Reconsideration of the role of Railway Forest in Japan

摘要

The railway forest in Japan was established in 41 places along Mizusawa and Aomori of Tohoku Main Line in 1893 and was originally made for prevention and reduction of the disaster like snowdrift, avalanche, sand drift, land slide and so on. It is also a forest belt set up in place along railway-tracks to ensure the safety and stability of the train operation, and was also utilized as forestry. However, nowadays there are some problems concerning the past role of railway forest. With the present problem surrounding railway forest, it needs revaluation in a different viewpoint. This study aims to examine the present role of railway forest and its potential role. In this study, aside from disaster prevention, culture and ecology were selected as the potential functions of each railway forest. Indices of these functions were particularly for analysis. As a result of Multivariate (HAYASHI3), it has been observed that railway forest can be categorized into several potent roles namely, for practical recreational use, for local action, for the maintenance of ecosystem, and for other potential functions of forest. Categorizing was done through cluster analysis, wherein, Axisl and Axis2 were assigned as 'easy accessibility to neighboring nature', 'land use' respectively. Divided groups have similar character were categorized according to specialization and functional complex of forest. From the result of Multivariate (HAYASHI3) and cluster analysis, it has showed that each object area within the group has similar characters in terms of potential usage irregardless of distance and geographic differences. Moreover, it has also been expected that some groups have limited role while others may serve mixed roles.