Rapid land use change by coastal wind farm development: Australian policies,politics and planning

The siting of both onshore and offshore wind farms has caused controversy in a number of countries, particularly in Europe, which currently has the world’s largest array of offshore wind turbines. Like the rest of the world there has been a dramatic increase in wind farm development In Australia over the last two decades but none of this has occurred in the offshore environment. Australian wind farms are predominantly located onshore around the southern part of the continent where wind energy is high. This has specifically affected rural coasts where it has created planning and land use policy issues along with environmental impacts and associated public and political reaction. This paper examines the geographic spread, timing and concentration of Australian wind farms around the coast. It also examines the extent to which scientific knowledge on wind farm impacts is incorporated into different state and federal land use and environmental policy and legislative frameworks. The paper concludes that the rapidity in the expansion of the Australian wind energy sector has outpaced strategic land use planning resulting in a piece-meal and cumulative wind farm development on rural coasts.     

基于主成分分析的流转农地用途变化动力研究

研究目的：以重庆市忠县为例,分析2002—2007年流转农地用途变化的特征,揭示流转农地用途变化的驱动力和制动力,为严格流转农地用途管制提供建议。研究方法：实证分析法,主成分分析法。研究结果：流转农地用途变化驱动力主要为农地流转市场、土地利用比较利益、地方行为驱动;制动力主要为耕地保护政策和农地流转管理制动。研究结论：流转农地用途变化是驱动力与制动力的共同作用。在实际流转中,应建立耕地保护的共同责任机制,发挥市场的基础性作用,严格流转农地的用途管制。     

The impact of exurban development on forested areas in Kurgan City,Russia

Exurban communities—a significant form of urban sprawl—can transform natural land cover. Exurban development refers to an expansion of communities located outside a city and its suburbs. One of the main reasons these settlements develop is a desire by residents to live closer to nature and developers’ recognition of the profitability of addressing this desire. Additionally, exurbs can become prosperous regions settled by people with high income. However, exurban development not only directly affects community patterns, but also species patterns, habitat reduction and disconnection, as well as land cover and land use alterations. The purpose of this paper is a quantitative analysis of the land cover transformation and forest fragmentation in Post-Soviet Russia, based on an empirical case study of the city of Kurgan. This case study also contributes to the overall research of urban sprawl in Russian provinces by adding to the discussion of homeowners’ behavior, regional environmental policies, and their role concerning the impacts of exurban settlements on the natural environment. This paper uses remote sensing imagery, census data, and primary data to analyze land cover change due to the emergence of exurban communities around Kurgan, Russia, with specific emphasis on the changes to native vegetation resulting from human behavior and stakeholder preferences.     

Are forest plantation subsidies affecting land use change and off-farm income? A farm-level analysis of Chilean small forest landowners

Forest plantations have increased rapidly in the last three decades, to a large extent due to direct and indirect financial incentives. At the farm level, forestry incentives can affect the investment decisions of small forest landowners and bring socioeconomic externalities or unintended effects associated with farm management. The purpose of this study is to assess the ex post impacts of a forestry subsidy on land use changes and off-farm income experienced by Chilean small forest landowners. A structural equation mediation model (SEM) was estimated using a time frame of 15 years (1998–2013). To reduce the selection bias, propensity score matching (PSM) was performed prior to the estimation of the SEM. Results indicate that the subsidy had a significant effect on land use changes, as it increases forest plantations and replaces pastures primarily, but also crops and native forest to a lesser extent. In addition, beneficiaries of the subsidy had a marginal increase in off-farm income not explained by the increase in forest plantation.     

Effects of development tax on leapfrog sprawl in a thinly traded land market

A behavior-driven agent-based model of exurban land market is used to assess the effectiveness of development tax on the control of leapfrog development. Acknowledging the stylized fact that land demand decreases while the supply increases along the urban-rural gradient, we show that development tax becomes ineffective when it limits the market competition on undeveloped land.     

Towards an understanding of proactive upzoning globally and in South Africa

Upzoning typically occurs as a passive process whereby landowners approach the municipality for a change of rights. Proactive upzoning, where a municipality takes the initiative to increase the rights assigned to land in its jurisdiction, can be a powerful tool to encourage development to occur in line with municipal policies. This paper firstly describes the various approaches used to achieve proactive upzoning. The focus then shifts to understanding examples of proactive upzoning in South(ern) Africa, which provide examples of policy transfer of ideas, primarily from the Northern into a Southern context. Four key lessons are identified from this discussion. Firstly, proactive upzoning can affect the poor negatively or positively, depending on the design of the initiative. Secondly, from South African experience, it is clear that there is a danger of proactive upzoning examples from the North being copied almost verbatim and applied in a Southern context, despite the considerable differences in context. Thirdly, there is a need to ensure that initiatives are in line with market dynamics, to avoid ‘wasted’ infrastructure investment. Fourthly, proactive upzoning often just considers zoning schemes’ rights, whereas the land development process can face a slew of regulatory constraints beyond the zoning scheme.     

Do land renting-in and its marketization increase labor input in agriculture? Evidence from rural China

There exist problems of land abandonment and low-efficiency land use when China is undergoing active rural-urban migration. Whether increasing land scale can attract more labor engaged in land use is important to increase land-use efficiency and relieve labor shortage in agriculture. This paper uses data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey to assess the relationship between land renting-in and labor input in agriculture. The results show that land renting-in increases labor input in agriculture. With higher land rents and profit motives, more labor in lessees’ households will be engaged in agriculture. Further analysis indicates that there is no difference in labor input in agriculture between lessees transacting with acquaintances and those transacting with non-acquaintances for the increasing marketization of land rentals between acquaintances in today’s China. Our analysis implies that developing land rental markets and promoting the marketization of land rentals are important approaches to land use sustainability and relieving labor shortage in agriculture, which has great policy implications for countries with rapid rural-urban migration and abandoned arable land.     

Special issue: Environmental risk mitigation for sustainable land use development

The Special Issue (SI) “Environmental Risk Mitigation for Sustainable Land Use Development” presents seventeen interrelated papers addressing the key concept of environmental risk mitigation and sustainable land use development. The issue argues that risk mitigation depends directly on the risk assessment analysis and the quality of applied measures. Therefore, the more precise are risk assessment conclusions, the better the risk mitigation measures would be. This collection of papers follows the vision of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (Sendai Framework) which states that the integration of sustainable development objectives into disaster risk mitigation and adaptation at all levels and at all stages of policy action are of paramount importance for the sustainability of our communities. The final purpose of the issue is to address the mutual roles of land use policy on environmental risk mitigation and adaptation, especially disaster risks.     

How does off-farm work affect chemical fertilizer application? Evidence from China’s mountainous and plain areas

There is a rising concern that the ongoing wave of off-farm employment will have profound effects on agriculture-based environment problems-measured by the intensity of chemical fertilizer (CF) usage. Yet, our understanding of the regional heterogeneities of this effect remains scant. This research gap is addressed by using panel data of selected cities in Sichuan and Henan provinces in China, which are representative mountainous and plain regions respectively, to empirically examine the impact of off-farm employment on CF use. Our findings indicated that there exists an inverted “U” shaped relationship between off-farm employment and CF use in the mountainous region, whereas CF use is positively correlated with off-farm employment in the plain area. The increased CF inputs, which resulted from the substitution effect and remittance effect, can compensate for the negative effect of labor loss, while land marginalization is the main reason for the decrease in CF consumption at the later stage of urbanization in the mountainous region. Meanwhile, the deagriculturalization of farmers’ employment patterns decreases the intensity of CF usage, which resulted from the scale effect produced by land transfer and large-scale management in the plain region. Besides, the evolution pattern of this effect may present a similar trend in these provinces, but the turning point of plain regions would appear later than that of mountainous areas due to the inherently unique physical conditions and socio-ecological contexts. Based on the empirical results of this paper, some policy recommendations are provided.     

Protecting our prairies: Research and policy actions for conserving America’s grasslands

Grasslands are among the most endangered ecosystems in the world. They supply vital resources for society, support an abundance of wildlife species, and store rich carbon reserves beneath their surfaces. Despite this, only a fraction of original grasslands in the United States now remains, and their rate of conversion to cropland has recently reaccelerated. This paper discusses opportunities that are immediately available to reduce the loss of U.S. native grasslands (i.e., prairie) and advance toward collective goals in grassland conservation. Potential solution-oriented actions include inventorying and monitoring remaining prairie, reconsidering public and private incentives for conversion and conservation, and establishing an industry-led moratorium on natural ecosystem loss. There is also a need among the engaged communities to develop unified messaging and a shared vision for grassland conservation in the U.S., such as “no prairie conversion” or “zero net loss of grasslands.” Additional tangible steps for action are outlined across the science, policy, and public-driven support arenas and offered for multiple stakeholder groups, including agricultural producers, policymakers, academics, and conservation organizations.