Towards Sustainable Land Use in China: A Collection of Empirical Studies

Evaluating the effectiveness of sustainable urban land use in China from the perspective of sustainable urbanization

Exploring the relationship between new-type urbanization and sustainable urban land use: Evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

One of fundamental conditions for social and economic sustainable development of city is sustainable urban land use. It is with urgent and real significance to do deep research on the sustainable urban land use of Huangshi city for Huangshi city and other similar cities because Huangshi city is typical city of secondary cities in central China. In the paper, first of all present urban land use characteristics of Huangshi city are introduced, and then obstacles which affect sustainable urban land use of Huangshi city are gained by obstacle diagnosis of sustainable urban land use of Huangshi city, finally the support system of sustainable urban land use of Huangshi city is established.

Urbanisation is a pressing trend in the twenty-first century. People’s lives more and more concentrate in cities: in 2030, approximately 6 out of 10 people will reside in urban areas. Therefore, cities are crucial for the success of the Great Transformation towards sustainability, including the transformation to sustainable land use. Not only does the growth of cities cause soil sealing in urban areas, but also production patterns for urban supply with food and goods influence land use in rural areas. Thus, it is indispensable to direct cities to a pathway of sustainable land use. This chapter contextualises cities and their sustainable development within the frameworks of international and national law and, beyond that, presents instruments of transformative planning. Does international law already reflect the importance of urbanisation for sustainable development? Does it provide orientation for cities towards more sustainability? The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) presented a normative compass as guideline for sustainable city development. The WBGU declares urban land use to be one underestimated transformative action field for cities. Within the SDGs, especially target 15.3 (land degradation neutrality) may become an important guideline for sustainable urban land use. Some cities already develop an adequate pathway towards sustainability. Thereby, many of them not only act on a local but also on an international level. Also, states set institutional and legal frameworks for transformative actions that have an effect on the cities themselves, as well as their transboundary activities. What are their potentials and limitations due to national legislation? How should the transformative power of cities be unleashed? This chapter points out the need for a polycentric responsibility architecture for sustainable urbanisation and will provide a concrete perspective for sustainable urban land use by particularly elaborating on the instrument of transformative planning.

The topic of sustainable urban land use compared to the world theory and practice has almost not been elaborated by the professionals in Serbia. This paper's starting point is that it is important to analyze and apply this topic, not only for the master plan level but also for the more detailed levels of planning and for smaller spatial entities/complexes in the cities, focusing on the morphological implications of sustainable urban land use as the topic relevant from the architect/urban planner point of view. After the definition of the notion of sustainable urban land use and the theoretical basis has been defined in the introductory explications, followed by a brief review of that topic's presence in Serbia, the point of view has been explained - namely, focusing on one single aspect (morphology) followed by a review of relevant criteria of other aspects of sustainable urban land use (economical, ecological and social aspects). The conclusion derived by synthesis represents the recommendation for a possible practice/methodology for planner's approach to the sustainable urban land use from the viewpoint of the morphology aspect.

Brownfield redevelopment is a new urban land use strategy to pursue the ideal of sustainable development. It relieves environmental pressure and resolves the glaring contradiction between urban land idleness and urban sprawl. It addresses issues of urban land use and farmland protection in China. This paper compares brownfield with greenfield, and defines brownfield and its redevelopment. It elaborates general and special government policies for this sustainable land use strategy in the context of China. General policies contain two aspects: clarifying brownfield redevelopment’s priority in Chinese urban planning and land use and setting a general quantitative redevelopment target. The extent of the government’s special policies, which aim at coordinating three factors in the redevelopment process, namely governments, developers and users, are divided into five areas: statistics and categorization, assessment and remediation, financial supports and tax incentives, environmental and legal liability, and publicity and guidance. The paper concludes the major functions of different levels of Chinese government in the redevelopment process, i.e. making general strategy, formulating legislation, spectifying regulations and technical standards, estimating and categorizing brownfield sites, drawing up brownfield planning, providing information and financial support, guiding developers, publicizing the strategy to the public, and checking reuse results.

This study presents an overview of the key sports developments in Győr over the past decade, emphasizing the significance of sustainable urban land use, particularly in the context of brownfield rehabilitation and comprehensive city development. Sustainable land use plays a crucial role in influencing economic, social, and environmental dynamics and aligns with the European Union's goal of achieving no net land take by 2050. In Hungary, this objective is also part of the national development strategy. Recent legislative changes, including the Architecture Act XXIII of 2023 and impending regulations for Spatial Planning and Building Requirements, underscore the focus on brownfield rehabilitation and the protection of green spaces. The paper discusses notable sports developments in Győr as well as those in other European cities, such as London and Paris. It explores the challenges faced by various investment types and identifies future opportunities for sustainable urban land use. Additionally, the study aims to highlight the social, economic, and environmental aspects of these sports investments.

The issue of ensuring the sustainable development of mankind today is recognized as one of the most pressing issues facing society. The purpose of the study is to generalize the features of sustainable land using, identify the main problems of sustainable use of agricultural land in Ukraine and the key ways to solve them. The paper summarizes the key stages of the formation of prerequisites for sustainable land using, systematizes documents and events to create a model of sustainable development, highlights the basic principles and goals of sustainable agricultural land use, in accordance with the concept of sustainable development. The authors emphasize that the practical implementation of the concept of sustainable agricultural land use requires prioritization of agricultural land, especially environmental, as well as increasing the responsibility of agricultural businesses for disturbing the ecological balance and excessive anthropogenic pressure on land resources. It is noted that in Ukraine there is an irrational structure of land use, which is environmentally dangerous. The main problems of sustainable agricultural land use development are highlighted. The authors note that in recent years in Ukraine there have been negative trends in the development of processes that significantly affect agricultural land use. The most acute environmental problems are the development of degradation processes in the arable lands of Ukraine, which are continuous, regional or local in nature. The authors argue that the decline in the natural potential of agricultural land in Ukraine is becoming an even more serious threat to the sustainable development of land use than environmental problems. The priority directions of development of sustainable land use in Ukraine are offered, which will allow passing to the model of sustainable agricultural land use.

Evaluation of sustainability is the core of research on sustainable land use. To a certain extent, traditional social, economic and ecological evaluation for sustainable land use can be regarded as an appraisal on the temporal scale without evaluation of spatial patterns. Landscape ecology can help to realize spatial evaluation for sustainable land use. In this paper, we construct landscape ecological indicators for evaluating sustainable coastal land use from the aspects of landscape productivity, threats and stability, to realize a synthetic temporal-spatial evaluation. These cover the five pillars of sustainable land use, i.e. productivity, security, protection, viability and acceptability. The results of applying landscape ecological evaluation to a case study in Wudi County in China show that land use sustainability is somewhat low and there are great regional differences between its 11 villages. We classified the 11 villages into 5 grades: strong sustainable land use, sustainable land use, weak sustainable land use, weak unsustainable land use, and strong unsustainable land use. Each grade has different land use characteristics and differs in the counter-measures required. But the core countermeasures in all the grades are to improve landscape productivity, to reduce human threats and to optimize landscape patterns.

Currently, the problems of sustainable and rational land use are becoming relevant in most countries of the world. Ukraine is no exception. And these issues have become extremely urgent as a result of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In view of this, the purpose of the article is to study and summarize the international experience in the development of the system of sustainable and rational land use; identification of modern problems of land use in the conditions of the legal regime of martial law in Ukraine and ways to solve them. To achieve this purpose, the following general scientific methods were used: analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, component analysis, comparison, analogy, classification, statistical analysis, expert survey, bibliometric analysis, trend analysis (using the Google Trends), structural and logical generalization. A bibliometric and trend analysis of the relationship between the terms «sustainable land use» and «rational land use» is carried out. On the basis of the study and generalization of international experience, specific features and differences in the development of the system of sustainable land use in some countries of the world have been identified. A statistical analysis of indicators of land use development in Ukraine in the pre-wartime period is carried out. The problems, threats and risks of land use associated with hostilities on the territory of Ukraine are identified. The experience of implementing national land restoration policies by countries affected by hostilities is analyzed. It is determined that the current economic conditions in Ukraine require the creation of appropriate institutional conditions and the improvement of mechanisms for ensuring sustainable land use, taking into account the specifics of wartime. As a result of the study, it is proved that in order to ensure sustainable and rational land use in Ukraine, taking into account the best world practices that are used in most countries of the world, it is necessary to develop a set of provisions and recommendations of a theoretical, methodological and practical nature.

Background . Land use is essential in many environmental and socio-economic problems of society. The main form of land management is public management. Public management (or administration) in the field of rational management, use, and protection of land means that the state, in the person of its competent bodies, establishes certain rules and regulations regarding the organization of the use of all land resources of the country and its individual parts (categories of land, types of land use and etc.). Public administration lays the foundations of relations that should serve the protection, preservation, and careful use of land resources and be committed to the principle of sustainable development. The essence of the formation and development of sustainable land use is that all its subjects are included in this process. They must understand that it is necessary to abandon land redistribution if it is not necessary. Since the policy of sustainable land use is gaining more and more attention and importance both in the world and in Ukraine, the purpose of the article is to research and analyze the theoretical foundations of sustainable land use as an object of public management. The research object was sustainable land use. Methods . This publication is based on the use of general and special research methods. The analysis was used to clarify the condition of land management in Ukraine, and synthesis was used to summarize the obtained evidence in order to develop recommendations. The systematic approach was used to study the challenges in the field of modern land use. The normative-value method made it possible to consider the issue of restoring sustainable land use in the postwar period in a multi-level management system. Results . The analysis of sustainable land use made it possible to define the concept of sustainable land use, identify the factors affecting such land use, and consider the stages of the formation of sustainable land use in the multi-level management system. In particular, certain hierarchies of levels of sustainable land use administration were established, namely conceptual, ideological, political, and economic. Each level determines the conceptual mechanisms of actions in relation to land resources. Among the factors of influence on sustainable land use, those due to economic, natural, ecological, legal, technological, and social nature were distinguished. However, urbanization and cultural worldviews have also influenced the sustainable use and management of land resources. At the same time, understanding the jurisdiction of public managers, setting clear goals, developing initiatives for these goals, monitoring and evaluating progress, reporting, and cooperating and partnering were determined as the relevant stages of forming sustainable land use in a multi-level management system. Сonclusions . Thus, sustainable land use requires the involvement of all parties interested in land use, taking into account their needs and supporting the broader cultural, economic, environmental, legal, political, technological, and social frameworks. In addition, the state needs to increase the category of nature conservation lands by creating parks, nature reserves, etc. At the legislative level, it is necessary to establish the principle of land use for the purpose of carrying out economic activities only on developed lands where there is a housing stock and developed infrastructure.

In today’s conditions, issues related to the ecology and sustainability of natural ecosystems and their components are becoming more relevant. It should be noted that the main driving force affecting the use of land resources is climate change. The demand for land will only grow. At the same time, sustainable (balanced) land use, which is carried out on the basis of sustainable development, equally concerns not only ensuring the protection and maintenance of land potential for future generations, but also providing social and economic opportunities today. Comprehensive spatial development plans for territorial communities are a strategic tool for ensuring effective management of territories. They must not only meet the current needs of the population, economy and infrastructure, but also form the basis for sustainable land use in the long term. In this context, it is important to integrate the principles of land management, which are based on scientific justification for the distribution of land for specific purposes, taking into account state, public and private interests. In addition, comprehensive spatial planning of the development of territorial communities in the face of modern environmental challenges requires the integration of strategic environmental assessment as a key tool for ensuring sustainable development. The growth of anthropogenic load, degradation of natural resources and the consequences of military actions require an objective assessment of the state of the environment, analysis of the potential impacts of planning decisions and the search for alternative approaches that minimize the negative impact on ecosystems. Effective strategic environmental assessment will contribute to the adoption of balanced decisions that will ensure environmental safety, biodiversity conservation and compliance with the goals of sustainable development of territorial communities. It is obvious that sustainable land use, for example, for forestry lands and sustainable use of forest resources are interconnected, since they relate to the use of natural resources that are in an inextricable organic connection. Therefore, the simultaneous integrated use of natural resources, inextricably linked to land, carried out at the level of sustainable nature management, is an important object of planning territorial development, environmental safety, and rational use of land resources. In this regard, the subordination of the legal regime of forestry lands to the legal regime of forests growing on these lands becomes important. In this case, the role of recreational and health-improving forests, which perform mainly recreational, sanitary, hygienic, health-improving functions and are located on relevant lands that require special protection at the level of comprehensive spatial development plans, is actualized in the planning process.

Aim of the studyThe purpose of the study is to consider the issue of sustainable land use in Ukraine, taking into account the consequences of the war. The legal definition of sustainable land use is currently not sufficiently justified and balanced. In Ukraine today, the paradigm of sustainable (balanced) land use is still being formed, and the Land Policy Strategy for the management of land resources and land use should be based on it.Material and methodsThe method of analysis is used to determine the possibilities of a more rapid development of the socially oriented market economy after the war. This can happen thanks to the deepening of the theoretical foundations of the rational use of land resources (the synthesis method), optimization of the economic, social and ecological components of land use (deduction method), which in turn will contribute to increasing the socio - economic efficiency of the use and reproduction of the productive potential of Ukraine's lands in the post-war period (system approach).Results and conclusionsIt was determined that sustainable (balanced) land use should be understood as a system of organizing the use and protection of land and other natural resources and biodiversity and corresponding land relations corresponding to the relations of social development, in which the optimal relationship between social, ecological and economic factors of land use development is achieved. The essence of the research component of the institutionalization of balanced land use is disclosed. A paradigm of views on sustainable land use is formulated, taking into account the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Chieftaincy and sustainable urban land use planning in Yendi, Ghana: Towards congruence

By constructing evaluation indicator system of sustainable land use of Tibet from three aspects of ecological environment, economic development, resources and social advancement, this article studies the following contents respectively in two dimensions of time and space: the changes of sustainable land use of Tibet in recent 20 years and spatial characteristics of sustainable land use of Tibet in 2002. The following conclusions can be drawn from evaluation results: (1) With regard to comprehensive evaluation value of sustainable land use, the trend of Tibet sustainable land use evaluation values from 1983 to 2002 are very close to the comprehensive evaluation values of ecological environment, which is up trend; (2) sustainable utilization degree of land use in eastern region of Tibet is much higher than that of western region. (3) the sustainable land use evaluation value of Nyingtri County is the highest, and the counties with relatively higher land sustainable use values include Lhasa, Lhoka, Chamdo. While Nakchu, Ngari, Shigatse counties have the relatively lower evaluation values; (4) By analyzing each evaluation indicator's weight on sustainable land use, it can be concluded that the key limiting factors of sustainable Tibet land resource utilization are land desertification, grassland degradation and low economic level.