Habitat International最新文献

Ensuring global sustainable development depends on achieving food security, a goal intrinsically linked to the farmland's grain production capacity. Despite its critical importance, the comprehensive spatial effects of multifunctional farmland use transition (MFFUT) on grain production, particularly from a production-living-ecology perspective, remain insufficiently explored. Addressing this gap, this study employs geospatial analysis techniques and spatial econometric models to examine the spatial impacts of MFFUT on grain production in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHHP), North China, from the perspective of Major Function-oriented Zoning (MFZ) during 2000–2020. The findings reveal an overall upward trend in grain production in HHHP, with main agricultural production zones emerging as significant grain bases. MFFUT considerably enhances local grain production while suppressing production in neighbouring areas. Specifically, Production Function Farmland Use Transition (PFFUT) and Living Function Farmland Use Transition (LFFUT) stimulate grain production in both local and neighbouring areas, whereas Ecological Function Farmland Use Transition (EFFUT) negatively impacts neighbouring areas while simultaneously bolstering local production. The heterogeneous analysis demonstrates that MFFUT promotes grain production in different MFZs but adversely affects neighbouring regions within main agricultural production zones. Further analysis indicates that PFFUT, LFFUT, and EFFUT considerably enhance grain production across various MFZs. However, PFFUT and LFFUT detrimentally affect neighbouring grain production in main agricultural production zones. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers to formulate optimised land use allocation schemes, implement differentiated land use measures, and safeguard food security.

Urban agglomerations planning policies are a critical driver for sustainable urban development. The Chinese central and local governments have implemented a series of policies to guide the development of urban agglomerations. However, the scientific soundness of these policies and their impact on promoting high-quality urban economic development have received limited attention. This study addresses this research gap by examining the scientific rationale of China's urban agglomerations policy formulation through the policy modeling consistency (PMC) index model. Then, it empirically assesses the economic effects of policy implementation using a difference-in-differences (DID) model based on statistical data from 182 cities spanning 2000 to 2021. The results show that: (1)while the overall level of urban agglomerations policies is excellent, there are areas for improvement, such as policy objectives, implementation, and financial support; (2) Urban agglomerations policies contribute to a 1.8% increase in high-quality economic development; (3) Mechanisms underlying policy effect include the scale effect of industrial agglomerations, the radiation effect of infrastructure construction, and the spillover benefits of advanced industrial structure. Moreover, the effects of policy vary across urban agglomerations of different scales, with larger urban agglomerations demonstrating more substantial benefits. The research outcomes provide valuable insights for policymakers in formulating scientifically and economically beneficial urban agglomerations policies.

The purpose of land valuation in land consolidation projects is to determine the relative value between lands of different quality, location and etc. This principle is crucial for ensuring fairness and justice among participants. Efficient land utilization and rural progress are hindered by the fragmentation of agricultural lands, necessitating land consolidation. However, fair valuation of parcels remains a challenge, impeding the success of consolidation efforts. This study delves into the intricate issues related to land consolidation and complex dynamics of decision-making in agricultural land valuation. This study aims to address the challenge of fair valuation in land consolidation projects by introducing a novel methodology that integrates cooperative game theory with metaheuristic algorithms. The goal is to increase the likelihood of stakeholders accepting land consolidation schemes by utilizing the interactive components of the decision-making process. This approach takes into account individual preferences of land owners and utilizes game theory to model competition, interaction, and cooperation among them. Central to this concept are genetic algorithm, which plays a key role in producing diverse solutions taking into account various landowners' priorities. A case study in Fartan village, Esfarayen city, Iran, is conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the method. Two scenarios are examined: one combining unanimity fallback bargaining technique with Nash bargaining, and another incorporating fallback bargaining with impasse technique with Nash bargaining. Upon comparative analysis, the second scenario proves to be better in ensuring equity among stakeholders. It encourages landowners to negotiate decisively, using a process that integrates fallback bargaining with impasse and Nash bargaining, taking into account the varying levels of each owner's negotiation power in both steps. This ensures a negotiated outcome that respects the diverse priorities of each landowner. This scenario considers variations in individual negotiating power not only in Nash bargaining step but also in fallback bargaining and ensures a comprehensive and fair decision-making process during land valuation. This research introduces a novel strategy to enhance group decision-making in agricultural land valuation, fostering stakeholders' agreement and facilitating successful land consolidation projects. The proposed method provides a land valuation approach that can receive high degree of farmers' agreement and provides a good base to enter the next stages of the land consolidation.

A decade ago, leading scholars suggested that the ‘extended’ and ‘planetary’ form contemporary urbanisation has taken blurred demarcations of urban and rural and rendered the urban-rural binary an obsolete conceptual category. Contrary to its alleged obsolescence, however, the conceptual pair emerged as an empirically salient and conceptually useful category that effectively encapsulated recent political issues like Brexit, Euroscepticism, and the rise of right-wing populism. This paper addresses this evident contradiction by offering a compendious review of the recent scholarship on ‘geographies of discontent’. Our review suggests that contrary to their alleged obsolescence, urban-rural dichotomies have in fact been both reinforced and remained alive as social reality and lived experience and rendered places open for abuse by divisive populist politicians. We draw on this evidence to highlight the urge to overcome inherently incongruous binaries that are susceptible to exploitation and to transcend untenable conceptual traps that have the potential to reinforce territorial stigmatizations and polarisations.

Urban sprawl has been the focus of substantial academic discussion due to its intricate nature. The dominant narrative of this phenomenon, particularly in the global south, points to its adverse implications on cities, despite its positive outcomes. This study contributes to this discourse by examining the positive implications of sprawl — essentially spatial expansion and urban growth — from the perspectives of households and local planning officials within the Ejisu Municipality of Ghana. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, satellite images were used to assess the nature and spatial extent of Ejisu Municipality between 2003 and 2023. Additionally, 500 households and four relevant agencies were interviewed to discuss the positive implications of sprawl on the area's development and suggest measures to promote sustainable urban sprawl and development. The results showed significant horizontal expansion in the built-up areas over the period - from 34.51 km² (16.6%) in 2003 to 44.92 km² (21.61%) in 2013 and 76.46 km² (36.78%) in 2023 with a projected increase to 100.80 km² in 2033. Macroeconomic factors, demography, housing preferences, transportation, and regulatory frameworks were reported to influence the nature and extent of sprawl. Sprawl was reported to have resulted in economic diversification and viability, improved quality of life, improved access to public services, affordable housing, and expanded road networks, among others. The study proposes implementing sustainable measures for urban sprawl, and effective land-use planning, coupled with the enforcement of well-designed regulatory frameworks.

Agricultural location theory was the earliest work to reveal the land use and agricultural layout of urban suburbs; however, there is an increasing difference between Dunn's theoretical model and modern agricultural layouts, and there is thus an urgent need to establish new theoretical relationships. In this work, we sought to reveal new patterns of modern suburban agricultural land use using remote sensing data and land economics knowledge. We used remote sensing data to obtain first-hand land-use information while considering the attractiveness of the urban center to labor, and we explored the impact of agricultural opportunity costs on agricultural land use. We found that agricultural land use in suburbs in Central China have four obvious layers: dominance of built-up areas, dominance of single cropping, dominance of double cropping, and dominance of triple cropping. From the perspective of planting patterns, with increasing distance from the city center, the proportion of single-cropping areas decreases from 60% to 20%, that of double-cropping areas increases from 20% to 70%, that of triple-cropping areas always remains below 10%, and the multiple-cropping index increases from 120% to 180%. From the perspective of land economics and considering labor cost, planting profits decrease with increasing distance from the city center. The increasing attractiveness of the urban center to migrant workers significantly weakens farmers' willingness to plant. From the perspective of the circle structure, before 2000, farmers' planting profits were higher than the opportunity costs in all regions; after 2000, farmers with arable land within a 40-km radius of the center may have been more inclined to choose farming, while those with land outside this 40-km radius may have been more inclined to work elsewhere. Under changing agricultural policies, farmers' planting profits increased to a historical high, but profits became negative in all regions after 2015, and the willingness of people to farm reached a historical low. With this work, we continue the development of the hierarchical structure model of The Location of Agricultural Production and summarize new laws of modern agricultural land use from the perspectives of remote sensing data and land economics, supplementing and enriching agricultural location theory.

With the outflow of the rural population, the functions of rural homesteads in China have undergone transformation, leading to the reform of the rural homestead system. Strengthening investigations into rural homestead-use behaviours of self-occupation and transfer, considering the trend of rural transformation and the reform of rural homestead, are vital to providing adequate support to formulate and implement targeted institutions responsible for rural homestead use. Based on survey and questionnaire data from 299 villages in China in 2022, this paper addresses the characteristics of rural homestead-use from the perspectives of homestead self-occupation and transfer. The factors of both farmer households and villages were recognised using a hierarchical Logit model. The results revealed the following. First, household self-occupation played the dominant role in the state of rural homestead use in China, with the accompaniment of a low proportion of transfer in non-self-occupation homesteads. The proportions of self-occupation and transfer were found to vary significantly on different scales across provinces, villages and farming households. Second, there were different factors influencing the self-occupation and transfer behaviours of rural homesteads. Specifically, self-occupation behaviour was predominantly influenced by the degree of dependence on self-housing demand and homestead supply, and village demands for development more substantially influenced transfer behaviour. Third, under the context of both the rural transformation trend and Rural Revitalisation Project, it is recognised that the residential security function of homesteads is prioritised, followed by promoting the reuse of homesteads through comprehensive measures. This study will provide a scientific reference for the effective implementation of rural revitalisation and rural homestead system reform.

There is growing urgency to develop resilient coastal communities worldwide due to an increase in destructive events. Many resilience assessment models, tools, and frameworks are being developed to guide planners and policy makers for planning resilient communities. However, many lack a multidimensional approach, while others disregard regional variations in indicators' importance, and neglect an adequate community involvement level. In turn, these factors hinder the development of a ‘Resilient Planning Pathway’ (RPP), or a set of planning strategies that consider key local environmental attributes and socio-cultural capacities. The RPP approach has been used in the context of vulnerable groups and urban and landscape planning worldwide. The objective of this study is to identify key resilience aspects to develop RPPs in Chilean coastal communities exposed to tsunami hazards. We used a cross-sectional participatory method with public servants and coastal communities which identifies regional variations in resilience dimensions, in order to define challenges for planners and policy makers. A systematic international literature review in Atlas.Ti revealed 78 resilience composite indicators and six resilience dimensions for tsunami hazards in Chile. Composite indicators were evaluated according to their importance and experience by 134 public servants within 42 coastal communities, revealing the aspects that guide the current development of RPPs. Public servants' responses are similar among macrozones and suggest that RPP development has focused on the physical, socio-cultural, and institutional dimensions, neglecting the ecological and economic dimensions. In contrast, the community opinions from 10 representative coastal settlements collected in 29 focus groups indicated that the importance of composite indicators varies among macrozones and with regards to the public servants' responses. This finding suggests commonalities and differences among macrozones regarding the challenges in developing Chilean coastal communities' RPPs. We believe that our methodological approach could help generate similar assessments in other world zones.

The spatial structure inherently reflects a region's pattern and developmental processes. Understanding the rationality behind this structure and identifying optimization directions are pivotal for macro-level regulation of regional development and collaborative efforts. This study initiates a discussion on the composition and optimization mechanisms inherent in spatial structures. Adopting a spatial network perspective, we interpret the interaction dynamics within regional morphological structures as the consumption of resources through flows. We transform structural optimization into an equilibrium matching process of resources and establish a quantitative research framework that integrates network modeling, structural issue identification, and optimization strategies. Then, we selected the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as our empirical subject, and obtained three important results: (1) Before optimization, we identified structural spatial imbalance characteristics; (2) We explored the evolutionary trend of optimization and delineated four main optimization stages; (3) The spatial structure of the region was improved, and significant benefits in equilibrium and resource utilization was achieved. Finally, we discussed the feasibility of the framework and the necessity to integrate policy networks, hoping to assist regional managers in macro-governance and enhance the rationality of regional planning and coordination.

With the proliferation of special economic zones (SEZs) among emerging economies, their mixed performance has sparked discussions on contextual heterogeneity and underlying driving mechanisms. Characterized by an outward-oriented economy and industry-city interaction, the cross-stage establishment practice of China's national economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) is conducive to expanding existing research focused on cross-country analyses of SEZs. This study constructs difference-in-differences models to analyze the influence of national ETDZs on regional industrial development in the Yellow River basin, a typical developing region in China, from 2003 to 2019, evaluating their performance under a regional balanced development strategy and a within a lagging economic backdrop. The results indicate that (1) national ETDZs do not contribute to industrial growth and even exert a negative effect; (2) while they fail to perform better over time, their spatial spillover effect slightly benefits neighboring cities; (3) an optimal economic environment and proactive policy promotion can respectively mitigate and exacerbate their negative effects; (4) the inability to attract external enterprises and achieve industrial restructuring is the primary cause of the negative effect, highlighting a mismatch and discord between the economic and policy attributes of national ETDZs and evolving contexts. Based on these findings, recommendations are proposed to cultivate SEZs as suitable policy platforms and effective economic spaces.