Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Land management'

There are over 650 million acres of federal public lands in the United States that allow access to nature. Public lands are utilized for a variety of different activities, ranging from preservation to resource extraction. Regardless of proximity, public lands belong to everyone in the United Sates. From January to August 2016, I opportunistically and purposively collected sixteen interviews in Arizona, a state with 38.5% federal public lands, and sixteen in Texas (1.5% federal public lands), to document attitudes, opinions, and ideas about public lands in the United States. Conducting such interviews provides insight into the many different perspectives that people from different areas and backgrounds have about public land, and also acts as a medium for outreach and education. Although the data collected is not representative, it exemplifies different opinions that exist in regards to public land. Opinions such as these can affect management policy and inform how people advocate for public lands now and in the future. I attempted to capture candid responses from the interviewees utilizing an open-ended interview guide to elicit the interviewee’s emotions, reactions, attitudes, and opinions towards public lands. All interviewees appreciated access to nature through public lands regardless of their experience with or knowledge about them. Most interviewees were familiar with national parks, but not all knew about national forests, national wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, or the national system of public lands. Several themes emerged, including issues of access, extractive industries such as grazing and mining, and discussions of federal versus state management.

Protected areas contain some of the world’s most beautiful scenery and outstanding natural and cultural landscapes. They play a vital role in conservation of biodiversity, maintaining genetic resources and protecting important ecosystem functions. At present more than 14000 protected areas exist in Russia occupying approximately 12 per cent of the country’s area. Management of these territories affects many stakeholders. Therefore any management decision on protected areas should consider private and public interests and foresee possible ecological, economic, and social consequences. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/12814

As the UK’s largest non-government land-owner, the National Trust is committed to reducing its impact on climate change, recognising the importance of soil organic carbon (SOC), and its need for preservation. To establish if land-management could be optimised to increase carbon storage, ‘The Wallington Carbon Footprint Project’ was implemented. This study aimed to measure the Wallington Estate’s carbon stock, establish what controls SOC, identify carbon under-saturated soils, and make land-management change to increase SOC. To achieve these objectives a soil sampling campaign and land-use survey were undertaken at Wallington, with further sampling at a verification site in Cambridgeshire. Land-use intervention trials measuring carbon fluxes and SOC change were combined with computer modelling and questionnaires, to assess the impacts of land-use and management change on SOC. A land carbon stock of 845 Kt (60 Kt within biomass, and 785 Kt within soils) was estimated for Wallington, with the greatest control on SOC identified as grassland landmanagement. Other controls on SOC were: land-use, soil series, altitude, soil pH and landuse history, indicating that these should be used in all estimates of SOC distribution and stock. A possible link between phosphate fertilisation and SOC accumulation under grassland was identified; however this was not confirmed in a year long field trial. Incorporation of charcoal into soils was identified as a method of carbon sequestration, with a simultaneous reduction in nitrate loss from soil. Surface application to grasslands revealed no detrimental effects on soils, grassland productivity or water quality. Further trials investigated the impacts of arable conversion to short rotation coppice willow, and of peatland afforestation, both indentifying losses of SOC following the land-use change. Measurement of biomass carbon gains, full life cycle assessment of the each landuse, and the impacts of varying types of biochar are required before firm conclusions regarding land-use change and carbon sequestration can be made.

With the rapid urbanization happening around the world, the nature of the natural hydrological cycle has been changed and it causes many adverse effects like urban flooding, erosion and degradation of water quality in urban areas. Due to the increasing population, urbanization will continue rapidly and this increases impervious lands which generate more runoff. Anthropogenic climate change has influenced the strength of storm events and reduced the recurrent intervals. Current urban stormwater management systems are becoming increasingly lacking with rapidly increasing demands and climatic effects. Groundwater has been found as a key factor in creating inadequacy in urban drainage to carry stormwater runoff in catchments having a shallow groundwater table. Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) and modifications to urban stormwater management systems (USWMSs) according to the best management practices (BMP) should be implemented after systematic analysis to overcome the situation.This study has focused on assessing urban land development activities and changing patterns of land use in urban areas as the main anthropogenic stress on urban hydrology. In addition, the adaptation to natural phenomenon such as climate change has been studied. A numerical hydrological model was used to analyse the behaviour of catchments and their characteristics. Urban flood identification and prevention was one of the major concerns of this study. Several urban stormwater drainage systems have been assessed under three case studies.The stormwater drainage system of Canning Vale Central catchment, which is one of the urban catchments in Western Australia, has been assessed by using numerical modelling in case study number one. The model was developed by using existing mapped data and data collected from an ongoing telemetric observation system and several field visits. Surface runoff has been routed by using different modelling techniques such as hydrological surface runoff and two-dimensional (2D) surface runoff modelling. Groundwater has been treated as a critical issue during the modelling. The effects of land use changes and their sensitivity to the USWMS have been assessed. Necessary recommendations to improve the USWMS and mitigate localised flood issues have been given. Flood vulnerability maps have been developed to identify the critical areas where there is the potential to be flooded under different Average Recurrent Interval (ARI) events. These flood vulnerability maps will be used by the local authorities to develop recommendations and guidelines for future developments of infrastructure during land development and subdivision works.The urban ungauged catchment of Victoria Park in Western Australia has been assessed by using a 2D surface runoff routing model. The catchment has built flood storage areas (stormwater basins) and the inadequacy of them in protecting against recent storm events has caused local concern. The area has been developed rapidly in recent decades and land use has been changed to more impervious surfaces than was expected at the time the basins were designed. These changes to the land use—together with anthropogenic climate change—has caused runoff from rapid storms to exceed the basin top water level. The catchment‘s existing stormwater basins‘ capacities were assessed against different ARI events during case study number two. Flood vulnerability maps and water level contours have been developed to identify the possible inundations and flood depths of basins and surrounding areas.The overall study is based on hydrological modelling of different USWMSs and urban hydrology. Land use change was considered as the main anthropogenic stress upon urban hydrological catchments. Factors such as encountering groundwater in stormwater drainage have been analysed to support the study. Recommendations based on WSUD and BMPs have been given to mitigate the adverse effects of urban land use changes to urban stormwater management.

This thesis aims at explaining the intersecting dynamics of structural changes in agriculture and urbanisation, which involves changes in urban-rural relationships. The research questions are: how and why do landowners differ in their attitudes to land and farming? what are the main implications on rural landscapes and the policy implications? Relationships between urbanisation and agriculture are firstly analysed through a critical literature review; the analysis focuses on the 'landowner' as the key actor who actively takes decisions on the rural landscape From the empirical study – which is based on a Tuscan area (Valdera), and addressed through qualitative methods – a great diversity of landowners' attitudes to land and farming emerge, thus contributing to the agricultural restructuring, such as: 1) the emphasis on recreational function of the countryside for urban people 2) contracting out of land management, especially when landowners live or/and have 'urban' employment 3) the active role of hobby farmers in land management 4) agricultural operations simplification and lack of investments (especially in case of property rights expropriation). The thesis is framed in three papers, with the same methods and research questions. It seems evident that rural landscapes is subjected to functional changes (e.g. residential) and structural changes (landscape polarisation), which requires the need 1) to consider that rural landscape management is increasingly less connected to agricultural production as economic activity; 2) to give a coherence to the range of policy interventions (physical planning, landscape, sectoral).
La tesi ha l'obiettivo di spiegare le relazioni tra cambiamenti strutturali dell'agricoltura e urbanizzazione, intesa come riconfigurazione dei rapporti città-campagna – consumo di suolo, urbanizzazione nascosta, contro-urbanizzazione, riconfigurazione socio-economica della classe dei proprietari terrieri. Quali sono gli effetti di queste relazioni sul land management? quali le principali implicazioni sul paesaggio, le implicazioni politiche? Le relazioni tra agricoltura e urbanizzazione sono inizialmente analizzate attraverso una rassegna della letteratura; l'analisi è inserita in un quadro concettuale relativo al land management ed è focalizzata sul 'landowner' come attore chiave nelle scelte di gestione dei terreni privati. Dallo studio empirico – basato sul caso Toscano della Valdera, affrontato mediante interviste qualitative, osservazione diretta, raccolta di dati secondari – emerge una grande varietà di risposte dei proprietari terrieri (land management decisions) alle pressioni dell'urbanizzazione e alla marginalizzazione dell'agricoltura, che contribuiscono alla ristrutturazione del settore primario: 1) esasperazione della funzione ricreativa della campagna, anche attraverso cambio di destinazioni d'uso di terreni e fabbricati; 2) affidamento del land management a contoterzisti soprattutto quando il proprietario lavori o viva in città; 3) ruolo attivo degli hobbisti, spesso provenienti dalla vicina città, nella manutenzione del territorio; 4) semplificazione nella gestione e riduzione degli investimenti sui terreni privati espropriati prima che siano utilizzati dai beneficiari dell'esproprio. La tesi è strutturata in tre articoli, accomunati da domande di ricerca, materiali-metodi, quadro concettuale. Dallo studio emergono cambiamenti nelle funzioni della campagna (da prevalentemente produttiva a residenziale, aumento attività hobbistica, ecc.), e nella sua struttura (frammentazione per urbanizzazioni, polarizzazione tra le sempre più grandi aziende professionali e le piccole hobbistiche, ecc.). In termini di implicazioni politiche emerge la necessità di 1) considerare la possibilità che la manutenzione del territorio sia affidata anche a profili sociali diversi dall'agricoltore tradizionale; 2) individuare strumenti coerenti di pianificazione territoriale, paesaggistica e di settore.

This thesis aims at explaining the intersecting dynamics of structural changes in agriculture and urbanisation, which involves changes in urban-rural relationships. The research questions are: how and why do landowners differ in their attitudes to land and farming? what are the main implications on rural landscapes and the policy implications? Relationships between urbanisation and agriculture are firstly analysed through a critical literature review; the analysis focuses on the 'landowner' as the key actor who actively takes decisions on the rural landscape From the empirical study – which is based on a Tuscan area (Valdera), and addressed through qualitative methods – a great diversity of landowners' attitudes to land and farming emerge, thus contributing to the agricultural restructuring, such as: 1) the emphasis on recreational function of the countryside for urban people 2) contracting out of land management, especially when landowners live or/and have 'urban' employment 3) the active role of hobby farmers in land management 4) agricultural operations simplification and lack of investments (especially in case of property rights expropriation). The thesis is framed in three papers, with the same methods and research questions. It seems evident that rural landscapes is subjected to functional changes (e.g. residential) and structural changes (landscape polarisation), which requires the need 1) to consider that rural landscape management is increasingly less connected to agricultural production as economic activity; 2) to give a coherence to the range of policy interventions (physical planning, landscape, sectoral).
La tesi ha l'obiettivo di spiegare le relazioni tra cambiamenti strutturali dell'agricoltura e urbanizzazione, intesa come riconfigurazione dei rapporti città-campagna – consumo di suolo, urbanizzazione nascosta, contro-urbanizzazione, riconfigurazione socio-economica della classe dei proprietari terrieri. Quali sono gli effetti di queste relazioni sul land management? quali le principali implicazioni sul paesaggio, le implicazioni politiche? Le relazioni tra agricoltura e urbanizzazione sono inizialmente analizzate attraverso una rassegna della letteratura; l'analisi è inserita in un quadro concettuale relativo al land management ed è focalizzata sul 'landowner' come attore chiave nelle scelte di gestione dei terreni privati. Dallo studio empirico – basato sul caso Toscano della Valdera, affrontato mediante interviste qualitative, osservazione diretta, raccolta di dati secondari – emerge una grande varietà di risposte dei proprietari terrieri (land management decisions) alle pressioni dell'urbanizzazione e alla marginalizzazione dell'agricoltura, che contribuiscono alla ristrutturazione del settore primario: 1) esasperazione della funzione ricreativa della campagna, anche attraverso cambio di destinazioni d'uso di terreni e fabbricati; 2) affidamento del land management a contoterzisti soprattutto quando il proprietario lavori o viva in città; 3) ruolo attivo degli hobbisti, spesso provenienti dalla vicina città, nella manutenzione del territorio; 4) semplificazione nella gestione e riduzione degli investimenti sui terreni privati espropriati prima che siano utilizzati dai beneficiari dell'esproprio. La tesi è strutturata in tre articoli, accomunati da domande di ricerca, materiali-metodi, quadro concettuale. Dallo studio emergono cambiamenti nelle funzioni della campagna (da prevalentemente produttiva a residenziale, aumento attività hobbistica, ecc.), e nella sua struttura (frammentazione per urbanizzazioni, polarizzazione tra le sempre più grandi aziende professionali e le piccole hobbistiche, ecc.). In termini di implicazioni politiche emerge la necessità di 1) considerare la possibilità che la manutenzione del territorio sia affidata anche a profili sociali diversi dall'agricoltore tradizionale; 2) individuare strumenti coerenti di pianificazione territoriale, paesaggistica e di settore.

A geographically-based framework for landuse suitability assessment and land capability classification in Ibulao watershed, Philippines was developed and used in this study. Landuse suitability assessment was based primarily on soil erosion, the results of which were compared with the outcome of suitability assessments based on two land classification systems in the Philippines. The Ibulao watershed was subdivided into 10-ha cells, and each cell was independently evaluated with the aid of a geographic information system called MAP. The soil erosion rates for each cell were estimated using the MUSLE. The surface runoff and peak runoff rates were simulated using an infiltration-kinematic routing model, an event-based stochastic rainfall duration model, and the CREAMS model. The land capability classification was based on erosion index representing the inherent soil erodibility of a cell computed on the basis of runoff erosivity factor, soil erodibility factor, and the slope length-gradient factor. The results of capability classification were used to identify the different alternative uses of any cell in the watershed. The framework described in this study for landuse suitability assessment and land capability classification illustrated potentials for applications to the management and allocation of land resources in the Philippines. An erosion-based landuse assessment and land capability classification appears to be a better alternative to a slope-based system as far as the following are concerned: (1) identification of landuses which would not jeopardize the long term productivity and stability of an area; (2) a more accurate and meaningful land capability description and classification; and (3) making more lands available for various alternative uses by using criteria such as soil erosion which can easily be manipulated.

This work is a digital version of a dissertation that was first submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in March 1994. The work was concerned with problems of self-organisation and organisation ranging from local to global levels of hierarchy. It considers organisations as living entities from local to global things that a living entity – more particularly, an individual, a body corporate or a body politic - must know and do to maintain an existence – that is to remain viable – or to be sustainable. The term ‘land management’ as used in 1994 was later subsumed into a more general concept of ‘natural resource management’ and then merged with ideas about sustainable socioeconomic and sustainable ecological development. The cybernetic approach contains many cognitive elements of human observation, language and learning that combine into production processes. The approach tends to highlight instances where systems (or organisations) can fail because they have very little chance of succeeding. Thus there are logical necessities as well as technical possibilities in designing, constructing, operating and maintaining production systems that function reliably over extended periods. Chapter numbers and titles to the original thesis are as follows: 1. Land management as a problem of coping with complexity 2. Background theory in systems theory and cybernetic principles 3. Operationalisation of cybernetic principles in Beer’s Viable System Model 4. Issues in the design of viable cadastral surveying and mapping organisation 5. An analysis of the tendency for fragmentation in surveying and mapping organisation 6. Perambulating the boundaries of Sydney – a problem of social control under poor standards of literacy 7. Cybernetic principles in the process of legislation 8. Closer settlement policy and viability in agricultural production 9. Rate of return in leasing Crown lands

Public water utilities are tasked with providing high quality, inexpensive water often sourced from watersheds representing a diverse mix of public and private land ownership. There is increasing recognition amongst water resource managers of the role that private landowners play in determining downstream water quality, but bringing together landowners with a wide variety of land management objectives under the umbrella of watershed stewardship has proven difficult. Recently, a large number of "Payment for Watershed Services" programs have aimed to engage private landowners in watershed stewardship initiatives by offering financial incentives for adopting watershed best management practices. However, a growing field of research suggests that financial incentives alone may be of limited utility to encourage widespread and long-standing behavior change, and instead understanding landowner attitudes and non-financial barriers to stewardship program enrollment has become a focus of research. This research examines a population of rural landowners representing a diversity of agricultural, forestry, recreational, and investment objectives in the Clackamas River watershed, Oregon. I designed and distributed a mail and web-based survey instrument intended to measure land uses and land ownership objectives, attitudes towards watershed stewardship programs, barriers to enrollment in stewardship programs, and preferred incentives and goals that would promote enrollment. I received 281 valid responses for a response rate of 29%. I conducted two primary analyses: one focused on relating attitudes and barriers to intent to enroll in a watershed stewardship program, and one focused on identifying how diverse landowners differ according to factors influencing enrollment in stewardship programs. I found that landowners did not report financial considerations to be a primary barrier to enrollment and expressed low interest in receiving financial incentives. Instead, landowners reported that primary barriers related to lack of trust, ecological understanding, and concerns that stewardship program enrollment would be incompatible with their land management objectives. I do not discount the potential utility of financial incentives under certain circumstances, but emphasize the importance of addressing these other considerations before incentives can make a meaningful impact. I compared how barriers to enrollment were perceived by landowners with different land management objectives relating to production, investment, and conservation. I found that landowner attitudes were differentiated from one another primarily by their use of land for production purposes; however, I found a large amount of diversity between producers and non-producers in the degree to which they considered investment and conservation objectives in their land management, and these two variables added further explanatory power to understanding fine-scale differences in how landowner typologies relate to conservation programs.

One of the methods of mitigation against climate change is to offset CO2 emissions by using Carbon (C) sinks based on the Kyoto Protocol Articles 3.3 and 3.4 (UNFCCC 1997). One potential C sink is the terrestrial soil organic carbon (SOC) pool which can be affected by a wide variety of environmental factors across a range of time and spatial scales. Soil carbon models RothC, DNDC, Century and the IPCC method were assessed and compared to measured site data in order to determine accuracy. Simpler models such as RothC and the IPCC method were found to perform better [In the absence of abundant input data]. The uncertainty of these models was assessed and found to be +/-15% for the RothC model, +/-19% for the DNDC model and +/-26% for the Century model all with 95% confidence. Post-hoc application of mitigation factors were derived using the IPCC method to provide estimates of carbon mitigation potential. These were applied on a pan-European scale using projected land-use changes. The estimates were compared to trends simulated using an adapted regional scale version of the RothC model, which estimated that 3.1% (+/-0.5%) of the 8% Kyoto EU 15 emissions reduction target (from 1990 levels) could be achieved using these measures.

The vast swathes of public lands in the western U.S. have long been connected with both the culture and daily lives of the people that live near them. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship that individuals have with public lands and how that relationship relates to their opinions about the federal agencies (specifically the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management) that oversee those public lands. This is done through the use of the effective bond attachment to public lands, which is the degree to which individuals feel connected to public lands through both the opportunities they provide to enjoy their desired lifestyle, functional connections, and the ways in which personal identity is tied to those lands, emotional connections. Assessing this bond is done through analysis and interpretation of selected data from the 2007 Public Lands and Utah Communities survey, which looked at a variety of connections Utah residents have to the state’s many public lands. This study utilizes a novel statistical method known as the “inverted-R analysis,” which groups respondents based on answers to a variety of attitudinal measures, to develop three distinct typologies of attachment to public lands. Analysis of differences between the groups of respondents that expressed different types of attachment revealed no correlation between attachment to public lands and opinions about land managers. All respondents expressed generally negative sentiment towards both Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land managers. However, respondents who expressed a stronger attachment to public lands also demonstrated higher levels of interaction with public lands. Additionally, functional and emotional connections to public lands were shown to operate as two separate parts of attachment to public lands. This reinforces the modeling of the conceptualization attachment to public lands after the related concept, place attachment. This study demonstrated both the strong connections individuals in Utah have with public lands and the strong opinions held about the agencies that manage those lands.

Soil erosion has been recognised as a global threat against the sustainability of natural ecosystem. The work in this thesis has been undertaken to assist in combating this threat, and addresses the soil erosion issues associated with urban construction activities. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was employed in this research work and the parameters associated with the model were calibrated. This model was chosen for calibration, as it has been proven to be an easy to use tool yet providing reasonable results. Large scale rainfall simulators developed at UWS were used for rainfall simulation at two sites with diverse soil types: dispersive clayey soils at Penrith and highly permeable sandy soil at Somersby (Both in New South Wales, Australia). It is concluded that RUSLE can be successfully used in single storms for erosion prediction. Calibrated values of RUSLE parameters are useful in predicting soil erosion from the construction sites in NSW. It is also identified that in rolled smooth land condition, clayey soils are more erodible than sandy soil. Specific support practices such as short grass strips, gravel bags and silt fences are identified as very effective erosion control measures in reducing soil erosion from 45% to 85%. These results will be very useful in soil erosion prediction planning and conservation management in NSW.
Master of Engineering (Hons)

Corruption in land management strikes when local officials demand bribes for rudimentary administrative steps or a clerk who asks for a bribe to register a small plot. At the higher level, an official who takes kickbacks for authorising development but also when high-level political decisions are unduly prejudiced, leaving the public at large to pay for this illegitimate decision. Despite extensive efforts, corruption in the land sector in Malaysia has reached epidemic proportions and has become one of the major challenges to government. Therefore, Corruption Risk Management (CRM) has been introduced as an internal control on corruption in public service to remedy the problem. CRM is a management process that helps to identify structural weaknesses that may facilitate corruption, provides a framework for all staff to take part in identifying risk factors and treatments, and embeds corruption prevention within a well-established governance framework (ACE, 2016). To date, no study has shown how effective this management tool to comprehend the corruption problem in land administration in Malaysia. Hence, this research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of CRM as an internal monitoring system in supporting anti-corruption in land administration. In order to achieve this goal, eleven District and Land Offices in Pahang State we chosen as case study area and a mixed model approached was implemented. The study consisted of two phases. In the first phase, a questionnaire survey was used to explore the nature, form, vulnerability and existing control mechanisms of corruptions in land administration. A total of 114 responses were recruited, and descriptive and statistical analyses were used to analyse the data. This then influenced the development of a semi structured interview questionnaire for the second phase of study, which explored further the survey responses and addressed the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of CRM in land administration. In this phase, 22 respondents were interviewed, among who are land administration experts, land administration policy makers, land administration trainers, top management in land management, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officials, as well as CRM Practitioners. Findings from these two phases were then used as a basis to revise the current CRM. The research developed: an understanding of the issues of corruption that has impacted upon the ability of land administration agencies towards corruption, type of corruption, factors causing corruption, resistance of the department towards corruption to contribute to corruption risk management as well as the mechanism review on current approaches which deter corruption in the land management; and finally, a corruption risk in land management model which illustrates a 'to be' situation for how corruption risk management could support land management processes and strategies over corruption risk. Based on the analysis, types of corruption and identification of the risk factors have been identified. The study also identifies the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of corruption risk management in governing land management. The outcomes of the study will be used to inform the policy and practice of the organization in implementing the Corruption Risk Management framework as an institutional integrity internal control.

Land information management in Ghana, as in many developing countries, remains a practice monopolised by public sector land administration agencies, which are known for being inefficient in delivering services that satisfy the needs of citizens. Under this monopolised regime, landed property related data gathering, processing through land registration, storage and dissemination of the information as final product for public use is entirely based on expert knowledge. Meanwhile, reliance on this kind of knowledge for land information management has continuously failed to promote smooth flow and a broad based access to reliable information for decision making by citizens. This failure has created a huge land information gap between market participants’ especially genuine and fraudulent landed property owners on one hand and potential buyers, lenders, and investors on the other hand. Thus, there is information asymmetry, which this study identifies as a major contributory factor to the challenges of uncertainties and high transaction costs that characterise dealings in urban real estate markets in Ghana. In order to verify how the information gap can be closed, this research adopts quantitative research methodology. The research mainly explores multinomial logistic regression model to test Economic Theory of Knowledge propounded by Hayek (1945) using Ghana as the context of study. Primary data was collected from potential land information suppliers within the private sector and existing users of land information as likely beneficiaries of an efficient land information management regime. Interrater agreement index and Pearson’s bivariate correlation analysis were used to analyse primary data gathered from users of land information in relation to land information needs and competition in land information harnessing. Following verification of the relationship between competition and economic knowledge, the key research finding is that there are two kinds of land information management knowledge and these are expert and entrepreneurial land information management knowledge. Thus, the research presents empirical evidence that out of four types of entrepreneurial knowledge verified, two types namely adaptive and cost-efficient knowledge are most likely to influence competition in land information supply. Also, competition is likely to deliver land information services that satisfy the needs of users of land information. Altogether, the research findings converge with the theory verified. The research outcome suggests that deregulation of state monopoly of land information harnessing for competition among private economic actors in Ghana is due. Removing this barrier is likely to promote dynamic competition in which licensed land information suppliers can use adaptive and cost efficient knowledge in gathering and disseminating land information at competitive prices. The study also provides evidence that all-in-one land information, which is broadly accessible at competitive prices is likely to be required to help address the problem of information asymmetry in the context of Ghana. For purposes of practice in the context of urban real estate markets in Ghana, a framework based on the research findings is developed and validated. The framework is proposed to inform policy decision on deregulation for competition in land information harnessing to enable the real estate sector function well. To kick start the process, deregulation in land data gathering and dissemination of land information is suggested.

Countryside recreation is hugely popular and demand is on the rise. Whilst participation should be encouraged, sensitive management is required to reduce associated environmental impacts. This thesis investigates current and future patterns in countryside recreation at multiple spatial scales, from national to site, to explore the potential impacts on biodiversity and enhance the evidence base for conservation interventions. A national-level recreation model is developed from a unique and massive data set of georeferenced recreational visits collected over 3 years, which predicts the probability of visitation as a function of land cover composition and accessibility to and within a site, whilst controlling for source population and socio-demographic differences. Land cover types were subdivided into proportion designated and non-designated for high nature value, using Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) as a proxy. Probability of visitation to preferred land covers, coast and freshwater, decreased when SSSI designated, with no effect for broadleaved woodland. Therefore general recreational use by the public did not represent an important ecosystem service of protected high-nature-value areas. The model was employed to create national- and county-level spatially-explicit predictions of countryside recreation under present and future conditions, the conservation implications of which are discussed. As species conservation requires knowledge of how recreational pressure is distributed throughout a site, a novel methodology was developed using Thetford Forest as a case study. GIS-based Network Analysis was combined with statistical modelling to predict the number of disturbance events from recreationists for all path sections throughout the site. This tool was able to test the consequences of altering site access on the number of hypothetical new woodlark territories likely to become occupied. This study contributes to a relatively small body of work on the importance of biodiversity for recreation and provides novel spatial approaches for quantifying demand and testing conservation interventions.

The return to the customary or integration of customary and statutory tenure systems to continue gain currency in both contemporary policy and academic discourses on land tenure as an alternative pathway towards enhancing security of access and tenure in the sub-Saharan African context. Central to the debates are issues concerning the relevance of customary land tenure arrangements and appropriate pathways to successfully engineer the process of harmonization toward improved tenure security whilst preserving of the communitarian principles of local tenure systems. Using two case studies in rural Ghana, this study investigated the prevailing land tenure arrangements, practices and socio-political dynamics that underpin them, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that need to be addressed for the successful adaptation of customary tenure rules and institutions into the statutory system towards improved tenure security and sustainable land management. The research employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods including interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires to collate and analyse data from sampled respondents in Kakum and Ankasa in southern Ghana. The results of the investigation revealed that contrary to the mainstream view that customary tenure arrangements are incapable of providing tenure security in the face on ongoing transformations, the perceived tenure security of respondents was generally high in the study areas. This notwithstanding, it was observed that the emerging patterns of access and control (occasioned by increasing land scarcity and commodification) have resulted in social differentiation and inequalities in land access and distribution amongst the poor and vulnerable members of the landholding groups including women and the youth. The research also showed that aside from tenure security, other important contextual factors including access to credit, modernised agricultural inputs and targeted extension service support significantly influence households' investment decisions regarding adoption of sustainable land management practices. These findings have far-reaching implications for current land tenure interventions aimed at harmonising customary and statutory tenure structures for improved tenure security and sustainable land management. Results of the investigation were used to develop a three-phase incremental framework on formalisation of customary land rights which could serve as bespoke framework to guide the design of land tenure intervention strategies and implementation towards addressing local tenure insecurity in the specific context of the study areas and sub-Saharan Africa generally. The major conclusion of the research is that balancing the market efficiency and social equity considerations is necessary and should be pursued under the ongoing land tenure reforms for inclusive and equitable outcomes at the local level. This derives from the fact that the existing tenurial challenges are complex and context-specific, equally requiring well-balanced and nuanced solutions to effectively address them.

This thesis examines the relationship between rural land management and downstream flood risk. The recent increase in flood frequency and magnitude has been hypothesised to have been caused by either climate change or land management. The theoretical basis for why these factors might increase flood risk is well known, but showing their impact on downstream flood risk remains a challenge. Field scale studies have found that changing land management practices does affect local runoff and streamflow. Upscaling these effects to the catchment scale continues to be problematic,both conceptually and, more importantly, methodologically. Conceptually, upscaling is critical. As land management may impact upon the relative timing as well as the magnitude of runoff, any changes in land management practice may lead to changes in the synchronisation of tributaries flows, either reducing or increasing downstream flood risk. Methodologically, understanding this effect requires capturing the spatial resolution associated with field-scale hydrological processes simultaneously with the upscaling of these processes to the downstream locations where flood risk is of concern. Most approaches to this problem aim to upscale from individual grid cells to whole catchments, something that restricts the complexity of possible process representation,produces models that may not be parsimonious with the data needed to calibrate them and, faced with data uncertainties, provides computational limitations on the extent to which model uncertainty can be fully explored. Rather than upscaling to problems of concern, this thesis seeks to downscale from locations of known flood risk, as a means of identifying where land use management changes might be beneficial and then uses numerical modelling to identify the kinds of management changes required in those downscaled locations. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to test an approach to understanding the impacts of rural land management upon flood risk based upon catchment-to-source downscaling. This thesis uses the case study of the River Eden catchment (2400 km2) as a test case. Firstly the downstream flood risk problem was assessed using both gauged data and documentary evidence to investigate the historical flood record. This found the last decade does not differ significantly from previous flood rich periods, which were defined as 1) 1873-1904; 2) 1923-1933; and 3) 1994-present. Second, the potential causes of floods within the catchment were investigated; firstly climate variability was assessed using Lamb weather types, which found that five weather types were responsible for causing 90% of the floods in the last 30 years. Third, spatial downscaling of catchment-scale flood risk was undertaken using two methods; databased statistical analysis; and hydraulic modelling. Both approaches consider the magnitudes and the timing of the flows from each major sub-catchment. The statistical approach involved a principal components analysis to simplify the complex subcatchment interactions and a stepwise regression to predict downstream flood risk. The hydraulic modelling approach used iSIS-Flow to undertake a series of numerical experiments, where the input hydrographs from each tributary were shifted individually and the effect on downstream peak stage assessed. Both these approaches found that the Upper Eden and Eamont sub-catchments were the most important in explaining downstream flood risk. The Eamont sub-catchment was chosen for future analysis as:(1) it was shown to have a significant impact on downstream flood risk; and (2) it had range of data and information needed for modelling land use changes. The second part of this thesis explored the land management scenarios that could be used to reduce flood risk at the catchment scale. The scenarios to be tested were determined through a stakeholder participation approach, whereby workshops were held to brainstorm and prioritise land management options, and then to identify specific locations within the Eamont sub-catchment where they could tested. There were two main types of land management scenarios chosen: (1) landscape-scale changes,including afforestation and compaction; and (2) channel modification and floodplain storage scenarios, including flood bank removal and wet woodland creation. The hydrological model CRUM3 was used to test the catchment scale land use changes,while the hydraulic model iSIS-Flow was used to test the channel and floodplain scenarios. It was found that through changing the whole of a small sub-catchment(Dacre Beck), the scenarios of reducing compaction and arabilisation could reduce catchment scale (2400 km2) flood risk by up to 3.5% for a 1 in 175 year flood event(January 2005). Changing localised floodplain roughness reduced sub-catchment (Lowther) peak stage by up to 0.134 m. This impact diminished to hardly any effect on peak flow magnitudes at the sub-catchment scale (Eamont). However, these scenarios caused a delay of the flood peak by up to 5 hours at the sub-catchment scale, which has been found to reduce peak stage at Carlisle by between 0.167 m to 0.232 m, corresponding to a 5.8% decrease in peak discharge. A key conclusion is that land management practices have been shown to have an effect on catchment scale flooding, even for extreme flood events. However, the effect of land management scenarios are both spatially and temporally dependent i.e. the same land management practice has different effects depending on where it is implemented, and when implemented in the same location has different effects on different flood events.

Growing populations and industrialized agriculture practices have eradicated much of the United States wetlands along river floodplains. One program available for the restoration of floodplains is the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The current research explores the effects CRP land change has on flooding zones, utilizing Flood Modeller and HEC-RAS. Modelling in both one-dimensional and two-dimensional approaches were tested and analyzed for the same river reach. Flood Modeller is proven a viable tool for flood modeling within the United States when compared to HEC-RAS. Application of the software is used in the Nodaway River system located in the western halves of Iowa and Missouri, to model the effects of introducing new forest areas within the region. Flood stage during the conversion first decreases in the early years, before rising to produce greater heights. Flow velocities where CRP land is present are reduced for long-term scopes. Velocity reduction occurs as the Manning’s roughness values increase due to tree diameter and brush density. Flood zones become more widespread with the implementation of CRP. Comparing one-dimensional and two-dimensional flood mapping zones, the two-dimensional model shows less inundation. CRP land cover effects evolve over time, with the greatest impact appearing at the end of the contract.

This study aims to show the importance of Landslide Susceptibility Map as a tool for land use planning, prevention and risk mitigation. This will be shown through MM evaluation processes affecting high sector of El Paraíso gorge - Villa María del Triunfo (Lima - Peru).The work consisted of two phases: in the first one (field) the intrinsic characteristics of geology and geomorphology were identified. The second one, included the Landslide Susceptibility Map generation, using the multivariate Heuristic Model consisting of overlapping maps variables (Carrara et al. 1995, Lain et al. 2005), developed in a GIS environment through algebra layer (geoprocessing operations).The results of Landslide Susceptibility Map in general, give us geoscience information that will contribute to land management, and in a timely manner, with the development of specific studies, prevention and / or mitigation measures to ensure the physical stability of identified critical areas.
El presente estudio tiene por objetivo mostrar la importancia del Mapa de Susceptibilidad a MM, como herramienta para la planificación territorial, prevención y mitigación de riesgos. Para ello, se muestra como ejemplo la evaluación geodinámica del sector alto de la quebrada El Paraíso – Villa María del Triunfo (Lima – Perú).El trabajo consistió de dos fases: en la primera (campo) se identificaron los características intrínsecas de geología y geomorfología. La segunda (gabinete), comprendió la elaboración del mapa de susceptibilidad aplicando el modelo heurístico multivariado que consiste en la superposición de mapas de variables (Carrara et al. 1995; Laín et al. 2005), desarrollado en un entorno SIG a través del álgebra de capas (operaciones de geoprocesamiento).Los resultados del mapa de susceptibilidad de manera general, nos presentan información geocientífica que contribuirá con el ordenamiento territorial (OT); y de manera puntual, con el desarrollo de estudios específicos, medidas de prevención y/o mitigación para asegurar la estabilidad física de las áreas críticas identificadas.

La croissance urbaine incontrôlée est liée à plusieurs problèmes socio-environnementaux dans les pays en développement comme le Pérou. Afin de comprendre l'expansion urbaine dans les zones non aménageables, la recherche combine trois dimensions de l'analyse : l'analyse spatiale, l'analyse du comportement social et l'évaluation de la gestion urbaine et de l'aménagement du territoire. L'étude se concentre sur trois cas péruviens : une oasis de brouillard saisonnier dans la ville aride de Lima, les terres agricoles de première qualité de la vallée de Cajamarca et les zones humides de la petite ville de Huamachuco. L'expansion urbaine dans les études de cas est principalement informelle et désorganisée; à cause de sérieuses déficiences dans la gestion publique locale, la planification routière et la culture de l'informalité. Cependant, certaines organisations communautaires et certains leaders sociaux contribuent à une utilisation plus durable du territoire
Uncontrolled urban expansion is related to several socio-environmental problems in developing countries like Peru. In order to understand the urban expansion in non-developable areas, the research combines three dimensions of analysis: spatial analysis, social behavior analysis, and the evaluation of urban management and spatial planning. The study focuses on three Peruvian cases: a seasonal fog-oasis in the arid city of Lima, the prime farmlands in Cajamarca valley, and the wetlands of the small city of Huamachuco. Urban expansion in the case studies is predominantly informal and disorganized as a consequence of serious deficiencies in local public management, road planning, and the culture of informality. However, some communal organizations and social leaders contribute to a more sustainable land-use

La croissance urbaine incontrôlée est liée à plusieurs problèmes socio-environnementaux dans les pays en développement comme le Pérou. Afin de comprendre l'expansion urbaine dans les zones non aménageables, la recherche combine trois dimensions de l'analyse : l'analyse spatiale, l'analyse du comportement social et l'évaluation de la gestion urbaine et de l'aménagement du territoire. L'étude se concentre sur trois cas péruviens : une oasis de brouillard saisonnier dans la ville aride de Lima, les terres agricoles de première qualité de la vallée de Cajamarca et les zones humides de la petite ville de Huamachuco. L'expansion urbaine dans les études de cas est principalement informelle et désorganisée; à cause de sérieuses déficiences dans la gestion publique locale, la planification routière et la culture de l'informalité. Cependant, certaines organisations communautaires et certains leaders sociaux contribuent à une utilisation plus durable du territoire
Uncontrolled urban expansion is related to several socio-environmental problems in developing countries like Peru. In order to understand the urban expansion in non-developable areas, the research combines three dimensions of analysis: spatial analysis, social behavior analysis, and the evaluation of urban management and spatial planning. The study focuses on three Peruvian cases: a seasonal fog-oasis in the arid city of Lima, the prime farmlands in Cajamarca valley, and the wetlands of the small city of Huamachuco. Urban expansion in the case studies is predominantly informal and disorganized as a consequence of serious deficiencies in local public management, road planning, and the culture of informality. However, some communal organizations and social leaders contribute to a more sustainable land-use

Replacement of traditional land administration institutions with modern institutions has been one of the strategies used by the Lesotho Government to solve land management problems. This thesis uses a case study approach to analyze the effectiveness of one modern institution, the Village Land Allocation Committees (VLAC), at the community level in Lesotho. Customarily, land in Lesotho was allocated by traditional chiefs who could for various purposes revoke it. The system was allegedly open to abuse and under the Land Act 1979, the authority to allocate land was shifted from traditional chiefs to the VLAC, which is partly elected and partly nominated by the government. The thinking behind this change was that VLAC would be more democratic and efficient, representing local as well as national interests. The study consists of three stages: a) review of background literature on Lesotho; b) a comparison of land tenure reforms in Tanzania, Kenya and Botswana; and c) field research carried out through questionnaires administered to VLAC members, community members and government officials responsible for land administration at the community level in Lesotho. Conclusions drawn from this study are that lack of clear policy guidelines, lack of connection between land allocation and the overall planning and lack of meaningful community participation in the land allocation process, are among the major problems in the operation of VLAC. The study's major recommendations are: a) integrating land allocation with the overall land use planning; b) recognizing the continuing influence of traditional institutions and incorporating them into VLAC activities; c) providing VLAC with clearer goals and necessary resources; and d) building a planning and evaluation component into VLAC procedures. The need for further research on the composition and election process of VLAC is identified.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When land loses its intrinsic qualities or suffers a decline in its capabilities it is said to be degraded. Land degradation manifests itself in various forms such as deforestation, soil erosion, land, air and water pollution. In the context of sustainable development land degradation has become one of the world's major concerns. Now, more than ever before, it has become urgent to carry out empirical studies on the nature and extent of land degradation and to come up with appropriate responses to the problem. In much of the developing world communal natural resource management practices are common. It is often assumed that communal exploitation of common property resources such as woodlands, pastures, water sources and wildlife inevitably leads to land degradation. This is due to the belief that humankind would seek to derive maximum benefit from common pool resources without incurring any costs towards the conservation of those resources. This study was an environmental assessment of the impacts of communal land-use systems and common property resources management practices in the Mhondoro communal lands of Zimbabwe. The area has been subject to human settlement for over a century and is regarded as a typical representation of a well-established communal land management system. Several methods were used to make the assessment. These included the following: a questionnaire survey; interviews with key informants; soil and vegetation traverses and field measurements; tree density counts in demarcated plots; calculation of the population density and livestock density for the study area; completion of an environmental evaluation matrix and a communal projects sustainability index checklist; and analysis of geo-referenced time-lapse aerial photography covering a fifteen year period (1982-1997). It was established that serious land degradation had occurred in Chief Mashayamombe's ward in Mhondoro. Degradation manifested itself in the form of soil erosion and stream sedimentation, woodland depletion, pasture degradation and wildlife habitat destruction. Communal land-use and natural resource management practices are only partially to blame for this state of affairs. The fragile nature of the sandy soils of the uplands, the sadie soils of the vlei areas, combined with the fairly high rainfall amounts (annual average 750mm) make the area prone to soil erosion. Rainfall intensity tends to be high in the area and when the rain falls on the poorly vegetated, and highly erodible soils erosion occurs. The land has become severely stressed due to over-utilisation; a population density of 93 people per km2 and livestock density of 110 cattle per km2 were recorded. The land available for communal settlement in the area has been limited in extent. Due to the general poverty of the communal farmers the replacement of nutrients into the cultivated soil has not kept pace with the deteriorating condition of the land. Contrary to popular misconceptions, communal area residents have shown concern for environmental conservation through fallowing their fields, gully reclamation efforts, grazing schemes, woodland preservation and tree growing practices. Remedial and/or mitigatory measures for the environmental recovery of the area could adopt some of these well-established practices and incorporate them in a whole-catchment management strategy. Key words Land degradation, environmental degradation, pollution, environmental assessment, common property resources, communal land uses, sustainable resources management, sustainability indicators, soil erodibility, soil erosivity
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wanneer grond sy intrinsieke waarde verloor of 'n afname in sy vermoë toon, kan gesê word dat die grond gedegradeer is. Gronddegradasie manifesteer in verskeie vorme, soos ontbossing, gronderosie, grond, lug en water besoedeling. Gronddegradasie het binne die konteks van volhoubare ontwikkeling wêreldwyd van besondere belang geword. Nou, meer as ooit vantevore, is dit noodsaaklik om empiriese studies uit te voer aangaande die aard en omvang van gronddegradasie, en om vorendag te kom met toepaslike reaksies tot die probleem. Gemeenskaps natuurlike hulpbron bestuur praktyke is algemeen in die ontwikkelende wêreld. Daar word dikwels veronderstel dat uitbuiting van gemeenskaplike eiendoms hulpbronne deur die gemeenskap, soos woude, weivelde, waterbronne en wild, onvermeidelik lei na gronddegradasie. Hierdie aanname het ontwikkel as gevolg van die oortuiging dat die mensdom daarna sal streef om maksimum voordeel te trek uit gemeenskaplike hulpbronne, sonder om enige koste aan te gaan ten opsigte van die bewaring daarvan. Hierdie studie behels 'n omgewings evaluering van die impakte van gemeenskaps grondgebruik sisteme en gemeenskaplike eiendoms hulpbron bestuur praktyke in die Mhondoro gemeenskaplike grond van Zimbabwe. Die area word al vir meer as 'n eeu deur mense bewoon, en word beskou as 'n tipiese voorbeeld van 'n gevestigde gemeenskaps grondbestuur sisteem. Verskeie metodes is toegepas met die evaluering, en sluit in: 'n vraelys opname; onderhoude met sleutel segspersone; grond en plantegroei opnames en veldopnames; boom digtheidstelling in afgebakende persele; berekening van bevolkingsen veedigtheid vir die studiegebied; opstelling van 'n omgewing evaluerings matriks en 'n gemeenskap projek volhoubaarheids indeks kontroleerlys; en 'n analise van geo-referenced time-lapse lugfoto's wat strek oor 'n tydperk van 15 jaar (1982-1997). Daar is vasgestel dat ernstige gronddegradasie voorkom in Hoofman Mashayamombe se wyk in Mhondoro. Degradasie word gemanifesteer in die vorm van gronderosie en stroom sedimentasie, uitputting van woude, weiveld degradasie en die verwoesting van wild habitatte. Gemeenskaps grondgebruik en natuurlike hulpbron bestuurspraktyke is net gedeeltelik verantwoordelik vir die stand van sake. Gronderosie vind plaas ook as gevolg van die sensitiewe aard van die sanderige grond van die hoogland, die sodic grond van die vlei areas, in kombinasie met redelike hoë reënval (gemiddeld 750mm per jaar). Reënval intensiteit in die area is geneig om hoog te wees, en erosie vind plaas wanneer reën val op die hoogs erodeerbare grond wat met yl plantegroei bedek is. Die grond verkeer onder geweldige druk as gevolg van oorbenutting; 'n bevolkingsdigtheid van 93 mense per km2 en veedigtheid van 110beeste per km2 is aangeteken. Die grond beskikbaar vir vestiging van gemeenskappe word in omvang beperk. Die vervanging van grondvoedingstowwe in bewerkte grond hou nie tred met die agteruitgang in die kondisie van die grond nie, as gevolg van die algemene armoede van die gemeenskapsboere. Inwoners van die gemeenskapsarea , teenstrydig met algemene wanopvattings, toon besorgdheid ten opsigte van omgewingsbewaring deur die grond braak te lê, donga herwinnings pogings, wei velds planne, bewaring van woude en praktyke ten opsigte van die groei van bome. Remediërende en/of versagtende maatstawwe vir die herstel van die omgewing kan van hierdie gevestigde praktyke inkorporeer in 'n bestuursstrategie wat die hele opvangsgebied insluit. Sleutelwoorde Gronddegradasi e, omgewingsde gradasi e, besoedeling, omgewingsassessering, gemeenskaplike eiendoms hulpbronne, gemeenskaplike grondgebruik, volhoubare hulpbron bestuur, volhoubaarheids aanwysers, grond erodeerbaarheid, grond verwering.

This dissertation is the individual analysis and evaluation of the baseline information on the Liesbeeck-Black River Confluence Area (hereinafter referred to as Confluence Area) gathered by the 1993-1994 Environmental and Geographical Science (EN GEO) Master of Philosophy (MPhil) class (see Appendix A). This dissertation is submitted to the examiners for evaluation as a partial requirement for the MPhil degree in Environmental Science. The baseline report (hereinafter BLR) is titled "Environmental Baseline Study for Land-Use Decision-Making in the Liesbeeck and Black River Confluence Area" (ENGEO Master's Class, 1994). It contains a comprehensive description, as well as preliminary analysis, of all the environmental components (socioeconomic and biophysical) that could be of relevance to land-use planning in the area. The overall need for this study, which comprises the group BLR and the individual dissertations, arises out of the fact that the Confluence Area with its river systems, is part of a "green, open space corridor" that is under pressure from development in a city needing to densify and contain urban sprawl. There is thus potential conflict between development and other environmental considerations including that of open space retention for conservation and recreation purposes. The Cape Town City Council (CCC) suggested this study but is not a "client". The study on the Confluence Area is intended to be of use to the CCC to enhance their ability to make sound land-use decisions for the area in the best interests of society at large. The CCC is also involved in numerous planning studies for the proposed redevelopment of a large tract of land adjacent to the study area, called the Culemborg-Black River area (hereinafter C-BR), and this study can feed into the overall planning process. This individual dissertation provides the CCC planning process with recommendations and land-use alternatives for the Confluence Area. Since the BLR forms the basis of this dissertation, they should be read in conjunction with each other.

This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the indigenous management of geographically diverse small-scale agricultural production environments in Africa by investigating the effects of customary land allocation on the use of the land and sustainable agricultural development in Swaziland. This study addresses two questions: (a) to what extent has the heterogeneity of the natural environment been considered in the allocation of land for agricultural purposes; and (b) what are the implications of the existing land allocation system and current land allocation pattern on the development and sustainability of agricultural land use. The study focuses on semi-arid land. The land allocation efficiency is determined by comparing the spatial heterogeneity of the land with the pattern of land allocation. The analysis is carried out at a sub-regional scale, and a local scale in twelve study areas. Changes over time are studied by comparing current land allocation patterns with those at Independence (1968). This study has identified two apparent weaknesses in the customary land management system. The frrst is in the capacity to ensure an efficient land resource distribution at a subregional level. The second is in the ability to ensure consistent land allocation practices at a local level. The study provides evidence that these shortcomings are now affecting the production environment and opportunities for development, and that changes in the tenure system are required. The study findings partly support a recent land po licy initiative proposing a gradual devolution in land management responsibilities to local level management systems, but also raise two major concerns. First, the land policy initiative does not address the shortcomings in sub-regional land management. Second, the inconsistent land distribution found at a local level does not support the notion that devolution will necessarily lead to more sustainable levels of land use within communities. In the wider debate on the agrarian transformation in Africa, this study adds to the body of knowledge in identifying specific shortcomings of indigenous management systems in land distribution, and their effects on sustainable agricultural development and land management. The study thus extends the more critical strand of thought on the role of local and indigenous land management systems in this process, and thus on the effectiveness of the devolution of resource management to community levels. The study also demonstrates that land sufficiency and quality are important issues in the process of sustainable intensification in small-scale land use systems, and question the wider applicability of the optimistic development model, which is primarily based on economic considerations. Lastly, the fmdings support the critical view on the applicability of the evolutionary theory of land rights in conditions similar to those in Swaziland. The fmdings of this study confIrm the importance of considering spatial scale and diversity in land use related studies, and show that any inference from one level of scale to another can be highly misleading.

This research is composed of three essays. It highlights the driving factors of land conversion and crop acreage response focusing on North Dakota agriculture and estimates the benefits of conservation land measures at west central South Dakota watershed. The major questions that are addressed here are how and why agricultural producers decide among different land use choices, crop selection, and land conservation measures and how their decision vary over time? The first essay examines the long run land conversion trend interconnected with change in crop, oil, and ethanol prices, climate and renewable fuel policy mandates. Data are obtained from Cropland Data Layer from 1997 to 2015 period of National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) at the USDA. The first essay employs a Seemingly Unrelated Tobit Regression approach to better understand the connection between land conversion and crop prices, biofuel policies, biophysical environment. Key findings indicate land-use conversion from grassland to cropland is relatively higher across the ND counties.

The second essay is designed to investigate the relationship between crop acreage response and socio-economic and environmental drivers. We use prices for crude oil, planted acres of major crops (corn, wheat, soybean, hay) and prices from the period of 1990 to 2015. This essay focuses on corn acreage response due to crop prices, energy policies, climate and other socio-economic factors using a Fixed Effect parameter framework.

The final essay estimates environmental benefits due to adoption of conservation practices. In other words, it analyzes the economic and environmental benefits of implemented conservation practices at Bad River watershed in South Dakota using an integrated framework. For example, in an article in the Global Journal of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development (2016), a Benefit Cost Analysis model is utilized to assess soil conservation benefits and evaluate economic impacts of conservation measures at a watershed scale. The economic analysis includes estimation of benefit cost ratio, annual rate of return of conservation practices. Key findings suggest that benefit value of sediment reduction average $2.13 per ton expressed in constant (year = 2000) dollars and the ratio of benefits to costs is greater than 1.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-93).
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun to embrace the concept adaptive management as an alternative to traditional natural resource planning and management models. Adaptive management may provide BLM managers with a means to evaluate the effectiveness of management actions, the flexibility to adjust actions that have not proved effective, opportunities for rapid learning relevant to improved management, and improved public support for resource management decisions. To realize these benefits, BLM must include two critical elements in its adaptive management strategies: 1) adaptive design of management objectives, actions, monitoring and evaluation protocols and 2) effective collaboration among BLM and interested stakeholders. I evaluate three case studies of BLM adaptive management and find that none of the cases have fully included the critical elements. While there are some encouraging signs, the cases collectively reveal several key shortcomings. The strategies have not capitalized on the potential to improve management through learning. Two cases illustrate the risk that adaptive management may be misapplied to remove requirements for predictive impact analysis and mitigation, putting resources at risk. The cases have not featured a joint fact finding collaborative structure to provide stakeholders with early and integrated roles in the adaptive management process. I also identify a number of institutional barriers that have prevented BLM from consistently including the critical elements.
(Cont.) If BLM cannot remove these barriers by providing agency-wide policy and guidance for adaptive management, capacity building for local staff and stakeholders and adequately funded, binding implementation commitments, the agency will not realize the 'benefits it seeks and adaptive management will not represent a significant improvement to BLM's practice of natural resource management.
by Peter Brandenburg.
M.C.P.

There is growing concern that the adoption of intensive agricultural land management practices in upland areas of the UK over the past 50-60 years may have affected hydrological responses and sediment transfer regimes in river catchments and could, therefore, be contributing to increased levels of flood risk and ecological disturbance. However, recent evidence from a research catchment at Pontbren in mid-Wales indicates that the implementation of a more sustainable livestock farming strategy could help to mitigate some of these impacts, raising the possibility that strategic land use planning could be used as a cost-effective, multi-functional river management option. The impacts of historical land use changes and land management practices on contemporary sediment dynamics in the study area are explored in this thesis through a system approach which acknowledges the importance of interrelationships between hydrological and geomorphological processes. Results from hydrological experiments and modelling exercises are used to inform analyses of spatial and temporal variation in sediment production and transfer from a variety of potential sources. Grazed, agriculturally-improved pastures were found to supply fine material to stream channels via both surface runoff and field drains. In particular, drain-derived sediment is likely to represent an important component of the total fine sediment yield in subcatchments where agricultural intensification has been widespread. Agricultural drainage ditches were also found to act as sources of sediment in such areas, along with eroding channel banks. Sediment production from bank sources may relate to historical changes in peak flows caused by agricultural intensification. Stream sediment yields are strongly related to differences in sediment supply from the aforementioned sources and could therefore be reduced by limiting mobilisation at the point of origin within the landscape. In terms of channel-derived material, this could be achieved through peak flow reductions associated with woodland and hedgerow restoration.

Evaluation is the systematic determination of the merit, worth and significance of a programme, initiative or intervention. As a young discipline, its empirical study is still limited, especially in Francophone Africa. Building on both the theory and the practice of evaluation in Senegal for the past decades, this study aims to identify strategies to improve evaluation practice and its usefulness for development results. It is focused on the evaluation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) that presents specific challenges associated with the difficulty of considering simultaneously the different time and space scales of the environment, the economy and the society; and of dealing with the uncertainty and the limited quantity and quality of context data, among others. The study is based on an extensive review of the specialized literature on environment and development issues, the institutional and policy setting, complemented with semi-structured interviews with national authorities, donor representatives and evaluators. Participant observation also helped to ground the analysis and to access key grey literature and evaluation reports. Meta-evaluation (MEv) is proposed as the analytical framework to study the SLM evaluation practice in Senegal to improve evaluative knowledge. MEv is the evaluation of evaluations. The theoretical function of MEv has been developed to assess the role of evaluation in the SLM policy sector, including its adequacy and opportunity. A tailored MEv framework is applied to a set of 40 SLM project evaluation reports published since 2000, and complemented with 3 case studies. The study also analyses a parallel strand of evaluation practice in Senegal: capitalizations, conceived as participatory evaluative exercises focused on stakeholders¿ experiences, practices and learning. Results show that evaluation practice in SLM in Senegal is very heterogeneous and far from ¿sound evaluation standards¿. This is explained by constraints in the enabling environment and the institutional framework and limited capacities of stakeholders at all levels. In spite of some timid advances towards country-led evaluation, serious blockages to national ownership and evaluation utilization still persist. Although the majority of interviewees perceived SLM evaluations to be participative, this study contests their understanding of participation in most cases. SLM capitalization exercises, although far from the ideal features of this learning-oriented approach are able to engage more meaningfully with local-level actors. The set of evaluations and capitalizations analysed does not offer a coherent response to the challenges of evaluating Natural Resources Management interventions identified in the literature. For instance, they do not solve the tensions among different time and space scales or encompass a wide variety of values and perspectives about those interventions. Finally, the findings suggest that SLM evaluation is still much dominated by donor agendas and aid effectiveness concerns (accountability), with very limited efforts to promote their use for improvement or learning, and hardly any to inform national policy making. The study confirms the usefulness of MEv to guide critical reflection about real-world evaluations, surpassing the narrow conception of evaluation quality. It also allows the opening of a debate about evaluation capacities understood as the faculty to choose what, when and how interventions are evaluated. MEv could be used to promote a more active involvement of Senegalese research institutes, public administration and civil society in shaping a new public policy evaluation scenario. A broader national conception of evaluation should also encompass capitalizations and other similar approaches and foster learning organizations and institutions while promoting exchanges between applied research and project and policy-level evaluation.
La evaluación es la investigación sistemática del mérito, valor e importancia de un programa, iniciativa o intervención. Siendo una disciplina nueva, su estudio empírico es todavía limitado, especialmente en el África francófona. En base a la teoría y la práctica de evaluación en Senegal durante las últimas décadas, este estudio pretende identificar estrategias para mejorar la evaluación y su utilidad para alcanzar resultados de desarrollo. Está focalizado en la evaluación de la Gestión Sostenible de la Tierra (GST) que presenta retos específicos asociados a la dificultad de considerar simultáneamente las diferentes escalas de tiempo y espacio del medio ambiente, la economía y la sociedad; de integrar la incertidumbre, así como la limitada cantidad y calidad de la información sobre el contexto, entre otros. El estudio está basado en una revisión extensiva de la literatura especializada en medio ambiente y desarrollo, el contexto institucional y político, complementado con entrevistas semi-estructuras con autoridades nacionales, representantes de la comunidad de donantes y evaluadores. Cuatro años de participación observante también ayudaron a contextualizar el análisis y a acceder a literatura gris y a informes de evaluación claves. El enfoque de Meta-evaluación (MEv) es propuesto como marco analítico para estudiar la práctica de evaluación de GST en Senegal con el fin de mejorar el conocimiento evaluativo. La MEv es la evaluación de evaluaciones. La función teórica de MEv ha sido desarrollada para valorar el rol de la evaluación en el sector de política de la GST, inluyendo su idoneidad y oportunidad. Un marco de MEv adaptado es aplicado a un conjunto de 40 informes de evaluación de proyectos de GST publicados a partir del 2000 y complementados con tres estudios de caso. El estudio también analiza una práctica de evaluación paralela en Senegal: las capitalizaciones, concebidas como ejercicios evaluativos participativos focalizados en las experiencias, prácticas y aprendizaje de los actores. El estudio confirma la utilidad de la MEv para guiar la reflexión crítica sobre un conjunto de evaluaciones reales, más allá de la concepción restrictiva de la calidad en evaluación. También permite propiciar el debate sobre las capacidades de evaluación entendidas como la capacidad de elegir qué intervenciones son evaluadas, cuándo y cómo. La MEv podría ser utilizada para promover una implicación más activa de los institutos de investigación, las administraciones públicas y la sociedad civil senegaleses para dibujar un nuevo escenario de evaluación de políticas públicas. Una concepción amplia de la evaluación debería también incluir las capitalizaciones y otros enfoques similares y fomentar organizaciones e instituciones de conocimiento y el intercambio entre la investigación aplicada y la evaluación a nivel de proyectos, programas y políticas.
L´évaluation est la recherche systématique de la valeur, de la portée et de l’importance d’un programme, d’une initiative ou d’une intervention. Étant une discipline nouvelle, son étude empirique est encore limitée, particulièrement en Afrique francophone. S’appuyant sur la théorie et la pratique de l’évaluation au Sénégal au cours des dernières décennies, cette étude vise à identifier des stratégies pour améliorer l’évaluation et son utilité en vue d’atteindre des résultats de développement. Elle porte sur l’évaluation de la gestion durable des terres (GDT), qui présente des défis spécifiques en raison de la difficulté à considérer en simultané les différentes échelles temporelles et spatiales de l’environnement, de l’économie et de la société, et de prendre en compte, entre autres, l’incertitude ainsi que des informations limitées en quantité et qualité sur le contexte. L’étude est basée sur une ample révision de la littérature spécialisée sur l’environnement et le développement, le contexte institutionnel et politique, complétée par des entretiens semi-structurés avec les autorités nationales et les représentants de la communauté de bailleurs et d’évaluateurs au Sénégal. Quatre années d’observation participante ont également aidé à contextualiser l’analyse et à consulter la littérature grise et les rapports d’évaluation. L’approche de méta-évaluation (MEv) est proposée en tant que cadre analytique pour étudier la pratique d’évaluation de la GDT au Sénégal afin d’améliorer les connaissances évaluatives. La MEv est l’évaluation des évaluations. La fonction théorique de MEv a été développée pour jauger le rôle de l’évaluation dans le secteur des politiques de GDT, y compris son adéquation et sa pertinence. Un cadre de MEv adapté est appliqué à un ensemble de 40 rapports d’évaluation de projets de GDT publiés à partir de l’année 2000 et complétés avec trois études de cas. L’étude analyse également la pratique de l’évaluation parallèle au Sénégal : les capitalisations, conçues comme exercices évaluatifs participatifs portant sur les expériences, les pratiques et les apprentissages des acteurs. Les résultats montrent que la pratique d’évaluation de la GDT au Sénégal est très hétérogène et éloignée des standards d’ "évaluation de qualité". Cette situation est expliquée par les limitations de l’environnement politique et du cadre institutionnel favorables à l’évaluation, ainsi que par les capacités limitées des acteurs à tous les niveaux. En dépit de quelques progrès timides vers l’évaluation menée par le pays, d’importants blocages persistent encore afin de promouvoir l’appropriation nationale et l’utilisation des évaluations au Sénégal. Même si la plupart des interviewés conçoivent l’évaluation de la GDT comme participative, l’étude met en cause leur compréhension du concept de participation, sauf dans quelques exemples isolés d’évaluations inclusives. Les capitalisations de GDT, bien qu’étant loin de reprendre les caractéristiques idéales de cette approche orientée vers l’apprentissage, permettent au moins d’engager de façon plus significative les acteurs au niveau local. Néanmoins, les évaluations de projet et les capitalisations de GDT n’offrent pas une réponse cohérente aux défis inhérents à l’évaluation d’initiatives de gestion durable de ressources naturelles identifiés dans la littérature. Par exemple, elles ne permettent pas de résoudre les tensions entre les différentes échelles temporelles et géographiques ou d’intégrer la diversité des valeurs et des perspectives liées à ces interventions. Finalement, les résultats indiquent que la pratique d’évaluation de la GDT est encore majoritairement dominée par les agendas des bailleurs et les objectifs d’efficacité de l’aide (redevabilité), avec des efforts très limités pour promouvoir leur utilisation orientée vers l´améliorations ou l’apprentissage, et virtuellement inexistants pour élaborer des politiques publiques. L’étude confirme l’utilité de la MEv pour guider la réflexion critique sur un ensemble d’évaluations réelles, au-delà de la conception restrictive de qualité en évaluation. Elle permet aussi de favoriser le débat sur les capacités d’évaluation comprises comme le pouvoir de déterminer quelles interventions à évaluer, le moment choisi pour les évaluations et la façon dont elle sont conduites. La MEv pourrait être utilisée afin de promouvoir une implication plus active des instituts de recherche, des administrations publiques et de la société civile sénégalaise afin de concevoir un nouveau panorama de l’évaluation de politiques publiques. Une conception ample de l´évaluation devrait également inclure les capitalisations et d’autres approches similaires, tout en promouvant des organisations et des institutions productrices de savoir, et en favorisant l’échange entre recherche appliquée et évaluation de projets, programmes et politiques.

One of the many current global problems is soil degradation. A major contributor to soil degradation is compaction. This is caused by overgrazing by livestock or the use of heavy agricultural machinery. Three study areas in Britain (Leicester, Wicken Fen and Loddington) and two in Kenya (Bogoria and Naivasha) were established. The following soil physical and chemical properties were measured: particle size, total porosity, penetration resistance, hydraulic conductivity, organic matter content and pH. And the following biotic properties were measured: invertebrate biodiversity, abundance, biomass, decomposition rates and carbon dioxide efflux. Firstly, a causal relationship was established between artificial compaction and the response of many soil physical and biotic properties. Total porosity, hydraulic conductivity, biodiversity, abundance and biomass, and CO2 efflux were reduced; penetration resistance increased. Organic matter content and pH remained unaffected. Different land-management practices were studied by investigating their inferred effects on the soil physical and biotic properties. Different practices were investigated as follows: woodland (Wicken Fen, Loddington and Naivasha); pasture (Wicken Fen, Loddington, Bogoria); no-till cultivation (Wicken Fen, Loddington); restoration/conservation cultivation (Bogoria), organic cultivation (Naivasha), overgrazed (Bogoria) and tilled (Wicken Fen, Loddington, Naivasha). A Compaction Index, comprising data from total porosity and penetration resistance, was devised to describe the physical effects of different management-practices on the soil ecosystem. Management practices that resulted in low Compaction Indices were no-till, pasture, restoration /conservation cultivation and organic cultivation. High values of the compaction Index were found in all tilled or overgrazed sites. Woodland often gave intermediate values, especially at Loddington. Biotic properties of the different soils were negatively correlated with the Compaction Index, with British pasture sites having the highest values for the biotic parameters, except decomposition rate, which was highest in no-till sites. The importance of the use of cultivation techniques sensitive to the health of soil ecosystems is stressed.

Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon (C) store, containing an estimated ~1500 Gt C in the upper 1 m of soil. The long term storage of soil organic C (SOC) requires that it is somehow protected from microbial decomposition – or ‘stabilised’ – in the soil matrix. Three mechanisms are commonly identified as factors controlling the stability of SOM: chemical recalcitrance, physical protection in aggregates and adsorption to soil mineral surfaces. The stability of SOC in the soil matrix can be influenced by management practices and changes in soil structure can lead to loss of SOC and increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is, therefore, important to understand the impact that management practices have on SOC stability and to manage soils in such a way as to optimise the volume of SOC which is locked away for climatically significant periods of time. Two methods are generally used to estimate SOC stability: indirectly by measuring CO2 fluxes as a proxy for SOC microbial decomposition, or directly through physical fractionation of soil in to pools with different levels of physical and chemical protection. Both methods were employed in this thesis. Arable and grassland soils which represent the range of soil textures and climatic conditions of the main agricultural areas in the UK were incubated at two different moisture contents and with or without inorganic fertiliser application and GHG fluxes from them were monitored. Soil texture, mineral N concentration and soil C concentration were found to be the most important measured variables controlling GHG fluxes of the UK agricultural soils in this study. The results were generally in support of those found in the literature for a wide range of soils, conditions and locations; however, N2O emissions from the two Scottish soils appeared to be more sensitive to inorganic N fertilisation at the higher moisture content than the other soils, with the N2O emissions being exceptionally high in comparison. Although incubations of whole soils are useful in measuring the impacts of soil management practices on GHG emissions under controlled conditions they do not identify the mechanisms controlling the stability of SOC. Dividing SOM into functional pools may identify different C stabilising mechanisms and improves soil C models. A large number of operationally defined separation methods have been used to fractionate SOM into biologically meaningful pools of different stability. Direct comparisons of different fractionation methods using radiocarbon (14C) dating and spectroscopic analyses has not previously been undertaken. Average 14C ages and chemical composition of SOM fractions isolated from a grassland soil using three published and frequently applied fractionation methods were compared. (1) a density separation technique isolating three fractions (2) a combined physical and chemical separation isolating five fractions (3) a hot-water extraction method isolating two fractions. The fractions from Method 1 had the most distinct average 14C ages, the fractions from Method 2 fell into two age groups, and both Method 3 fractions were dominated by modern C. The average 14C ages of the labile fractions from Method 1 and 2 were higher than the mineral bound fractions, although they made up a relatively small proportion of the total SOC. This was a surprising result, and spectroscopic analysis confirmed that these fractions had greater relative contents of aliphatic and aromatic characteristics than the mineral bound fractions. The presence of black C in a whole soil sample and one of the labile fractions from Method 2 was confirmed by hydrogen pyrolysis. The availability of archived soils from an abandoned long term tillage treatment experiment and the ability to relocate the plots provided a unique opportunity to assess the resilience of SOC stocks to land management practices several years after the conversion from arable to grassland. SOC stability was assessed by soil fractionation of archived (1975) and freshly collected (2014) soil samples. The mass corrected SOC stocks from the four different treatments (deep plough, shallow plough, chisel plough and direct drill) were higher in 2014 than 1975 across the whole profile (0 – 36 cm). Reductions were observed at some depths for some treatments but the overall effect was an evening out of SOC stocks across all plots. The fractionations (using Method 2), revealed that there was a relative increase in the mass of the sand and aggregate fraction but a decrease in the relative proportion of SOC stored in this fraction (physically protected). There was also a significant increase in the C:N ratio of the silt and clay fraction (chemical adsorption). This suggests that reduced disturbance of agricultural soils leads to preferential physical stabilisation of fresh SOM but also increased adsorption of older material to mineral surfaces. The labile fractions were sensitive to land-use change in all tillage treatment plots, but were more sensitive in the low impact tillage plots (chisel plough and direct drill) than the inversion tillage plots (deep plough and shallow plough). It is well established that tillage disrupts aggregation. However, a direct measurement of the level of SOM physical protection in the soil matrix due to aggregation has not previously been undertaken. The soil was fractionated using Method 1 (fractions with distinctly different 14C ages) and isolated soil fractions were incubated separately, recombined and mixed in to whole soil at three different temperatures. The C respiration rate of the isolated intra-aggregate fraction was generally consistently as high as the whole soil. This supports the theory that there is a labile component of soil which is protected from decomposition by physical protection within aggregates. Therefore, the lack of any priming effect with the addition of labile fractions to the whole soil, and indeed the suppression of emissions relative to the whole soil, was unusual. Fractions and whole soils incubated at 25 and 35 °C had a wider range of Q10 (temperature sensitivity) values than those incubated at 15 and 25 °C, however, median values were surprisingly similar (range from 0.7 to 1.9). Overall, the results from this thesis highlight the importance of the soil structure in stabilising C. Disrupting aggregates leaves a proportion of otherwise stable C susceptible to loss through microbial decomposition, particularly when the entire soil matrix is disrupted. It also provided some unexpected results which warrant future investigation; in particular, further direct measurement of physical stabilisation of SOM in soils of different type, from different climates and different land uses would be useful.

The intention of this thesis is to explore the professionalisation of the management of the country house estate during the long nineteenth century through a meticulous examination of the archives at Welbeck Abbey and Holkham Hall. It uniquely surveys the impact of these changing dynamics of management through four broadly defined themes. Firstly it examines the concept of the patriotic landowner and the ways in which this affected farming practice. Secondly it investigates the characteristics of the expanding agricultural press and questions whether this corpus of knowledge contributed to professionalisation. Thirdly it considers the factors which contributed to the changing face of land management including: mechanisation, scientific farming, and agricultural experimentation, the dissemination of knowledge through agricultural shows and societies and increasing legislation. Fourthly it studies how changes within the landscape impacted on estate management and the ways in which this changed the characteristics of estate management. This is the first detailed micro-study relating to the changing dynamics of professionalisation. Previous studies have lacked detail or depth. The diary of William Gould and the correspondence of William Cripwell both agents at Welbeck form the basis of this study and create a historical perspective which is missing from the limited amount of previous research into this subject. Despite the lack of formalised training, by the beginning of the twentieth century the land agent was classed as a professional and this thesis for the first time starts to provide the answers as to why and how this change occurred.