Farmland Merging in Poland--A Success or Failure in Land Management Policy

Farmland merging is a significant tool in comprehensive rural areas development. Although a broad range of research relating to this field already exists, not enough emphasis has yet been placed on this issue in Poland. In all probability it would not be a point for broad discussion if this situation related to a country, where agriculture is negligible. Nonetheless, in Poland agriculture plays a very important role in the economy： it employs 17% of labour force and arable land covers about 60% of the total area. Yet, even where land consolidation work has been carried out for years, the expected effects are still not appreciable, mostly because of the disastrous formal and legal policy. This paper intends to make a contribution to the field of knowledge of farmland merging in Poland. Particular attention was focused on the importance of land management policy in the streamlining of land consolidation activities. The study brings a fresh view on the examination of the effectiveness of farmland merging work, based on two different formal procedures carried out in Poland. During the investigation the main obstacles and weaknesses in legal regulation were revealed while at the same time, producing possible solutions.

Urban Spatial Restructuring in Transitional Economy——Changing Land Use Pattern in Shanghai

For almost three decades, China has been undergoing significant transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Fast-paced economic growth and urbanization, interacting with market-oriented reforms in land re- sources allocation, have caused profound spatial restructuring of Chinese cities. This paper examines urban expansion and land use reconfiguration in Shanghai’s central city from 1979 to 2002, with a special focus on the effect of the adoption of the land-leasing system in 1988. The empirical research, which employs GIS-based spatial analysis tech- niques to explore land use data for multiple years, indicates fundamental changes in the spatial characteristics of urban development in Shanghai after this important land policy reform.

Evolution and adjustment of land and housing policy in the process of China’s urbanization

Land and housing policy has been developing towards market pricing since reform and opening up of China.China has witnessed rapid urbanization and large population flows in recent years.In addition,the demand and supply of land and housing in urban and rural areas are in sharp contrast.These issues have brought greater challenges to current land and housing policy in China.This paper proposes the basic thinking for adjusting land and housing policy on the basis of the urbanization theory of Jean Gottmann and Terry,G.McGee,as well as the housing market filtering model.It also pushes forward the idea of establishing a construction land market that covers both urban and rural areas,and an interactive housing system,which would address the housing concerns of urban migrants and put to use vacant housing and idle homesteads in rural areas.

Historical Analogy： Japan＇s Road Toward War and Japan＇s Postwar Road

In 1931, Japan launched the Sept. 18th attack against China. Ever since, there have been many different views over the origin of Japan＇s road toward war, which mostly concern with Japan＇s land policy. This paper holds that Japan＇s land policy was an evolving one and it transformed along the change of its supporters and implementers during different stages. It is mostly a contention about the different strategies on Manchuria and Mongol; the northward or the southward advance faction; the orientations of the radical military occupation or the moderate economic occupation. Interestingly, the development of Japan＇s postwar policy toward China, especially in the recent years, resembles the evolvement of Japan＇s land policy in the 19th century. They both show tendency from the economic effort to the military activity.

Assessment of Urban Sprawl on Agricultural Soil of Northern Nile Delta of Egypt Using RS and GIS

Urban sprawl is threatening the limited highly fertile land in the Nile delta of Egypt. Landsat TM satellite images of 1984, 1992 and ETM+ of 2006 have been used to study the impact of urban sprawl on agricultural land of the Northern Nile delta, Egypt. Visual interpretation using on screen digitizing and change detection techniques were applied for monitoring the urban sprawl. Combining the land capability map and the urban thematic layer using GIS made it possible to point out the risk of urban expansion on the expense of the highly capable soil class. The results show that a total expansion of urban area amounted to 689.20 km2(6.3% of total area) during the study period 1984–2006. The urban expansion during the 1984–2006 was on the expense of the most fertile soils where, the high capable soils(Class I) lost 247.14 km2(2.26 % of total area) and the moderate capable soils lost 32.73 km2(0.3% of total area), while the low capable soils lost only 57.39 km2(0.53% of total area). The urban encroachment over the non capable soils was very limited during the study period 1984–1992, where 7.33 km2 only was lost. The pattern of urban sprawl has been changed during the 1992 to 2006 whereas much larger area(50.64 km2) of the non capable soils was converted to urban. It can be concluded that the urban sprawl is one of the dominant degradation process on the land of Nile Delta.

Proposed Relief Map of the Suitability of the Maranhão River Basin, Brazil, for Anthropogenic Use

In this paper, we proposed a method for mapping the suitability of land for intensive anthropogenic use in the Maranhao River Basin, in the state of Goiás, Brazil. We analyzed existing 1:250,000 maps of the local geology, drainage system topography and geomorphological features. We generated new information based on our analysis, including a compilation of basic morphometric data and a map of the slopes in the basin, which we used to construct the geomorphological suitability map of the watershed. Our results indicate that 40% of the study area can support intensive anthropogenic use;the remaining 60% of the basin area is categorized as “fragile” regarding the expansion of intensive land use.

Impacts of Cultivated Land Conversion on Environmental Sustainability and Grain Self-sufficiency in China

Using provincial data, the present paper examines the impact of cultivated land conversion on agriculture and the environment. It is found that the grain production center is gradually moving towards more fragile and water scarce areas, putting more pressure on the environment. Land conversion caused large losses in ecosystem service values in the 1990s, but large scale ecological restoration programs have been implemented since 2000 to compensate for such losses. The ecological restoration programs are concentrated in regions with relatively low land productivity, whereas cultivated land conversion usually takes place in areas with relatively high land productivity. Newly-cultivated land, especially that in areas marginally suit for agricultural production, is likely to have much lower productivity levels than the original cultivated land. Because the stock of potentially cultivable land is almost exhausted, China＇s grain self-suffiency policy can only be maintained by preserving the available stock of arable land and increasing its productivity in a sustainable way.

China's Construction Land Expansion and Economic Growth:A Capital-output Ratio Based Analysis

Since 2003, the Chinese Government has included land policy as an important component of macroeconomic policy. The present paper analyzes the impact of the expansion of construction land on economic growth in terms of the capital-output ratio. Using provincial panel data for China from 1999to 2005, we conclude that the excess expansion of China＇s construction land led to an increase in the capital-output ratio. Therefore, expanding construction land has made little contribution to economic growth. This paper argues that contractionary land policy does not deter high economic growth, and is a necessary condition for sustainable economic growth.