Property Right Acquisition and Path Dependence: Nineteenth-Century Land Policy and Modern Economic Outcomes*

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas W Allen ◽  
Bryan Leonard

Abstract This paper compares lands settled between 1862 – 1940 under the Homestead Act to lands that sold for cash during the same time. We combine recently digitized individual land patents with modern satellite data and find a negative effect of homesteading on modern land use that cannot be explained by land quality, title characteristics, or unobserved differences in settlers. We test the hypothesis that early homestead settlement put homesteaders “in the way” of future development, creating a path dependence in land use decisions for homesteads, despite the fact that their legal rights were identical to purchased lands.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Koebsch ◽  
Ulrike Huth ◽  
Petra Kahle

<p>Ecosystems can store significant amounts of carbon dioxide and are therefore often considered as nature-based solutions to combat climate change. However, anthropogenic perturbations can turn these natural sinks to substantial sources for greenhouse gases. The climate impact of land use and land use change is well recognized on national and international level. Yet, municipalities which implement concrete measures on the ground, lack a tool to quantify the climate effect of their land use decisions.</p><p>Using the German city of Rostock (200.000 inhabitants) as an example, we present an approach to evaluate the climate effect of different land use trajectories in urban areas. The approach makes uses of municipal land use maps and complies with the IPCC inventory guidelines. Based on this emission assessment we can provide generic recommendations to exploit nature-based solutions for climate protection in municipal land policy.</p>


Conservation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-181
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ismail Hossain ◽  
Shinya Numata

In protected areas (PAs) in Bangladesh, as policies shift from net deforestation, conservation initiatives and various management plans have been implemented to reduce deforestation and include public participation at multiple levels. However, the interactive effect of land-related policies on deforestation in PAs is poorly understood. In this study, land-use change analysis using geographic information system data was performed to investigate how policies affected land use and land cover change in Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary (RKWS), particularly the National Forest Policy (1979~), National Land Policy (2001~), and Agricultural Land Policy (1999~), using a series of Landsat images captured at different times. Our analyses showed that the total forest area increased in the 1994–2005 period when a plantation program was implemented, and also that many forest areas were replaced with noncommercial agricultural land areas in the 2005–2013 and 2013–2018 periods, when land zoning and co-management programs were implemented under different land-related policies. Commercial and non-commercial agricultural land expansions were the main drivers of deforestation, suggesting that several programs under the different land-related policies could have had synergetic effects on deforestation even in PAs. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering the undesirable effects of land-related policies in Pas, and the need to support the community for forest conservation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpasquale Chiatante ◽  
Marta Giordano ◽  
Anna Vidus Rosin ◽  
Oreste Sacchi ◽  
Alberto Meriggi

AbstractMore than half of the European population of the Barbary Partridge is in Sardinia; nonetheless, the researches concerning this species are very scarce, and its conservation status is not defined because of a deficiency of data. This research aimed to analyse the habitat selection and the factors affecting the abundance and the density of the Barbary Partridge in Sardinia. We used the data collected over 8 years (between 2004 and 2013) by spring call counts in 67 study sites spread on the whole island. We used GLMM to define the relationships between the environment (topography, land use, climate) both the occurrence and the abundance of the species. Moreover, we estimated population densities by distance sampling. The Barbary Partridge occurred in areas at low altitude with garrigue and pastures, avoiding woodlands and sparsely vegetated areas. We found a strong relationship between the occurrence probability and the climate, in particular, a positive relation with temperature and a negative effect of precipitation, especially in April–May, during brood rearing. Furthermore, dry crops positively affected the abundance of the species. We estimated a density of 14.1 partridges per km2, similar to other known estimates. Our findings are important both because they increase the knowledge concerning this species, which is considered data deficient in Italy, and because they are useful to plan management actions aimed to maintain viable populations if necessary.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 385-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arzu Erener ◽  
Sebnem Düzgün ◽  
Ahmet Cevdet Yalciner

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Spruce ◽  
John Bolten ◽  
Raghavan Srinivasan ◽  
Venkat Lakshmi

This paper discusses research methodology to develop Land Use Land Cover (LULC) maps for the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) for basin planning, using both MODIS and Landsat satellite data. The 2010 MODIS MOD09 and MYD09 8-day reflectance data was processed into monthly NDVI maps with the Time Series Product Tool software package and then used to classify regionally common forest and agricultural LULC types. Dry season circa 2010 Landsat top of atmosphere reflectance mosaics were classified to map locally common LULC types. Unsupervised ISODATA clustering was used to derive most LULC classifications. MODIS and Landsat classifications were combined with GIS methods to derive final 250-m LULC maps for Sub-basins (SBs) 1–8 of the LMB. The SB 7 LULC map with 14 classes was assessed for accuracy. This assessment compared random locations for sampled types on the SB 7 LULC map to geospatial reference data such as Landsat RGBs, MODIS NDVI phenologic profiles, high resolution satellite data, and Mekong River Commission data (e.g., crop calendars). The SB 7 LULC map showed an overall agreement to reference data of ~81%. By grouping three deciduous forest classes into one, the overall agreement improved to ~87%. The project enabled updated regional LULC maps that included more detailed agriculture LULC types. LULC maps were supplied to project partners to improve use of Soil and Water Assessment Tool for modeling hydrology and water use, plus enhance LMB water and disaster management in a region vulnerable to flooding, droughts, and anthropogenic change as part of basin planning and assessment.


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