employing a two-phase model of pro-environmental behavior (two-phase model). Shiroi city，Chiba，was taken a case study area to conduct a questionnaire survey targeting at residents of and those involved in a conservation organization. Factor analysis was employed to explore the constructs underlying conservation activities. Then，factor scores of the constructs were used for structural equation modeling to analyze how each construct influence each other. The analysis revealed that 1) the perceived seriousness of environmental problems and the belief in the effectiveness of a pro-environmental lifestyle had a significant influence on goal intention，2) cost-benefit evaluation and social norm evaluation had a significant influence on behavior intention，and 3) goal intention had a significant influence on behavior intention. The cost-benefit evaluation was the most influential factor on the behavior intention among others，followed by social norm evaluation，belief in the effectiveness of a proenvironmental lifestyle，and perceived the seriousness of environmental problems. In addition，Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed that people over 60 and those who have an experience in Satoyama landscape conservation had significantly higher factor scores in the majority of factors，including goal intention and behavior intention.

There are increasing attentions to multifunctional roles played by urban farmland and forests in densely populated areas， which becomes a new area of urban green space policy. This study tried to examine the plan conformance of three districtlevel plans formulated under the Agricultural Scenic Area Development System of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG). The evaluation of plan conformance was conducted from two perspectives, namely 1) whether the plan was formulated in line with the purpose of the System, and 2) which factors affected the plan conformance. We conducted semi-structured interviews with officials of TMG and three municipalities in charge of the System and questionnaire survey to residents of three districts where district-level plans have been in place. Most of the items of all the three district-plan has been implemented, showing high plan conformance. Our analysis suggested that high conformance was achieved by avoiding the use of legally-binding city planning schemes that often requires negotiations with residents and land-owners, minimizing plan-items targeted at the district requiring special budgeting, and using plan-items that can be implemented by municipal government without a special coordination with local stakeholders.

This study employs literature reviews, analysis of statistical data and interviews to top officials in Taiwanese government to elucidate the basic characteristics of administrative system of national park (NP) in Taiwan and evaluate the operation situation. Analysis of statistical data especially focused on the type of resource, area size, zoning classification, land ownerships, population, budget, human resources, and number of visitors. Interviews focused on the governance structures and implementation of NP plan. These results are critically analyzed by comparing with the situation of Japanese and American NP systems. From the analysis, this study clarifies that NP areas include approximately 10% of private lands hold by local community and indigenous people. Approximately 80% of the NP areas are classified as “strictly protected areas” while other 20% focuses more on sustainable development of the community. Average number of staffs and annual budget in each NP are 74 people and 8,610,869 USD. Based on the analysis results, this study categorizes the NPs in Taiwan into “natural type” and “artificial type” by their characteristics including the type of resource, area size and population referring the guideline of IUCN.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual conditions of the institutional framework, layout and area of children’s playgrounds, improvement of facilities and equipment, and management and operation based on the relationship with block parks, and to consider the functions, layout, entities involved, and direction of management and operation of children’s playgrounds from the spatial perspective. Matsudo City in Chiba Prefecture, where a children’s playground has been established since 1974, along with block parks, was selected as the site for the study. The results are as follows. (1) Children’s playgrounds, especially those maintained on privately owned land, were found to be in decline. (2) Children’s playgrounds and block parks of 1,000 square meters or more were found to have similarities and differences in terms of use. (3) Children’s playgrounds and block parks were found to be in competition for placement in the 250-meter attraction area. (4) In terms of the management and operation of children’s playgrounds, local organizations such as community associations are contributing more than block parks.

Most studies on the psychological effects of green spaces have been based on the premise of fine weather. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to clarify the psychological effects of green spaces in rainy weather by the evaluation experiment at three spaces: indoor, semi-outdoor, and outdoor. The results of the evaluation experiment on green spaces revealed that the preferred impressions of green spaces in the rain were dark, quiet, and calm. It was suggested that there may be some psychological effect even in rainy weather as in fine weather. However, the temperature has a strong influence on these results. Therefore, it is necessary to re-verify the presence or absence of psychological effects. On the other hand, from the results of an interview survey on the impression of rain showed that their feet getting wet in rainy weather was the most concern. And hearing the sound of rain and smelling rain disposed one to positive feelings. Depending on the results of future studies, this could be a factor that contribute to the utilization of green spaces in rainy weather.

This research aims to clarify the local governmental restrictions on ball play in urban parks and identify management problems. We sent 399 questionnaires to top 8 populated cities in each of 47 prefectures of Japan and 23 wards of Tokyo, 276 local governments responded. The result is as follows:1) 60% of responded local governments have restrictions on ball play, among them 40% in certain parks individually and 20% in all parks “unifiedly”. The bigger the city, the more restriction rate for ball play it has, and overall growth is provided by the increasing share of individual restrictions. In Tokyo, the unified restriction rate is significantly higher compared to other cities. 2)We identified two sources of the local governmental ball play restriction in urban parks: first - direct request from the neighborhood, second - inheritance of the restriction from the previous government. 80% of government do not know when the ball play was prohibited. 3) Once ball play is restricted, there is no case showing the change back to “non-restricted” state. About 90% of governments do not plan to change their current policy. 4) We identified that there is no clear method of decision-making regarding the ball play, including documentation.

This study aims to clarify forest characteristics and formation process of wooded flat areas inhabited by deer in Nara Park, known for its beautiful scenic landscape, and to explore key factors contributing to the forest formation. We probed into a wide range of past and present documents relating to afforestation of the park, including those written in the Edo period before the park opened. The study found that the wooded areas are classified into six categories, each dominantly comprising a group of tall trees. It has also revealed that there are three factors that have shaped their distinctive forest formation, including the eating habit of deer inhabiting Nara Park, preservation of historical or cultural spaces of religious, historical, or cultural values, and landscape creation based upon newly developed or improved park environments of integrative and scenic values, while presenting basic concepts conducive to future forest protection and sustainability in response to each formation factor.

In recent years, a few nurseries have been established in the urban parks under the National Strategic Special Zone System. It is necessary that such nurseries devise methods to avoid impairing the functions of urban parks. In this study, I assumed that opening nurseries’ facilities to park users help to improve the public use of parks. I conducted questionnaire and interview surveys on 16 nurseries and a few related local governments involved in establishing the nurseries to ascertain the facilities offered to the public, issues or contrivances faced, and so on. The result showed that opening nurseries’ facilities to park users included providing park users’ resting space, space for physical exercise, space for social exchanges, and shelter. The nurseries’ public service facilities such as “toilets” and “suckling rooms” are used by the public visiting the park. However, several nurseries face safety issues related to children who visit them and also related to their staff when nurseries are made open to the public.

The aim of this study is to grasp the distribution of grey starling’s communal roosts formed in urban areas and to clarify the surrounding environmental characteristics preferred by them. First, I investigated the distribution of grey starling’s communal roosts in Japan. I defined the roosts in densely inhabited districts as "urban roost," and grasped their distribution and characteristic trends. Next, I performed a wide-area analysis of the relationship between urban roosts in Osaka and land use around them. Finally, I performed a narrow-area analysis of the relationship between five urban roosts in Osaka and their surrounding spatial components. The majority of the 349 (1950-2019) urban roosts were located on the side of roads, in front of stations of commercial areas, and in the roadside zelkova serrata trees. Additionally, in relation to spatial components, more urban roosts were located in areas with middle-high-rise residential buildings. In addition, it became clear that it is important for grey starlings to be near buildings higher than the roosts as a microscopic spatial component.

In this study, we used an irradiation system to investigate differences in the following: (1) impressionistic assessment of room environment; (2) effects on physical and psychological restorativeness; and (3) job satisfaction due to brief rests in a nursing home room with or without Komore-bi. Results showed that impressionistic assessment (SD/PRS) for each room environment was more positive with Komore-bi. Additionally, salivary amylase activity, a physical indicator, was significantly reduced; while the subjective feeling of restorativeness (ROS) and mood states (POMS), both psychological indicators, significantly improved in the room with Komore-bi. Furthermore, some statistical differences in job satisfaction were found in the presence or absence of Komore-bi. In other words, this experiment has shown that short exposure to the Komore-bi irradiation system might contribute to the physical and psychological recovery and increased job satisfaction among staff members.

Street trees, which play a certain role in alleviating problems in urban areas, are experiencing the poor growth due to the stress in the urban environment. Therefore, it is necessary to grasp the environmental factors that affect the growth of street trees. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the degree of decline and street configuration among 2,615 dogwoods planted along the streets in Tokyo. As a result of our analysis, in the area where the buildings were tall, the tree vigor tends to be poor and in the area where the planting type was planting zone rather than planting pot, the tree vigor was tend to be good, in whole Tokyo area. Outside Tokyo 23 wards, there was a tendency for good tree vigor in the area where the road width was wide and the street trees were facing south. In Tokyo 23 wards where tree vigor has deteriorated since 2006, the buildings were tall and the roads width was also narrow. The results of this study show the possibility the effects of sunshine on the dogwood tree vigor are large in the wide areas. In particular, the height of the buildings and road width were regarded as significant factors where the tree vigor was actually degraded.

In this study, we investigated species composition of Planchonella obovate community on beaches around Amami-Oshima, and compared the result with that community which is generally distributed as Planchonello-Litseetum japonicae on rocky seashores. The results showed that Planchonella obovate community on beaches consisted of Planchonella obovate, Litsea japonica and other component species of the lucidophyllous forests etc. and species composition was similar to that of community on rocky seashores. In addition, we investigated the distribution of four community (Pittosporo-Quercetum phillyraeoidis, Cyrtomio-Litseetum japonicae, Crepidiastro-Cinnamometum daphnoidis, and Planchonello-Litseetum japonicae) on beaches, that had reported only on rocky seashores, by the review of reference documents. Each community has a wide distribution on rocky seashores, whereas we found only a few distribution of them on beaches. It is suggested that those beaches are worth preserving as precious vegetation under conditions of highly human impacts such as tree planting or artificial structures.

Communal roosts of birds formed on the street trees are problems in many cities, but no drastic solution has been found. Therefore, it is considered necessary to clarify the current situation of communal roosts from quantitative investigations and to accumulate knowledge of communal roosts formed on the street trees. The purpose of this study was to investigate the communal roosts on street trees of Kyoto city as an example, and to grasp the current situation. A research site was selected from places where Passer montanus and Spodiopsar cineraceus roosting in Kyoto. The survey was conducted once a week between June 13 and November 4, 2018, recording the number of roosting individuals, the time of roost initiation and completion, and roosting status. As a result, it became clear that a population roost will be formed until October. Furthermore, it was found that the population of P. montanus and S. cineraceus forming the communal roost increased during June. In addition, the initiation and completion times of roosting are close to the changes in sunset time, and it is considered that the sunset time is one of the factors affecting the roosting time. And, it was thought that there could be trees that are favored as roosts.

In the slope forest of suburban area, which is affected by the land development, rainwater is getting to be more difficult to be penetrated because of the long-term compaction of surface soil. In the slopes along the greenway in Kohoku New Town, we selected survey plots according to the land conditions and the existence of understory vegetation cover, comparing original slopes of tablelands, slopes of constructed fill and cut mud slopes. We investigated rainwater penetration capacity, soil softness, soil particle size composition, and cover and biomass of understory vegetation, and analyzed their relationships. As a result, soil softness and the hierarchical diversity of understory vegetation had positive correlation with water penetration capacity, and these relationships were found in the cut mud slopes, same as in the original slopes, although no such relation was confirmed in the filled slopes. In the filled slopes, the effect of the underground structure to water penetration is stronger than that of surface soil, but in the cut mud slopes, hierarchical vegetation and softened surface soil are distributed with higher water penetration capacity. It was suggested that it is important to utilize such cut mud slopes to recover rainwater penetration capacity, with conserving the developing vegetation, in the restructuring of the greenway.