Private Land Use Research Articles

Ecosystem service values provided by National Parks to residential property owners

This paper focuses on the ecosystem service benefits to homeowners from living in close proximity to three National Parks. Knowing these ecosystem service benefits is of policy and management relevance as expansion of existing Parks and protected areas along ecosystem boundaries often requires acquisition of undeveloped private land or other multiple use public lands, something that local officials may oppose. While the effects on house prices from urban parks, and two other types of U.S. Federal lands have been studied, the effect of lands in the U.S. National Park System on house prices had not been studied at the time of this research. To fill this information gap, hedonic price models were estimated to calculate the effect on residential house prices of proximity to three National Parks (NPs). After controlling for other characteristics of the house, neighborhood, and several other types of open space (e.g., National Forests, County Parks), we estimate house sale prices were on average 9.8% higher for houses within 2 km of National Park boundaries. This house price premium represents the value of the ecosystem services received by homeowners from living in close to these NPs. Quantifiable information on local ecosystem service benefits may ameliorate some concerns by local governments about converting private land or other agencies' multiple use lands in order to expand NPs or protected areas to better reflect ecosystem boundaries rather than historical, and often arbitrary boundaries. In addition, quantifiable information on enhancement of property values may broaden stakeholder groups to include the real estate industry. Thus, our results may support agencies in better achieving their objectives of managing NPs as ecological units.

Agroindustrial landscapes and white-lipped peccary habitat use in the Cerrado of Brazil

The conversion of natural areas into agricultural land has increased human-wildlife interactions, often resulting in crop damage. This study focuses on the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), which thrives in landscapes where well-preserved, naturally-vegetated public and private lands are juxtaposed with agricultural fields. We investigated the habitat use and selection of four herds of white-lipped peccaries in a landscape mosaic along the southern border of Emas National Park in the Cerrado biome of Brazil. Our findings reveal that white-lipped peccaries prefer both corn plantations and gallery forests as habitats. Through high-frequency GPS telemetry, we observed a strong tendency to turn when herds were in agricultural areas and gallery forests, indicating feeding behavior. On the other hand, they typically move in straight lines for long distances when traversing bare soil fields and native Cerrado vegetation, suggesting they are merely passing through these habitats. The extensive feeding on corn crops in agricultural fields has resulted in significant financial losses for producers, leading to a conflict between white-lipped peccaries and landowners. Understanding the movement dynamics of the species and their intensive use of both private and public lands can aid in the development of management strategies that minimize or eliminate crop losses while ensuring the survival of this vulnerable species in landscapes comprising agricultural fields and native habitats.

Housing supply in the presence of informality

Informal housing refers to the unauthorized residential use of public or private land. In this paper, we study housing supply in markets where informal housing is common. Using a combination of census and satellite data, we estimate housing supply for more than 90 metropolitan areas in Brazil. We find that widespread informal housing increases the housing supply elasticity, partially offsetting the downward pressure of geographical constraints. Our empirical approach is guided by a monocentric city model that includes informal housing. Our identification strategy relies on the use of two novel instruments, combining demographic data and public land ownership.

A Study on Management Methods for Open Space by Temporary Use of Private Land in Densely Areas

A Study on Management Methods for Open Space by Temporary Use of Private Land in Densely Areas

Private Land, Public Interest: Securing Community Access to Private Lands for Mountain Biking and Amenity Migration in Canada

Abstract In order to support diversified forms of economic and community development, rural communities are increasingly investing in recreational opportunities on neighbouring lands, including agri-tourism and mountain resort development. However, in communities where significant proportions of peripheral land holdings are privately owned, opportunities for recreational land access and development are restricted or threatened. The Village of Cumberland, located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, is home to a premier network of mountain biking trails developed by local users on a mix of both public recreational and privately owned industrial land. Without the existence of a formalized land use agreement between local public, private and not-for-profit land interests, the value of Cumberland’s mountain biking trail network cannot be wholly realized. This case study details the collaborative land use management partnership that has been developed in Cumberland in order to support economic and community development through amenity migration and the promotion of recreational mountain biking. Through sharing the costs and benefits of managing private land use, Cumberland’s multi-sector stakeholders have ensured that their individual strengths are utilized and unique interests are addressed. Information Vancouver Island University World Leisure Centre of Excellence Main image: Burns Lake bike trails By Britcruise - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15729806 © Jeff Wahl and Pete Parker 2015

Criteria for performing a strategic environmental assessment of the measures proposed in the land management documentation

The article emphasizes that according to the provisions of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, the legislation of Ukraine is gradually approaching the law and policy of the EU in the field of environmental protection, since Ukraine has undertaken to implement the provisions of Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 27.06.2001 on environmental impact assessment of individual projects and programs. Attention is drawn to the fact that the definition of criteria for assessing the consequences of the implementation of project solutions of land management documentation for the environment, including the possible negative impact on human health, in the process of strategic environmental assessment should take into account the purpose of land management in terms of land protection, the creation of ecologically sustainable agricultural landscapes, forecasting , planning and organization of the rational use and protection of land at the appropriate levels of land management, development and implementation of a system of land management measures to preserve natural landscapes, restore and increase soil fertility, reclamation of disturbed lands and reclamation of unproductive lands, protection of lands from erosion, flooding, drying, landslides , secondary salinization, acidification, waterlogging, compaction, pollution with industrial waste and chemical substances, etc., conservation of degraded and unproductive lands, prevention of other negative phenomena. The author's version of the criteria for the implementation of the strategic ecological assessment of the measures proposed in the land management schemes and technical and economic justifications for the use and protection of the lands of administrative-territorial units, the territories of territorial communities, as well as comprehensive plans for the spatial development of the territories of territorial communities, general plans of settlements, detailed plans of territories, which are at the same time land management and urban planning documentation. The above criteria take into account the peculiarities of the development of land management documentation, which regulates the use and protection of state, communal and private lands, as well as the survey and exploration of lands.

Dynamics of Land Use Changes on the Livelihood of Local Communities in Baringo County: Effects of Land Use Changes

This paper examined the effects of land use changes on the livelihood of the local communities in Baringo County. Land is a principal factor of production, a source of life and livelihoods. It provides a means of living and a variety of uses such as agricultural, human settlement, environmental conservation, urban and industrial development purposes among others. These uses compete for space in a fixed area, hence the rising land use conflicts and degradation. The situation has threatened lives and livelihoods, making it difficult to plan for the livelihood activities in Baringo County. This is happening against the backdrop of land use policy changes including; the National Land Policy, the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Land Act, 2012, the Land Registration Act, 2012, the Community Land Act, 2016 and the National Land Use Policy that confers sanctity on land use. Using non-experimental survey design, 323 households were randomly sampled from Baringo South, Tiaty, Baringo North and Eldama Ravine Constituencies. Cobb-Douglas production model was used to analyze livelihood assets productivity. The study found out that land use changes decreased livelihood assets productivity at varied level of significance; human by 56.1% at 1%, physical by 53.4% at 10% and financial by 65.6% at 5% level. This decrease is related with the unregistered community land in dry areas (pastoral) largely in Tiaty constituency, where livelihood assets productivity decreased by 282.4% at 5%, and in the marginal areas (agro-pastoral) largely in Baringo South, where livelihood assets productivity decreased by 9% at 1% level of significance. In contrast, land use changes increased livelihood assets productivity in the highlands, particularly, in Eldama Ravine constituency, it increased by 139.3% at 10%, and in Baringo North Constituency, it increased by 5.1% at 1% level of significance. This increase in livelihood assets productivity in the highlands was associated with security of land tenure under registered private land use. The study concluded that unregistered community land is the main cause of unstable and uncertain livelihoods in Baringo County particularly in dry areas. The effects led to severe land use conflicts occasioning deaths, displacement and distorted livelihood perpetuating uncertain conditions for future livelihood development. The government, therefore, need to recognize, protect and register the local communities’ interest on community land. This will guarantee land tenure security, enhance livelihood assets productivity and secure future development for the local communities.

Property Rights and Governance of Land Resources in Pastoral Areas of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia

This article examines customary institutions governing rangeland resources in the Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Using data from different pastoral groups, we employed a case-study approach to explore how property rights are defined and enforced. The study indicates heterogeneity in systems of defining and enforcing rights. Due to the fugitive nature of resource use in pastoral systems, property rights vary seasonally. Though flexibility in the definition of such rights has become central to the survival of pastoral herders, formal administrative boundaries and policies have limited resource access, becoming sources of violent conflict and obstacle to customary systems. Government policies favouring private land use, expansion of large-scale investment on pastoral land, establishment of national parks, and certification of privately used land challenged the smooth functioning of customary land governance. This implies that state intervention should not undermine customary systems but permit them to exercise rangeland governance and ensure pastoral rights to secure livelihoods.

Principles of land distribution (redistribution) in planning the spatial development of territorial communities

In order to harmonize the existing land management documentation and documentation, which is both urban planning and land management, proposed by the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Land Use Planning", the main features of state, communal and private land use were analyzed. , their assignment to one or another category of lands, determination of the purpose and type of use within the functional zoning of the territory when planning spatial development. The basic principles of distribution (redistribution) of lands by types of use are offered taking into account requirements of the complex plan of spatial development of territories of territorial communities and the plan of zoning of the territory (zoning). The main features of these principles are taking into account restrictions on land use within certain functional zones, certain categories of land of the formed land plots, functional purpose of the territory and characteristics of the territory. The relevance of developing a classifier of types of land use, types of functional purpose of territories and the relationship between them, as well as the rules of its application with the definition of land categories and types of land use, which can be established within the relevant functional area.

Principles of land distribution (redistribution) in planning the spatial development of territorial communities

In order to harmonize the existing land management documentation and documentation, which is both urban planning and land management, proposed by the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Land Use Planning", the main features of state, communal and private land use were analyzed. , their assignment to one or another category of lands, determination of the purpose and type of use within the functional zoning of the territory when planning spatial development. The basic principles of distribution (redistribution) of lands by types of use are offered taking into account requirements of the complex plan of spatial development of territories of territorial communities and the plan of zoning of the territory (zoning). The main features of these principles are taking into account restrictions on land use within certain functional zones, certain categories of land of the formed land plots, functional purpose of the territory and characteristics of the territory. The relevance of developing a classifier of types of land use, types of functional purpose of territories and the relationship between them, as well as the rules of its application with the definition of land categories and types of land use, which can be established within the relevant functional area.

The interrelations of land ownership, soil protection and privileges of capital in the aspect of land take

The novelty of this study lies in the analyses of legislation concerning land use policies by examining the specific boundary between land ownership and land take. The basic motive was that the European Commission (EC) withdrew the Soil Framework Directive (SFD) in 2014 following the objections of certain Member States (MS) who countered that as most lands are privately owned, they should not fall under the remit of public governance. Since the withdrawal of the SFD land take is an issue receiving more attention. The legal content of ownership rights has been subjected to constant debate in the context of land-use policies and planning practices, which raises the questions of who decides how the land can be used and whether administrative authorities give priority to non-agricultural uses. Our study seeks to explore these issues through the lens of property law by comparing different legislations on access to land on three levels of policy implementation: the EU, the national, and the local levels. MS legislations are highlighted through the example of Hungary in two aspects: (1) regulation regarding Access to Land and Land Ownership Rights (ALOR), and (2) legislation and results of the LANDSUPPORT decision support system concerning Land Take Changes (LTC). We designed figures to demonstrate how policymakers can use the new LANDSUPPORT platform to show the gaps and inconsistencies among the above aspects. We found that the legislative regulations concerning private land use to achieve soil protection objectives remain the weakest link in the environmental protection legislation of the EU. Anxieties concerning built-in legal guarantees on each of the studied levels actualise our research. Currently, global land management is not on the political table although common European legislation might be able to preserve land for agricultural use.

Ecosystem services and legal protection of private property. Problem or solution?

Ecosystem services (ES) delivery in quantity and quality are essential to improve human wellbeing. Nevertheless, often a considerable part of ES provisioning depends on the use of private land (e.g., flood retention, carbon sequestration, water purification). In this context, the operationalization and implementation of ES concept may collide with legal property rights. Therefore, it is essential to find constructive mechanisms to engage and encourage private owners to implement sustainable land uses to reduce the onsite and offsite impacts of their activities. This paper aims to identify if ES delivery can be constrained by legal private land and how it can be tackled. It is undeniable that land-use changes (e.g., urbanization, agriculture intensification, and land abandonment) affect the territory's capacity to deliver ES in quality and quantity. These changes, especially land abandonment, are increasing the tradeoffs among ES (e.g., between carbon sequestration and water yield). Land-use planning should consider these aspects. Therefore, incorporating ES into spatial plans is crucial for stakeholders to understand the impacts of land-use change in the loss of ES value. This information can be transmitted through maps that communicate the message in a simplified way. Private owners can easily perceive the ES relevance that their land can provide if an understandable message is delivered. Although this can be a good solution, conflicts can appear even with the implementation of schemes such as Payment for ES (PES). PES is not always effective and can impose losses to farmers, disregard their cultural traditions, or not prevent poverty alleviation. In this context, it is crucial to consider local specificities to safeguard PES's success, create a “win-win” and transform a problem into a solution. Private owners' active participation in implementing sustainable practices or a determined land-use in their properties is vital to achieving global targets such as sustainable development goals.

Landslides in the Andes: Forests can provide cost-effective landslide regulation services

Landslides cause billions of dollars (USD) in damage and hundreds of life losses every year in mountainous areas globally, and these effects are exacerbated by climate change and increased human occupation of vulnerable areas. In many mountainous regions forests deliver slope stability, helping to prevent landslides. However, forests are progressively converted into other land uses in many mountainous regions. In this study, we focus on the Colombian Andes, the most populated and deadly landslide-prone part of Colombia. We aim to determine the difference in frequency of landslides from forested and non-forested areas, and subsequently, quantify the potential costs and benefits of protecting forest and of restoring forest from agricultural lands. To that end, we combine economic data with geographical information related to public and private infrastructure, land use, and landslide susceptibility. Analyzing the national landslide database of Colombia, we established that landslides are almost six times (581%) more likely to occur on non-forested lands than on forested lands. From an economic perspective, by preventing landslides, forests provide a net benefit through the provision of slope stability services. Our most conservative estimates indicate it is 16 times more cost-effective to promote forest corridors, via conservation or reforestation along roads by paying farmers and cattle herders their opportunity costs, than for the public to pay the expected value of landslide damage. Our analysis provides strong evidence that vegetated hillsides can provide a cost-effective ecosystem service approach to mitigate economic losses due to landslides in one of the world's most landslide prone areas.

Urban agriculture could provide 15% of food supply to Sydney, Australia, under expanded land use scenarios

Urban agriculture (UA) can be highly productive in terms of yield per unit area, however productivity is limited by available land and high input requirements. We determined how much of the food supply of Sydney, Australia, could be produced through UA by synthesising yield data from 13 UA gardens with information on labour and key material inputs and using spatial analyses to assess available land area. We modelled three scenarios with varying proportions of available land used for food production; 25 %, 50 % or 75 % of domestic yard space along with street verges and unused land (e.g. vacant lots). Around 15 % of Sydney’s total food supply, or its entire vegetable supply, could be produced through UA under the low range scenario, increasing to 34 % under the highest land use scenario. Under the low range scenario, all necessary irrigation water and organic soil amendments could be obtained from local waste streams, though these sources were insufficient to meet the needs of higher range scenarios. Available labour was a limiting factor in all scenarios, with the entire population being insufficient to meet labour needs required to maintain food production under efficiency and labour investment regimes typical of amateur urban gardeners. Establishing a professionalised UA workforce with greater labour efficiency would be required for managing the available land, however this scenario would likely require changes in public attitudes towards use of private land. These social issues, rather than physical limitations, may be the biggest factors preventing cities like Sydney from obtaining a non-trivial proportion of their food supply from UA.

Assessments on the impact of high-resolution-sensor pixel sizes for common agricultural policy and smart farming services in European regions

High-resolution (5–50 m) remote sensing satellite sensors provide a reliable, free and open data infrastructure for public and private agriculture and land use services. The further market penetration of these services critically depends on the fraction of agricultural fields and area that the services can cover. EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and smart farming services require a minimum of spectrally pure measurements per agricultural field. The impact of pixel size on the coverage of agriculture is studied in this paper considering present free and open optical sensors (Sentinel-2 and LANDSAT). It further studies the implications of the selection of spatial resolution of planned extensions of these sensors, i.e. the next generation of Sentinel-2, as well as Copernicus’s hyperspectral CHIME and thermal LSTM future candidate missions.The paper analyzes the 2018 vector boundaries and crop types of 3.6 million agricultural fields in the German States of Bavaria and Lower Saxony and the Netherlands. The fields were rasterized using Sentinel-2 flight geometry and a pixel spacing of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 m. The study specifically considered: (1) fields with no pure pixel inside where no CAP services can be provided and (2) fields with less than 50 pure pixels inside, which is estimated to be the critical number for site-specific smart farming. The percentage of agricultural fields and agricultural area was determined for the main crop types. It shows, that with 10 m pixel spacing 2–4% and 20 m pixel spacing 12–22% of the agricultural fields in the study area do not contain a single pure spectral sample (Sentinel-2 case). This fraction decreases to 1–3% at 5 m spacing and increases to 25–40% for 30 m (LANDSAT and CHIME) and 50–70% for 50 m (LSTM) spacing. The percentage of fields with less than 50 pure pixels is 20–50% at 10 m and 70–85% at 20 m spacing (Sentinel-2). This fraction decreases to 5–12% for 5 m spacing and reaches the level of 92–97% for 30 m (LANDSAT) and 99% for 50 m spacing (LSTM). Our analysis shows, that with a pixel spacing of 5 m the Sentinel-2-based site-specific smart farming services could increase their potential customer base from ~50% to ~90% of the agricultural fields and could potentially cover 99% of the regions’ agricultural area. A 20 m pixel spacing would increase the agriculture area from 23% to 56% in the Central and Western European study regions on which the Copernicus hyperspectral candidate mission CHIME is capable to measure pure and full spectra for highly advanced future site-specific management services. LSTM would also profit from a spatial resolution of 30 m, which would raise coverage of the agricultural area in Central Europe with pure thermal measurements from 3% at 50 m to 23% at 30 m.

Private government, property rights and uncertain neighbourhood externalities: Evidence from gated communities

Economists traditionally view public and private land use regulation as alternatives to each other. An alternative view argues that public and private regulation are not equally suited to accomplish the same outcomes. In particular, government regulation is easily changed while private regulation is not, making the latter better suited to control future externality risk. One implication of the alternative view is that more risk-averse households are drawn to gated neighbourhoods while their less risk-averse counterparts are not. This paper exploits exogenous differences in neighbourhood amenity uncertainty created by public school attendance zone changes to test this prediction of the alternative view. The results show that greater exogenous amenity uncertainty yields stronger house price capitalisation in gated subdivisions than in open neighbourhoods, a pattern consistent with the risk-aversion sorting hypothesis. The results are robust and are consistent with the key implication of the alternative view of private regulation.

Legislating for sustainability: a framework for managing statutory rights, obligations and restrictions affecting private land

The ad hoc growth of administrative controls on land use has produced an information management problem. Land registries face growing demands to record on the Torrens register particulars of rights, obligations and restrictions created under public law statutes, in order to reduce information costs, promote compliance and inform planning. As sustainable management of land and natural resources will require more legislative regulation, this paper proposes a framework of principles for the more coherent and consistent management of public law controls on private land use.

The use of Private and Public Land for the Development of Heat Networks

District heating is a form of decentralized energy that has the potential to play a key role in stabilizing climate change. To dispense this decentralized energy from the heat source to the end-users, a heat network is needed. To realize (the potential of) these networks, there are a wide variety of issues to consider and barriers to overcome. Law plays an important role in framing understandings of both heat networks and the legal design with regard to these networks. The article focuses on the legal challenge of land use to develop heat networks. Since developers do not have property rights on all the plots of land they want to use to realize their hear project, they need to secure appropriate land rights in order to locate their network in third party land. These land rights can be included in various legal instruments. It needs to be precisely determined what kind of rights one can obtain and which of those rights would be the most suitable for a particular district heating project. The findings of the analysis indicate that a “one size fits all”-model is not the most appropriate policy to address issues on the complex and evolving crossroads of energy law, property law and contract law. A customized legal design is necessary to synchronize the interests of all stakeholders involved.

What can volunteered geographic information tell us about the different ways mountain bikers, runners and walkers use urban reserves?

Urban nature reserves are increasingly popular for recreational activities but who uses them, for what activities, and when and where do visitors go? Volunteered geographic information has only recently started to be used by managers to examine patterns of trail use in reserves. As yet, little is known about the benefits and limitations of this type of data. Therefore, we compared how mountain bikers, runners and walkers use popular reserves (Daisy Hill Conservation Park, Venman Bushland National Park and Bayview Conservation Area) close to Brisbane, Australia, based on extracted route data from the fitness tracking application MapMyFitness. Routes for all three activity types were displayed and analysed using ArcGIS. Mountain biking was more popular (49% of the 948 routes), than walking (27%) or running (24%) across the three reserves. Route data was effective at predicting the relative popularity of specific trails with significant linear regressions when compared with fixed-point trail counts (R2 = 0.681). Bikers went further, used a greater range of trail combinations and used more reserves per trip than the other two activities. Weekends were popular for all three activities, but more so for biking (57%), than walking (44%), or running (43%). The results highlight how volunteered geographic information complements other trail data allowing urban planners and managers to better assess visitor movements in reserves. A number of specific management challenges were identified, such as bikers using more areas within and across the reserves, and in some cases, the use of private land and unauthorised access points.

Changing Agro-Pastoral Livelihoods under Collective and Private Land Use in Xinjiang, China

After the founding of P. R. China, land use in rural China was organized under two successive paradigms: state-directed collectivization from 1958–1984 (the Collective Era), and privatization after 1984 (the Household Land Contract Period, HLCP). Taking Nileke County of Xinjiang as a case study, this research analyzed the livelihood changes of agro-pastoralists over the two periods using quantitative household livelihood assets—financial, physical, natural, human, and social capital—as indicators. Using annual series data of the five livelihood capitals, a comprehensive livelihood assets index (CLAI) was calculated by two-stage factor analysis. Higher CLAI scores meant better living and reduced poverty for agro-pastoralists. Quantitative results were validated and detailed with semi-structured household interviews. The results showed that CLAI slightly increased during the HLCP in comparison to the Collective Era, mainly due to increases in financial and physical capital. In contrast, natural and social capital showed downward trends, indicating that alleviation of poverty came at the cost of natural resources and social justice. Natural capital was the main contributor to agro-pastoralist livelihoods during the Collective Era, but diminished and was replaced by financial capital during the HLCP. Based on the findings, we put forward policy suggestions to improve community land management and sustainable livelihoods as part of future poverty alleviation efforts.