Abstract
Now that importance of landscape planning unique to each area is emphasized, it is necessary to conduct landscape planning by taking advantage of natural environments unique to each ares, because its natural environments are regarded as one of the assets the area possesses. This study targets at Kawachinagano City, Osaka, one of the residential areas that I not only rich in natural and historical elements, but also has been rapidly growing. The purposes of this study are to evaluate change in landscape structure over time by analyzing relation between landform and pattern of expanding the built-up area at three time points of 1932, 1967, and 1994 with GIS (ARC/INFO 7.0.3, ARC/View 3.0 (ESRI)), as well as to make some suggestions for planning landscape unique to the area. Data on main ridges, sub ridges, main rivers, and other landform were read from the elevation map, and data on woodland, and parks and open spaces (having more than 3 ha area) were read from the existing land use map. The data were used to understand the natural structure of the city from topographic viewpoint. Next, the existing land use map prepared with data on the built-up area and urban axes consisting of roads and streets were overlaid on the elevation map in order to understand relation between pattern of expanding the built-up area and the natural structure.