Urban-rural Landscape Research Articles

“We are the city lungs”: Payments for ecosystem services in the outskirts of Mexico City

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have emerged as an incentive-based policy instrument to manage and secure the flow of ecosystem services for human wellbeing. PES implementation has been mostly examined in rural areas but very few studies have paid attention to experiences in rural–urban landscapes that provide critical ecosystem services for densely populated areas. Informed by household surveys and focus groups, we analyze the implementation of Mexico's federal program of Payments for Watershed Services (PSAH in Spanish) in two communities located in the rural–urban fringe of Mexico City, paying attention to landowners’ dependence on ecosystem services and both perceived benefits and costs of participating in the PSAH program. We demonstrate that landowners are generally aware of the critical services they provide to the city and beyond but there is a skewed level of knowledge regarding the program objectives and an uneven sharing of its benefits. The latter is influenced by collective organization and environmental history, with higher knowledge and more equitable benefit sharing present in the community with a more long-standing commitment to forest conservation. The PSAH incentive contributes to household income but it is clearly insufficient to motivate strong family and collective action towards halting land-use change beyond the PSAH targeted area. We thus argue that conservation policy in urban–rural fringes needs to be accompanied by effective land-use planning at regional level. This should involve multiple stakeholders and the re-conceptualization of Mexico City surrounding agricultural lands and forests as spaces to be governed for the provision of ecosystem services rather than as areas over which the city can expand.

Assessment Framework and Decision—Support System for Consolidating Urban-Rural Construction Land in Coastal China

Urbanization transforms urban-rural landscape and profoundly affects ecological processes. To maintain a sustainable urbanization, two important issues of land-use need to be quantified: the comprehensive variation of urban-rural construction land and the specific models for consolidating these lands. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework to assess the change of urban-rural construction land and build a decision-support system for consolidating these lands. Four sub-layers were first built in the assessment framework, including the characteristic layer, the coordination layer, the potential layer and the urgency layer. Each layer encompassed specific indices for evaluating the change of urban-rural construction land in different aspects. The entropy method was then applied to the data resources from Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) images, statistical data and overall land-use and land consolidation planning of Nantong city in coastal China to allocate weightings to the indices in each sub-layer. Finally, the decision-support system was built based on the assessment results and the degree of importance for consolidating urban and rural construction land, respectively. The results of our study show an overall investigation and quantitative description of the change of urban-rural construction land and provide an effective framework for land consolidation and land use management.

Bangladesh: Un país de gente que ama la belleza

Presenta una breve descripción de un país atravesado por la modernidad capitalistas. Desde la perspectiva de la Antropología Cultural describe y analiza los cambios ocurridos en el paisaje urbano y rural. Usando la observación y la entrevista nos transmite la palabra y las emociones de los habitantes de Bangladesh.

Landscape Planning and Ecological Networks. Part A. A Rural System in Nuoro, Sardinia

Urban-rural landscape planning research is nowadays focusing on strategies and tools that support practitioners in designing integrated spaces starting from the analysis of local areas, where human and natural pressures interfere. A prominent framework is provided by the ecological networks, whose design regards the combination of a set of green areas or patches (the nodes) interconnected through environmental corridors (the edges). Ecological networks are useful for biodiversity protection and enhancement, as they are able to counteract fragmentation, and to create or strengthen relations and exchanges among otherwise isolated elements. Biodiversity evolution, indeed, depends on the quantity and quality of spatial cohesion of natural areas. In this paper, we aim at designing an ecological network for the periurban area on the town of Nuoro in central Sardinia. The narrative unfolds in two parts. Part A is presented in this paper and includes its methodological premises, i.e. biodiversity conservation and ecological network analysis and design, and the introductory elements of a spatial analysis on a pilot ecological network of one hundred patches. We locate patches by focusing on the ecosystems supported by the target vegetal species holm oak ( Quercus ilex ) and cultivated or wild olive ( Olea europaea var. sativa , O. europaea var. sylverstis ). These are very common plants species in the municipality and some animal species are active as seed dispersal. The reminder, i.e. Part B, of the essay is presented in an homonymous paper that focuses on the illustration of the network analysis conceived as a monitoring system and, in future perspective, as a planning support system.

Waggle Dance Distances as Integrative Indicators of Seasonal Foraging Challenges

Even as demand for their services increases, honey bees (Apis mellifera) and other pollinating insects continue to decline in Europe and North America. Honey bees face many challenges, including an issue generally affecting wildlife: landscape changes have reduced flower-rich areas. One way to help is therefore to supplement with flowers, but when would this be most beneficial? We use the waggle dance, a unique behaviour in which a successful forager communicates to nestmates the location of visited flowers, to make a 2-year survey of food availability. We “eavesdropped” on 5097 dances to track seasonal changes in foraging, as indicated by the distance to which the bees as economic foragers will recruit, over a representative rural-urban landscape. In year 3, we determined nectar sugar concentration. We found that mean foraging distance/area significantly increase from springs (493 m, 0.8 km2) to summers (2156 m, 15.2 km2), even though nectar is not better quality, before decreasing in autumns (1275 m, 5.1 km2). As bees will not forage at long distances unnecessarily, this suggests summer is the most challenging season, with bees utilizing an area 22 and 6 times greater than spring or autumn. Our study demonstrates that dancing bees as indicators can provide information relevant to helping them, and, in particular, can show the months when additional forage would be most valuable.

Urban greenspace composition and landscape context influence natural enemy community composition and function

Conservation research has historically been aimed at preserving high value natural habitats, but urbanization and its associated impacts have prompted broader mandates that include the preservation and promotion of biodiversity in cities. Current efforts within urban landscapes aim to support biodiversity and diverse ecosystem services such as storm water management, sustainable food production, and toxin remediation. Arthropod natural enemies provide biocontrol services important for the ecosystem management of urban greenspaces. Establishing habitat for these and other beneficial arthropods is a growing area of urban conservation. Habitat design, resource inputs, management, and abiotic conditions shape the value of greenspace habitats for arthropods. In general, larger patches with diverse plant communities support a greater abundance and diversity of natural enemies and biocontrol services, yet opposing patterns or no effects have also been documented. The surrounding landscape is likely a contributor to this variation in natural enemy response to patch-scale habitat design and management. Looking across rural–urban landscape gradients, natural enemy communities shift toward dominance by habitat generalists and disturbance tolerant species in urban areas compared to rural or natural communities. These changes have been linked to variation in habitat fragmentation, plant productivity and management intensity. In landscape-scale studies focusing solely within cities, variables such as impervious surface area and greenspace connectivity affect the community assembly of natural enemies within a patch. Given these findings, a greater mechanistic understanding of how both the composition and spatial context of urban greenspaces influence natural enemy biodiversity–biocontrol relationships is needed to advance conservation planning and implementation.

Growing buildings in corn fields: Urban expansion and the persistence of maize in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico

Urban growth continues to rise globally, especially in and around small cities and peri-urban areas of the developing world. In Mexico, a culture of maize production still exists alongside rapid urban and industrial growth, which exemplifies a hybridized urban-rural landscape. This paper discusses a study of household land-use and livelihood strategies in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, west of Mexico City, a traditional maize-growing region that has experienced rapid urban growth. Logistic regression combined with ethnographic data illustrate that maize is being abandoned to some extent as producers age and non-farm income sources surge. At the same time, some maize still persists for tradition and security as non-farm income is often volatile. Our results reflect a persistence of maize in peri-urban areas of central Mexico, which should not be ignored by policy and planning.

Reimagined rural–urban landscapes and Zimbabwean cultural identities in Zimunya's country dawns and city lights

This article seeks to explore the ways in which Zimunya constructs Zimbabwean rural and urban landscapes and cultural identities at a time when the city is making inroads into the rural terrain and the rural hinterland is encroaching into the city. I argue that even though Zimunya seems to blame the white man's culture for ‘contaminating’ the rural landscape and cultural identities and seeks to purify his home space, the tale unfolding in the poetic narratives suggests that his society also changes with time. It might not be possible for his society to behave and relate to each other in accordance with pre-capitalist values as existing social and economic conditions have changed. Contrary to existing formalist criticism of Zimunya's poetry such as those posited by Zhuwarara, R. (1985, Introduction. In M. Zimunya (Ed.), Country dawns and city lights. Harare: Longman) who views the rural African society as both overshadowed and threatened by city life, a place which symbolises a civilisation whose capacity to brutalise seems infinite, I argue that both the rural and urban African people have the capacity to ‘resist’ the metropole culture creating a new identity or a system of relations and representations which is not fixed, but dynamic and continually recomposes and redefines itself.

FUTURES: Multilevel Simulations of Emerging Urban–Rural Landscape Structure Using a Stochastic Patch-Growing Algorithm

We present a multilevel modeling framework for simulating the emergence of landscape spatial structure in urbanizing regions using a combination of field-based and object-based representations of land change. The FUTure Urban-Regional Environment Simulation (FUTURES) produces regional projections of landscape patterns using coupled submodels that integrate nonstationary drivers of land change: per capita demand, site suitability, and the spatial structure of conversion events. Patches of land change events are simulated as discrete spatial objects using a stochastic region-growing algorithm that aggregates cell-level transitions based on empirical estimation of parameters that control the size, shape, and dispersion of patch growth. At each time step, newly constructed patches reciprocally influence further growth, which agglomerates over time to produce patterns of urban form and landscape fragmentation. Multilevel structure in each submodel allows drivers of land change to vary in space (e.g., by jurisdiction), rather than assuming spatial stationarity across a heterogeneous region. We applied FUTURES to simulate land development dynamics in the rapidly expanding metropolitan region of Charlotte, North Carolina, between 1996 and 2030, and evaluated spatial variation in model outcomes along an urban–rural continuum, including assessments of cell- and patch-based correctness and error. Simulation experiments reveal that changes in per capita land consumption and parameters controlling the distribution of development affect the emergent spatial structure of forests and farmlands with unique and sometimes counterintuitive outcomes.

Guild structure in the food web of grassland arthropod communities along an urban—rural landscape gradient

Urbanization is a major cause of ecosystem change, and arthropods are a principal component of grassland ecosystems, which are often found in human-dominated landscapes. Although higher trophic level arthropods have been expected to be the most sensitive to urbanization, researchers are debating whether this is the case. We compared the guild structure of grassland arthropod food webs along an urban—rural gradient in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world. Arthropod communities were sampled, and guild types were classified by body size and food habit. The guild structure of arthropod food webs was compared among various types of grasslands, and the effects on the guild structure of the surrounding landscape and local vegetation were analyzed. The arthropod guild structure varied along the urban—rural gradient. Large carnivores were abundant in semi—natural grassland ecosystems in the traditional rural landscape, which was at one end of the studied urban-rural gradient. In contrast, small carnivores, omnivores, and detritivores were abundant in the artificial grassland ecosystems of the urban landscape at the other end of the gradient. Because very large carnivores are vulnerable to urbanization activities, rural landscapes rich in these species should be conserved.

Mapping impervious surface area in the Brazilian Amazon using Landsat Imagery

Impervious surface area (ISA) is an important parameter related to environmental change and socioeconomic conditions, and has been given increasing attention in the past two decades. However, mapping ISA using remote sensing data is still a challenge due to the variety and complexity of materials comprising ISA and the limitations of remote sensing data spectral and spatial resolution. This paper examines ISA mapping with Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images in urban and urban–rural landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon. A fractional-based method and a per-pixel based method were used to map ISA distribution, and their results were evaluated with QuickBird images based on the 2010 Brazilian census at the sector scale of analysis for examining the mapping performance. This research showed that the fraction-based method improved the ISA estimation, especially in urban–rural frontiers and in a landscape with a small urban extent. Large errors were mainly located at the sites having ISA proportions of 0.2–0.4 in a census sector. Calibration with high spatial resolution data is valuable for improving Landsat-based ISA estimates.

Planning Rural-Urban Landscapes: Railways and Countryside Urbanisation in South-West Flanders, Belgium (1830–1930)

In the international literature on today’s urban condition, Flanders is presented as prime example of urban sprawl, generally described as unplanned incremental development induced by the quantum leap of private car ownership. The research on rural-urban landscapes in south-west Flanders qualifies and substantiates this assertion by analysing pre-war keystone processes of infrastructure planning in relation to land-use patterns and landscape transformations. The research reveals that not only the development of rural-urban landscapes reaches back far beyond the welfare state, fuelled by railways prior to highways, but also shows that the supposedly chaotic hybrid landscape has its roots in drawn-out landscape ideologies inscribed in public works policy. The analysis—which crosses the divides between disciplines (landscape and infrastructure planning), concepts (rural-urban, modern-traditional), and geographical scales (national, regional, local)—reveals consistently planned mechanisms of public works policy and landscape change underlying both the diffuse regional urbanisation patterns and local landscape transformations, which are generally perceived as spontaneous or vernacular developments. Infrastructure planning facilitated a spatial organisation that attributed centrality to the transport network rather than the metropolis, and that conceived a resilient infrastructure framework rather than a stylistic spatial constellation in order to steer and geographically root heterogeneous modernisation processes within the landscape.

경관관련 제도변화에 따른 농촌경관계획의 발전방안 연구

The main contents of revision of the rural landscape planning according to Landscape Law discussed in this study show that the urban landscape and rural landscape have a propulsion system which integrate them into the national landscape and manages through the landscape planning. However, management and conservation reflecting the fundamental difference between urban and rural areas are needed. Planning the landscape by generalizing the size of the population, administrative district, the surface area does not meet the ultimate purpose of the Landscape Law that tries to establish differentiated local landscapes. Therefore, the association of professionals who can support and establish a propulsion system for landscape planning with the consideration of regional characteristics. For the urban landscape, the landscape committee is fulfilling the role, but none is available for the rural areas. This study is mostly based on previous literatures, however, in the future, it is desirable to have selected pilot areas for different landscape types and review problems that may occur during the application and process, in order to establish the landscape guidelines for the rural landscape plan.

Serpentes de uma paisagem urbana-rural nos Andes centrais da Colômbia: composição de espécies, distribuição e história natural

Snakes of an urban-rural landscape in the central Andes of Colombia: species composition, distribution, and natural history. From 2005 to 2011, I studied the composition, distribution and natural history of an Andean urban-rural snake assemblage at the Cordillera Central of Colombia, based on three data sources: (1) examination of specimens in the MHN-UC (Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad de Caldas), (2) incidental encounters by author, and (3) collection of data by other researchers. Additionally, I provide natural history notes for the species involved. A total of 14 species, including two subspecies of snakes, belonging to 12 genera and four families, have been found in the studied area (municipality of Manizales, Caldas). Taking into account this total, 10 had at least one record in the urban area, 13 in the rural area and 14 in forested areas. Only Liophis epinephelus bimaculatus was found exclusively in forest environment. Three species (21.4%) are apparently endemic to the region, six species (42.8%) correspond to a fauna representative of the Tropical-Andean range of South America, four species (28.5%) are distributed from Central America to the tropical Andes, and only one species is widely distributed in the whole continent. The snake assemblage in Manizales is mostly terrestrial, and in general, the species tend to be more active in the rainy periods of the year (mainly from October-December), and most of them may occasionally be found in urban areas, mainly close to areas of vegetation such as crops and pastures.

Unintentional firearm death across the urban-rural landscape in the United States

Unintentional injuries are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Many of these injuries are preventable, and unintentional firearm injuries, in particular, may be responsive to prevention efforts. We investigated the relationship between unintentional firearm death and urbanicity among adults. This study was a retrospective analysis of national death certificate data. Unintentional adult firearm deaths in the United States from 1999 to 2006 were identified using the Multiple Cause of Death Data files from the National Center for Health Statistics. Decedents were assigned to a county of death and classified along an urban-rural continuum defined by population density and proximity to metropolitan areas. Total unintentional firearm death rates by county were analyzed in adjusted analyses using negative binomial regression. A total of 4,595 unintentional firearm injury deaths of adults occurred in the United States during the study period (a mean of 574.4 per year). Adjusted rates of unintentional firearm death showed increases from urban to rural counties. Americans in the most rural counties were significantly more likely to die of unintentional firearm deaths than those in the most urban counties (relative rate, 2.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.44-3.21, p = 0.002). Rates of unintentional firearm death are significantly higher in rural counties than in urban counties. Prevention strategies should be tailored to account for both geographic location and manner of firearm injury. Epidemiologic study, level III.

The 2008 Prevalence of Chiropractic Use in the US Adult Population

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to produce prevalence estimates and identify determinants of variability in chiropractic use in the US adult population. MethodsThe Medical Expenditure Panel Survey was used to estimate prevalence for the adult population and subpopulations according to several sociodemographic, geographic, and health characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to explore the effects of the independent predictors on chiropractic use. ResultsThe 2008 chiropractic prevalence of use was estimated to be 5.2% (95% confidence interval, 4.7-5.6). The adjusted odds of using chiropractic services were approximately 46% less for Asians, 63% less for Hispanics, and 73% less for blacks compared with whites; 21% less for men than women; and 68% higher for those with arthritis compared with those without. Persons from high-income families have greater odds of using chiropractic services compared with those from middle-income (42%) and low-income (67%) families. There was a significant interaction between Census region and urban-rural location. The results showed the prevalence of chiropractic use to be highest in small metro areas in the Midwest (10.5%) and Northeast (10.4%) as well as micropolitan/noncore areas in the West (10.8%) and Midwest (10.1%). ConclusionsThis study validates previous findings showing the prevalence of use is higher for whites, women, and persons with higher family income or reported arthritis. The results of this study also indicate that chiropractic use varies across the urban-rural landscape depending on the region of the country, suggesting that the effect of geographic location may be more complex than previously reported.

Spatial Pattern Analyses of Landscape using Multi-Temporal Data Sources

Abstract Our aim is to use a framework of combined satellite image processing with other cartographic materials for analyzing and modelling the spatial urban and rural pattern correlated to the protected areas located either in their contiguity or separated through a buffer zone with agricultural use. We exemplified the advantages and disadvantages incorporated by historical maps, topographic maps, Landsat images and orthophotoplans that emerged during two researches, one concerning the land use change in Sinaia resort in the Southern Carpathians, the second being a complex urban-rural landscape unit surrounding Babadag lake, in SE Romania. We emphasized the variation in information consistency depending on each case study scale in regard to the Landsat images resolution as compared to orthophotoplans. Also, the considerable amount of computer processing of the remote sensing imagery in regard to positional and spectral distortions requires a revision process which can integrate other maps and ancillary data in order to produce a sound analysis of the spatial pattern. Based on the series of satellite images we modelled the spatial urban pattern and extent of built-up change in recent years with the help of a grid structure and we computed a synthetic indicator for the vegetation study, especially for evaluating human intervention through cultivated fields, farms and deforestation. The rapid development of Sinaia under increased mass-tourism pressure, a situation reflected in the constant fragmentation of surfaces covered with forest in the periurban, requires that urban planning should benefit from the combination of conventional cartographic products and remote sensing imagery, thus encompassing the possible extend upon Bucegi Natural Park, included in Natura 2000 network. Babadag Lake and surrounding areas have multiple protection status, Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, Natural Heritage Sites under UNESCO, and also Natura 2000, requiring a more accurate geographical database that can be used in monitoring the trends in land use change.

Qualitative variation in roadside weed vegetation along an urban–rural road gradient

Information on mechanisms of differentiation or homogenization of urban floras is deficient, despite their importance for urban nature conservation and urban land management. Roads, as a major human promoter of urbanization, can be an initial habitat for plants dispersed by transportations. We assumed that variation in weed vegetation along urban–rural roadside gradients is small, particularly in curbside cracks. We classified vegetation occurring in curbside cracks along the National Route 3 in southern Japan and compared the characteristics of the vegetation types recognized. Species in curbside cracks were recorded on 40 plots. Three vegetation types were classified, in part related to surrounding land-use types. Although the Shannon–Wiener diversity index and the number of native species clearly differed among the vegetation types in the curbside cracks, no significant differences between the three floristic vegetation types were found in the number of non-natives and invasive alien species. This may result from the small specificity and complexity of landscape structures, due to the continuity and connectivity of paved-road networks. Of the 122 species, 44 were non-natives or invasive alien species. The vegetation types generally involved the same plant families, with large numbers of species from the Asteraceae and Poaceae, regardless of vegetation types, but frequency of occurrence of the two families clearly differed between natives and non-natives and invasive alien species. Ephemeral non-natives and invasive alien species, particularly Asteraceae and Poaceae, seem to have advantageous dispersal strategies or low habitat dependency facilitating their occurrence in curbside cracks, regardless of adjacent land uses and the urban–rural landscape gradient. Expansion of these species may cause a homogenization of regional floras along roads.

Investigation of the Climatic and Environmental Context of Hendra Virus Spillover Events 1994–2010

Hendra virus is a recently emerged bat-borne zoonotic agent with high lethality in horses and humans in Australia. This is a rare disease and the determinants of bat to horse transmission, including the factors that bring these hosts together at critical times, are poorly understood. In this cross-disciplinary study climatic and vegetation primary productivity variables are compared for the dispersed and heterogenic 1994–2010 outbreak sites. The significant occurrence of spillover events within the dry season (p = 0.013, 95% CI (0.57–0.98)) suggests seasonal forcing of transmission across species, or seasonal forcing of virus excretion by the reservoir host. We explore the evidence for both. Preliminary investigations of the spatial determinants of Hendra disease locations are also presented. We find that postal areas in the Australian state of Queensland in which pteropid fruit bat (flying fox) roosts occur are approximately forty times more likely (OR = 40.5, (95% CI (5.16, 317.52)) to be the location of Hendra spillover events. This appears to be independent of density of horses at these locations. We consider issues of scale of host resource use, land use change and limitations of existing data that challenge analysis and limit further conclusive outcomes. This investigation of a broad range of potential climatic and environmental influences provides a good base for future investigations. Further understanding of cross-species Hendra virus transmission requires better understanding of flying fox resource use in the urban-rural landscape.

Mapping impervious surfaces with the integrated use of Landsat Thematic Mapper and radar data: A case study in an urban–rural landscape in the Brazilian Amazon

This research explored the integrated use of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and radar (i.e., ALOS PALSAR L-band and RADARSAT-2 C-band) data for mapping impervious surface distribution to examine the roles of radar data with different spatial resolutions and wavelengths. The wavelet-merging technique was used to merge TM and radar data to generate a new dataset. A constrained least-squares solution was used to unmix TM multispectral data and multisensor fusion images to four fraction images (high-albedo, low-albedo, vegetation, and soil). The impervious surface image was then extracted from the high-albedo and low-albedo fraction images. QuickBird imagery was used to develop an impervious surface image for use as reference data to evaluate the results from TM and fusion images. This research indicated that increasing spatial resolution by multisensor fusion improved spatial patterns of impervious surface distribution, but cannot significantly improve the statistical area accuracy. This research also indicated that the fusion image with 10-m spatial resolution was suitable for mapping impervious surface spatial distribution, but TM multispectral image with 30 m was too coarse in a complex urban–rural landscape. On the other hand, this research showed that no significant difference in improving impervious surface mapping performance by using either PALSAR L-band or RADARSAT C-band data with the same spatial resolution when they were used for multi-sensor fusion with the wavelet-based method.