Land Use Conflict Detection and Multi-Objective Optimization Based on the Productivity, Sustainability, and Livability Perspective

Land use affects many aspects of regional sustainable development, so insight into its influence is of great importance for the optimization of national space. The book mainly focuses on functional classification, spatial conflict detection, and spatial development pattern optimization based on productivity, sustainability, and livability perspectives, presenting a relevant opportunity for all scholars to share their knowledge from the multidisciplinary community across the world that includes landscape ecologists, social scientists, and geographers. The book is systematically organized into the optimization theory, methods, and practices for PLES (production–living–ecological space) around territorial spatial planning, with the overall planning of PLES as the goal and the promotion of ecological civilization construction as the starting point. Through this, the competition and synergistic interactions and positive feedback mechanisms between population, resources, ecology, environment, and economic and social development in the PLES system were revealed, and the nonlinear dynamic effects among subsystems and elements in the system identified. In addition, a series of optimization approaches for PLES is proposed

Expanding the exergy concept to the urban water cycle

The world is urbanizing fast and this increases the pressure on available resources. In a world of cities, it is therefore crucial to take a new look at the way urban systems function: where do the resources come from and where do the wastes end up? It is essential to find ways to minimize urban impacts on resource depletion and environmental impacts and also to improve cycles within the systems. Energy and water cycles are vital to support urban life. Over the last decades, important advances have been made separately in the field of integrated water management and energy efficiency in urban areas. However, for urban planning purposes a shared framework is required that allows planners to model and understand the dynamics of the broader system to achieve an integrated management of the resources. Natural energy and water cycles are modified by metabolic profiles of the cities. The metabolic profile varies with the local resource availability and the level of technological development. To cope with this complexity, the concept of Exergy, based on Thermodynamic laws, and defined as the non-used fraction of energy, has been used to understand the energy cycle in the built environment. This will lead to new approaches towards urban planning and better resources use. This paper aims to find out if the exergy concept can be expanded to the water cycle defined as the use of the non-used water(-fraction). This way the cycle can be optimized and closed at a high efficiency level. In order to achieve this, we want to study to what extend the energy and water cycles are comparable, and how they can learn from each other in order to optimize their management

AHP Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation-Based Research on Coordination Between Water Resources and Urban Economic Social Development in Western China

Setting the effect evaluation on coordination between water resources and urban economic social development in western China as object, this thesis applies methods of literature review and on-the-spot investigation to establish evaluation index system. And by AHP and multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, this thesis conducts the empirical research on 11 provinces or regions in western China and outcomes problems as insufficient economic structure optimization, and then puts forward countermeasures and suggestions from the coordination of effective utilization of water resources to promote economic social development

The Economics of Water Resource Allocation: Valuation Methods and Policy Implications

In this chapter a ‘watershed economics approach’ that could be applied in Cyprus is proposed which is composed of two important stages. In Stage I economic valuation techniques are used to establish the economic value of the competing demands for surface and groundwater, incorporating where necessary an analysis of water quality. The valuation exercise allows the objective balancing of demands based upon the equi-marginal principle to achieve economic efficiency. In Stage II a policy impact analysis is proposed which addresses issues of social equity and the value of water for environmental/ecological purposes. The analysis is undertaken within the confines of the watershed; the most natural unit for the analysis of water allocation and scarcity since it determines the hydrological links between competing users and thus the impacts of one user upon another. The methodology is encapsulated by a case study of the Kouris watershed in Cyprus

Multi-method Modeling Framework for Support of Integrated Water Resources Management

The existing definition of integrated water resources management (IWRM) promotes a holistic approach to water resources management practice. The IWRM deals with planning, design and operation of complex systems in order to control the quantity, quality, temporal and spatial distribution of water with the main objective of meeting human and ecological needs and providing protection from water disasters. One of the main challenges of IWRM is development of tools for operational implementation of the concept and dynamic coupling of physical and socio-economic components of water resources systems. This research examines the role of simulation in IWRM practices, analyses the advantages and limitations of existing modeling methods, and, as a result, suggests a new generic multi-method modeling framework that has the main goal to capture all structural complexities and interactions within water resources systems. Since traditional modeling methods solely do not provide sufficient support, this framework uses multi-method simulation approach to examine the co-dependence between natural resources and socio-economic environment. Designed framework consists of (i) a spatial database, (ii) a process-based model for representing the physical environment and changing conditions, and (iii) an agent-based model for representing spatially explicit socio-economic environment. The main idea behind multi-agent models is to build virtual complex systems composed of autonomous entities, which operate on local knowledge, possess limited abilities, affect and are affected by local environment, and thus enact the desired global system behavior. Based on the architecture of the generic multi-method modeling framework, an operational model is developed for the Upper Thames River basin, Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Six different experiments combine three climate and two socio-economic scenarios to analyze spatial dynamics of a complex physical-social-economic system. Obtained results present strong dependence between changes in hydrologic regime, in this case surface runoff and groundwater recharge rates, and regional socio-economic activities

Working Paper 43 - Energy Sector Development in Africa

The important and wide-ranging role of energy in the development process is well known andit needs no retelling here. However, suffice it to state that there is a strong feedback relationshipbetween the energy sector and the national economy. Energy demand, supply and pricing haveenormous impact on social and economic development and the living standards and overall qualityof life of the population. On the other hand the economic structure and the changes in that structureas well as the prevailing macroeconomic conditions are key determinants of energy demand andsupply. Furthermore, energy affects environmental quality through deforestation associated withunsustainable biomass energy dependence and greenhouse gas emission from fossil fuel use resultingin global warming.Prior to 1973, the rate at which energy consumption increased closely followed the rate atwhich the economy expanded. Rapid economic growth and steadily rising income and higher livingstandards combined with the long term declining trend in energy prices to produce rapidly risingglobal energy demand. Until the emergence of the high cost energy era in the post 1973 era,relatively cheap and abundant energy was a key feature of rapid industrialization and economicprogress. Indeed, commercial energy use remains a key factor in human development. This is despitethe global de-coupling of energy demand-economic growth relationship in the post – 1970 period,triggered by the onset of a new era of more expensive energy associated with the quadrupling of oilprice increases between 1973 and 1974, and further price escalation in 1979 and 1980.Beyond the low level of energy consumption per capita, and unsustainable over-dependenceon bio-mass (wood-fuel), Africa is faced with enormous problems in the quest for sustainableenergy development. For the purpose of addressing these problems effectively, we can summarizethe fundamental energy question facing Africa as: providing and maintaining widespread access ofthe population to reliable and affordable supplies of environmentally cleaner energy to meet therequirements of rapid economic growth and improved living standards. Two sets of factors complicatethe solutions to this critical question. First is the difficult initial energy and economic conditions inmuch of the region. These are broadly defined by the significant deterioration in energy infrastructure,inadequate and unreliable supply of commercial energy to end users despite the enormous untappedenergy resources in the region, and significant inefficiency in energy use. The energy constraints havebeen exacerbated by difficult domestic economic and social conditions. These are defined broadly by, low per capita income, high incidence of poverty, weak economic growth and growth collapsein several cases, stagnating or declining investment (energy inclusive) and weak though improvingdomestic macroeconomic conditions, social conflict and weak governance in public enterprises incharge of energy. Second, there is the global pressure driven by sustainable human development totackle the increasingly significant adverse local, regional and global environmental impact of energysector development. This will accelerate the demand for cleaner energy and the associated energyresource development. The search for a sustainable energy sector development will therefore remainan important issue in Africa as well as in the rest of the world. The paper presents a broad butsystematic discussion of the main issues concerning sustainable energy development in Africa.The structure of the paper is as follows. In section 2 the socio-economic context of theproblem is discussed. In section 3 we present an overview of the developments in the energy sectorin the post 1970 period with emphasis on the sub-regional perspective. This is followed by ananalysis of the constraints to energy sector development in section 4. The paper explores some ofthe key issues and strategies for achieving the goal of sustainable energy development in Africa insection 5. The conclusions are presented in section 6.

Land system science and sustainable development of the earth system: A global land project perspective

Land systems are the result of human interactions with the natural environment. Understanding the drivers, state, trends and impacts of different land systems on social and natural processes helps to reveal how changes in the land system affect the functioning of the socio-ecological system as a whole and the tradeoff these changes may represent. The Global Land Project has led advances by synthesizing land systems research across different scales and providing concepts to further understand the feedbacks between social-and environmental systems, between urban and rural environments and between distant world regions. Land system science has moved from a focus on observation of change and understanding the drivers of these changes to a focus on using this understanding to design sustainable transformations through stakeholder engagement and through the concept of land governance. As land use can be seen as the largest geo-engineering project in which mankind has engaged, land system science can act as a platform for integration of insights from different disciplines and for translation of knowledge into action

Projected Urbanization Impacts on Surface Climate and Energy Budgets in the Pearl River Delta of China

The climate impacts of future urbanization in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in China were simulated with the Dynamics of Land Systems (DLS) model and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in this study. The land use and land cover data in 2000 and 2020 were simulated with the DLS model based on the regional development planning. Then the spatial and temporal changes of surface air temperature, ground heat flux, and regional precipitation in 2020 were quantified and analyzed through comparing simulation results by WRF. Results show that the built-up land will become the dominant land use type in the PRD in 2020. Besides, the near-surface air temperature shows an increasing trend on the whole region in both summer and winter, but with some seasonal variation. The urban temperature rise is more apparent in summer than it is in winter. In addition, there is some difference between the spatial pattern of precipitation in summer and winter in 2020; the spatial variation of precipitation is a bit greater in summer than it is in winter. Results can provide significant reference for the land use management to alleviate the climate change

Urban land expansion model based on SLEUTH, a case study in Dongguan city, China

The SLEUTH urban model is developed with sets of predefined growing rules involving Spontaneous Growth, New Spreading Center Growth, Edge Growth, Road Influenced Growth and Self-modification. They are applied continuously to lead the urban simulation to a specific morphology. A SLEUTH land use model was set up to simulate urban growth trajectory of Dongguan city from 1997 to 2009. The accuracy of localized parameters was evaluated to illuminate the growth pattern of Dongguan. Two different scenarios were set to predict the urban development from 2022 to 2030. Edge Growth is the dominant force of Dongguan's urbanization: regions adjacent to growth centers are more likely to be urbanized than remote area in general. Rapid urban expansion takes up large amount of other land types, around 2030, urbanization will reach the critical state in spatial. Unlike excessive growth rate in scenario 1, the urbanization speed is obviously more reasonable and sustainable in scenario 2, which confirms SLEUTH urban model is a good assistant of urban planning to avoid willful expansion with a scenario forecast. To protect ecological environment and promoting sustainable development of the region, relevant decision makers should take effective strategies to control urban sprawl. By the set of forecast scenarios, SLEUTH can certainly predict future urban development as an auxiliary to urban planners and government.Dongguan is under rapid urbanization in these decades. SLEUTH is an urban land use model named after the six input layers (Slope, Land use, Excluded, Urban, Transportation and Hill shade), and it is applied for simulating how surrounding land use changes due to urban expansion. A SLEUTH model was coupled with multi-source GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and RS (Remote Sensing) data to simulate urban growth trajectory of Dongguan city from 1997 to 2009. The accuracy of localized parameters was evaluated to illuminate the growth pattern of Dongguan. Based on the hypothesis that the urbanization process is as fast as before, a historical scenario from 2010 to 2050 was built up to choose the suitable study periods. In order to prove SLEUTH is able to offer reasonable outcomes for urban plan, two different scenarios were set to predict the urban development from 2022 to 2030, which shows SLEUTH is able to offer reasonable outcomes to government policy makers. Finally, the dynamic mechanism of urban growth combined with local characteristics was discussed. Some suggestions were also proposed for future urban planning and policy making in this study