Tracking urban sprawl: Using spatial data to inform farmland preservation policy

The development of state farmland preservation policies has primarily relied upon results of the Census of Agriculture that is updated every 5 years by the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. Questions about the suitability of the Census of Agriculture center on the measures of total farmland and total cropland as reported by agricultural producers. The reliance on these variables fails to distinguish between conversion to developed uses and other fluctuations in the total availability of farmland. This inability to directly measure farmland conversion to developed uses has been shown to influence state level farmland preservation policies. The policies of Illinois and Indiana highlight the disparate approaches, with Illinois pursuing an intensive policy to protect farmland and Indiana choosing to not address farmland preservation at a state level. In order to assess the suitability of the different approaches to farmland preservation policy it is critical to evaluate the Census of Agriculture data used to justify the policies of Illinois and Indiana.     

How do centrality,population growth and urban sprawl impact farmland conversion in Norway?

A strong link has been observed between urbanization processes and conversions of farmland to built-up land. Most previous research has addressed such conversion of farmland in relation to the expansion of larger cities. However, broader analysis of both rural and central areas is needed to increase the empirical basis for these claims. Based on GIS analysis of farmland conversions, this paper aims to expand our understanding of how urban sprawl affects conversion of farmland. We find that most farmland in Norway is converted to built-up areas in relation to existing urban settlement areas. In line with population growth, urban areas in the most central municipalities experience the most significant urban sprawl and loss of farmland. Moreover, the remaining farmland is located in the same areas that already have converted the most. These areas also experience significant pressure for continued land take. Assuming current trends continue, future urban sprawl will pose great challenges for the preservation of farmland in land-use planning. New research and policies are required to handle these challenges more effectively.     

The potential effect of national growth-management policy on urban sprawl and the depletion of open spaces and farmland

The debate over the effectiveness of growth-management policies reinforces the importance of empirical studies in this field, which has become not just relevant but also crucial to many places. Israel, through its spatial national-level planning, experienced especially during the 1990s, presents an empirical example that may be used to address a complementary strategy to the one that is most commonly used, as this paper suggests. This strategy is based on an examination of the future potential impact of growth-management tools proposed by national plans on the depletion of open space and farmland versus the consequences expected from the continuation of current trends. Accordingly an appropriate methodology is introduced for implementing this strategy.     

Containing urban sprawl—Evaluating effectiveness of urban growth boundaries set by the Swiss Land Use Plan

Urban containment strategies are one of the best-known planning instruments for managing urban sprawl. The two main types of such strategies are greenbelts and urban growth boundaries. The boundaries set by the Land Use Plan in Switzerland have been applied since 1970. We evaluate the effect and success of this strategy by analysing expansion of developed land, change in number of buildings, and building density within and outside building zones in four Swiss municipalities 1970–2000. Our results show that the boundary restricted most development to building zones and promoted increased building density. Generally, building density increased in the building zones but decreased outside of building zones. For more efficiency and success, the political institutions should specify explicit goals for development inside and outside of building zones, and develop new instruments for guiding development outside of building zones.     

Rural-urban gradient analysis of ecosystem services supply and demand dynamics

Urban regions are important places of ecosystem service demands and, at the same time, are the primary source of global environmental impacts. Although there is broad agreement on the importance of incorporating the concept of ecosystem services into policy strategies and decision-making, the lack of a standardized approach to quantifying ecosystem services at the landscape scale has hindered progress in this direction. Moreover, tradeoffs between ecosystem services and the supply/demand ratio of ecosystem services in urban landscapes have rarely been investigated. In our paper, we present a method to quantify and map the supply and demand of three essential provisioning services - energy, food, and water - along the rural-urban gradient of the eastern German region Leipzig-Halle. This urban region has experienced significant socio-economic dynamics and land use changes since the German reunification in 1990. The results show that both the demand and the supply of ecosystem services changed considerably during the time span under consideration (1990-2007). We identified an increasing supply/demand ratio of food and water but a decreasing supply/demand ratio of energy. In addition, the pattern of ecosystem demands shows a levelling of rural-urban gradients, reflecting profound modifications of traditional rural-urban relationships. The changes of ecosystem service supply gradients are determined more by land use intensity, such as the intensification of agricultural production, than by land cover changes such as urban sprawl. The comparison of supply/demand ratios and rural-urban patterns of ecosystem services can help decision-makers in landscape management in striving for a sustainable balance between resource supply and demand.     

区域性中心城市蔓延趋势测度与控制策略 ——以山东省临沂市为例

研究目的:提出区域性中心城市蔓延趋势测度方法和蔓延控制策略。研究方法:维度分析法与实证分析法。研究结果:(1)城市蔓延是多维度现象,要综合运用单一维度测度和综合维度测度两种方法,才能全面认识和测度城市的蔓延程度;(2)临沂市城市蔓延特征总体呈现加重趋势,城市去中心度加重,城市的土地利用混合度逐渐降低,城市通达度逐渐增强,城市开敞空间逐渐减少;(3)城市蔓延是多维度共同作用的结果,要根本改变城市蔓延趋势,需要从不同维度进行综合施策。研究结论:在区域性中心城市成为城市建设用地扩展重点调控的大背景下,有效防控城市蔓延,需要科学编制区域性中心城市发展规划,并依据相关指标的测度结果,系统实施相应的城市蔓延控制策略。     

Managing urban growth in a transforming China: Evidence from Beijing

Managing urban growth in the current rapid urbanization process has become a key issue for land use policy in transformation China. This paper maps and assesses the performance of urban containment strategies in China, looking at the case of Beijing over a 19-year period (1990–2009). The analysis shows that to a large extent containment strategies perform well in terms of concentrating urban growth in planned suburban areas and promoting compact development. However, the unexpected growth in the rural–urban fringe and the decreased compactness of the fringes of the mixed urban areas and planned peripheral constellations caused by dispersed and illegal development suggest that the municipal containment strategies are being challenged by local development activities. Most sprawling developments at the local level are favoured by the new trend towards local autonomy and fiscal responsibility in the current transformation process. The results reveal that municipal growth control might not be achieved by all local jurisdictions when local economic motivations are involved. Particularly, urban sprawl has been fuelled by the development of urban real estate which can create significant revenues for local government and private developers. In the interest of future policy development, the management capacity of current containment strategies should be enhanced to mitigate the negative effects of market-led development in the present transformation context.     

The political economy of wine: How terroir and intra-sector dynamics affect land use in Spain

This paper provides a constructive critique of Corrine Cash's paper “Good governance and strong political will: Are they enough for transformation?”, published in volume 58 of Land Use Policy in 2016. By focusing on how intra-sector dynamics influence land use policies in conflicts revolving around urban sprawl, this paper aims to complement and, to some extent, widen the analytic lens deployed by Cash. The examination of the Spanish wine sector and its lack of zoning policies confirms Cash's argument about the need to go beyond discourses of ‘good governance’ and ‘strong political will’ to understand the dynamics underpinning real spatial processes. However, this exploration underscores the need to add layers of complexity to land use analyses, showing the relevance of intra-sector conflict and logics. In complicating any simplistic reduction of urban sprawl conflicts to rural–urban oppositions, the paper ultimately calls for a more dynamic and multiscalar planning theory to address complex governance issues.     

小城镇用地扩张效率案例研究

采取实地调查法,构建小城镇用地扩张效率评价体系,评价小城镇用地扩张效率.研究结果表明:小城镇用地扩张效率普遍不高;不同类型的小城镇,用地扩张效率差别较大;提高小城镇用地扩张效率,必须走区域协调发展的道路.     

Assessing the fragmentation of construction land in urban areas: An index method and case study in Shunde, China

The fragmentation of construction land due to decentralised urban development, disorderly mixed land use, and large-scale transportation infrastructure poses a threat to urban integrity. There is a need to quantify the fragmentation level in a consistent way for inclusion in planning-related decisions. In the context of China's urban sprawl, this study develops a quantitative and intuitive index approach that planners can use to analyse multiple fragmentation features of construction land within urban areas. The approach can be used in planning policy reviews for timely land-use assessment and can be integrated into urban planning processes for developing strategic land-use scenarios. The method was applied in Shunde, a typical urban area in southern China, and construction-land fragmentation and its impacts on environmental quality were analysed. The results show that the entire built-up area in Shunde displays a high level of fragmentation. Patches of industrial and rural residence have been identified specifically higher fragmentation level. The shortage of available construction land makes land consolidation within built-up areas very important in planning Shunde's future development. Moreover, the land shortage requires the progressive reduction of construction land fragmentation. The results of the study also indicate that although land fragmentation has been affected by transportation infrastructure and the existence of rivers and hills in this region, decentralised decisions from hierarchical local governance regimes have greatly exacerbated this situation. Shunde provides examples of typical land-use problems associated with quasi-urbanised regions in China; construction-land fragmentation is a greater determinant for the sustainable development of urban and rural areas than construction-land growth.     

Landscape patterns of development under two alternative scenarios: Implications for conservation

The spatial pattern of urban development has important ecological and conservation implications. Urban sprawl, characterized by scattered and low-density urban development, is commonly criticized for its negative ecological impact. In response, growth management policies have been proposed in order to promote compact development, which is generally considered more favorable from an ecological perspective. Spatial simulations of land cover change are useful for comparing urban development scenarios and their potential effects. One aspect that has not received much attention is how the rate of development may affect differences between compact development and urban sprawl in terms of their potential impact to biodiversity conservation at the landscape scale. Our goal in this study was to compare the spatial pattern and landscape-scale conservation and ecological implications of sprawling development (expected under unregulated development) versus compact development (promoted by growth management policies) at different development rates. We focused on Israel's Mediterranean region—a region characterized by high human population density and heterogeneous land cover. Using a cellular automata model, DINAMICA-EGO, we calibrated and validated an urban development model for the period between 1998 and 2007. Using this period as a reference, we simulated two scenarios 20 years into the future: unregulated (resulting in a more sprawling development pattern) versus regulated development (resulting in a more compact development pattern). For each scenario we analyzed a range of development rates, and compared built-up area patterns, and several landscape-level attributes of natural habitats, conservation priority areas, and protected areas. We found that at development rates comparable to those observed during 1998–2007, there was no major difference between the two scenarios. At higher development rates, some differences between the scenarios emerged: natural core areas were more fragmented and smaller in their extent, and a higher proportion of conservation priority areas were expected to undergo development in the unregulated scenario. Overall, the regulated scenario was more favorable for conservation. Since the regulated and unregulated scenarios exhibited only minor differences in lower development rates, modifications to policy measures included in the regulated scenario should be considered in order improve its effectiveness.     

What is the most suitable methodological approach to demarcate peri-urban areas? A systematic review of the literature

Unexceptionally all metropolitan areas throughout the world are surrounded by peri-urban areas that are neither urban nor rural in the conventional sense. Peri-urban areas are transition spaces, where the changes in different land uses are incessantly occurring. Determining the boundaries of these areas are critical to develop appropriate policies to manage and preserve them. The perpetual transition in peri-urban landscapes makes the boundary demarcation of these areas highly difficult. This paper aims to answer the question of what the most suitable methodological approach to demarcate peri-urban areas is. In order to address this question, the study undertakes a systematic review of the relevant literature. The findings show that a generic method does not exist to demarcate peri-urban areas as characteristics of peri-urban areas are not uniform across the globe. This paper advocates that techniques for peri-urban demarcation should be geographically specific, and in every case the regional and local contexts–e.g., political system, institutional arrangement, societal characteristic, environmental qualities, and economic drivers that underpin the peri-urban development—should be considered. The study provides insights to policymakers in order to determine peri-urban boundaries by tailoring available peri-urban demarcation techniques to their regional and local contexts.