Urban land administration and planning in China: Opportunities and constraints of spatial data models

China's economic reforms over the past decades have given rise to the development of a rudimentary urban land market. Although one cannot speak of a land “market” in the strict sense of the word, there is an urban land allocation system in which land lease rights can be acquired through the payment of a land-use fee. If the urban land market is to develop in a sustainable manner, new credible institutions need to be established that can safeguard greater legal security and transparency. For these purposes, it is necessary to establish a management system that can support the legal (tenure security), economic (leases, taxes) and broader aspects (spatial and environmental land use policies) of land administration. To make an urban land administration system socially credible and functional, land-related information should be registered and structured at a detailed spatial level, such as parcels. There is no parcel-based information system in China, but the country has developed a population registration system at a detailed spatial level that could be a starting point to develop integrated information systems, or a so-called “local spatial data infrastructure”. This paper reviews China's population registration system and their spatial units and presents a proposal for an information system that can be expanded or adapted to meet the requirements of an effective land administration system.     

Key challenges and outcomes of piloting the STDM in the Caribbean

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) was assisted by the Australian government's aid agency, AusAID, with technical input from UNHabitat and the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, in the developing of regional land policy guidelines that will address the most critical land issues being faced by the countries. A key aspect of this project was to evaluate pro-poor land tools that would provide comprehensive land administration and thus facilitate the equitable use and allocation of the limited land resource in the sub-region. This initiative provided for and included an opportunity for introducing the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) to support economic, social or environmental land policy goals. The individual member states of the OECS committed to participate in the project notwithstanding existing institutional shortcomings that may affect implementation.This paper reviews the major characteristics in land administration shared by most of the OECS countries that will affect the implementation of the STDM which is based on the LADM international standard ISO 19152:2012. It then presents a proposed STDM profile that will address the land issues common to most of the OECS states. Lastly, it presents the preliminary results of pilot testing of an implementation of the STDM, software version 0.9.5, developed by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN). The pilot was conducted in Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The primary aim was to examine the practical and social implications of implementing the recording process for informal tenures using the STDM software developed by the GLTN. It was found that some of the technical process went smoothly but middle and lower middle income groups are resistant to the idea of recognising informality because they perceive difficulties in differentiating between legitimate land tenure rights and illegal occupation and use, and because they anticipate impacts on their own legal tenure.     

中国小麦生产布局演化及影响因素研究

[目的]小麦作为我国重要的口粮作物,其生产布局变化影响市场供给的均衡性,关系小麦生产稳定,也关系国家粮食安全。[方法]采用1978—2014年全国省级面板数据,运用生产规模指数、集中度指数、生产重心指数及重心转变路径全面分析中国小麦生产布局空间演化特点,通过莫兰指数检验各区域小麦播种面积的空间相关性,构建空间杜宾模型分析小麦生产布局的影响因素。[结果](1)随着时间迁移,小麦生产布局由分散逐渐变集中,主要集中于中部、黄淮海地区,该地区的面积和产量对全国小麦生产的贡献最大;(2)无论是从播种面积还是产量角度,中国小麦生产重心都表现出自北向南再向东的趋势;(3)小麦生产的空间集聚效应随时间变化越来越显著;(4)灌溉水平和化肥投入对该区、相邻地区和全国的小麦播种面积均有正向作用,机械投入、政策和技术水平对该区、相邻地区和全国的小麦播种面积均产生负向影响,比较收益和非农就业机会对该区和相邻地区的小麦播种面积均有影响,但作用方向相反。[结论]建议小麦生产布局优化要注重发挥相邻区域农民的学习效仿能力,促进小麦品种研发技术提升,增强小麦生长的环境适应性,提高小麦生产的要素配置效率,关注非农就业导致的小麦播种面积波动,保障主产省农民收益。     

The role of spatial planning in coastal management—A case study of Tuticorin coast (India)

The focus of coastal management in recent years has shifted from a sectoral plan to a holistic and integrated one. A key component of this integrated plan is spatial planning. This paper serves to highlight the role of spatial planning in coastal management by making use of a study done for the Tuticorin coast in India. A quantification of the land use/land cover changes in this region was studied along with the existing laws and policies governing the Indian coast with particular reference to Tuticorin, to determine their influence/impact on coastal land use/land cover. The results of the study show the disparity that exists between current land use practices and the laws that have been enforced to safeguard the coast. This can be overcome by means of implementing a more stable management plan that incorporates the spatial aspects of this coast, which has been presented.     

试论土地利用总体规划编制程序的完善——提高程序的民主性

研究目的:完善土地利用总体规划(以下简称土地规划)编制程序,为《土地管理法》修改提供参考。研究方法:价值分析和规范分析。研究结果:分析得出提高土地规划编制程序的民主性具有重要意义,并认为可以通过完善人大参与和公众参与提高编制程序的民主性,进而指出现有法律关于土地规划编制程序民主性规定的不足,对提高土地规划编制程序民主性的法律保障提出了相关建议。研究结论:地方各级土地规划应当经同级人大常委会或人大审议,全国土地规划应当经全国人大常委会审查同意;县级以上土地规划草案可采用听证会、论证会、座谈会等各种方式征求意见,乡镇土地规划草案应当召开听证会征求意见。     

Voters’ Acceptance of Land Use Policy Measures: A Two-Level Analysis

Sustainable spatial planning has become increasingly important during the last decades. Politics tries to counter land use related challenges such as urban sprawl by the implementation of policy measures. In a direct democracy, the implementation of policy measures requires citizens’ acceptance. This paper examines determinants of voters’ policy measure acceptance in the area of spatial planning. The study analyses 18 popular votes on spatial planning measures between 1984 and 2008 in Switzerland. A Bayesian multilevel modelling method is used to estimate both determinants at the individual level as well as the contextual level. Results show that the main individual factor for voters in Switzerland to accept spatial planning measures in a broad sense are the party affiliations of voters. Another important factor for the voting decision is being a homeowner. In contrast, whether voters live in urban or rural areas does not influence such voting decisions. At the contextual level, policy measures which contain incentive and market-based instruments have a higher probability to be accepted than bans and rules. Moreover, the degree of organisational capacity and conflict capability of interests concerned seem to influence democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures.     

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).     

三维地籍的建立分析

三维地籍是土地利用和社会、经济发展的必然结果,它将会在土地管理和社会经济发展规划中发挥重要的作用,但是在现有的技术、经济和法律条件下将土地空间信息进行登记、利用还存在着一定困难.通过阐述我国土地利用发展对三维地籍的需求,从经济、法律和技术方面讨论了目前三维地籍在建立过程中存在的障碍.     

On the need for national land administration infrastructures

Many nations lack a coherent national approach to land administration. Instead, land information and processes are frequently disaggregated across states, provinces, cantons, counties, or municipalities. This is particularly the case in federated countries. The growing body of land administration theory often assumes or prescribes the need for national systems; however, the justification for this approach requires further explanation. Without justification, nations that maintain disaggregated systems lack the impetus to unlock the opportunities veiled within their disparate land administration systems. Moreover, a nation's ability to respond effectively to emerging national and global-scale issues such as climate-change is greatly impeded. This paper aims to explain the need for national land administration infrastructures. Qualitative case studies of the Australian context and the method of triangulation inform the justification. The research reveals most drivers can be classified into six overarching subsets: adherence to international standards by national governments, better federal or central governance, improved shared governance, scale of economies for lower levels of government, opportunities and savings for business, and social inclusion for citizens. Unfortunately, specific drivers are found to be complex and changeable, as political, scientific and environmental debates raise policy issues: there is no single solution. As an alternative, nations must seize on the specific drivers relevant to their context. They must employ them to transform disparate land administration systems into multi-purpose national land administration infrastructures that deliver benefits to all stakeholder groups.     

Governing Suburbia through regionalized land-use planning? Experiences from the Greater Frankfurt region

This paper explores the case of peripheral settlement growth in the Greater Frankfurt (Main) region within current debates on global suburbanization. Within Germany’s sophisticated spatial planning regime, Greater Frankfurt’s system of regionalized land-use planning marks an ambitious initiative to contain urban sprawl. Nonetheless, expansive peripheral settlement growth, and socio-spatial polarization remain distinct characteristics of the booming region. Analyzing state regulation vis-à-vis dynamics of capitalist urbanization and private authoritarianism, we decipher the complex governance arrangements producing this, at first sight, contradictory simultaneity. We uncover the rationales of local growth politics of autonomous municipalities and the region’s multiplied institutional fragmentation that undermine planning ambitions to contain suburban growth. We conclude by critically assessing the political economies of suburbanization in Greater Frankfurt and point to prospects for regional reform.     

基于空间面板杜宾模型的农村金融发展与农村经济增长关系研究

长期以来,农村金融发展与农村经济增长之间的关系受到国内外众多学者的关注。文章基于柯布-道格拉斯生产函数,考虑到空间溢出效应,将资本因素划分为农村金融发展的规模、效率和结构3个纬度,结合劳动力投入量,通过构建前沿的计量经济学空间面板Durbin模型,对我国30个省市2000~2009年农村金融发展与农村经济增长的关系进行了分析。结果表明,在样本期间,我国农村经济增长存在显著的空间集聚现象;农村金融规模、效率、结构与农村经济增长之间存在显著的相关关系,其中,农村金融规模和农村金融结构对农村经济存在反向作用,而农村金融效率对农村经济具有显著而正向的直接影响且存在正向空间溢出效应,成为影响农村经济增长的关键因素。农村金融发展与农村经济增长之间的良好互动机制尚未建立。因此,各省市在加大农村金融投资规模的同时,要努力提高农村金融资源配置效率。