Remote Sensing 
:dited by G.M. 
/ & Sons, New 
d INPE, 1992. 
js e ecossitemas 
ntica: estado do 
de Ensino, Säo 
and multisensor 
ng and corridor 
ment of Rajaji 
a. International 
14, No..3, Pp. 
yund resolution, 
atellite imagery 
ng of the humid 
emote Sensing, 
1 € vegetaçao do 
Anais botánicos 
pages. 
of the Atlantic 
S. Monteiro and 
Rio de Janeiro, 
M. Savage, J.I. 
uez and D.R. 
ropical wetlands 
xico. Ecological 
0. 
995. Landscape 
seasonal tropics 
al Applications, 
1, 1988. Macro- 
tecao ambiental 
) de Pesquisas 
raná, Brazil, 52 
with the odds. 
, pp. 8-9. 
POTENTIAL NESTING AREA IDENTIFICATION 
THROUGH RULE-BASED GIS 
Koichi HIRAT!, Kenji SATO! and Hiroshi MURAKAMP 
ISystems Engineering Center, PASCO CORPORATION 
1-1-2 Higashiyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153, Japan 
e-mail: hirata@mxa.meshnet.or jp 
2Geographic Department, Geographical Survey Institute 
1, Kitazato, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Ken 305, Japan 
ABSTRACT 
The nesting areas of the Japanese Crane, 
specified as a natural monumental animal in 
Japan, are being reduced by environmental 
changes, e.g., increasing housing developments, 
road construction and annual land cover changes. 
LANDSAT images and Geographic Information 
System (GIS) methods were utilized to identify 
the crane's nesting areas in the Kushiro Wetlands 
National Park, Hokkaido, Japan. The GIS 
analysis was based on land cover changes 
observed by satellite, the National Database, and 
information about the crane's habitat, to develop 
a nesting area model. The satellite data 
processing and the use of rule-based GIS analysis 
allowed the extraction of improved thematic 
information about the region and provided spatial 
and compositional descriptors of the Japanese 
Crane's habitat. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Recently, as a method of carrying out an 
analysis of the natural environment, flora and 
fauna of a particular region, a biotope can be 
extracted based on the interdependence of 
various environmental data, or an analysis 
performed using the principles of landscape 
79 
ecologylll. What is meant here by biotope is a 
region for which the following are considered. 
a. Ecosystems 
b. The environment required to guarantee 
survival of the ecosystem. 
C. The smallest geographical regional 
unit. 
Landscape ecology on the other hand, provides 
the scientific basis for providing the general rules 
for planning the optimum exploitation of a given 
region while maintaining the region's fecundity 
and natural beauty. 
The current research was conducted in the 
Kushiro Wetlands National Park to ascertain the 
effectiveness of landscape analysis and 
representation by Geographic Information 
System (GIS). 
2. BACKGROUND 
2.1 Area Description 
The Kushiro Wetlands, being the largest 
wetlands region in Japan, is a flat alluvial region 
of peaty soil, situated in Kushiro in the east of 
Hokkaido. It covers a total area of some 
16,000ha which, if the surrounding marshlands