Spatial differences of Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)among counties(cities)on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains

The county(city)located on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains is the primary area to solidify and extend the success of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,China in poverty alleviation.Its Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)are intertwined with the concerted economic and social development of Xinjiang and the objective of achieving shared prosperity within the region.This study established a sustainable development evaluation framework by selecting 15 SDGs and 20 secondary indicators from the United Nations’SDGs.The aim of this study is to quantitatively assess the progress of SDGs at the county(city)level on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains.The results indicate that there are substantial variations in the scores of SDGs among the nine counties and one city located on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains.Notable high scores of SDGs are observed in the central and eastern regions,whereas lower scores are prevalent in the western areas.The scores of SDGs,in descending order,are as follows:62.22 for Minfeng County,54.22 for Hotan City,50.21 for Qiemo County,42.54 for Moyu County,41.56 for Ruoqiang County,41.39 for Qira County,39.86 for Lop County,38.25 for Yutian County,38.10 for Pishan County,and 36.87 for Hotan County.The performances of SDGs reveal that Hotan City,Lop County,Minfeng County,and Ruoqiang County have significant sustainable development capacity because they have three or more SDGs ranked as green color.However,Hotan County,Moyu County,Qira County,and Yutian County show the poorest performance,as they lack SDGs with green color.It is important to establish and enhance mechanisms that can ensure sustained income growth among poverty alleviation beneficiaries,sustained improvement in the capacity of rural governance,and the gradual improvement of social security system.These measures will facilitate the effective implementation of SDGs.Finally,this study offers a valuable support for governmental authorities and relevant departments in their decision-making processes.In addition,these results hold significant reference value for assessing SDGs at the county(city)level,particularly in areas characterized by low levels of economic development.

Circulation of Development Factors Promoted by Innovation of Land Management Under Background of Rural Vitalization:A Case Study of Tengtou Village in Zhejiang Province,China

Land is the space carrier for the existence and flow of other development factors.Activating rural land and promoting the circulation of other development factors through land management innovation is necessary to realize rural vitalization.This paper identifies the connotation of factor flow in the rural vitalization context,the action mechanism of land management innovation to boost the flow of development factors,the issues and obstacles restricting factor circulation,and the realization mechanism of the flow of development factors in rural vitalization.Based on the analytic paradigm constructed in the paper,the successful practice of promoting the flow of development factors through innovative land management in a model village is examined.The results show that:1)the unreasonable systems characterized by the land use system in rural areas are the main obstacles causing circulation issues in development factors.It is essential to engage in comprehensive reform to break down these long-lasting obstacles to the smooth flow of development factors.2)The land should play a leading role in the circulation of development factors in the background of rural vitalization;the main purpose of land management innovation is to activate the land factor,thereby promoting the circulation of other factors.3)The activated land factor will act as a‘trigger’to promote capital and technology in rural settings and use capital and technology to attract the inflow of talents and the return of migrant workers,whereby the population factor will act as a‘catalyst’for the cultivation of rural culture,bringing about the integration of various development factors.4)The innovation of land use and management,increased funding,and new technologies have brought multiple talents to Tengtou Village.The high-frequency mutual feedback between the village’s own and the external development factors resulted in its successful integration of industrial development.

Metropolitan Housing Development in Urban Fringe Areas-A Case Study of Three Metropolitan Cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane

Purpose:The metropolitan cities of Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane play an important role in the economy of the Gauteng province in South Africa.The region constitutes to 22.4 percent of the total population of South Africa and has a strong presence and contributes in areas of manufacturing sector,financial and business services,retail and wholesale trade,etc.The rapid urban population,increase in the informal settlements and socio-economic opportunities has resulted in considerable urban sprawl in and around the urban fringe areas of these metropolitan cities.The urban fringe areas of these metros often come under the influence of rapid urbanization process and pressures.Coupled with the economical and potential land dynamics and lack of priority of spatial development guidelines,these areas attract rapid and haphazard development from communities and developers.Research Design/Methodology:This research is based on a qualitative approach through a comprehensive literature review that included content analysis of key documents on housing sector such as IDPs(Integrated Development Plans),Municipal Annual Reports,Growth Development Strategies,and among other sectoral documents on housing sector.Some of the key priority issues considered in the housing sector included:eradication of housing backlogs,spatial restructuring of housing,provision of choice in terms of location,tenure and housing typology.Findings:The current paper discusses the approaches of metropolitan housing development processes in three metropolitan cities of South Africa from Gauteng region,namely:Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.The paper discusses the existing housing sectoral scenario along with the fringe areas in three cities with focus on:formal and informal settlements,housing segregation and the backlogs,current institutional arrangements,role of public private participation,and scope for alternate mechanisms.The paper concludes in discussion on sustainable development options for housing development in urban fringe areas.

Prediction of the joint impacts of sea level rise and land development on distribution patterns of mangrove communities

Mangrove distribution along shorelines shows distinct zonation patterns;thus,different communities may face various influences from sea level rise(SLR)and land use.However,long-term change predictions are usually based only on the total extent of mangroves.Few studies have revealed how SLR and land development such as agriculture,aquaculture,and urbanization jointly affect different intertidal mangrove communities.This study proposed a novel framework combining SLAMM(Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model)and the CLUE-S(Conversion of Land Use and its Effect at Small regional extent)model to assess the potential impacts on upper and lower intertidal mangrove communities.Maoweihai in Guangxi,China,was selected as the study area and the potential impacts from the squeeze effect and mangrove expansion potential were evaluated.We established three scenarios combining SLR and land use patterns to predict mangrove coverage projections by 2070.The results showed that,under a single SLR driver,the upper intertidal mangroves would be more adaptive to rapid SLR than the lower intertidal mangroves.However,under the combined influence of the two drivers,the upper intertidal mangroves would experience larger squeeze effects than the lower intertidal mangroves,with up to 80.5%of suitable habitat lost.Moreover,the expansion potential of upper intertidal mangroves would be considerably more limited than that of lower intertidal mangroves.The length of the expandable habitat patch boundary of upper intertidal mangroves only reached 1.4–1.8 km,while that of the lower intertidal mangroves reached up to99.2–111.2 km.Further,we found that aquaculture ponds and cropland are the top two land development types that could occupy suitable habitat and restrict the mangrove expansion potential.Our results highlight that timely improvement of land use policies to create available landward accommodation space for mangrove migration is essential to maintain the coverage and diversity of mangrove communities under SLR.The proposed method can be a helpful tool for adaptive mangrove conservation and management under climate change.

Integration of Transport and Land Use Planning by Transit-Oriented Development for Economic Sustainability of the Standard Gauge Railway Projects in Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the countries in Africa that has engaged in the projects for construction of the electrified Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). However, lack of integration of transportation and land-use planning threatens economic sustainability of the SGR project. This study was carried out for the purpose of finding-out how transportation can be integrated with land-use planning for economic sustainability of the project. The study was carried-out by using qualitative research approach through demonstration as case study. Findings show that construction of the SGR is not integrated with land-use planning around the stations and along the SGR corridor. It is concluded that economic sustainability of the SGR projects can be achieved by integration of transport and land-use planning. As demonstrated, it is recommended to deliberate for integration of transportation and land-use planning in the SGR projects of which the prime land within Transit Stations can be efficiently used by using Transit Oriented Development and secure more land for production activities around the Transit Stations and along the SGR corridor.

Relationship between Sustainable Land Use and Rural Economic Development:A Case Study of Meining Village,Pingma Town in Guangxi

For a long time,rural economic development has put economic benefits in the first place,ignoring the impact of unreasonable land use on local land resources and ecological environment,which is not conducive to the long-term high-quality development of local economy and sustainable land use.There is an urgent need to study the relationship between sustainable land use and rural economic development in order to achieve the coordinated development of the two.By using the methods of literature research and field investigation,this paper studies Meining Village,Tiandong County,Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.The study found that farmers tend to plant pure eucalyptus forest,single land use structure,short-term rotation planting model and traditional afforestation and land preparation technology are not conducive to sustainable land use in forest areas,and affected by economic and educational factors,farmers livelihood is relatively simple,so the development of rural economy will be restricted.In view of the above problems,this paper puts forward the following solutions:changing the land use model of Meining Village to promote sustainable land use;introducing advanced science and technology and diversified livelihood ways to promote the sustainable development of rural economy;building a virtuous circle of sustainable land use and rural economic development.

Peri-urban Development:Discussion with Land Use Zoning,Statutory Provision,and Issues inside Katahari Rural Municipality,Nepal

The peri-urban area is a transitional zone between the city and its hinterlands characterized by mixed land use and intensive flows of resources,people,goods,and services from and to the city center.These zones are generally misguided and haphazardly developed without a proper planning framework.The peri-urban area at present will be the urban area in the future;therefore,it needs planning intervention in its initial stage of growth.Katahari,a peri-urban area of Biratnagar metropolitan city,is developing a spontaneous lack of land use plans.Recently,the Government of Nepal has encouraged the local government to implement land use plans in the provided framework,policy,and guidelines.This study,in this context,attempts to analyze and identify land use issues and potential zones for Katahari rural municipality that also supports planning urban development in the future.The study is based on primary and secondary data and information supported by maps and figures.It is concluded that Katahari has been developed as a multi-function center adjoining the Biratnagar metropolitan city,and future expansion of the city will cover a wide range of rural municipalities.The postal highway that passes through it has attracted a wide range of urban functions.Agriculture,residential,commercial,and industrial are the main land use category at present and needs development control through providing land use zoning and related planning instruments through the increasing role of the stakeholder and the government agencies in the decision-making processes and implementation of spatial development frameworks to regulate peri-urban development in the area which will guide the future planning for liability,economic viability,social inclusion,and environmental sustainability in the area.Spill-over development activities of Biratnagar,have increased the number of economic activities,population growth,and mixed-use development.

Climate change, water resources and sustainable development in the arid and semi-arid lands of Central Asia in the past 30 years

The countries of Central Asia are collectively known as the five "-stans": Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. In recent times, the Central Asian region has been affected by the shrinkage of the Aral Sea, widespread desertification, soil salinization, biodiversity loss, frequent sand storms, and many other ecological disasters. This paper is a review article based upon the collection, identification and collation of previous studies of environmental changes and regional developments in Central Asia in the past 30 years. Most recent studies have reached a consensus that the temperature rise in Central Asia is occurring faster than the global average. This warming trend will not only result in a higher evaporation in the basin oases, but also to a significant retreat of glaciers in the mountainous areas. Water is the key to sustainable development in the arid and semi-arid regions in Central Asia. The uneven distribution, over consumption, and pollution of water resources in Central Asia have caused severe water supply problems, which have been affecting regional harmony and development for the past 30 years. The widespread and significant land use changes in the 1990 s could be used to improve our understanding of natural variability and human interaction in the region. There has been a positive trend of trans-border cooperation among the Central Asian countries in recent years. International attention has grown and research projects have been initiated to provide water and ecosystem protection in Central Asia. However, the agreements that have been reached might not be able to deliver practical action in time to prevent severe ecological disasters. Water management should be based on hydrographic borders and ministries should be able to make timely decisions without political intervention. Fully integrated management of water resources, land use and industrial development is essential in Central Asia. The ecological crisis should provide sufficient motivation to reach a consensus on unified water management throughout the region.

Spatial-temporal Dynamics and Driving Forces of Land Development Intensity in the Western China from 2000 to 2015

The change in land development intensity is an important perspective to reflect the variation in regional social and economic development and spatial differentiation.In this paper,spatial statistical analysis,Ordinary Least Squares(OLS),and Geographically weighted regression(GWR)methods are used to systematically analyse the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving forces of land development intensity for 131 spatial units in the western China from 2000 to 2015.The findings of the study are as follows:1)The land development intensity in the western China has been increasing rapidly.From 2000 to 2015,land development intensity increased by 3.4 times on average.2)The hotspot areas have shifted from central Inner Mongolia,northern Shaanxi and the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi to the Guanzhong Plain and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.The areas of cold spots were mainly concentrated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,Yunnan,and Xinjiang.3)Investment intensity and the natural environment have always been the main drivers of land development intensity in the western China.Investment played a powerful role in promoting land development intensity,while the natural and ecological environment distinctly constrained such development.The effect of the economic factors on land development intensity in the western China has changed,which is reflected in the driving factor of construction land development shifting from economic growth in 2000 to economic structure,especially industrial structure,in 2015.

Brownfield Redevelopment Toward Sustainable Urban Land Use in China

Brownfield redevelopment is a new urban land use strategy to pursue the ideal of sustainable development. It relieves environmental pressure and resolves the glaring contradiction between urban land idleness and urban sprawl. It addresses issues of urban land use and farmland protection in China. This paper compares brownfield with greenfield, and defines brownfield and its redevelopment. It elaborates general and special government policies for this sustainable land use strategy in the context of China. General policies contain two aspects: clarifying brownfield redevelopment's priority in Chinese urban planning and land use and setting a general quantitative redevelopment target. The extent of the government's special policies, which aim at coordinating three factors in the redevelopment process, namely govern- ments, developers and users, are divided into five areas: statistics and categorization, assessment and remediation, fi- nancial supports and tax incentives, environmental and legal liability, and publicity and guidance. The paper concludes the major functions of different levels of Chinese government in the redevelopment process, i.e. making general strategy, formulating legislation, spectifying regulations and technical standards, estimating and categorizing brownfield sites, drawing up brownfield planning, providing information and financial support, guiding developers, publicizing the strategy to the public, and checking reuse results.

Effects of Crop Growth and Development on Land Surface Fluxes

In this study, the Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis model （CERES3.0） was coupled into the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme （BATS）, which is called BATS CERES, to represent interactions between the land surface and crop growth processes. The effects of crop growth and development on land surface processes were then studied based on numerical simulations using the land surface models. Six sensitivity experiments by BATS show that the land surface fluxes underwent substantial changes when the leaf area index was changed from 0 to 6 m2 m-2. Numerical experiments for Yucheng and Taoyuan stations reveal that the coupled model could capture not only the responses of crop growth and development to environmental conditions, but also the feedbacks to land surface processes. For quantitative evaluation of the effects of crop growth and development on surface fluxes in China, two numerical experiments were conducted over continental China： one by BATS CERES and one by the original BATS. Comparison of the two runs shows decreases of leaf area index and fractional vegetation cover when incorporating dynamic crops in land surface simulation, which lead to less canopy interception, vegetation transpiration, total evapotranspiration, top soil moisture, and more soil evaporation, surface runoff, and root zone soil moisture. These changes are accompanied by decreasing latent heat flux and increasing sensible heat flux in the cropland region. In addition, the comparison between the simulations and observations proved that incorporating the crop growth and development process into the land surface model could reduce the systematic biases of the simulated leaf area index and top soil moisture, hence improve the simulation of land surface fluxes.

Discussion on the Index System of Intensive Land Use Evaluation in Development Area

The establishment of evaluation index system is the key to the evaluation of intensive land use.On the basis of expounding connotation,characteristics and the principle of establishing evaluation index system,and as for the problems existing in Evaluation Regulation(Trial)of Intensive Land Use in Development Area,regarding the evaluation index system of intensive land use in the development area,in the light of the connotation of intensive land use in development area,coupled with the practical situation of the land use in China's development area,after referring to the research achievements of domestic and abroad scholars,some suggestions are put forward in order to improve and perfect the evaluation index system of intensive land us in development area.

A Sand Control and Development Model in Sandy Land Based on Mixed Experiments of Arsenic Sandstone and Sand: A Case Study in Mu Us Sandy Land in China

Serious desertification caused by human activity and climate change,in addition to water loss and soil erosion related to arsenic sandstone in the Mu Us Sandy Land,lead to severe scarcity of soil and water resources,which causes worse local agricultural conditions accordingly.Many physical properties of arsenic sandstone is complementary with that of sand,arsenic sandstone is therefore supposed to be blended to enhance water productivity and arability of sandy land.Container experiments are carried out to study the enhancement of water holding capacity of the mixture,the blending ratio of arsenic sandstone and sand,and the proper size of the arsenic sandstone particles,respectively.The results of the experiments show that particle size of 4 cm with a ratio of 1∶2 between arsenic sandstone and sand are the proper parameters on blending.Both water content and fertility increase after blending.Water use efficiency in the mixture is 2.7 times higher than that in sand by the water release curves from experiments.Therefore,a new sand control and development model,including arsenic sandstone blending with sand,efficient water irrigation management and reasonable farming system,is put forward to control and develop sandy land so that water-saving agriculture could be developed.Demonstration of potato planting about 153.1 ha in area in the Mu Us Sandy Land in China indicates that water consumption is 3018 m3/ha in the whole growth period.It means that about 61%of irrigation water can be saved compared with water use in coarse sand without treatment.Recycle economic mode and positive feedback of sand resource-crop planting-soil resource are constructed,which changes sand into arable soil and make it possible to develop water-saving agriculture on it.The proposed model will be helpful for soil-water resources utilization and management in the Mu Us Sandy Land.

Background of Land Development and Opportunity of Land Use Transition

In order to ease the contradiction between people and land and ensure the needs of construction land and farmland,this paper analyzes the demand and regional land development background,and points out the problems of the development of the land in China: late start of land development and utilization practices; declining back-up resources and sharply increasing costs; new resources and environmental problems brought about by development and utilization of land in some areas. This paper presents a new opportunity and strategy for land use transition: giving full play to the agricultural and geographical advantages of farming-pastoral area; carrying out water-saving technologies and intensive use of agricultural land in water-deficient areas,in order to achieve reasonable and efficient development and utilization.

Assessment of Industrial Land Use Intensity: A Case Study of Beijing Economic-technological Development Area

In recent years, great economic output of land has been achieved in economic-technological development areas in China, but the intensity of land use in some of these areas is very low. The degree of the low intensity of land use needs to be evaluated. The current method of comprehensive evaluation and grading by one index system has the limitations due to the existence of differences between regions and industries. This paper evaluates industrial land use intensity by Total Factor Productivity (TFP) analysis, which not only measures the intensity but also illustrates the ef-ficiency of input factors. This method is applied to the Beijing Economic-technological Development Area (BDA). A comparison analysis on factor use efficiency and input structure of capital and labor between industries is also carried out in the absence of a labor-income ratio.

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES OF WATER AND LAND RESOURCES IN THE HEXI REGION,CHINA

Hexi region is located in the northwest arid zone in China,being both the base of industry and agriculture,and the prop of developing northwestern China on a large scale in the next century.On the basis of the study on exploitation and utilization process of water and land resources in past 40 years,and present productivity,this paper approaches the utilization trend and development potential of water and land resources;analyses the characteristics,problems and directions of resource utilization in the future;and proposes the countermeasures of rational development of water and land resources.

Analysis on Land Development and Consolidation in Mountainous Area——Land Development and Consolidation Project in Haiba Village of Fengjie County

The paper describes the land use situation in the project area from two aspects. Firstly, natural situation (landscape, temperature, soil hydrology, natural disasters); secondly, land use situation (land use structure, project construction scale, land area of different vegetation classes). Through the research on the land development and consolidation of Haiba Village of Fengjie County, the project is concluded and the implementation cases of the project are reduced from the following six aspects: land leveling project, water conservancy and irrigation, farmland road engineering, project management system, project funds management and completion and delivery of construction project. Besides, the social, ecological and economic interests obtained by the projects are analyzed, so as to provide reference for promoting land development and consolidation in the future.

Coordinative Development Between Land Use Change and Regional Population-Resources-Environment-Development System—A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

Land use change has significant influence on the operation of the PopulationResources-Environment-De-velopment (PRED) System. Moderate land use is the key factor to ensure the coordinative and sustainable development between land use and PRED system. Based on the internal relationship between land use and PRED system, a PRED evaluation index system and a Press-Status-Response (PSR) model were established in this study. According to the expounding on the mechanism of the PSR model, we investigated the coordinative development between the changes of regional land use and PRED system taking Jiangsu Province as an example. The results showed that the orders of the Synthetic Index of Land Use (SILU) and the Variation of PRED Index (VPI) in Jiangsu are both the southern Jiangsu>the central Jiangsu>the northern Jiangsu. A cubic curve model was used to fit the relationship between the VPI and SILU. The inflection point of VPI was situated in 5.0 of SILU. When SILU was below 5.0, VPI increased with SILU, which will be helpful to the coordinative development between land use and PRED system. Based on those results, it is suggested that the land use degree of the southern Jiangsu, especially that of Nanjing City, should be moderately controlled at present, while land resources of the central Jiangsu and the northern Jiangsu should be further exploited.

Land use suitability analysis for town development planning in Nanjing hilly areas: A case study of Tangshan new town, China

Land use suitability analysis plays an important role in sustainable land use and solving environmental problems caused by rapid urban development.A land use suitability mapping approach for town development planning in hilly areas was constructed based on two multi-criteria evaluation methods:Weighted Linear Combination(WLC)and Ordered Weighted Averaging(OWA),to comparatively evaluate and map land use suitability of Tangshan new town in Nanjing,China.Fourteen evaluation factors related to topographic,environmental,socio-economics and historical sites data were used as suitability criteria.The analytic hierarchy process(AHP)method and GIS techniques were integrated into the evaluation models to create the land use suitability map for town development planning.The results of WLC approach showed that 11.4%of the total area is highly suitable while the 48.6%is unsuitable.The results of WLC and OWA approach showed the distribution of degree of land use suitability is almost the same.The areas located at the southern and eastern flat regions are highly suitable for land use,whereas the areas close to the mountain forests,steep slopes,waters,and hot springs,have lower suitability for land use.Sensitivity analysis indicated that the suitability results of the two proposed methods are robust.Indirect validation was achieved by mutual comparison of suitability maps derived from the WLC and OWA methods.It demonstrated that the overall agreement is 90.81%and kappa coefficient is 0.81,indicating that both methods provide very similar spatial suitability distributions.By overlaying the resultant map with the previous master plan map of Tangshan new town,the overlay map once again indicated a satisfactory ecological fit between the two maps.At last,several recommendations are proposed aiming at improving the long-term town development plan for Tangshan new town.

Prediction-Adaptation-Resilience(PAR)approach-A new pathway towards future resilience and sustainable development of urban landscape

Urban land-use planning,especially in the peripheral region,has become an issue in contemporary urban stud-ies.Simultaneously,urban resilience is very indispensable for future urban land use planning and management.Therefore,consistent urban proliferation can be coped through Prediction-Adaptation-Resilience(PAR),to accom-plish future urban land use and sustainable development of any growing up urban areas worldwide.Therefore,different dynamic simulation models,e.g.Cellular automata-Markov model,artificial neural network,are used to project and predict any urban areas’spatial growth.Then,the adaptation strategies are taken to assess the urban land use transformation in the past and present context.Those strategies help to strengthen urban land use planning using an integrated supply and demand chain.Finally,this study checks the resilience of how much it will be threatened or saved for future sustainable urban developmental goals and urban resilience.Therefore,it is important to establish a conceptual framework to achieve Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)based on principles of the PAR approach.Advocating the on-going adaptation of sustainability,resilience,and rapid urban transformation in the developing cities requires clear and explicit definitions that are embedded with the recent and particular context.Thus,government and policy makers should draw their attention to make proper urban landscape planning and adaptation strategies for the future urban expansion in a holistic way by maintaining appropriate urban resilience.