How Effective Is Spatial Planning for Cropland Protection? An Assessment Based on Land-Use Scenarios

Abstract

Spatial planning plays an important role in cropland protection, but its effectiveness is often questioned in the face of ongoing urban and infrastructure growth. Moreover, methods to assess the effectiveness of spatial planning are lacking. In Switzerland, the revision of the national spatial planning act in 2014 was a new starting point for stricter prescriptions on urban development. We assessed whether the new regulations would better protect dedicated prime cropland from conversion to urban areas using land-use suitability models and land-use scenarios. The findings show that with the planning according to the revised planning act, the potential consumption of prime cropland for new urban areas is six times smaller than that occurring through extrapolation of the observed trend in urban development over the past 25 years. However, scenario modeling suggests that, still, more prime cropland will be converted into urban areas than necessary, and that it may be difficult to protect prime cropland to the extent mandated by the Swiss prime cropland protection policy. We have developed an approach to a priori evaluate spatial planning measures. However, the strict implementation of these planning measures will be needed in order to maintain prime cropland to a level required for agricultural self-sufficiency and food security.

The Aims and Trends of the Sustainable Land Tenure Formation in Ukraine: The Spatial Aspect

“…Approaches to land tenure spatial improvement are present in spatial planning (Pezzagno et al, 2020;Tobias & Price, 2020), land consolidation (Lerman & Cimpoies, 2006;Pašakarnis & Maliene, 2010;Yimer, 2014), and land reallotment (De Moor, 2015;Home, 2007;Viitanen, 2000) theories. At the moment, researches considering approaches to urban settlement 3D model development and use (Biljecki et al, 2015;Coors & Ewald, 2005;Sumrada, 2009) are widespread.…”

The suitability assessment for land territorial spatial planning based on ANN-CA model and the Internet of Things

“…These studies provide a basic understanding of urbanization challenges and planning needs [ 68 ]. Meanwhile, Tobias et al (2020) discussed the importance of spatial planning in the protection of cultivated land, and pointed out that with the continuous growth of cities and infrastructure, its effectiveness is often questioned [ 69 ]. In addition, they also pointed out that there was a lack of methods to evaluate the effectiveness of spatial planning.…”

A Study on the Spatial Change of Production–Living–Ecology in China in the Past Two Decades Based on Intensity Analysis in the Context of Arable Land Protection and Sustainable Development

“…In intensity analysis, the changes in space category levels include the average annual increase in intensity and the average loss in intensity. The average annual increase intensity of space category i is defined as the percentage increase in the area of space category i relative to the area of space category i at a point in time Y t , divided by the time interval denoted as G ti during a given year from Y t to Y t+1 , as shown in Equation (8). The average annual loss intensity of space category i relative to time t is the percentage decrease in the area of space category i during a given year from Y t to Y t+1 , as a percentage of the area of space category i at time point Y t , divided by the time interval, referred to as L ti , as shown in Equation (9).…”

“…The identification of the spatial structure of the PLES and its components serves the purpose of uncovering the characteristics of land transformation. Additionally, it establishes a fundamental requirement for investigating the factors that influence changes in the spatial structure of PLES, as well as the optimization pattern [7,8]. Hence, it is crucial to comprehend the spatial arrangement of the PLES, investigate the spatial patterns of its development, and quantify and comprehend the dynamic changes in this space.…”