Land-use and land-cover changes in rural areas during different political systems: A case study of Slovakia from 1782 to 2006

The paper analyses the period from 1782 to 2006 divided according to the existing political systems in three rural study sites of Slovakia. Two long, monarchy (I.LMP) and revolutionary (II.LRP), and one short new age (III.SNP) periods are compared. The magnitude of land-use and cover changes induced by related driving forces during the different historical periods are also analysed. Three different study sites were selected: cadastre of Kráľov Brod (KB), mountain cadastres: Očová and Dúbravy (OD), Liptovská Teplička (LT). Spatial data derived from historical maps were used in comparison to recent data obtained using Remote Sensing technology. The results showed that the landscape of all three sites has undergone significant changes in land-use and cover during the 224 years. From the long-term point of view there two main trends were observed. The first was significant permanent grassland conversion into arable land at KB where permanent grasslands decreased from 52.7% in 1782 to 0.7% in 2006. Gradual afforestation and permanent grassland conversion to forest land was observed at LT where forest land increased from 67.7% in 1782 to 83.7% in 2006. During the I.LMP period, demographic trends and settlement pattern supported by effective land-use policy were the dominant driving forces. Similarly these driving forces were identified as the most important also for the III.SNP period. But contrary to the I.LMP, driving forces of the III.SNP caused more negative effects (land abandonment) in mountain rural LT region where the current land-use policy seems to be insufficient. Land-use changes during the II.LRP were mostly due to technological development.     

Urban expansion in 30 megacities of China: categorizing the driving force profiles to inform the urbanization policy

Currently, land use policy makers in developing countries face the challenge to control urban expansion in a rational and sustainable manner. In this context, understanding the urban expansion process and its determinants is essential for designing land use planning and governance strategies. This paper presents a methodological framework based on data mining techniques for exploring the determinants of urban expansion. We employ the Random Forest regression to apportion the relative importance for 33 determinants of urban expansion across 30 megacities in China. Analysis is facilitated by a dataset of urban land information in period 1993–2012 (derived from time-series nighttime light imageries) as the independent variable, and an equivalent dataset of 33 determinants of four categories (economic, demographic, social and natural) as exploratory variables. Results show that the relative importance of determinants varies with cities but shows some similarities. Greatest contribution is observed for the economic determinants, followed by social determinants. Demographic and natural determinants have comparative relative importance. In general, economic, social, and demographic determinants have increasing contribution to urban expansion, but the natural determinants show declining influence on urban expansion with time. Four clusters are identified by a Self-Organizing Map among the 30 megacities, with respect to the driving forces profiles. Urban expansion in these four clusters is respectively dominated by demographic, social, natural, and economic determinants. Based on these profiles, the land use planners can revised the original ‘top-down’ land-driven development model and formulate more locality-oriented measures to control urban expansion in an orderly manner.     

Implications of land-use change in rural China: A case study of Yucheng,Shandong province

Based on surveys on rural land-use change at village scale in Yucheng City, Shandong province, this paper presents how land-use change takes place in response to inhibitive institutional forces in light of an outmoded land ownership system and unreasonable land use rights administration, and discusses it in the broader social context of industrialization, rural depopulation, a dual-track land market, and land use legislation. Spatial comparison of land use maps interpreted from aerial photographs in different period unveils a decrease in arable land for farming, and an increase in rural settlements, facilities land and unused land. Despite rural depopulation, rural settlements area nearly tripled during 1967–2008. Nearly all newly gained non-agricultural land originated from farmland at the village fringe while formerly facilities land and unused land had been converted to residential use and it was abandoned later. Thus, the destructive farmland conversion from productive use to non-agricultural uses took place at multiple stages. Questionnaire survey of 1650 households in 48 villages in Yucheng City indicated that 41% of the households had multiple dwellings, even though some of them are not occupied or even ruined. This finding may damp the rosy picture of the reportedly slowdown in China's farmland reduction in recent years as these destructive changes are too small to detect from satellite imagery, and it will also provide a practical scientific basis for constituting more strict farmland protection objectives and strategies for China in the near future. In order to hold back the destructive conversion trend from farmland to non-agricultural uses, the authors argue that policy and institution innovation concerning land use and urban–rural development in China needs feature highly in the government's agenda.     

Measuring environmental incomes beyond standard national and ecosystem accounting frameworks: testing and comparing the agroforestry Accounting System in a holm oak dehesa case study in Andalusia-Spain

The standard System of National Accounts (SNA) omits the costs of the environmental inputs from nature and the environmental fixed asset degradation from the national/sub-national natural working landscapes. The United Nations Statistic Division (UNSD) is currently drafting the standardization of the Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA), as part of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). The EEA- aims to mitigate some of the limitations of the SNA by extending the concept of economic activity and explicitly incorporating ecosystem services and environmental assets provided by nature in the estimates of net value added, adjusted according to the costs of the environmental inputs consumed and the environmental fixed asset degradations of ecosystem. However, the NVAad proposed in the ongoing draft of the EEA is inconsistent in that it omits the manufactured costs of the public economic activities of the new government institutional sub-sector of the ecosystem trustee. In addition, the ongoing methodological guidelines of the EEA do not propose to estimate the environmental income. This implies that there is not a single indicator that integrates the ecosystem services obtained and the evolution of the environmental assets in the natural working landscapes in which the private and public activities are valued. The objective of this research is to discuss conceptually and compare the measurements of ecosystem services and environmental incomes in the extended Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS), and in refined versions of the official SNA and the ongoing EEA methodologies, through a case study of privately-owned holm oak dehesas working landscapes in Andalusia-Spain. This comparison shows that the refined SNA and the refined EEA in their current state of development do not allow the complete visualization of the environmental income contribution to the total income of the natural working landscapes. We also discuss the advances provided by the AAS extended accounting methodology that would be relevant for the EEA next improvements.     

Territorial management contracts as a tool to enhance the sustainability of sloping and mountainous olive orchards: Evidence from a case study in Southern Spain

The continuity of farming in traditional sloping and mountainous olive production systems (SMOPS) is at risk, especially in marginally productive areas. The abandonment of olive production on sloping lands would have adverse economic, social, environmental and cultural effects. To tackle this risk of abandonment and to improve the sustainability of traditional SMOPS, we propose the Territorial management contracts (TMC) of rural areas. The potential of this instrument to be specifically applied to organic olive production systems on sloping lands is assessed. The paper then summarises the results of a survey of Andalusian farmers in sloping and mountainous areas aimed at identifying key characteristics of the TMC with the potential to enhance its uptake in target farming communities. Results show that farmers are well-disposed towards TMC, and that issues such as flexibility and external advice need to be considered for its successful implementation. From a policy perspective, the instrument is well aligned with the objectives of the last reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).     

The institutional drivers of sustainable landscapes: a case study of the ‘Mayan Zone’ in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Research on the dynamics of tropical forest land use and cover change (LUCC) has focused on the three scenarios: (1) deforestation/degradation; (2) settled, degraded areas in recovery, and (3) sparsely settled, expansive, intact forest. Through examination of a central Quintana Roo, Mexico case study we propose a fourth scenario of a ‘sustainable landscape’: an inhabited, productively used, forested landscape that nonetheless shows little change or net gains in forest cover over the last 25 years. We use Landsat images to demonstrate a low incidence of net deforestation, 0.01% for the 1984–2000 period, the lowest recorded deforestation rate for southeastern Mexico. Institutional innovations such as an agrarian reform process that established large common property forests for non-timber forest product extraction, and later innovations such as sustainable forest management institutions have driven the outcome of low net deforestation, added to multiple organizational processes that promote sustainable land use.     

长江流域禁捕背景下的渔民转产上岸适应性研究 ——以洪泽湖渔民转产上岸为例

在长江禁捕政策的驱动下,各地为保护环境积极引导渔民转产上岸。从渔民视角出发,研究其对上岸的适应能力对于有关政策的制定和完善至关重要。基于洪泽湖渔民转产上岸的调查数据,构建渔民适应性评价指标体系,对渔民的适应能力进行实证研究。研究表明,渔民的整体适应能力一般,这在年龄较大和从业时间长的渔民中更为明显,而不同渔民在不同维度的适应性表现不一。提出利用当地资源优势,充分征求渔民意见,让渔民参与政策制定中,并从教育、培训等途径提高渔民自身素质等相关政策建议。