Changing land use intensity in Europe – Recent processes in selected case studies

In recent decades the intensification of agricultural production in many European countries has been one of the key components of land-use change. The impact of agricultural intensification varies according to national and local contexts and a greater understanding of the drivers of intensification will help to mitigate against its negative impacts and harness potential benefits. This paper analyses changes in land use intensity in six case studies in Europe. A total of 437 landowners were interviewed and their responses were analysed in relation to changes in land use intensity and agricultural production between 2001 and 2011. In the case studies in Western and Eastern Europe we observed stabilisation during the last decade, and no clear tendency of increase or decrease of land use intensity. The use of fertilizers and pesticides seems to have decreased in our cases in Western Europe, which is contrary to trends in Eastern Europe. Agricultural production remained stable in almost all cases, except for an increase in Austria and Romania which may indicate that the farming efficiency has increased. A statistical analysis showed a division between study areas in Romania and Austria (increasing land use intensity) versus those in the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece (decreasing). In the Mediterranean cases we observe a process where agriculture is becoming increasingly marginalised, at the same time as changes in function with regard to urbanisation and recreational land uses have taken place. Logistic regression highlighted the importance of farm size and farmer type in understanding changes in land use intensity. The dominant pattern of stabilisation which has occurred over the past 10 years may also partly be a result of effective EU and national environmental and agricultural policies, which are increasingly concerned with improving environmental conditions in rural areas.     

Multi-scale assessment and spatial modelling of agricultural land abandonment in a European peripheral region: Galicia (Spain), 1956-2004

The environmental, cultural and economic consequences of land use change, including abandonment of agricultural use, have been recognized for a long time. It has often been assumed that the transformations of the agricultural systems in developed countries (and particularly in Europe) took place, for the main part, in the immediate years after the Second World War. In this paper we present a review of different statistical and cartographic sources available for a peripheral region in Europe (Galicia, Spain) characterized by small-scale farming and a very fragmented property system, that suggests otherwise: modernization of agriculture apparently took place without major changes in agricultural area until the country gained access to the European Economic Community, and the effect of Common Agricultural Policy reforms during the decade of 1990 is suggested as a major driver for the net decrease of agricultural area in the region between 1956 and 2004. On the other hand, this paper emphasizes the spatial complexity of agricultural abandonment with a case study, showing a large degree of variability at municipal scale and thus the need of future EU-level projects to work at least at municipal (Local Administrative Units 2, LAU 2) level. Finally, a multinomial logistic model for observed changes is included that shows how biophysical limitations were the main drivers behind abandonment of agriculture at parcel scale, while structural qualities related to property structure were strongly associated to the incorporation of former shrublands to agricultural use. Besides, Farm Structure Surveys were revealed as an unreliable source for the assessment of changes in total agricultural area in the studied region.     

Farmer-specific relationships between land use change and landscape factors: Introducing agents in empirical land use modelling

Traditional empirical land use change models generally assume one average land use decision-maker. Multi-Agent System (MAS) models, on the other hand, acknowledge existence of different types of agents, but their poor empirical embedding remains a serious handicap. This paper demonstrates how agent information can also be incorporated into empirical, biophysical land use models.     

Integrating expert knowledge and quantitative information for mapping cropping systems

Scenarios are accepted as useful tools for assessing economic and environmental impacts of land use changes, for involving stakeholders in environmental issues and thus for decision-making. In most studies involving comparison and evaluation of scenarios, a reference situation from which different scenarios will be developed is defined. When dealing with rural areas, scenarios, and thus reference situation, should not only consider land use but also cropping systems. The usual lack of data concerning cropping system distribution in a given region can be overcome by the use of expert knowledge. In this paper, we present a procedure for the spatial allocation of cropping systems that integrates expert knowledge and quantitative data. The aim of this procedure is to develop a reference situation that makes explicit the link between cropping systems and the factors responsible for their geographical location (location factors).     

Farmers’ perception of their decision-making in relation to policy schemes: A comparison of case studies from Switzerland and the United States

Farmers are decision-makers in a complex system of cause and effect. They decide with respect to their own attitude and beliefs, according to their farm structure and they take into account programs and regulations of the overarching policy scheme. In this paper we used mail surveys with identical questions to establish a cross-national comparison of two case study areas. The questionnaire investigates farmer's perspectives on what influences their own decision-making as well as their perception of the socio-ecological environment to relate these findings to the respective policy schemes in the case study areas. The two case studies are located in Southern Illinois, United States and in central Switzerland. The analysis shows that full-time farmers of the Southern Illinois case study area rate constraining factors such as financial aspects higher than Southern Illinois part-time farmers and farmers from the central Switzerland case study area. Furthermore, it is apparent that Swiss case study-farmers rate aspects of their land use responsibility and the Illinois case study-farmers rate ecological aspects higher. The empirical findings can be qualitatively explained through analysis of agricultural policy schemes.     

农村耕地抛荒的影响因素及治理研究——基于二次文献调查法

农村耕地抛荒是我国在城镇化发展和经济社会转型时期农村出现的一个普遍而现实的问题。农村耕地的抛荒导致农村耕地的不充分利用和有限耕地资源的极大浪费,虽然我国废除了农业税,并不断延长农村耕地承包期的时间,但农村耕地抛荒现象依然没得到遏制,本文通过二次文献调查法,搜集耕地抛荒相关的论文、报道共计557篇,通过数据整理和编码,分析和探讨当前我国农村地区的耕地抛荒问题。     

The forest transition: Towards a more comprehensive theoretical framework

Building on the contributions of Mather and others, this paper offers an approach for developing a more comprehensive theory of the forest transition. We argue that long-run changes in forest cover in a country or region cannot be separated from the overall pattern of land use changes. Moreover, this pattern is determined by relative land values; forest cover changes over time as the value of one land use relative to the value of its competing use changes over time. However, the actual values that are used to allocate land may be far from optimal; that is, the presence of market, policy and institutional failures can distort economic and political incentives that can lead to bias in favour of one type of land use over the other, and may ultimately explain why a forest transition may be delayed unnecessarily in some countries and regions.     

常德市土地利用/覆被变化分析

通过GIS空间分析功能,选取常德市的四个县市:桃源县、汉寿县、临澧县、津市市,从土地利用现状、土地利用时空变化、土地利用类型动态度、土地利用程度变化以及土地利用变化区域差异等五个方面对常德市2009年和2012年土地利用、覆被变化进行定量、定性分析比较。研究结果表明:12009-2012年期间,四个县市的城镇、交通水利等建设用地需求持续增加;2 2009-2012年期间,土地利用程度综合指数呈增长的趋势;3常德市2009-2012年间土地利用程度变化不大,并且区域不平衡;4 2009-2012年期间,四个县市中相对变化最大的为临澧县城镇建设用地。     

土地社会功能分类框架探讨

以土地社会功能的公共服务、经济、社会保障功能为立足点,建立土地社会功能分类框架,并对主要功能内涵进行初步界定。根据分类目的、依据和原则、分类方法,提出分类系统包括公共服务功能、经济功能、保障功能3个一级类,8个二级类以及23个三级类。通过和已有的土地社会功能分类成果对比,本分类框架对土地社会功能界定更为清晰、涵盖更为全面,能够为土地功能的深入研究提供基础依据。     

基于GIS的达州市土地利用变化及其驱动力分析

随着地理信息系统的发展,其成果广泛应用于土地利用监管、生态环境监测以及农业等各个方面。依据达州市2013年和2020年土地利用情况的矢量数据,通过土地利用动态度和主成分分析的方法,对达州市土地利用变化状况及其驱动因素进行分析。结果显示:达州市未利用土地占比大,建设用地持续增长;而驱动因素主要有社会经济发展、人口增长和政策。     

Stakeholder perceptions and governance challenges in urban protected area management: The case of the Las Piñas – Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area,Philippines

The conservation and management of protected areas in urban settings has become increasingly challenging with dynamics over land use change in adjacent urban areas being highly relevant to, but at times conflicting with, the protected area. This study seeks to better understand the implications of land use change processes to urban protected area management through the case study of the Las Piñas – Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) in Metro Manila, Philippines. Factors and processes influencing land use change and protected area management and the impact of stakeholders’ perceptions on protected area were analyzed. The urban protected area in itself has limited influence on its surrounding urban areas, as land use change in these areas is shaped more by social, economic and policy/institutional factors occurring within the context of urban-regional development. The study also found that land use conflict is evident in an urban protected area due to the competing ecosystem services derived by various stakeholders. This discord is deepened by the lack of coordination between land use planning and protected area management. Integrating protected area management with land use planning through legally binding instruments, specific timeframes and clear internal procedures can help resolve land use conflict for an urban protected area at the strategic or policy level.     

Urban spill over vs. local urban sprawl: Entangling land-use regulations in the urban growth of China's megacities

Rather than a bad case of urban sprawl, the physical expansion of China's megacities may be viewed as a combination of ‘urban spill over’ and ‘local urban sprawl’. This paper reviews land use regulations in their institutional context and argues that conflicts in land use regulation are related to ideologies of land ownership and embedded in different planning doctrines. These hypotheses are investigated with special reference to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. The evidence suggests that entangled land use regulations for “urban” and “rural” land have imposed serious constraints on urban growth, while the contradictions of different policies and regulations in the use of rural lands for urban construction have led to intensive and unhealthy competition among stakeholders. As a result, not only have the costs of land conversion from rural to urban uses increased, but the spatial development of Guangzhou has been distorted. The implications of these failures for future policy are discussed with emphasis on the reform of the land use regulation system.