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Environmental Design Lab
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The lab protects and creates landscapes, from gardens and satoyama (traditional village woodlands) to urban greenery.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring the logic of landscapes woven from nature and culture
The Environmental Design Lab studies the theory and techniques for protecting and creating green landscapes, and proposes plans for green spaces and spatial designs.
Its subjects are not limited to gardens and parks. They include cities, satoyama, natural parks, and places overseas, and the habitats of living things and the connections between them are an important theme.
The lab conducts education and research in cooperation with the Landscape Ecology and Conservation lab of the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies.
Undergraduates join the lab in their fourth year (graduate students belong to the Division of Forest Science, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- Landscape
- A scenery or area of land shaped over a long time by nature and human life together
- Slope revegetation
- Planting vegetation on slopes of roads and developed land to prevent soil from collapsing and to restore greenery
- Remote sensing
- A technology for investigating the condition of distant land and vegetation from satellites or aircraft
ResearchResearch themes
Research themes have grown out of each student's interests and strengths, and fall into four areas: garden history and design theory, nature conservation and planning, ecological restoration, and greening and tree diagnosis. The lab also uses landscape ecology, remote sensing, and GIS.
*Illustrative imageGarden history and design
This theme explores the history of garden culture and the principles of design. In an FY2025 graduation thesis, a student examined the characteristics of the plantings and stonework in the rear abbot's quarters garden (Ura-hojo garden) of Shokoku-ji Temple.
*Illustrative imageConserving and using satoyama and forests
The lab studies and proposes ways to conserve the natural environment and use it wisely. Current topics include the distribution and use of isolated trees in satoyama in Otsu, changes in forest use since the Meiji era in Kumogahata, Kyoto City, and sika deer appearing in urban areas.
*Illustrative imageRestoring habitats for living things
The lab develops methods for protecting and creating habitats for wildlife. In an FY2025 master's thesis, a student studied the geographic genetic structure of Japanese knotweed in Japan, with a view to slope revegetation that takes genetic diversity into account.
*Illustrative imageUrban greenery and heat
The lab develops management methods for keeping greenery healthy. Current work includes evaluating the shade created by the ginkgo trees along Midosuji, studying heat stress on children in park lawn plazas, and estimating how much greening could lower temperatures in Kyoto City.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Environmental Design Lab are faculty and students in undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs, including international students.As of 2026
- ProfessorJunichi Imanishi
- Associate ProfessorKatsue Fukamachi
- Assistant ProfessorRyo Nukina
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Japanese garden at Daisen Park in Sakai, October” Laitche / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Garden history and design: “Shōkoku-ji (Kamigyo-ku Kyoto) Temple hdsr S5 05” Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Conserving and using satoyama and forests: “Satoyama suehiro” Nagi2501 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Restoring habitats for living things: “Wetland restoration in Australia” Nick carson at English Wikipedia / Public domain (cropped)
- Urban greenery and heat: “Avenue of ginkgo trees, Meiji Shrine Outer Garden” Suicasmo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (樹木細胞学): “Resin Canals” Bweil2 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林生物学): “Sika Deer 30123652” belvedere04 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林生態学): “Smoke-filtered Sun on the Forest Canopy ( )” Forest Service - Northern Region / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (生物圏情報学): “Forest stream - geograph.org.uk - 642718” Nigel Freeman / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
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