National Land Use Research Articles

Monitoring housing rental prices based on social media:An integrated approach of machine-learning algorithms and hedonic modeling to inform equitable housing policies

National land use policies and strategies worldwide have attempted to establish a healthy housing rental market towards urban sustainability. Monitoring fine-scale housing rental prices should provide essential implications for equitable housing policies. However, doing so remains a challenge because aggregated data were traditionally collected at a coarse scale through census or social surveys. On-line housing rental websites (OHRWs) have become popular social media platforms in the housing studies. This paper attempts to demonstrate how to monitor fine-scale housing rental prices based on OHRWs using the case of Shenzhen in China. Employing hedonic model, a set of housing rental determinants are initially selected from three characteristics (neighborhood, location and structure) and at three levels (nearest accessibility, 15-minute walking distance availability and sub-district availability). Housing rent prediction models are then established (respectively for October 2017 and February 2018) using the training samples collected from the OHRWs and six machine-learning algorithms, including random forest regression (RFR), extra-trees regression (ETR), gradient-boosting regression (GBR), support vector regression (SVR), multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN) and k-nearest neighbor algorithm (k-NN). Thereafter, the relative importance of the determinants is calculated and visualized using partial dependence plots. Finally, the models are used to monitor housing rental price dynamics for all of the communities within Shenzhen. Results show that all of the algorithms except SVR generally present good performance. Among them, RFR and ETR are the best one in October 2017 and February 2018, respectively. Concerning the spatial pattern of housing rental, the high-high clusters merge in the central districts, whereas the low-low clusters are located in the outskirts, and the growth rate is the greatest in the farthest outskirts from the central districts. Each determinant affects the housing rent across different scale and sub-district availability and nearest accessibility are more important than 15-minute walking distance availability. The two most influential determinants are sub-district job opportunity and nearest accessibility to health care facilities. The case of Shenzhen shows that the demonstrated framework, which integrates machine-learning algorithms and the hedonic modeling, is practical and efficient. The approach is believed to provide an essential tool to inform equitable housing policies.

Geogovernance of national land use based on coupled human and natural systems

Geogovernance of national land use based on coupled human and natural systems

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, DECENTRALIZATION AND HARMONIZATION IN THE LAND MANAGEMENT OF AGRARIAN SECTOR

Within the framework of sustainable development of rural territories, decentralization and harmonization, the European standards have first considered the possibilities of land management. The basic world tendencies and their influence on the land resources management of the agrarian sector of the economy are determined. The laws of national land use and the problems they cause are considered. Taking into account tendencies and revealed patterns, modern forecasts of agrarian business development and consequences of their realization in land management in Ukraine were determined. The author offers a scheme of domino effect from the implementation of investment processes in agriculture to the harmonization of land management with European standards. It is proposed to create a network structure of organic products under the TM UkrWay on the analytical and consulting platform of the Association Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club, which allows you to quickly diagnose demand at the expense of the consumer as a quasi-employee, quasi-observer and quasi-marketer, and accordingly apply dynamic systems land resources of the agricultural sector of the economy. A scheme of harmonization of economic interests of land management entities under decentralization conditions through their financial and organizational capabilities has been developed to focus on ownership, management and use of management objects.

Інноваційність національної системи землекористування

Інноваційність національної системи землекористування

Sizing up transport poverty: A national scale accounting of low-income households suffering from inaccessibility in Canada, and what to do about it

Millions of Canadians rely on public transportation to conduct daily activities and participate in the labour force. However, many low-income households are disadvantaged because existing public transit service does not provide them with sufficient access to destinations. Limited transit options, compounded with socioeconomic disadvantage, can result in transport poverty, preventing travel to important destinations, like employment opportunities. Given the growing gentrification of Canadian downtowns and the dispersion of poverty into Canadian suburbs, the time is right for a national accounting of those living in transport poverty, and the development of a national transport and land use strategy for alleviating the risks of accessibility deprivation. Accordingly, in this paper we measure and analyze vertical inequalities in access to employment in Canadian cities in order to estimate how many, where, and to what extent, Canadians are at risk of transport poverty. We make use of open transit network data and cutting edge accessibility measurement methods to generate comparative scores suitable for a national-scale analysis. We find that in aggregate, lower income neighbourhoods tend to have better levels of transit accessibility. But despite this overall positive outlook, there are still nearly one million low-income individuals living in urban areas with low transit accessibility. We summarize our findings by generating descriptive typologies for areas vulnerable to transport poverty which are then used to develop and recommend planning strategies to reduce inequalities.

Unsustainable Land Use due to ‘Catching Up’ Investment Pursuits in Ethiopia: The Need for Planning, Zoning and other Regulations

Zoning and land use regulations accommodate and balance various interests which relate to urbanization, food security, enhanced livelihoods, industrialization and globalization, in the context of sustainable development. Unlike comparative practices in other countries, Ethiopia has no comprehensive and codified zoning law even though the zoning stage affects the subsequent stages. Ethiopia has not yet issued an integrated national land use policy. There is also a rush toward massive acquisition of land for investments and proliferation of industrial parks. This is clearly meant to catch up with the plans and aspirations under Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) I and II. This article examines the relevant laws and the rush toward land acquisitions and the haphazard decisions thereof vis-a-vis the need for sustainability through a multimodal and integrationist approach. There are constitutional issues with regard to decentralizing local development plans and land administration versus centralizing tendencies in land-investment administration and designation of industrial parks. It is argued that there are gaps in the three-tier stages of (i) Planning and Zoning, (ii) Acquisition and (iii) Performance Requirements , thereby necessitating reform towards the integrated and balanced implementation of these three stages. The political commitment for ‘catching up’ pursuits should not be at the expense of constitutional rights and issues of sustainability. There is thus the need for an informed decision-making process that accommodates multitude of interests. Key terms Land use · Zoning law · Expropriation · Sustainability · Peri-urbans · Industrial park

Rewilding as a restoration strategy for lowland agricultural landscapes: Stakeholder-assisted multi-criteria analysis in Dorset, UK

The ongoing loss of global biodiversity suggests that established conservation practices have not been fully successful at halting species decline. Rewilding, a restoration strategy focused on restoring ecological processes, has become increasingly prominent as a potential means of addressing this problem. Rewilding has been described as a versatile approach that is applicable even in areas with dense human populations and productive agricultural landscapes such as the lowlands of Western Europe. Yet little is known about the options that might exist for rewilding such landscapes, or about their relative suitability. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by assessing the relative popularity and suitability of different rewilding scenarios in the county of Dorset, south-west England, involving the consultation of local stakeholders. Survey results showed strong support for rewilding among stakeholders, with the reintroduction of beavers (Castor fiber) and pine martens (Martes martes) being especially popular. Yet stakeholder perceptions also differed regarding how rewilding should be defined, and what it comprises. The suitability of the proposed rewilding approaches was measured through a spatial multi-criteria analysis using the following variables: popularity among stakeholders, suitability within relevant land cover types, and suitability at the landscape-scale. Naturalistic grazing and farmland abandonment emerged as the most suitable rewilding options overall, although these were not the most popular choices. Overall, these results suggest that land managers in lowland agricultural landscapes could consider rewilding as one of the land management options available to them, provided that the options being considered are ecologically appropriate and local stakeholders have been consulted. In the UK, such rewilding options might be supported by new national agricultural land use policies currently under development. In areas of continental Europe where agricultural land abandonment is more widespread, policy-makers seeking to address the issue could look towards the EU’s wilderness guidelines for potential solutions that promote rewilding while offsetting the costs incurred by local stakeholders. In either context, integrated exploration of stakeholder values and ecological data as presented here can potentially be used to evaluate the relative suitability and popularity of different rewilding approaches, and thereby establish priorities.

Assessment of Cultivated Land Productivity and Its Spatial Differentiation in Dongting Lake Region: A Case Study of Yuanjiang City, Hunan Province

Cultivated land is an important carrier of grain production, and scientific assessing of cultivated land productivity is of great significance to ensure food security. This paper assessed the overall productivity of cultivated land in Yuanjiang city from the perspectives of quantitative structure, spatial distribution and correlation with national land use. We applied statistical and GIS (geographic information system) spatial analysis methods to 16 secondary indicators of productivity. The results showed that the productivity index of cultivated land ranged from 1642.79 to 4140.09, concentrated in classes 2–6, among the most productive of 15 classes in total. The cultivated productivity indexes of most towns showed quantitative structural patterns of “inverted pyramid” and “dumbbell” types. Cultivated lands with high productivity showed a spatial distribution that decreased from the north to the south and increased from the center to the periphery. The spatial distribution of the higher-level classes in the cultivated land productivity index and the national cultivated land use index was similar. The correlation coefficient between the indexes for cultivated land productivity and the annual standard crop yield was 0.8817, implying that the index reflected local grain production capacity very well. In general, the research offered a reference and technical support for the sustainable use of cultivated land resources and enhanced regional cultivated land production capacity.

Identifying appropriate land-use mix measures for use in a national walkability index

Walkability indices can guide planning and policy for more sustainable and liveble cities. Land-use mix is an important component of walkability that can be measured in a number of ways. Many land-use mix measures require fine-scaled land-use data that are not always available, especially when analyzing walkability across larger geographic extents. 
 This study investigated the feasibility of calculating a national walkability index in Australia, using metropolitan Melbourne as a case study. The study focused on the dual challenges of selecting an appropriate measure of land-use mix and identifying an appropriate land-use data source. 
 We calculated an entropy land-use mix measure with three different Australian land-use datasets. Our comparison of the resulting land-use mix measures highlighted the differences in the land-use datasets and led to our conclusion that none of the three land-use datasets was appropriate for use in a national land-use mix measure. Therefore, we also developed two new exploratory “intensity” measures of land use — daily living and local living — that were able to be calculated nationally with readily available data. Modelled associations with transport walking and comparisons with the entropy land-use mix measures indicate that these new measures were appropriate for assessing national land use in a national walkability index.

Estimation of PM2.5 mortality burden in China with new exposure estimation and local concentration-response function

The estimation of PM2.5-related mortality is becoming increasingly important. The accuracy of results is largely dependent on the selection of methods for PM2.5 exposure assessment and Concentration-Response (C-R) function. In this study, PM2.5 observed data from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center, satellite-derived estimation, widely collected geographic and socioeconomic information variables were applied to develop a national satellite-based Land Use Regression model and evaluate PM2.5 exposure concentrations within 2013–2015 with the resolution of 1 km × 1 km. Population weighted concentration declined from 72.52 μg/m3 in 2013 to 57.18 μg/m3 in 2015. C-R function is another important section of health effect assessment, but most previous studies used the Integrated Exposure Regression (IER) function which may currently underestimate the excess relative risk of exceeding the exposure range in China. A new Shape Constrained Health Impact Function (SCHIF) method, which was developed from a national cohort of 189,793 Chinese men, was adopted to estimate the PM2.5-related premature deaths in China. Results showed that 2.19 million (2013), 1.94 million (2014), 1.65 million (2015) premature deaths were attributed to PM2.5 long-term exposure, different from previous understanding around 1.1–1.7 million. The top three provinces of the highest premature deaths were Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, while the least ones were Tibet, Hainan, Qinghai. The proportions of premature deaths caused by specific diseases were 53.2% for stroke, 20.5% for ischemic heart disease, 16.8% for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 9.5% for lung cancer. IER function was also used to calculate PM2.5-related premature deaths with the same exposed level used in SCHIF method, and the comparison of results indicated that IER had made a much lower estimation with less annual amounts around 0.15–0.5 million premature deaths within 2013–2015.

Land suitability evaluation for cereal crops: a multicriteria approach using GIS at Parbatipur VDC, Chitwan, Nepal

A research was conducted to evaluate the suitability of soils of different land unit for cereal crops productions at Parbatipur VDC, Chitwan, Nepal with the integrated use of Geographical Information system (GIS) and Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE).Existing geodatabase information from National Land Use Project (NLUP) was used as data for this research. The database was used to derive crop suitability using vector based index model in GIS along with multicriteria analysis. The research revealed that for rice cultivation, 1.06 %(10.70ha) was highly suitable,51.54 %(515.89ha) was moderately suitable, 3.39% (33.987 ha) was marginally suitable but 28.28 %( 283.11 ha) was not suitable whereas for wheat cultivation, 7.6%(76.73ha) was highly suitable, 44.91% (449.53 ha) was moderately suitable and 4.6% (46.26ha) was marginally suitable, but 27.15% (27.14ha) was not suitable. Similarly, for maize cultivation, 12.07% (120.83ha) was highly suitable, 40.19% (402.25ha) was moderately suitable and 0.53% (5.37ha) was marginally suitable, but 31.54% (315.72ha) was not suitable for maize production. Hence, the area not suitable for rice, wheat and maize must be allocated for alternative uses to achieve optimum productions and further there must be new research for alternative land uses in VDC, where these crops were not suitable for optimum productions.Journal of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science. Vol. 33-34, 2015, Page: 55-64

Storytelling in VR, CAVES and other emerging forms: An interview with Roderick Coover by Katarzyna Boratyn

The following interview with Roderick Coover asks how emerging cinematic technologies transform documentary storytelling. Though his early ethnographic projects, such as Concealed Narratives (1996, filmed and photographed in Ghana) and the Harvest (1999, filmed and photographed in France), he created interactive documentary forms that could bridge modes of expression. The works combine field-notes, editing observations, exposition, travel narratives, encounters and interviews with evocative imagery. In works such as Voyage Into The Unknown (2007), Canyonlands (2009), and Estuary (2013). Coover uses scrolling map environments to offer interactive, cinematic experiences in which users create paths among video clips and data; the works explore spatial knowledge and storytelling, national myth-making and land use. In works such as Something That Happened Only Once (2007) and The Last Volcano (2011), he layers stories on animated panoramic settings to present disturbing disjunctions in the expression of place and memory. His recent collaborative works Three Rails Live (2013) and Toxicity: A Climate Change Narrative (2016) are algorithmic. They use code to combine voices and images from a database in an ever-changing order; the works use storytelling and new technologies to address the questions of climate change and industrial waste. In Hearts & Minds: The Interrogations Project , a VR work about US military torture in Iraq, he and his collaborators use immersive arts, storytelling and gaming technologies to introduce challenging accounts of human rights abuse.

Storytelling in VR, CAVES and other emerging forms: An interview with Roderick Coover by Katarzyna Boratyn

The following interview with Roderick Coover asks how emerging cinematic technologies transform documentary storytelling. Though his early ethnographic projects, such as Concealed Narratives (1996, filmed and photographed in Ghana) and the Harvest (1999, filmed and photographed in France), he created interactive documentary forms that could bridge modes of expression. The works combine field-notes, editing observations, exposition, travel narratives, encounters and interviews with evocative imagery. In works such as Voyage Into The Unknown (2007), Canyonlands (2009), and Estuary (2013). Coover uses scrolling map environments to offer interactive, cinematic experiences in which users create paths among video clips and data; the works explore spatial knowledge and storytelling, national myth-making and land use. In works such as Something That Happened Only Once (2007) and The Last Volcano (2011), he layers stories on animated panoramic settings to present disturbing disjunctions in the expression of place and memory. His recent collaborative works Three Rails Live (2013) and Toxicity: A Climate Change Narrative (2016) are algorithmic. They use code to combine voices and images from a database in an ever-changing order; the works use storytelling and new technologies to address the questions of climate change and industrial waste. In Hearts & Minds: The Interrogations Project, a VR work about US military torture in Iraq, he and his collaborators use immersive arts, storytelling and gaming technologies to introduce challenging accounts of human rights abuse.

The Relationship between Urbanization, the Built Environment, and Physical Activity among Older Adults in Taiwan.

Urbanization and ageing are global phenomena and offer unique challenges in different countries. A supportive environment plays a critical role in addressing the issue of behavioral change and health promotion among older adults. Many studies in the U.S., EU, and Australia have considered promoting physical activity in the community based on ecological models, whereas very few Asian studies have examined the relationships among urbanization, the built environment and physical activity in elderly at the ecological level, especially from a multi-level perspective. Due to the prevalence of post-war baby boomers and a very low birth-rate, the older population (aged 65 years old and older) in Taiwan has increased rapidly since 2011 and has exceeded the younger generation (0–14 years old) in 2017. Hence, the purpose of this study was first to examine the degree of urbanization in townships and the status of related built environments in Taiwan and then to investigate whether the built environment is associated with recommended amounts of physical activity among older adults. Three national datasets and a multi-level design were used in this research. Data at the individual level was obtained from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) which was taken from June 2009 to February 2010. Ecological data was obtained from the 2006 National Land Use Investigation of the National Geographic Information System and the 2010 Population and Housing Census. The analyses included a descriptive analysis, a bivariate analysis, a multiple logistic regression, and a multi-level analysis, utilizing a mostly hierarchical linear model (HLM). The results showed a significant relationship between factors at the environmental levels and physical activity in older adults. Urbanization, the built environment, and the median income of townships were positively correlated to the physical activity of the older adults. After controlling for individual-level factors, urbanization still exhibited this correlation. Parks and green spaces were associated with achieving the recommended amount of physical activity. However, there was no relationship after controlling for factors at the individual level. Detailed discussions were provided.

Land use projections in China under global socioeconomic and emission scenarios: Utilizing a scenario-based land-use change assessment framework

Abstract Land-use changes under the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and the representative concentration pathways (RCPs) have been analyzed globally, but how regional and national land use respond to the global mitigation policies is seldom explored, which poses difficulties in regional environmental adaptation and decision-making. China, as a major food consuming and biofuel production country, would suffer great uncertainties in future land-use dynamics under the global scenarios. Here, we present a scenario-based land-use change assessment framework, integrating Global Change Assessment Model and Future Land Use Simulation Model, to evaluate the potential land use projections of China from 2010 to 2100. Eight scenarios with different combinations of SSPs and radiative forcing targets of RCPs are designed, to analyze the impacts of the global socioeconomic and emission assumptions on regional mitigations and land-use changes. We recalibrated the historical land use data and urban dynamics of China to improve the consistency of modeling results with the actual regional changes. Meanwhile, differences in land use dynamics are demonstrated by spatial downscaling, which are jointly affected by the global assumptions and local driving factors, showing a fierce competition between the crop and forest. We find that the regional crop changes are sensitive to the socioeconomic dynamics as well as the bioenergy production, while different carbon regimes drive the forest changes in unexpected ways. Besides, overall heterogeneous landscape patterns and similar spatial suitability maps are found in distributions of land-use change between the emission and socioeconomic scenarios. The results indicate that this framework embedded with the consideration of anthropogenic managements as well as the detailed interactions of local environments provides an effective way to investigate regional land use response to a range of alternative future pathways.

Chronic exposure to traffic-related air pollution and cancer incidence among 10,000 patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions: A historical prospective study.

Background Exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) is considered to have a carcinogenic effect. The authors previously reported a nonsignificant association between TRAP and cancer risk in a relatively small cohort of myocardial infarction survivors. This study assessed whether TRAP exposure is associated with subsequent cancer in a large cohort of coronary patients. Methods & results Consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions in a major medical centre in central Israel from 2004 to 2014 were followed for cancer through 2015. Residential levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) - a proxy for TRAP - were estimated based on a high-resolution national land use regression model. Cox proportional hazards models were constructed to study relationships with cancer. Among 12,784 candidate patients, 9816 had available exposure data and no history of cancer (mean age, 68 years; 77% men). During a median (25th-75th percentiles) follow-up of 7.0 (3.9-9.3) years, 773 incident cases of cancer (8%) were diagnosed. In a multivariable-adjusted model, a 10-ppb increase in mean NOx exposure was associated with hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.07 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00-1.15) for all-site cancer and 1.16 (95% CI 1.05-1.28) for cancers previously linked to TRAP (lung, breast, prostate, kidney and bladder). A stronger association was observed for breast cancer (HR = 1.43; 95% CI 1.12-1.83). Associations were slightly strengthened after limiting the cohort to patients with more precise exposure assessment. Conclusion Coronary patients exposed to TRAP are at increased risk of several types of cancer, particularly lung, prostate and breast. As these cancers are amenable to prevention strategies, identifying highly exposed patients may provide an opportunity to improve clinical care.

Open and scalable analytics of large Earth observation datasets: From scenes to multidimensional arrays using SciDB and GDAL

Earth observation (EO) datasets are commonly provided as collection of scenes, where individual scenes represent a temporal snapshot and cover a particular region on the Earth’s surface. Using these data in complex spatiotemporal modeling becomes difficult as soon as data volumes exceed a certain capacity or analyses include many scenes, which may spatially overlap and may have been recorded at different dates. In order to facilitate analytics on large EO datasets, we combine and extend the geospatial data abstraction library (GDAL) and the array-based data management and analytics system SciDB. We present an approach to automatically convert collections of scenes to multidimensional arrays and use SciDB to scale computationally intensive analytics. We evaluate the approach in three study cases on national scale land use change monitoring with Landsat imagery, global empirical orthogonal function analysis of daily precipitation, and combining historical climate model projections with satellite-based observations. Results indicate that the approach can be used to represent various EO datasets and that analyses in SciDB scale well with available computational resources. To simplify analyses of higher-dimensional datasets as from climate model output, however, a generalization of the GDAL data model might be needed. All parts of this work have been implemented as open-source software and we discuss how this may facilitate open and reproducible EO analyses.

Cultivated Land Use Benefits Under State and Collective Agrarian Property Regimes in China

Agrarian property regimes interact with relevant property stakeholders’ behaviors and benefits, playing a vital role in national and regional cultivated land use. In China, state and collective agrarian property regimes are the two main forms of cultivated land use. To help fully realize the multi-objectives of cultivated land use benefits provided by agrarian property regimes, our study investigated the relationship between agrarian property regimes and cultivated land use. This paper describes the role of a cultivated land use system in facilitating the relationship between agrarian property regimes and cultivated land use from a geographical perspective. Understanding the cultivated land use system is the foundation for comparatively analyzing differences in the cultivated land use benefits in two adjacent areas, a state-owned regime and a collective regime, in the city of Fujin, China, through a comprehensive evaluation. We found the following results: (1) The arrangement of agrarian property rights directly reflects capital, material and technology inputs by motivating agricultural labors to obtain different economic benefits; (2) The state agrarian property regime reflects top-down agricultural management while the collective agrarian property regime reflects bottom-up agricultural management in China. The different agricultural managements influence planting structure and land use planning, resulting in different ecological benefits; (3) Labor division and social insurance are the main drivers of different social benefits from the two regimes. Examining cultivated land use benefits provides a new comparative perspective for studying agrarian property regimes. The results show that cultivated land use benefits from collective and state agrarian property regimes are different. These findings clarify that, incentivized by the different types of agrarian property ownerships represented by collectively and state-owned regimes, local governments and organizations aim to achieve the multi-objective cultivated land use benefit goal of Chinese agricultural development, including economic, ecological and social benefits. With China’s goal of conducting moderate agricultural reform in its agrarian property regime, verification of rural collective land rights is an effective form of asset management in collective areas in China, while deepening land tenure and usufruct is an important priority in state-owned regimes. Furthermore, to make full use of agricultural resources, it is necessary to have a close collaboration between the collective agrarian property regime and the state agrarian property regime.

The Introduction of Detailed Spatial Planning in Sleman Regency

This study examined the possibilities of legalizing detailed spatial planning in Sleman regency. By using objectives analysis of project cycle management (PCM) method, 7 approaches were identified to introduce detailed spatial planning, namely: Motivation approaches, Central Government Policy Approaches, Law Enforcement Approaches, Relocation Approaches, Industrial Development Approaches, Business Development Approaches, and Coordination with Sultan’s office Approaches. From the 7 approaches, 4 approaches were selected most convincing combinations which are relocation approaches, industrial development approaches, business development approaches and coordination with sultan’s land approaches. The examination of its feasibility were conducted by interviewing stakeholders in Sleman regency whose result showed that the first 3 approaches could be realized without serious problems while coordination with sultan’s land office approaches had to be handled with care because the authority of sultan’s land conversion was under the sultan’s office even though the location was in Sleman. To overcome these difficulties, Sleman regency must take initiative and be able to suggest to sultan’s office feasible idea of coordination with national land use planning. This being action research case, its actual applicability will be verified by initiating activities with Sleman regency government as its main promoter .

In the law & on the land: finding the female farmer in Myanmar’s National Land Use Policy

This paper draws upon 12 months of activist research in Myanmar to examine how bureaucrats, activists, international development experts and rural women represented the female farmer during an unprecedented public negotiation of a critical agrarian policy. During National Land Use Policy consultations, antagonistic actors learned to behave like experts, rendered technical distinct ontologies of land, law, and gender to produce a bilingual, rights-bearing female farmer in the final text. Rather than identifying as ‘farmers’, however, rural women typically describe themselves as workers or helpers, a gendered identity inscribed in particular and hierarchical relations of land and labor. An emergent class of self-identified female farmers distinguished themselves as capable and independent, but these adopted attitudes were often tied to privileged positions. Understanding the production of these representations and the relationship between them problematizes Myanmar’s purported democratic transition and illustrates the gendered dynamics of agrarian change.