Special issue: Environmental risk mitigation for sustainable land use development

The Special Issue (SI) “Environmental Risk Mitigation for Sustainable Land Use Development” presents seventeen interrelated papers addressing the key concept of environmental risk mitigation and sustainable land use development. The issue argues that risk mitigation depends directly on the risk assessment analysis and the quality of applied measures. Therefore, the more precise are risk assessment conclusions, the better the risk mitigation measures would be. This collection of papers follows the vision of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (Sendai Framework) which states that the integration of sustainable development objectives into disaster risk mitigation and adaptation at all levels and at all stages of policy action are of paramount importance for the sustainability of our communities. The final purpose of the issue is to address the mutual roles of land use policy on environmental risk mitigation and adaptation, especially disaster risks.     

The identification and assessment of ecological risks for land consolidation based on the anticipation of ecosystem stabilization: A case study in Hubei Province,China

The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the ecological risks in land consolidation, and to develop a framework of the theory and method to assess the change of ecological risk degree before and after land consolidation. Environmental impacts and ecological risks of land consolidation have recently drawn much attention, and there are two opposing viewpoints to assess these impacts and risks in the academia of China. Both viewpoints result from the bias of assessment anticipation. Land consolidation includes four main engineering aspects in China, and ecological succession from start of land consolidation to ecosystem stabilization should pass three phases. Different ecological impacts and risks of land consolidation rise from different phases of ecological successions. According to the climax theory of ecology, we developed a framework of the ecological risk assessment based on the anticipation of ecosystem stabilization (ERABAES) for land consolidation. We applied analytical hierarchical processing (AHP) method to the data resources from the land consolidation project in Southern China to allocate weightings to the indices of ecological risk (ER), and to set up an integrated index system for the ecological risk identification. This integrated index system encompasses the ecological risks with three factors (water, soil and biology) and 14 indices. The results of the project show: (1) The ER is reduced from 58.02 to 28.8 after land consolidation and the degree of ecological risk is down from Degree III to Degree IV. (2) According to the element analysis, the water ER is reduced from 21.53 to 6.16, its contribution to reduce the ecological risk is 53%; the reduced ERs of soil and biology are respectively 12.79 and 1.06, their contribution of ecological risk reduce is lower than water.     

Integrated assessment of cropping patterns under different policy scenarios in Quzhou County,North China Plain

Agricultural land use is affected by government policies and leads to different consequences of regional sustainability. In this work, changes in cropping patterns including acreage, cropping locations and management-related environmental impacts were simulated under various policy scenarios for Quzhou County, China. This county is in China's major agricultural region, the North China Plain. Four dominant crop systems were categorized (winter wheat/summer maize, winter wheat/summer maize/spring maize, cotton, and vegetables) and analyzed, following two alternative policy scenarios that either prioritized government funding to subsidize crop production (“subsidy” scenario) or promoted advanced irrigation techniques (“technique” scenario). Input–output coefficients for all four crop systems were determined, mainly irrigation demand, yield, and price of produce, but other factors like a limited area of arable land and scarce regional water resources were also considered. For the simulation, a LINDO Inc. system was linked with the CLUE (Conversion of Land Use and its Effects) model. Temporal changes of crop systems were simulated with the LINDO system, whereas spatial dynamics of cropping patterns were simulated with the CLUE model, based on land suitability maps. The results show that crop patterns changed variably with time under the two scenarios, and water availability was the primary constraint on sustainability of land use. Under the subsidy scenario, winter wheat/summer maize/spring maize became dominant across the entire county, replacing other crop systems. In contrast, the vegetable system gradually occupied farmland surrounding the township under the technique scenario. The different policies produced opposite consequences for regional sustainability. Although a “subsidy” policy contributed to farmers’ income, it did not encourage water conservation for sustainable crop production, leading to land abandonment because of water shortage. In contrast, the “technique” policy partially cut direct financial benefits to farmers, but promoted water conservation and made a substantial contribution to agricultural sustainability.     

中国土地出让制度改革对地方财政收入的影响分析

研究目的:分析土地出让制度改革中中国省级层面和江苏省地市级层面土地出让收入对地方财政收入的影响。研究方法:统计分析法。研究结果:各省土地出让收入占地方财政收入的比重总体呈上升趋势;江苏省地级市的土地出让收入占地方财政收入比重的平均值高于全国省级平均水平。研究结论:国家政策对地方政府的土地出让行为和土地出让收入产生较大影响;不同省份间财政收入对土地出让收入的依赖存在明显差异,有的省份存在明显的"土地财政"现象;"土地财政"现象在低一级地方政府财政收入中更为明显。     

基于遗传投影寻踪模型的交通用地集约利用综合评价

研究目的:对2006年全国31个省、直辖市、自治区的交通用地集约利用水平进行综合评价,提出全国交通用地集约利用相关政策建议。研究方法:针对交通用地集约利用评价系统的多目标和指标间的不相容性,提出交通用地集约利用综合评价的遗传投影寻踪模型。研究结果:(1)全国公路与铁路用地集约利用水平以及交通用地投入产出经济效益对集约利用水平影响较大。(2)2006年全国交通用地集约利用水平呈现东南—西北依次递减趋势。研究结论:遗传投影寻踪模型采用直接审视数据—通过计算机模拟数据结构—评价的新途径,为交通用地集约利用研究提供了新的思路和参考依据。     

Social capital for rural revitalization in China: A critical evaluation on the government’s new countryside programme in Chengdu

In the context of urbanisation and decline of its countryside in the 21^st century, the Chinese government has initiated a campaign namely “building a socialist new countryside” in 2006 which is now renamed as “rural revitalisation”. Bringing together social capital, government intervention and other capital, we argue that rural revitalisation can be viewed as a process of the interaction between land transfer and community building leading to multiple gains of all stakeholders. Given the predomination of top-down government intervention and external capital investment in its campaign, this paper sheds new light on social capital in terms of not only mobilising community members’ participation, but also reaching a balance with interests of government and other stakeholders. The importance of social capital can be illustrated from critical evaluation on governmental pilot projects in the suburban zone of Chengdu, a model municipal in China in urban-rural integration. In particular, this paper aims to address the following questions: How does social capital engage and contribute to rural restructuring for sustainable rural livelihoods? What role can social capital play in the decision making of land transfer and community building? This paper contributes to rural revitalisation and land use debates in three aspects. Firstly, we post a triangular model by bringing together government intervention, social and other capital to emphasize the interwoven nature of the relationship between land transfer and community building for better understanding of the intrinsic dynamics within the communities and their interests interfaced with external stakeholders. Secondly, with respect to the impact of land transfer on sustainable livelihoods, we propose an evaluation framework to account and compare the roles of social capital against government intervention and other conditions in land transfer decision making. Thirdly, applying the above framework to sample villages, we identify three types of rural restructuring: government-led, farmer self-organising, and returned entrepreneur-oriented. Policy implications and further research direction are discussed.     

Land use regulation and urban land value: Evidence from China

Land use regulation has always been regarded as one of the most crucial means of macro-control of urban growth, which can affect a city’s land values directly and further determine related urban economic well-being. Since the New Type Urbanization Strategy proposed by the government in 2014, China’s mode of urban growth has been transformed from addressing “quantity” to “quality" in the urbanization process. In this case, the regulation of land use by the Chinese government plays a more important role in urban growth. With their planned land regulatory scheme, the various instruments employed by Chinese governments have quite different mechanisms influencing land prices. However, there are no rigorous studies focusing on the land use regulation system and its impact on land values to date, particular in China. This study seeks to explore how land use regulation affects urban land values through the systematic lens. We summarize the main land use regulatory instruments based on the analysis of China’s planned land use system and urban land banking system, including the construction land quota, constraints on the allowed floor area ratio (FAR) of each land transaction parcel, and land supply restrictions. A new dataset based on land transaction data from 2007 to 2016 that covers 286 prefectural cities from the country’s coastal, central, and western regions is used in the empirical analysis. The results show that the effects of the floor area ratio (FAR) on land values are significant and positive, with the residential and commercial land supply ratio being a key factor. Moreover, the results imply that the effects of constraints on FAR and commercial land supply vary between regions. These findings indicate that the Chinese land market is considerably distorted by excessive administrative interventions by local governments, in the stage of urban transition guided, the capable regulatory instruments could play an important role in adjusting urban land prices and hence impact on urban growth.     

中国省(市)区生态足迹差异实证分析

研究目的:探讨中国省(市)区生态足迹的区域差异,为中国土地利用和规划的可持续管理提供启示和借鉴.研究方法:文献资料法和比较分析法.研究结果:分析了中国省(市)区生态足迹的差异及其空间分布,提出土地持续利用和规划的建议.研究结论:中国省(市)区生态足迹差异较为显著,为了提高其可持续性程度,应尽快开展编制生态土地利用规划研究.     

干旱区内陆河流域未利用地开发生态风险评价及预测*——以开都河流域为例

[目的]探析开都河流域在未利用地开发过程中生态风险指数的变化特征,为西北干旱区内陆河流域土地利用结构调整与生态保护修复协调发展提供建议。[方法]文章采用PSR模型构建基于14个指标框架的流域未利用地开发生态风险评价指标体系;通过测度综合生态风险指数法进行时空视角的特征变化与格局划分评价;并运用灰色预测模型前瞻性模糊预测该区域未来4年的生态风险变化态势。[结果]2009—2016年开都河流域未利用地开发生态风险整体呈波动上升趋势,生态风险程度由较低下降至低生态风险水平,随后上升至一般程度。这是因为土地开发利用对生态环境造成压力,但在政府相应生态保护政策的出台落实下又逐步缓解,生态系统结构和功能好转明显,抵御风险能力得以提升。预测结果显示2017—2020年开都河流域生态风险将由一般生态风险程度上升至较高程度,因此需要采取适当的管理措施来消减生态风险发生的可能性。[结论]开都河流域作为沙漠中典型的绿洲生态系统,生态环境较为脆弱,通过未利用地的差别化开发、鼓励零星分散的开发模式以及细分不同地类开发的生态补偿设置等方式路径,以期缓解降低干旱区内陆河流域未利用地开发带来的生态风险。     

The impact of land reallocation on technical efficiency: evidence from China

China's rural reforms expose farm households to an increased risk of administrative land reallocation and adjustment. This study explores the impact of land reallocation on technical efficiency, based on a panel data set from rural households in Zhejiang, Hubei, and Yunnan provinces between 1995 and 2002. Our research indicates that the development of a land rental market could serve as a substitute for administrative land reallocation in optimizing the distribution of land resources. The results from the stochastic frontier production function show that land reallocation does have effects on technical efficiency. The different signs for different provinces indicate that the impact of land reallocation on technical efficiency is an empirical issue and depends on the specific institutional settings and the overall economic environment in each province.     

Land use planning around major risk installations: From EC directives to local regulations in Italy

This paper offers some reflections regarding the application of regional and provincial laws concerning major industrial risks and urban and land use planning, and focuses on their application problems and capabilities with reference to some practical cases. The European Directive “Seveso 2” was implemented in Italy with two national laws, and in Piedmont they were enforced with the “Guidelines for the assessment of industrial risk in land use planning”. According to the Guidelines, the municipalities had to introduce into their urban and land use planning instruments new criteria for the areas around Seveso plants. The application of the Guidelines requires a multidisciplinary approach but local authorities are often not sufficiently prepared for this kind of multilevel analysis, because they do not have the human or economic resources or even the technical abilities necessary to conduct it. As a result, they can underestimate the importance of a correct urban and land planning in the areas around major risk installations.     

The incremental construction land differentiated management framework: the perspective of land quota trading in China

Construction land plays a vanguard role in China’s rapid urbanization process. However, confront with massive loss of farmland resources, the highly centralized land-use planning and management system established by the central government in 1998 stipulates that the red line of 1.8 billion mu of farmland should be guarantee to ensure food security. A series of land management system innovations such as “the replacement of basic farmland in different places”, “the compensated supplement of farmland in different places”, and “the land conversion quotas transregional transaction” in Zhejiang province have received increasing attention, under the premise that neither dissipating the economic development efficiency nor breaking the constraints of various planning quotas. Inspired by the “three-phase” efficiency improvement based on the concept known as the “adaptive efficiency”, this article first proposes the inherent policy shortcomings as incalculability, inseparability, and uncontrollability. Then, adopting the mathematical model derivation and economic analysis tool, we demonstrate that the “general allocation + competition allocation + rewarded allocation” of new construction land quota allocation scheme has improved the three-stage Pareto efficiency. Relying on the network analysis of the cross-regional trading in Zhejiang province, the “time hotspot”, “regional hotspot”, Siphon effect, price fluctuation and inequality of opportunity are also observed in the process of trading. The authorities should play a quasi “wedge-like” blocking role in due course. It is therefore suggested that a differentiated management scheme should be adopted considering the variance in regional resource endowments and social ecosystem. This paper expected to shed light on improving construction land-use efficiency for China and other similarly placed developing countries.     

长江中游城市群土地利用生态风险分析——以长株潭城市群为例

为揭示城市群发展对区域生态风险的影响,以位于长江经济带的长株潭城市群为研究区,利用1993-2013年Landsat遥感数据,定量获取土地利用变化特征,并基于移动窗口的景观生态风险指数,获得区域空间连续的生态风险指数等级分布图,分析长株潭城市群土地利用动态变化及生态风险时空变化特征。结果表明,近20年来,研究区土地利用变化较为显著,建设用地呈持续增加的趋势,耕地、林地面积在波动中减少且变化明显;近20年,生态风险等级面积变化显著,低风险区波动减少,中等风险区先减少后增加,较高风险区、高风险区均波动性增加。本研究为长株潭城市群土地资源可持续利用、生态风险的有效防范,以及对城市建设用地开发边界和生态红线的确定提供了参考,也为区域生态风险定量评价提供了有效的技术方法。     

大力发展矿业城市生态文明

矿业城市大力发展生态文明,是贯彻党的十八大“大力发展生态文明”重大战略决策的重要内容。在矿业城市发展生态文明,有利于推进矿产资源集约与综合利用、保障生态环境安全和促进矿业城市转型。面对持续扩大的矿产资源需求和日益深化的枯竭型城市转型问题,矿业城市生态文明建设任务艰巨。矿业城市生态文明建设要以矿产资源集约与综合利用和生态环境保护为抓手,从优化国土开发空间,集约与综合利用矿产资源、土地资源、水资源和生态资源;实施综合性、全面性、系统性生态环境管理,深化大气污染和重金属、持久性化学物污染协同防治机制;促进经济转型,大力发展循环经济等方面促进生态文明大发展。     

Monitoring land governance: Understanding roots and shoots

Despite a growing interest among land use policymakers to identify the indicators that measure changes in land tenure systems, little consensus exists about what framework can functionally analyze land tenure systems, and how it should be developed. The existing indicators have mainly focused on measuring the “effects” of land tenure (in)security and often neglected the “causes”. Hence, comprehensive monitoring of land tenure systems has been poorly understood and practiced. Given their multifaceted meanings, land and its related concepts have been a challenging issue for policymakers. Accordingly, the overall objective of this paper was to propose a functional and analytical framework on how to study monitoring land governance from roots to shoots through five main studies: i) understanding the historical trajectories of land, ii) recognizing institutional arrangements on land, iii) identifying land governance grammar, iv) defining land governance typology, and v) assessing land use changes. In line with this objective, the general research question of this study is how and by whom a monitoring system should be developed. Overall, this study can be considered as a conceptual framework that has been designed to conceptualize, develop, build, and apply a functional and analytical framework for formulating land governance grammar to explain how access to land is governed. Unlike previous studies, this study focuses on both causes and effects of strong land governance (SLG) and weak land governance (WLG). The paper discusses that land governance allows various stakeholders to participate in government decisions and ensures the security of their livelihoods. However, land governance could be either poor or strong depending on the government decision-making process. The paper also concluded that SLG is a precondition for economic growth and poverty alleviation in rural areas of developing countries.     

区域生态补偿与土地生态安全

研究目的:划定中国土地生态补偿分区方案,并提出相关的政策建议。研究方法:格局空间统计分析与生态地理区划。研究结果:中国土地生态安全表现为下降趋势,西部地区为高生态安全区,东部地区为低生态安全区,是生态服务功能空间传递的受益区,可将中国划分为生态补偿受体区(主要分布于西部)和生态补偿主体区(主要分布于东部)两个一级大区。研究结论:设立全国性的土地生态补偿专门机构,构建土地生态补偿的法律体系,建立科学高效的土地生态补偿监管体系,完善土地生态补偿的政策导引。     

The incentives of China's urban land finance

Land grant premiums and land tax revenues have become two major sources of fiscal revenue for city governments in China. This type of fiscal revenue strategy for city governments is generally referred to as “land finance”, and it has drawn increasing research attention in recent years. This paper explores the institutional causes of the “land finance” strategy of city governments in China. We first analyze the institutional foundation of “land finance” (including China's urban land use system and land expropriation system). We then propose two hypotheses about the institutional causes of “land finance”. The first hypothesis is that the current system of fiscal decentralization is a major reason city governments choose the “land finance” fiscal strategy. The second hypothesis is that under the current personnel control system, which uses local economic performance as the most important indicator for evaluating local government officials, the competition between city governments to promote local economic growth is another major reason city governments choose the “land finance” fiscal strategy. We test the hypotheses by estimating econometric models using data for 31 provincial-level regions for the period 1999–2008. The empirical results suggest that fiscal decentralization and competition between city governments to promote economic growth are two major causes of “land finance”.     

Industrial land price and its impact on urban growth: A Chinese case study

China is experiencing rapid progress in industrialization, with its own rationale toward industrial land development based on a deliberate change from an extensive to intensive form of urban land use. One result has been concerted attempts by local government to attract foreign investment by a low industrial land price strategy, which has resulted in a disproportionally large amount of industrial land within the total urban land use structure at the expense of the urban sprawl of many cities. This paper first examines “Comparable Benchmark Price as Residential land use” (CBPR) as the theoretical basis of the low industrial land price phenomenon. Empirical findings are presented from a case study based on data from Jinyun County, China. These data are analyzed to reveal the rationale of industrial land price from 2000 to 2010 concerning the CBPR model. We then explore the causes of low industrial land prices in the form of a “Centipede Game Model”, involving two neighborhood regions as “major players” to make a set of moves (or strategies). When one of the players unilaterally reduces the land price to attract investment with the aim to maximize profits arising from the revenues generated from foreign investment and land premiums, a two-player price war begins in the form of a dynamic game, the effect of which is to produce a downward spiral of prices. In this context, the paradox of maximizing profits for each of the two players are not accomplished due to the inter-regional competition of attracted investment leading to a lose-lose situation for both sides’ in competing for land premium revenues. A short-term solution to the problem is offered involving the establishment of inter-regional cooperative partnerships. For the longer term, however, a comprehensive reform of the local financial system, more adroit regional planning and an improved means of evaluating government performance is needed to ensure the government's role in securing pubic goods is not abandoned in favor of one solely concerned with revenue generation.     

Rewilding and restoring cultural landscapes in Mediterranean mountains: Opportunities and challenges

Farmland abandonment and the decline of livestock activity in the Mediterranean mountains have resulted in dramatic landscape changes, including the generalized expansion of shrublands and forests, and the homogenization of the old cultural landscapes. This process has a variety of consequences from ecological, geomorphological and hydrological points of view, as well as from the perspectives of land management and public awareness. An intense debate currently surrounds the discussion and evaluation of rewilding (the process of passively allowing woody encroachment, as well as the reintroduction of large mammals) as an opportunity for enhancing biodiversity and restoring original landscapes after centuries of human activity versus ecological restoration (activities leading to the recovery of degraded ecosystems, including clearing and light human activity). There is no clear consensus regarding the best way to improve the ecological relationships and functioning within an ecosystem. Biodiversity and sustainability can be seen under different levels of human pressure and landscape transformation; total farmland abandonment is not always the best alternative, particularly when local inhabitants aim to sustain themselves using local resources. Many geographers and ecologists consider that extensive stockbreeding in a partially open landscape is a rational way to (i) improve landscape organization, (ii) increase flows and turnover within the ecosystems, (iii) increase the diversity of plants and animals that benefit from a relatively light human presence, and (iv) reduce wildfire risk. However, it has proven challenging for land managers and stockbreeders to clear the best old abandoned fields and “construct” a sustainable, balanced landscape that combines forests, shrublands and open lands. Private landowner involvement and support from the general public is crucial for both funding and the long-term maintenance of benefits. The best old fields should be cleared in the context of high-resolution knowledge of the topography, grassland characteristics, grassland cycles and livestock management. Such efforts are likely to be an excellent opportunity to introduce compatibility between light human activity and increases in biodiversity and sustainability for many marginal mountains, where land abandonment and general forest/shrub recovery are the inevitable tendencies. This paper examines some of the contrasting positions of the scientific community regarding the rewilding or ecological restoration of mountain landscapes, and briefly highlights some experiences in which intentional clearing of old abandoned fields has benefited stockbreeding, biodiversity, runoff generation and wildfire risks. Notably, we describe a sub-Mediterranean valley of the Iberian Range, Northern Spain, as an example. In the long term, we find that the intentional clearing of the best old fields allows the slow organization of a final landscape that will be more useful for local inhabitants, thereby helping to reverse human depopulation in these regions.     

The land cost of agrarian sustainability. An assessment

Improving the sustainability of farms often incurs additional costs for farmers. These costs come from allocating land to the maintenance of the ecological processes (energy and material flows, natural population regulation) required for the agroecosystem to function. Since these costs are not recovered on the markets, farmers see a fall in profits, the financial viability of their farms is compromised, and they suffer the consequences of the environmental services they are providing. All this makes it essential to implement government policies designed to compensate farmers for their efforts. The issue of how to assess sustainability has generated widespread debate within ecological economics, specifically as to whether it is possible to place a monetary value on it and if so, how this should be done. In a previous article we showed that agrarian sustainability involves a land cost, therefore this cost can be translated into monetary values. The purpose of this study is to develop this concept in practical terms by applying it to organic farming. We calculated the land cost of agrarian sustainability (LACAS) in order to compare organic versus conventional management in olive farming, as this crop is grown extensively in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. The results show that the agro-environmental subsidy is not enough to encourage olive growers to make the conversion from conventional to organic methods, because the land cost of sustainability is not adequately offset. They also show that improving agroecosystems can allow the land to take on more functions without increasing the land cost. In our case, encouraging the multifunctionality of the land has permitted a reduction in this cost. The LACAS could be a useful tool, not only for drawing up government policies designed to support organic farming, but also for improving the sustainability of the agrarian sector.