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Residents’ concerns about lake uses and environments: a comparative study of Lakes Kasumigaura, Suwa, and Biwa in Japan

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Abstract

Lakes are a common water resource. This study analyzed residents’ concerns regarding their lake environments to help solve lake environmental problems. The study area comprised three lakes in Japan—Kasumigaura, Suwa, and Biwa—which have different tendencies to change in water quality. A sample of 1200 respondents was evenly distributed among the three lake regions. A questionnaire survey asked about respondents’ proximity to the lake, their concerns about the lakes’ uses and environments, their evaluations of the lakes, and their opinions regarding environmental improvements. The number of options chosen in response to the multiple-answer questions was used to measure the extent of concern. The results found that knowledge of the water environment, general environmental concerns, the amount of travel time to the lake, and the visiting interval were significantly related to concerns about the lake environment. The results of logistic regression analysis found that high environmental concerns positively influenced attitudes toward lake use. Ways to increase concerns for lake environmental problems and the relationship between concerns and attitudes toward solving lake environmental problems are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the River Fund in charge of the River Foundation, Japan. We thank INTAGE Inc., Japan, for the web-based survey. We wish to thank members of the Society of Socio-Informatics, Japan, and Dr. Hiroyuki ARAI of the University of Tsukuba for their constructive comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science, University of Tsukuba, Laboratory of Advanced Research A, Room 501, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Shimako Kawamura & Takehiko Fukushima

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  1. Shimako Kawamura
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  2. Takehiko Fukushima
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Correspondence to Shimako Kawamura.

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Handling Editor: Hideyuki Doi.

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Kawamura, S., Fukushima, T. Residents’ concerns about lake uses and environments: a comparative study of Lakes Kasumigaura, Suwa, and Biwa in Japan. Limnology 19, 101–113 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-017-0523-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-017-0523-1

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