Regional land-use allocation using a coupled MAS and GA model: from local simulation to global optimization,a case study in Caidian District,Wuhan, China

China is facing the pressures of both rapid economic development and environmental protection, and land-use allocation optimization is an important way to manage the conflicts between these pressures and to achieve sustainable development. Optimization of land-use allocation is a nonlinear multiobjective spatial optimization problem, and a purely local simulation model or global optimization model is insufficient to solve it. It is essential to bridge the gap between the two models through the combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. This study integrates a multiagent system (MAS) that simulates the behaviors of land-use stakeholders with regard to their choices of specific locations, with a genetic algorithm (GA) that simultaneously evaluates and optimizes land-use configurations to meet various regional development objectives. The model is expected to achieve the optimization of land use in terms of the composition and spatial configuration. Caidian District, Wuhan, China, was chosen as the study area to test the model in this paper. The results show that the performance of the coupled model is superior to a pure GA model or MAS model. The optimal configuration improves on the economic output, spatial compactness, and carbon storage of the current configuration and promotes sustainable regional land-use development from the local scale to the regional scale.     

Geographic approaches to resolving environmental problems in search of the path to sustainability: The case of polluting plant relocation in China

This paper applies a spatial perspective to environmental problems in search for the paths to sustainability, using polluting plant relocation in China as a case study. It examines how environmental improvement in one place may lead to environmental degradation in another place, how geographic concepts such as location, distance, spread and backwash effects, and land use models can help understand such phenomenon, and what the implications are for the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and development policies. Field research was conducted from 2006 to 2012 in Chinese cities of Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and Ningbo. It involved intensive site observations and in-depth interviews with government officials of environmental protection, economic development, and business recruitment, and grassroots environmentalists. The results indicate that environmental improvement in all these cities has led to environmental degradation in their suburbs and rural areas due to relocation of polluting plants. Environmental spread and backwash effects may help explain the severe intra-regional environmental and economic disparities and environmental injustice. The powerful and wealthy may achieve rapid economic growth and environmental recovery at the expenses of the powerless and poor, leading to environmental poverty and sustainability disparities.     

An unexpected geography of opportunity in the wake of the foreclosure crisis: low-income renters in investor-purchased foreclosures in Phoenix,Arizona

During the recent United States foreclosure crisis, investors purchased and leased thousands of homes nationwide, opening up formerly owner-occupied neighborhoods to renters. Yet, little is known about how this process affected regional patterns of residential segregation and inequality. In this study, we combine property-level data on real estate transactions and subsidized housing vouchers from 2004 to 2014 to assess whether the conversion of foreclosures to rentals enabled low-income renters to live in more advantaged neighborhoods in Phoenix, Arizona. Renters with vouchers living in investor-purchased foreclosures were in lower-poverty neighborhoods compared with those not living in investor-purchased foreclosures. This suggests that foreclosure sales may have widened the geography of opportunity for low-income renters with subsidized housing.     

Do medical marijuana centers behave like locally undesirable land uses? Implications for the geography of health and environmental justice

As of 2013, medical marijuana is legal in 20 US States and the District of Columbia, but few studies have investigated the impact of the retail centers that sell the drug. We draw upon the social construction literature to frame our research and help us determine whether medical marijuana centers in Denver, Colorado, are considered locally undesirable land uses (LULUs). The geography of health and environmental justice frameworks lead us to hypothesize that marijuana centers are more likely to be opened in Hispanic, Black, and poor neighborhoods than in non-Hispanic White and affluent neighborhoods. We also hypothesize that marijuana centers will tend to increase the minority composition and poverty of the neighborhoods in which they are located. Contrary to expectations, we find no empirical support for these two hypotheses. Instead, results suggest that marijuana centers are likely to be situated in neighborhoods with higher crime rates and more retail employment. Thus, despite the view by many planners and law enforcement officials that these centers are problematic, they do not take on LULU characteristics in siting and demographic changes. This finding, while limited to Denver, has important implications for policymakers who are considering similar marijuana policies.     

Uneven development of the sustainable city: shifting capital in Portland,Oregon

Portland, Oregon, is renowned as a paradigmatic “sustainable city.” Yet, despite popular conceptions of the city as a progressive ecotopia and the accolades of planners seeking to emulate its innovations, Portland’s sustainability successes are inequitably distributed. Drawing on census data, popular media, newspaper archives, city planning documents, and secondary source histories, we attempt to elucidate the structural origins of Portland’s “uneven development,” exploring how and why the urban core of this paragon of sustainability has become more White and affluent while its outer eastside has become more diverse and poor. We explain how a “sustainability fix”—in this case, green investment in the city’s core—ultimately contributed to the demarcation of racialized poverty along 82nd Avenue, a major north–south arterial marking the boundary of East Portland. Our account of structural processes taking place at multiple scales contributes to a growing body of literature on eco-gentrification and displacement and inner-ring suburban change while empirically demonstrating how Portland’s advances in sustainability have come at the cost of East Portland’s devaluation. Our “30,000 foot” perspective reveals systemic patterns that might then guide more fine-grained analyses of particular political-socio-cultural processes, while providing cautionary insights into current efforts to extend the city’s sustainability initiatives using the same green development model.     

基于生态足迹的甘肃省耕地资源可持续利用与情景预测

 基于生态足迹理论,测算了1997-2009年甘肃省在保持社会经济可持续发展下的最佳耕地资源容量,运用ARIMA模型对甘肃省2010-2015年的生态足迹和生态承载力进行预测,按照《甘肃省国民经济和社会发展第十二个五年规划纲要》中的社会经济指标对耕地资源可持续发展容量进行情景预测。结果表明：1997-2009年,甘肃省耕地资源可持续发展容量总体上呈现上升趋势,其中1997-2002年耕地资源可持续发展容量基本低于实际耕地面积,2003-2009年,耕地资源可持续发展容量均高于实际耕地面积,出现耕地利用负荷现象;ARIMA模型预测结果显示,2010-2015年,甘肃省人均耕地生态足迹呈现上升趋势,年平均增长率为4.75%,人均耕地生态承载力呈现减少趋势,但总体上变化不大,人均耕地生态赤字从2011年成为负值,并且逐渐增加;情景预测结果显示2010-2015年,甘肃省耕地资源可持续发展容量与实际耕地面积差距愈来愈大,预计到2015年,为实际耕地面积的2.42倍,耕地利用负荷现象严重,人地关系紧张。     

中国自然保护区生态旅游研究进展

截止2012年,中国自然保护区面积达国土面积14.9％,超过世界平均水平.自然保护区的自然生态资源迎合了生态旅游需求,在保护区内开展生态旅游,为保护区可持续发展提供一个新的思路.目前,国内越来越多的学术研究论文集中在这些旅游活动,通过中国知网,对2000～2012年中国自然保护区生态旅游的相关文献进行检索和分析,经整理获得相关文献1 673篇,其中核心期刊414篇.在此基础上对自然保护区生态旅游的理论、开发、管理、环境问题、社区参与及国外经验研究方面进行综述.就中国自然保护区生态旅游的研究进展,概括出4点成就并提出4点建议.     

Geospatial data infrastructure for sustainable development in sub-Saharan countries

Abstract

People are now using geoinformation for many different purposes and consequently one can confidently say that the need for geospatial data infrastructure (GDI) cannot be overstated in sub-Saharan Africa. Geospatial information (GI) is essential to socio-economic planning and development of sub-Sahara African countries. This paper therefore examines: GI during the last centuries in sub-Sahara Africa; recent paradigms in GDI in sub-Sahara Africa; the benefit of GDI to the African economy and the future of GDI in sub-Sahara Africa. This study discovered that most countries in sub-Saharan Africa did not have timely access to accurate geospatial data throughout the last centuries. This significantly hindered meaningful social and economic development. Development of GDI nonetheless, will enhance search and retrieval of geospatial data in Africa. This is one of the benefits that can be derived from implementing GDI in sub-Sahara Africa. Therefore, it is necessary to review cadastral survey laws and regulations so as to incorporate the use of recent geospatial equipment.     

减轻山区资源环境承载压力与扶贫的途径探讨——安康市教育扶贫模式实证研究

秦巴山区生态良好,是中国的绿心,但经济极端贫困,且生态保护难度大,对外联系不便,外在形象与内在发展水平矛盾突出.选取秦巴山区腹地安康地区,通过分类问卷调查和座谈的方法进行调研,发现安康市通过教育扶贫,已产生了教育移民效应.高等教育和中等职业教育每年产生永久性移民在1万人左右(0.96万人),间接移民在3万人左右,起到了减轻当地资源承载压力的作用;农民工培训每年产生暂时性移民达63.2万人.安康市的实践经验对解决资源脆弱地区的脱贫致富和环境保护提供了范式.     

Urban Underclass: The Wayward Travels of a Chaotic Concept

This commentary critically engages with arguments made by Loïc Wacquant in his book Urban Outcasts on the nature of public discourse regarding concentrated urban poverty in the United States. In particular, it elaborates a critical reading of the international circulation of social-scientific analyses of urban poverty—in particular the concept of the "urban underclass"—which rose to prominence through research on Chicago neighborhoods. This concept has subsequently influenced scholarly and public policy approaches to characterizing and combating entrenched urban poverty and long-term unemployment in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. I challenge the appropriateness of the concept as well as the direction of public policymaking that has downplayed, if not ignored, questions of job availability and job quality in urban areas.