Multi-functional utilization of suburban green space : text mining to analyze “Forest around the Mountains” Satoyama activities

Abstract Due to the acceleration of urbanization, many green spaces are facing the fate of abandonment, especially the urban and suburban green space. In Japan, these suburban green spaces can also be used as a Satoyama. Satoyama is a multi-purpose ecosystem, including some secondary forests, farmlands, lakes, marshes, and so on. They are affected by human beings and benefited each other. It is proof of harmonious coexistence that human beings have been groping for in nature since ancient times. This study collected the records of the Satoyama activity group in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan from 2008 to 2019, and used KHCoder3 to mine the characters. The purpose of this study was to identify that it is found that people use suburban green space in variety nowadays through the activities of volunteers in Satoyama. From the records, the green space has a series of changing stages after becoming Satoyama, in which 2008-2011 is the first stage, and 2016-2019 is the other stage, but 2012, 2014, and 2015 were grouped separately. In addition to the daily maintenance of the forest, there were also some special words that can be seen that people attach great importance to the publicity of Satoyama as a place for Children’s environmental education. For the future, Satoyama activities can afford good references to urban green space multi-function, maintain ecological balance, and keeping sustainable development.