Support Land Use Research Articles

City Logistics in historic centers: Multi-Criteria Evaluation in GIS for city of Salvador (Bahia – Brazil)

The City Logistic brings a new concept in land use planning and management of urban logistics flows, resolving problems related to urban goods movement, while seeking a balance between the efficiency required by urban freight and the social costs involved (traffic congestion product, environmental impacts and energy conservation). This article seeks to investigate the relationship between urban freight and shape, design, zoning and urban planning to establish City Logistic strategies that support land use planning and organization of logistics flows in the city center of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The methodology is mainly based on the use of geoprocessing techniques which are used do diagnose the spatial concentration of Freight Trip Generation Centers in terms of the potentially produced travel in Salvador’s central area. Furthermore, the methodology used the Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) in GIS (Geographic Information System) for identifying suitability maps related to urban logistics activities and land use compatibility. The latter served as a basis to identify strategies and measures of City Logistic to support the improvement of urban logistics in the study area.

Addressing risks and uncertainty in forest land use modeling

The management of competing land uses is complicated by a range of issues and considerations. This is the case because of a concern for the long-term health of the earth and the obvious negative impacts of past and present human activities. Land use planning and management efforts have recognized this broader context and accordingly have devoted much care and attention to operational-level planning support. Spatial restrictions have long been recognized as central to limiting local impacts as well as ensuring landscape shape and structure irregularity. Unfortunately, planning to meet spatial restrictions may be disrupted, by fire, pests, or even on-the-ground conditions. For example, what if a fire destroys resources in a management unit that are adjacent to a unit(s) scheduled for harvest. In fact, this new opening/disruption may prevent the planned activity of any of its neighboring units. Disruptions do occur, but have rarely been addressed in any meaningful way in planning optimization problems. This paper details spatial optimization approaches to support better understanding of the range of potential outcomes when disruption and uncertainty are taken into account in land use planning involving forest resources. Application results highlight the significance of handling disruption risk and spatial data uncertainty, indicating that identifying and selecting planning alternatives that are consistent with goals and intended outcomes are a difficult task. However, improved modeling approaches are possible that better support land use decision making.

AN EVALUATION OF LANDSLIDE SUSCEPTIBILITY MAPPING USING REMOTE SENSING DATA AND MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS IN IRAN

Abstract. Landslide is painstaking as one of the most prevalent and devastating forms of mass movement that affects man and his environment. The specific objective of this research paper is to investigate the application and performances of some selected machine learning algorithms (MLA) in landslide susceptibility mapping, in Dodangeh watershed, Iran. A 112 sample point of the past landslide, occurrence or inventory data was generated from the existing and field observations. In addition, fourteen landslide-conditioning parameters were derived from DEM and other topographic databases for the modelling process. These conditioning parameters include total curvature, profile curvature, plan curvature, slope, aspect, altitude, topographic wetness index (TWI), topographic roughness index (TRI), stream transport index (STI), stream power index (SPI), lithology, land use, distance to stream, distance to the fault. Meanwhile, factor analysis was employed to optimize the landslide conditioning parameters and the inventory data, by assessing the multi-collinearity effects and outlier detections respectively. The inventory data is divided into 70% (78) training dataset and 30% (34) test dataset for model validation. The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve or area under curve (AUC) value was used for assessing the model's performance. The findings reveal that TRI has 0.89 collinearity effect based on variance-inflated factor (VIF) and based on Gini factor optimization total curvature is not significant in the model development, therefore the two parameters are excluded from the modelling. All the selected MLAs (RF, BRT, and DT) shown promising performances on landslide susceptibility mapping in Dodangeh watershed, Iran. The ROC curve for training and validation for RF are 86% success rate and 83% prediction rate implies the best model performance compared to BRT and DT, with ROC curve of 72% and 70% prediction rate, respectively. In conclusion, RF could be the best algorithm for producing landslide susceptibility map, and such results could be adopted for the decision-making process to support land use planner for improving landslide risk assessment in similar environmental settings.

Land Cover Change in the Abuja City-Region, Nigeria: Integrating GIS and Remotely Sensed Data to Support Land Use Planning

Rapid urban expansion is a significant contributor to land cover change and poses a challenge to environmental sustainability, particularly in less developed countries. Insufficient data about urban expansion hinders effective land use planning. Therefore, a high need to collect, process, and disseminate land cover data exists. This study focuses on urban land cover change detection using Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing methods to produce baseline information in support for land use planning. We applied a supervised classification of land cover of LANDSAT data from 1987, 2002, and 2017. We mapped land cover transitions from 1987 to 2017 and computed the net land cover change during this time. Finally, we analyzed the mismatches between the past and current urban land cover and land use plans and quantified the non-urban development area lost to urban/built-up. Our results indicated an increase in urban/built-up and bare land cover types, while vegetation land cover decreased. We observed mismatches between past/current land cover and the existing land use plan. By providing detailed insights into mismatches between the regional land use plan and unregulated urban expansion, this study provides important information for a critical debate on the role and effectiveness of land use planning for environmental sustainability and sustainable urban development, particularly in less developed countries.

Estimating potential future (2030 and 2040) land use in the Bonsa catchment, Ghana, West Africa

This study combined logistic regression, Markov chain and the Dyna-CLUE models to simulate land use patterns in the Bonsa catchment of Ghana, West Africa. Historical model validation produced Relative Operating Characteristics (ROC) statistics above 0.69; indicating a significant relationship between the driving factors and the land cover types, and overall accuracy of 71% as well as a Kappa statistic of 55%, indicating a moderate agreement between observed and simulated land uses. The statistics of the historical model were used to simulate three plausible future land use scenarios. The historical simulation revealed that increases in population density, proximity to roads and expansion of mines were the major drivers that significantly increased the probability of settlement expansion and deforestation. Simulations of future land use showed that settlement expansion and deforestation may increase by similar margins for all scenarios, but the increase in secondary forests may be higher for the economic growth and reforestation (EGR) scenario, compared to the economic growth (EG) and the business-as-usual (BAU) scenarios. The mining areas may double in the future for all the scenarios, but shrubs/farms may increase in the BAU scenario, but reduce marginally in the EG and the EGR scenarios. The results of this study can be used to support land use planning and evaluation of the impacts of different future development pathways.Keywords: Bonsa catchment, deforestation, driving factors, Dyna-CLUE, land use, logistic regression, West Africa

Incorporating transportation safety into land use planning: Pre-assessment of land use conversion effects on severe crashes in urban China

Severe crashes (SCs) have raised significant challenges to public safety in China. Given the prevalence of urban redevelopment, there is an urgent need to incorporate transportation safety into new-phase land use planning. This study presents an approach to pre-assess the traffic safety outcomes of land use conversions by investigating the association between land use conversions and variations in SCs in urban China. Generalized structural equation modelling (GSEM) was used to construct the hierarchical relationships among the SC frequency, land uses, and SC-related features. The Wald test was then employed to examine the reshaping of SC-related features and the SC frequency variation in land use conversions. The results showed that urban residential, commercial and business and mixed residential-commercial land uses had the highest SC risk exposure levels. A set of land use conversions oriented towards these three land uses were positively associated with the SC frequency and would universally drive the reshaping of SC-related features in the traffic volume, accessibility of destinations, and spatial variations in the population and employment at the traffic analysis zone level. These types of conversions were highly sensitive to the generation of mixed traffic flows, thereby leading to a higher risk of exposure to SCs. In contrast, land use conversions were less associated with the reshaping of zonal traffic speeds. The applicability of the proposed approach and the corresponding findings in supporting land use planning strategies for traffic safety improvements in transitional cities and urban China in particular was discussed.

Economic and ecosystem costs and benefits of alternative land use and management scenarios in the Lake Rotorua, New Zealand, catchment

Abstract A significant challenge in resource management is addressed: the perceived trade-off between economic growth and ecosystem restoration and conservation. Traditional approaches to management regard restoration as a potential cost to economic productivity. In this study we show that by considering a broader range of economic values, including ecosystem services values, an argument can be made that restoration of lake ecosystems also leads to favourable economic outcomes when commonly disregarded values are considered. Our case study analyses the ecological outcomes of different catchment mitigation and land use scenarios in terms of water quality results in a lake, assessing changes in land use values based on opportunity costs, and ecosystem services values. We show that when considering the value of ecosystem services, intensive agricultural land use is not necessarily the most economically valuable form of land use within a lake catchment. Indeed, a shift towards alternative land uses within a catchment can lead to both ongoing economic benefits and improvements in water quality. In this context, land-use change offers an option for water quality improvement that minimises lake and land mitigation costs, while adding value to catchment land use. An argument is made supporting land use change towards indigenous forest types, which can sustain alternative sources of income such as a range of recreational values, while supporting important ecosystem functions for the region.

Modelling the impact of land use management on water resources in a tropical inland valley catchment of central Uganda, East Africa

A combination of climate change, food demand, population growth, and other driving forces are causing land use and land cover change (LULC) in wetlands of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). This has a profound effect on water resources, thus it is imperative that such consequences arising from these changes are predicted accurately to support land use management. For that, local scale studies are required to understand the system and to perform scenario analysis. The focus of this study was on small scale inland valleys which are common in SSA. The impact of LULC on the hydrological processes in a tropical inland valley was investigated. A hydrological response unit (HRU)-based (ArcSWAT2012) and a grid-based setup (SWATgrid) of the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model are applied. Good model performance was achieved after calibration and validation with daily discharge (R2 and NSE > 0.7 for both model setups). Annual water balance indicates that 849.5 mm representing 65% of precipitation is lost via evapotranspiration. Surface runoff (77.9 mm) and lateral flow (86.5 mm) are the highest contributors to stream flow in the inland valley. Four land use management options are developed in addition to the current land use system, with different water resources conservation levels (Conservation, Slope conservation, Protection of headwater catchment, and Exploitation). There is a strong relationship between the first three management options with decreasing surface runoff, annual discharge and water yield while the fourth option will increase annual discharge and total water yield. This suggests that if poor management and increasing exploitation of the inland valleys persist, the availability of water resources for human consumption and plant growth will decrease. This study contributes to improving the scientific knowledge on the impact of land use change on hydrological processes in the catchment-wetland nexus to support sustainable water resources management.

A Framework for Assessing the Impacts of Mining Development on Regional Water Resources in Colombia

Developing its large-scale mining industry is an economic priority for Colombia. However, national capacity to assess and manage the water resource impacts of mining is currently limited. This includes lack of baseline data, lack of suitable hydrological models and lack of frameworks for evaluating risks. Furthermore, public opposition to large scale mining is high and is a barrier to many proposed new mining projects mainly because of concerns about impacts on water resources. There are also concerns about impacts on the uplands that are important water sources, particularly the páramo ecosystem. This paper argues the case for a new framework for Strategic Assessment of Regional Water Impacts of Mining, aiming to support land use planning decisions by government for selected mining and prospective mining regions. The proposed framework is modelled on the Australian Government’s Bioregional Assessments program, converted into seven stages plus supporting activities that meet the Colombian development context. The seven stages are: (1) Contextual information; (2) Scenario definition; (3) Risk scoping; (4) Model development; (5) Risk analysis; (6) Database development; and (7) Dissemination by government to stakeholders including the general public. It is emphasised that the process and results should be transparent, the data and models publicly accessible, and dissemination aimed at all levels of expertise.

Assessing the economic marginality of agricultural lands in Italy to support land use planning

Agricultural marginality is a multifaceted issue, being related to place-specific socioeconomic contexts and highly-variable technological conditions. The coexistence of different classification systems of these variables makes hard any attempt to have a general definition of agricultural marginality. Moreover, the spatially explicit identification of marginal lands is still challenging mostly due to the lack of reliable data sources at both country and regional scale. Accordingly, this paper evaluates the degree of economic marginality of agricultural land, using Italy as a representative case study for southern Europe. A spatial analysis of farmland profitability and constraints for agricultural activities (topography and biodiversity conservation) is proposed to identify three classes of agricultural land, namely ‘unsuitable’, ‘supramarginal’ and ‘marginal’ lands. Results show that almost 39% of agricultural land in Italy can be classified as ‘marginal'; its spatial distribution and characteristics are also analyzed and discussed in relation to different background conditions. The proposed approach provides a valuable methodology supporting land-use planning and decision-making under restricted geo-spatial data availability.

BUILT-UP AREA AND LAND COVER EXTRACTION USING HIGH RESOLUTION PLEIADES SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR MIDRAND, IN GAUTENG PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract. Urban areas, particularly in developing countries face immense challenges such as climate change, poverty, lack of resources poor land use management systems, and week environmental management practices. Mitigating against these challenges is often hampered by lack of data on urban expansion, urban footprint and land cover. To support the recently adopted new urban agenda 2030 there is need for the provision of information to support decision making in the urban areas. Earth observation has been identified as a tool to foster sustainable urban planning and smarter cities as recognized by the new urban agenda, because it is a solution to unavailability of data. Accordingly, this study uses high resolution EO data Pleiades satellite imagery to map and document land cover for the rapidly expanding area of Midrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. An unsupervised land cover classification of the Pleiades satellite imagery was carried out using ENVI software, whereas NDVI was derived using ArcGIS software. The land cover had an accuracy of 85% that is highly adequate to document the land cover in Midrand. The results are useful because it provides a highly accurate land cover and NDVI datasets at localised spatial scale that can be used to support land use management strategies within Midrand and the City of Johannesburg South Africa.

Groundwater vulnerability assessment: from overlay methods to statistical methods in the Lombardy Plain area

Groundwater is among the most important freshwater resources. Worldwide, aquifers are experiencing an increasing threat of pollution from urbanization, industrial development, agricultural activities and mining enterprise. Thus, practical actions, strategies and solutions to protect groundwater from these anthropogenic sources are widely required. The most efficient tool, which helps supporting land use planning, while protecting groundwater from contamination, is represented by groundwater vulnerability assessment. Over the years, several methods assessing groundwater vulnerability have been developed: overlay and index methods, statistical and process-based methods. All methods are means to synthesize complex hydrogeological information into a unique document, which is a groundwater vulnerability map, useable by planners, decision and policy makers, geoscientists and the public. Although it is not possible to identify an approach which could be the best one for all situations, the final product should always be scientific defensible, meaningful and reliable. Nevertheless, various methods may produce very different results at any given site. Thus, reasons for similarities and differences need to be deeply investigated. This study demonstrates the reliability and flexibility of a spatial statistical method to assess groundwater vulnerability to contamination at a regional scale. The Lombardy Plain case study is particularly interesting for its long history of groundwater monitoring (quality and quantity), availability of hydrogeological data, and combined presence of various anthropogenic sources of contamination. Recent updates of the regional water protection plan have raised the necessity of realizing more flexible, reliable and accurate groundwater vulnerability maps. A comparison of groundwater vulnerability maps obtained through different approaches and developed in a time span of several years has demonstrated the relevance of the continuous scientific progress, recognizing strengths and weaknesses of each research.

Use of land in a water fund in modern conditions

The article deals with issues of management and financial support land use water resources Ukraine in terms of decentralization. It was established that one of the obstacles to decentralization in Ukraine is the lack of necessary funding infrastructure upgrades lands of water fund. The necessity of reforming the institutional system of water use on the lands of water fund, through the implementation of new institutional forms of economic development, water resources, focused on the water and agricultural needs of communities. In particular, they provide for the establishment of partnerships between the state and private enterprise entities and ensure diversification of investment water management and protection projects.

Supporting land use change assessment through Ecosystem Services and Wildlife Indexes

Biodiversity and landscape management are recognized as crucial pillars of EU policies and strategies in order to ensure the integration of environmental issues with socio-economic needs at the base of human-made changes, in structural and functional terms. Midterm EU’s Biodiversity Strategy (Feb 2th 2016) highlights the importance of biodiversity protection in Europe, not only in terms of ethical behavior but also due to its intrinsic value of the biodiversity loss, estimated in EUR 50 billion a year. The study is framed into the LIFE/ENV/IT/275 Ecoremed Project, aimed to development of eco-compatible remediation protocols for polluted soils in the area of Litorale Domitio Flegreo – Agro Aversano (declared Regional Interest Priority Site).The paper is aimed at defining potential land use change scenarios, by which positive biodiversity impacts could be provided. It entails 2 steps: definition of three LUC scenarios, through a multi-criteria approach; LUC scenarios assessment, through Ecosystem Services and through wildlife impact assessment. The study works on a physical-mathematical model, by which the multi-criteria evaluation for scenarios construction and the quantitative assessments have been integrated. The procedure allowed to identify the most LUC suitable areas and, then, the potential conflict areas between LUC scenarios and target species presence areas, with the specific identification of wildlife species more impacted, in order to calibrate mitigation interventions and strategies, through specific forms/interventions. Our evidence demonstrates an excellent land response to the LUC-LIFE protocols in terms of Ecosystem Services, while highlights the need to consider more targeted strategies with respect to wildlife impacts.

Integration of stakeholder choices and multi-criteria analysis to support land use planning in semiarid areas

The ecosystem services concept is increasingly considered as a policy tool to achieve the sustainable use of natural resources. However, it is still not sufficiently integrated into land use planning. We assessed five land use types (Tetraclinis articulata woodlands, Pinus halepensis plantations, Shrublands, Cereal-almond crops and Cactus groves) in a semiarid area of northern Morocco using empirical data on 17 ecosystem services whose weights were established by 67 stakeholders. The analysis included MCA and direct ranking of the five land uses. Three groups of stakeholders (scientists and managers, collaborators, and direct users of natural resources) were particularly concerned by water supply, protection against erosion and floods, soil fertility and food provision. Multi-criteria analysis showed that the three groups concurred in that Tetraclinis woodlands, crops and cactus fields were the most suitable land uses for the area, regarding ecosystem service provision. Direct ranking confirmed this tendency but showed some divergence between the three groups, as collaborators and users were more inclined towards crops and cactus. The integration of the ecosystem services concept in land use planning is needed to be more practical and easily perceived as a logical response to environmental exigencies and social aspirations.

Data mining methods applied to map soil units on tropical hillslopes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A soil survey is the main source of soil spatial information and is very useful in supporting land use decisions, especially for agronomic purposes. However, the continuity of soil surveying in Brazil has been compromised due the minimal amount of government investment in the sector. The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of three data mining methods—decision trees (DT), random forest (RF), and artificial neural networks (ANN)—with R software to predict soil map units from the Guapi-Macacu watershed in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Terrain attributes derived from a digital elevation model (DEM), remote sensing data (Landsat 5), and a geology map were used as predictors. Evaluation of the models' performance was based on statistical indices obtained from a confusion matrix by using validation samples. Furthermore, a comparison was performed to analyze the agreement between the maps created from the models and from a conventional soil map (legacy data); sampling locations were not used as input data in the training process. The results indicated better performance from the RF model compared with the DT and ANN models. The accuracy was calculated through validation samples indicating values in the Kappa index corresponding to 0.76 (RF), 0.72 (ANN) and 0.66 (DT). A comparison between the maps obtained from the models and the conventional soil map exhibited better agreement with the RF model (68.7%), followed by the ANN (62.8%), and DT (62.3%) models. The classification accuracy, obtained through comparisons with sampling locations, exhibited correct classification of 57.6% in the RF model, 56.8% in the DT, and 56.1% in the ANN model; the conventional soil map had 69.7% correct classification. In general, most of the confusion between soil map units was observed in Haplic Gleysols, Haplic Acrisols (Clayic) and Fluvisols. In terms of covariates importance, in general, the terrain attributes derived from the DEM had more influence as predictor covariates than the indices obtained from the Landsat data. The application of data mining can improve the methods applied to soil map units, thereby contributing to increasing information related to soil-landscape relationships and enhancing the products of soil surveys.

Correlation or cause? The limitations of population density as an indicator for public transport viability in the context of a rapidly growing developing city

Abstract In response to high urbanization rates in developing countries, many city authorities are embarking upon large scale public transport improvement programmes. Supportive land use environments will be necessary to reduce operating subsidies to within sustainable limits for these developing economies. In past decades, the literature on the relationship between land use and public transport viability has been dominated by city population density, which is posited to have a strong causal link. This has led to the recommendation of minimum density thresholds for viability. However, for some rapidly growing cities in developing countries, public transport systems have not attained sustainable subsidy levels despite city population densities significantly above the purported thresholds. The aim of this paper is to investigate the significance of population density as an indicator of public transport viability in rapidly growing developing city contexts generally, and in South African cities in particular. A public transport corridor operating cost model was developed for this purpose. The cost modelling results suggest that the causal link between city population density and public transport viability is only leveraged through particular land use and density distributions, and that many rapidly growing cities have land use and density distributions that are unsupportive. It is estimated that when densification occurs on the periphery of a low-density city, the resulting changes in public transport trip lengths, departure profile and seat renovation can in fact be detrimental to the overall viability of services. The paper demonstrates that population density distribution, land use mix and corridor length can each have considerably stronger causal links to public transport viability, than city population density in isolation. Integrated land use-transport strategies should therefore give equal attention to these three land use characteristics and city population density.

Modeling of ecosystem services informs spatial planning in lands adjacent to the Sarvelat and Javaherdasht protected area in northern Iran

Dynamic models of ecosystem services supply and scenario analysis of changes in multiple services are being increasingly used to support land use planning and decision making. This approach reduces potential and real conflicts among various stakeholders potentially creating win–win solutions for all. It is particularly applicable in areas where insufficient land for agriculture and settlements is resulting in high rates of conversion of natural forest and grasslands. We quantified and mapped multiple ecosystem services, including habitat provision as a proxy for biodiversity, carbon storage and sequestration, and water balance and supply in the Sarvelat and Javaherdasht region of the globally-significant Hyrcanian (Caspian) forests in northern Iran using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs tool. This region is experiencing a rapidly increasing rate of forest conversion and as a result, the protected area located within the study landscape is threatened by human encroachment. Plausible future landscapes were modeled under three scenarios: (i) business as usual; (ii) protection-based zoning which reflects an expansion of the protected area boundary to prevent land use changes; and (iii) collaborative zoning through redefining the protection boundary simultaneously with an adjustment to meet local stakeholders’ objective of expansion of anthropogenic cover. The results showed that the collaborative zoning scenario would best contribute to effective policy because it presents a more rational spatial configuration of the landscape maintaining the provision of ecosystem services. This scenario may lead to reduced environmental impacts while achieving less conflict between the government and local communities. These results will help to inform and shape natural resource management policies in Iran and is applicable elsewhere in the world.

Construction and evaluation of a Toolbox for the formulation of the Hydrologic component of the Basin Management Plans in Colombia

Abstract. The Colombian Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development issued the Policy for Integrated Water Resources Management in 2010, with the formulation of Basin Management Plans (POMCA) as a key component. The main purpose of these plans is to support land use planning and sustainable management of renewable natural resources. Since the announcement of the policy; however, advances in the formulation of POMCAs have been limited, due to the need of generating knowledge and the necessary information to formulate such plans. To contribute to the generation of such knowledge, we developed HidroCHEP: a Toolbox to support the formulation and hydrologic characterization of Colombian basins. In this paper, we report the design, architecture, implementation and use of the toolbox, to understand the climatic variability of the country and to improve predictions in ungauged basins. The use of the toolbox is illustrated and evaluated through its application in three pilot river basins (Pamplonita, Gualí and Ceibas) each with different level of available hydrologic and climatic data. This paper focuses on the use of the toolbox for the development of one of the products required by the technical guide for the formulation of POMCA, in the Pamplonita river basin. Main advantages and disadvantages of its application are evaluated. It is demonstrated that the toolbox has the potential to support the formulation of POMCAs in the country and to contribute to integrated national water resources management.

Quota Restrictions on Land Use for Decelerating Urban Sprawl of Mega City: A Case Study of Shanghai, China

The mega cities of China are faced with great pressure from conflict between huge land demand for construction use and limited resources. To improve this situation, it is necessary to slow the increasing rate of built-up land and even reduce the existing built-up land by improving land use efficiency. Herein, land use planning with urban sprawl deceleration is proposed. Land quotas are important tools for the control of land use planning in China, but the current quotas are mainly in the form of increment, thus cannot support land use planning with urban sprawl deceleration. To address these issues, we developed a model named “current-plan-requirement response (CPRR)”, to optimize the land quotas. With this model, we investigated the current status of land use, the process of land use planning, and the requirements of land use planning with urban sprawl deceleration in Shanghai. It was found that the current land quotas have provided somewhat inhabited conversion of arable land to built-up land, but scarcely any regulation of land use efficiency or protection of natural environment. Then, the land quotas were optimized and quota management recommendations were made. The optimized land quotas included four aspects of quotas: arable land protection, ecological conservation, scale constraint on built-up land and economical and intensive land use. These new land quotas could be used to guide reduction of built-up land and increase ecological land in China’s mega cities. It might also be beneficial for easing conflict between supply and demand of built-up land, for building an eco-friendly city land-use structure.