Local Land Research Articles

Improving farming practice through localized land tenure reform: a study of the “Three Rights Separation Reform” implemented in a Shanghai suburb, China

ABSTRACT Collective land rights reform in developing countries is promoted as a means of optimizing the use of land resources by clarifying property rights and encouraging land transfer. However, such mechanisms remain controversial, particularly as the overall cost – transaction, social, cultural – is often judged to be greater than the benefits obtained. In seeking to address whether this is always the case, this paper reports on a study of the “Three Rights Separation Reform” implemented in a Shanghai suburb, China. The paper argues that localized implementation of land rights reform can provided the context in which farmers feel more secure and have better expectations with respect to land rights, which can stimulate them to modernize and improve their farming practices. We argue that localized implementation, with a combination of top down regulations and bottom up practices, allied to both expert and tacit knowledges, effectively reduces the overall transaction cost and offers flexibility for the local community to find their own solutions under complex socio-economic conditions. We conclude by arguing that additional research and reforms are required to further reduce the transaction cost and enhance farmers’ long-term expectations and experience.

Building resiliency in floodplain management: Land use in hydrology treated as a moving target

Rapid urbanization has emerged as a defining global phenomenon, reshaping landscapes, economies, and societies. Understanding the implications of urbanization trends and effectively managing associated risks has become critical imperatives for sustainable development. In this study, we investigate the dynamic nature of land use changes in urban areas and their profound implications for policy applications and flood risk management strategies. To accurately estimate hydrologic parameters and project future trends, the study places a strong emphasis on the need to base assessments on historical and current development states. Furthermore, the study acknowledges that localized land use intensity can surpass generalized comprehensive plans, potentially leading to underestimated hydrological variables and flood risk. To address these challenges, the study introduces an innovative methodology. It utilizes a geospatial raster-based algorithm that incorporates existing land use trends and comprehensive plan zoning districts. This approach enhances the accuracy of runoff curve numbers for the ultimate development conditions. The algorithm is applied to assess hydrology and hydraulics in 30 designated watersheds within Fairfax County, Virginia, revealing substantial changes. Notably, there is an average increase in runoff volume, ranging from 14% for the 1-year storm event to 5% for the 100-year design storms. Additionally, the study applies this methodology to investigate structure flooding within the Pimmit Run watershed, effectively addressing the issue of underestimated flooded structures. By acknowledging the diverse aspects of urbanization, this study not only contributes to the field of hydrology but also provides valuable insights for urban policy development, land use planning, and flood risk management.

Influence of anthropometric, ball impact and landing location parameters on serve velocity in elite tennis competition

This study aimed (i) to analyse the associations between serve velocity (SV) and anthropometric, ball impact and landing location parameters in total serves (TS) and fastest serves (FS) performed during an ATP Tour event; (ii) to observe differences between first (S1) and second (S2) serves, and (iii) to determine a SV prediction model based on the relationship between the observed variables. Using Foxtenn technology, 30 S1 and 15 S2 were registered in 14 matches in twenty-one male professional tennis players. Ball impact (impact height [IH], impact projection angle [IPA] and relative impact height [RIH]), bounce landing (width and depth) location parameters, S1 and S2 SV in TS (TSV1 and TSV2) and FS (FSV1 and FSV2) alongside anthropometric characteristics of tennis players (body height [BH], body mass [BM] and body mass index [BMI]) were analysed. Significant moderate to large associations were found between BH and BM and TSV1, FSV1 and FSV2 (r = 0.315 to 0.593; p < 0.001), and between IH and IPA and TSV1 and TSV2 (r = 0.294 to -0.409; p < 0.001). BH and BM were the unique significant contributors of FS explaining 22 to 35% of FSV1 and FSV2. Only BM appears in the model to predict FSV1 and FSV2 (r2 = 0.48 and 0.21). We concluded that all three anthropometric, ball impact and bounce landing location parameters small to moderately influence TSV. Anthropometric parameters show an impact on SV when tennis players serve at or near maximal speed, highlighting the influence of BM above BH.

Permanent Basic Cultivated Land Delineation Based on Population Projection and Food Demand--Taking Wuhan City as an Example

The reasonable delineation of permanent basic cultivated land is of great meaning to guarantee China’s food security and promote the long-term social stability and sustainable economic development of China. This paper addresses the current problem of unreasonable delineation of permanent basic cultivated land that may result from not considering future population demand factors. Taking Wuhan city as an example, this paper derives permanent basic cultivated land’s area demand based on population projections, combined with per capita food demand, and further integrates comprehensive quality evaluation of arable land to delineate the quantity and location of basic cultivated land in Wuhan city in 2035. The study obtained that: (1) the population of Wuhan GM (1,1) predicts that the population of Wuhan in 2035 is 16,041,900 and the basic cultivated land’s demanded area is 239,559.55hm²; (2) the medial score of comprehensive quality of cultivated land in Wuhan is 66.23, with good comprehensive quality, and the mass of arable land varies widely among the lower districts. (3) The cultivated land with the best overall quality will be allocated as basic cultivated land, and the final area of basic cultivated land in Wuhan in 2035 will be 239,797.26hm², which can meet the population demand of Wuhan in 2035, mainly distributed in Jiangxia District, Xinzhou District and Huangpi District.

Использование материалов БВС для выявления фактов нарушения земельного законодательства на территории г. Новосибирска

The Land Code of the Russian Federation provides for payment for any use of land. The exception is cases established by federal laws and laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The inventory works on land and land plots in the Novosibirsk city were not carried out during the period of its modern history. As part of the adopted inventory program for VAT and on the basis of the municipal contract SSUGiT in the period from 2018 to 2022 performed a set of works to clarify (determine) the location and characteristics of lands and land plots located within the boundaries of the city of Novosibirsk. The article discusses the individual stages of the completed set of works under the Program, which provide for experimental studies to assess the possibilities of determining the boundaries of land plots and identifying violations. The studies were carried out using aerial photography ma-terials obtained by using unmanned aerial vehicles. As a result of the research, it was concluded that orthophotomaps obtained from UAV aerial photography make it possible to identify violations with minimal complexity and cost by comparing the actual and “accounting” boundaries.

Hybrid Forecasting of Wind for Air Pollution Dispersion over Complex Terrain

In case of an unplanned emission event from a nuclear power plant, the local population can be protected more efficiently when valid atmospheric dispersion model results are available. Atmospheric dispersion models use local meteorological variables as inputs. When atmospheric dispersion in the future is being predicted, a forecast of the local meteorological variables is needed. The most important variable in atmospheric dispersion modelling is wind, and accurately predicting ground level winds presents a challenge to numerical weather prediction models. We therefore develop hybrid models for forecasting local ground level wind at a single location where the terrain is complex and the average wind is weak and fluctuating. Wind speed and direction are modelled as west-east and south-north wind components. Each model is composed of a numerical weather prediction model and a Gaussian process statistical model that uses numerical weather predictions as some of its inputs and is trained on historical data to predict the output component. The most advanced Gaussian process models studied are of Gaussian process nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous input (GPNARX) type. In addition to numerical weather predictions, they also use local meteorological variables, including the output variable, as their inputs. Numerical weather prediction results based on large scale information and fundamental knowledge of the system are thus supplemented by local measurements that better reflect the effects of local topography and land use. The models are tested by prediction and simulation. The wind components predicted by more advanced models are more accurate than raw or post-processed numerical weather prediction results. As an example, a model predicting 2D wind vector 1.5 h in advance achieves a NRMSE of 0.214 if it uses all the immediately available information. This is better than both the persistence model with NRMSE of 0.188 and post-processed NWP with NRMSE of 0.164. This demonstrates that hybrid modelling provides the best weather information for short-term and medium-term atmospheric dispersion forecasting. While the method is motivated by nuclear emission sources, it could also be applied to other pollution.

Local Full-Sector Land Uses Influenced by Multiregional Demand and Supply: The Case of Beijing

Land is the foundation of human survival and well-being. It is important to investigate the land uses of economic sectors and recognize critical supply chain activities influencing land uses. However, the full-sector land uses and relevant multiregional supply chain activities have not been well characterized. This study constructs a new accounting framework based on road network, point of interest data, and remote sensing data to estimate sector-specific land uses. The accounting framework is applied to Beijing, China. The multiregional supply chain activities influencing full-sector land uses in Beijing are revealed based on environmentally extended multiregional input–output model. Results show that the largest nonagricultural land users are the wholesale and retail trades sector and the accommodation and catering sector. Land uses of these sectors are substantially driven by the final demand for the construction sector and enabled by the primary inputs of the finance sector. Moreover, the final demands of Henan and Zhejiang as well as the primary inputs of Jiangsu and Hebei are critical impetus. Optimizing consumption behavior of final consumers and product allocation of primary suppliers can help improve land management. This accounting framework can be further applied flexibly to studies on larger spatial scales and time-series studies.

Good Reasons Why the Local Option Land Tax (LOL Tax) Could be a Bad Idea

Good Reasons Why the Local Option Land Tax (LOL Tax) Could be a Bad Idea

Село Паниковец Елецкого уезда: социально-демографическое развитие локальной территории в XVII в

Introduction. The article is devoted to the history of the local territory of the village of Panikovets, Yelets district in the 17th century. The authors analyze the demographic processes and economic development of this region. The article is written from the standpoint of a microhistorical approach. Materials and methods. The specificity of the development of the local society in the regional context of the colonization ofthe Upper Don has been studied in detail. Several observations have been made about the features of the development of the marginal lands of the South of Russia. The main sources of the study were mass historical documents related to the history of the development of local service land ownership: scribe and census books of 1615, 1628/30, 1646, 1678 and 1691, as well as materials of military reviews of landowners in 1604, 1622 and 1648. Results.The authors conclude that the demographic development of the village wasnot stable, and the plowing of land also slightly increased. It is concluded that before the beginning of the XVIII century. full economic development of the territory did not occur. The main task for the locals was to stay on the new lands in the face of constant hostilities. Only the new century became the time of fullfledged economic development of the village and the territory as a whole. Despite the fact that the village of Panikovets was located in a relatively good place, the economic and demographic development of its local territory was insignificant. Conclusion. Despite the fact that the village of Panikovets was located in a relatively convenient place, the economic and demographic development of its territory did not achieve great success. It has been established that for 100 years the composition of the villagers has changed by 90%. New settlers often had to start economic activities from the beginning. These circumstances significantly delayed the colonization of the region. The authors believe that there were many examples of such development of individual lorcal territories. They testify to the difficulties of the region's development.

Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young

Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young

Multiscale and Cross-Level Attention Learning for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Transformer-based networks, which can well model the global characteristics of inputted data using the attention mechanism, have been widely applied to hyperspectral image (HSI) classification and achieved promising results. However, the existing networks fail to explore complex local land cover structures in different scales of shapes in hyperspectral remote sensing images. Therefore, a novel network named multiscale and cross-level attention learning (MCAL) network is proposed to fully explore both the global and local multiscale features of pixels for classification. To encounter local spatial context of pixels in the transformer, a multiscale feature extraction (MSFE) module is constructed and implemented into the transformer-based networks. Moreover, a cross-level feature fusion (CLFF) module is proposed to adaptively fuse features from the hierarchical structure of MSFEs using the attention mechanism. Finally, the spectral attention module (SAM) is implemented prior to the hierarchical structure of MSFEs, by which both the spatial context and spectral information are jointly emphasized for hyperspectral classification. Experiments over several benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed MCAL obviously outperforms both the convolutional neural network (CNN)-based and transformer-based state-of-the-art networks for hyperspectral classification.

Changes in land management practices have reduced wind erosion in the cropping areas of far south-western NSW, Australia

Since the mid-1970s, approximately 250 000 ha of rangelands in semi-arid far south-western NSW, Australia, have been converted to cropping land use, resulting in substantial wind erosion. Wind erosion is of concern because of its adverse impacts on soils, agricultural production, aviation, energy supply, human health and ecosystem function. Over recent decades, multi-faceted extension programs have promoted sustainable land management practices to reduce wind erosion. Repeated biannual paddock surveys were undertaken between 2003 and 2022 to determine (1) the best land management practices (BMPs), that is, those that would reduce erosion while maintaining productivity and profitability, and (2) whether the use of the BMPs changed over time. The BMPs that reduce wind erosion included chemical fallow, standing stubble, and perennial pastures. Between 2003 and 2022, the proportion of sites with BMPs increased from 14% to 75%, and the proportion of sites with wind erosion fell from 23% to 9%. Practices that reduced ground cover and led to frequent erosion have declined, including tilled pasture, tilled stubble and grazed stubble. In drier years, livestock grazing crop stubble exacerbated the erosion hazard. In an attempt to understand where landholders obtain their information for land management practice change, the Western Local Land Services (LLS) conducted a social benchmarking survey in 2020 that indicated that the LLS was the third source of information for practice change after neighbours and other landholders, and stock and station agents. Although the LLS is a source of information, this study could not determine a causal link between LLS programs and practice change. Further research is required to test whether extension programs can reduce the overgrazing of stubble.

Integrated management of water and land resources of the Kyrgyz Republic and characteristics of their use at the present stage

This article discusses topical issues of the current state of water and land resources of the republic and their integrated management. They are one of the main natural resources that ensure the sustainable development of agricultural production and environmental safety in general. At the same time, they have their own characteristics in organizing the rational use and protection of resources. The main feature is that land and water function as single interdependent means of production in the agricultural production process in the foothill and highland relief of Kyrgyzstan. In this regard, the considered issues require a more detailed study and a scientific approach. The country is in dire need of modernization of land and water management. It is necessary to change toward culture and philosophy of attitude to land, to strengthen local land management institutions, complete the formation of the land market, and to treat water resources with care and rationality.

Uncovering ‘sleeping beauty’: Land readjustment for self-financing urbanisation in developing countries

Land readjustment offers opportunities for addressing challenges related to rapid urbanisation but is rarely used in practice, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This situation has led some researchers to refer to the untapped potential as “sleeping beauty”. Through a narrative review, this study analyses the self-financing potential of land readjustment and the implications for its application in sub-Saharan Africa. The results show that government budget allocations for covering upfront costs, acquiring a loan, and selling reserve land are the three financing mechanisms for land readjustment projects. The capability of land readjustment to finance its implementation relies, to a large extent, on the landowners' contributions of land for infrastructure development and the sale of reserve land. The extent of cost recovery depends much on the local land market and the period during which reserve land is retained before the sale. Moreover, land readjustment is usually self-financed to a limited extent, implying a need to establish supplementary funding before initiating the project. Nevertheless, land readjustment has the potential to overcome financial constraints to a large extent for infrastructure provision and address social inclusiveness in rapidly urbanising regions. These findings are essential for urban planners, property developers and policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa, where urban growth is fast and municipal authorities face constraints in financing infrastructure.

RENEWING THE BELIZE ARCHAIC PROJECT IN 2019

The Archaic period in the Maya region represents six millennia (7000-1000 BCE) when non-ceramic-using peoples began to experiment with domesticates and reduce their settlement ranges. The single longest epoch of the Mesoamerican chronology, these early millennia are often overshadowed by the investigation of more recent peoples who built cities and have left evidence of elaborate artistic traditions. The Belize Archaic Project (BAP) began work over 20 years ago after the fortuitous discovery of aceramic deposits containing heavily patinated lithic tools and debitage under Postclassic settlements in the Freshwater Creek drainage of northern Belize. The 2019 field season marks a renewed phase of this project and initiates a program of systematic settlement survey and test excavations. This paper presents initial results of a systematic program of auguring that documented 87 Archaic-period sites and excavations at four of these locales during the summer of 2019. The renewed BAP investigates local land use patterns and foraging adaptation as well as the dynamic manner in which they affect (and are impacted by) climate change and evolving local forest and lacustrine ecology.

Assessment of drought Associated Characters in Red Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Germplasm and Land Races

From the farmer’s field of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts fourteen local land races of sorghum were collected and sixteen germplasm accessions from the Department of Plant Genetic Resources, TNAU, Coimbatore along with two promising sorghum varieties Paiyur 1 and Paiyur2 were taken for study and characterization was done for six drought tolerant traits. Among the 32 land races evaluated, Sorghum land races 16-05 (RS), 2457, 16-01 (RS), 2657, 4269 were found to be early in (82-85 days), high yielding (28 to 29.3g/plant), having high photosynthetic rate, (38.6 umolm2 s-1), high Proline content (394 ugg-1) and high soluble protein content (14.4 mgg-1) and hence found to be tolerant to drought. These sorghum land races can be used as one of the parents in crossing programme for developing short duration, high yielding drought tolerant varieties in sorghum.

Assessment of light pollution risk level

Artificial light has both positive and negative effects, affecting different sites in different ways. The level of light pollution is influenced by the level of local development, population, biodiversity, geography and climate. Therefore, it is important to assess the risk level of light pollution and to study the impact of different interventions to reduce light pollution in different locations. In this paper, four different types of representative locations in China were selected for calculation using the LPRL assessment model. Protected land locations have the lowest L1 values. Urban communities have the highest LPRL of L7. Rural and urban communities have LPRLs of L2 and L5, respectively. the results show that for rural communities, SI works best. It increased LPRL from L2 to L1. however, SII and SIII had no effect on LPRL. For urban communities, SIII had a significant effect in that it increased LPRL from L7 to L5. Therefore, it was necessary to focus on this aspect to develop the most effective intervention strategy for an urban community in Hangzhou, and a 1-page flyer was created to promote the strategy at this site.

Growth, mortality, and exploitation rate of spadenose shark (Scoliodon laticaudus) landed at PPI Dumai, Riau Province

The IUCN Red List most recently evaluated the spadenose shark (Scoliodon laticaudus) in 2005 and classed it as near threatened. The research was done at fish landing locations at PPI Dumai between May and July 2023. The goal of this study is estimating spadenose shark growth, mortality, and exploitation rates. Total length and total weight were the kind of information that were collected. The frequency distribution formula was used to assess the frequency of fish length. The FISAT II program’s ELEFAN 1 was used to examine fish growth parameters. The result showed that there were 1103 fishes (590 females and 513 males) captured. The total length (TL) of spadenose sharks in May, June, and July respectively obtained the range between 251-470; 218-500, and 279-485 mmTL with a maximum length of 500 mmTL. With an assumed coefficient of determination (R2) of 0,68, the relationship between total weight (in g) and total length (in mm) for the combined sexes is estimated as W = 0,0001TL2,4582. The growth pattern of spadenose shark is negative allometric. Asymptotic length (L∞) = 578,2 TL, growth rate (K) = 0,51 y-1, and theoretical age at length 0 (t0) = -0,86 y were found as estimates of the growth parameters. Total mortality (Z) was 2,24 y-1, with natural mortality (M) at 0,52 y-1 and fishing mortality (F) at 1,72 y-1. The exploitation rate (E) for this fish was 0,77y-1, which indicates high levels of exploitation.

Number size distribution of bacterial aerosols in terrestrial and marine airflows at a coastal site of Japan

Size-differentiated concentration of bacterial aerosols is essential for investigating their dissemination via the atmosphere. In this study, the number size distribution of bacterial aerosols was measured at a coastal site in southwestern Japan (32.324°N, 129.993°E) using a size-segregated eight-stage (>11, 7.0–11, 4.7–7.0, 3.3–4.7, 2.1–3.3, 1.1–2.1, 0.65–1.1, and 0.43–0.65μm) sampler. The results showed that the distribution differed according to the source areas: terrestrial air, oceanic air, or a combination of the two. The distribution in the long-distance transported terrestrial air from the Asian continent was monomodal, with a peak of 3.3–4.7 μm. The distribution in local land breeze air was bimodal, with the peaks at 0.43–1.1 and 3.3–4.7 μm. A similar bimodal distribution was encountered when the local island air and long-distance transported terrestrial air mixed. In contrast, the size distribution did not show clear peaks in the air from either nearby or remote marine areas. According to the air mass backward trajectories, the further the distance the air moved in the 72 h before arriving at the site, the lower the concentration of total bacterial aerosols. The estimation of dry deposition fluxes of bacterial cells showed that the deposition was dominated by cells larger than 1.1 μm with a relative contribution from 70.5 % to 93.7 %, except for the local land breeze cases, where the contributions in the size ranges larger and smaller than 1.1 μm were similar. These results show the distinctive number size distributions and removal processes of bacterial aerosols in different types of air. In addition, they indicate that size-dependent characteristics of airborne bacteria should be considered when studying their activities and roles in the atmospheric environment.

A Place of the Village Rural Land Management Committee in Land Governance in Tioro: North Ivory Coast

This study is guided by the question how does the Village Committee for Rural Land Management intervene in a land context that reserves the exclusivity of land governance to customary authorities? The objective is to analyze the political implications of the institution of the land committee in land governance in Tioro, a locality of the north of the Ivory Coast. Opting for a qualitative research approach, we have built a framework of investigation structured around the land system, customary land governance, the implementation of land law 98-750 and the forms of relations between actors and authorities. This investigation framework was submitted to the traditional and administrative authorities, to the agents of the Rural Land Service of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture, to the members of the land committee and to the land users. It emerges from this study that the Tioro land system is structured around the collective use of the land and the organization of its governance around the village chief, and land chief. Despite the establishment of a Village Land Management Committee, a new frame resulting from the application of law 98 750 of December 23 relating to rural land, customary authorities remain the central figures of local land governance. Reclaimed by customary land authorities, the land committee functions as a technical instrument controlled by the chief. The mode of rural land governance inaugurated by the involvement of the Land Committee at the village level further strengthens the power of customary authorities.