Transition of the satoyama landscape in the urban fringe of the Tokyo metropolitan area from 1880 to 2001

An explicit understanding of past landscapes is a basic and important issue, which enables deeper understanding of current landscapes in a longer context and gives useful suggestion to today's landscape planning. In this paper, transition of the traditional Japanese agricultural landscape (satoyama landscape) over a relatively long temporal scale (1880–2001), and its inherent dynamics in each of four socioeconomically based time periods in two topographically different areas around the Tokyo metropolitan area was studied. Information derived from historical records and interviews was used to differentiate four socioeconomic periods, and to support and explain the results of the analysis. Old maps and aerial photographs were used to create land use maps, which were analyzed using GIS. The results illustrated drastic landscape change from agricultural to urban landscape, with unique land use and transition patterns in each study area. A large part of both study areas was affected by bi-directional conversion between woodlands and crop fields in the early part of the study period, in the form of shifting agriculture. Our results also showed that the landscapes are becoming less dynamic and it may suggest reconsideration for land use planning, which will lead to more stabilized landscapes.