Analysis of the Description of the Multifunctionality of Farmland in the Administrative Plans of Local Municipalities

Abstract

AbstractFarmland has various beneficial functions, such as flood control, water purification, and habitat provision, in addition to food production. These functions are highly compatible with green infrastructure, and the use of farmland as green infrastructure has been discussed in recent years. In order to utilize these functions of farmland, it is preferable to include their usefulness and utilization measures in administrative plans and link them to actual projects. In this research, we collected eight types of administrative plans from local governments across Japan that could be related to the multifunctionality of farmland and reviewed the extent to which they contain descriptions of the multifunctionality of farmland as basic information for promoting the utilization of the multifunctionality of farmland. As a result, we discovered that farmland’s multifunctionality was incorporated into the plans of many municipalities. Municipalities with a certain population size and a high financial strength index, in particular, tended to mention the multifunctional role of farmland in their plans more frequently. In addition, we found that some of the functions were mentioned less frequently in the plans. While descriptions of “conservation of natural environment” and “landscape/culture formation and recreation” were common in many plans, descriptions of “disaster mitigation and response” and “water and food supply” in times of disaster were less common. Finally, we drew some recommendations that can be used as a reference for future planning and project promotion, including dissemination of knowledge and information of farmland’s multifunctionality to government and citizens.