It is common in geography to say that there is a rural framework. Thinkers as Ian Mc Harg introduced the idea of a territorial analysis by layers. All this can be seen, often, by a trained eye; east of Hokkaido, on the Konsen plateau, facing the Nemuro bay, these concepts are clear for anyone with google maps.

The lattice-shaped windbreak forest in Konsen Plateau, protected as Hokkaido heritage, are a curious example of an idea which certainly answers an environmental issue, which seems to have worked for a long time, but is probably invisible for a visitor not aware of the aerial image. The area is in the far north of Japan, swept by cold winds, so trees have been planted on a lattice to protect cultivation and livestock farms on the plateau. There are reticular lattices in other parts of the world (the Jeffersonian grid in the USA, roman centuriatio in Italy and other countries), but here trees in corridors over 100 m side is clearly interesting, especially when the linear forests merge with riverbank forests, or overalay with roads or other linear features. There are sections in which the frame is more minute. This is not like the old European roads with their margin trees, as roads only cross these linear forests, bur are not their axis. These are like inverse firebreaks.