ABSTRACT
The Implementation Strategy of the Land Use/Cover Change Programme (LUCC) issued in 1999 states: "A coordinated effort across a sample of cases worldwide, characterized by different biophysical endowments, and contrasting socioeconomic traditions, is necessary to develop models more sensitive to regional variability and more effective in identifying the best points for policy intervention and for interlevel articulation." This statement coincides with one of the objectives of the International Geographical Union Study Group on Land Use/Cover Change, (IGU-LUCC), namely "to coordinate the comparative study and the model study of land use/cover changes and their driving forces in different regions" (Himiyama, 1998). Detailed case studies in different countries/regions or different settings provide the bases for understanding land use/cover changes in the corresponding areas. As part of its effort to promote such case studies and to establish a framework for comparative study of land use/cover changes, IGULUCC chose Hokkaido as the place for its meeting and study tour in August, 2000, with special attention to the effect of peripheral setting of the region on its land-use change.
