Development Of Land Use Policy Research Articles

The nature of a ‘forest transition’ in Thừa Thiên Huế Province, Central Vietnam – A study of land cover changes over five decades

Informed from historical case studies of land cover change and development in northern countries, forest transition (FT) theories have a tendency to precast specific conclusions. Considering the case of a so-called FT in Thừa Thiên Huế Province in tropical Central Vietnam, we investigated 1.) whether such a ‘FT’ indeed reflects a resurgence of genuine forest, 2.) whether the land cover changes can be explained through conventional ‘pathways’ of FT, and 3.) in which ways the changes may or may not portend ‘sustainable development’. Using satellite imagery and topographic maps, we produced maps for twenty land cover types for the years 1966, 1973, 1979, 1988, 1998, 2008, 2016 and 2019 and analysed land cover change over time. We contextualize these results with reference to the historical and scientific literature on Vietnam, and find that 1.) the forestlands represent a historically rich bio-cultural landscape; 2.) considerable forest destruction resulted from the Second Indochina War rather than classical degradation pathways; 3.) in the post-war period altered forestland spaces and re-emerging land uses interacted with state-led re-territorialization and socialist plans for land resource development, influencing shifts in forest cover; 4.) during 1979–1988 state-led intensive timber logging in remaining rainforests (causing widespread forest degradation) somewhat paradoxically (in terms of conventional FT models and theories) coincided already with a slight increase in lower-biomass tree cover; 5.) after 1988 logging in natural forests was officially prohibited (logging bans), and forestry shifted to a reliance on wood produced in acacia-based plantations (largely on lands officially allocated to households); and 6.) this shift went along with a significant state-led restructuring and development of land use policies and the promotion of forest-relevant economic industries. ‘Restoration’ of tree cover mainly consisted of the expansion of exotic tree plantations, but – at least intermittently – this may also have mitigated impacts on natural forests. We conclude with some reflections on the FT-outcome, its ‘sustainability’, and future trajectories and possibilities of land cover changes in TTHP.

Kentsel Ekolojik Koridor Modeli: Malatya Örneği

Günümüzde kentsel alanlardaki genişleme ekosistem süreçleri üzerinde baskı oluşturmaktadır. Bu baskının saptanması ve kontrol edilmesi için ekoloji tabanlı modeller geliştirilmektedir. Bu noktadan hareketle çalışma, Malatya kenti örneğinde enerji akışını ve doğal tür akışını düzenleyecek, kentsel ısı adası etkisini azaltacak ve habitat bağlanabilirliğini artıracak arazi kullanım politikalarının geliştirilmesine katkı sağlayacak ve kentlere rehberlik edecek bir kentsel ekolojik koridor modeli geliştirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Belirtilen amaca ulaşmak için farklı ölçek ve zamansallıktaki uydu görüntüleri, iklim verileri, topografik veriler ve demografik veri setleri farklı uzaktan algılama ve coğrafi bilgi sistemleri tekniklerini kullanılarak ilişkilendirilmiş ve kentsel ekolojik koridor modeli oluşturulmuştur.
 Malatya’da 1985-2021 yılları arasında kentsel büyümenin en çok etkilediği ekosistemin tarımsal ekosistem olduğu saptanmıştır. 2050 yılında kentsel nüfus 888.784 kişiye ulaşacağı öngörüsüne dayanarak kentsel alanların 173 km2’ye ulaşacağı tespit edilmiştir. 1985-2021 döneminde olduğu gibi 2021-2050 yılları arasında tarımsal ekosistemler üzerindeki baskı artarak devam ederken ekosistemler arasındaki bağlantı giderek zayıflayacaktır. 
 Ekolojik koridorlar, tarım ve bozkır ekosistemine ait ekolojik açıdan en duyarlı ve en büyük bütünleşik lekeler arasında kentsel yayılmayı yönlendirerek, enerji akışı, doğal tür akışı, kentsel ısı adası etkisinin azaltılması, yeraltı su rejiminin düzenlenmesi ve habitat bağlantılılığı gibi çeşitli ekolojik işlevler üstlenecektir. Malatya’da tarımsal ekosistemden 13 ve bozkır ekosisteminden 5 adet ekolojik açıdan duyarlı leke belirlenmiş ve ekosistem lekelerini birbirlerine bağlayan 694 km2 alana sahip ekolojik koridor önerilmiştir.

Semi-Natural Areas on Post-Mining Brownfields as an Opportunity to Strengthen the Attractiveness of a Small Town. An Example of Radzionków in Southern Poland

The socio-economic and political changes of the end of the 20th century in Central and Eastern Europe had significant impacts on the transformation of urban spaces, especially in industrial and mining towns. The article attempts to explain the essence of these changes concerning the spatial development of—a small post-mining town in southern Poland. This article evaluates urban development policy in response to the significant land-use changes in the small post-mining city of Radzionków, with particular attention to the transformation of brownfield sites to semi-natural areas of regional importance. This issue is interesting for two reasons. First, this small city, located in a large European agglomeration, has to face competition focused on interesting regional projects. Second, there is a desire for reindustrialization as a remedy for job losses in mining and heavy industry. The successful establishment of a large botanical garden in this city provides a case study for discussing the future of small post-industrial cities and the development of land use policy regarding valuable natural areas located in post-industrial and post-mining areas. This study also indicates the vital role of the creative management factor.

A spatially based quantile regression forest model for mapping rural land values

Rural land valuation plays an important role in the development of land use policies for agricultural purposes. The advance of computational software and machine learning methods has enhanced mass appraisal methodologies for modeling and predicting economic values. New machine learning methods, like tree-based regression models, have been proposed as an alternative to linear regression to predict economic values from ancillary variables, since these algorithms are able to handle non-normality and non-linearity in the data. However, regression trees are commonly estimated assuming independent rather than spatially correlated data. This study aims to build a tree-based regression model that will help to tackle methodological problems related to the determination of prices of rural lands. The Quantile Regression Forest (QRF) algorithm was used to provide a regression model to predict and assess the uncertainty associated with model-derived predictions. However, the classical QRF ignores the autocorrelation underlying spatialized land values. The objective of this work was to develop, implement, and evaluate a spatial version of QRF, named sQRF, for computer-assisted mass appraisal of rural land values accounting for information from neighboring sites. We compared predictions of land values from sQRF with those obtained from spatial random forest, kriging regression, and linear regression models. sQRF performed well in predicting rural land values; indeed, it performed better than multiple linear regression. An important feature of sQRF is its ability to produce a direct uncertainty measure to assess the goodness of the predictions. Land values reflect a complex mix of agricultural returns, localization, and access to markets, which can be predicted from ancillary environmental variables. Good predictive models are essential to determine land values for multiple purposes including territorial taxation.

Mass wasting susceptibility assessment of snow avalanches using machine learning models

Snow avalanche is among the most harmful natural hazards with major socioeconomic and environmental destruction in the cold and mountainous regions. The devastating propagation and accumulation of the snow avalanche debris and mass wasting of surface rocks and vegetation particles threaten human life, transportation networks, built environments, ecosystems, and water resources. Susceptibility assessment of snow avalanche hazardous areas is of utmost importance for mitigation and development of land-use policies. This research evaluates the performance of the well-known machine learning methods, i.e., generalized additive model (GAM), multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), boosted regression trees (BRT), and support vector machine (SVM), in modeling the mass wasting hazard induced by snow avalanches. The key features are identified by the recursive feature elimination (RFE) method and used for the model calibration. The results indicated a good performance of the modeling process (Accuracy > 0.88, Kappa > 0.76, Precision > 0.84, Recall > 0.86, and AUC > 0.89), which the SVM model highlighted superior performance than others. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the topographic position index (TPI) and distance to stream (DTS) were the most important variables which had more contribution in producing the susceptibility maps.

Soil microbial carbon pump: Mechanism and appraisal

The soil microbial carbon pump (MCP) conceptualizes a sequestration mechanism based on the process of microbial production of a set of new organic compounds, which carry the carbon from plant, through microbial anabolism, and enter into soil where it can be stabilized by the entombing effect. Understanding soil MCP and its related entombing effect is essential to the stewardship of ecosystem services, provided by microbial necromass in the formation and stabilization of soil organic matter as well as its resilience and vulnerability to global change. The mechanism and appraisal of soil MCP, however, remain to be elucidated. This lack of knowledge hampers the improvement of climate models and the development of land use policies. Here, I overview available knowledge to provide insights on the nature of the soil MCP in the context of two main aspects, i.e., internal features and external constraints that mechanistically influence the soil MCP operation and ultimately influence microbial necromass dynamics. The approach of biomarker amino sugars for investigation of microbial necromass and the methodological limitations are discussed. Finally, I am eager to call new investigations to obtain empirical data in soil microbial necromass research area, which urgently awaits synthesized quantitative and modeling studies to relate to soil carbon cycling and climate change.

The role of institutional actors and their interactions in the land use policy making process in Ethiopia

This study investigates the role of the different institutional actors involved in the development and implementation of land use policies in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. The work is based on interviews with key informants from different administrative levels and these results are compared to the relevant policy documents. While the constitution prescribes a participatory policy development process, our results show that in reality policies are made at the highest level and implemented in a top-down approach from the higher to the lower administrative levels. Moreover, the institutional network mainly consists of institutions that are hierarchically linked, while horizontal and diagonal relations are less common and less important. Consistently, higher level institutions are mostly involved in the development of land use policies, while the roles of lower level institutions are predominantly in the implementation thereof. This lack of participation by lower level institutions, in addition to a lack of capacity and absence of clear institutional mandates, hampers the effectiveness of land use policies. Our results also provide suggestions to improve the development, communication, and eventually the acceptability of land use policies towards sustainable land management.

Land capability of multiple-landform watersheds with environmental land use conflicts

This study introduces an improved method to assess land capability in the rural environment. Land capability, also defined as natural use, is a powerfull asset in land use planning and development of land use policies, because actual land uses that deviate from natural counterparts trigger extensive and severe environmental impacts, namely amplified soil erosion and fertility decline. The proposed method builds up on a previous model based on the ruggedness number (RN), which allocates natural uses as function of increasing terrain slope and drainage density. According to the RN model, agriculture should occupy the areas of low slope and sparse drainage density, while the forest is reserved for the areas of steep slope and dense drainage. Other activities such as pasture or pasture mixed with forest can be settled on the areas of intermediate slope and drainage density. The modeling improvements introduced with this study are in a first stage related to the combination of RN-based capability classes with dissection classes derived from slope curvature estimates and landform classification (convex, concave and straight srufaces). In a second stage, the modeling improvements are related to validation of RN and landform classification schmes in the field through comparison of soil magnectic susceptibility data across the RN-dissection classes. The improved model was tested in a large multiple-landform watershed: the Tietê River basin located in São Paulo State (Brazil). The results proved the need to refine the RN land capability classes using the dissection classes, because dissection patterns are different across lithologic types and weather trends. In the Tietê, landscapes are generally more dissected when shaped in basaltic bedrock than in sandsone cover, and increase with increasing annual rainfall. The implications for land use planning are evident because high dissected lanscapes require more exigent conservation measures than low dissected landscapes, while suitable crop types may also vary between the two environments. The field validation of capability-dissection classes using the magnetic susceptibility proved efficient in a large portion of cases, but failed in several other sub-basins. A main reason for the failure was inadequate land use, interpreted as environmental land use conflict in this study. Overall, the current study can be viewed as major advance in the development of a land capability classification, because the integration of relief (RN), landform (dissection) and soil properties (magnetic susceptibility) has not been tempted before. The gains for land use policy are apparent because land capability maps are fundamental instruments in the management of rural areas, namely to help the mitigation of a major global concern nowadays, which is land degradation.

Farmers’ participation in the development of land use policies for the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Farmers in Ethiopia are elementary for the implementation of land use policies. However, in order to effectively implement these policies, they need to be aware of them, and accept them accordingly. In this study we assess to what extent farmers in the Central Rift Valley are aware of prevailing land use policies in their area, to what extent they participated in the development of these policies, and how they perceive the impacts of these policies, using interviews with local farmers as well as stakeholders from governmental institutions at various levels. Farmers and local governments indicated that there was very little participation in the development of land use policies. Contrary, government informants at higher level indicated the opposite, suggesting a gap between farmers and local governmental institutions on the one side and higher governmental institutions on the other side. The perceived lack of participation of farmers led to a lack of ownership, involuntary participation, and failure to use the local knowledge, all hampering the effective implementation of these policies. The recently introduced land registration and certification process was identified as an exception, as it was the result of a participatory process, generally leading to acceptance upon implementation. Despite their low policy awareness, farmers could identify the impacts of land use policies on land use and land cover change, as well as its impacts on their. Further improvement farmer participation in the development of land use policies could increase ownership and thus yield more effective implementation and avoid social unrest.

Designing protected area networks that translate international conservation commitments into national action

Most countries have committed to protect 17% of their terrestrial area by 2020 through Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, with a focus on protecting areas of particular importance for biodiversity. This means national-scale spatial conservation prioritisations are needed to help meet this target and guide broader conservation and land-use policy development. However, to ensure these assessments are adopted by policy makers, they must also consider national priorities. This situation is exemplified by Guyana, a corner of Amazonia that couples high biodiversity with low economic development. In recent years activities that threaten biodiversity conservation have increased, and consequently, protected areas are evermore critical to achieving the Aichi targets. Here we undertake a cost-effective approach to protected area planning in Guyana that accounts for in-country conditions. To do this we conducted a stakeholder-led spatial conservation prioritisation based on meeting targets for 17 vegetation types and 329 vertebrate species, while minimising opportunity costs for forestry, mining, agriculture and urbanisation. Our analysis identifies 3millionha of priority areas for conservation, helping inform government plans to double the current protected area network from 8.5 to 17%. As part of this, we also develop a new technique to prioritise engagement with local communities whose lands are identified as important to conservation. Our study both provides a scientifically robust, politically acceptable protected area expansion strategy for Guyana, and illustrates the importance of conservation planning at the country-scale to translate international commitments into national action.

Policy dimensions of land-use change in peri-urban floodplains: the case of Paraty

Barbedo, J., M. Miguez, D. Van der Horst, P. Carneiro, P. Amis, and A. Ioris. 2015. Policy dimensions of land-use change in peri-urban floodplains: the case of Paraty. Ecology and Society 20(1): 5. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07126-200105

Assessing the impact of urban expansion on potential crop yield in China during 1990–2010

Rapid urbanization in China has raised great concerns regarding food security caused by conversion of limited cultivated land to urban use. In this study, the loss of potential crop yield due to urban expansion in China during 1990–2010 was calculated by the Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ) model. Over this period, potential yield decreased by approximately 34.90 million tons due to urban expansion, accounting for 6.52 % of China’s total actual production. The decrease was 13.07 and 21.83 million tons during the first and second decade, respectively. Key areas of lost potential yield were primarily in the Middle-lower Yangtze Plain and the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. However, South China became a new key area of lost potential yield during the second decade. These findings provide useful information for the development of land use policy, protection of suitable arable land resources and urban development plans in China.

Continuum modeling of park-and-ride services considering travel time reliability and heterogeneous commuters – A linear complementarity system approach

This paper studies the modeling of multimodal choice in a highway/railway system with continuum park-and-ride services along a corridor. Commuter heterogeneity and travel time uncertainty with correlation are considered, while both auto and rail transit are subject to congestion effects. Eventually, the equilibrium multimodal choice is modeled into a linear complementarity system and appropriate solution method is proposed to obtain the spatial equilibrium pattern along the corridor. Computational experiments are conducted to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed formulation and potential applications, such as optimization of park-and-ride facilities, development of land use policies to integrate urban development and transportation planning.

Categorization of grazing systems to aid the development of land use policy in Aragon, Spain

AbstractRuminant livestock depends primarily on forage and grazing resources from both natural pastures and from cultivated land. Low‐input large‐scale grazing systems constitute a substantial part of what is termed High Nature Value farmland in Europe. Developing a typology of categories of livestock systems within a region is an important step in understanding land uses that involve ruminant livestock systems and their use of feed resources, and in appraising policy options. This study developed a typology based on the municipalities of the region of Aragon in the north‐east of Spain on the basis of the feed resources for ruminant livestock. A clustering analysis was applied to the following three types of criteria: (i) crop types; (ii) vegetation types of uncultivated land and (iii) stocking rate of dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep and goats. A total of thirty‐nine variables were used. The cluster methodology allowed relatively homogeneous groups of municipalities, termed territories, with differentiating characteristics to be obtained. A Geographic Information System was applied to locate spatially the territories. From the twelve territories identified, it was concluded that there was a low use of natural pastures and high use of resources of cultivated origin in livestock systems in Aragon.

Understanding The Relationship between Gross Population and Traffic Accidents in Jordan.(Dept.C)

Jordan has experienced in the last decade a continuous increase in the number of accidents, which has resulted in a high number of fatalities and injuries. There are many reasons behind this critical traffic situation in Jordan, Some of these reasons are the lack of well-defined land use policies that relate the development pattern and density to transportation, the unsafe and unreliable transportation system, and the concentration of jobs and governmental services in the center of the capital and governorates. This paper studies the relationship between the gross population density and the total number of accidents for the different governorates in Jordan. It was concluded that the people of the governorates with high gross population density are involved in more accidents with low severity indices than those of the governorates with less gross p opulation density. On the other hand, the people of the governorates with less gross population densities are involved with fewer accidents but with high severity indices. It was also found that buses are involved in more accidents than their share of total traffic. This paper recommended, among otherthings, a development of land use policy to shape the future transportation system in Jordan and consequently set the goals and objectives to reduce the number of accidents and their severity.

BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS AND HABITAT USE BY BIRDS IN A FRAGMENTED AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Effective conservation and habitat restoration strategies in human-dominated landscapes must be based on an understanding of the ways that habitat loss and fragmen- tation affect native species. We studied avian foraging behavior and patterns of occurrence in the highly fragmented agricultural landscape of the Kellerberrin district of Western Australia to better understand the factors underlying species declines and losses. We con- ducted three surveys of 30 wandoo woodland patches that ranged in size from 1.3 to 101.3 ha. Some patches were part of larger remnants of native vegetation, ranging in size from 3.5 to 1204.8 ha and including other habitat types. We examined the extent to which patterns of species richness, the occurrence and composition of foraging guilds, and the occurrence of individual species varied with features of woodland patches, remnants, and the sur- rounding landscape. Using multiple regression analyses, the best model for species richness included terms for the log of remnant area, the patch diversity of each remnant, and woodland patch condition. We delineated eight foraging guilds based on similarities in the substrate/method dimension and also using multidimensional scaling analyses. The best model for the number of foraging guilds present in a patch included a single variable representing shrub density. Analyses of nestedness based on guilds and on individual species were both significant; and for the latter, 11 of 13 species made a significant contribution to the overall pattern. We derived separate models for the occurrence of each of eight species and one guild using multiple logistic regression. Significant models included, either separately or in combi- nation, the following variables: the log of remnant area, patch area, the total area of wood- land in a remnant, and the distance to other woodland patches. For four species that had sufficient records to examine shifts in foraging behavior, we observed significant differences in both foraging methods and substrates with changes in remnant size and/or the presence of other species or guilds. Our analyses indicated that remnant area was the best single variable for measures of community structure, in part because it was strongly correlated with other variables, such as total woodland area, patch area, remnant patch diversity, number of corridor connections, and measures of isolation. For foraging guilds and for individual species, variables other than remnant area assumed greater importance. The strong patterns of nestedness for for- aging guilds by remnant area may reflect the diminished availability of certain prey items in small, degraded remnants. This notion is reinforced by the relatively high species and guild richness recorded in small patches that were either fenced from grazing or embedded in large remnants. The nested pattern of species within some foraging guilds, however, indicates the importance of additional aspects of their ecology. A focus on richness alone may mask the unique responses of bird species to fragmentation and may divert attention from important considerations in the development of land-use policy and reserve acquisition.