Welfare Balance of Different Interest Groups During Rural-urban Land Conversion

Rural-urban land conversion is currently a common social economic phenomenon during the process of economic development and rural urbanization in China. Rural-urban land conversion is positively effective as far as social and economic benefits are concerned （Yang, 2002）, but its negative effect is also evident, resulting in such problems as low efficiency of rural land configuration and loss of social welfare. Consequently, farmers should also have an equal chance to enjoy the social welfare enhanced by land conversion. Based on the theories of welfare economy, this paper puts forward policy suggestions by discussing the welfare changes of various interest groups, builds the model of welfare distribution, and analyzes the conditions of maximizing social welfare. The absolute and opposite value of social welfare is closely related with the speed of rural-urban land conversion, and governments should give farmers and collectives fair compensation to make up for the utility loss caused by land expropriation, which are conclusions drawn from this paper. This study aims to provide a theoretical basis for regulating targets and evaluation criteria, realizing the mechanism and implementation of public polices during rural-urban land conversion.     

Correlation between Urban Land Change Process and Socioeconomic Development since the 1980s in Jiangsu Province

Studying the process and characteristics of urban land change in different phases of urbanization and different economic development is much important for understanding urban land change and management at a macro level. Taking the example of Jiangsu Province, the present paper studied the correlation between urban land change process and socioeconomic development from 1981 to 2003 on the basis of statistical data. The results showed the following three aspects. First, urban land area has changed periodically and the research duration can be divided into two periods: from 1981 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2003. In each period, the changing trend is the same, i.e. slow at first and then quick. Studying from the comprehensive change status, the characteristic of fluctuant change is significant with three acute change pinnacles in 1988, 1991 and 2002 which were corresponded to turning point years of economic development phases of Jiangsu Province respectively. Second, the synchronization between urban land change and urbanization level change is not strict. With the evolution of urbanization phases, the change pace of urbanization level increased remarkably, but urban land change rate did not increase significantly accordingly. Third, the area of urban land has exponentially increased with the increase of per capita GDP. In different economic development levels classified by per capital GDP, land resource cost for economic development is different, respectively 29.01 hm2, 26.34 hm2, 26.22 hm2, and 11.14 hm2 for the increase of 100 million RMB GDP when the per capita GDP is under 1000, 1000–2000, 2000–5000 and over 5000 RMB.     

Mutual Conversion of Land Use between Urban and Rural Area in the Process of Urbanization: A Case Study of Shandong Province

Urbanization is one of the driving forces for the land use change in type and structure, and its prominent effect is to convert rural land to urban land. This paper takes Shan-dong Province as an example to analyze the current situation of the mutual conversion between the urban and rural areas from the aspects of the structure of land use, the decreasing tendency of the cultivated land, the changes of land use in urban and rural residential areas. It points out that cultivated land is converted to residential area land, industrial and/or mining area land. The relationship between the urban area land and the cultivated land is more direct; meanwhile, the changes of rural residential area lag behind obviously. The decrease of the cultivated land and the decline of soil quality will be the two difficult problems in the process of urbanization.     

A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Urban Growth:A Case Study for Jinan Municipality,China

China is experiencing a process of rapid industrialization and urbanization at the cost of agricultural land and environment,particularly in the costal areas. This study takes Jinan as a case presenting a time-series analysis of urban land expansion from 313 to 2003. The results show that the urban expansion of Jinan city mainly took place in the last 100 years, especially after the economic reform in 1978. Social development and economic growth,urban population growth and migration policies were factors driving the urban land expansion. Urban sprawl resulted in a disappearance of wetlands and a great loss of agricultural land, and over-pumping of ground water that led to disappearance of the city‘s feature,namely “the city of springs“.     

Temporal-spatial Characteristics of the Urbanization of Rural Land in Xinjiang

Relying on remote sensor technology, GIS and Land-sat TM digital images, the authors use spatial and statistical analysis to examine the temporal-spatial characteristics of the change caused by urban Construction in Xinjiang＇s rural areas from the end of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s. The primary findings show the following： 1） The urban construction in rural areas has increased drastically. The expansion speed of urban land use has accelerated over the past decade. The sub-land use changes caused by the urbanization of rural are characterized by salient regional differentiation among the three main regions and among the 85 counties of Xinjiang. 2） The shift of land use is mostly characterized by cultivated land and grassland being used for urban and industrial projects. Moreover, this change of land use is characteristic of regional differences. 3） Factors of rural-urban construction land use changes in Xinjiang, are undoubtedly affected by natural environment, social, economic conditions, and to a larger degree by population growth, GDP development and industrial development.     

Non-agricultural Population, Employment and Land： An Econometric Study in an Integrated Framework

Abstract： his paper explored the relationships among nonagricultural population, employment and land in an integrated framework, taking account of rural-urban land conversion into Carlino-Mills＇s model on the regional growth. Two-stage-leastsquares and ordinary-least-squares were employed. Recent data for district （grade） cities in China （from 1999 to 2005） were used. Our results showed that： first, urban population influenced non-agricultural employment, and vice versa, but the evidence that non-agricultural employment influenced urban population was stronger than the evidence that urban population influenced non-agricultural employment; second, urban population and non-agricultural employment both influenced ruralurban land conversion, but the evidence that urban population influenced rural urban land conversion was more stronger than the evidence that non-agricultural employment did. We also found that： first, the employment from the secondary industry influenced urban population in a positive way, and vice versa, but the employment from the tertiary industry influenced urban population in a negative way, and vice versa; second, the employment from the secondary industry influenced rural-urban land conversion in a positive way, but the employment from the tertiary industry influenced rural-urban land conversion in a negative way. We can conclude that the key of urbanization is to speed up the process of non-agricultural employment, especially the employment from the tertiary industry, which might promote non-agricultural population, employment and land harmoniously.     

Analysis and Countermeasures on Effective Land Use of Rural Residential Area in Jinan, Shandong Province

With the improvement of urbanization and the expansion of urban size, the cultivated land decreases gradually but the demand for urban land increases, thereby resulting in the conflict of land use. Analyzing the status quo of land use of rural residential area, this paper points out that two main problems, namely, the low degree of land use, and the waste of land resources that are prevalent in the rural residential area. Based on the above analysis, the author states that the emphasis on land use will be the plain regions in the future, and adoption of reasonable economic measures will be the new solution to the problems.     

Analyzing and Pondering on the Regulation of Urban Construction Land Expansion

Along with the economic development and the acceleration of urbanization, urban construction land expands rapidly in China, and has resulted in a series of socio-economic problems. This article summarized the major points of controlling the unchecked and rash expansion of construction land in the academic circle, and analyzed the problems of regulating the expansion of construction land from three aspects. First, this article analyzed the relationships between socio-economic development and urbaniza- tion from the historical viewpoints, and pointed out that the expan- sion of construction land is a historical phenomenon which will be surely appeared in the development of human race. Second, the authors utilized two-sector model to analyze the importance of urbanization in the socio-economic development from the academic angles. At last, the authors utilize four-quadrant model and bidrent curve model to analyze the influence that brought by the strict control of construction land expansion. Through analysis, this article drew some conclusions. First, the expansion of construction land is a phenomenon which will surely appear in the social development. It is impossible to accomplish the national modernization on the basis of dualistic structure between urban and rural areas. Second, under the function of rent gradient gap, strict control of construction land expansion will not only obtain the anticipated effects, but also cause a series of socio-economic problems, such as land-levying contradiction, the appearance of limited property right house, and being dependant on lease instead of expropriation. Third, unreasonable policies and governmental behaviors are the roots of the unchecked and rash expansion of urban construction land. Based on these conclusions, this article proposed that three transformations should be realized to regulate the unchecked and rash expansion of construction land： transfers from quantity regulation to quality regulation, from direct regulation to indirect regulation, and from single-measure regulation to multi-measures regulation.     

Study on the Non-point Source Pollution in the Upper and Middle Reaches of the Taoer River Basin

The Taoer River basin is the epitome in the west of Northeast China and it is one of the most fragile and sensitive ecoregions. Thus, protection of water quality of the Taoer River is important. Not only point source pollution but non-point source (NPS) pollution results in deteriorating water quality. In this study, long-term hydrologic impact assessment model was used to evaluate the impacts of land use change impacts on NPS pollution, and the replacement cost method was used to calculate the economic loss caused by NPS pollution. Through analyzing the NPS pollutant loads of different land categories and the economic loss, the article puts forward that there exists a close relationship between land-use types and NPS pollution, and agricultural pollution is the main component of the NPS pollution in this area. The results of this study can provide decision-making basis for agricultural development and land-use change.     

Study on Economic growth,Urbanization and Sustainable Utilization of Cultivated Land in China

By means of the dynamic regression model, this paper analyzes the relationships among economic growth, urbanization and changes of cultivated land in China, finds that the ratio of cultivated land occupied by economic growth is decreasing with social and economic growth. And, based on that, some policy suggestions on how to promote the sustainable use of cultivated land in China are put forward.     

Life satisfaction approach to farmers’ compensation for land acquisition:empirical study from the suburbs of Wuhan City

Farmers’ compensation for land acquisition is not only critical to increasing their income and to playing a pivotal role in maintaining rural stability,but also to the promotion of sustainable land use.Based on analysis of Chinese land acquisition policy under the Land Management Law,which provides principles or guidelines for determining compensation according to agricultural land use in regard to farmers’ previous quality of life,the Life Satisfaction Approach is introduced in this article to evaluate farmers’ compensation for land acquisition.Employing data from a questionnaire survey on 346 farming households in Wuhan Suburbs,this article examined the influence of farmland on farmers’ life satisfaction and evaluated the level of compensation for land acquisition.Results show that farmland has a significantly positive impact on life satisfaction,which fell by 0.033 on a five-point scale following a reduction farmland by of 1 mu.Respondents were willing to accept approximately RMB 3066.44 annual household income for the loss of 1 mu farmland;the level of compensation after discounting by 6.2%is RMB 750,000 per hectare.It was found in a further comparative study that the level of farmers’ compensation for land acquisition is decidedly low,and it was also shown that their compensation standards,as well as the actual compensation,could be substantially improved by expanding economic compensation to non-economic compensation to embody farmland multifunction in terms of production and non-production against farmers’ previous quality of life.This article proposes a compensation model that enriches the content of land acquisition compensation,extends the current literature on measuring compensation,and provides economic theory bases for increasing compensation standards and improving policies related to land acquisition.We consider that if this compensation model is applied,it could raise the cost of land acquisition and improve usage of land,reduce the speed of rural-urban land conversion,and improve far     

Analysis and Modeling on the Spatial Structure of Urban Land Use: A Case of Jinan, China

Based on the data of urban land use obtained by remote sensing interpretation from aero images in 1986 and 2004, the spatial structure of Jinan is studied in this paper with the method of Geographic Information System (GIS). According to the proportion of land for residence, industry and commerce, the urban district can be distinguished into three rings. Compared with the traditional theory of the ring structure in Western coun- tries, they have many distinctive characteristics. The main func- tions of the inner ring include residence, business and banking, but the proportion of residential land (more than 50%) is considerably higher than that of the cities in Western countries. The land proportion for residence and industry in the intermediate ring is equal on the whole. The main land of the outside ring is for industrial use. From 1986 to 2004, great changes have taken place on the land proportion of different types of use. In the inner ring, the land for residential and industrial use has shrunk much while the land for commercial use has increased. In the intermediate ring, the changes of the three types of land use were not very much and the temporal variation was relatively stable. On the contrary, the structure in the outside ring varies acutely. Though most of it is also for industrial use, the proportion of residential land has in- creased much. The three rings can also be divided into several sectors respectively, according to the function of land use clusters. New trends and mechanisms of the changes of land use impacting the urban structure were proposed in the end of the paper.     

Humble Opinions on the Relationship between the Percentage of Urban Residents in an Urban Region and the Economic Status in This Region in China

It is a fact that in U.S. the immigration between rural areas and city areas is free, but in China this type of immigration is restricted by HUKOU system （Hukou, namely the household registration system, was designed to control rural-urban in China）. All of those national policies in city areas are much better than those in rural areas, so those corresponding differences bring about great discrepancy of the economic status （mainly including GDP per person and income per resident） between rural and city areas in the same urban region, especially in different urban re- gions because the percentage of urban residents in those urban regions is in-equable. The present paper mainly researches the topic of relationship between the percentage of urban residents and the economic status in an urban region in China, including the relationship between the economic and the political functions of a settlement in China during the process of urbanization.     

Urban Land-banking Planning： A New Instrument to Regulate Urban Land Supply-demand of Nanjing City

It is the major purpose of the paper to present the urban land-banking planning and its functions of promoting the urban land-banking system and land use administration. The urban land-banking system has the potential attribute of acting as an irreplaceable role in urban land administration, but its unexpected function-deviation has impacted its implementation effect in China. A few city governments are attempting to deal with the problem by the urban land-banking planning which is expected to contribute to the extension of urban function, optimization of urban patterns, promotion of urban core competitiveness and overall construction of the urban value chain. In this paper, we primarily discuss the necessity, functions, purposes and main contents of the urban land-banking planning. Subsequently, the implementing situation of the urban land-banking system in Nanjing is analyzed, including its integrated mode, spatio-temporal quantitative distribution and main characteristics. Finally, the background and targets including total, compositions, space, and regulation points are gradually introduced to present the Nanjing land-banking planning version 2.     

A Methodology Framework for Regional Land-use Change Studies based on Landsat TM images: A Case Study in Northeast China

Land-use change is an important aspect of global environment change. It is, in a sense, the direct result of human activities influencing our physical environment. This paper analyzed the land-use change in Northeast China during 1985-2000 based on Landsat TM images. It divides Northeast China into five land-use zones based on the dynamic degree model of land-use: woodland/grassland-arable land conversion zone, dry land-paddy field conversion zone; urban expansion zone, interlocked zone of farming and pasturing and reclamation and abandon zone. The findings include the obvious increase of cropland area, paddy field and dry land increased by 75 and 276 thousand hm2 respectively; urban areas expanded rapidly, areas of town and rural residence increased by 76.8 thousand hm2; areas of forests and grassland decreased sharply with the amounts of 1399 and 1521 thousand hm2 respectively; areas of water body and unused land increased by 148 and 514 thousand hm2 respectively. This paper also discusses the driving     

Study on Simulating Spatial Distribution and Varying Patterns of Urumqi＇s Population

In this paper, an approach to simulate the spatial distribution of urban population is proposed using urban land use and population statistical data through the geographical information systems （GIS）. Then, the spatial population distribution of Urumqi as a case is simulated by the approach mentioned above and its varying patterns are analyzed by the raster population surface. As a result, producing raster population surface is more accurate and natural than the traditional choropleth map of population density. Concerning the spatial population distribution of Urumqi, the population density declines from south to north and the population distribution mainly presents＇ ＂T-type＂, the population distribution presents multicentre agglomeration and the population distribution of the districts shows different features. The population density varies significantly with the increase in the distance from central business district （CBD）. Finally, it is found in this paper that the development history of districts, terrain and traffic road are main factors that have an influence Urumqi＇s population distribution. This paper tries to provide more accurate population data for the plan and management of urban land, traffic and public facilities in order to enrich the researches on urban population distribution.     

On Population Mobility in Market Economy

A general survey of the changing process of economic development of human society indicates three historical development stages: agricultural-oriented natural economy, industrial-oriented market economy and knowledge- oriented market economy. In the first natural economic era, the most important factor of production is the land and the land resource is the first resource in the economic era of agriculture. In the market economy era of industry, capital, especially material and monetary capital…     

Analysis of Soil and Water Balance on the Land Arrangement Function

The natural supply of land resources is limited, but the economic supply may change along with social and economic development, and its size is decided bye nature and social and economic body conditions. When the supplying ability of land resources threatens the development of society and the conflict between people and land becomes tense, it forced people to im- prove land utilization and to increase the effective supply of land resources. The paper made an overall consideration on the characteristics of the irrigated farming and the frail ecological environment in Fuhai County, Altay Area, Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region and explored land arrangement planning as well as water resource planning and environmental protection. The paper evaluated natural resources, land utilization and water resource of the case study areas and focused on the spatio-temporal balance between the utilization of water and land resources. In the end the paper a feasible plan was made out for the land arrangement project.     

Function of Agricultural Land Use and Its Evolvement in Peri-urban Area: A Case Study of Beijing

Rapid urbanization in Beijing stimulates the urban land expansion and diminishes available agricultural land. Monofunctional agricultural land use can not meet the demand of the devel- opment of the multifunctional agriculture and urbanization any more, so multifunctional agricultural land use is going to be promoted in the city. This article proposes the evolvement of the land use change from 1992 to 2004 and discusses some evolvement views.     

Conversion Margins for the Major Uses of Agricultural Land and Their Variations in Shandong Province, China

It is of practical significance for the decision-making on country food security and farmland protection to analyze the conversion margins for the major uses of agricultural land and their variations. Based on the panel data of wheat, corn, vegetable, fruit, and forests productions from 520 investigated farmer households of 13 investigated villages in Shandong Province from 2003 to 2009, and using Cobb-Douglas production function, the revenue conversion margins can be obtained separately, between different grain-crops (wheat, corn) and different non-grain crops (vegetable, fruit, forests), and the conversion relationship between growing grain( wheat, corn) and going out for non-farm work. The results show that from 2003 to 2009, growing wheat and corn are more economically and reasonably for farmers, compared with growing vegetable, but growing wheat and corn are becoming less economically and less reasonably day by day, compared with planting forests. Moreover, the conversion margin between wheat and fruit shows obvious scissors difference. Just from 2007, farmers’ growing fruit became economically and reasonably, but until 2009, compared with going out to work after abandoning farm8land, growing wheat had no economic rationality. From 2003 to 2009, farmers’ growing corn is more profitable than growing fruit and going out for non-farm work after abandoning farmland. The subsidies for wheat and corn have increased farmers’ comparative income from food production remarkably, but the subsidies cannot change the general tendency that farmers transform food (wheat, corn) production into non-food (especially forests) production. The revenue difference between growing wheat, corn and vegetable and growing fruit and forests is being pulled ceaselessly bigger, and the tendency that farmers transform wheat, corn and vegetable growing lands into fruit and forests growing lands has become increasingly apparent.