Land Use Allocation Research Articles

Mesta: An internet-based decision-support application for participatory strategic-level natural resources planning

We tested the Mesta Internet-based decision-support application in connection with a natural resources planning (NRP) process in Eastern and Western Lapland, Finland. The aim in this process was to define the land-use allocation and the corresponding forest management operations for state-owned forests within these planning regions. Mesta was used in examining and evaluating the strategy alternatives from the viewpoint of the stakeholders' objectives. The basic idea in using Mesta is to define the acceptance thresholds that divide the alternatives into ‘acceptable’ and ‘not acceptable’ alternatives with respect to each decision criterion. The thresholds are adjusted holistically, i.e. so that all decision criteria and criteria values of all decision alternatives are simultaneously visible from the user interface. The holistic adjustment process is continued until an acceptable solution compliant with the production possibilities of the planning area is found. In the NRP process, the members of the stakeholder group first used Mesta individually to set their own thresholds. Next, the participants' acceptance thresholds were combined and a negotiation process was launched to find the group's common acceptance thresholds. This negotiation was also supported by Mesta. The result of the negotiation was that the participants were able to collaboratively decide on their recommendation for the future land-use allocation and the forest management principles to be applied in the two planning regions. The main benefit of Mesta as a decision-support tool during the negotiation process of the group was that the participants were forced to merge their preferences with the realistic production possibilities of the planning regions.

GIS-based planning support system for rural land-use allocation

This article describes a planning support system for rural land-use allocation. The system is called RULES (RUral Land-use Exploration System) and is based on a geographic information system (GIS). Other software components have been incorporated into the GIS to link external analytical models to the system. These analytical techniques support three basic stages in a rural land-use planning model: land suitability evaluation, land-use area optimization, and spatial allocation of land uses. Land evaluation is carried out using multicriteria evaluation methods and the FAO framework. A multiobjective linear programming model has been designed for the optimization of land-use areas, where the objectives include economic, social, and environmental aspects. Suitability maps and land-use areas obtained in the two previous stages are used to design the final land-use map using three techniques: hierarchical optimization, ideal point analysis, and an algorithm based on simulated annealing. The system has been applied in Terra Chá (a region in NW Spain), thereby demonstrating its efficacy. The system enabled alternative land-use plans to be generated for this region according to different stakeholders’ perspectives. This tool contributes to directing and supporting discussion throughout the planning process.

ICCLP: An Inexact Chance-Constrained Linear Programming Model for Land-Use Management of Lake Areas in Urban Fringes

Lake areas in urban fringes are under increasing urbanization pressure. Consequently, the conflict between rapid urban development and the maintenance of water bodies in such areas urgently needs to be addressed. An inexact chance-constrained linear programming (ICCLP) model for optimal land-use management of lake areas in urban fringes was developed. The ICCLP model was based on land-use suitability assessment and land evaluation. The maximum net economic benefit (NEB) was selected as the objective of land-use allocation. The total environmental capacity (TEC) of water systems and the public financial investment (PFI) at different probability levels were considered key constraints. Other constraints included in the model were land-use suitability, governmental requirements on the ratios of various land-use types, and technical constraints. A case study implementing the system was performed for the lake area of Hanyang at the urban fringe of Wuhan, central China, based on our previous study on land-use suitability assessment. The Hanyang lake area is under significant urbanization pressure. A 15-year optimal model for land-use allocation is proposed during 2006 to 2020 to better protect the water system and to gain the maximum benefits of development. Sixteen constraints were set for the optimal model. The model results indicated that NEB was between $1.48 x 10(9) and $8.76 x 10(9) or between $3.98 x 10(9) and $16.7 x 10(9), depending on the different urban-expansion patterns and land demands. The changes in total developed area and the land-use structure were analyzed under different probabilities (q ( i )) of TEC. Changes in q ( i ) resulted in different urban expansion patterns and demands on land, which were the direct result of the constraints imposed by TEC and PFI. The ICCLP model might help local authorities better understand and address complex land-use systems and develop optimal land-use management strategies that better balance urban expansion and grassland conservation.

Algorithm based on simulated annealing for land-use allocation

This article describes the use of simulated annealing for allocation of land units to a set of possible uses on, the basis of their suitability for those uses, and the compactness of the total areas allotted to the same use or kind of use, which are fixed a priori. The results obtained for the Terra Chá district of Galicia (N.W. Spain) using different objective weighting schemes are compared with each other and with those obtained for this district under the same area constraints, using hierarchical optimization, ideal point analysis, and multi-objective land allocation (MOLA) to maximize average use suitability. Inclusion of compactness in the simulated annealing objective function avoids the highly disperse allocations typical of optimizations that ignore this sub-objective.

Linking Models of Land Use, Resources, and Economy to Simulate the Development of Mountain Regions (ALPSCAPE)

We present a framework of a scenario-based model that simulates the development of the municipality of Davos (Swiss Alps). We illustrate our method with the calculation of the scenario for 2050 "Decrease in subsidies for mountain agriculture and liberalization of markets." The main objective was to link submodels of land-use allocation (regression-based approach), material and energy flows submodels (Material and Energy Flux Analysis), and economic submodels (Input-Output Analysis). Letting qualitative and quantitative information flow from one submodel to the next, following the storyline describing a scenario, has proven to be suitable for linking submodels. The succession of the submodels is then strongly dependent on the scenario. Qualitative information flows are simulated with microsimulations of actor choices. Links between the submodels show different degrees of robustness: although the links involving microsimulations are the weakest, the uncertainty introduced by the land-use allocation model is actually advantageous because it allows one possible change in the landscape in the future to be simulated. The modeling results for the scenario here presented show that the disappearance of agriculture only marginally affects the region's factor income, but that the consequences for the self-sufficiency rate, for various landscape-related indicators and ecosystem services, and for the economy in the long term may be considerable. These benefits compensate for agriculture's modest direct economic value. The framework presented can potentially be applied to any region and scenario. This framework provides a basis for a learning package that allows potential detrimental consequences of regional development to be anticipated at an early stage.

Modelling the impacts of payments for biodiversity conservation on regional land-use patterns

We present a land-use allocation model that evaluates the impact of payments for ecosystem services such as biodiversity conservation on land-use patterns. In a non-linear optimisation procedure, land use is allocated at farm level, taking into account risk behaviour, and spatial as well as temporal variability of net revenues of land-use alternatives, using a spatial resolution of 29 m × 29 m. The model is applied to a study area of 30 km × 34 km in western Ecuador, considered a hotspot for biodiversity. In this coffee growing region, agroforestry systems with shade-coffee are important for biodiversity conservation at the landscape level, but under pressure due to low revenues. Through scenario analyses, we analyse the effects of price premiums per kg, payments per ha, and price buffering for coffee, as well as incentives leading to coffee yield increases, and payments per ha of forest remnants. We compare different risk aversion levels of the involved agents. We conclude that payments per ha are more efficient to maintain or increase coffee areas than payments per kg. Price buffering may be the most cost-effective way to support coffee production, especially at high-risk aversion levels. Significant yield increases are necessary to make coffee more attractive compared to the other alternatives. Relatively low payments per ha of forest can significantly increase forested land. Risk behaviour turns out to be an important factor when determining the possible effect of payments for ecosystem services. We conclude that the model is a versatile tool to support planning of payments for conserving ecosystems.

Land use scenario development and stakeholder involvement as tools for watershed management within the Havel River Basin

The implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) will address land use issues in river catchments in order to reduce diffuse pollution and work towards the aim of achieving good ecological status, or good ecological potential in surface water bodies. The WFD also requires the active involvement of all interested parties in developing the best approach to achieve its objectives. The paper demonstrates how scenario analysis can be applied to investigate the impacts of land use changes and how stakeholder interviews can be used to evaluate the results of the scenarios. The study was carried out in the Havel Basin in the northeast of Germany. ‘Landscape-ecological spatial units’ were derived from similar characteristics of soil and groundwater conditions, ground relief and inundation to enable spatial allocation of potential land use and link different scales when describing possible changes in land use. As a first step, in three sub-catchments of the Havel River (distinguished by different physical characteristics) detailed surveys were carried out to investigate the various interests of the stakeholders. The interviews were used to identify the key problems of each area with respect to water quality and quantity and facilitated stakeholder engagement with the catchment planning issues in the Havel River Basin. The information from the stakeholder interviews was used to determine the initial conditions for the land use scenarios which were developed to demonstrate possible changes to land use for achieving better water quality. The land use scenarios also were required as an input into the hydrological modelling of their effects on water quality and to calculate their socio-economic effects. In a second survey, the results of the scenarios and the hydrological modelling were presented to the stakeholders. The consultation process identified the priorities of the stakeholders which could then be taken into account when developing management options.

Comparative Advantage in Land-Use Allocation under Regionalism

The Ricardian principle of comparative advantage is used frequently as a foundation for illustrating potential improvements in the allocation of production and trade flows among countries. Such improvements typically consist of increased economic efficiency in the form of lower aggregate production costs and greater welfare in the form of higher levels of aggregate output. The improvements are made possible by the effective integration of otherwise individual economies. This paper employs the principle of comparative advantage as the foundation for illustrating potential improvements in the allocation of land uses under a regional approach to land-use planning. It uses a generalized assignment problem within a geographical information system (GIS) to describe the efficiency benefits of integrating land-use plans among several districts.

Evaluating Spatial Design Techniques for Solving Land-use Allocation Problems

This study examines the use of spatial optimization techniques for multi-site land-use allocation problems (MLUA). 'Multi-site' refers to the problem of allocating more than one land-use type in an area, which are difficult problems as they involve multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and objectives. Spatial optimization methods consist of (1) an optimization model and (2) an algorithm to solve the model. This study demonstrates a goal-programming model to solve the MLUA problem. The model is solved using both simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. Special attention has been given to introduce a spatial compactness objective in the model. It is shown that the compactness objectives in the optimization model generate compact patches of the same land use for using both the simulated annealing procedure and the genetic algorithm. In addition, it appears that using the proper settings of the compactness objectives, connectivity between patches of land use is promoted. The method is tested for a fictive study and then demonstrated for a real case study, both measuring 20 × 20 cells. The genetic algorithm generally performs better than simulated annealing in terms of solution time and achieving compactness.

Urban land-use allocation in a Mediterranean ecotone: Habitat Heterogeneity Model incorporated in a GIS using a multi-criteria mechanism

Urban land-use allocation in areas of transition (ecotones) is a complex task due to tensions between the need to develop residential and industrial areas and the wish to preserve high biodiversity and heterogeneous landscapes. This controversy is especially enhanced in a small and dense country like Israel, where efforts to achieve sustainable development are faced with difficulties typical of sensitive ecological regions and rapid population growth. This study incorporates the use of a multi-criteria mechanism in a GIS for the evaluation of the suitability of ecologically sensitive areas for four possible land-uses: nature reserves; forest plantations; residential areas; and industrial areas. The evaluation procedure pronounces the effect of: existing land-uses; soil characteristics; topographic attributes; vegetation cover; and landscape heterogeneity (as expressed by the Habitat Heterogeneity Model (HHM) that was developed within the frame of this study). The study area is the surroundings of a city that was established 30 years ago and is located in a transition zone between Mediterranean climate and the desert. The evaluation method used here provides a suitability layer for each of the four land-uses and a final layer that could recommend the most suitable land-use for each cell. The outcome of the system developed can be used as a basis for planners and decision makers dealing with the development of cities and their surroundings in regions of high ecological and environmental sensitivity.

Optimal land-use allocation in central Sudan

Abstract The optimal land-use in the gerf land of central Sudan was determined from the social welfare point of view. The alternative land-use options considered were Acacia nilotica plantations, eucalyptus plantations and bananas. The evaluation technique adopted was cost–benefit analysis using the Little–Mirrlees–Squire–van der Tak (LMST) approach. The results indicate that eucalyptus plantations are the optimum land-use option on the basis of economic growth maximization (economic analysis) as well as maximization of economic growth with equity as a constraint (social analysis). The A. nilotica option came second to eucalyptus, while banana performed poorly with negative contribution in most cases. The financial analysis which used distorted market prices revealed that all three land-use alternatives were profitable, with eucalyptus being the most profitable and A. nilotica the least. Compared to the financial profitability, the economic profitability of the two forest options was considerably higher. In contrast, the profitability of the banana option was lowest among the three options. It is concluded that distorting agricultural policy had the impact of misallocating land to the optimal use.

A Way Forward for Land-Use Planning to Achieve Policy Goals by Using Spatial Modelling Scenarios

This paper investigates how demographic (socioeconomic) and land-use (physical and environmental) data can be integrated within a decision support framework to formulate and evaluate land-use planning scenarios. A case-study approach is undertaken with land-use planning scenarios for a rapidly growing coastal area in Australia, the Shire of Hervey Bay. The town and surrounding area require careful planning of the future urban growth between competing land uses. Three potential urban growth scenarios are put forth to address this issue. Scenario A (‘continued growth’) is based on existing socioeconomic trends. Scenario B (‘maximising rates base’) is derived using optimisation modelling of land-valuation data. Scenario C (‘sustainable development’) is derived using a number of social, economic, and environmental factors and assigning weightings of importance to each factor using a multiple criteria analysis approach. The land-use planning scenarios are presented through the use of maps and tables within a geographical information system, which delineate future possible land-use allocations up until 2021. The planning scenarios are evaluated by using a goal-achievement matrix approach. The matrix is constructed with a number of criteria derived from key policy objectives outlined in the regional growth management framework and town planning schemes. The authors of this paper examine the final efficiency scores calculated for each of the three planning scenarios and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the three land-use modelling approaches used to formulate the final scenarios.

The Role of Fire in Changing Land Use and Livelihoods in Riau-Sumatra

Suyanto, S., G. Applegate, R. Permana, N. Khususiyah and I. Kurniawan 2004. The role of fire in changing land use and livelihoods in riau-sumatra. Ecology and Society 9(1): 15. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00632-090115

Nobody Knows Best: Alternative Perspectives on Forest Management and Governance in Southeast Asia

In this paper we propose a framework for understanding how dominant perspectives, or worldviews, influence the crafting of institutions, and how these, in turn, constrain the functions and goals of knowledge systems. Alternative perspectives carry their own set of assumptions and beliefs about who should be making the rules, where the best knowledge lies to guide decisions, and about where more knowledge is needed. Initially, four contrasting perspectives are elaborated: state-, market-, greens-, and locals-know-best. We illustrate the framework by exploring the recent history of forest governance in Southeast Asia, finding several examples of battles of perspectives leading to a new dominant perspective. In each case the dominant perspective itself, old or new, is shown to be defective in some critical way and was, or should be, replaced. The problem is that each of the perspectives considers the world as knowable, manageable, and relatively constant, or at most changing only slowly. Ecological and socio-political crises, however, are recurrent. Management plans and regulations or policies that aim to establish “the” land-use allocation, the best crop, the best forest management system or the best price or system of incentives, are doomed to failure. If uncertainties are accepted as fundamental, solutions as temporary, and scientific knowledge as useful but limited, then “Nobody Knows Best” is a modest, but effective heuristic for forest governance.

Complementarity, biodiversity viability analysis, and policy-based algorithms for conservation

Abstract Biodiversity conservation “area-selection” strategies include not only trade-offs among society’s needs in land-use allocation, but also allocation of economic instruments such as incentives, levies, and biodiversity credits. For these applications, the key property of an area is its “complementarity”—the context-dependent, marginal gain in biodiversity provided by the area. Given that there has been little implementation of whole-sets of areas generated by the popular computer-based selection methods, we suggest that analogous “policy-based algorithms” would be a more effective real-world application of complementarity. Areas would be “selected” for conservation over time as a consequence of policies in which dynamic complementarity values influence application of economic instruments. These integrated biodiversity/economic strategies can use an extended form of complementarity reflecting marginal changes in regional probability of persistence of biodiversity. While probabilistic measures of biodiversity viability have been explored in area-selection for some time, it remains difficult to make viability statements about “all of biodiversity.” New approaches that use biodiversity surrogate information for “biodiversity viability analysis” (BVA) can take advantage of a general quantitative biodiversity framework in which pattern-based relationships among areas allow predictions at the species level. A standard assumption of “unimodal” species responses to environmental gradients yields an expected distribution of species in an ordination pattern, and allows sampling of inferred species. Based on environmental correlates, inferred species can be mapped in geographic space, forming distribution fragments. This information, when linked to species persistence models, may allow ongoing calculation of areas’ complementarity values. An example illustrates application of these ordination models to museum collection data for lizards from New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Scale-independent Land-use Allocation Modeling in Raster GIS

: A common application of raster-based geographic information systems (GIS) is as an aid in multi-criteria, multi-objective land-use decision problems. However, as the cell resolution increases by reducing cell size, the number of rows and columns in the raster representation also increases. The size of raster representations of land-use problems is often a determining factor in the type of methodology used in solving such problems. Previous land-use allocation models integrated with a raster GIS have used either decision heuristics or exact methods based on linear programming models. The former is fairly scale independent but produces only approximate answers, whereas the latter produces optimal solutions but remains more scale dependent. This paper presents a specialized dual simplex method adapted to the generalized assignment problem that can be used to solve large-scale land-use allocation problems. The dual approach only requires that information for one pixel be stored at a time thus allowing the solution of problems based on any size raster database.

Using Linear Integer Programming for Multi-Site Land-Use Allocation

Research in the area of spatial decision support (SDS) and resource allocation has recently generated increased attention for integrating optimization techniques with GIS. In this paper we address the use of spatial optimization techniques for solving multi-site land-use allocation (MLUA) problems, where MLUA refers to the optimal allocation of multiple sites of different land uses to an area. We solve an MLUA problem using four different integer programs (IP), of which three are linear integer programs. The IPs are formulated for a raster-based GIS environment and are designed to minimize development costs and to maximize compactness of the allocated land use. The preference for either minimizing costs or maximizing compactness has been made operational by including a weighting factor. The IPs are evaluated on their speed and their efficacy for handling large databases. All four IPs yielded the optimal solution within a reasonable amount of time, for an area of 8 × 8 cells. The fastest model was successfully applied to a case study involving an area of 30 × 30 cells. The case study demonstrates the practical use of linear IPs for spatial decision support issues.

The role of trade-offs in biodiversity conservation planning: linking local management, regional planning and global conservation efforts.

Biodiversity conservation planning requires trade-offs, given the realities of limited resources and the competing demands of society. If net benefits for society are important, biodiversity assessment cannot occur without other sectoral factors "on the table". In trade-offs approaches, the biodiversity value of a given area is expressed in terms of the species or other components of biodiversity that it has that are additional to the components protected elsewhere. That "marginal gain" is called the complementarity value of the area. A recent whole-country planning study for Papua New Guinea illustrates the importance of complementarity-based trade-offs in determining priority areas for biodiversity conservation, and for designing economic instruments such as biodiversity levies and offsets. Two international biodiversity programs provide important new opportunities for biodiversity trade-offs taking complementarity into account. Both the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Critical Ecosystems or "hotspots" programs can benefit from an explicit framework that incorporates trade-offs, in which a balance is achieved not only by land-use allocation among areas, but also by the crediting of partial protection of biodiversity provided by sympathetic management within areas. For both international programs, our trade-offs framework can provide a natural linkage between local, regional and global planning levels.

Agricultural production and wetland habitat quality in a coastal prairie ecosystem: simulated effects of alternative resource policies on land-use decisions

We describe an integrated systems model of the coastal prairie ecosystem in Texas, USA to simulate the effect of alternative federal resource policy scenarios (crop subsidies) for rice ( Oryza sativa) on land-use decisions of farmers and the subsequent impact on lesser snow goose ( Anser caerulescens caerulescens) habitat. We evaluate the ability of the model to predict shifts in land use, agricultural production, economic viability of farms, and the resulting wetland habitat quality for geese, in view of the uncertainty concerning representation of farmers' land-use decision making processes (management styles). We then simulate shifts in land use, rice and cattle production, farm profitability, and level of wetland habitat use by geese that might result from three alternative federal resource policy scenarios and three alternative farmers' management styles. We found changes in land-use allocation, rice and cattle production, and farm profitability resulting from the policy scenarios affected habitat use by geese. Policy financial incentives, market price for rice, level of rice production, and farm size were important factors that affected wetland habitat use by geese. The management styles of farmers affected the quality of wetland habitat when policy scenarios required rice to be grown with conventional production methods. In this case, farmers, particularly those who were concerned about maintaining farming as a way of life, continued rice production and maintained wetland habitat for geese even when crop subsidies decreased over time. The public benefited from the decision making of these farmers because the important indirect use value (wildlife habitat and water quality) and existence value (biodiversity and cultural history) of rice agriculture was maintained as an agroecosystem.

Tourism and Biodiversity in North and South

Biodiversity in Southern nations is a significant attraction for Northern tourism: reefs and rainforests, whales and wildflowers, big game and biological rarities. It is therefore in the interests of international tourism to help conserve international biodiversity. The role of tourism in biodiversity conservation is especially significant in Southern nations because many Southern nations have particularly rich biodiversity but weak legal land-use allocation and development control systems, and protected area agencies with few funds and little political power. Northern tourism can provide incentives to conserve biodiversity through foreign exchange and economic opportunities for Southern governments and local communities. They can also buy private land for tourism and conservation, and lobby against logging and land clearance and other high-impact land uses. Northern tourism also relies on Northern biodiversity. Currently, tourism growth is a significant threat to many Northern protected areas. As a high-value use, tourism should displace primary industries in public and private lands of high biodiversity outside the protected area system, rather than inside parks. For political reasons, however, this rarely happens at present.