查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdTo counteract undesirable impacts of climate change, several different mitigation instruments have been proposed to sequester carbon through reforestation or avert greenhouse gas emissions due to land use change through forest carbon offset projects. Such projects will require an explicit focus on equitable benefit sharing to generate sustainable and alternative livelihoods. However, research on the impacts of forest carbon offset projects for individuals and communities has often been conducted without baseline data or counterfactuals built into the research methods. We conducted a study in a small Indigenous community in eastern Panama with participants and non-participants in a forest carbon offset project, across wealth groups. In this mixed methods study, participants and non-participants completed surveys before, during, and after implementation over 14 years to assess changes to natural and financial assets. We also assessed major concerns and perceived benefits of the carbon offset project via open-ended questions. Quantitative data show that participants continued to engage in reforestation practices even after payment cessation. Quantitative data also suggest carbon offset payments provided financial stability for poorer participants to diversify into other sources of income over time, while income inequality remained stable across wealth groups. Qualitative data indicate that the greatest benefit of the carbon offset project for participants was economic security for future generations, while concerns about basic needs like food and money declined over time for both participants and non-participants. This research suggests that forest carbon offset projects can be effective for encouraging long-term adoption of forestry practices, specifically reforestation and agroforestry, while providing social co-benefits for rural livelihoods, across wealth dimensions.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdUrban land use intensity (ULUI) reflects the utilization status of urban land use. However, few studies have allocated urban land distribution across provinces or cities based on the ULUI. We propose an optimization method to allocate the urban land based on ULUI to make it effective and decrease the loss of ecosystem services. Using mainland China as the research area, we first estimated ULUI at the prefectural city level in 2015 and evaluated its spatial heterogeneity; urban land distribution in 2030 was then optimized by coupling the estimated ULUI and the LAND System Cellular Automata model for Potential Effects (LANDSCAPE). Specifically, we generated two scenarios: ULUI, and quota (QT). Results showed the following: (1) ULUI demonstrated a spatially heterogenous distribution in 2015. Cities with high ULUI were mainly centralized around urban agglomerations; those with low ULUI were distributed in the northwest and northeast of the research area, where there were economically undeveloped regions. (2) Using optimization, the total economic benefits (EBs) increased and the loss of ecosystem service value (ESV) decreased. Many prefectural cities increased economic output, and reduced ecological losses, even in some rapidly cities. Our research highlights that optimizing urban land based on ULUI is a reasonable method to increase EBs and reduce ESV loss.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdEnvironmental contamination by hydrocarbons has negative effects on human health and other receptors including air, water and land resources. Following a United Nations Environment Programme report in 2011 which concluded that remediation strategies adopted in Nigeria did not meet international best practice, the Nigerian Government is attempting to develop a fit for purpose model of managing oil-contaminated land and wetlands. It has established the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to coordinate the environmental remediation and the restoration of livelihoods of local communities in the Niger Delta, starting with Ogoniland. HYPREP has been implementing the remediation process for more than five years with limited expected sustainable outcomes. It is now 11 years following UNEP's recommendations for environmental and livelihood restoration in the region. The challenges of effective land remediation and restoration of traditional livelihoods are explored in the context of the Niger Delta, Nigeria's hub of oil and gas production. The preliminary appraisal indicates that HYPREP operations are bureaucratic, suffering from capacity gaps and a weak stakeholder engagement strategy. Other extant challenges include the slow implementation of recommended emergency measures, corruption and the absence of infrastructure for hazardous materials management. Additionally, HYPREP has not optimized quality assurance by engaging internationally accredited laboratories for chemical analysis of environmental samples. Opportunities exist for HYPREP to learn lessons from other regimes for effective contaminated land management. Roles for different stakeholders working towards sustainable contaminated land management in Ogoniland and the wider Niger Delta are outlined. These recommendations would benefit regions with similar contexts and contaminated land issues.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdGreen space, especially visual contact with greenery, is an important aspect of space quality assessment and has a significant impact on the premium of real estate. Due to the limitations in available data and technologies, existing hedonic studies mainly capture accessibility to green space (i.e., proximity), and how visual contact with green space (i.e., visibility) impacts housing prices is not well understood. This paper measures the intangible concept of visual contact with green space by taking advantage of street view images and community photos based on semantic segmentation. Then, based on hedonic model theory, a set of housing price determinants is selected. Finally, we construct two models, namely, random forest regression and geographically weighted regression models, to explore the capitalization effects of visual contact with green space on housing prices in Shenzhen, China. In our study, compared with indicators such as park accessibility and greening rate, variables of green visual contact are more important for housing prices. Moreover, the effects of visual contact with green space inside and outside the community display marked spatial variations. This work is a beneficial attempt to focus on the human scale for the actual demand of urban green planning. The findings of this paper add further knowledge to highlight the importance of visual contact with green space in street design and urban planning, which can enrich research on the amenity values of green space and the quality of public space theoretically and methodologically.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdThe land reallocation phase as a process has a direct influence on the success of land consolidation (LC) studies. In Turkey, land reallocation is performed according to ‘farmer preferences’ as determined by interviews with landowners. This traditional method is called the ‘interview-based method’. In land reallocation studies, parcel locations and property rights are re-arranged according to both farmer preferences and project productivity. A variety of solutions is inevitable in this re-arrangement, as the person responsible for the project and the series of criteria involved in the process differ between projects. How acceptable the solution is for landowners, and the expected benefit from an LC project, depends on the determination of an optimal solution. Genetic algorithms (GA) are widely considered to be an effective method for finding the optimum solution. In this study, land reallocation was performed automatically using GA and the results compared with the traditional land reallocation method. The main purpose of this study is to advance a land reallocation model which minimizes human interference while still meeting traditional land reallocation criteria. Both farmer preferences and block occupancy status were taken into consideration in this model by using GA. The polygonal areas (blocks) within which plots were defined were planned according to topography and the road and irrigation systems. The study was tested with real data, and it was observed that the success rate of block placement using GA was 93%, according to the farmer's preferences, and that full occupancy rate in the blocks was 73%. The results derived from both models were compared in terms of number of parcels, average parcel size, number of parcels per landholding, and number of shared parcels; these criteria are commonly accepted as prominent comparison criteria in the relevant literature. The comparison shows that more successful land reallocation results were derived from the GA model than from the interview-based model. A survey of landowners was also conducted to verify the success of the GA method. The results showed that an interactive land reallocation which includes an optimization process through which the landowners are able to change their preferences can be carried out effectively.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdThis study estimates the causal impact of the high-speed rail (HSR) on land market outcomes of Chinese counties, from 2004 to 2016. Local governments launch new HSR town projects in suburban areas by leveraging the spatial spillover benefits of HSR stations. This study finds that the average land price increases in urban districts with HSR access. In contrast, the residential land supply and revenue decrease significantly in urban districts but increase significantly in suburban counties of medium and small cities. This suggests large-scale real estate development in HSR new town projects. The study finds that a population moves from suburban counties to urban districts due to HSR development, which indicates a strong spatial mismatch of land leases in new town projects. We argue that the spatial mismatch of land leases is a fundamental reason of the “ghost town” phenomena, which implicates the financial sustainability of private developers and the banking sector.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdThe importance of forests in the provision of ecosystem services that provide multiple benefits to society is increasingly being recognised. These services include climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, water quality protection, fibre for timber processing or wood energy and recreation opportunities. However, afforestation targets across Europe are not being met, despite the availability of planting subsidies in some countries. Using Ireland as a case study, this paper uses a novel technique to examine the afforestation participation decision utilising a choice modelling framework, where a revealed preference methodology is applied to the land use change from agriculture to forestry at individual farm level for the first time. The model coefficients are consistent with economic theory relative to the utility maximisation of income, leisure and wealth (long term land value) and suggest that while income is a key driver of the participation decision at individual farm level, the non-pecuniary benefits from farming are also a consideration.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdSystematic Conservation Planning (SCP) is a spatially explicit process used globally to prioritize conservation actions, but its effectiveness is difficult to quantify. In South Africa, terrestrial SCP processes are mainly used to identify important biodiversity areas outside of formal protected areas that are required to meet conservation targets. Environmental policy refers to these areas as Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBAs), and uses them to inform land use change decisions. Using Mpumalanga Province as a case study, avoided loss within CBAs is quantified using counterfactual matching methods. To contextualize the results, it is benchmarked against avoided loss achieved by protected areas during the same period. Significant reductions of 54–72% in land clearing were achieved in CBAs compared to other natural areas and were comparable to avoided loss achieved by protected areas in similar evaluations in other countries. Protected areas in Mpumalanga were found to be very effective (88% relative avoided loss) but are located in areas of lower land use change pressures than CBAs. Avoided loss was quantified as 1058 ha for Irreplaceable CBAs, 5285 ha for Optimal CBAs and 20,586 ha for protected areas. The consideration of biodiversity priorities in land use change decisions outside protected areas was found to be an effective complementary strategy to protected areas to avoid loss of biodiversity in areas typically not available for protected area expansion.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdForest law compliance can play an important role in enhancing natural resource governance and advancing sustainable development. The role of compliance and the factors that affect it require better consideration in the planning and implementation of international forest policies. This study presents an analysis of factors that influence forest law compliance behaviour among local communities in Cameroon. The analysis is based on forest communities’ self-reported compliance with two forest rules in Cameroon, both of which are part of formal state forestry law. Original field data from 151 individual respondents in 6 villages located in easter and south-eastern Cameroon are analysed using logistic regression analysis. We find that several instrumental, normative, legitimacy and contextual factors affect the forest law compliance behaviour of local communities. A number of factors, including the perceived probability of detection and sanctions (instrumental), tradition/religion (normative), participatory rule making (procedural legitimacy) and property rights (contextual and governance related factors) are found to significantly influence local communities’ forest rule compliance behaviour. Our findings carry implications for the design and implementation of existing and future forest policies and interventions to manage forest resources sustainably in many parts of the world.
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