Suchergebnisse

This paper considers farmland conversion for the purpose of urban development as a series of transactions and discusses the determinants of appropriate governance structures for governing farmland conversion in terms of process efficiency. Towards this end, the paper develops a theoretical framework for analysing the process of farmland conversion based on transaction cost economics. The framework covers transactions, transaction attributes, governance structures and performance with the aim of minimising transaction costs. The paper also demonstrates the usability of the framework by creating a corresponding quantitative model for a case study in China. Furthermore, it identifies factors that influence the transaction costs associated with farmland conversion in China and explains why the related governance structures are chosen.

AbstractLand use mix (LUM) is a key part of urban form, but the definitions and measures of LUM are debated. This study aims to reveal the spatial characteristics of LUM patterns by using a sample of 216 streets in Shanghai, a megacity of China. Firstly, a systematic quantitative framework for sustainable LUM is proposed. Then, an LUM degree index (LMDI) that integrates diversity, proximity and compatibility is developed to address the possible bias of a single dimension. Results suggest that areas with high diversity are not necessarily mixed, due to inaccessibility or negative externalities of land uses. Subsequently, spatial characteristics of LUM patterns that combine LMDI with dominant mix‐typologies are analyzed. Results show that residential & service‐dominated streets tend to exhibit higher mix, and are mainly distributed in the city center or the administrative core area. However, 44.4% of the streets with residential & industrial‐dominated or equally distributed mix have lower mix degree and are generally located in the outskirts. More optimized policies for urban periphery areas should be considered. LUM patterns present a detailed perspective to measure and depict the spatial features of LUM, and have the potential to assist urban planners in making decisions.

Despite the unprecedented rate of urbanization throughout the world, human society is still facing the challenge of coordinating urban socioeconomic development and ecological conservation. In this article, we integrated socioeconomic data and spatial metrics to investigate the coupling relationship between intensive land use (ILU) system and landscape ecological security (LES) system for urban sustainable development, and to determine how these systems interact with each other. The values of ILU and LES were first calculated according to two evaluation subsystems under the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework. A coupling model was then established to analyze the coupling relationship within these two subsystems. The results showed that the levels of both subsystems were generally increasing, but there were several fluctuation changes in LES. The interaction in each system was time lagged; urban land use/cover change (LUCC) and ecosystem transformation were determined by political business cycles and influenced by specific factors. The coupling relationship underwent a coordinated development mode from 1992–2012. From the findings we concluded that the coupling system maintained a stable condition and underwent evolving threshold values. The integrated ILU and LES system was a coupling system in which subsystems were related to each other and internal elements had mutual effects. Finally, it was suggested that our results provided a multi-level interdisciplinary perspective on linking socioeconomic-ecological systems. The implications for urban sustainable development were also discussed.