A study on the evolution of land use for modern urbanization in China： 1952-2005

Modern cities and towns play as the central places of wealth accumulation for human-being, not only in the ways of settlement and material consumption as they were traditionally in ancient time, but also in the ways of social production and environmental pollution as they are mostly today. With such a transition, the meaning of land use for urbanization has broadened. According to the rule of human ecosystem, land use for modern urbanization can be divided into three types： namely, the direct, the indirect and the induced. However, its structure follows its own way of the direct 〈 the indirect 〈 the induced, rather different from what it normally happens in the natural ecosystem. This paper takes China as an example, calculates the evolution of the land used by cities and towns during 1952-2005 according to statistics, and then analyzes the evolvement of the structure. At last, it puts forward several countermeasures to ensure land resource requirement for urbanization in future.     

Inequity of land valuation in the highly developed city of Taipei,Taiwan

Taiwan has a wealth of experience in employing a graded, or split-rate, property tax. It is believed that a graded property tax can increase the capital intensity of improvements to land, and thus improve economic activities. In order to achieve this, land value needs to be extracted from the price of an improved property. Despite the long history of a graded property tax in Taiwan, the accuracy and corresponding equity issues of land valuation have so far received scant attention. This study adopts a linear regression model with data sets of both vacant land and improved property to separate land and structure values. This approach solves the common problem of scarce land sales and the empirical results turn out satisfactorily. The empirical findings suggest that the ratio of land value to total property price varies across property types and age of property. In addition, the current practice is likely to contribute to assessment inequity, and consequently tax inequity. All these observations call for the need to overhaul the present property assessment system.     

Preindustrial agriculture versus organic agriculture: The land cost of sustainability

The study of traditional agrarian systems can provide useful knowledge for improving the sustainability of present-day agriculture. Nonetheless, with the loss of traditional agro-ecosystems and the rationale that guides them, as has happened in Europe, an historical research approach can have a decisive role to play in recapturing this knowledge. In this article we study the evolution of a typical Mediterranean agro-ecosystem during the last 250 years, supporting the claim that high diversity and the internalization of energy flows and nutrient cycles found in traditional agriculture, are not only characteristics of the greatest sustainability of such systems, but are based in the need for additional land in production. This claim requires the dedication of land to diverse and complementary uses that leave a footprint on the landscape. Organic agriculture needs to consider this “land cost”, meanwhile trying to minimize it in order to improve its actual degree of sustainability.     

Cutting the web of interests: Pitfalls of formalizing property rights

Property rights to land can be thought of as a web of interests, with many different parties having a right to use, regulate, or manage the resource, which may be based on a range of customary institutions or local norms as well as state law. These interests often play a critical role in livelihoods, social relations, and ecological functions. The formalization of property rights has historically led to a cutting of this web, creating more exclusive forms of rights over the resource. Drawing from case studies in Kenya the paper emphasizes the risk of excluding legitimate claimants in formalization processes that focus on individual titling. By collapsing all rights within individuals, such programs have negated the distinct multiple claims by women, youths, and seasonal users, among others. We examine ways in which formalization processes can secure diverse claims, and highlight the need for a better understanding of the social and ecological implications of existing land tenure before they are undermined by formalization.     

Effect of land-use change on soil fertility characteristics within water-stable aggregates of two cultivated soils in northern Iran

Forest and pastureland soils in highland of northern Iran are being seriously degraded and destructed due to extensive agricultural activities. These land use changes are usually accompanied by decreasing in concentrations of soil organic carbon and nutrients and also deterioration of soil structure in these regions. However, studies on concentration of nutrients and carbohydrates in soils suggest that the location of nutrients within aggregates of each size should be determined. This study was to evaluate the nutrient elements and carbohydrate distributions within water-stable aggregates (WSA) of virgin forest and pasture lands under different land uses in Alborz maintain range, northern Iran. In September 2006, soil samples were collected from depths of 0–20 cm in Typic Haploxerolls soils. The overall pattern indicated that the mean weight diameter (MWD) and WSA were greater in the virgin pasture and forest soils compared with the adjacent cultivated (ex-forest and ex-pasture) soils and aggregates of >1.0 mm size were dominant in the virgin soils, whereas the cultivated soils comprised aggregates of the size ≤0.5 mm. Distribution of organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and carbohydrates within the WSA showed preferential enrichment of these parameters in the macroaggregate fraction (4.75–1.0 mm) for the virgin soils and microaggregate fraction (>0.25 mm) for the exposed soils. Cultivation decreased the concentration of carbohydrates by 23.6% and 20.6% in ex-forest and ex-pasture lands, respectively. Average distribution of total exchangeable bases within WSA showed that the cultivation of forest and pasture soils significantly led to reduce in these nutrient in the 4.75–2.0 mm fraction and increase in concentration of these exchangeable cations in <0.25 mm fractions. In general, results indicated that cultivation significantly led to 71% and 6% reductions in total exchangeable bases within the 4.75–2.0 and <0.25 mm aggregate fraction, respectively, for virgin soil. Since smaller aggregates are preferentially removed by erosion, this study emphasizes the need for sustainable soil management practices that they will minimize nutrient loss when forest or pastures lands are converted to croplands.     

保护好土地资源是吉林省发展生态循环经济的关键

土地是人类赖以生存和发展的环境条件，是社会经济发展的物质基础。经过长时间风吹雨打形成的土壤，培育着土地上的早期植物。随着植物的蔓延，植物保护土壤免遭风和水的侵蚀，于是土壤得以积累，从而培育更多的植物，这种共生的关系推进表面层土壤的形成，以致表土不仅能够培育各种各样的植物，而且能够培育依赖于植物的动物。地球的袁土层不厚，大多数地区都以厘米计。然而，目前世界36％的耕地，其表土流失的速度已经达到逐渐摧毁其生产能力的程度，如艰这样下去，我们的粮食安全也就有危险了。     

Institutional causes of urban and rural sprawl in Switzerland

Open space is a very scarce resource in Switzerland. The Federal Government aims to stabilize the use of settlement area per resident at 400 m². This paper starts by outlining the institutional system of spatial planning in Switzerland. Regressions then explain both the current level of land use per resident as well as the development of this indicator. Factors like cars per resident, the proportion of old people and the rural character of the municipality do increase land use per resident. Case studies show that there are currently hardly any instruments available with which to steer land use beyond the local level. It is concluded that incentives for local administrations should be introduced in order to limit urban and rural sprawl.     

浅论新时期不正当职务消费的防范

职务消费作为滋生腐败的一个重要载体,如何加以有效防范,成为党内外高度关注的问题,也是当前反腐倡廉工作的重要内容。文章分析了不正当职务消费的含义、形成原因、危害及本质,提出了具体的防范对策。     

进一步完善个人所得税改革

本轮个人所得税改革后,我国个人所得税制度依然存在诸多问题,如费用扣除标准不灵活、税率结构不合理、尚未实行综合征收等,需要采取诸如细化费用扣除标准、合理设计税率结构、实行综合为主的混合所得税制、完善配套条件等一系列措施来进一步改革和完善它。     

Participatory decision-making in land use planning: An application in Costa Rica

The economic, social and environmental implications of electricity generation for land use planning are a significant and complex problem in many countries. One reason for this complexity is the existence of several stakeholders with very different views or perceptions of the different criteria underlying the decision-making process. Therefore, the aggregation of individual stakeholder preferences into a single collective preference is a crucial problem. In this paper, this type of problem is addressed with the help of a methodology based upon the definition of a consensus within a distance-based framework. The methodology is applied to a case study in Costa Rica at two levels: at a national level and at a river basin level. The River Birrís was chosen because the conflict of interests between agricultural production and electricity generation are especially significant in this basin.