A STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION ON GREEN SPACES USING DATA FROM FREE-TEXT DESCRIPTIVE RESPONSES - A CASE STUDY OF REGIONAL CITY IN JAPAN -

Abstract

The present study analyzed public opinion data from free-text descriptive responses obtained
by administering a questionnaire on green spaces to local residents. Maebashi City, the capital city of Gunma
Prefecture, was selected as the subject for the study. Maebashi is a standard-sized city in Japan, thus the
opinions of its residents can be analyzed and compared to other standard-sized cities. The present study adopted
a text mining method for analysis. Text mining can discover the characteristics of words and examine the
relationships between words in a large amount of text data objectively and quickly. By exploring the residents’
thoughts on green spaces using the data from their free-text descriptive responses, the present study extracted
problems with existing green spaces from the viewpoint of the public. Focusing on the words obtained from
the free opinion, "park (1st)", "green (2nd)", "street tree (3rd)" which are the green space symbols in Maebashi
city.