| Top > National survey on the natural environment > Vegetation Naturalness Survey/Vegetation Survey |
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When reproduction and distribution this map
free of charge, please make acknowledgments
as follows: |
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| Vegetation exhibits diverse features from region to region. This
diversity is the result of evolution and adaptations according to the history,
climate, topography and geology of each region, as well as the interactions
among vegetation and other organisms, including man. When we propose to
do things that affect the natural environment, approaches and techniques
appropriate to each region's special characteristics can be ascertained
from examining its vegetation. A vegetation map showing plant community units classified according to plant sociology is very useful as a diagnostic map for national land use planning, regional development and industrial zoning. It also has prescriptive values for designing ecologically sound environmental protection, restoration and promotion measures. It is an indispensable resource for the development of a master plan for protecting and developing each species. This survey was made with the aim of producing a national vegetation map that would show the status of vegetation throughout the country and serve the purposes and goals mentioned above. |
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| The prefectures were asked to undertake the 1st through the 5th surveys.
In each prefecture, interpretation of aerial photographs and on-site surveys
were done and an actual vegetation map on a scale of 1:
50,000 was made. An actual vagetation map was complied in the 1st survey and
then a map on a scale of 1: 200,000 was printed for each prefecture. The 2nd and 3rd surveys continued looking into the state of the country's vegetation in more detail, aiming to produce a map on a scale of 1: 50,000 that would be helpful in planning at the regional and local levels. The 2nd and 3rd surveys each covered about half of the country. By 1987, 1,293 copies of the 1: 50,000 actual vegetation map were printed and distributed. To assess the state of vegetation from a national perspective, survey results were totaled by coding them using the small circle method (a 5mm-diameter circle centered on a grid map to highlight predominating communities) using the Grid Square System (Standard Area Grid. also called the 3rd grid. About 1km X 1km). In this way, present state of vegetation and Vegetation Naturalness were shown on tables and maps. In the 4th survey and 5th survey satellite images were used for the first time to get firm data on changes over the years. Satellite image data (from LANDSAT MSS, TM, etc) at two points in time (old & new) was analyzed to determine vegetation changes. Then surveys on the ground were made in each prefecture based on the results. In this way up-to-date information could be produced in a short span of time. The information gained with this method on changes in the nation's vegetation was used to update the 1:50,000 vegetation map built up from the 2nd and 3rd surveys. A revised map of vegetation change on the same scale was prepared. An actual vegetation map and a vegetation naturalness map were also made on a scale of 1: 2,500,000. |
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| The 1st survey set out to put together a vegetation map, using plant
sociological methods, for the whole country and, on the basis of the map,
to make judgements as to the extent of human modification (Vegetation Naturalness)
of the land. An index was devised, according to "the degree of human
disturbance " to rank environments from those wholly in their natural
state or nearly so to those with very little original nature remaining.
The ten ranks of "Vegetation Naturalness" are shown as follows: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2nd and 3rd surveys resulted in production of a nationwide "1: 50,000 actual vegetation map." There is no other example in the world of a map covering an entire country on a 1:50,000 scale. The 4th survey and 5th survey corrected the original map for changes and produced the "1: 50,000 actual vegetation changes map." The plant sociological community classifications (legend) shown by the map clearly reveal the diversity of plants in Japan. When plants unique to particular regions are added to the nationwide standard plant digest, the total reaches 766 communities. When the results are summarized in the ten-rank classification according to the amount of human influence on the natural environment, forests (ranks 9 - 6) cover some 250,000 square kilometers, or 67.3% of the country. Natural forests plus natural grasslands have shrunk to less than one-fifth, 19.0%, of the country. Between the 3rd and 5th surveys, the broad category of forests as a whole (ranks 9 - 6) shrank. Since affronted areas (rank 6) did not diminish, the inference is that the shrinkage in total forests came as a result of loss of natural and second-growth forests (ranks 9 - 7). Also, there was essentially no change in the share of cultivated farmland and cities.
*1 "Forests" include "natural & secondary forests" and "afforested areas". |
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| All Rights Reserved, Copyright Ministry of the Environment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
*) The organization was changed to the Ministry of Environment in 2000. |
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1. Survey Objectives