A Geospatial Approach to Measure Social Benefits in Urban Land Use Optimization Problem

Different conflicting objectives are used in urban land use optimization problems. The maximization of social benefit is one of the important objectives in urban land use optimization problems. Many researchers have used different methods to measure social benefits in land use optimization. Studies show that there is no established method to measure social benefit in the urban land use allocation game. Against this background, this study aims to (a) identify the appropriate indicators as a measure of social benefit, and (b) propose a composite index to measure social benefit in urban land use optimization problems. Based on the literature review and expert opinion, this study identifies four indicators as a measure of social benefit. These are spatial compactness, land use compatibility, land use mix, and evenness of population distribution. Using the weighted sum approach, this study proposes a composite social benefit index (SBI) to measure social benefit in urban land use allocation/optimization problems and planning. The study suggests that spatial compactness is the most influential indicator to the SBI, but the most critical indicator is compatibility, whose 11.60% value reduction from 0.5 alters the decision of choice. Finally, the proposed method was applied in Rajshahi city in Bangladesh. The result suggests the potential of using SBI in the land use allocation problem. It is expected that the proposed social benefit index (SBI) will help the land use optimization and planning and will be helpful for decision makers.

How Does Land Urbanization Promote CO2 Emissions Reduction? Evidence From Chinese Prefectural-Level Cities

The process of land urbanization may result in a great change in land use structure, land use intensity, and efficiency, which could further lead to an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Despite rich literature on the link between urbanization and CO2 emissions, the mechanism through which land urbanization promotes CO2 emissions reductions has not been fully investigated. To address this gap, this study theoretically and empirically explores the mechanism of land urbanization’s influence on CO2 emissions by integrating land use optimization and high-quality industrial development into a unified framework. Firstly, the theoretical mechanism analysis indicates that low-level industrial development and land use management promote the increase of CO2 emissions per unit of land at the extensive land use stage; however, high-quality industrial development and land use optimization lower CO2 emissions per unit of land at the intensive land use stage. Subsequently, a STIRPAT model and a spatial adaptive semi-parametric model are employed to verify the relationship between the land urbanization rate and total CO2 emissions. The results indicate that the land urbanization rate and total CO2 emissions present an inverted U-shaped relationship. In addition, the mediating mechanism of the advanced industrial structure, CO2 emissions per unit of GDP, and CO2 emissions per unit of land, are studied using the mediating effect model. Results indicate that CO2 emissions reduction can be achieved by promoting the advanced industrial structure, reducing CO2 emissions per unit of GDP or reducing CO2 emissions per unit of land. Ultimately, this study showed that the Chinese government may reduce CO2 emissions by promoting land use structure optimization, land use intensity regulation, land use efficiency improvement, and adjusting energy consumption structure, upgrading industrial structure, and promoting emission efficiency technologies.

Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation into Land Use Optimization: A Case Study in Huailai County, China

Land use plays a crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation, as the reasonable design of land use distribution can positively impact these things. Therefore, research interest in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in land use and management has been growing. However, the adaptation and mitigation strategies have been handled separately at different dimensions and spatial levels. In this study, we presented a modeling framework for land use optimization that integrates climate change adaptation and mitigation, developed the model, and then applied it to Huailai County, wherein environmental and socioeconomic conditions are sensitive to climate change. The regional land use optimization model was combined with a linear programming model and a modified cellular automata model. Subsequently, the climate change adaptation and mitigation constraints, including ecological water demand, spatial suitability, and carbon sequestration, were incorporated into the model. The results indicate that most regions in the study area could adapt to and mitigate climate change with a constant land use pattern, and the land use conversion region under different climate change scenarios was primarily located in the topography transition region. The optimization results also reveal trade-offs between climate change adaptation and mitigation that were manifested with an increase in carbon sequestration and ecological water demand accompanied by decreases in the net income of agricultural production. Thus, it is necessary to simultaneously incorporate climate change adaptation and mitigation into land use optimization and management, and the proposed model provides a feasible method to incorporate them and balance their trade-offs in land use pattern optimization at a regional scale.

Optimization of Land Use Based on the Source and Sink Landscape of Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Fengdu County in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Promoting the preservation and appreciation of ecosystem services is an important value guide for land use optimization. In this research, Fengdu County in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area was selected as the focus of a case study. From the perspective of the source and sink landscape of ecosystem services, a MOP model and FLUS model were used to optimize the areas of various land use types and the spatial configurations of those land use types in the study area in 2035 under a strict ecological constraint (SEC) scenario, a moderate ecological constraint (MEC) scenario, and a relaxed ecological constraint (REC) scenario. We also superimposed and adjusted the results of land use optimization under the three ecological constraint scenarios, and obtained land use regionalization results that integrated multiple scenarios. The results indicated that (1) there were large differences in the areas and spatial distributions of the source and sink landscapes under the three scenarios. Under the SEC scenario, the important source landscapes (ISLs), common source landscapes (CSLs), and sink landscapes (SLs) areas covered 1676.62 km2, 1190.43 km2, and 33.81 km2, respectively. A large area of the CSLs and a small area of the SLs were transformed into ISLs area, and the degree of fragmentation of the landscape was low. Under the MEC scenario, the ISLs, CSLs, and SLs areas covered 1609.22 km2, 1241.60 km2, and 49.74 km2, respectively. The development of the source landscapes and sink landscapes was similar, and the degree of fragmentation was moderate. Under the REC scenario, the ISLs, CSLs, and SLs areas covered 1603.96 km2, 1243.32 km2, and 53.58 km2, respectively. A large area of CSLs was transformed into SLs area, and the degree of fragmentation was high. (2) Fengdu County was divided into seven types of areas: ecological conservation area; agricultural production area; construction optimization area; construction-ecological area; ecological-agricultural area; agricultural-construction area; and integrated development area. The results of this study can provide references for the territorial spatial planning and management of ecological barrier zones.

Land Use Optimization in a Resource-Exhausted City Based on Simulation of the F-E-W Nexus

Limited land resources are used to meet the growing economic, social, and ecological needs of people in China. Food, energy, and water (F-E-W) are the basic resources for supporting human survival and the transformation of different land uses. This paper tries to construct a theoretical framework of land use and the F-E-W nexus and uses system dynamics to simulate the optimal allocation of land use in Shizuishan City, China, by comparing different scenarios that have different parameters related to F-E-W. The final results follow: (1) according to the relationship between land use and the F-E-W nexus, a three-layer nested theoretical framework is constructed. (2) Future land use under different scenarios differs. Under the scenarios of a less dependence on coal energy, a higher utilization efficiency of energy and agricultural water resources, and a lower grain self-sufficiency rate, there are less crop and urban lands but more ecological land. However, generally speaking, crop and rural construction lands tend to decrease, while urban and ecological lands tend to increase. (3) Combined with different objectives, the rapid transformation scenario is considered a better option in which to achieve a balance among the economy, society, and ecology. This paper also discusses the application of land use optimization in the delineation of three control lines in territory-space planning in China.

Integrating Ecosystem Service Values and Economic Benefits for Sustainable Land Use Management in Semi-Arid Regions in Northern China

Studies on land use structural optimization can support the sustainability of land resources. The Taipusi Banner lies in the arid and semiarid area of northern China, with rapid economic development and a vulnerable ecological condition. Taking the Taipusi Banner as a research case, we adopted a land use map and statistical data, and employed the ecosystem process model to establish five scenarios, including an economically optimal scenario, an ecologically optimal scenario, a comprehensively optimal scenario, a status quo, and a projected scenario. Based on multi-objective linear programming, the land use demand was optimized; then, the CLUE-S model and adaptability evaluation were adopted to establish spatial patterns. The ecological and economic benefits were then analyzed and policy suggestions are provided. The main results include the following: (1) The optimization outputs of various scenarios show that under optimization, cropland and forestland increased by 9.13% and 18.9%, respectively, and grassland decreased by 9.81%. (2) The land use optimization shows that comprehensive optimization aimed at achieving comprehensive benefits, ecological benefits, and economic benefits increased these benefits by 3.89%, 2.1%, and 6.2%, respectively. Compared with other scenarios, focusing on the comprehensive benefits of land use can result in the greatest increase in benefits to improve sustainability land resources. Land use optimization must consider not only the optimization of both the quantity and configuration but also the dimensions of both ecology and the economy. Land use should be based on a land suitability evaluation and optimization of the land use spatial configuration to update ineffective land uses and should gradually adjust both the ecological and engineering measures.

On the issue of formation of the institutional environment of environmentally safe agricultural land use

The article is devoted to the formation of the institutional environment of ecologically safe agricultural land use through the model of harmonization of ecological and economic interests of the subjects of agricultural land use. The structure of agricultural land use is based on criteria, the content of which represents both economic and environmental interests of society. For example, the landowner (land user) is interested in converting his land into the most economically attractive - arable land, which reflects his private economic interests, and on the other - society is interested in maintaining the optimal state of agricultural landscapes, which in turn provides the optimal ratio of destabilizing, stabilizing and stabilizing reflecting the public environmental interests [7]. Usually such differentiation of interests of subjects of agrarian land use causes situations of impossibility to agree them voluntarily. Therefore, there is an urgent problem in effective regulatory policy in the field of land use, in particular through the formation of the institutional environment of environmentally friendly agricultural land use through the model of harmonization of environmental and economic interests of agricultural land users. In the article, it is clarified that the institutional model of harmonization of ecological and economic interests of subjects of agrarian land use provides for the introduction of tools to eliminate the conflict of ecological and economic interests, which includes a number of tools, levers and techniques, in particular: -adaptation paradigm; formation of ecological consciousness of land users, ecological morality and ethics; development of the organizational and economic mechanism of formation of ecologically safe agrarian land tenures and land uses optimum through a combination of market and state levers of influence; regulatory and legal support of ecological safety of agricultural land use; optimization of the organizational structure of land use management. Keywords. Institutional environment, institutions, ecologically safe agricultural land use, land relations, economic development, ecology.

Features of land use optimization of water protection zones and coastal protective strips in Kyiv by the method of land management

In the process of working on the article, the author considered the issue of establishing and ensuring compliance with the land use regime of water protection zones and coastal protection strips (on the example of the city of Kyiv). The urgency of considering this issue lies in the importance of optimizing land use as one of the most important tools to protect water bodies from technogenic and anthropogenic impacts and, in general, to improve the water-ecological situation of the hydrological regime. From which the purpose of the work follows, namely, to study the features of optimization of land use of water protection zones and coastal protection zones in Kyiv by the method of land management for the environmental safety of the city's population and public welfare in general. As a result of the research process, the theoretical basis was formed by scientific works related to the essence of the task, as well as legislative and regulatory legal acts of Ukraine on land use regulation. The information and statistical base was an extract from the scheme of planning restrictions of the General Plan of Kyiv and data of the State Service of Ukraine on Geodesy, Mapping and Cadastre, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. As a result of research, it was revealed that according to the legislation on the lands of cities and urban-type settlements, the size of the water protection zone, as well as the coastal protection zone, is established according to existing at the time of installation of a water protection zone concrete building conditions. Nevertheless, the example of the city of Kyiv shows that such information may be missing. The author describes the problematic issues of the land management process of works on establishing the boundaries of water protection zones and coastal protection zones and restrictions on the use of land and other natural resources. Expertly determined the approximate possible area, taking into account the specific building conditions and possible flooding at the maximum flood water level. The model of optimization of land use of the territorial community by means of establishment of restrictions in use of the earths and other natural resources occupied by water objects is proposed. At the same time, the model combines technological, instructional and administrative tasks of land use optimization. In addition, the optimality criteria and restrictions on the use of these criteria proposed in the model, which make it possible to unambiguously determine the location of the boundaries of water bodies and restrictions on the use of lands and other natural resources, taking into account the interests of land users and legislation. Keywords: land use optimization, water protection zones, coastal protection strips, land management process