Development Of Land Consolidation Research Articles

Ecological environment quality assessment based on remote sensing data for land consolidation

Abstract Ecological transformation is inevitable in development of land consolidation (LC) in China. An appropriate approach for assessing ecological environmental quality (EEQ) is fundamental for the analysis of LC efficiency. However, previous studies generally rely on statistical data or land use data, and the objectivity of these data and research periods are generally limited at the project scale. Based on the remote sensing data 6 years before and after LC, this study developed the RS-based theoretical research framework, provided a contrastive analysis between Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) and Ecological Index (EI) and expanded spatio-temporal pattern study to assess EEQ in a typical land consolidation project area (LCPA) of China, with the application of RSEI method. Results suggested that RSEI and EI showed strong comparability in the ecological sense, and RSEI can reflect the changes in EEQ in LCPA more effectively than EI. Wetness and greenness indicators had positive effects on EEQ promotion, while heat and dryness indicators had negative effects, and the effect of dryness indicator was more significant than that of other indicators. Before, during, and after LC, EEQ decreased first, increased later, and decreased overall, with the characteristics of degenerating during the construction period, improving during the restoration period, as well as degenerating in the overall process. LC caused persistent disturbance to EEQ, but there was a lag for restoration for more than 5 years. Prediction indicated that the selected indicators were the key indicators of EEQ, among which wetness and greenness were essential for EEQ improvement. This study provides certain theoretical guidance and method reference for the scientific, objective, direct, and long-term comprehensive monitoring and assessment of EEQ at the project scale.

THE FORMATION OF INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF AGRICULTURAL LAND CONSOLIDATION IN UKRAINE

Every theory requires an application tool. Land consolidation is the multidisciplinary tool for sustainable rural development with its dynamic structure that gives possibilities getting the best solutions for land management decision. That is why the main purpose of the article is a theoretical study and development of scientific and practical recommendations concerning the formation of institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation in Ukraine. The subject of study is the formation of agricultural land consolidation. Methodology. The study used the following methods: dialectical, logical and abstract, system analysis (theoretical and methodological generalizations, defining the essence of the content of institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation). This paper identifies the role of the institutions in economic development and characterised the regulatory, procedural, distributive, informational, development and accumulation functions of agricultural land consolidation institution. As a novelty items offered and provided the detailed description of the main components of the institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation such as: traditional and mental, legal, causal, organizational and structural, and procedural. The essence of institutions of each of these components and their meaning and relationships are presented. Theoretically investigated that the formation of institutional mechanism of consolidation should be a symbiosis of both traditional and market institutions based on democratic principles under community participation. The article focuses on the feasibility of the formation of mechanism for monitoring the effectiveness of institutions. As the result of the study the author proposed to consider the institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation as a regulatory system harmonizing relations of the agricultural production, social and natural resources, designed to optimize the production, based on the actual requirements and restrictions of the existing institutes and institutions to guarantee a rational use of land resources. Practical implications. Analysis of current situation in Ukraine suggests that the urgent task is particularly not only to create, design and import of the land consolidation institutions but also to provide the diagnostic of their maturity and suitability for the current level of the land consolidation relations. This conclusion is supported with the lack of a specific state policy on development of land consolidation and distrust in government initiates. The author also provides a list of necessary actions required for the development of the agricultural land consolidation in Ukraine.

Land consolidation development - discussion of a new approach recommended for Poland

Summary The article is an opinion in the ongoing discussion on the directions of the legislative changes in the field of rural structures in Poland, expressed mainly in connection with the forthcoming EU programming period 2014–2020. In the very centre of discussion is a new approach to planning and implementing investment activities related to land consolidation (defined as “land consolidation development”) in Poland. If investments in post-consolidation development are realized in coordination with water engineering, land improvement and flood control, then even under Rural Development Programme (RDP) for 2007–2013 more funds can be raised for improving rural structures. A prerequisite for this is to create integrated guidelines for land consolidation projects.

The origins of Dutch rural planning: a study of the early history of land consolidation in the Netherlands

This article explores the institutional and organizational foundations of rural planning in the Netherlands. The key objective of the study was to understand the background to and determining factors in the development of land consolidation (ruilverkaveling) as an instrument of rural planning. Dutch rural planning, as a constituent part of spatial planning in the Netherlands, developed quite separately from urban planning. This article traces the roots of this separate development back to the period 1890–1940. At the end of the nineteenth century, reformist liberals argued for a legislative framework for the rational reallocation of land parcels to consolidate fragmented land holdings. The early initiatives came to nothing because of the prevailing rigid distinction between public and private interests. The First World War changed this situation. The decline in world trade forced the government to make the national economy more self‐sufficient. Land consolidation was embraced as a means for supporting the agricultural sector by improving land drainage and bringing land into cultivation. From the beginning of the 1930s agricultural politics and rural planning grew closer together, and took off rapidly in the post‐war decades.

Transformations of the Rural Region on the Kurobe Alluvial Fan

Part-time farmers (farming families who devote themselves to both farming and side business) have been increasing in number in recent rural regions, and a “Worker-Peasants” phenomenon (Clout, H.D., Rural Geography, pp. 43-81, Oxford, 1972) can be observed in many parts of Japan. The side business has often become important even to define or limit the farm management. In a countryside of this kind real regional characters can not be revealed by an examination of farming activities only. It is therefore necessary to make a different geographical approach to the rural area, including a study of side jobs as well as farming activities. Considering this point, the present writers pay attention in this paper, to the employment structure of farming population, a combination of economic activities in which members of farming families are engaged. Therefore, a discussion will be centered on the processes how the present rural region is being transformed (or evolved) into another by analyzing the general situation of employment of the farming families in the region.The study area, Urayamashin, is a village located on the Kurobe Alluvial Fan in the Toyama Plain of Central Japan facing the Japan Sea (Fig. 1). From 1964 to 1970, land consolidation was in progress in this area, and it could be concluded that this land improvement work has accelerated the transformation of this rural region. In this connection, a sample survey of a village where land consolidation has already been finished was done since processes of transformation can be explained relatively easily through the writers' observation during a rather short period.Around 1965, most of the farming families of Urayamashin attached importance to farming activities, which were sometimes a combination of rice and tulip farming and sometimes that of rice and dairy farming. Besides, farmers were engaged in construction work for the season free from farming either in areas near or far away from home for long (Table. 3). Even at that time, the farmers' sons rarely farmed, but commonly found employment in cities and worked as commuters. With the development of land consolidation, size of fields was enlarged, irrigation and drainage canals paths in the fields were improved (Figs. 2 and 3). Various kinds of machines began to be used for rice production. The mechanization and cooperative work of rice farming provided labour surplus, but it was devoted not to other farming activities such as dairy farming and tulip and vegetable growing, but to employment in manufacturing and tertiary activities which have been introduced into the Kurobe Alluvial Fan since about 1965 (Fig. 4). Today, not only farmers' successors but also the head of a family and his wife go out to urban and factory jobs, yet continue to work their farms in the evenings, over weekends, and during annual holidays from factory (Table 4). Worker-Peasants undoubtedly gain higher incomes than could be derived either from just farming or from industrial work. The extra income might be used to improve the family's living conditions or to purchase farming equipment.Based on this study of analyzing the employment structure of farming family, an experiential and tentative classification of rural areas of the Toyama Plain is formulated. As a result, the plain can be divided into the following five regions. In A region part-time farming, the head of a family and often other members participating in non-agricultural pursuits, is dominant throughout this region. The farmers keep their fields in expectation of higher value of land. In B region the members of farming family have just begun to commute to urban industrial jobs. Side business of farmers' wives is not so stable as those in A region. In C region farming families still regard farming activities as important.

SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN THE KUROBE ALLUVIAL FAN

Rice cultivation in alluvial fan areas along large rivers in Japan has rapidly de-veloped in the past one hundred years. This development chiefly depends upon the improvement of irrigation systems with large-scale land improvement works. In this paper, the author attempts to analyze the process of the irrigation systems in the Kurobe Alluvial Fan after the 1910's from the spatial viewpoint. The study area is located in Central Japan facing the Japan Sea and more than 95% of its arable land is devoted to paddy fields. Irrigation water taken from the Kurobe River is distributed through several diversion dams to many tributary channels and paddy fields. Establishment of spatial orders should, the author thinks, be dependent upon the follow-ing principle of hierarchical organization irrigated areas by canals directly conducted from the Kurobe River form the highest spatial order of irrigation system. Water management of this order of irrigation system is carried out by irrigation cooperatives or administrative agencies. The second spatial order is formed by areas of the tributary channels of the above-mentioned major canals. Areas served by the sub-divided tribu-taries are classified to be the third spatial order ones. Finally, a small sum of paddy fields of each farmer forms the lowest spatial order area. Water supply of this order is controlled by the farmers owning those fields. This hierarchical structure can be defined to be the Spatial Organization of Irrigation System. Considering changes in the network of irrigation channels and their supply areas, three different stages of spatial organization in the irrigation system can be found in this region. The First Stage (ca. 1890-1930): there were fifteen areas of the highest spatial order, each of which had its own intake and they were rather independent on each other in terms of the supply and demand system (Fig. 2). Their major concern was directed to the maintenance of intakes and diversion dams within their areas, otherwise they would have had to face water shortage. The Second Stage (ca. 1930-1969): after the construction of small hydro-electric power plants on this fan, the irrigation water system changed. Thirteen intakes out of the fifteen were abolished, and two large intakes were newly constructed at the dam-site of power plants. Thus, the thirteen areas of the highest spatial order were re-organized into two by the newly established two irrigation cooperatives along the new canals originated from the diversion dam. The remaining two areas still kept their original intakes and did not join the new cooperatives. The number of the highest order became four in this stage (Fig. 8), which fact means that even larger areal units of the spatial organization appeared and the spatial independence of the thirteen areas became less strong keeping their initial function to irrigate paddy fields to some extent. The Third Stage (After 1970): with the development of land consolidation, the network of irrigation channels has improved considerably by reforming the meticulous flow of canals and ditches. In this process, areas of the lowest spatial order have been newly delineated in accordance with the improved channels (Fig. 14). Nevertheless the areas of the highest spatial order have not changed, the Third Stage could be established, because of the reformation of the lowest order groups. Fig. 15 shows the process of the spatial organization of irrigation system in the Kurobe Alluvial Fan.