Forest canopy structure, particularly leaf distribution is important information to know forest productivity and biodiversity. Up to date, various studies to estimate forest leaf distribution precisely are conducted. But the study to compare forest leaf distribution among forest types and topography are few. In this study, we conducted survey at four forest types and try to generalize the relationship between forest canopy structure and topography.　In addition, we tried to find best scale of topography describing forest canopy structure.

Forest canopy structure (2-D foliage vertical profile) was measured using portable laser and calculate LD (leaf density) by MacArthur method (1969) We represented topography by micro-topography(2m-,5m-,10m-,valley-ridge index(Chiba et al.2004) and slope :　calculated from site measurement) and site topography　(30m-.50m-,100m,250m-slope and solar radiation : calculated from 10m DEM).

LAI was even irrespective of topography. In every forest type, we found 2 layers (upper layer and bottom layer) which LD varies with ridge-valley index. Upper layer is above 50% height of forest maximum leaf height which LD increase as valley and decrease as ridge. The bottom layer was the reverse result. The best scale and factor to describe foliage distribution was 10m-ridge-valley index. These results suggest that foliage distribution is strongly affected by topography.