Customary land allocation,urbanization and land use planning in Ghana: Implications for food systems in the Wa Municipality

Food insecurity remains persistent in the Global South due to constraints in food production capacities and intricate land tenure systems that stifle investment in agriculture. In the urbanized regions, uncontrolled urbanization and non-compliant land use systems have further worsened the potentials for urban food production. This research is based on a case study of the Wa Municipality in order to assess the influences of customary land allocation and peri-urbanization on land use planning and foods systems in Ghana using explorative and narrative research approaches. The study identified that customary stakeholders responsible for allocating such lands in the Wa Municipality were indiscriminately converting large tracts of hitherto agricultural lands to urban land uses. Statutorily prepared land use plans are hardly enforced and the planning priorities are on residential and commercial land uses that command higher land values to the detriment of agricultural lands. Weak institutional linkages also characterize the mandated planning and land administration institutions, with a planning system that is reactive rather than proactive in addressing development control challenges across the country. There is the need for planning authorities to adopt participatory land uses planning together with customary landholders and educating them on the essence of comprehensive land use planning approaches. Based on the findings, local governments need to partner landowners to identify and reserve high potential agricultural land for sustainable urban food production.     

Extra-legal land market dynamics on a Guatemalan agricultural frontier: Implications for neoliberal land policies

Neoliberal land policies such as land administration seek to improve property rights and the efficiency of land markets to boost rural economic production. Quantitative studies of pre-existing land markets can help planners to tailor these policies to local conditions. In this article we examine an extra-legal land market currently being modernized by a World Bank-sponsored land administration effort. Specifically, we use a hedonic-type revealed preference model and household survey data to estimate the factors affecting extra-legal land prices along an agricultural frontier in Petén, Guatemala. Our model indicates that land value is significantly affected by land attributes including location, tenure status, presence of water, distance to roads, and distance to landowners’ homes, and that land prices in the northwestern Petén are estimated to have risen on average 26.5% per year between 1977 and 2000. We contend that this rate of increase provides a strong incentive for colonists to speculate in land rather than invest in state sanctioned property rights. We conclude that if frontier development programs, such as land administration, are to become attractive to settlers in Petén and elsewhere, they must compete favorably with economic incentives associated with land speculation, or alternatively, target landowners who are not interested in playing the land market.     

A historical political ecology of forest access and use in Sudan: Implications for sustainable rural livelihoods

This paper analyzes and explains the development of forest governance over time and its impact on forest-dependent livelihoods in Sudan. Therefore, a qualitative historical analysis method was used to capture and interpret the analytical dimensions of the Political Ecology Approach (PEA). The historical review of the forestry development provides an insight into Sudan’s transforming governance framework for forest access and use, especially the related legislation, policies and resource administrations. This study concludes that unequally distributed forest resource access and institutional arrangements over time are detrimental factors for forest-dependent poverty and environmental degradation. Our study suggests that a more supportive governance framework, which integrates rural livelihood vulnerability with sustainability parameters, is needed thus to resolve the currently most contradictory forest management paradigms.     

Effects of land lease policy on changes in land use,mechanization and agricultural pollution

Land fragmentation has restrained the development of Chinese agriculture with the application of agricultural machinery. Meanwhile, agricultural pollution has caused serious problems with development. To address these problems, China's government proposed a new farmland lease policy and built larger farms beginning in 2013. However, changes in land fragmentation may also have unexpected problems for Chinese agriculture. This study investigated the effects of these changes on changes in land use, the application of machinery and agricultural pollution. We analyzed a developed area (in the fields of both agriculture and industry) and studied the decision-making habits of farmers in the area. An agent-based model was proposed with the same decision-making habits as in the real world. The results indicated that land lease increased agricultural profits very little in Jiangsu, China. Meanwhile, the application of land lease policy increased pollution. To alleviate pollution and increase profits, a new policy for large automatic protection machinery (i.e., large spraying machinery) should be introduced by governments simultaneous with land lease policy. Farmers could realize greater profits through the introduction of land lease policy and high-efficiency machinery. The sustainable development of agriculture in Jiangsu requires the integration of these government policies.     

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.     

Zionism and agricultural land: National narratives,environmental objectives,and land policy in Israel

The 1990s saw two different and even contradictory trends in Israel. On the one hand, there was a substantial increase in environmental awareness, on the part of both the general public and decision-makers, that led to a change in the land use planning policy at the national level. On the other hand, the Israel Lands Council (ILC), the body empowered by law to shape the national land policy, made a series of decisions that severely violated the principle of preserving agricultural land and led to massive conversion of agricultural land and open space for commercial, industrial, and residential development. Thus the national land policy became incompatible with the land use planning policy and the rise in environmental awareness it reflected.     

The interface between land use systems research and policy: Multiple arrangements and leverages

In recent years, interest in the policy-informing role of research organisations has grown considerably. It has been argued from within the science domain that the management of land, whether at the field, farm or regional scale, can benefit from computer-based systems analysis. This proposition was examined through 26 semi-structured interviews, by conducting a workshop on modelling support in policy decision-making and investigating 11 European-based cases of policy-oriented modelling research. On basis of these materials, we assess approaches towards policy-oriented modelling within the domain of agricultural production and other environmental services of land. First, we define the boundary arrangements for our field of interest, i.e. computer-based systems analysis of agricultural production and ecosystems services. Such ideotypical classification of boundary arrangements makes explicit the institutional space in which system scientists function. This space enables certain activities, and at the same time constrains other initiatives, dependent on who is perceived to initiate and/or control research activities and to formulate objectives, and whether it is considered appropriate to integrate scientific knowledge development with policy work. Five ideotypical boundary arrangements are proposed: ‘Civil mandate’; ‘Trickle out’; ‘Janus face’; ‘Critical participant’; and ‘Knowledge broker’. In a second step, a number of critical leverage points are identified based on the 11 cases and these are addressed in relation to the five boundary arrangements. The term ‘leverage point’ covers means, conditions and methods that foster use of modelling work that can be changed, and thus may be part of a strategy to increase the chances that a model is used. The leverage points were: reputation of research institute and/or scientists; raising and balancing expectations; communication about and investment in the scientific basis of the modelling work; participation in model development; heterogeneous and extensive social network in policy domain; institute mandate that secures availability of ‘stepping stones’. We conceive of two applications of our research for modellers who are interested in the use of their work in the policy sphere. First, the boundary arrangement classification helps to interpret the experiences of others and to assess the relevance of lessons and suggestions for their own context. Secondly, the combination of the boundary arrangement perspective and critical leverage points presents a basis to design an institutional pathway for enhancing impact of modelling research in the policy sphere. For those researchers functioning in a science-domain-oriented environment, the analysis in this paper suggests that there are more options than the frequently proposed ‘more participation’ for increasing the likelihood that their policy-oriented work is used. These include establishing contacts with research groups or institutes that are in a position to function as ‘stepping stones’, or engaging with others to develop a social network in the policy sphere.     

Exploring the effect of land use on ecosystem services: The distributive issues

The current debate of ecosystem services has focused more on monetary valuation methods and payments for environmental services (PES) then on the classic economic analysis (i.e. assumptions regarding: sustainability, justice and efficiency). This paper examines, taking into consideration ecosystem services, income distribution from different land uses to stakeholders. We study the Portuguese common land ecosystem, which is characterized as having a wide range of ecosystem services. Allowing that all the benefits can be translated into economic value, we estimated the total economic value (TEV) associated with these territories on 5 different land use situations: forest, shrubland, water bodies, mountain agriculture and other uses, and analyzed the current institutional arrangements around these territories. We found that the distribution of the benefits of different land uses is relatively inequality. The results showed that the contemporary institutional arrangements of wealth distribution ensure a relatively fair distribution insider of system; however this institutional arrangement is unable to ensure equitable distribution of wealth by external stakeholders. We can conclude that different types of land use provide a very asymmetric distribution of income by different groups of humans: land owners; citizens of a country, and residents of Earth.     

The consequences of changes of ownership for agricultural land use in Central European countries following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc

One of the key factors shaping contemporary land use in Central and Eastern Europe has obviously been change of ownership, with the collapse of the nationalised sector and restitution of farmland to owners giving rise to such changes. The work presented here therefore considers the main directions to ongoing changes in land use in the above region, under the influence of the processes of privatisation affecting the agricultural sector. Specifically, analyses conducted entailed assessment of the influence ownership processes have exerted on the area and structure of agricultural land, the size structure characterising farms and the situation on the market for land. The work took in five countries of the former Eastern Bloc, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.     

Recent evolution of land use systems in the Abruzzi region, Italy

Agriculture in the Abruzzi mountain area of Italy's Mezzogiorno region has been drastically transformed over the past 20 years. This article describes the traditional land-use systems and the processes by which they have changed to modern farming or fallen into decline. Traditional farming still has a strong influence, even where new crops such as grapes and peaches are being grown. A confusion of systems exists, ranging from the most conservative mixed farming to intensive monoculture.     

Public health in linkage to land use: Theoretical framework,empirical evidence,and critical implications for reconnecting health promotion to land use policy

The increasing health burdens pose great challenge for planners and policy makers to create a more livable city. Recent literature has linked land use to a wide range of illness and death causes in developed nations. It therefore requires evidence-driven and replicable frameworks to inform land use decisions that integrate with health promotion. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the mechanistic links between neighborhood land use and public health; and then quantifies their associations at district level, using the case of Shenzhen in developing China. Data for 15 health indicators in 2010 are collected at district level; and a set of standardized land use variables (individual land use type, general land use mix, and physical street conditions) are proposed to comprehensively reflect the neighborhood land use characteristics. Spatial regression is employed to analyze the relationships between health outcomes and land use variables. Results show that the land use exploratory variables vary with health indicators, but several key land use determinants are identified: green land abundance, green land morphology, institutional land proximity, industrial land proximity, blue land abundance, street walkability and street connectivity. Structural equation modeling is further applied to examine the possible mediators and it demonstrates that the casual pathways between land use and public health are quite complex. The developed set of standardized land use variables can serve as practical tools to facilitate land use decisions with health considerations. In practice, several complexities at governance levels challenge the efforts to reconnect land use policies and public health promotion. We put forward three useful solutions to enhancing health connection with land use policy across different international settings. This study captures the nuanced health disparities varied with districts and indicators, and therefore produces some more generalized knowledge that ultimately helps develop land use policies aimed at promoting public health at home and abroad.     

The effect of land use regulations on farmland protection and non‐agricultural land conversions in China

This paper examines the effect of the Prime Farmland Protection Regulation in protecting high quality farmland from urban development and the subsequent effect on non‐farmland conversion in China in the first decade after the Regulation came into effect (1995‐2005). The empirical evaluation is conducted with geo‐referenced panel data for the entire country. Results indicate that the rate of farmland conversion was reduced during 1995‐2000. About two‐fifths of the reduction results from the protection of farmland with high grain productivity. There is no evidence of the effectiveness of the Regulation in protecting farmland during the period 2000–2005, regardless of land quantity or quality. Farmland development was accompanied by a reduction in forests and grasslands during the period from 1995 through to 2005.     

Implications of land use transitions on soil nitrogen in dynamic landscapes in Tanzania

Land use transitions are rated among the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the tropics. They significantly challenge the functioning of ecosystems and affect multi-temporal stability of greenhouse gases such as N₂O and soil properties. Studies on dynamics in nitrogen balances are essential in understanding greenhouse gas emissions such as N₂O and to manage their impacts on productivity. In this study, multi-temporal Landsat images (1975, 1995 and 2012) were classified to determine land use transitions and potential drivers. The classified images were categorized into degraded and non-degraded lands and eighty sampling plots generated within the entire study area. Soil samples were then collected at 0–15, 15–30 and 30–60 cm depths on each plot and soil nitrogen determined. A regression analysis was developed to determine the influence of forest and grassland degradation on soil nitrogen. Results indicated a significant change in major land use and land cover types. Specifically, there was a decrease in areas covered by forests, woodland and grassland, however, area covered by less dense forest increased. Results also indicated variability in mean nitrogen content between degraded and non-degraded areas and depths. Furthermore, levels of degradation influence nitrogen content up to a soil depth of 30 cm. The present study is relevant in the detailed assessment of the extent of damage and threats posed to biodiversity hotspots in sub-Saharan Africa. These results are transferable to other parts of the world characterized by dynamic ecological transformation.     

Modeling farm households for estimating the efficiency of policy instruments on sustainable land use in Haiti

Degradation of natural resources in Haiti has been a growing concern to foresters, environmentalists, and local populations. Various approaches based on “participatory”, “fines and taxes” and “command and control” regulations, have been unsuccessfully implemented to persuade farm households to adopt conservation measures. Negative impacts on the welfare of farmers limit the efficiency of these approaches for forest conservation. This paper investigates alternative solutions to the problem of deforestation of Haiti using linear programming (LP) models. More specifically, this study evaluates the role of various policy instruments on large-income farm households and low-income farm households’ welfare and forest conservation in Haiti. Data from 243 farmers inside the Forêt of the Forêt des Pins Reserve are used in the empirical analysis. Results suggest that agricultural subsidies tied to environmental conservation would promote a more sustainable resource use in Forêt des Pins Reserve.     

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.     

Integrating soil survey,land use management and political ecology: A case study in a border area between Peru and Ecuador

In Latin America countries, competition for access to natural resources among different groups has been a major reason for the outburst of violence over the last decades. One of the main aims of the political ecology concerns the understanding of the environmental conditions that can underlies the social conflict among people. Such understanding needs to be based on a detailed investigation of the natural resources of the landscape, mainly the soils. Few years ago the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs financed a soil survey with a humanitarian purpose: the development of a peace plan between Peru and Ecuador by improving the socio-economic conditions of the rural populations living in the areas close to the border. To achieve such goal, the construction of an irrigation canal was planned to irrigate few hundred hectares in the province of Ayabaca, on the border between Peru and Ecuador. To be soundly planned and designed, the canal project was obviously based on a preliminary soil survey that is essential to assess the irrigation suitability of the land. In this work, the authors illustrate the soil characteristics within the study area, their suitability for irrigation and the key aspects for future land uses, highlighting the philosophy followed in applying the land evaluation system which took into consideration the social, cultural and humanitarian purposes of the soil survey. Results proved the feasibility of the financed project and the potential increase of the living conditions of the rural people.     

Addressing climate change cause and effect on land cover and land use in South Asia

This paper evaluates the role of trade liberalization and agricultural intensification in mitigating climate change cause and effects on land use and emissions using a computable general equilibrium model. Our results indicate that cropland expansion triggered by climate-induced crop productivity changes results in deforestation and increases emissions in South Asia and globally. Global full trade liberalization on all goods is the optimum policy for South Asia despite significant global deforestation, but for the world, unilateral partial trade liberalization on all goods is a more appropriate policy while ensuring a considerable emissions reduction for South Asia. These results indicate that mitigation responses to climate change are location specific and no one trade policy is suitable at the regional and global levels. Lastly, agricultural intensification by improving productivity growth is the best strategy in land-based emissions mitigation, thereby avoiding the transformation of forest and pasture lands for agricultural cultivation both at regional and global levels.     

Conversion of agricultural and forest land to other purposes in the context of land protection: Evidence from Polish experience

The protection of agricultural land and forests is a relatively new concept in Poland, and it began with forest protection in the 1920s. The first regulations on the protection of agricultural land were introduced only in the 1960s. Agricultural land and forests received comprehensive protection pursuant to the provisions of the Act of 26 October 1977 on the protection of agricultural land, forests and land recultivation. This legal act set the foundations for the protection of farmland and forests in successive decades.The aim of this study was to determine the influence of farmland and forest protection on spatial planning and to highlight the loss of agricultural and forest land resulting from conversion to other purposes. Legal regulations pertaining to spatial planning and the protection of agricultural and land forests were analysed. The scale of the problem was identified, and future land-use types were forecast based on the data developed by Statistics Poland (GUS). The existing spatial plans (municipal master plan - MMP) were analysed to determine the conversion loss index (CLI) associated with the conversion of agricultural land and forests to other uses. Legal regulations pertaining to the protection of agricultural land and forests were also analysed, and the extent of the relevant conversion measures was determined. The study demonstrated that urban development and the inevitable urbanization of rural areas contribute to the loss of agricultural and forest land that are converted to other uses.     

Implications of land use transitions and climate change on local flooding in urban areas: An assessment of 42 Indian cities

Urban development induced land transitions affect urban hydrology, resulting in increased flooding risks. Climate change-related precipitation changes are an added complexity to the flood risks of cities. This study examines the role of land use changes in determining the occurrence of urban flooding events across 42 Indian cities under current and future climate change scenarios. Landsat images for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2017 have been processed using a hybrid classification technique to determine the land use shares for all cities. A typical event-count study using newspaper archives has been conducted to create a flooding event database. A multilevel model employing logistic mixed-effects approach was used. Future projections of the occurrence of flooding events for nine models under three climate change-related Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)—2.6, 4.5, and 8.5—and three urban development scenarios have been carried out. The results suggest that cities should preserve the land uses that act as a sponge—the green, open and blue spaces. As these spaces decrease, the projected flooding events increase. Under the RCP 2.6 scenario, the number of flooding events is significantly lower (95 % confidence) than under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5. The expected flooding occurrences between RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 are not significantly different (95 % confidence) for many scenarios, suggesting that Indian cities should aim for a world temperature increase of below 2 °C, or devastating consequences are imminent. This study highlights the need for Indian cities to undertake integrated spatial planning measures for a resilient, sustainable urban future.     

The new economic geography of land use change: Supply chain configurations and land use in the Brazilian Amazon

In this paper we present a framework for understanding regional land use processes by incorporating the concept of agglomeration economies into agricultural frontier theory. We show that agricultural firms can obtain positive externalities from locating in close proximity to other agricultural firms, leading to agglomeration economies. Agglomeration economies lead to high levels of competition and diversity within a local agricultural supply chain and influence local prices, information flows, and private enforcement of environmental institutions. We use the theory of agglomeration economies to understand the development of soybean production in two counties along the Santarém-Cuiaba (BR-163) highway in the Brazilian Amazon: Santarém, Pará and Sorriso, Mato Grosso. We conclude that differences in environmental and land tenure institutions influenced the occurrence of agglomeration economies in these two counties, which in turn affected the total factor productivity of soy in each region. In particular, the supply chain became extremely competitive and diverse in Sorriso where few environmental regulations existed, while environmental restrictions reduced the diversification of the supply chain in Santarém. The presence of a soy agglomeration economy in Sorriso spurred innovation, increased productivity, and led to extremely rapid soy expansion in that county, while the monopolistic supply chain in Santarém reduced producers’ access to land and capital and impeded soy expansion.