Land Use Policy (land + use_policy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Economics and Contemporary Land Use Policy: Development and Conservation at the Rural-Urban Fringe, edited by Robert J. Johnston and Stephen K. Swallow

JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2007
Paul D. Gottlieb
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


The cost of spatial management

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2001
Jesper S. Schou
The spatial dimension of agri-environmental analysis has been recognized in a large number of studies, and the implications for the choice of analytical approaches and, further, environmental policies have been investigated both theoretically and empirically. Spatial management is an integrated part of Danish legislation, which, especially, is manifested in the land use policies. In this paper we analyse the opportunity costs of spatial management, as the costs of two strategies for establishing 400 ha of forest on existing agricultural land are assessed. The first ,planning' strategy involves establishment of the forest in afforestation zones designated by the local county based on the criteria of vicinity to cities and existing forest. The second strategy involves selecting afforestation areas based on a cost-minimizing approach using spatial variations in farm economic output in the study area. Results suggest that the opportunity costs of the planning strategy are 2.5 times higher than of the cost-minimizing strategy, indicating that the additional benefits of the planning strategy need to be significant in order to justify choosing this management approach. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source]


Is there anything like a citizen?

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2010
A descriptive analysis of instituting a citizen's role to represent social values at the municipal level
Abstract Environmental policy-making can be challenging because of lobbying by strong private interests. This results in less consideration about what is best for the wider community. The main goal of this study is to evaluate to what extent it is possible to institutionalize a citizen's role in decision-support processes. While the literature makes a clear distinction between private and social values, very little research is undertaken on how the framing of the instituted process influences which types of value become legitimate. Two deliberative meetings with local inhabitants were conducted in a municipality in Norway focusing on land use policy in coastal areas. The meetings were framed to facilitate dialogue and to emphasize the most important values to protect, given the interests of the wider municipality in the longer run. A large majority of the participants found the framing appropriate. Analyses of the dialogues, letters written by participants before the meetings and individual interviews undertaken afterwards document that the format of the meetings influenced strongly which arguments were found legitimate. The setting favoured the identification and specification of social values for inhabitants of the involved municipality such as public accessibility in conserved nature areas along the coast. The data moreover give insights about how the framing influenced the process. Arguments in favour of private construction interests were present, but were found to be weak in legitimacy. The framing might, however, also have influenced which social values were emphasized the most strongly. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Urban Form and Household Activity-Travel Behavior

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2006
RON N. BULIUNG
ABSTRACT Cities and metropolitan regions face several challenges including urban sprawl, auto dependence and congestion, and related environmental and human health effects. Examining the spatial characteristics of daily household activity-travel behavior holds important implications for understanding and addressing urban transportation issues. Research of this sort can inform development of urban land use policy that encourages the use of local opportunities, potentially leading to reduced motorized travel. This article examines the potential household activity-travel response to a planned metropolitan polycentric hierarchy of activity centers. Behavioral observations have been drawn from an activity-travel survey conducted in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area during the mid-1990s. Evidence presented from exploratory analysis indicates an urban/suburban differential, with less daily travel and smaller activity spaces for urban households. Investigation of the travel reduction potential of the proposed land-use strategy suggests that location effects could be offset by adjustments to household sociodemographic and mobility characteristics. [source]


Understanding future ecosystem changes in Lake Victoria basin using participatory local scenarios

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2009
Eric O. Odada
Abstract Understanding future ecosystem changes is central to sustainable natural resource management especially when coupled with in-depth understanding of impacts of drivers, such as governance, demographic, economic and climate variations and land use policy. This offers comprehensive information for sustainable ecosystem services provision. A foresight process of systematic and presumptive assessment of future state and ecosystem integrity of Lake Victoria basin, as participatory scenario building technique, is presented. Four scenarios have been illustrated as possible future states of the basin over the next twenty years. Using a scenario building model developed in Ventana Simulation (VENSIM®) platform, the paper presents a scenario methodology for tracking changes in lake basin ecosystem status. Plausible trends in land use change, changes in lake levels and contribution of fisheries are presented. This is part of an initial attempt to setup long-term environmental policy planning strategies for Lake Victoria basin. The assumptions, driving forces, impacts and opportunities under each scenario depict major departure and convergence points for an integrated transboundary diagnosis and analysis of regional issues in the basin as well as strategic action planning for long-term interventions. The findings have been presented in terms of temporal, spatial, biophysical and human well-being dimensions. The attempts in this study can be embedded in a policy framework for basin management priority setting and may guide partnerships for environmental management. [source]


The Air is Always Cleaner on the Other Side: Race, Space, and Ambient Air Toxics Exposures in California

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2005
Manuel Pastor Jr.
This article uses U.S. EPA's National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) for 1996 to examine environmental inequality in California, a state that has been a recent innovator in environmental justice policy. We first estimate potential lifetime cancer risks from mobile and stationary sources. We then consider the distribution of these risks using both simple comparisons and a multivariate model in which we control for income, land use, and other explanatory factors, as well as spatial correlation. We find large racial disparities in California's "riskscape" as well as inequalities by other factors and suggest several implications for environmental and land use policy. [source]