Historical forest landscape reconstruction using continuous forest management data from 1931 to 2001 at Tokyo University forest in Chichibu, central Japan

摘要

The forest management cycle generally lasts 50–100 years, which is longer than the human life cycle. Therefore, it is difficult for the public to understand and appreciate the long cycle of forest changes. In this study, we aimed to develop the historical forest landscape reconstruction, which explains forest landscape changes in an easy-to-understand manner as comprehensible visual information. We investigated a method for forest landscape simulation with a combination of historical records of continuous forest management operated in the past and current technologies such as the geographic information system (GIS), computer graphics (CG), and the AMAP plant model. As a result, we developed the historical forest landscape reconstruction of a period of more than 80 years. Thus, we succeeded in visualizing almost a complete cycle of forest management. Only forestry professionals can understand the historical records of stand descriptions or tally sheets; however, once the technical records are visualized by simulation as historical changes in the forest landscape, they are transformed into visual information that helps the public more easily understand historical forest changes by operation. Thereby, it can be a tool for participatory forest landscape planning to accelerate people’s participation in forest management. For future studies, we expect to be able to visualize the history of the forest landscape on a monthly or annual basis by using more detailed information sources.