Gis Mapping of Landscape and Disasters of Sado Island, Japan

Sado Island is floating offshore of Niigata on Sea of Japan. This island is 855km2 and composed of Ko-sado (Small Sado) and O-Sado (Large Sado), and both them are arranged in a direction of NNE-SSW. This arrangement are parallel to Kakuda-Yahiko Range, south of Niigata City in the main land. O-Sado has the highest peak of more than 1100 m (Kinpokusan: 1172m), and Ko-Sado of 600 m high peak (Daichiyama: 645m). The total areas of the Sado Islands are 855km2, and East-west length is 32.7km, North-South length 59.5km.Total shore lines are up to 280.4km. The population is more than 67,000, the population density is 80.7/km2. The average temperature is 13.7oC, and annual precipitation is 1550 mm. Geologically, the Sado Island is composed of Neogene terrestrial and marine volcanic rocks of andesite, dacite and rhyolite. The Sado is a beautiful island, but is prone to landsliding and tectonic movements evidenced by upheaved benches and active faults. This island is also known as extinct birds “Crested Ibis, Nipponia nippon”.This paper deals with GIS using mapping of landslide disasters, landscape and cultural heritages of Sado Island, referring to geology and geomorphology. Figure 1. ALOS Image of Sado Island