Use of Drainage Patterns and Densities to Evaluate Large Scale Land Areas for Resource Management

The chapter explores the notion of “community interests” with regard to the global “land-grab” phenomenon. Over the last decade, a dramatic increase of foreign investment in agricultural land could be observed. Bilateral investment treaties protect around 75 per cent of these large-scale land acquisitions, many of which came with associated social problems, such as displaced local populations and negative consequences for food security in Third World countries receiving these large-scale foreign investments. Hence, two potentially conflicting areas of international law are relevant in this context: Economic, social, and cultural rights and the principles of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and “food sovereignty” challenging large-scale investments on the one hand, and specific norms of international economic law stabilizing them on the other. The contribution discusses the usefulness of the concept of “community interests” in cases where the two colliding sets of norms are both considered to protect such interests.

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Contesting large-scale land acquisitions in the Global South

World Development ◽

10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105581 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 146 ◽

pp. 105581

Author(s):

Jan Sändig

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Global South ◽

Land Acquisitions ◽

Large Scale Land

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Large scale land investments and food security in agropastoral areas of Ethiopia

Food Security ◽

10.1007/s12571-020-01131-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adugna Eneyew Bekele ◽

Liesbeth Dries ◽

Wim Heijman ◽

Dusan Drabik

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Intake ◽

Large Scale ◽

Living Standard ◽

Additional Food ◽

The World Bank ◽

Direct Benefits ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

Household Food Consumption ◽

Positive Effect

AbstractIn Ethiopia, large scale land investments have been expanding into pastoral regions. However, little is known about the consequences of these investments on the food security of the pastoral community. Using Living Standard Measurement Survey data of the World Bank, we find that, on average, about 32% of the respondents from the (agro-)pastoral regions are food insecure. After controlling for confounders, proximity to large scale land investments is associated with additional food intake of up to 745 kcal per day per adult compared to the households located farther away from a large scale land investment. Proximity to large scale land investment has no significant effect on the coping strategies based food security. For households located in proximity to a large scale land investment, food intake significantly increases with access to roads and markets. Proximity to a large scale land investment has a positive effect on household food consumption not necessarily because of direct benefits from large scale land investments, but due to land and soil quality near the large scale land investments.

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What Drives Landowners to Resist Selling Their Land? Insights from Ethical Capitalism and Landowners’ Perceptions

Land ◽

10.3390/land10030312 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 312

Author(s):

Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag ◽

Hamid Rastegari Kopaei ◽

Dacinia Crina Petrescu

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Critical Reflection ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Urban Land ◽

Land Conversion ◽

Land Grabbing ◽

Ethical Perspective ◽

Land Acquisitions ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

Land Transactions

Foreign land grabbing is acknowledged as a phenomenon that generates disempowerment and dispossession of local farmers, human rights violations. Previous studies have revealed the lack of ethical benchmarks in foreign large-scale land transactions that raise moral concerns. It is evident that when resources are scarce and people depend on them, the balance between values and interests transforms itself into a dilemma. Within this context, the aims of the paper were to bring to the fore critical reflection on a more ethical perspective of large-scale land acquisitions and to extend the scant information on what factors determine landowners not to sell their land to foreigners to limit land grabbing. This context justifies the need for a critical reflection on a more ethical perspective of large-scale land acquisitions. Therefore, two objectives were set. The first one is to document the role of ethics in large-scale land transactions. Based on the land grabbing literature, authors selected a set of eight land grabbing narratives, most often interrelated and overlapping, that pose ethical considerations. The second objective is to reveal how well a set of variables can predict the “Resistance to sell” the land to foreigners even when an attractive price is offered. As ethics is a social construct, the analysis captured the stakeholders’ perspective on land grabbing. Therefore, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 332 Romanian landowners from twelve randomly selected counties to reveal their perceptions. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to observe how well a set of seven variables could predict landowners’ “Resistance to sell” their land to foreign buyers. The use of PLS-SEM was justified by the existence of single items and the need to examine many structural model relations. Results showed that the variables with the strongest contribution to the prediction of the dependent variable are the “Probability to join an association for farmers rights defense”, the “Importance of the land price offered by the potential foreign buyer”, and the “Perceived effect of agricultural land conversion to urban land”. Raising awareness on the importance of buyer attributes, increasing people’s perception of the negative effect of agricultural land conversion to urban land, or strengthening the state’s image as a necessary actor to limit land grabbing will increase landowners’ resistance to sell their land to foreigners. Finally, it can be inferred that, within this frame of discussion, ethics should be valued as a means to create economically viable and morally justifiable solutions for foreign large-scale land transactions.

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Reservoir-Induced Land Deformation: Case Study from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13050874 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 874

Author(s):

Yu Chen ◽

Mohamed Ahmed ◽

Natthachet Tangdamrongsub ◽

Dorina Murgulet

Keyword(s):

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Surface Deformation ◽

Vertical Displacement ◽

Nile River ◽

Reservoir Volume ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Land Deformation ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

The Impact

The Nile River stretches from south to north throughout the Nile River Basin (NRB) in Northeast Africa. Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile originates, has begun the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which will be used to generate electricity. However, the impact of the GERD on land deformation caused by significant water relocation has not been rigorously considered in the scientific research. In this study, we develop a novel approach for predicting large-scale land deformation induced by the construction of the GERD reservoir. We also investigate the limitations of using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On (GRACE-FO) mission to detect GERD-induced land deformation. We simulated three land deformation scenarios related to filling the expected reservoir volume, 70 km3, using 5-, 10-, and 15-year filling scenarios. The results indicated: (i) trends in downward vertical displacement estimated at −17.79 ± 0.02, −8.90 ± 0.09, and −5.94 ± 0.05 mm/year, for the 5-, 10-, and 15-year filling scenarios, respectively; (ii) the western (eastern) parts of the GERD reservoir are estimated to move toward the reservoir’s center by +0.98 ± 0.01 (−0.98 ± 0.01), +0.48 ± 0.00 (−0.48 ± 0.00), and +0.33 ± 0.00 (−0.33 ± 0.00) mm/year, under the 5-, 10- and 15-year filling strategies, respectively; (iii) the northern part of the GERD reservoir is moving southward by +1.28 ± 0.02, +0.64 ± 0.01, and +0.43 ± 0.00 mm/year, while the southern part is moving northward by −3.75 ± 0.04, −1.87 ± 0.02, and −1.25 ± 0.01 mm/year, during the three examined scenarios, respectively; and (iv) the GRACE-FO mission can only detect 15% of the large-scale land deformation produced by the GERD reservoir. Methods and results demonstrated in this study provide insights into possible impacts of reservoir impoundment on land surface deformation, which can be adopted into the GERD project or similar future dam construction plans.

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Characterizing the Topographic Changes and Land Subsidence Associated with the Mountain Excavation and City Construction on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13081556 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 1556

Author(s):

Chuanhao Pu ◽

Qiang Xu ◽

Kuanyao Zhao ◽

Yanan Jiang ◽

Lina Hao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Loess Plateau ◽

Large Scale ◽

Ground Deformation ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Chinese Loess Plateau ◽

Rapid Urbanization ◽

Chinese Loess ◽

City Construction ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

The Chinese Loess Plateau

A mega project, Mountain Excavation and City Construction (MECC), was launched in the hilly and gully region of the Chinese Loess Plateau in 2012, in order to address the shortage of available land and create new flat land for urban construction. However, large-scale land creation and urban expansion significantly alters the local geological environment, leading to severe ground deformation. This study investigated the topographic changes, ground deformation, and their interactions due to the MECC project in the Yan’an New District (YND). First, new surface elevations were generated using ZiYuan-3 (ZY-3) stereo images acquired after the construction in order to map the local topographic changes and the fill thickness associated with the MECC project. Then, the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) time series and 32 Sentinel-1A images were used to assess the spatial patterns of the ground deformation in the YND during the postconstruction period (2017–2018). By combining the InSAR-derived results and topographic change features, the relationship between the ground deformation and large-scale land creation was further analyzed. The results indicated that the MECC project in the YND has created over 22 km2 of flat land, including 10.8 km2 of filled area, with a maximum fill thickness of ~110 m. Significant uneven ground deformation was detected in the land-creation area, with a maximum subsidence rate of approximately 121 mm/year, which was consistent with the field survey. The strong correlation between the observed subsidence patterns and the land creation project suggested that this recorded uneven subsidence was primarily related to the spatial distribution of the filling works, along with the changes in the thickness and geotechnical properties of the filled loess; moreover, rapid urbanization, such as road construction, can accelerate the subsidence process. These findings can guide improvements in urban planning and the mitigation of geohazards in regions experiencing large-scale land construction.

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