Land-use planning and distribution of threatened wildlife in a city of Japan

The relationships between the distribution patterns of threatened wildlife species and current land-use planning were investigated in a city of Japan to design a sustainable and land-use plan. Spatial distributions of 165 species of threatened wildlife (99 plants and 66 animals) were obtained by surveying most of the Chiba City, located in northeastern part of the Tokyo Bay area. Distribution maps were created within 334 rectangular cells, each measuring 1.1 km×0.9 km, oriented in the cardinal directions. Four land-use zones, i.e., urbanization promotion, parkland, agricultural and urbanization control, and agricultural promotion zones were identified. The distribution of these threatened species was analyzed in terms of green cover and zoning categories. Few threatened wildlife species were found in the urbanization promotion or parkland zone. Most were concentrated in the surrounding arable areas with green covers of more than 50%. Areas other than those set aside for intensive agricultural development in the agricultural promotion development zone contained the greatest number of species. These areas belonged to the agricultural and urbanization control zone, where the traditional agricultural landscape still remains in and around narrow valleys called “yatsu”. The results suggest that the regional biodiversity depends heavily on areas in which the traditional landscape remains relatively intact. Based on these results, a series of recommendations, including conservation and restoration of habitats, establishments of wildlife networks and corridors, and citizen involvement in conservation, were presented to the city studied. The data and recommendations will hopefully help the city, as well as many other areas faced with similar issues, devise future land-use plans that combine sustainable development with conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of high quality living environments.