Capita Land Use Research Articles

The Inter-Relationships of Territorial Quality of Life with Residential Expansion and Densification: A Case Study of Regions in EU Member Countries

High-density urban development is promoted by both global and local policies in response to socio-economic and environmental challenges since it increases mobility of different land uses, decreases the need for traveling, encourages the use of more energy-efficient buildings and modes of transportation, and permits the sharing of scarce urban amenities. It is therefore argued that increased density and mixed-use development are expected to deliver positive outcomes in terms of contributing to three pillars (social, economic, and environmental domains) of sustainability in the subject themes. Territorial quality of life (TQL)—initially proposed by the ESPON Programme—is a composite indicator of the socio-economic and environmental well-being and life satisfaction of individuals living in an area. Understanding the role of urban density in TQL can provide an important input for urban planning debates addressing whether compact development can be promoted by referring to potential efficiencies in high-density, mixed land use and sustainable transport provisions. Alternatively, low-density suburban development is preferable due to its benefits of high per capita land use consumption (larger houses) for individual households given lower land prices. There is little empirical evidence on how TQL is shaped by high-density versus low-density urban forms. This paper investigates this topic through providing an approach to spatially map and examine the relationship between TQL, residential expansion, and densification processes in the so-called NUTS2 (nomenclature of terrestrial units for statistics) regions of European Union (EU) member countries. The relative importance of each TQL indicator was determined through the entropy weight method, where these indicators were aggregated through using the subject weights to obtain the overall TQL indicator. The spatial dynamics of TQL were examined and its relationship with residential expansion and densification processes was analysed to uncover whether the former or the latter process is positively associated with the TQL indicator within our study area. From our regression models, the residential expansion index is negatively related to the TQL indicator, implying that high levels of residential expansion can result in a reduction in overall quality of life in the regions if they are not supported by associated infrastructure and facility investments.

Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492

Human impacts prior to the Industrial Revolution are not well constrained. We investigate whether the decline in global atmospheric CO2 concentration by 7–10 ppm in the late 1500s and early 1600s which globally lowered surface air temperatures by 0.15∘C, were generated by natural forcing or were a result of the large-scale depopulation of the Americas after European arrival, subsequent land use change and secondary succession. We quantitatively review the evidence for (i) the pre-Columbian population size, (ii) their per capita land use, (iii) the post-1492 population loss, (iv) the resulting carbon uptake of the abandoned anthropogenic landscapes, and then compare these to potential natural drivers of global carbon declines of 7–10 ppm. From 119 published regional population estimates we calculate a pre-1492 CE population of 60.5 million (interquartile range, IQR 44.8–78.2 million), utilizing 1.04 ha land per capita (IQR 0.98–1.11). European epidemics removed 90% (IQR 87–92%) of the indigenous population over the next century. This resulted in secondary succession of 55.8 Mha (IQR 39.0–78.4 Mha) of abandoned land, sequestering 7.4 Pg C (IQR 4.9–10.8 Pg C), equivalent to a decline in atmospheric CO2 of 3.5 ppm (IQR 2.3–5.1 ppm CO2). Accounting for carbon cycle feedbacks plus LUC outside the Americas gives a total 5 ppm CO2 additional uptake into the land surface in the 1500s compared to the 1400s, 47–67% of the atmospheric CO2 decline. Furthermore, we show that the global carbon budget of the 1500s cannot be balanced until large-scale vegetation regeneration in the Americas is included. The Great Dying of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas resulted in a human-driven global impact on the Earth System in the two centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution.

A Method for Mapping Future Urbanization in the United States

Cities are poised to absorb additional people. Their sustainability, or ability to accommodate a population increase without depleting resources or compromising future growth, depends on whether they harness the efficiency gains from urban land management. Population is often projected as a bulk national number without details about spatial distribution. We use Landsat and population data in a methodology to project and map U.S. urbanization for the year 2020 and document its spatial pattern. This methodology is important to spatially disaggregate projected population and assist land managers to monitor land use, assess infrastructure and distribute resources. We found the U.S. west coast urban areas to have the fastest population growth with relatively small land consumption resulting in future decrease in per capita land use. Except for Miami (FL), most other U.S. large urban areas, especially in the Midwest, are growing spatially faster than their population and inadvertently consuming land needed for ecosystem services. In large cities, such as New York, Chicago, Houston and Miami, land development is expected more in suburban zones than urban cores. In contrast, in Los Angeles land development within the city core is greater than in its suburbs.

Analyzing spatial disparities of economic development in Yellow River Basin, China

Economic density refers to the degree of labor, population, and tangible capital that concentrate in a physical space. It represents the efficiency of economic activities and intensity of land use in an area. This article presents an in-depth analysis spatial disparity of economic densities in Yellow River Basin in China by using 2000 and 2014 country level data. A composite index of economic density that integrates a suite of population, land, and production indicators through a grey-relation entropy model was applied for the spatial analysis in economic densities. The overall economic density levels in Henan Province and Shandong Province were higher than those of other provinces. Other major spatial agglomerations of counties with high economic density were in central parts of Inner Mongolia and Henan Province, the south of Shanxi Province, and the middle regions of Shaanxi Province. Finally, the indicators that might have influenced the level of economic density and the formation spatial economic disparity within Yellow River Basin were identified as the basic environmental conditions, transportation infrastructure, social and economic infrastructure, level and structure of industrialization level, and strategic policies for regional economic development. The results show that there is indeed spatial economic disparity in the studied region and that it may have been mainly affected by the geographically uneven distribution of per capita income and per capita land use intensity.

Per-capita estimations of long-term historical land use and the consequences for global change research

ABSTRACTChanges in land use and land cover are important in global climate change, but the many uncertainties in historical estimates seriously hamper climate modelling. We collected new data on estimated per capita land use over the last two millennia, using new data sources from the Humanities. In general, and in agreement with literature, we found that per capita land use indeed has not been constant in the past, but differ per region and over time. Land use in the distant past was mostly less than 1 ha/cap. However, the recently colonised regions show much higher values and have experienced a much higher per capita land use for the recent past. Most known trajectories follow a concave or bell-shaped curve towards the present.

The distribution of public services from the perspective of sustainable spatial equality in the Tabriz Metropolitan in Iran

One of the most prominent consequences of rapid urbanization has recently been the disintegrated distribution of municipal services which predisposes inequality in citizens' benefiting from these services. Therefore, the city planners and managers' main goal must be to achieve the ideal of 'equality of opportunities' to help different groups of urban population have access to public services and eliminate conflicts in the provision of opportunities. In the present descriptive-analytical study, after specifying the indicators, ten regions of Tabriz are ranked in terms of the distribution of municipal services using three different methods (per capita land use, accessibility and residents' idea) and action priorities are presented for each region. The results of this study show that Tabriz has an inappropriate spatial distribution of public services and the population is incompatible with the distribution of services. Region 8 is in a good condition compared to the other while region 7 and 9 has a poor distribution of public services.

The evolution of global farming land: facts and interpretations

AbstractAlthough land plays a crucially important role in economic development and structural transformation, the causes and consequences of the evolution of farming land have received scant attention in recent decades. In this article, I document global and regional changes in aggregate agricultural land use, per capita land use, and average farm sizes. The spatial distribution of global farming land has changed dramatically, with developed countries substantially reducing their share of global agricultural land, and land‐abundant developing countries substantially increasing their share. In per capita terms, we see a rather different pattern, with average farm sizes increasing in rich and more commercialized agricultural systems, and generally declining or staying constant in poorer and less commercialized systems. These outcomes are the result of complex processes that are not always well understood. I conclude the article by suggesting new, or neglected, areas of research that would facilitate a better understanding of these critically important developments.

A scale-adjusted measure of “Urban sprawl” using nighttime satellite imagery

“Urban Sprawl” is a growing concern of citizens, environmental organizations, and governments. Negative impacts often attributed to urban sprawl are traffic congestion, loss of open space, and increased pollutant runoff into natural waterways. Definitions of “Urban Sprawl” range from local patterns of land use and development to aggregate measures of per capita land consumption for given contiguous urban areas (UA). This research creates a measure of per capita land use consumption as an aggregate index for the spatially contiguous urban areas of the conterminous United States with population of 50,000 or greater. Nighttime satellite imagery obtained by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP OLS) is used as a proxy measure of urban extent. The corresponding population of these urban areas is derived from a grid of the block group level data from the 1990 U.S. Census. These numbers are used to develop a regression equation between Ln(Urban Area) and Ln(Urban Population). The ‘scale-adjustment’ mentioned in the title characterizes the “Urban Sprawl” of each of the urban areas by how far above or below they are on the “Sprawl Line” determined by this regression. This “Sprawl Line” allows for a more fair comparison of “Urban Sprawl” between larger and smaller metropolitan areas because a simple measure of per capita land consumption or population density does not account for the natural increase in aggregate population density that occurs as cities grow in population. Cities that have more “Urban Sprawl” by this measure tended to be inland and Midwestern cities such as Minneapolis–St. Paul, Atlanta, Dallas–Ft. Worth, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Surprisingly, west coast cities including Los Angeles had some of the lowest levels of “Urban Sprawl” by this measure. There were many low light levels seen in the nighttime imagery around these major urban areas that were not included in either of the two definitions of urban extent used in this study. These areas may represent a growing commuter-shed of urban workers who do not live in the urban core but nonetheless contribute to many of the impacts typically attributed to “Urban Sprawl”. “Urban Sprawl” is difficult to define precisely partly because public perception of sprawl is likely derived from local land use planning decisions, spatio-demographic change in growing urban areas, and changing values and social mores resulting from differential rates of international migration to the urban areas of the United States. Nonetheless, the aggregate measures derived here are somewhat different than similar previously used measures in that they are ‘scale-adjusted’; also, the spatial patterns of “Urban Sprawl” shown here shed some insight and raise interesting questions about how the dynamics of “Urban Sprawl” are changing.

Ecological footprints of Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica and the Netherlands

The ecological footprint (EF) has received much attention as a potential indicator for sustainable development over the last years. In this article, the EF concept has been applied to Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica and the Netherlands in 1980, 1987 and 1994. The results of the assessment are discussed and used to discuss the current potential and limitations of the EF as a sustainable development indicator. The originally defined methodology has been slightly adapted by the authors, who focus on individual components of the EF (land and carbon dioxide emissions) and use local yields instead of global averages. Although per capita and total land use differs among the four countries, available data suggest increasing land use in all four countries while per capita land use decreases. The EF for carbon dioxide emissions increases for all four countries in both per capita and absolute terms. Differences in productivity, aggregation (of different resources) and multi-functional land use have been shown to be important obstacles in EF application — depending on the assessment objective. However, despite the obstacles, the study concludes that the EF has been successful in providing an interesting basis for discussion on environmental effects of consumption patterns, including those outside the national borders, and on equity concerning resource use.