Since April 2007, based on the Basic Policy for Landscape Examination in Public Works Projects under the Jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) (Draft) (Basic Policy for Landscape Examination (Draft)), it has become a principle to conduct landscape examination for all projects of the MLIT. To promote and vitalize areas, community development utilizing landscapes has been gaining momentum in recent years.

In some public works projects, it is difficult to secure sufficient systems for examining landscapes, such as systems for the establishment of an examination committee. Techniques that can be used by onsite engineers of public work projects for predicting and evaluating landscapes have been called for.

Even though the Basic Policy for Landscape Examination (Draft) describes the characteristics and points to consider regarding landscape prediction, it does not specify the prediction methods that are able to be used for various purposes in different types of projects. The Basic Policy for Landscape Examination (Draft) does not describe how to evaluate the results of landscape examination or prediction, either. Such evaluation largely depends on the subjective judgments and empirical knowledge of engineers. There are some problems in consensus-building in such judgment among the engineers.

This study aims at the establishment and dissemination of appropriate technologies for predicting and evaluating landscapes—technologies that are able to be used for examining how landscapes should be developed when landscape examination is conducted.