Editorial introduction / Overview: Special Issues on the horizontal of research and methodologies on Sustainability in Asia

The eight papers in this special issue touched a variety of issues and took many approaches to deal with the new sustainability problems in East Asia. The cities and regions being introduced in mainland and Taiwan in China and Korea are good representatives of those areas largely affected by the physical and social transformation in the course of urbanization. The authors have explored the related problems from a wide range of perspectives, including urban development, environment-friendly planning, eco-tourism, community development, and cross-border cooperation. The research methodologies presented in this issue also ranged from quantitative spatial analysis with the applications of GIS and RS to qualitative analysis. The findings and proposals are expected to provide insights for other cities and regions bothered with similar problems

GIS-based spatial analysis for supporting the location of welfare facilities for the elderly using open data

13301甲第4743号博士（学術）金沢大学博士論文要旨Abstract 要約Outline 以下に掲載：International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14(10) pp.1102 2017. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. 共著者：Ninglong You, Zhenjiang Shen, Tatsuya Nishin

Prospects for Sub-Regional Cooperation in Fujian and Taiwan from Perspective of Urban Planning System：A Case Study of Pingtan Experimental Area

The pace of cross-border sub-regional cooperation is accelerating in the worldwide; ways of institutional cooperation guided by policy has become the trend of regional development gradually. The collaborative development of urban planning system is one of deciding factors in sub-regional cooperation. Fujian and Taiwan have deep connections and the strategic visions of cross-strait cooperation was formed. The approval of Pingtan Experimental Area provided conditions and spaces for the realization of cooperation and it proposed a new pattern of joint planning, development and management in the same year. Based on that, this study attempts to find and analyze the collaboration points which are significant to promote joint management by making a comparison of system of laws and regulations, system of operation and system of administration in urban planning system between the mainland China and Taiwan. Then we will build an operational framework of sub-regional cooperation based on the method of shift-of-context analysis. Related references are including: (1) Add necessary control requirements of building and land use into legal aspects; (2) Strengthen the connections between master plan and detailed planning; (3) Set up special departments for planning review under legal management in administrative cooperation; (4) Implement management for various lands in the same way to promote overall effective development of Pingtan

Assessing the allocation of special elderly nursing homes in Tokyo, Japan

金沢大学理工研究域環境デザイン学系Social welfare and public health departments require reliable assessments to enhance the rationality of phased construction of special elderly nursing homes (SENHs). This paper aims to assess the allocation of SENHs based on a beds-needed index for SENHs (BNIS). This may help departments determine the priority for approving locations of SENHs more accurately with a limited budget. Traditional assessments in Tokyo use the sphere of welfare, ward, and sphere of daily life as spatial units for estimating beds-to-elderly population ratios. We calculate the BNIS by introducing a parameter-improved floating catchment area method (PI-FCA) at a smaller spatial unit, the Chome. In the PI-FCA, the catchment area is generated according to the standard of average population served by SENHs and capacity, the population demand is the population of the elderly requiring care levels 3-5 and is further modified by a coefficient of potential demand via building a multivariate linear model. Improved results were obtained using the PI-FCA. Finally, this study maps the distribution of the degree of BNIS, to provide a basis for the allocation assessment of SENHs. This caters to the needs of departments and is easily applicable in other public healthcare facilities. © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Assessing the Allocation of Special Elderly Nursing Homes in Tokyo, Japan

Social welfare and public health departments require reliable assessments to enhance the rationality of phased construction of special elderly nursing homes (SENHs). This paper aims to assess the allocation of SENHs based on a beds-needed index for SENHs (BNIS). This may help departments determine the priority for approving locations of SENHs more accurately with a limited budget. Traditional assessments in Tokyo use the sphere of welfare, ward, and sphere of daily life as spatial units for estimating beds-to-elderly population ratios. We calculate the BNIS by introducing a parameter-improved floating catchment area method (PI-FCA) at a smaller spatial unit, the Chome. In the PI-FCA, the catchment area is generated according to the standard of average population served by SENHs and capacity, the population demand is the population of the elderly requiring care levels 3–5 and is further modified by a coefficient of potential demand via building a multivariate linear model. Improved results were obtained using the PI-FCA. Finally, this study maps the distribution of the degree of BNIS, to provide a basis for the allocation assessment of SENHs. This caters to the needs of departments and is easily applicable in other public healthcare facilities

Assessing the Impact of Road Network on Urban Landscape Ecological Risk Based on Corridor Cutting Degree Model in Fuzhou, China

The rapidly expanding road network has resulted in the separation of the urban ecological landscape. To assess the potential implication of the road systems on the landscape ecological risk, the corridor cutting degree model based on roadway impact zones was introduced, and the effects of the road system on the landscape pattern change were analyzed in Fuzhou City, China, in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Meanwhile, through spatial auto-correlation analysis and a geographical detector model, it was shown that there was a link between the characteristics of the road network and the temporal and spatial distribution of landscape ecological risk index, and the main determinants of landscape ecological risk were identified. The outcome indicated that (1) the intermediate cutting had the greatest impact on the ecological landscape of the four corridor cutting modes of the road network. Furthermore, the land types with a higher corridor cutting degree index were woodland, cultivated land, and grassland, accounting for 35.23%, 33.61%, and 5.95% of the total cutting areas, respectively, and the landscape fragmentation was relatively serious. (2) Fuzhou’s landscape ecological risk has significantly increased over the past 20 years, with sub-high-risk and high-risk areas experiencing increases of 9.47% and 7.63%, respectively, and the spatial distribution pattern being primarily high-high and low-low clustering. (3) Corridor cutting degree index (CCI) and distance from sampling point to road (shortest distance) were two key factors that altered the geographic distribution of ecological risk in the landscape, and they showed a positive and negative connection, respectively. (4) In the geographic distribution of landscape ecological risk, the interaction between CCI and land type, or shortest distance and land type, was much higher than that of other components, with an explanation rate of more than 22%. The study findings could provide a scientific basis for integrated transportation and ecological restoration strategies in national space