Landscape Ecological Approach For Restoration Site Of Natural Forests In The Ota River Basin, Japan.

The concept of landscape ecology (Forman and Gordon 1986) is the integrated understanding of nature by considering the structure, function and changes of ecosystem. Landscape mutually reacts to human activities and natural environment, so this idea must be undertaken in real world. Therefore, the accountability of landscape ecology has been realized and disseminated. Quite a few studies have been conducted from different directions and angles in Japan. Some of the latest researches are Kamada and Somiya (1995), showing a comparison with time and space of landscape structure due to the land use structure and its changes, Kamada and Nakagoshi (1996) demonstrating a spatial comparison of regional characteristics, and Sakamoto et al. (1995), indicating the procedure of forest area management planning from a point of land management view. Most of the researches have implemented one-dimensionally comparison among years or among regions of landscape structure. The entire topographic approach towards the river basin having several branch reaches has not been taken into consideration. Research proposal of the whole environmental conservation appropriate to the regional condition, has been implemented (Nakagoshi 2000) It indicates an expression stating that a unit where fauna and flora are existing in a certain expanded area, as well as a unit where life forms exist scattered but mutually and closely related to each other, or on the basis of water circulation, the minimum ecological unit is required to understand the integrated ecological functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]