In hilly and mountainous areas, farmland has become difficult to maintain as the number of farmers has decreased. The purpose of this study is to clarify the current state of farmland maintenance ...activities in that areas in a deteriorating rural labor market. To do so, we analyzed the relationship between the structural changes in the rural labor market and the history of Sounenrenmei and Ninaitekai （middle age alliance and farmland maintainer groups） activities. As a result, we found that their activities were dictated by the rural labor market structure. In addition, their activities also provided opportunities to earn additional income i.e. safety net with part--time farmers.
In this report, we studied the management and use of after-school childcare （ASC） in hilly and mountainous areas （HMA）. The case areas of this research were depopulated towns and villages in Gunma ...Prefecture, particularly Nanmoku Village and Kanna Town, where depopulation is increasing rapidly. The results were as follows : 1）ASC was necessary not only in urban areas but also in HMA because many children return from school to an empty home in HMA. In particular, in areas that had fewer parks due to their steep hillsides and the long distance between the houses where children lived ; places providing ASC are highly valued as children can to go outdoors, interact, and play together. However, the towns and villages where childcare is not free and the ASC only allows registration for children whose parents are not at home when school hours end ; therefore, not all children enjoy the functions of ASC in HMA. In those areas, children use other institutions, including systems, such as after-school child classes. 2）In some towns and villages, regardless of their status with respect to depopulation, there was no fee for ASC to support families raise children. On the other hand, moderate to high fees in Gunma Prefecture would be needed for the use of ASC in towns and villages that were designated as depopulated areas. 3）In Nanmoku Village and Kanna Town, almost every child was registered with ASC. The reasons for this were the free provision of ASC for all children as there were fewer elementary school children than the capacity for ASC, and there are few parks in these areas, particularly in Nanmoku Village.
In mountainous areas in Japan, depopulation and aging issues are being serious. But there is not enough power and willpower to reactivate by themselves. Therefore, new collaborative activities ...towards reactivating these areas with supporters from outside such as Community-Reactivating Cooperators have been started as national policy. On the other hand, cooperative activities with outsiders have some issues such as depend on cooperators and losing independence of inhabitants and deteriorating relationship between the two attribute. Therefore, process design of acceptance and cooperation is important in these supporting activities. This study aims to clarify the change of social role of outsiders, and process of acceptance and cooperation in hilly and mountainous areas. Firstly, we understood the outline of theory of Community-Reactivating Cooperators on local government and supporter's activities. Secondly, we clarified the process of gaining acceptance by inhabitants, through communication with cooperators. Thirdly, we clarified the role transfer process of supporters. And finally, We clarified the acceptance process and role transfer of supporters in depopulating and aging local region. This study is identified as understanding detailed process of acceptance and cooperation, and change of social role of outsiders in the new cooperative activities in hilly and mountainous areas in Japan.
To analyze the relationship between Oncomelania snail distribution and environmental remote sensing indexes in hilly and mountainous areas.
The normalized different vegetation index (NDVI), land ...surface temperature (LST), humidity index (Wetness) of 85 snail spots in Dali City were extracted for statistical analysis by TM image, and the land-use types were classified. LST, NDVI, Wetness, snail density and land-use types were overlaid and analyzed by using a weight of suitability model of ArcGIS 9.2, and snail appropriate distribution range in Dali City was calculated.
The distribution of LST, NDVI, Wetness values of the investigated snail points were approximately normal, and most of the snail points distributed nearby the average values of the remote sensing alternate indexes, then gradually reduced to the ends. More than 90% of the snail spots were distributed in the land type with crops and grassland. The environments in Dali City were divided into unsuitable snail environment (0-14 points), suitable snail
In this study, we investigated the pesticide spray operations of multicopter in hilly and mountainous areas of Hiroshima. By comparing the work efficiency of the multicopter and boom sprayer, we aim ...to explore the time benefits of utilizing the multicopter in hilly and mountainous areas. First, we studied how the work efficiency of multicopter and boom sprayer were affected by the size of the fields. Second, by modeling the workflow of the multicopter and calculating the time of each step in the workflow, we estimated the total time taken by the multicopter to perform the same activity in the same fields where the boom sprayer was used. By comparing the time consumptions, we had the following results: （1） work efficiency in the fields was approximately three times higher when using the multicopter compared with that of the boom sprayer. The work efficiency was lower in the smaller fields for both multicopter and boom sprayer, but the efficiency of the multicopter was relatively higher;（2） 55% less time was needed when using the multicopter compared with the boom sprayer. Based on the results of this study, pesticide spray operations by using the multicopter is more desirable in hilly and mountainous areas.
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