Local ecological knowledge reveals effects of policy-driven land use and cover change on beekeepers in Costa Rica

Land use and cover (LUC) change is a major driver of ecosystem service loss worldwide. In response, policymakers have designed conservation strategies that incentivize the establishment and maintenance of LUC types associated with higher ecosystem service provision. Many of these policies also aim to promote social and economic goals such as reducing poverty. Attempts to measure the impact of policy-driven LUC change on stakeholders typically focus only on economic outcomes for landowning participants or aggregate the socio-economic outcomes of diverse groups. In this study, we applied local ecological knowledge (LEK) held by beekeepers in Costa Rica to understand the impact of policy-driven LUC change on this specific group of often non-landowning stakeholders. Beekeeping is a globally important rural livelihood and provides pollination services to crops and wild plants. We synthesized beekeeper LEK using a mixed-methods approach including apiary mapping exercises (n = 215 apiaries), questionnaires (n = 50 participants), and follow-up interviews (n = 21 participants). Our study revealed that some policy-driven LUC changes have limited beekeepers’ access to preferred land uses, such as secondary and mature forests with native trees. Participants reported concern for their livelihoods due to policy-driven spatial and temporal change of floral resources via the establishment of tree plantations, changes in pasture management, and laws that prohibit beekeeping in national parks and reserves. Our study provides evidence of unintended outcomes from land use policies, including Payment for Ecosystem Services, with disproportionate negative impacts on non-landowning residents who depend on natural resources in the landscape for their livelihoods. Our study illustrates potential inequality rising from current incentive mechanisms associated with Payments for Ecosystem Services and other conservation policies and calls for policymakers to consider LUC change impacts on non-landowning stakeholders.     

Assessing spatial dynamics of urban growth using an integrated land use model. Application in Santiago Metropolitan Area, 2010–2045

Scenario analysis of urban dynamics from spatial land use models can support urban, planning and policy. An integrated modeling approach, linking assessment of urban spatial dynamics, was applied to the Santiago Metropolitan Area (SMA). The integrated land use change model combines, a logistic regression model, Markov chain, and cellular automata. This model was calibrated with data, from 1975 to 2010, and was used to make predictions for the years 2030 and 2045, using two datasets of, urban and non-urban explanatory variables. Urban change estimates showed the highest fit during the, model calibration phase. The true-positive proportion and standard Kappa value (κ) were of 99% and, 0.87 respectively when validating against an urban cover reference map from 2010. Urban growth was, equal to +27,000 ha (72%) for the period 1975–2010, and the city of Santiago is projected to, reach approximately 93,000 ha by 2045 (+43% from 2010). In the SMA the most important, urban growth pattern is peri-urban development, referring to widespread boundaries and higher, fragmentation in peripheral municipalities. Predictions for 2030 estimate that ∼15% of the projected, urban expansion will occur outside the boundary set by the current Regulatory Plan proposal. These, results demonstrate the capacity of the integrated model to establish comparisons with urban plans, and its utility to explain both the amount and constraints of urban growth. The integrated approach of, urban dynamic assessment using land use modeling is useful for spatiotemporal representation of, distinct urban development forms.     

Agricultural land use change in Karamoja Region,Uganda

We examine dramatic cropland expansion in Karamoja, Uganda by investigating the links between biophysical and political historical events leading to the current state of agricultural land use. Our objective was to quantify agricultural expansion, uncover the dominant drivers leading to the current state of agricultural land use and its impacts on livelihoods. Region wide analysis of remotely sensed data, land use policy and history as well as farmer interviews were undertaken. We posit that government programs instituting sedentary agriculture are the most significant drivers of cropland expansion in Karamoja. We show a 299% increase in cropland area between 2000 and 2011 with most expansion occurring in Moroto District (from 706 ha to 23,328 ha). We found no evidence of an increase in overall crop production or food security and food aid continues to be essential due to recurrent crop failures. Due to lack of resources for inputs (e.g., seeds and labor) cultivated fields remain very small in size and over 55% of once cultivated land is left fallow. Our findings bring into question whether continued promotion of rain-fed agriculture in Karamoja serves the best interests of the people. Current cropland expansion is directly competing and compromising pasture areas critical for livestock-based livelihoods. Without strong agricultural extension programs and major investments in climate-smart options, cropland expansion will continue to have a net negative impact, especially in the context of current climate projections which indicate a future decrease in rainfall, increase in temperature and an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme events.     

Planning for peri urbanism: Navigating the complex terrain of transport services

Transport studies give an indication that peri-urban communities in developing countries, particularly Africa, are faced with poor urban transport services. While this notion is established, there remains a limited understanding of how residents in peri-urban communities cope with such a transport challenge. In view of this gap, this study explores the strategies employed to circumvent the challenges of poor transport services in peri-urban communities of Ghana. The study findings show that due to transport-related challenges such as poor roads in peri-urban communities, drivers from the city do not want to operate between the peri-urban areas and the city center. Rather, drivers convey residents of peri-urban communities only to the edges of peri-urban areas – a point they consider immotorable – making it difficult for them to connect to their homes. As a stop in the gap, there is an emergence of taxi stations at the edges of the peri-urban communities to connect commuters to their homes. Unfortunately, this emerging solution is characterised by safety issues as vehicles used are rickety and poorly maintained. These findings offer two major contributions to urban planning studies: First, it is the foremost research to provide understandings of an indigenous solution to lack of transport services in peri-urban communities. Secondly, it is an important research demonstrating the contributions of taxi drivers to the growth of peri-urban areas.     

A probabilistic approach for the socioeconomic assessment of urban river rehabilitation projects

Urban river rehabilitation aims to enhance the ecological status of urban watercourses and promote measures for the local population to increase their well-being by making a direct or indirect use of the services these ecosystems may provide. The social and economic feasibility is evaluated by contrasting the resources used in the rehabilitation process with the benefits derived from it through the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). By means of a case study, this work not only introduces the most innovative CBA approaches in environmental projects, but also implements probabilistic simulation methods in order to increase the robustness of the assessment indicators.The case study encompasses two projects, whose global costs total €46 M in 50 years, for the environmental rehabilitation of the stretch of the River Segura that flows through the city of Murcia. The benefits have been obtained by a contingent valuation exercise: €3.3 M/year (€0.6 M/year of use benefits, and €2.7 M/year of non-use benefits). Three different CBA approaches (economic, extended and dual) are applied to contrast these costs and benefits, conducting the analyses of uncertainty and sensitivity of the benefit items through a Monte Carlo simulation. The results highlight the importance of environmental benefits for this kind of projects to be socioeconomically feasible thanks to the profitability indicators they provide.     

An interval fuzzy chance-constrained programming model for sustainable urban land-use planning and land use policy analysis

In this study, an interval fuzzy chance-constrained land-use allocation (IFCC-LUA) model is developed for sustainable urban land-use planning management and land use policy analysis under uncertainty. This method is based on an integration of interval parameter programming (IPP), fuzzy flexible linear programming (FFLP) and chance-constrained programming (CCP) techniques. Complexities in land-use planning management system can be systematically reflected, thus applicability of the modeling process can be highly enhanced. The developed method is applied to planning land-use allocation practice in Nanjing city, China. The objective of the IFCC-LUA is maximizing net benefit from LUA system and the main constraints include investment constraints, land suitability constraints, water/power consumption constraints and wastewater/solid waste capacity constraints. Modeling results indicate that desired system benefit will be between [1.34, 1.74] × 10¹² yuan under the minimum violating probabilities; the optimized areas of commercial land, industrial land, agricultural land, transportation land, residential land, water land, green land, landfill land and unused land will be [290, 393] hm², [176, 238] hm², [3245, 4390] hm², [126, 170] hm², [49, 66] hm², [1241, 1679] hm², [102, 138] hm², [7, 10] hm² and [178, 241] hm². They can be used for generating decision alternatives and thus help decision makers identify desired land use policies under various system-reliability constraints of economic development requirement and environmental capacity of pollutant. Tradeoffs between system benefits and constraint violation risks can also be tackled.     

四川省片口自然保护区野生药用植物资源现状

在传统野外调查方法的基础上，对四川省片口自然保护区内的野生药用植物资源的资料进行了详尽的统计分析、归纳分类，基本掌握了该区野生药用植物资源的现状：有野生药用植物567种，隶属于121科317属；提出了开发利用对策。     

Reterritorialization practices and strategies of campesinos in the urban frontier of Bogotá, Colombia

Much of the research on urbanization has focused on how rural populations move to cities for work opportunities. This paper takes a different perspective on the relations between rural populations and urbanization. The livelihoods of rural dwellers on the outskirts of the city of Bogotá in Colombia are increasingly affected by the expansion of urban activities and infrastructure. Therefore, urbanization takes place in the areas of residence of the rural populations; these people do not migrate to the city but, rather, the city migrates to them. Consequently, rural ways of life face growing competition from the production of commodities and services on the urban-rural fringe, including quarrying and landfills serving the needs of industries and urban populations. We explore how rural populations and their livelihoods have transformed as a response to these urban dynamics and the expansion of the city. We focus on the strategies that the rural populations employ to deal with the physical and socio-ecological impacts of this change. The defense of peri-urban livelihoods through these strategies is simultaneously social and spatial and has been partially successful. However, increasing social and environmental inequality, including worsening access to land, water and vital ecological functions, tends to lead to a general reduction in the quality of life in the urban frontier.     

Assessing urban growth and rural land use transformations in a cross-border situation in Northern Namibia and Southern Angola

The Okavango catchment is a hot spot of accelerating land use change. In particular, climate predictions, demographic developments and a growing utilization of ecosystem services and functions are expected to increase pressure on resources and land. Land use conflicts, the sustenance of precarious livelihoods, deforestation of woodland savannahs, upstream–downstream water issues and human–wildlife conflicts are among the processes that are characteristic of policy and management challenges in the region. In the Eastern and Western Kavango regions of Namibia and the Cuando-Cubango province of Angola, a unique cross-border situation exists that allows assessing how the combination of local traditions, regional land management and national policies determines spatial patterns of land use and land cover transformation processes.To map major land use types and change processes we used a set of multi-temporal Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ data sets, support vector machine (SVM) classification and iterative spectral mixture analysis (ISMA) on images covering the period from 1990 to 2010. Integrating satellite imagery with literature reviews, interviews, census and household survey data, we assessed the contrasting development of resource utilization on both sides of the Okavango River. We investigated if and how policies and regulations at different levels drive land use decisions, and how these decisions manifest spatially.We found a strong and interconnected urban growth on both sides of the river. The area around Rundu has constantly been evolving to become Namibia's second largest city, also functioning as a hub of development and transborder commerce with opposing Calai. This trend was found to affect adjacent settlement areas and cause widespread conversion of woodland savannahs to agricultural land or their utilization for timber extraction. The conversion of woodland savannah to arable land was by far the dominant land use change process on both sides of the river, with a total conversion area of 460 km² (Namibia) and 293 km² (Angola) observed during the observation period. Strong spatial change gradients occurred in relation to determining factors, such as accessibility, proximity to water, urban centres, etc., while relations to settlements where less obvious. Assessing results by country illustrated the difference in land use intensity and resource consumption between Angola and Namibia, which relate directly to historical developments, with a long period of stability in Namibia standing opposed to the recent and ongoing recovery from civil war in Angola. These are added to by statutory and traditional policy frameworks, the national endowment with natural capital (e.g. oil, uranium, diamonds, zinc) and the integration into global markets, which strongly affects national economies of both countries at large.Underlying land use decisions were found to be largely driven by individualized perspectives on growth ideologies, consumerism and wealth-aspirations connected to globalization processes. However, at present the result of these perspectives is still mainly a small-structured conversion to rainfed agriculture as a component of subsistence strategies of local livelihoods, and thus stands opposed to other regions of the world, where change processes are much more driven by large companies or follow national regulations and result in more intensive uses.     

Methodology to calculate the carbon footprint of household land use in the urban planning stage

The growing concerns of climate change require implementing measures to quantify, to monitor and to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nonetheless, most of the measures available are not easy to define or execute because they rely on current emissions and have a corrective character. To address this issue, a methodology to characterize GHG emissions that allows implementing preventive measures is proposed in this paper. The methodology is related to household urban planning procedures and considers urban infrastructures to characterize GHG emissions and to execute preventive measures based on sustainability design criteria. The methodology has been tested by applying it to a set of medium-sized municipalities with average GHG emissions from 6,822.32 kgCO_2eq/year to 5,913.79 kgCO_2eq/year for every residential unit. The results indicate that the greatest pollutant source is transport, especially in the issuance of street network design, followed by gas and electricity consumption. The average undevelopable land area required for the complete GHG emissions capture amounts to 3.42 m² of undevelopable land for every m² of urbanizable land and 9.02 m² of undevelopable land for every m² of built land.     

Livestock development planning in Uganda: Identification of areas of opportunity and challenge

Livestock are an important element of the livelihoods of many Ugandan households, and considerable efforts at economic development by the government of Uganda have focused on the livestock sector. However, these development efforts have suffered due to a lack of detailed data on the distribution of livestock in Uganda to guide the targeting of such programs. In this paper, we use data from the 2008 National Livestock Census to develop a better understanding of where in Uganda there might be potential for significant investment to intensify the production of livestock and, conversely, where there are important challenges that need to be addressed, such as conflicts between human populations and livestock. This analysis is done by developing a quantitative model to predict mean livestock stocking rates at sub-county level (n = 929) that uses population density, agroecological factors, and market access as explanatory variables. A mapping of model residuals approach is then used to identify areas in Uganda that are relatively understocked and those that are potentially overstocked. This information is used to suggest approaches to livestock development in both types of areas.     

Valuing the benefits of an urban park project: A contingent valuation study in Thessaloniki,Greece

This paper aims to estimate the non-market benefits derived from the potential development of a new urban park in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece). The city of Thessaloniki has up to now a very low rate of proportional green space per capita. On this context a large metropolitan park was announced, as part of a large-scale redevelopment project, but the final decision has not been made yet. In order to help policy makers to their final decision, an ex-ante valuation of the potential benefits of the park is carried out in this study. A contingent valuation survey was designed and implemented aiming to estimate the willingness to pay of local residents for the provision of this park, as well as to determine the spatial scale at which these values are assessed. The main finding of this study is that people living within 20 min from the reference site are willing to contribute a significant amount of money to support this project. Another interesting outcome is that the willingness to pay for this project was not considerably modified during a period of economic recession (2010–2013), which is mainly due to the growing public awareness of the importance of green spaces, as well as of the benefits of the planned park.     

Incoherence of urban planning policy in Bucharest: Its potential for land use conflict

Bucharest is a city in transition from its communist past to a market economy, but poor urban planning in is impacting adversely on contested spaces. Lack of effective and strictly enforced regulation and public sector indecision, mixed with problems inherited from the Ceausescu regime, generate many examples of poor urban planning and management. One such example concerns the uncertain future of Văcăreşti “Lake”, our in-depth case study, which is an encapsulated 184 ha wetland whose management has been particularly poor. Employing a mixed methodology of mapping the evolution of the area in question and conducting interviews with surrounding residents and experts in the urban planning or public administration, we demonstrate how lack of an effective planning system and appropriate policies serves to exacerbate conflict between interested parties. Initially there was a conflict between former land owners and authorities, after which developers, surrounding populations, urban planners and ecologists were added. Worse still, the juridical owners of the site are unresolved! Many government agencies and the Bucharest municipality have also compounded the problem by failing to take a lead in future planning and conflict resolution by adopting a passive management approach, which is a recipe for inaction in a poorly regulated land market. Thus, incoherent land use policy has greatly amplified individual and professional conflict both at the local level and city-wide.     

Population-dynamics focussed rapid rural mapping and characterisation of the peri-urban interface of Kampala, Uganda

In developing countries, cities are rapidly expanding and urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) has an important role in feeding these growing urban populations; however such agriculture also carries public health risks such as zoonotic disease transmission. It is important to assess the role of UPA in food security and public health risks to make evidence-based decisions on policies. Describing and mapping the peri-urban interface (PUI) are the essential first steps for such an assessment. Kampala, the capital city of Uganda is a rapidly expanding city where the PUI has not previously been mapped or properly described. In this paper we provide a spatial representation of the entire PUI of Kampala economic zone and determine the socio-economic factors related with peri-urbanicity using a population-dynamics focussed rapid rural mapping. This fills a technical gap of rapid rural mapping and offers a simple and rapid methodology for describing the PUI which can be applied in any city in developing countries for wide range of studies.     

河南省野生植物资源及其开发利用与保护研究

河南省有丰富的野生植物资源,有维管植物181科,966属,3158种。按经济用途可分为15类,其中用材植物474种,野生水果144种,绿化、观赏植物534种,淀粉植物140种,油料植物291种,纤维植物271种,药用植物1172种,牧草及饲料246种,芳香油植物143种,鞣质植物259种,树脂及橡胶植物29种,蜜源植物171种,野菜植物150种,有毒植物80种;提出了对野生植物资源进行开发利用和保护的措施。     

Values and attitudes of the urban public towards peri-urban agricultural land

Peri-urban agricultural landscapes around the world are undergoing rapid transformation due to urban expansion. While some landscape values are being protected by current land-use planning frameworks, we know little about the broader values and attitudes of the urban public shaping this transformation. The structure of the values assigned to peri-urban agricultural landscapes by residents of Melbourne, Australia was explored and related to stated landscape preferences and people's underlying values. Exploratory factor analysis was used to categorise assigned values in multifunctional, food and native biota groups, and stated preferences for photographs into four landscape categories: intensive landscapes, extensive landscapes, high tree cover and plantations. The structure of underlying personal values closely resembled other studies of environmental value orientations. Multiple regression analysis revealed that preferences for all landscape categories were predicted strongly by multifunctional assigned values. Significant relationships were also evident between all assigned value groups and the biospheric underlying value orientation. Attitudes towards residential development approaches were also related significantly to assigned but not underlying values. Assigned values appear therefore to mediate between underlying values and attitudes towards peri-urban landscapes. This research demonstrates that peri-urban agricultural landscapes are perceived as multifunctional systems by the urban public and are valued for a range of functions not typically included in land use policies. This study also suggests that in the context of rapid land use change, a variety of landscape types should be retained on the urban fringe for their benefit to the urban public, and synergies promoted between landscape functions.     

Peri-urban agriculture in Jabodetabek Metropolitan Area and its relationship with the urban socioeconomic system

Peri-urban agriculture (PUA) has been proposed as an important urban element to deal with the challenges of increasing poverty, food insecurity, and environmental degradation as particularly found in rapidly expanding cities of the developing world. However, farming in the peri-urban is under strong pressure from urbanization. The economic and social roles of farming need to be better understood in order to integrate peri-urban agriculture into urban planning. This study used multivariate techniques and Geographically Weighted Regression to analyze statistical data at a village and sub-district, to explore the varying relationships between agricultural activities and urban economic activities, urban poverty and informality, as well as food security. This method was applied in the Jabodetabek Metropolitan Area (JMA) with Indonesia’s capital Jakarta at its core, and it resulted in some important findings. First, PUA was more associated with the increasing low and middle class residential areas and the growing small-middle scale urban economic activities rather than development of tourism and larger traditional market facilities. Second, whereas PUA in the North of JMA was under pressure by the increasing poverty, in the Southeast of JMA it has expanded concurrently with increasing poverty. Third, PUA is strengthened by increasing informal activities in the peri-urban zone that offer alternative jobs and additional income for the farmers. Fourth, PUA in the surroundings of Jakarta as well as in the East and Northeast of JMA has contributed to increasing food affordability as well as strengthening food security policy. Based on these results, recommendations to maintain the PUA have been formulated to support its role for the peri-urban economy, reduce poverty, manage informality, and increase food security.     

半城市化地区土地适宜性评价方法及应用——以厦门市集美区为例

研究目的:构建半城市化地区土地适宜性评价指标体系,促进农村与城市间过渡性区域的土地资源可持续利用。研究方法:将厦门市集美行政区域划分为农用地、建设用地和生态用地三种土地利用类型,选择合适的评价指标,基于遥感、地理信息系统、层次分析法、专家评分法等手段对每种土地利用类型的适宜性进行评价。研究结果:集美区适宜作为农用地、建设用地和生态用地的土地面积分别占总面积的11.7%、15.4%和1.6%,与当地土地利用实际比较吻合。研究结论:构建的土地适宜性指标体系和评价步骤可用于其他半城市化地区。     

Trade-offs between high class land and development: Recent and future pressures on Auckland's valuable soil resources

Sustainable land management is essential to meeting the global challenge of securing soil and water resources that can support an ever increasing population. In Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, population growth is forecast to increase from 1.5 to 2.5 million by 2040 which will put immense pressure on the region's soil resources. The objective of this study was to robustly quantify the amount of high class land (Land Use Capability Classes 1–3) that has been converted, and what is likely to occur, to urban development in Auckland using both long term trend records and future growth projections.Spatial analysis indicated that over the various spanning datasets 10,399 ha (or 8.3%) of Auckland's high class land has been converted to urban development through incremental urban extension, operative/approved greenfields and building consents. Of this, 10,080 ha of high class land was converted to development between the years, 1975 and 2012. The rate of urban extension onto high class land has accelerated since 1996. Furthermore, the majority of land allocated to urban extension since 1996 has been high class land. Looking into the near future, lodged/future greenfield developments equate to an additional potential development of 6010 ha (or 4.8%) of current high class land. Future growth pressures indicate that this trade-off will continue.There is a real need to analyse the economic benefits and long term sustainability of future development against the protection of high class land for current and future production requirements. Further research should account for the true cost of lost provisioning, regulating and cultural soil ecosystem services to ensure that these values are recognised and considered not only by urban planners but also by both policy and decision makers.     

Low-cost housing developments in South Africa miss the opportunities for household level urban greening

Most developing countries of the world are experiencing large-scale migration from rural to urban areas. Many new migrants end up in low-cost or informal areas and slums with attendant environmental concerns. One dimension of improved urban sustainability is the provision of green spaces and trees. Whilst many countries have urban greening programmes for public spaces and streets, few have considered the status and potential contribution of trees from resident's own gardens. This paper reports firstly on the policy environment for urban forestry and greening in South Africa and secondly on the maintenance, use and appreciation of trees on private homesteads of residents of new and older low-income suburbs as well as informal housing areas from three small towns in South Africa. In particular we examine if the most recent centrally planned and built low-income housing schemes (called RDP suburbs in South Africa) have considered and incorporated plans or spaces for urban greenery in peoples’ homesteads. We found that broad environmental and sustainability concerns and statements are common in urban development and housing policies, but specific guidelines for implementation are generally absent. More specifically, urban forestry and tree planting are rarely mentioned in the broader land use and environmental policies other than the national forest act and subsequent regulations, but even there it is relatively superficial. In the study towns the prevalence, density and number of species of trees was lowest in the new RDP suburbs relative to the township and informal areas. Consequently, the contribution of tree products to local livelihoods was also lower in the RDP areas. Yet there were no differences in the level of appreciation of the value and intangible benefits of trees between residents from the three different suburbs. This shows that the failure to plan for and accommodate trees in new low-cost housing developments is missing an opportunity to improve overall urban sustainability and liveability and constraining the potential flows of tangible and intangible benefits to urban residents. Making opportunities for such in older suburbs is challenging because of space limitations and cost implications of retrospective provisions, but incorporation into plans for new low-cost housing development should be possible.