This paper examines whether policy cognition is associated with rural households’ stated willingness to participate in China’s homestead reform, which is a case of restructuring layered and incomplete property rights. Using a 2019 survey of 1,355 households in 11 provinces, we estimate probit models for compensated exits and transfers of homestead use rights. A one-point increase in the nine-item policy cognition index is associated with 2.31- and 1.97-percentage-point increases in the two predicted probabilities. The associations remain positive across most alternative estimators and alternative constructions of the policy cognition index. Conditional mixed-process estimates are treated only as sensitivity evidence because the village-peer policy cognition index may reflect shared local conditions. The potential pathway results are consistent with the roles of prior market experience and procedural acceptance of collective recovery but do not establish mediation. The findings support targeted policy communications on eligibility, transaction rules, compensation, inheritance, and postexit security.
We describe and evaluate the evolution of pastoral land tenure in Kazakhstan, home to one of the largest areas of temperate rangeland on earth. After independence, Kazakhstan introduced individual property rights over pasture, but later sought to mitigate negative outcomes with new legal instruments. As well as excluding smallholders from land titles, initial reforms aggravated the breakdown of migratory grazing systems. The second phase introduced landscape scale pasture management plans and expanded public grazing by expropriating under‑used plots. But implementation has been hindered by a high coverage of long-term leaseholds and planning is often a paper exercise. Poor infrastructure, scarce herding labour and weak social institutions also hinder use of distant pastures. However, some local authorities have found mechanisms to improve livestock mobility and pasture access. We draw on international examples to discuss whether individual tenure may be combined with more inclusive arrangements, supporting recovery of seasonal grazing systems.
Costa Rica has recently transitioned from a minor pass-through location to a major transshipment hub connecting South American cocaine sources to transatlantic markets. This study investigated how much direct and indirect land-use change (LUC) was caused by narco-trafficking throughout the biodiverse Osa Peninsula and surrounding Area of Osa Conservation (ACOSA) from 1986 to 2019. Within 3 years of increased narco-trafficking activity, rates of forest and oil palm change were on average 8.76% and 29.5% slower than in control locations, respectively. This translated into 178.5 more hectares of forest cover and 2,013 less hectares of oil palm during the study period. Moreover, this effect persisted for forested areas for the duration of the study period with an overall 5.06% slower rate of change. Narco-trafficking intertwines with legal economies in Costa Rica in complex ways and manifests as spatially concentrated ‘narco-degradation’ rather than large-scale ‘narco-deforestation’ observed in other conflict regions.
Construction of buildings and transport infrastructure is often an unavoidable driver of landscape fragmentation, disrupting ecological connectivity. This study quantifies landscape fragmentation across 39 European countries using the normalised effective mesh size (meff) with the ‘cutting out’ (CUT) procedure. We confirm the relevance of using the meff CUT indicator for measuring landscape fragmentation at the regional level by its strong linear correlation with road density and imperviousness density. Based on this measure, we further introduce the ‘fragmented land per capita’ metric as a proxy for land use efficiency to quantify the impact of anthropogenic pressure on landscape connectivity. Our analysis reveals an important and often overlooked finding regarding city living: while absolute fragmentation is highest in cities, city living is associated with markedly less fragmented land per capita than rural living. These findings highlight the need for targeted, context-specific land use policies and infrastructural planning to support European conservation frameworks.
Urban growth drives land use change and reduces the quantity, quality, and connectivity of green spaces, yet small and medium-sized urban areas remain understudied. Using aerial photographs, we mapped green land cover in and around settlements of three Norwegian municipalities and assessed changes from 1990 to 2017. We found loss, fragmentation, and homogenisation of green areas, alongside outward expansion of built-up land despite national goals for compact development. These shifts reduce habitat connectivity and alter ecological conditions for native species, mirroring patterns found in larger urban areas globally. Although overall growth aligned with densification strategies, with more infilling and edge expansion than outlying growth, infilling still reduced green space. This suggests beneficial policies may not accommodate urban growth without ecological degradation. We recommend that densification policies generally address both the amount and spatial configuration of green space, protecting both large and small patches to sustain biodiversity and regional identity.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the ‘Third Pole,’ plays a key role in the global climate system. This study analyzes the characteristics and drivers of CO2 emissions in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, based on land use and energy consumption data from 2000, 2010, and 2020. Emissions and their spatial – temporal dynamics were assessed using a land use transfer matrix, emission coefficients, the carbon footprint model, and the Geodetector method. Results show marked land use changes from 2000 to 2020: cultivated land, forest land, and construction land increased by 12.24%, 2.19%, and 251.63%, respectively, while grassland declined by 7.88%. CO2 emissions rose sharply from 155.61 to 448.36 million tonnes. Land use transitions indicate weak coordination between natural and socio-economic systems. Emission growth was driven mainly by primary industry expansion from 2000 to 2010, and by urbanization from 2010 to 2020.
To achieve climate neutrality, Germany has set ambitious targets for decarbonizing its energy supply by 2038. The federal government is striving to realize this goal through a series of legislative changes across various policy domains. This evolving policy framework is accompanied by significant changes in land-use governance and the introduction of new policy instruments. In this context, the article critically examines the land-related implications of a sectorally driven decarbonization agenda for other sustainability objectives. It argues that while the German government has undertaken far-reaching efforts to reconfigure the energy system toward climate neutrality, it has not treated the territorial coordination of competing land-use demands as an explicit and complementary policy objective. Consequently, the various trade-offs among different sustainability aims have not been sufficiently addressed at the national level. This generates considerable adjustment pressures at subordinate levels of governance, which are explored in detail throughout this paper.
Urban land-use/cover change research has long neglected impervious surface (IS) reversals, resulting in an incomplete understanding of urban land transitions. Using Zhengzhou as a case, this research utilised annual Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI images (2000-2020) to extract 30 m-resolution IS percentage data. Based on this precise dataset, three IS change patterns were defined: IS expansion (ISEX), IS intensification (ISIN), and IS reversal (ISRE) to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics and quantitatively examine their trends. Our study shows that the total IS area increased, while IS density decreased. ISIN contributed more to IS growth than ISEX, with both accelerating toward the southeast. A notable upward trend in the total ISRE area was observed, primarily clustered in core urban areas. Land use policies mainly influence the complex spatiotemporal variations in IS in Zhengzhou. Overall, accelerating IS growth dominates the megacity, but ISRE, critical for urban redevelopment under construction land inventory policies, should not be ignored.
Farmers make choices about their land-use portfolio based on their experience, incomplete information and social connections. Rather than imposing normative economic or ecological rationales for farmer choices, a participatory simulation game can lead to co-learning. We utilized a plot-level game, Farmer Options, Risks in Complex Ecological-Social system (FORCES), to explore the management of tree and crop diversity in three contrasting landscapes in Indonesia. We assessed farmer management choices, responses to socio-ecological pressures and quantified game impacts on changes in farmer discourse. We found gendered preferences for plant species and land-use practices. Most older farmers preferred tree-based system, while young farmers chose annual food crops, opting for higher income despite risks. Social, cultural, and ecological reasons played important role in decision-making alongside economic factors but depended on the local context. By clarifying consequences of farmers’ choices, a top-down and bottom-up approach can be reconciled in the search for sustainable landscape management.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15.3.1, 'Proportion of degraded land,' assesses land degradation using three core sub-indicators: land productivity, land cover (LC), and soil organic carbon. The LC sub-indicator evaluates global trends through a transition matrix defined in the UNCCD Good Practice Guidance (GPG), classifying land cover changes as degradation, improvement, or stability. However, this approach does not capture intra-class transitions (e.g. changes occurring within the same LC class), potentially overlooking relevant degradation or improvement processes. To address this limitation, we expanded the original 7-class transition matrix by incorporating 44 CORINE Land Cover (CLC) detailed level-three classes, integrating biophysically weighted MODIS NDVI data (2000-2018). This enhanced framework enabled the detection of intra-class changes amounting to 1.06% (artificial), 0.96% (agricultural), 7.32% (natural), and 0.03% (wetland/water bodies). Notably, within the natural class (CLC 3) 8.53% of the area exhibited improvement, 14.9% degradation, and 76.5% stability.The workflow of the analysis using the 44 CORINE CLC detailed level-three classes for the year 2000 and 2018, the monthly NDVI were obtained from Google Earth engine (GEE) and cumulative averages computed, a percentile raking was then used quartiles to split the distribution into four equal parts (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) to reduce the number of CLC detailed level-three classes into a LC type. The ranking of the LC types was taken from the good Practice guidance (GPGs).
Wheat is widely recognized as an essential food for both global and Brazilian food security. Brazil has a long-standing structural dependence on wheat imports, making increases in domestic production crucial for reducing this reliance. In an effort to mitigate this dependence, wheat cultivation has expanded into the Brazilian Cerrado in recent decades, creating new opportunities in nontraditional wheat-growing regions. This study analyzes the main factors driving wheat expansion in the Cerrado between 1988 and 2024 using a dynamic panel econometric model. The results indicate that wheat expansion is strongly associated with farmers' accumulated experience, technological development, and irrigation, as well as with the presence of soybean production, which indirectly supports wheat cultivation through shared infrastructure and production systems. In contrast, wheat competes for land with other crops - particularly corn, cotton, and beans - making relative crop profitability a key condition for the continuation of this expansion.
This paper explores how public participation in land-use planning contributes to community well-being and evaluates the effectiveness of PPGIS combined with focus group discussions for assessing residents’ land-use preferences and concerns. An online PPGIS survey was conducted in a rural community in the Westfjords of Iceland, followed by on-site focus groups to obtain a deeper understanding of residents’ attitudes towards aquaculture and tourism and their associated economic, social, and environmental impacts. The results reveal a strong willingness among residents to be actively involved in land-use planning and decision-making. While aquaculture and tourism are perceived as important economic opportunities, they are also seen as insufficient to sustain the community’s social and environmental structure. This emphasizes the need to integrate socio-ecological considerations into land-use planning, and highlights the importance of inclusive, collaborative decision-making approaches that prioritize community well-being and environmental stewardship amid the Arctic’s rapid environmental and economic changes.
With the rise of new technological tools/platforms, community science programs have expanded dramatically in both quantity and spatiotemporal reach. This growth is fueled by increasing demand for complex data, the cost of transitional fieldwork, and greater emphasis on public engagement. While community science holds immense potential to enhance public understanding and contribute to meaningful scientific research, it also presents unique challenges related to program design, implementation, and impact. This paper explores the successes, failures, and long-term considerations of such initiatives, drawing on relevant literature and direct experience from the Interdisciplinary Citizen-based Coastal Remote Sensing for Adaptive Management (IC-CREAM), a program developed to address landscape and environmental challenges. This paper highlights lessons in community engagement, communication strategies, and program sustainability. We argue that while community science programs offer transformative opportunities, they require thoughtful planning, adequate and ever adaptive resources, realistic expectations, and backup strategies to succeed and endure.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize integrated, sustainable planning for human settlements. Previous studies on settlement change focused on static physical structures while overlooking distinctions between settlement types and their relationships with population. Using a dataset of eight settlement types from 1990 to 2020, we compared them with population datasets over the same period. Our findings indicate that settlement expansion does not proportionately correspond with population growth. New settlements predominantly emerged in Dense Villages and Sub-urban Landscapes, while population increases mainly occurred in Large Cities and Urban Landscapes. Decoupling analysis revealed land expansion often outpaced population growth across most settlement types. Population density declined across most settlement types, with the most pronounced decreases observed in Large Cities in eastern China. Our study provides a national-scale assessment of how various settlement types interact with population dynamics, offering new insights into the decoupling of land urbanization and population urbanization.
This study explores the relationship between environment and rural settlement preferences in post-Roman Northwest Gaul, revealing a surprising concentration of settlements in marginal and wet environments. Using environmental classification, GIS analysis and a unique dataset, it reveals aspects of the socio-economic strategies of a rural population that has become relatively autonomous after the retreat of the Roman administration. These findings challenge traditional views on agricultural productivity and settlement patterns, suggesting that rural communities actively adapted to their environments. These findings challenge the traditional view that agricultural productivity was the primary determinant of settlement location. For future research, this calls for a more flexible perspective—one that moves beyond rigid notions of productivity and remains open to diverse, context-specific land-use systems.
Environmental and socioeconomic variables that are used to predict land use and land cover (LULC) change in most global-scale land use models miss some LULC change processes, including cropland expansion in frontier areas. We tested whether incorporating landscape metrics, which measure the spatial arrangement of landscapes and vary according to complex anthropogenic and environmental factors, in global- and continental-scale machine learning models of LULC change from 1992 to 2020 improved model performance when compared to socioeconomic and biophysical variables. Two types of LULC change were modelled: cropland expansion and forest loss. Including landscape metrics always improved the accuracy of cropland expansion models but enhanced the performance of forest loss models for only coarser resolution pixels of 80 x 80 km. Therefore, landscape metrics may provide additional insights for modelling LULC change beyond socioeconomic and biophysical variables, but further research is needed to assess the impact of spatial scale on their effectiveness.
Cultivating a diverse set of crops helps maintain stable agricultural production and sustainable livelihoods. Based on a 7-year longitudinal panel study of three villages in the China-Myanmar borderland, this study examines crop diversification dynamics before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. It also explores the multiple pathways driving these changes by applying a dynamic Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The study finds that overall crop diversity declined, and the range of crop diversity narrowed across households. Of the crops studied, sugarcane acreage decreased the most, and lemon acreage increased the most. With the disruption of labor migration from Myanmar, local villagers relied on reallocated resources to maintain crop diversity. Three pathways drive crop diversification dynamics, with clear differences among households: ‘risk dispersion for large-scale operations,’ ‘continuous working time for multi-seasonal cultivation,’ and ‘staggered labor input for part-time farming.’ This paper contributes to the existing literature on how land systems change under exogenous shocks.
Non-grain production on cultivated land (NGPCL) severely threatens food security. China’s regional functional zoning reflects tailored strategies, yet few studies use a comparative approach to analyze NGPCL’s spatiotemporal patterns and factor variations. Based on 2011–2020 provincial data, this study analyzed NGPCL in China, comparing major and non-major grain-producing areas using Dagum’s Gini coefficient, cold and hot spots analysis, and spatial econometric models. Results show that compared to non-major grain-producing areas, major grain-producing areas exhibit lower levels of NGPCL, and demonstrate a tendency towards ‘grain-oriented’ cultivation. Overall, major areas exhibit larger regional differences in NGPCL, primarily due to inter-group disparities, while intra-group differences are more prevalent in non-major areas. NGPCL in major areas demonstrates significant low-level clustering, whereas in non-major areas, it exhibits high-level clustering. The impact of urbanization on NGPCL follows an inverted ‘U’ shape in major areas and a ‘U’ shape in non-major areas.
In rural communities, markets can drive change by modifying human activities and influencing landscape complexity. The interactions among markets, resource management, and landscapes deserve closer examination to understand community dynamics and the role of local markets. This study aims to analyze whether variation in peasant’s productive strategy (diversification or specialization) and differentiated market integration are associated with landscape complexity. We employed ethnobotanical, remote sensing, and landscape ecology metrics. We conducted semi-structured interviews and developed land classifications in four communities in Coyomeapan, Central Mexico. Results indicate that communities differ in landscape complexity, reflecting the species sold, resource management practices, and the producers’ socioeconomic capacity for market integration. However, productive strategies are not directly linked to landscape heterogeneity at this scale, since agroecosystems remain largely managed through traditional methods. We emphasize that multifunctional rural landscapes persist through local market linkages, dual peasant economies, and traditional management.
Conserving Indonesia’s peatlands and forests, especially in Central Kalimantan, is crucial for reducing global carbon emissions. Covering about 3 million hectares of peatland and 7 million hectares of forest, Central Kalimantan is a biodiversity hotspot. In this study, we show spatial patterns of smallholder oil palm expansion, land availability for smallholder farmers and the deforestation situations in different forest zones. We assess environmental and socioeconomic trade-offs under different planning scenarios, including business-as-usual, legal deforestation, and zero deforestation. We identify deforested areas suitable for oil palm based on yield potential and emphasize the importance of protecting remaining forests and peatlands from agricultural expansion. Our findings provide valuable insights for effectively using limited land resources and improving spatial planning for smallholder oil palm expansion. By implementing strategic spatial planning, we can mitigate the threat posed by agricultural conversion of forest and peatland ecosystems.
