This paper presents a village map using GPS and GIS, and examines the applicability to village studies in developing countries where it is hard to obtain maps with big scale. The focus of the paper is on methods for making the village map and its analysis by GIS in the study site of Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic). Location data such as Tracks and Waypoints stored in Handy-GPS receivers can be easily transferred to PC and processed in GIS application. The relative location error measured in several Tracks at 31 points by GPS was only 16.6m on average. This study suggests, therefore, that mapping by GPS and GIS can apply to village study, and shows the spatial change of tourism facilities in the study site as example of GPS data usage.

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This report evaluates five land use patterns with respect to energy consumption. Two types of energy consumption are considered: one depends on the atmospheric temperature, that is, energy consumed by air-conditioning and hot water supply systems; and the other is that consumed by transportation systems. Energy consumption by air-conditioning and hot water supply systems is estimated using a mesoscale meteorological model called the modified Colorado State University Mesoscale Model (CSUMM). Calculation of energy consumption by transportation systems is based on two types of trip behavior models. Comparison of energy consumption shows that the mixture of land use reduces energy consumption, and that excessive concentration of urban functions is not desirable with respect to energy consumption.

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Some GIS's begin to adopt implicit topology description. This approach makes easy to manage temporal data and to fuse several different sources data. However, this approach has not been leading methodology, because it needs much computational time. Recently, computer power make rapid progress, then implicit topology description becomes practicable. The most basic operations in implicit topology GIS is to find logically connecting lines at network node. Based on this operation, for example, region shape restoration and shortest path calculation can be done. This paper proposes an implicit topology GIS model, shows several basic spatial topological processing and evaluates the processing time by experiment. Then, conclude implicit topology description model is applicable for practical GIS on today's PC.

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Two methods and a system for the measure against slope failure disaster using GIS are proposed in this paper. 1) Method of extracting cliff and potential area, suffered from slope failure, by DEM and Landuse data. 2) Method of extracting potential slope failure area by rainfall data, and a system of conveying this information to local residents. These methods can be applied to many places where these data are available. Moreover, dangerous cliffs and the areas are extracted at the same time even in wide city area. These methods will allow us to extract dangerous cliff and area without fieldwork, and this information will help local residents with proper actions. Minami ward, Yokohama city, was selected as a study area.

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This paper experimentally attempts to evaluate a plan for information providing system for citizens by Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). Using a pilot system on GIS including many photo images, investigators illustrated the historic heritage at Gyotoku area in Ichikawa City to provide respondents with sufficient information to evaluate the plan. The finding is that respondents acquainted with GIS express greater willingness to pay than those who are new to GIS. This paper also considers some problems for application of CVM such as overestimation and the embedding problem.

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In order to assist the orientation and mobility of the visually impaired, when walking, using devices such as GPS (Global Positioning System), there should be a capability to automatically provide place name and compass information, in spoken format. Our system obtains the place coordinate such as latitude and longitude by means of the GPS and the direction for forward movement by means of a fluxgate compass. The numerical data are transformed to the place name using the place name layer of the geographic information database. In this paper we experimentally considered availability of both place name and crossroad layers. To this end, sighted participants were blind-folded and walked along a given route (about 1 kilometer) using the system. We clarified particularly a reduction in time using the principal components analysis and the discriminant function. This indicated that one layer alone, the place name layer, was in itself sufficient to walk the route, but using multiple layers, which were classified into different categories, one could walk more efficiently. In our system we developed a multi-layer structure in the geographic information database.

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Making thematic maps with drawing software packages on personal computers will bring a significant contribution to the education of geography and to the analysis of micro-scale landuse maps there by making them more available and simplifying their operation. This study demon-strates the method of plotting a landuse map with a drawing software package and analyzes the completed map with an image processing program. The plotting methods are focused on (1) draw-ings of parallel lines, (2) partition of land plots, (3) selection of fonts, and (4) modification and selec-tion of patterns for land plots. The analysis also confirms, the measurement of land plots and the procedures for improving their precision. These techniques for plotting and analyzing a landuse map provide a basis for making all other thematic maps to be printed out in gray scale.

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This paper aims to show the technique of temporal management for spatial data-framework of GIS that is Digital Map 2500. It is the technique of updating in order to keep the latest condition and store the temporal information without erasing former information. And we arranged the requisite for real time updating using differential information. We verified the technique by developing the prototype-system that was used at updating of Digital Map 2500.

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This paper describes a basic concept of a wireless lifeline data gathering project at TAO Hamamatsu Lifeline Research Center. The gathered information creates a GIS database. Using the database the system provides emergency control including active shutoff of lifelines. It also enables rescue personnel to make a restoration plan by predicting damaged portions of the lifelines. For the prediction the system reduces a network into a feasible size and derives a resistance value by linear approximation. Assuming several links damaged, it simulates water flow to make a number of water supply patterns in a prediction database. After a disaster the most fitted pattern is chosen. Implementation of the system reveals that the execution time is reduced by a factor of 80000 and thàt in 39 days the prediction database including 700 million patterns can be created.

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In this study, we calculated the grade of each urban district by using 50m mesh data of eight cities of Nagasaki prefecture, and clarified the grade distribution. We extracted the characteristics of each city by piling up the data of densely inhabited district (40 persons/ha) on the grade distribution. The result demonstrated that these cities were separated into two groups from the difference of the grade. One includes Nagasaki and Sasebo, and another includes the other six cities. Therefore, the urban districts of over 10 degrees grade where the inhabitants live under condition of over 40 persons/ha were defined as "the high-density hillside districts". And, the difference between the population density and the ratio of aged population of "the high-density hillside districts" in Nagasaki and Sasebo was clarified. Lastly, the result showed that "the high-density hillside districts" of Nagasaki were more abounding than that of Sasebo.

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In recent years, people have become aware of various functions and significance of Secondary forests, which is called Satoyama. However, Satoyama is decreasing in both quantity and quality. Therefore, a preservation plan is needed for Satoyama. The purpose of this study is to ana-lyze changes in Satoyama vegetation using the Rapid Survey Map, that is, a map produced by the Japanese army in the 1880s, a vegetation map in the 1970s, and GIS data in the 1990s. The results are as follows. The forest vegetation in the 1880s was dominated by Quercetum acutissimo-serratae. The rest was mostly Pinus densiflora forest. Between the 1880s and the 1970s, forest areas decreased, and succession from a Pinus densiflora forest to a Quercetum acutissimo-serratae forest occurred because of a decrease in frequency of forest use and mass-dieback of the Pinus densiflora forest. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, forest areas also decreased, and succession from a plantation to a Quercetum acutissimo-serratae forest occurred because of the change in the afforestation program.

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This study focuses how human-related processes effect on the landscape structure. The object is to analyze the present vegetation landscape in conjunction with the landuse changes in the past 100 years. The study has been done in the National Park, Mt. Daisen area where the beech (Fagus crenata) and its substitutional communities have widely dominated on the mountain slopes more than 600m above sea level. GIS was effectively applied to detect the changes from the temporal landuse maps and spatially analyze the causal relationship between the landscape and the land environmental factors. The study also shows the practical way of GIS application for the landscape and environment management in the national park area.

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