11:45 AM - 12:00 PM
[HTT16-05] Spatial characteristics of haunted sites in comparison to various public facilities
Keywords:Ghosts, Nearest neighbor spatial-association measure, Slope, Elevation values, Digital elevation model
Purpose of the research
Whatever the nature of paranormal phenomenon, they must be visible and recognizable in order to be considered paranormal. Therefore, the placement of shared haunted sites as a stage of paranormal events can reflect the values and role expectations of the society. This presentation aims to clarify the characteristics of the distribution tendency of haunted sites by examining their spatial relationship in relation to various public facilities and forest areas with use of geographic information systems. Spatial data of the public facilities were obtained from GSI's portal site for digital national land information in vector point and polygon form. As for the location information of the haunted sites, is extracted from the address information from "National Ghost Map", the biggest word-of-mouth site in Japan. After address matching process, the coordinate values were manually corrected successively. This research is an attempt to understand the phenomenon with etic which is often treated as emic, and it does not aim at the taxonomy of the spectral change, nor does it have the occultism interest which argues about the existence of the supernatural phenomenon.
Research method and object of analysis
As is well known, spatial analysis consists of the analysis of data on the XY axis, as typified by trade area analyses, and the analysis of the Z axis, as typified by watershed analyses. In this presentation, we examine the distribution characteristics of haunted sites in three dimensions by replacing the spatial analyses with (1) an analysis of the accompaniment of the spatial distribution pattern in X, Y axis by the nearest neighbor spatial measure (NSM), (2) an analysis of the coverage ratio using forest area polygons (X, Y axis), and (3) an analysis of the elevation and slope angle using Digital Elevation Model (Z axis). The data are various public facilities of the latest national land numerical information available in 2021, forest area polygons, and point data of the haunted sites extracted from the "National Ghost Map". 16 types of public facilities, such as Elementary school, Junior high school, Nursing homes, Hospital, Health and welfare center for remote areas, Water distribution pond, Community center, Government office, Terminal treatment plant, Penal institution for Adults and Juveniles, Water treatment plant, Institution for mentally challenged, Dam, Institution for the physically challenged, Crematorium and Clinic were selected as the analytical materials. Hokkaido was selected as the target of the analysis because its total area (83,450 km²) is comparable to that of the Czech Republic (78,865 km²) and Austria (83,871 km²), and because the regional government and its geographical area are not affected by other neighboring prefectures.
Results and discussions
Z-test results show that hospitals, Terminal treatment plant, and mental hospitals are significantly associated with haunted sites, while elementary schools, community centers, dams, water treatment plants, government offices, water distribution ponds, remote health and welfare centers, and crematoriums are significantly dissociated. This trend is generally consistent with the results of our previously published the location analyses for the whole of Japan (Suzuki et al. 2020). However, water treatment plants, crematoriums, and water distribution ponds, which tend to be separated on the horizontal axis, are not significantly different from haunted sites on the vertical axis (altitude and slope angle), indicating the approximation of the distribution trend. In the same way, the percentage of each facility's location in the forested area was calculated using the forest area polygon, and only five types of facilities: dams (25.3%), haunted sites (33.3%), crematoriums (37.8%), water distribution ponds (43.8%), and water treatment plants (53.4%), showed values of 10% or more, indicating that the distribution patterns of these facilities are similar to that of haunted sites. The results of the chi-square test with the mean of all facilities were significantly different (Table 1).
As noted, our previous research found the distribution patterns of haunted sites is different from that of other public facilities (Suzuki et al. 2020). This peculiarity can be interpreted by the findings of the present study, which showed that sites close to hospitals, mental hospitals, and terminal treatment plants on the horizontal axis, but not significantly different on the vertical axis, such as water treatment plants, water distribution ponds, and crematoriums, with similar altitude and slope, or with forest coverage, can be good locations for haunted sites.
Whatever the nature of paranormal phenomenon, they must be visible and recognizable in order to be considered paranormal. Therefore, the placement of shared haunted sites as a stage of paranormal events can reflect the values and role expectations of the society. This presentation aims to clarify the characteristics of the distribution tendency of haunted sites by examining their spatial relationship in relation to various public facilities and forest areas with use of geographic information systems. Spatial data of the public facilities were obtained from GSI's portal site for digital national land information in vector point and polygon form. As for the location information of the haunted sites, is extracted from the address information from "National Ghost Map", the biggest word-of-mouth site in Japan. After address matching process, the coordinate values were manually corrected successively. This research is an attempt to understand the phenomenon with etic which is often treated as emic, and it does not aim at the taxonomy of the spectral change, nor does it have the occultism interest which argues about the existence of the supernatural phenomenon.
Research method and object of analysis
As is well known, spatial analysis consists of the analysis of data on the XY axis, as typified by trade area analyses, and the analysis of the Z axis, as typified by watershed analyses. In this presentation, we examine the distribution characteristics of haunted sites in three dimensions by replacing the spatial analyses with (1) an analysis of the accompaniment of the spatial distribution pattern in X, Y axis by the nearest neighbor spatial measure (NSM), (2) an analysis of the coverage ratio using forest area polygons (X, Y axis), and (3) an analysis of the elevation and slope angle using Digital Elevation Model (Z axis). The data are various public facilities of the latest national land numerical information available in 2021, forest area polygons, and point data of the haunted sites extracted from the "National Ghost Map". 16 types of public facilities, such as Elementary school, Junior high school, Nursing homes, Hospital, Health and welfare center for remote areas, Water distribution pond, Community center, Government office, Terminal treatment plant, Penal institution for Adults and Juveniles, Water treatment plant, Institution for mentally challenged, Dam, Institution for the physically challenged, Crematorium and Clinic were selected as the analytical materials. Hokkaido was selected as the target of the analysis because its total area (83,450 km²) is comparable to that of the Czech Republic (78,865 km²) and Austria (83,871 km²), and because the regional government and its geographical area are not affected by other neighboring prefectures.
Results and discussions
Z-test results show that hospitals, Terminal treatment plant, and mental hospitals are significantly associated with haunted sites, while elementary schools, community centers, dams, water treatment plants, government offices, water distribution ponds, remote health and welfare centers, and crematoriums are significantly dissociated. This trend is generally consistent with the results of our previously published the location analyses for the whole of Japan (Suzuki et al. 2020). However, water treatment plants, crematoriums, and water distribution ponds, which tend to be separated on the horizontal axis, are not significantly different from haunted sites on the vertical axis (altitude and slope angle), indicating the approximation of the distribution trend. In the same way, the percentage of each facility's location in the forested area was calculated using the forest area polygon, and only five types of facilities: dams (25.3%), haunted sites (33.3%), crematoriums (37.8%), water distribution ponds (43.8%), and water treatment plants (53.4%), showed values of 10% or more, indicating that the distribution patterns of these facilities are similar to that of haunted sites. The results of the chi-square test with the mean of all facilities were significantly different (Table 1).
As noted, our previous research found the distribution patterns of haunted sites is different from that of other public facilities (Suzuki et al. 2020). This peculiarity can be interpreted by the findings of the present study, which showed that sites close to hospitals, mental hospitals, and terminal treatment plants on the horizontal axis, but not significantly different on the vertical axis, such as water treatment plants, water distribution ponds, and crematoriums, with similar altitude and slope, or with forest coverage, can be good locations for haunted sites.