Land Use Policy最新文献

The planting structure of Northeast China (NEC) is greatly responsible for China’s food security and self-sufficiency. Climate change promoted the northward expansion of the suitable planting area for maize in NEC, and its higher comparative economic benefit largely helped it occupy the soybean planting space. Yet, knowledge on how climatic suitability and comparative economic benefit affected the northward expansion of maize planting area is limited. To bridge this gap, this study quantified the climatic suitability of maize and soybean from 1981 to 2020 using the fuzzy mathematical method. Combined with yield, crop distribution and social economic data in 2000, 2010 and 2020, this study further calculated the comparative economic benefit between the two crops. Furthermore, a crop planting decision simulation model was developed to clarify the impact of climatic suitability and comparative economic benefit on the planting area of soybean and maize. Results showed that from 2000 to 2010, the maize planting area increased dramatically. This was due to the continuous northward expansion of the most suitable region (S1) for maize from 47.63°N to 48.43°N before 2010, along with the fact that 65% of the total area was more profitable to plant maize. From 2010 to 2020, the maize planting area partially retreated, mainly due to the shrinking trend of the northern boundary of S1 for maize and the implementation of soybean producer subsidy. The improvement of maize climatic suitability played a fundamental role in the northward expansion of its planting area. On this basis, the comparative economic benefit was critical for planting proportion adjustments. The current soybean producer subsidy largely reduced the profit gap between the two crops, but it was still insufficient in nearly one-third of the total area. This study suggested to increase amount of soybean subsidies in the identified soybean-maize imbalanced regions. Specifically, the average recommended increase amounts ranged from 756 to 2052 CNY/ha depending on the regions. These findings could provide valuable references for understanding the motivation of crop planting decisions and optimizing the corresponding subsidy policies.

In recent years, compact urban development and carbon emissions reduction have been considered essential approaches for achieving sustainable development goals worldwide. Existing research has focused on the correlation between urban spatial structure and carbon emissions with inconsistent results. This study explores the correlation between urban compactness and household CO₂ emissions. Two indices of urban compactness and four categories of household CO₂ emissions are constructed. We utilize Spatial Durbin Models (SDM) and Spatial Autoregressive Models (SAC) on panel data from over 284 cities at the prefecture level and above in China, spanning 2008–2018. The results indicate that, except for heating consumption, household CO₂ emissions exhibit positive associations with two urban compactness indices. These findings suggest that a city with evenly developed urban cores within a relatively smaller urban area may have better household CO₂ emissions efficiency both locally and regionally. Our study contributes to the existing literature on the sustainability of compact city development with new evidence emphasizing a condensed but balanced urban structure.

Peri-urban agriculture (PUA) has different ecological, socio-institutional, and economic conditions. The dynamic characteristics of PUA are driven by the location in a rural-to-urban transitional zone. In this context, a new approach should be developed for identifying PUA typologies to facilitate more effective and relatively quick policy management and planning. Therefore, this study aims to develop new categories and a set of methodologies to determine PUA typologies using statistical approaches such as variable simplification (Principal Component Analysis), cluster analysis (K-means), and village-based spatial characterization mapping. A structured selection was conducted to determine the case studies, and two adjacent suburban districts in the Jakarta Bandung Mega Urban Region (JBMUR) corridor were obtained. The results show that there is a new insight into the use of spatial approaches and the relationship between empirical conditions at the local level and policies related to PUA. The developed typology approach describes significant variations in agricultural conditions based on the intensity. Strategies and recommendations for PUA development based on typology are also proposed.

The extensive transformation of urban gardens is a significant element in the process of planetary urbanisation. This is driven by the constraints of a neoliberal political economy aimed at maximising the capitalistic utilisation of urban spaces. This study examines the conversion of urban gardens to paved or hard surface areas, a phenomenon described as "de-gardening". The study is conducted through a qualitative methodology that involves engagement with key stakeholders around Qasr al-Dasht Gardens in the city of Shiraz, Iran. The investigation traces the origins of these transformations to the 1960s, noting an acceleration in recent decades. The analysis identifies the pervasive influence of neoliberal urban planning and management discourse as a critical factor. This discourse redefines the value of garden spaces by escalating land costs and altering economic valuations by various social actors. Consequently, diverse social groups, ranging from traditional gardeners to modern urban developers, engage differently with these spaces. For traditional farmers, gardens are essential for livelihood, whereas for advocates of neoliberalism, these areas represent potential for investment, luxurious havens for peaceful and comfortable living, and capital accumulation. These conflicting views have led to extensive land use changes in Qasr al-Dasht Gardens. The study concludes by proposing policy measures and institutional frameworks aimed at preserving and enhancing urban gardens. Recommendations include the establishment of an independent municipal body dedicated to the gardens, forming non-governmental organisations and oversight groups, and reevaluating the "Organisation and Conservation Plan of the Qasr al-Dasht Gardens of Shiraz".

Land management for wildfire reduction has been said to require new governance arrangements that ensure the coordination at the local level among landowners and between them and other relevant private and public actors. To promote a shift in the policy approach to wildfire mitigation from the current focus on fuel management, within the forestry sector, to a more effective cross-sectoral landscape transformation, this governance problem takes on even greater importance. Given the diversity of owners within a territory, our main goal is to identify a governance arrangement that match the heterogeneity of owners’ preferences for alternative governance options.

Based on a face-to-face survey of 497 owners in a fire-prone region, four types of owners have been identified using a cluster analysis based on management practices and socioeconomic context. Our results show that the type of owner helps explaining their preferences for alternative governance options. Owners that are more active (e.g. regular forest interventions) and have stronger links to the forestry sector, through regular timber sales and participation in forest owner organizations, favor the keeping of individual management over the delegation of management on others or the renting or selling of the land. Although many of these owners see forest organizations alone as the best entities to promote wildfire mitigation, the majority would prefer solutions that also integrate local authorities. Owners that are less active (e.g. no forest interventions) and have weaker links to the sector (no timber sales and no enrollment in forest organizations) consider renting or selling the land, and view a combination of both local authorities and forest organizations as the best solution to promote wildfire reduction at the local level.

We conclude that a multi-actor (public-private) territorially-based governance model fits both the required transition in the policy approach and the diverse preferences of different owner types.

Insecure rights tend to lead to land-use conflicts. The literature mainly focuses on the impact of insecure land rights on investment. Regarding the causes, studies mainly focus on the effect of state regulations. Little attention is given to the impact of the extractive economy on land rights security. This article scrutinizes how palm oil expansion manipulates insecure land rights, leading to land-use conflict. We pay attention to a particular land right in Indonesia that is based on the´ land status letter´ (Surat Keterangan Tanah, SKT), an initial proof of land ownership that is widely held by villagers in Indonesia. Studies have neglected this land right, as most attention has been on customary rights (Adat). Our main questions are: How do palm oil companies treat the SKT in their efforts to obtain more land for their plantations, and how do farmers try to fight for their SKT rights? Using a qualitative case study in Indonesia´s Riau Province, we show that because of a shared perception that SKTs offer security, villagers did not attempt to get a full legal land certificate from the Land Agency, and palm oil companies often manipulated SKT land rights to acquire land for new plantations. Limited access to conflict resolution mechanisms hampers landholders’ efforts to enforce their land rights, and our study suggests that the security of SKT land rights depends upon landholders’ ability to fight for their rights. NGOs did not help empower them in this matter in most cases.

Due to higher levels of urbanization and increasing impermeable hard land covers, green spaces are decreasing, resulting in stormwater loss as surface runoff instead of being absorbed by soil and reintroduced into the water cycle. This study investigates the effect of land use ratios and land cover materials resulting from settlement design on surface runoff volume. The study was conducted using various scenarios in 9 settlements with different land use ratios, including roofs, sidewalks, parking areas, roadways, and green areas in Istanbul, a city with a high urbanization rate. Thus, surface runoff volume in settlements depending on the land use ratios was evaluated. A total of 336 material combinations were developed using various material alternatives in addition to different land use ratios. Therefore, the effect of different land cover materials used in the settlements on surface runoff volume was also evaluated. Study requirements were taken into consideration when choosing the calculation method, and the Rational Method, often preferred for calculating surface runoff volumes in small urban basins, was chosen. According to the calculation results obtained from the settlements developed for this study, surface runoff volume can be reduced by 37.10 % by increasing only the green space ratio and by 67.65 % by using different material alternatives in the same settlement. Additionally, it was observed that each improvement made to reduce surface runoff in settlements resulted in a positive change.

The concept of self-containment in new towns has been widely discussed from social and economic perspectives. However, localized interpretations within the context of China's development, particularly regarding climate adaptability and urban heat island (UHI) mitigation, are scarce. To fill this gap, our research analyzed self-containment from the perspectives of urban spatial scale and land use function. Focusing on Shanghai’s five new towns, we empirically demonstrated how self-containment influenced the UHI effects from 2005 to 2020, employing the Geodetector method. The findings reveal that during the daytime, the intensity of UHI in new towns decreased, serving as vital connectivity nodes of UHI within the region. Conversely, during the nighttime, both the intensity and area of UHI showed an increasing trend. The research confirmed that expanding the urban scale and functional diversity are effective strategies for mitigating the UHI. Based on these findings, we offer practical suggestions for the development of new towns: Increase population size while ensuring coordination with development scale; enhance mixed-use functions in large-scale development projects like university towns and industrial parks; and be vigilant of potential functional decline in central areas and increasing thermal impact due to new town development. Overall, this study enriches our understanding of self-containment in Chinese new towns and provides valuable insights for mitigating UHI in other similar contexts.

It has been widely recognized that progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be better harmonized with Ecosystem Services (ESs) to tackle global challenges. In China, the National Key Ecological Function Areas (NKEFAs) were set up as one of the ecological fiscal transfer projects. Despite its significant influences on the SDGs-ESs nexus, there is a lack of empirical studies on the effects and mechanisms of policy. In response, this study provides a synthesized framework that incorporates the coupling coordination degree between the Urban Sustainable Development Goals (USDGs) and Ecosystem Services Scores (ESSs), empirically verifies the policy effect using the difference-in-differences model, and then further investigates the mechanisms of government action to coordinate urban SDGs and ESs. The results show that: (1) The coupling coordination degree between USDGs and ESSs varies significantly across different regions but steadily increases over time, with a faster increasing rate of coordination degree growth in NKEEFAs pilot cities compared to non-pilot cities. (2) The policy has demonstrated benefits in coordinating USDGs and ESSs with a coefficient of 0.005. In detail, the policy enhances ESSs but concurrently exerts a negative influence on USDGs, with coefficients are 0.008 and −0.004 respectively, suggesting an uneven distribution of the policy's impacts. (3) The study unveils the 'technological innovation effect' and the 'industrial agglomeration effect' as crucial mediating pathways for policy effect, laying a solid foundation for USDGs and ESSs coordination. In total, the study highlights the critical need to account for regional development disparities and adequate funding in ecological protection policies to ensure fairness and effectiveness from a central decision-making standpoint. It recommends enhancing transparency in fiscal expenditures and fostering regional joint coordination to address local government challenges. These insights from this study can offer valuable guidance for policymakers to refine policy implementation and promote the coordination of regional ESs and SDGs.

Solely focusing on the agricultural production function of cultivated land resources is not conducive to the various demands for meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Recognizing the multifunctionality of cultivated land and understanding the interrelationships between individual functions are crucial for the rational planning and utilization of resources. This paper introduces an "element coupling-function synergy" analytical framework for the sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources. The proposed framework is based on the causal relationships between elements and functions within the cultivated land system. Subsequently, a causal Bayesian belief network was constructed to identify trade-offs and synergies among multiple functions of cultivated land resources in Guangdong, China. The findings reveal trade-offs between food cleanliness and food production/social security, and synergistic relationships among food production, social security, and ecological regulation, as well as among ecological regulation, habitat maintenance and landscape culture. The study area was divided into eight functional zones: Green Agricultural Zone, Agro-inputs Control Zone, Urban Agricultural Zone, Major Grain-producing Zone, Modern Agricultural Zone, Agro-ecological Preservation Zone, Agro-ecological Tourism Zone, Quality Improvement Zone. Multi-objective management plans were formulated for optimizing multifunctional relationships within each zone. The analysis result reveals the importance of nutrient conditions and ecological environments for the sustainable management of cultivated land. Consequently, specific policy recommendations are proposed accordingly. This paper may not only advance understanding of the multifunctionality of cultivated land but can also provide valuable insights for land-use planning to ensure the judicious and sustainable management of cultivated land resources.