Classification of visitor centers based on location environment characteristics using GIS

The Visitor Center (VC) is a facility that provides information to natural park users. The purpose of this study is to classify the location environment and obtain basic knowledge for VC awareness improvement and functional improvement. The target is 200 VC facilities in national parks. Data collection and generation were carried out, and finally spatial coupling using GIS was carried out. In classification,1) Inside or outside the park;2) Less than 500m or more in the park world; 3) What is the land type, Classified from three viewpoints. The results show that it was classified it into six types. I. Entrance location type in the park:27%; II. Core location type 11%; III. Use base location type 37%; and IV. Edge location type 9% V. Out-of-park entrance type 8%; VI. Non-adjacent 9%. From this result, it was revealed that the VC facility was located in line with the park plan. The entrance type occupies 34% and is near the entrance of the park. The base type is 37% and the second special area locations in the whole are 54%. In this study, the classification of national park VC was arranged, and the present state of the location characteristics was clarified.