A proposal for redemarcation of terraced paddy fields in the impacted area of the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake

The Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake resulted in significant structural damage in the terraced paddy field areas. Particularly, landslides and slope collapses severely altered the original topography in some areas near to the epicenter. Because of the difficulty in restoring farmland in such areas to the original form, the government introduced a “disaster restoration-related land readjustment project”, which allows improvement and reorganization of farmland collectively. In the planning process, the provincial government sought academic advice from Niigata and Shinshu universities from the perspective of landscape conservation. In response to the request, both universities presented individual proposals on the basis of “parallel levee contour plots”. In this paper, we would like to introduce the fundamental concept of the Niigata University proposal for land readjustment in devastatingly affected areas