Realizing a Resilient Society by Preserving the Rural Environment

Department of Environmental Design, Faculty of Design
Associate Professor ASAHIRO Kazuo (Landscape Conservation)

The Landscape Conservation Laboratory covers green space environments in urban, suburban, and rural areas nurtured by the relationship between people and nature. The objective of our research is to incorporate landscape conservation design (planning and design) into society by clarifying the mechanism of green space conservation and conducting research, education, recommendations, and practices through collaboration with the public, government, and professionals.

Recent research topics include conservation of satochi-satoyama (socio-ecological production landscapes), ecological research of secondary forests, research on agricultural land restoration with co-assistance in the event of a disaster, and homestead woodland research in Bangladesh.

Since 1997, we have been developing conservation activities such as masonry of terraced rice fields through volunteer tourism in Kurogi-machi, Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture with the NPO Sansonjuku, and have been promoting the accumulation of management technology and the formation of a mutual assistance community. The heavy rains in northern Kyushu in July 2012 caused great damage to the agricultural and mountain villages. NPO Sansonjuku developed agricultural volunteer activities such as restoration of waterways and agricultural land by making use of its know-how on conservation activities. Such efforts have spread to Hoshino village and Ukiha City, and are being utilized in subsequent disasters.

This initiative has been adopted as a JST-RISTEX study and is published as a booklet for agricultural volunteer coordinators.

My activities focus on the cultivation of broad-leaved forests, research on semi-agricultural and semi-art activities, and collaboration with overseas universities in design education, targeting such rural and disaster-stricken areas. I’m planning to take various approaches socially, ecologically, and creatively, while seeing green spaces as open spaces. If you are interested in satochi-satoyama design, please contact me.

■See Also
JST-RISTEX (Area for Creating Safe, Reliable Urban and Regional Areas Linked by Communities)for Study on Development of Support Model for Agriculture and Forestry Land Conservation and Resilience after Flooding Disaster in Hilly and Mountainous Areas

■Inquiries
Department of Environmental Design, Faculty of Design
Associate Professor ASAHIRO Kazuo (Landscape Conservation Science)