This paper outlines land-use/landscape pattern changes and relationships between land-use change trajectories and environmental variables in the Dong ethnic-minority village of Gaoyou in southwestern China. In the study, landscape metrics were applied to evaluate changes in land use and landscape patterns using GeoEye-1 satellite imagery for 2009/2020 and drone imagery for 2019, and redundancy analysis (RDA) was applied to clarify the relationship between land-use change trajectories and environmental variables. The 10–30% change in land use observed across each time sequence indicated rapid development in the area, resulting in increased fragmentation and reduced aggregation. The findings showed efficient usage of land resources in Gaoyou. Accessibility to land tended to govern the characteristics of land-use change, with natural variables influencing the type of development. The results also indicated that farmers responded quickly to government subsidies promoting tea and camellia plantations, unplanned road construction was causing fragmentation, and official land-use map content differed from the authors’ observations. Accordingly, the government should make integrated long-term plans for the development of ethnic-minority villages and engage in remote-sensor monitoring of local land-use change.

京都市鞍馬本町の伝統行事「鞍馬の火祭」では, 松明の「柴」として太さ1～2 cm のコバノミツバツツジなどの広葉樹中低木種の萌芽枝が用いられてきたが, 近年, 同町内での調達が難しくなっている。本研究では, 鞍馬本町におけるコバノミツバツツジの潜在生育地の推定や, 立地検討, 現地調査を行い, 資源利用ポテンシャルを明らかにした。同種の生育特性を基にしたGISによる推定の結果, 同町内全域の33.2%が潜在生育地と判定された。また, 聞き取り調査や現地調査の結果, 現状1年あたりに使用可能な同種の萌芽枝は, 松明に必要な量の約30分の1であり, 資源利用ポテンシャルは低く, 生育環境改善が必要であることが示唆された。

砺波平野の散居村の屋敷林周囲には水田が拡がり，豊かな水系が屋敷をとりまいている。近年屋敷林形態の多様化が進む一方で，典型的な屋敷林の保全は生態系サービスの機能を果たす。その実態を把握するため，本研究は地域の典型的な屋敷林であるS家を対象に，樹木・建造物・水系に関わる空間構造の把握と植物相の調査を行った。また居住者からの聞き取り調査に基づき植物と暮らしの関わりおよび水系の利用について明らかにした。

Facing future complex climate changes and global economic fluctuations, land use and land cover (LULC) simulation is recognized as an important initiative to support government decision-making. In this study, a comprehensive LULC simulation modeling framework was proposed based on the PLUS and InVEST models. The Kinki metropolis in Japan was chosen as a case to simulate future LULC changes under four SSP–RCP (126, 245, 370, and 585) scenarios, and to calculate carbon storage (CS) from 2040 to 2100. The results show that cultivated land will decrease while forests will increase, except under scenario SSP585. The artificial surface will increase except under SSP370. The CS changes are significantly correlated with forest area changes. Furthermore, this study highlights the significance of analyzing and discussing future LULCs under wide-area planning. Spatial pattern, morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), and Pearson correlation analysis were used to explore the characteristics of the LULC types. The results reveal that the prefectures within the Kinki metropolitan area can be classified into three groups based on the spatial pattern indices change of the artificial surface. Most cultivated land is concentrated in important patches and corridors (area larger than 40,000 m²), accounting for over 90% of the total area, while the number is less than 25%. Forests will become more aggregated, and different MSPA classes will have varying impacts on CS changes. This study comprehensively analyzed and validated the feasibility of the simulation results from different LULC perspectives, comparing the similarities and differences in the development of prefectures. Additionally, this research provides a comprehensive framework for integrating simulated LULC types with policy discussions to better guide LULC planning and policy formulation in metropolitan Kinki.