Abstract
In the beginning of $20^{th}$ century, the coal mining industry had an important role in Japan at which two-thirds of the coal product came from the Kitakyushu-Chikuho District (KCD). As a consequence of mining activities, land-use condition in this district showed notable changes. This paper presented a study of land-use changes in coal mining area by characterizing land-use pattern transition over the last 100 years. In order to carry out the rigorous analysis of land-use, a series of land-use maps over the last 100 years was developed using geographic information systems (GIS). The historic topographic map and another available old data were used to investigate the long-term changes of land-use associated with past mining within the GIS platform. The results showed that the utilization of a series of developed land-use maps successfully indicated the difference of land-use pattern in the KCD before and after the peak of mining activities. The general findings from land-use analysis described that forest and farm lands were lost and turned into abandoned sites in the last 100 years.
