Spatio-temporal Analysis of Biodiversity, Land-use Mix and Human Population in a Socio-ecological Production Landscape: A Case Study in the Hokuriku Region, Japan

In the development of City Biodiversity Index (CBI) database, it was necessary to overcome technical challenges, including the collection of information for biological indicators. To overcome the lack of data, methods to utilize land-use data have been developed. For example, distribution and abundance of species correlate with the degree of land-use mix. The research site, the Hokuriku region of Japan, has a developed Satoyama, a socio-ecological production landscape based on mixed land use. A part of the region, Noto, has been designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) site in 2011 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). We found it is necessary to consider the biological type in order to refer to land-use mix as an indicator of biodiversity because the diversity of some species had a negative correlation with degree of land-use mix. We also determined that some species were correlated with land use changes over time. By applying the methods developed in this study to other Monsoon Asian regions with rapid population increases, it might be possible to develop a database as a platform for sharing the findings and knowledge to implement the conservation of biodiversity under changing conditions of land use and human population size.