Basic Studies on Nature Conservation and Recreational Use in Mountain Watershed Areas

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a) Overuse is the major issue in the watershed areas in the mountain ranges. The historic statistics and current visitor surveys in Daisetsuzan National Park clarified the relationships between access improvement and increment of visitor numbers. Further analysis by GIS demonstrated that access improvement encouraged the rapid increase of day-hikers and caused soil erosion at trails located on fragile environment covered with alpine vegetation.b) For the purpose of evaluating the mental effects of watershed areas, the impact of natural sounds such as waterfalls, streams and bird songs were compared with man-made noises with the help of an electroencephalograph. Then the recorded data was analyzed using both fuzzy AHP and SD method. It became clear that the subjects prefer bird songs and murmurs to sounds of waterfalls or in an-made noises.c) The relations between vegetation types and human and wildlife impacts were studied at watersheds in Nikko National Park, It became clear that the number of visitors doubled in 12 years, and deer browsed heavily the vegetation at watershed areas. So far non-native vegetation is not obvious, but the possibility of invasion of naturalized plants is high.d) It is indispensable to grasp riverbed topography to support the construction of environmentally harmonized erosion control facilities at mountain watershed areas. For this purpose, a stream information analysis system consisting of an image processor and a digital camera was developed.