City Land Research Articles

The development of flood zones

As cities develop, more and more areas are occupied by buildings and transportation infrastructure. It is only natural that urban development requires the creation of recreational infrastructure for city residents. Recreational infrastructure is essential for the proper functioning of city dwellers. Providing land for such infrastructure falls under the responsibility of local authorities. However, acquiring such land in large cities is very expensive. Therefore, areas with development restrictions become a natural space for recreational facilities. For this reason, the use of river valleys has been studied. These areas are currently used as floodplains in case of floods. The presented analyses were carried out for the city of Sandomierz. It is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The unique character of this city attracts many tourists each year. Most tourist attractions are located near the Old Town. The Old Town of Sandomierz is situated on the banks of the Vistula River. The Vistula River is the largest river in Poland. During floods it swells and the water overflows its bed. in order to protect residents from flooding, flood zones are designated, and flood embankments are constructed. Floodplains in this area occupy a significant part of the city. The research involved both geospatial and legal documentation analyses of this area. The paper proposes alternative ways of using these areas, taking into account the interests of city residents, municipal authorities, the natural environment, and institutions dealing with flood protection.

Unveiling Ghana's urban tapestry: satellite-based analysis of Tamale city's spatial expansion and land surface temperature (LST) dynamics

Unveiling Ghana's urban tapestry: satellite-based analysis of Tamale city's spatial expansion and land surface temperature (LST) dynamics

Forest fates: Unraveling the peri-urban social-ecological trajectories in Mexico City's conservation land.

Peri-urban areas provide multiple ecosystem services, but face critical challenges, including deforestation, unplanned urban sprawl, and environmental pollution and degradation. To address these issues, environmental public policy instruments have been implemented. This paper aims to investigate the social ecological trajectories of a peri-urban area of Mexico City and the role of environmental public policy instruments in addressing land use change. Focusing on four watersheds of the southern periphery of the city, we analyze land use change drivers through neural networks and Markov chains, and we develop two land use scenarios for the next 20years: one characterized by business as usual and another with a more restrictive land use regime. Our findings show that infrastructure drivers are the most critical factor overall, when combined with the historical social ecological trajectory of the study area. The impact of environmental public policy instruments on future trajectories demonstrates their potential to decrease deforestation. The results provide insights for the integrated territorial planning of peri-urban areas with similar social ecological dynamics and developing context.

The pendulum swings: mobilizing policies to develop mass homeless encampments in the “progressive” city

ABSTRACT Portland, Oregon sits at the forefront of experimenting with policies for sheltering unhoused people outside of congregate shelter. In 2021, the City Government legalized sanctioned encampments by adopting them into city land use codes and for periods throughout its housing state of emergency, it also decriminalized sleeping in public. But with the continued increase of homelessness in Portland, the city has abruptly returned to more punitive policies concerning unhoused peoples’ use of space. In July 2023, the city opened its first mass encampment hosting nearly 200 people, and in July 2024, it began enforcing its ban on camping in public space. To understand this shift, the paper engages with policy mobilities and carceral geographies scholarship to examine how the City of Portland came to this about-face at this particular moment. I argue the city’s normalization of smaller tiny house encampments justified its development of mass encampments, a decision that was informed by approaches to homelessness practiced elsewhere, and one in which a significant portion of unhoused people experience more punitive conditions that partly emanate from the socio-spatial relationships in the encampment.

Pro- and Contra-Coalition: Governing the Rise and Fall of Creative Industrial Parks in China

A great number of creative industrial parks (CIPs) have emerged in the past two decades in China as a critical and popular approach to the adaptive reuse of abandoned industrial land in cities. However, a few vibrant CIPs have been closed in the past few years, and the sites are set to be demolished and redeveloped in a property-led manner, suggesting the fragility of CIPs as a land reuse approach. This article aims to elaborate on the institutional rationale behind such a phenomenon. Cases in Shanghai and Guangzhou are examined and presented. The key arguments include: (a) in the industrial land redevelopment process, public and private actors flexibly establish pro-coalitions and contra-coalitions to foster and close CIPs, with strategies to overcome institutional obstacles and to implement land redevelopment-pursued regulatory plans, respectively; (b) key actors forming the two coalitions overlap, such as the local government and the state-owned enterprise land occupiers, and their positions shift subject to specific circumstances; and (c) the finding of the two coalitions echoes the existing argument that there are forces beyond the growth machine driving China’s urban development and provides further insight into the explicit framework of the dual forces underneath.

Urban multi-scale ecological network sequence and spatial structure optimization: A case study in Nanjing city, China

Rapid urbanization has had a segmented effect on the ecological land and natural environment in cities. Constructing an ecological network is of vital importance to protect ecological resources and maintain regional ecological security. However, ecological spaces at different administrative scales have their own ecological functions and elemental characteristics. Therefore, we formed the ecological network sequence to present the integrative connection of multi-scale with municipal area (MA), main urban area (MUA) and central urban area (CUA) in Nanjing. Ecological sources were identified through “landscape—function—structure” framework, and ecosystem services value (ESV) was used as an auxiliary method to identify supplementary sources. Ecological corridors and some key points were identified through circuit theory. The results show that the area of ecological sources in MA, MUA and CUA was 427.3 km2, 62.5 km2 and 16.2 km2, respectively. By integrating sources of three scales, we got 14 sources (442.7 km2) in the first sequence and 10 sources (7.7 km2) in the second sequence. Apart from that, we also got 4 new supplementary sources with area of 13.5 km2. The length of ecological corridors in MA, MUA and CUA was 252.5 km, 263.9 km and 22.7 km, respectively. By integrating corridors of three scales, we found that the western corridors between the ecological sources had a higher gravitation. The ecological nodes are generally distributed in the landscape heterogeneity transition zone, ecological resource fringe zone and ecological spatial contiguous zone. The ecological pinch points are generally distributed along the water system. The ecological barrier points are generally distributed in the combination area among the urban block, village and road. In conclusion, this study made up for the research gap of finding the nesting and integration relationship among ecological networks at multi-scale.

Redevelopment of Underutilized Land in Cities Based on the Perspective of Relevant Stakeholders

As urbanization continues to advance, the issue of redevelopment of low utility land in cities has gradually become the focus of widespread attention. The existence of low utility land leads to irrational allocation of urban resources, low land utilization efficiency, and brings challenges to sustainable urban development. This paper comprehensively analyzes the main causes of low utility land in cities and analyzes them from the perspectives of stakeholders at different levels, and at the same time, it proposes a series of solutions tailored to the local conditions by comparing the problems in urban redevelopment in Guangzhou and London, because different cities have different policies, laws or development pattern which may infect the management of low utility land differently. Meanwhile, this paper also explores the solution to the problem of inefficient land use through effective urban planning, policy adjustment and cooperation among stakeholders to promote sustainable urban development. Finally, this paper gives some problems and challenges that need further attention in the future.

Living with, or despite, organized abandonment: social reproduction and real estate speculation on Chicago’s Large Lots

ABSTRACT Between 2014 and 2020, the city of Chicago sold hundreds of city-owned lots for a dollar to property owners across its South and West Side neighborhoods through the Large Lots program. An expedient way of returning city land to tax rolls and offsetting its holding costs, the city cast Large Lots as an effort to empower residents and turn vacant lots into vibrant neighborhoods. This article examines the labor of making vibrant neighborhoods. Against its erasure by the dominant planning imagination, I situate this labor as an important dimension of life's work under regimes of organized abandonment and their attendant economies of real estate speculation. Through interviews and participant-observation with lot owners, I demonstrate that Large Lots has reconfigured relations of responsibility and obligation around vacant land in ways that enroll residents’ social reproductive labor of land care into the production of investable landscapes. Through a property records analysis, I then show that this labor unfolds in tension with renewed channels for speculation established by Large Lots in program neighborhoods. These findings situate social reproduction as a generative vantage point for politically capacious understandings of real estate speculation and the uneven geographies of life-making it engenders.

Unraveling the mystery of urban expansion in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: Exploring the crucial role of regional cooperation

Existing scholarship extensively explores the dynamics, determinants, and consequences of urban expansion, yet there is scant literature examining the impact of regional cooperation upon the directions and spatial forms of urban expansion amidst the fast-urbanizing process. This study focuses on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), a developed megacity-region in southern China, to probe whether the notable urban expansion observed in contemporary China has been profoundly influenced by collaborative efforts among jurisdictions. Through the spatial metrics and panel data regression spanning the period from 2010 to 2018, this study unveils that regional cooperation has extended from coastal cities towards hinterland cities within the GBA. Consequently, urban land in most cities has undergone expansion in diverse directions. Furthermore, in contrast to economic and social cooperation, regional institutional cooperation emerges as the most influential factor driving external urban expansion. Additionally, heterogeneous results reveal that regional cooperation drives the external expansion of ordinary cities towards core cities. In contrast, the inertia within the urban system demonstrates strong path dependence on the pattern of adjacent expansion, contrasting with the external expansion facilitated by regional cooperation. In summary, this study illuminates the genesis and dynamics of urban expansion amid the city-regionalization process, going beyond interpretations confined to the municipal scale.

Not population density, but city size and per capita income influence the urban forest carbon sequestration: A case of growing cities in Arkansas, USA

While urban trees provides significant ecosystem services, the impact of increasing urbanization and population on their carbon sequestration potential remains relatively underexplored in interior sprawling cities, highlighting a critical research gap amid growing urban environmental challenges. Although existing studies suggest a strongly correlation between urban forest cover and carbon sequestration, this study aims to investigate how the urban demography factors influence land cover and carbon sequestration across cities with low, medium, and high population densities. Using the i-Tree Canopy tool, we sampled 18,814 random points to estimate city land cover and carbon sequestration in Arkansas, interior state of the US. Results from the principal component analysis revealed that 74% of the variation in a city's land cover among population density classes is attributed to tree and soil cover percentages. The mean annual (1.40 ± 0.08 T ha-1) and total carbon sequestration rates (35.30 ± 5.57 T ha-1) were significantly higher in the areas with low population density due to a higher average tree cover percentage (46%). Carbon sequestration rate was negatively associated with land cover types such as impervious surfaces like buildings (r = -0.44), roads (r = -0.28), grass cover (r = -0.46), and impervious other (r = -0.53). The log-linear model with scaled variables suggested that factors such as city's size and tree cover has positive influence urban trees' annual and total carbon sequestration, while spatial distribution and per capita income negatively affect these ecosystem befits in growing cities, regardless of population density. Travel time within city may have negative impact, while decadal population change may positively impact on carbon sequestration alongside management effort. Valuing this potential urban forest carbon sequestration for emerging carbon market could provide monetary benefits to the urban communities, city managers, and policymakers, enabling the development of effective urban forest management strategies in the context of urban climate change.

Urban morphology and identity: The dock spaces of melaka on the maritime silk road

Background: This research investigates the intricate relationship between historical docks and the urban development of Melaka, a significant maritime entrepot along the Maritime Silk Road. Focusing on the physical connections and urban morphological performance, this study explores how these docks have influenced the urban morphology and architectural typology of Melaka from its earliest settlement to the present. Method: Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach that combines urban planning, architectural analysis, historical research, and extensive fieldwork, this research identifies key dock spaces along the Melaka River and examines their connections to the city's inland areas. Through historical mapping and analysis of lost docks and market spaces, as well as religious buildings, the study reveals the complex interactions between these maritime infrastructures and urban development. Result: The findings highlight numerous challenges in preserving these historical nodes, including issues related to modern urban integration and conservation. Conclusion: The research concludes with recommendations for the conservation and management of these historical sites, emphasizing their importance in preserving Melaka’s historic urban landscape. By safeguarding these cultural heritage nodes, Melaka can maintain its urban identity and continue to honor its rich maritime history. Novelty/Originality of this study: The development of a comprehensive and adaptive maritime heritage integration model in modern urban planning, which combines urban morphology, historical mapping, and socio-economic impact assessment, provides a multidimensional framework for urban planners to preserve and revitalize infrastructure nodes while accommodating contemporary urban development needs, thereby creating a balance between heritage preservation and urban progress.

Analisis Daya Dukung Lahan untuk Permukiman di Kota Bukittinggi

Bukittinggi City, with the land conversion to built-up land continues to increase and the availability of land that does not increase, faces difficulties in utilizing land for settlements along with increasing population growth. The purpose of this study is to analyze the suitability of land for settlements and the carrying capacity of Bukittinggi City's residential land for the next 30 years. The quantitative descriptive research method with data presented through tables and maps, calculations refer to the Ministry of Environment's 2014 carrying capacity guidelines and RP3KP. The results of the study indicate that the area of land suitable for settlements is Suitable (S2) covering 710 ha, less suitable (S3) covering 1,147 ha, and not suitable covering 430 ha. For the carrying capacity of Bukittinggi City settlements, in Guguk Panjang District it is in the deficit class, with a DDPm value of 0.24, while 2 other districts are in the surplus class, with Mandiangin Koto Selayan District valued at 2.42, and Aur Birugo Tigobaleh District of 4.09. And for a period of 30 years, 2032, 2042, and 2052, Mandiangin Koto Selayan sub-district and Aur Birugo Tigobaleh sub district still have a surplus while Guguk Panjang sub-district is still in deficit.

The spatial heterogeneity of urban green space distribution and configuration in Lilongwe City, Malawi.

Urban green spaces provide several benefits related to the quality of urban life. The existence and spatial arrangement of these spaces within neighbourhoods and functional land uses have significant implications for the well-being of urban dwellers. Previous studies on green spaces in urban areas of Malawi have focused on a broader and macro-level perspective, offering insightful information on general trends in different cities. However, there is a significant research shortage in localised understanding, which requires carrying out micro-level assessments concentrating on land use zones and neighbourhoods within these cities. In this study, we used remote sensing data and landscape metrics to understand the distribution and configuration of urban green spaces in the city's neighbourhoods and functional land uses and their relationship with urban form. The study revealed that 20% of neighbourhoods fail to meet the WHO-recommended standard of 9 m2 of green space per person, with a predominant concentration of these undersupplied areas in high-density and quasi-residential zones. In addition, 56.2% of Lilongwe City's total green area was contained under functional land uses. Particularly, high-rise residential, medium-density residential, low-density residential, quasi-residential, high-rise flat area, commercial class, high-rise commercial, heavy industry, light industry, and government land use zones contained 17.3%, 12.0%, 22.2%, 12.0%, 4.1%, 6.4%, 6.1%, 5.0%, 1.6%, and 13.3% of the total green spaces in functional land uses, respectively. Importantly, this research found significant correlations between urban form metrics, namely building coverage, building density, building perimeter area ratio, road density, and the distribution and configuration of urban green spaces. This necessitates an integrated approach to urban planning and design, emphasising the importance of balancing development with green space preservation.

Communication Strategy in Handling Land Boundary Disputes at the Land Office of Lhokseumawe City

This research aims to determine the communication strategy used by the Dispute Control and Handling Section of the Lhokseumawe City Land Office in managing land boundary disputes. The main theories and concepts used are communication strategy, organizational communication, and persuasive communication. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study method, data collected through observation and interviews with employees involved in handling land boundary disputes. The results of this study found that the Lhokseumawe City Land Office uses a caucus process in its communication strategy in handling disputes, in contrast to the more commonly used direct mediation approach. The stages of dispute handling are in accordance with Hafied Cangara's five-step communication planning model. Analysis of the communication dimensions shows that internal communication occurs both vertically and horizontally through meetings, phone calls, and WhatsApp messages, involving reciprocal exchanges between leaders and employees and between employees. External communication involves the office acting as a facilitator during meetings. Persuasive techniques identified include integration, which involves negotiation, and fear induction, which highlights the potential consequences of unresolved disputes. The implications of this research underscore the importance of structured communication planning and strategy in effective dispute management. The findings suggest that other government agencies may benefit from adopting a similar approach. The use of effective persuasive techniques can improve the efficiency of dispute resolution.

Response and prediction of ecosystem service values to land use change resulting from underground coal mining in high groundwater table areas: A case study of Jining City, China

Ecosystem services are crucial for human survival and development. Changes in land use can lead to alterations in ecosystem service functions. However, the mechanism of how land use changes resulting from underground coal mining affect ecosystem service remains unclear, especially in areas with high groundwater levels. To address this issue, we studied the spatiotemporal in land use change in Jining City from 2000 to 2020 and employed Markov-PIM (probability integration method)-PLUS (Patch-generate Land Use Simulation) model to simulate land use change and ecosystem service values (ESV) in Jining City by 2030 under four different scenarios. The results indicate that from 2000 to 2020, the area of ecological space increased by 169.99 km2, and the area of living space expanded by 775.28 km2, while the area of production space decreased by 945.27 km2, conversely. These changes led to a 3 million yuan increase in total ESV. From 2020 to 2030, there was a marked decline in ESV under both natural development (ND) and living space preference (LSP) scenarios, with decreases of 0.59 billion yuan and 1.38 billion yuan, respectively. In contrast, in production space preference (PSP) and ecological space preference (ESP) scenarios, ESV increase by 0.22 billion yuan and 0.34 billion yuan. The ESP scenario is an effective strategy to strengthen environmental protection, significantly improve the ESV level of Jining City and meet the development goals of Jining City. Finally, the study concludes with recommendations like comprehensive management, industrial upgrading, and collaborative development for optimizing Jining City's future land use and enhance ESV for urban development.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Drivers of High-Quality Utilization of Urban Land in Chinese Cities

High-quality utilization of urban land (HUUL) is essential for optimizing urban land use and promoting high-quality development. Previous research has mainly focused on examining urban land use efficiency, neglecting the connection between urban land use and high-quality development. This study reveals the intrinsic association mechanism between high-quality development and urban land use, which can provide comprehensive theoretical and empirical support for high-quality land use and high-quality urban development. This study constructed an evaluation system for HUUL that comprehensively adopted the entropy method, kernel density estimation, and the geodetector model to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution and driving factors of the HUUL levels of 284 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2020. The measurement results showed that during 2006–2020, the HUUL level showed an apparent upward trend, and the eastern region > the central region > the overall region > the western region > the northeast region. From the kernel density map, there was a noticeable trend of varying degrees of increase in the difference of the main peak position of the HUUL level among cities in all regions except the west. Furthermore, some cities in the eastern and western regions had significantly higher HUUL levels than the others. According to the results of the factor analysis, it is evident that innovative use and open use are the internal primary factors that drive the enhancement of the HUUL level. Moreover, the level of economic development is the external primary factor that facilitates the improvement in HUUL level.

AKIBAT HUKUM TERHADAP SERTIFIKAT HAK ATAS TANAH YANG TUMPANG TINDIH

Legal efforts to facilitate referrals to plots of land so that good land management can be carried out. After the land registration has been completed according to the stages carried out, a Principal Rights Certificate is issued. This is proof of ownership and is considered strong evidence of the physical and legal data contained therein as long as the physical and legal data is still maintained. The data is in accordance with information from relevant survey documents and land legal documents. A certificate as proof of land ownership after being registered at the Land Office of course brings legal certainty to the holder. However, in fact there are several cases where the certificates overlap, such as in the case that was decided in decision number 32/G/2023/PTUN SBY ​​between Sri Wulandari and the Head of the Batu City Land Office and I Made Artawan. Legal certainty regarding land ownership is by registering the land owned by each person, because based on Article 1 paragraph (1) of the Basic Agrarian Law, by registering the land we own, this guarantees legal certainty for the land owner and is proven by the issuance of a land title certificate. This land ownership certificate has strong evidentiary value as long as the land procurement and registration is carried out according to established procedures and there are no clerical defects in the land registration. Article 32 (2) PP Regulation Number 24 of 1997.

Land fictions: The commodification of land in city and country

Land fictions: The commodification of land in city and country

Analysis of the "ADIARTA" Innovation as the Savior of Batu City Land Archives

The ADIARTA innovation that was selected as the top 45 commendable public service innovations at the Public Service Innovation Competition (KIPP) was initiated by the Batu City Government, the Library and Archives Office, and the Communication and Information Office to facilitate services in the field of land archives. It is aimed at digitizing land documents to extend the life of the land archives of the Batu City community. In addition, ADIARTA is an application that can provide information about land ownership, buying and selling, grants, and the history of land in Batu City. ADIARTA is one of the innovations that can encourage community service and efforts to save village land archives which are confidential and sensitive documents (vital archives). The implementation of ADIARTA in Batu City has not been fully carried out in all villages, with the help of Malang State University students and the ADIARTA team. The realization of these innovations is to support good governance, effectiveness, and efficiency of public services to the community. From all kinds of problems about land, the Batu City government launched a land innovation that had a positive impact on the people of Batu city, as many as 90% of people felt satisfaction from ADIARTA services. The utilization of information and communication technology is one of the steps that can provide cost savings, time savings, and ease of access for related parties. The innovation is expected to be one way to provide efficiency to operations, facilitate community accessibility in accessing land archives, provide security and sustainable services, and improve public services for the community

Juridical Review of Replacement Certificates of Land Rights Due to Loss at the Medan City Land Office

An application for a replacement certificate can only be made by the party whose name appears as the right holder in the land book at the local land office. An application for a replacement certificate cannot be made if the name of the party is different from the name of the right holder in the land book. If the right holder listed in the land book has died, the application can be made by his heirs. The application must be accompanied by valid supporting documents, such as a Certificate of Death from the right holder and a Certificate of Heirs and Heirs. The formulation of the problem in this research is How is the Procedure for the Implementation of the Issuance of Land Rights Substitute Certificates at the Medan City Land Office. How are the obstacles and efforts faced by the Medan City Land Office in the Implementation of the Issuance of Replacement Certificates of Land Rights that are lost. The type of research used in this research is juridical-empirical. Juridical-empirical research is legal research on the enactment or implementation of normative legal provisions directly on each specific legal event that occurs in society. An application for a replacement certificate due to loss can only be submitted by the party whose name is listed as the right holder in the relevant land book or another party who is the recipient of the right based on a PPAT deed or an excerpt of minutes of auction, deed, letter and power of attorney. If the right holder or beneficiary has died, an application for a replacement certificate can be submitted by his heirs by submitting a letter of proof as an heir.