A STUDY ON THE PREFERABLE URBAN STRUCTURE OF PROVINCIAL SMALL TOWN IN THE DEPOPULATION TENDENCY

Abstract

After World War II, urban areas in Japan sprawled to the suburbs because of rapidly increasing population, economic growth, and motorization. Along with that sprawl, some problems arose: blighted downtown areas, high CO2 emissions from automobile use, and high infrastructure maintenance costs. In recent years, Japan's population is decreasing. If such sprawled urban structures are maintained, then urban areas will have lower density, rendering public transportation systems inefficient, and raising infrastructure maintenance costs. Therefore, the “compact city” model was proposed as an urban structure for use in the depopulation era. Therefore, in this study, the authors examined scenarios for a case study city (Fuchu City, Hiroshima). Then the scenarios were evaluated from the perspectives of resident opinions. Results show that a scenario with population density of 50 [persons/ha] with moderately high infrastructure maintenance costs and CO2 emissions will earn consensus in local communities.

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