Determinants of peri-urban and urban agricultural locational choice behaviour in Lagos,Nigeria

This article quantitatively assessed factors that shape locational choice behaviour of urban farmers. Three hundred questionnaires were randomly administered to farmers in ten localities with a view to identifying factors that shape their locational choice behaviour. The average number of farmers per locality was designated as the index of attractiveness and was correlated with six broad categories of factors identified by farmers as influential in urban agricultural site selection. These broad factors are proximity to water, proximity to residence, access to land, proximity to market, suitable fertile soils, and availability of labour. These factors were subsequently broken down to sixteen categories. Almost all the variables exhibited negatively significant correlations with the index of attractiveness. Urban farmers prefer sites which were closer to water, free with minimal lease and rental cost, and also sites with fertile soil that is closer to farmer's residence, where aggregate costs of production is minimal and labour relatively available. The results obtained can be used in mainstreaming urban agriculture into city planning while at the same time provide avenue for increased urban agricultural productivity.     

An assessment framework for public urban land management intervention

The ability to manage land effectively depends on the availability of accurate and up to date information on it. Many cities, particularly those in the developing world, lack the means to generate the information needed to support land management. This paper proposes the use of assessment studies as a mechanism to generate information for land management. A model of the public land management system and a framework of steps and issues for carrying out an assessment study are presented. The paper also presents an overview of the common problems of land management in the developing world and a case study to illustrate the utility of the proposed framework.     

农地整理对农地流转的影响探讨

农地流转是我国农村经济发展的必然选择,也是农村土地制度改革的方向;农地整理作为提高土地质量、补充耕地数量的途径之一,已经成为土地管理工作中十分重要的内容;对农地流转和农地整理进行了分析。并从土地集中程度、土地利用的经济效益、土地利用的成本和土地流转规模等方面探讨了农地整理对农地流转的影响。     

The impact of urban expansion on agricultural land use intensity in China

China's urbanization has resulted in significant changes in both agricultural land and agricultural land use. However, there is limited understanding about the relationship between the two primary changes occurring to China's agricultural land – the urban expansion on agricultural land and agricultural land use intensity. The goal of this paper is to understand this relationship in China using panel econometric methods. Our results show that urban expansion is associated with a decline in agricultural land use intensity. The area of cultivated land per capita, a measurement about land scarcity, is negatively correlated with agricultural land use intensity. We also find that GDP in the industrial sector negatively affects agricultural land use intensity. GDP per capita and agricultural investments both positively contribute to the intensification of agricultural land use. Our results, together with the links between urbanization, agricultural land, and agricultural production imply that agricultural land expansion is highly likely with continued urban expansion and that pressures on the country's natural land resources will remain high in the future.     

Impacts of land use and amenities on public transport use,urban planning and design

Various land-use configurations are known to have wide-ranging effects on the dynamics of and within other city components including the transportation system. In this work, we particularly focus on the complex relationship between land-use and transport offering an innovative approach to the problem by using land-use features at two differing levels of granularity (the more general land-use sector types and the more granular amenity structures) to evaluate their impact on public transit ridership in both time and space. To quantify the interdependencies, we explored three machine learning models and demonstrate that the decision tree model performs best in terms of overall performance—good predictive accuracy, generality, computational efficiency, and “interpretability”. Results also reveal that amenity-related features are better predictors than the more general ones, which suggests that high-resolution geo-information can provide more insights into the dependence of transit ridership on land-use. We then demonstrate how the developed framework can be applied to urban planning for transit-oriented development by exploring practicable scenarios based on Singapore's urban plan toward 2030, which includes the development of “regional centers” (RCs) across the city-state. Results show an initial increase in transit ridership as the amount of amenities is increased. This trend, on the other hand, eventually reverses (particularly during peak hours) with continued strategic increase in amenities; a tipping point at 55% increase is identified where ridership begins to decline and at 110%, the predicted ridership begins to fall below current levels. Our in-silico experiments support one of the medium-term land-use transport goals of stakeholders—to alleviate future strains in the transportation system of Singapore through the development of RCs. The model put forward can serve as a good foundation in building decision-support tools that can assist planners in better strategizing and planning land-use configurations, in particular the amenity resource distribution, to influence and shape public transportation demand.     

Characterization of urban and peri-urban agroecosystems in three West African cities

Systems of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) take many forms in terms of integration of different activities, production intensities and production orientations. The present study is aimed at a refined characterization of the diversity in terms of production orientation, resource endowments and production strategies of the different types of farm households involved in urban and peri-urban agriculture in three West African cities. A total of 318 UPA households were surveyed using a standardized semi-structured questionnaire in the West African cities Kano (Nigeria), Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) and Sikasso (Mali). Through categorical principal component analysis and two-step cluster analysis, six distinct household clusters were identified based on resource endowments and the degree of integration of vegetable, field crop and animal production. Three clusters appeared in all three cities; the remaining three were specific for one of the cities each and comprised (i) commercial gardening plus field crop–livestock (cGCL) keeping, (ii) commercial livestock plus subsistence field cropping (cLsC), (iii) commercial gardening plus semi-commercial field cropping (cGscC), (iv) commercial gardening plus semi-commercial livestock (cGscL) keeping, (v) commercial field cropping (cC) and (vi) commercial gardening (cG). Production constraints were similar across the cities, that is, high costs of inputs, water shortages and lack of fertilizers in the garden and field crop production systems, while feeding constraints and animal diseases were the main constraints in livestock production. UPA remains an important economic activity to livelihood strategy for urban and peri-urban farmers. Appropriate policies should be formulated that efficiently target the site-specific constraints for improving the quality and sustainability of UPA production systems.     

Socio-economic effects of agricultural land conversion for urban development: Case study of Hanoi,Vietnam

Agricultural land conversion for urban development is a major process in the vicinity of many cities in Vietnam. This causes problems for the fabric of local society. In this paper, we evaluate four agricultural land’s acquisition projects in two areas (Hoai Duc district and Thanh Oai district) in Hanoi, Vietnam to examine two primary questions: (1) how do farmers obtain any economic benefit from urban development projects? And, (2) how are socio-economic livelihoods of the farmers effected by land conversion? The investigation relied on a market land price's survey using a structured-interview method, in which 395 land-acquired households were randomly selected. The responses indicate that there are unequal benefits among the various stakeholders. On average farmers tend to benefit the least. Although the farmers have the possibility to transform their agricultural livelihood into a non-agricultural one with probably a higher income, they are actually faced with many difficulties in maintaining non-agricultural activities, in finding stable alternative livelihood activities, and in using the compensation for investments.     

Tenure security,land registration and customary tenure in a peri-urban Accra community

The study examines the strategies that people use to secure their interests in land in a peri-urban Accra customary community. In a contested chieftaincy, customary leaders sell agricultural and virgin land to strangers for residential purposes, causing conflict and altering traditional livelihoods, and the proceeds of the sales do not flow to members of the lineage group. Violence and murder, involving land guards hired to defend different land claims or to drive farmers off their land, have occurred. The case confirms theory describing the behavioural patterns to be expected during major social change typically found in peri-urban areas when government is unable or unwilling to enforce the law. The flexible, negotiable rules characteristic of customary systems can be manipulated by individuals seeking power and control over land. Accepting that customary land administration is here to stay, the case supports the view that the customary system needs major reform to incorporate local-level checks and balances on land administration to make customary leaders accountable as fiduciaries. In terms of registration usage theory customary landholders in the study area saw title deeds as marginally useful in their agricultural lands but not in family compounds, whereas for strangers registration is essential.     

城市土地整理探讨

通过城市土地整理,政府可以优化配置城市土地资源,调整产业布局,优化产业结构,集约使用土地,节约土地资源,同时还可使城市土地增殖,实现土地收益的最大化;在对城市土地整理内涵及其理论分析的基础上,提出了城市土地整理的模式和措施。     

浅议农用地分等成果在第二次土地调查中的应用

将农用地分等成果应用到第二次土地调查中,可对土地条件调查进行探索;土地数量与土地质量信息的结合,为土地利用总体规划修编、基本农田划定、占补平衡管理、土地开发整理规划、土地整理项目后评价等提供技术支持,进而实现土地数量与质量管理并重.     

Economic evaluation of agricultural land to assess land use changes

Land-use models express the relationship between various driving forces of land-use changes and are increasingly employed in practical applications to predict possible future land uses. The relationship between the agricultural land market and land-use changes is often neglected in such models. The objective of this study is to assess the production values of agricultural land to be integrated in an operational land-use model with the aim to improve understanding of land-use changes in all 28 European Union countries. This economic evaluation of agricultural land is based on the Net Present Value (NPV) method, a method that aims at uncovering the operational production values of land rather than real estate market value. The scientific relevance of this work is the development of a comprehensive methodology for the economic evaluation of agricultural land uses in different EU countries, the integration of economic production values of land to the local suitability approach in the studied land-use model and the provision of a EU-wide database of the NPVs of agricultural land uses, including various energy crops.     

Stakeholders perception of attitudes towards major landscape changes held by the public: The case of greenhouse clusters in Flanders

The intensification of greenhouse horticulture is a notable trend in many regions around the world. This intensification causes the grouping of large-scale greenhouses on a single site, into so-called ‘greenhouse clusters’. The main incentive for clustering is the reduction of production costs by sharing infrastructure such as energy, water and gas facilities. Despite these advantages, the public remains sceptic towards greenhouse clusters and resistance in Flanders is frequent and often fierce. The objective of this research is to obtain insight into the reasons, underlying motives and processes that steer this resistance as they are perceived by the agricultural sector. A grounded theory approach resulted in a comprehensive scheme that visualizes the public resistance towards greenhouse clusters as perceived by stakeholders in the agricultural sector, and as such the scheme includes factors that are probably also seen as key factors for the resistance among the stakeholders. Our research shows that the protest actions are complex and cannot be attributed to a single concept such as the NIMBY-concept that is still often put forward by politicians, planners and investors.     

Toward integrated water and agricultural land management: Participatory design of agricultural landscapes

One of the great challenges of developing sustainable water management is to integrate water and land use issues, and to favor stakeholders’ involvement in the process of designing a solution to the specific issues of water basins. This study aims to help reach these objectives: we present the outcomes of a methodology that aims to design, with stakeholders of a watershed facing quantitative water management issues, alternative agricultural landscapes that they each consider as potential solutions. Our design approach combines (1) facilitation of participatory workshops for designing changes in cropping systems and their spatial distributions at the landscape level with (2) formalization of these alternatives in a GIS. The formalized alternatives provide precise information about fields, farms and areas concerned by the designed changes. We present two sample results of this methodology implemented in a 840 km² irrigated landscape located in a water-deficient watershed in southwestern France. We discuss how our design approach may be useful for a wider design-and-assessment methodology involving researchers and stakeholders with conflicting interests. We show that our co-design approach provides fertile ground for the emergence of salient, credible and legitimate change options.     

A scale invariant model for the expansion of agricultural land and government spending on the agricultural sector

The expansion dynamics of the agricultural surface is a complex process, since it requires decisions among different actors under a multitude of socioeconomic and natural conditions, expectations, and risks. This paper shows that despite this complexity, and at odds with the intuition, the density of agricultural lands and the government spending to foster agriculture around a human settlement displays a simple power-law relationship regarding the distance to such a settlement. The theoretical proof of this relationship is based on theoretical and empirical findings made by several authors on the expansion of population centers, river networks, species and ecosystem’s distribution. The empirical proof is made by fitting a simple power-law model having as response variables: density of agricultural land; government spending coverage, and government spending per unit of agricultural surface, while the distance to the centroid settlement is used as independent variable. Results show that the scaling exponents of the power-law relationship estimated from those models, with data from rural settlements in Mexico, are similar statistically to the expected values from theoretical models for the three expansion processes tested. Three applications of the scale-invariant attribute characterizing the expansion process of agricultural lands are presented:

• i)monitoring agricultural activities at the territories;
• ii)a proxy to estimate the expected growth of the agricultural surface; and
• iii)a typology to characterize government assistance at local level.

     

我国城市土地储备制度的绩效分析与完善建议

作为一项制度创新,城市土地储备制度在实施过程中取得了一定的制度绩效,但也出现了很多问题;结合我国城市土地储备制度的实施情况,分析了城市土地储备制度取得的绩效和存在的问题,提出了完善城市土地储备制度的建议。     

Society's attitudes to and preferences for land and landscape

The relationship between society, land and landscape is deeply complex. Attitudes are reflected in behaviour, notably patterns of consumption through recreational activity, as well as in expressed preferences. Society attaches great importance to land. A large proportion of the population engages directly with it, through gardening and involvement in the management of allotments, community gardens and other public spaces. There is increasing evidence of the benefits of such engagement for individuals and communities. Society's attitudes and preferences have traditionally been dominated by expert or professional views, which have evolved over time and now place emphasis on everyday as well as special landscapes, and on urban greenspace and green infrastructure as much as on rural landscapes. The general public also seems to value the countryside as well as parks and green spaces nearer to home. Public attitudes are shaped by a number of different factors. Age, social and economic status, ethnic origin, familiarity, place of upbringing and residence, particularly whether urban or rural, are especially significant. Perhaps most important are environmental value orientations. At present, society seems to be polarised. At one extreme are older, more affluent, better educated, more environmentally aware people, often in social grades AB, who are often the most active users of the countryside and greenspaces. At the other extreme are younger age groups, ethnic minorities, and those who are in the DE social grades, who are often much less engaged. These groups have very different values and attitudes. But most people need to access and enjoy different types of landscape at different times and for different purposes, accessing what has been called a ‘portfolio of places’ that is particular to each person. It is by no means clear how the various factors that influence people's attitudes and preferences will play out in the future. Society may continue to become more detached from nature and landscape, and less caring about its future. Or there could be a rekindling of society's need to engage with the land and an increased desire to ensure that all sectors of society can benefit from green spaces and rural landscapes. This is likely to require interventions through education and campaigns to change attitudes and behaviour. Whether such initiatives can be effective in the face of competing drivers of attitudinal and behavioural change and over what timescale, may well determine how society's relationships with land and landscape evolve over the next 50 years.     

农地发展权的设定及评估

随着我国经济的快速发展,土地供需矛盾已为各方所关注。近几年来,建设项目每年占用耕地300万亩左右,保护耕地、保护农民权益已成为关系国民经济可持续发展的重要问题。如何建立保护耕地、保护农民权益的长效机制?作者认为必须完善土地产权制度,尤其要设定农地发展权。