Land Use Design Research Articles

Unpacking conservation easements' assessed land use designations and their implications for realizing biodiversity protection

AbstractNative ecosystem and biodiversity loss from land use conversion into human‐modified landscapes are evident in the United States and globally. In addition to public land conservation, there is an increase in private land conservation through conservation easements (CEs) across exurban landscapes. Not every CE was established strictly for biodiversity protection and permitted land uses can increase human modification. No research of which we are aware has examined the actual tax assessor's land use designations (LUDs) through time. We constructed granular CE datasets (GCED) of CEs and their parcels' tax assessment LUDs for 1997–2008/2009, based on original data from 12 counties in six US states. Using the GCED, we examined patterns in the LUDs, with implications for land uses that could impact CE biological outcomes. We show that LUDs on exurban private conservation lands were predominately residential and agricultural, with increased residential over time. Critically, the LUDs lack a biological conservation exempt designation/category. There is no consistent trend in association between the primary CE reason and its parcel's LUD, suggesting that they coincide in some circumstances but in others, the CE may be a response to contravene the LUD. The majority of the first CE reasons are focused on open space preservation, except in some counties where agricultural land uses and agricultural CEs are associated. The economically and human‐focused LUD is one of many social factors that should be considered in a classification system for private land conservation and CEs more specifically. These results prompt the land conservation, conservation biology, and environmental planning communities to explore assessed land uses' impact on biodiversity conservation objectives.

A Report on the Institutional Design of an Original Land Use Planning System and Land Use Coordination Method Based on the Zoning System in Village-based Cities and Regions

A Report on the Institutional Design of an Original Land Use Planning System and Land Use Coordination Method Based on the Zoning System in Village-based Cities and Regions

Changes in mangrove coverage classification criteria could impact the conservation of mangroves in Mexico

Accurate estimates of habitat extent and rates of change are crucial inputs for the global, regional, and national assessments that guide policy-making and prioritize strategies. This can contribute to an understanding of ecosystems in the landscape for their use, management, and preservation. Mangroves are one of the types of ecosystems in which estimation discrepancies have been analyzed to determine the impacts of data quality on conservation and policy-making. We identify significant discrepancies in the extent of the last map of Mexican mangroves (i.e., 2020) produced by the Mexican Mangrove Monitoring System (MMMS). We performed a comparative assessment between the 2020 and 2015 maps by using geographical information systems to analyze the spatial extent across these years and estimate the accuracy of map changes with airborne data. We observed a spurious gain of 129,531 ha between 2015 and 2020, including 102,610 ha (79% of total changes) in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve and its surroundings. Furthermore, the mangrove definition changed, causing the MMMS to map other coastal wetlands with the presence of Rhizophora mangle scrubs dispersed in the landscape. The analysis of MMMS airborne data demonstrates that this significant increase is due to changes in mangrove mapping criteria and definitions. The definition and spatial delimitation of "mangrove" (i.e., mangrove community or stands forest) has implications relevant to the conservation policy of these coastal wetlands/coastal resources. MMMS discrepancies in mangrove extent could generate misleading perspectives on different sectors. A cartographic solution is to separate the other coastal wetland areas with the presence of R. mangle from all MMMS products and reclassify them as "other wetlands with the presence of R. mangle." Robust ecosystem extent data is crucial for the design and implementation of efficient land use and conservation policies.

Sustainable pathways towards climate and biodiversity goals in the UK: the importance of managing land-use synergies and trade-offs

Agricultural and environmental policies are being fundamentally reviewed and redesigned in the UK following its exit from the European Union. The UK government and the Devolved Administrations recognise that current land use is not sustainable and that there is now an unprecedented opportunity to define a better land strategy that responds fully to the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development. This paper presents evidence from three pathways (current trends, sustainable medium ambition, and sustainable high ambition) to mid-century that were co-created with UK policymakers. The pathways were applied to a national integrated food and land-use model (the FABLE calculator) to explore potential synergies and trade-offs between achieving multiple sustainability targets under limited land availability and constraints to balance food supply and demand at national and global levels. Results show that under the Current Trends pathway all unprotected open natural land would be converted to urban, agriculture and afforested land, with the consequence that from 2030 onwards tree planting targets could not be met. In contrast, the two sustainable pathways illustrate how dietary change, agricultural productivity improvements and waste reduction can free up land for nature recovery and carbon sequestration. This enables a transition to a sustainable food and land-use system that provides a net carbon sink with up to 44% of land able to support biodiversity conservation. We highlight key trade-offs and synergies, which are important to consider for designing and implementing emerging national policies. These include the strong dependence of climate, food and biodiversity targets on dietary shifts, sustainable improvements in agricultural productivity, improved land-use design for protecting and restoring nature, and rapid reductions in food loss and waste.

A land-use benefit evaluation system with case study verification.

In regional land-use planning, many different demands for often-limited land resources must be weighed against each other. Analysis of the benefits of different land-use types is of great significance in land-use design. However, a good evaluation methodology does not exist. To facilitate a comparative analysis of land-use benefits, this paper presents an evaluation system consisting of four steps: (1) Connotation dissection to determine the land-use benefits, (2) construction of a land-use benefit classification system to summarize a limited number of land-use benefit types by an inductive method, (3) land-use benefit valuation, which includes a biophysical model, direct and indirect market valuations, and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity value conversion method, and (4) case analysis of the evaluation results according to local conditions. Empirical results from a case study of Mentougou District, Beijing, China, show that (i) the evaluation results of land-use benefit groups provides information on each land-use type and the spatial distribution of land-use benefits in Mentougou District, (ii) the topography of Mentougou District has an important influence on economic and ecological land-use benefits, and (iii) there is a synergistic effect of economic and social land-use benefits.

What Does the Circular Household of the Future Look Like? An Expert-Based Exploration

Circularity is a necessity for the future of our society but individual households often find it difficult to contribute to this transition. This paper presents possible future visions of circular (and climate-neutral) households, inside and outside the house, regarding their contributions to the circular society, and taking into account food, energy, waste, household devices, and recreation. We combined expert interviews and a literature review to (1) explore imaginable futures for circular households, and (2) make a qualitative evaluation of the inside- and outside-house influences of households on a climate-neutral and circular society. Interviewees were selected to represent different scientific backgrounds. The four household types were organized according to more local or global, and collective or individual, levels: (1) the Househood (centering around neighborhoods); (2) the HouseNet (connecting households); (3) the Sharing Household (sharing goods between households); and (4) the Designing Household (input from circular-by-design products). The analysis shows that households can become more circular by connecting developments in social, ecological, and technological systems, such as those in price dynamics, policies, or land-use design. However, barriers and limitations need attention, including: (1) public awareness and willingness to change; (2) economic models; (3) waste; and (4) social justice.

A comprehensive analysis of the relationships between the built environment and traffic safety in the Dutch urban areas

Built-environment factors potentially alleviate or aggravate traffic safety problems in urban areas. This paper aims to investigate the relationships of these factors with vehicle-bicycle and vehicle-vehicle property damage only (PDO) and killed and severe injury (KSI) crashes in urban areas. For this purpose, an area-level analysis using 100x100m2 cells, along with a Spatial Hurdle Negative Binomial regression model were employed. The study area is composed of a selection of municipalities in the Netherlands-Randstad Area where major land-use developments have occurred since the 1970s. The study was conducted by developing a rich dataset composed of various national and local databases. The findings reveal that built-environment factors and land-use policies have substantial impacts on safety, which cannot be neglected. The factors explaining the land-use density and diversity in the area (e.g., urbanity and function mixing levels), as well as the land-use design characteristics (indicated by average age of the neighborhoods), traffic and road network characteristics, and proximity to different destinations influence the probability, frequency, and severity of crashes in urban areas. Furthermore, low socioeconomic levels are associated with a higher frequency of traffic crashes.

Land-Use Planning for Farming Area in West Java to Divide Allocation of Vegetables Commodity Using Genetic Algorithm Approach

This research has created a model to determine the optimum allocation of land-use planning for farming in West Java by considering the two main components, i.e., production and cost. The method is essential in farming, especially in the COVID-19 situation, as it determines clearly which procedure needs to be involved for land-use farming optimization. The problem of land allocation lies in finding the optimum solution from the multi-objective functions. In this study, the method used to cope with the land-use design problem was the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and its expansion called Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA). The research results indicated that the best total fitness in GA and NSGA is relatively the same. It was shown that both NSGA and GA could make a planning scheme optimal for the farming commodities in West Java. Based on the maximum optimum value from the best fitness value of NSGA, around 37.35% of the farmland in West Java, it is the best fit for the big red chili commodity. The city where the land used for extensive red chili farming is found to have the maximum optimum value is Garut, with 98.73% of its total farm area.

Farmland Preservation and Urban Expansion: Case Study of Southern Ontario, Canada

Farmland is an essential resource for the sustainability and security of human food systems. Preserving an agricultural land base is critical, as it is significantly affected by local, national, and global urbanization. This research introduces a case of farmland preservation in southern Ontario. This area contains some of Canada's most finite and productive soils but has an agricultural system facing enormous pressure from urban expansion. This paper reviews the farmland preservation policy framework within Ontario and provides insight into the role of different levels of government in protecting this critical resource. It also provides data at a regional level that provides the basis to evaluate the success of provincial and local policies. By tracking agricultural land conversion through local Official Plan Amendments (OPAs), this study documents farmland loss across southern Ontario between 2000 and 2017. Implemented and approved by local government and designed with public input, municipal Official Plans outline and describe land-use planning policies on how municipalities should use lands to meet community needs and desires. OPAs are formal and legally binding administrative changes to a municipal Official Plan decided through an open public process, which are required to change local land-use designations that conform with the long-term vision for growth and physical development. These OPAs may include the conversion of farmlands for non-farm uses (or, in contrast, the protection of agricultural lands). Over time, they will reveal the loss of farmlands in each community for different uses (and reflect changing priorities). Using OPAs to track the conversion of prime agricultural land is an innovative and rigorous methodological contribution, given the lack of data documenting long-term changes to the availability of agricultural lands and the impacts of urbanization on farmland conversion. Measuring farmland loss with this approach can be transferred and applied to contexts where municipalities are the entities responsible for agricultural land-use planning, outside of Ontario and beyond. Data from 36 counties/regions shows that the provincial policies and local planning framework have worked in tandem to affect the agricultural land base in southern Ontario significantly. In Central Ontario, the most urbanized area of Canada, the Province's Greenbelt Plan has significantly reduced the rates of farmland loss since 2005, while the Growth Plan and other policies contributed to enhanced municipal control over agricultural land conversion. Specifically, the Inner Ring municipalities have played increasingly active roles in agricultural land protection with both planning approaches and local initiatives. Outer Ring municipalities have seen increasing urbanization pressure. Data on farmland loss for non-agricultural use showed large-scale municipal-led urban boundary expansions and small-scale individual applications on policy changes. In Western Ontario, over the past two decades, there has been no obvious upward or downward trend of farmland loss. Most of the farmland conversion cases in this region were small-scale applications to create small lots on existing agricultural land to allow non-agricultural uses such as commercial, recreational, residential, and agricultural-related facilities. Since 2000, Southeastern Ontario, which has the smallest provincial share of prime agricultural land, has experienced limited farmland loss, consisting primarily of small-scale, individual applications on land-use re-designations (partially reflecting reduced acreages of prime agricultural land). The provincial policy impact on farmland preservation is not as evident in this region. The findings and methodology of this study contribute to the groundwork on farmland availability and land-use planning policy development and research by providing a baseline enumeration of farmland availability and the effect of farmland protection policies at provincial and municipal levels within Ontario's land use planning regime.

Perceived influence of street-level visible greenness exposure in the work and residential environment on life satisfaction: Evidence from Beijing, China

Sensing urban greenness from street view data offers a new and alternative way of measuring the association between greenness exposure and subjective wellbeing in developing countries where traditional census data are poor. This paper focuses on the association between life satisfaction and street-level visible greenness exposure at residential and work locations, using a combination of sensor data and individual cross-sectional survey data (4619 employed respondents) in Beijing, China. We use a single self-reported question (‘“how well are you satisfied with your life as a whole”’) to measure life satisfaction. Street View Greenness (SVG) is taken as a surrogate for street-level visible greenness exposure at residential and work locations. The results suggest that street-level visible greenness exposure in residential locations is positively associated with perceived satisfaction, though such effects are less significant after considering greenness exposure at work locations. The stratified analysis provides the insight that the associations between street-level visible greenness exposure and life satisfaction vary with individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as sex, age educational attainment and income. Males, young adults, people with low income and educational attainment may benefit more from SVG exposure than other groups. Findings of this study suggest that urban greenness in residential and work environments should simultaneously be taken into the design of land use and public policies aiming to improve people’s subjective wellbeing.

The Sustainable Development Indicators of the Environment for Cultural Landscapes in Chung Hsing New Village, Taiwan

Chung Hsing New Village was built up to ease administrative issues and air defense relocate scheme by the government in 1956. It covers up to 252 hectares by national land and aims to in charge of the essential works of counties, cities and towns of the province. Furthermore, it was the pioneer of urban planning concerned with the development, design of land use and the built environment in Taiwan. Chung Hsing New Village took the case study from Ebenezer Howard's Garden City, included connecting the suburbanization development with compact layouts, low-density development with good public spaces and emphasis on neighborhood unit in the thoughts, to create a functional working environment and public facility as a model of town planning in Taiwan. However, due to the downsizing of the Taiwan provincial government in 1998, most administrative workers were laid off, and yet, the Jiji earthquake damaged lots of buildings in 1999. Despite this, the remarkable value of culture and advanced concept of town planning made Chung Hsing New Village had been listed as cultural landscapes preservation since 12th April 2011, but compare to the other countries’ regulation of cultural landscapes and sustainable environmental preservation framework, the authorities failed to act and lack of big picture caused severe problems like abandoned and ruined, etc. To sum up, this research aims to explore the core value of Chung Hsing New Village environmentally sustainable, follow up with literature review, field investigate and in-depth interview with experts to construct Chung Hsing New Village cultural landscapes. The sustainable development indicators and the weight analysis of analytic hierarchy Process (AHP). Comparing the two results, it demonstrates the value of sustainable development indicators and contributes to the following cohort study of Chung Hsing New Village.

Study on the planning and design of land use in villages and towns based on GIS technology

Population growth and limited livable lands lead to the contradiction between man and land. Land use planning and design can alleviate the contradiction to a great extent. This paper briefly introd...

Study on the planning and design of land use in villages and towns based on GIS technology

Study on the planning and design of land use in villages and towns based on GIS technology

Sustainable Land-Use Pathway Ranking and Selection

The desire for refining status quo cost–benefit protocols to fully encompass econometric model uncertainty motivates the search for improved technology. Availability of unique Ethiopian highlands milk-market livestock data provides an ideal laboratory for investigation of alternative land-use pathway designs. In these contexts, we present novel methodology for ranking and selecting sustainable ‘land-use pathways,’ arguing that the methodology is central to sustainable-land-use-policy prescriptions, providing essential innovation to assessments hitherto devoid of probabilistic foundation. Demonstrating routine implementation of Markov-Chain, Monte-Carlo procedure, ranking-and-selection enactment is widely disseminable and potentially valuable to land-use policy prescription. Application to a sample of Ethiopian-highlands, land-dependent households highlights empirical gains compared to conventional methodology. Applications and extensions that profit future land-use sustainability within the Ethiopian highlands and, also, more generally, are discussed.

Policy Framework and Mechanism of Life Cycle Management of Industrial Land (LCMIL) in China

The improvement of industrial land use is an important issue for sustainable urbanization and smart growth in urban areas. However, few studies have focused on the policy design of industrial land use due to limited practical cases. A Life Cycle Management of Industrial Land (LCMIL) model consisting of six stages, which are land transfer, land development, land use (development period), land use (mature period), land contract expiration, and land withdrawal, is established based on the LCM theory and practical applications in major cities in China. Shanghai is used as a case study to analyze the implementation and mechanisms of LCMIL. The results show that the policy system involving three level local governments, as well as an evaluation system that includes economic, social, and environmental indicators, could support the implementation of LCMIL and improve the utilization of industrial land. Four key mechanisms were recommended 1) a division into fixed stages and clear departmental responsibility mechanisms in the different land use stages; 2) an evaluation mechanism that is both rigid and flexible; 3) a new land withdrawal mechanism based on environmental assessments; 4) collaborative governance and information sharing based on big data. Our research does not only provide an innovative solution to the challenges of existing industrial land use policy in China but is also a new approach to apply LCM theory to public policy decision-making. The lessons from Shanghai are meaningful for innovation in industrial land use policy in other cities in China and worldwide.

Coastal tectonics and habitat squeeze: response of a tidal lagoon to co-seismic sea-level change

We investigated the response of a tidal lagoon system to a unique situation of relative sea-level change induced by powerful earthquakes (up to Mw 7.1) on the east coast of New Zealand in 2010–2011. Spatiotemporal impacts were quantified using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) datasets complemented by hydrodynamic modelling and evaluation of anthropogenic influences. Ground-level changes included examples of uplift and extensive subsidence (ca. 0.5 m) associated with intertidal area reductions, particularly in supratidal zones. ‘Coastal squeeze’ effects occurred where incompatible infrastructure prevented upland ecosystem movement with relative sea-level rise. Despite large-scale managed retreat, legacy effects of land-filling have reduced the reversibility of human modifications, impairing system resiliency through poor land-use design. Elsewhere, available space in the intertidal range shows that natural environment movement could be readily assisted by simple engineering techniques though is challenged by competing land-use demands. Quantification of gains and losses showed that lagoon expansion into previously defended areas is indeed required to sustain critical habitats, highlighting the importance of a whole-system view. Identifiable coastal planning principles include the need to assess trade-offs between natural and built environments in the design of hazard management plans, requiring greater attention to the natural movement of ecosystems and areas involved. Treating these observations as a scenario illustrates the mechanisms by which coastal squeeze effects may develop under global sea-level rise, but our purpose is to help avoid them by identifying appropriate human responses. We highlight the need for an improved focus on whole-system resilience, and the importance of disaster recovery processes for adaptation to climate change.

Analyzing Organic Food Farming Trends in the US Western Region

At a time of mounting fears over the risks of tainted food and the environmental health impacts, people are embracing organic farming in record numbers. The way such alternative food items are displayed in grocery stores in every zone in the country gives credence to the growing acceptance. Since its emergence, organic farming has gained formidable foothold in the Western region where California towers above everyone and other parts of the US. Considering the reasons that originally fueled organic farming and the proliferation across the country, access to more varieties of produces are helping supplement output originating from conventional sources. Further along these lines, elements located within the organic farm structure from size of land area, cropland and food types have increased over time. While the surge in organic farmland use stems from socio-economic forces, ecology and policy factors, very little has been done in assessing the changing trends and the state of organic farm operations using a mix scale technique. Added to that, the guiding standards shaping the regulatory components of organic farm produce and the potentials are barely known. For that, this research will fill that void by focusing on organic farming activities in 10 states in the Western region with emphasis on the issues, trends and factors using secondary data under mix scale techniques of GIS and descriptive statistics. The results point to visible changes in farmland indicators from cropland, food types to output volume in organic farm operations coupled with dispersion of emergent spatial patterns highlighting the extent of organic farmland use and the evolution of other indicators across the states using GIS. Realizing that the changes surrounding organic farming activities in the study area emanate from socio-economic and physical elements, the paper offered seven suggestions to strengthen the sector. The recommendations ranged from the need for a periodic tracking of farm operations to the design of a regional organic land use and food index.

Optimal visual perception in land-use planning and design based on landsenses ecology

ABSTRACTLand-use planning and design (LPD) is one of the most critical passways toward sustainable development. LPD without thorough considerations can cause many problems, such as disharmony between people’s perception and nature, the chaos of spatial patterns, and the misuse of land resources. Landsenses ecology, a discipline based on natural elements and people’s perception, provide scientific basis to guide LPD. Here we summarized the state-of-the-art concept of optimal visual perception based on conventional optical theory and contemporary visualization technology. Instead of solely using an artistic design perspective to sum up experience, we combined human binocular visual angle and distance with the field of view (FOV) of cell phone cameras to determine an optimal visual perception. We explained the rationality of the concept of optimal visual perception with three examples, located at the Institute of Urban Environmental (IUE) from Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Welcoming-Guests Pine on Huangshan Mountain, and the Sunlight Rock of Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, China, respectively. Both landsenses involving the IUE and Welcoming-Guests Pine satisfy the required conditions for optimal visual perception, whereas the Sunlight Rock shows the chaos of near and far landscapes, which is not compatible with the optimal visual perception. At the end of this paper, we provide pieces of advice on applying optimal visual perception to land-use planners and architects as well as sustainability scholars.

Method of Design of Land use of Local Eco-Network Structural Elements

There are presented the theoretical and methodological principles of the formation of eco-network in Ukraine for the purpose of the development of the environment-oriented land use. The method of the land planning of the land use of eco-network structural elements on the territory of village council that uncovers the main stages of the design of land use. Besides, there are mentioned the criteria of territory delimitation to include it to the eco-network structural elements and the main approaches to the design of land use.

Does Residents' Satisfaction with the Neighbourhood Environment Relate to Residents' Self-Rated Health? Evidence from Beijing.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the association between satisfaction with two types of green space and residents’ self-rated health by comparing neighbourhood green space (NGS) and community green space (CGS) across spatial dimensions. Method: This study was based on 4291 workers from a large-scale individual survey of inhabitants of Beijing city in 2013. Multilevel ordered logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations between residents’ satisfaction with the two types of green spaces and residents’ self-rated health. Results: Residents who are more satisfied with NGS and CGS have higher odds of reporting good self-rated health outcomes. Such effects are more pronounced for residents living close to NGS and tend to decline non-linearly over space. Conclusion: Additional results quantify the differentiated effects on self-rated health between urban and suburban residents. The findings of this study suggest that the effects of residents’ satisfaction with different types of green space on health benefits should be taken into account in the land-use design of green space preservation and development policies.