Search Results (15)

This study provided county-level empirical evidence on how rural land institutional reform affected the urban–rural income gap, and offered policy implications for advancing rural revitalization and common prosperity. Utilizing panel data for 1380 counties in China from 2010 to 2020, this study treated the Market-Oriented Reform of Rural Collective Operational Construction Land in China (the Reform) as a quasi-natural experiment and used a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model as a quantitative approach to empirically examine the effect and underlying mechanisms of the Reform on the urban–rural income gap. The results indicated that: (1) The Reform significantly narrowed the urban–rural income gap and passed a set of robustness checks, with an average reduction of approximately 17.41%. (2) The Reform reduced the urban-rural income gap through multiple pathways, including “land supply expansion–value realization and appreciation”, “industrial structure upgrading–labor reallocation” and “efficient capital flows–infrastructure improvement”. (3) The narrowing effect of reform was more pronounced in eastern and western counties, counties with higher proportions of mountainous areas, and non-resource-dependent counties. (4) The Reform demonstrated diminishing marginal returns: the effect was larger in counties with wider initial urban–rural income gaps. In addition, more market-oriented land transfer methods were more conducive to land value realization. Accordingly, the government should advance the Reform prudently, adopt place-based implementation, promote two-way factor mobility, and improve benefit-sharing and regulatory mechanisms to sustain policy gains. Full article

Planning serves as a vital tool for achieving orderly land management and utilization. The success of conservation planning hinges on its ability to translate cultural heritage preservation needs into rational allocation and guidance of land resources, ultimately realizing a win–win outcome that fosters cultural continuity, social harmony, and economic development. Historic and cultural towns are highly representative urban and rural historic and cultural heritage sites. However, the participation components in the conservation planning of historic towns are complex, and the misalignment of the functions, rights and responsibilities, and interest demands of the participants often leads to a loss of actual benefits. To help achieve a reasonable transformation of the protection needs of historic towns and guide the cultural inheritance and socially harmonious development of urban and rural construction, based on game theory and the logic of planning rights games, this paper begins with an understanding of the relevant laws and regulations, conducts an empirical analysis of the game processes and situations of conservation planning in two provinces and four towns, and incorporates publicly available data from the internet for argumentation to explore the game states and operation mechanisms of conservation planning in historic and cultural towns. The findings reveal the following regarding historic town conservation planning: (1) it proceeds lawfully and rationally, reflecting collective rationality; (2) it exhibits two equilibrium modes: relatively static and dynamic; (3) game conflicts mainly manifest as multi-planning conflicts and the resulting conflicts among systems and inter-systems. The game dynamics are influenced by the value of the historic town, resource allocation, and the relationship between rights, responsibilities, and interests. To overcome the game dilemma, it is essential to establish effective cooperative mechanisms at the legal and regulatory levels based on the value of the historic town, allocate resources reasonably, and achieve a balance between rights, responsibilities, and interests. Full article

Industrial prosperity is the prerequisite and foundation of rural revitalization, while rural collective operating construction land (COCL), as an important resource for rural industrial development, has significant theoretical and practical guiding significance regarding whether its market-oriented reform can promote rural industrial integration (RII). This study innovatively combines the synthetic control method (SCM) and mediation effect model to assess the impact of rural collective operating construction land entering the market (COCLEM) on RII, using panel data from 86 counties in Hunan Province (2011–2022), and its underlying mechanisms. This study finds that COCLEM significantly enhances RII, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of tests. A mechanism analysis indicates that COCLEM primarily promotes RII through population agglomeration, fiscal support, and technological upgrading. Furthermore, this study reveals that COCLEM effectively facilitates the extension of the agricultural industry chain and promotes the development of agricultural services. Nevertheless, the improvement of rural infrastructure still requires policy guidance and sustained investment to provide more robust support for RII. Therefore, policymakers should actively formulate a COCLEM policy framework, enhance rural public services, and increase infrastructure investment to continuously promote regional population agglomeration. Local governments should be responsible for ensuring policy implementation and financial support. Additionally, emphasis should be placed on the role of COCLEM in advancing agricultural technology to support RII. Compared with existing research, this study provides new empirical methods and theoretical insights for detailed research on the development of RII. Full article

The rapid development of new retail and the impact of COVID-19 have catalyzed the blowout growth of community group purchasing. The emergence of community group purchasing collection and delivery points (CGPCDPs) has become a new way to solve the “last mile” problem of new retail delivery. Based on the point of interest (POI) data of CGPCDPs of Nansha District, Guangzhou City, this study advances our understanding by identifying unique operational models, service targets, and spatial distribution patterns of CGPCDPs, which differ significantly from traditional pick-up points (PPs). The conclusions are as follows: (1) Most CGPCDPs depend on wholesale and retail shops, and their main service targets are urban and rural communities, followed by industrial areas. (2) The distribution of CGPCDPs has apparent spatial differentiation. At the macro scale, it shows the characteristics of “central agglomeration and peripheral dispersion”. It is distributed along the “northwest-southeast” direction and presents a “dual-core multi-center” pattern. At the meso–micro scale, different built environments in developed areas of cities, villages in the city (ChengZhongCun), and rural areas show distinct distribution patterns. (3) The main influencing factors of their spatial distribution are population density, construction land, house price, supporting place, residence density, urban community, and road proximity. Full article

Permeable-pavement design methodologies can improve the hydrologic and therefore the environmental benefits of rural and urban roadway systems. By contrast, conventional impervious pavements perturb the hydrologic cycle, altering the relationship between the rainfall loading and runoff response. Impervious pavements create a hydraulically conductive interface for the transport of traffic-generated chemicals and particulate matter (PM), deleteriously impacting their proximate environments. Permeable-pavement systems are countermeasures to mitigate hydrologic, chemical, and PM impacts. However, permeable pavements are not always equally implementable due to costs, PM loadings, and design constraints. A potential solution to facilitate environmental benefits while meeting the traffic load capacity is the combination of two filtration systems placed at the pavement shoulders and/or pedestrian sidewalks: a bituminous-pavement open-graded friction course (BPFC) and an aggregate-filled infiltration trench. This solution is presented in this manuscript together with the methodological framework and the first results of the investigations into designing and validating such a combined system. The research was conducted at the laboratories of the Polytechnic University of Bari and the University of Florida, while an operational and full-scale physical model was constructed in Bari, Italy. The first results presented characterize the PM deposition on public roads based on granulometry (particle size distributions (PSDs) and particle number densities (PNDs)). Samples (n = 16) were collected and analyzed at eight different sites with different land uses, traffic, and pavements from different cities (Bari and Taranto, Italy). The PM analysis showed similar distributions (PSDs and PNDs), except for two samples. The gravimetric-based PSDs of the PM had granulometric distributions in the sand-size range. In contrast, the PNDs, modeled by a Power Law Model (PLM) (R² ≥ 0.92), illustrated an exponentially increasing number of particles in the fine silt and clay-size range, representing less than 10% of the PSD mass. Moreover, the results indicate that PM sourced from permeable-pavement systems has differing impacts on the pavement service life. Full article

Against the backdrop of an urban-rural dual structure, governance structure significantly influences the fairness and sharing of land value increment profits from land consolidation in various regions. This paper develops a spatial-institutional analytical framework, reflects on the traditional government-led land quota planning management mechanism and advocates optimizing governance structures in land consolidation to facilitate urban-rural element flows and the sharing of land value increment profits. This paper selects two comprehensive land consolidation cases in the Fenghua District and Cixi City of Ningbo, representing government-led and village collective self-organized governance structures. The research shows that the Fenghua case adopts a government-led state-owned enterprise coordinated governance structure, which state-owned enterprises bear operational risks and the majority of profit sharing, while village collectives, as landowners, are insufficiently protected in benefit sharing. The Cixi case employs a government-embedded village-town governance structure, with the village collectives as the main operating body, allowing collective construction land to enter the market to ensure the sharing of community profits. Both governance structures promote the bidirectional flow of urban-rural land resource elements; the former significantly drives urban development, while the latter ensures better benefit sharing for village collectives. The research proposes that optimizing governance structures and improving land quota allocation mechanisms can further stimulate various entities’ participation in land consolidation and land value activation. Full article

China’s rural land transfer market has been plagued by issues including poor information transmission, limited scale, and an incoherent structure. In this context, this study collected the data of 337 farmers in Qufu City, Shandong Province, and incorporated into the analysis the acquaintance-based nature of rural society that includes strong geographic ties. Taking the herd effect as the starting point, this paper it considers how farmers in the same geo-network affect the land transfer behavior of individual farmers, and adopts the Probit model to analyze the impact of geo-networks to verify the function of the herd effect in farmers’ land transfer behavior. Then, the IV-Probit model is applied to solve the endogenous problem of the herd effect. The results show that: (1) Farmers imitate the land transfer behavior of other farmers in the same geo-network. Geo-networks positively impact the land transfer behavior of farmers, and the herd effect is apparent in farmers’ land transfer behavior. (2) Farmers’ family background, resource endowment, and cognitive features are key factors that influencing farmers’ land transfer behavior. (3) Farmers’ land transfer behavior is more significantly influenced in groups with low and middle agricultural income than in groups with high agricultural income. This study aims to assist the government in giving full play to the positive role of the herd effect, promoting the leading role of village cadres as leader sheep, and smoothing the transmission of land transfer information. Governments should place more emphasis on developing land transfer platforms and invest more in the construction of farmland infrastructure. This paper may serve as a reference to achieve large-scale agriculture operation via land transfer and promote the prosperity of the land transfer market. Full article

The market entry of rural collective operating construction land (MERCOCL) is an important way for the Chinese government to promote the marketization of rural land. However, the impact of China’s Rural Land Marketization on the ecological environment quality (EEQ) remains to be understood. Understanding these mechanisms is necessary for regional sustainable development and rational resource allocation. Therefore, a universal assessment model of China’s regional EEQ was built based on the Landsat 5/8 and the national ecological index (EI) provided by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment at the national district and county scale. A total of 229 counties (32 pilot counties and other counties in the pilot cities) in China from 2011 to 2018 were taken as the research object. This paper empirically studied the evolution process, driving mechanism and spatial heterogeneity of EEQ from the perspective of MERCOCL. The study shows that China’s EEQ presented a spatial distribution pattern of “high in the south, low in the north, high in the east and low in the west”. When a county implemented the MERCOCL policy, its EEQ index increased by 0.342, with the improvement effect occurring in the second year after the MERCOCL implementation. Regarding the mechanism, MERCOCL mainly improved the EEQ by promoting industrial structure optimization and increasing urban population aggregation. From the perspective of spatial heterogeneity, the improvement effect of MERCOCL on EEQ was more significant in regions with lower economic development levels and latitudes (southern China). This study will facilitate an understanding of the impact of China’s rural land marketization on the EEQ and provide scientific data support for government departments to formulate sustainable urban development policies that meet local conditions. Full article

The market-based allocation of rural construction land is conducive to the revitalization of rural land resources, influences urban and rural land planning, and facilitates urbanization. The rural collective operating construction land entering the market (COCLEM) is a key measure for China’s rural construction land marketization reform, while its impacts on the existing land supply pattern have received little attention. Taking Huzhou City as an example, this paper investigates the impacts of COCLEM on state-owned industrial land (SIL) transactions with Difference-in-Differences (DID) regression models. The results show the following: (1) Given the natural conditions, enterprises’ preferences, and government forces, COCLEM has failed to inhibit the SIL transaction scale. (2) COCLEM contributes to industrial agglomeration and significantly increases the value of SIL. These findings altogether imply that currently, in China, market-based rural construction land transfer is the complement of land administrative allocation. Policy implications are drawn from this analysis to advance further reforms for China’s urban–rural integrated construction land market. Full article

The Shashamane rural district was selected as a target area and corridor of large-scale agriculture investment (LSAI) to produce surplus agricultural products and ensure local development by the state and private (domestic and foreign) investors. Shalo–Melega private LSAI projects started operation in 2008 in the Shashamane rural district. This farm project comprises a crop production site, construction of a road, a crop storage facility, and developing irrigation in a total of about 24,710.51 acres of land along the central Rift Valley basin, for long-term leases. Little attention has been paid to how land ownership has changed and transaction transparency; how the community has been consulted; whether free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) has been provided; and how local people have been displaced. This study sought to investigate the consultation process, land transaction transparency, the use of FPIC, and local community dis-placement as a result of LSAI in the Shashamane rural district. The study adopted multi-method qualitative and quantitative data collection tools including primary data, collected from a directly impacted population of 134 households, using systematic random sampling techniques; key and in-depth informant interviews; focus group discussions (FGD); and field visits. Through the use of qualitative and qualitative research paradigms, a systematic analysis was conducted. The result of the study shows that 86.6% of respondents (both interested and affected) expressed that both government and the proponents were not taking in account their concerns during the consultation processes. Lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) reduces local people’s sense of recognition and status. Moreover, LSAI displaced the rural people from their area of settlement and farmland, triggered a shortage of communal grazing and forest resources. Additionally, nonequivalent and unsatisfactory mitigation and compensation methods highly triggers the negative impacts. As a result of manipulation and therapy used during the consultation process, we assert that the local community had less decision-making authority and that the risk to the farm was thereby increased. The government, investors, and local communities are three actors whose respective roles need to be strengthened and transparent. It is crucial to strengthen the implementation of customary land tenure rights to benefit local and indigenous people and civil society organizations (CSOs). Full article

The market entry of collectively-owned operating construction land (COCL) is an important policy of the Chinese government to promote the flow of rural land elements in the market. Describ-ing, characterizing, and understanding collective action for COCL marketization in China is conducive to identifying potential contradictions in a timely manner, constructing common goals, and promoting stakeholder cooperation to improve the efficiency of land marketization. Our re-search question is to identify which conceptual and theoretical models would be most appropriate to evaluate the market-based land reform in China. Relying on a narrative review approach, we interpret the literature and infer that trust is conducive to cracking the collective action puzzle of COCL marketization, and propose a conceptual or theoretical framework for the joint analysis of social capital, trust, and cooperation performance for modeling and investigating the important role of trust in collective action. Concentrating on the role of social rationality in land marketization, we suggest a pathway to break away from the collective action dilemma focusing on land property rights to build stakeholder trust relationships. Subsequent research could continue by developing indicators to measure social capital, trust, and cooperation performance and empirically investigate the relationship between them on this basis. Full article

At present, the world is facing many hurdles due to the adverse effects of climate change and rapid urbanization. A lot of rural lands and villages are merged into cities by citizens, resulting in high carbon emission, especially in the built environment. Besides, the buildings and the construction sector are responsible for high levels of raw material consumption and around 40% of energy- and process-related emissions. Consequently, the interest in defining the carbon footprint of buildings and their components is on the rise. This study assesses the carbon footprint of a green roof in comparison to a conventional roof in a tropical climate with the aim of examining the potential carbon emission reduction by a green roof during its life cycle. A comparative case study analysis was carried out between an intensive green roof and a concrete flat roof located on two recently constructed commercial buildings in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka. Data were collected from interviews, project documents and past literature in addition to on-site data measurements and a comparison of life cycle carbon emissions of the two roof types was carried out. The results revealed that the operational phase has the highest contribution to the carbon footprint of both roof types. In the operational phase, the green roof was found to significantly reduce heat transfer by nearly 90% compared to the concrete flat roof and thereby contributed to an annual operational energy saving of 135.51 kWh/m². The results further revealed that the life cycle carbon emissions of the intensive green roof are 84.71% lower compared to the conventional concrete flat roof. Hence, this study concludes that the use of green roofs is a suitable alternative for tropical cities for improving the green environment with substantial potential for carbon emission reduction throughout the life cycle of a building. Full article

Background: The distribution of farmers’ increment income is the key to the transfer of land use rights. This research aims to detect the optimal payment mode for the distribution of land increment income obtained by farmers in land rights transfer. Methods: The research relied on case analysis, mathematical analysis, and numerical simulation. Results: According to China’s existing payment modes for the increment income of rural collectively owned operating construction land (RCOCL), we summarized these payment modes into three: namely, lump-sum currency payment, a mixed payment of pension and lump-sum currency, and a mixed payment of dividend and lump-sum currency. If the land transfer price of RCOCL is lower than a specific value, the lump-sum currency payment will be optimal for farmers. Suppose the land transfer price is higher than this value. If the enterprise’s profit margin is higher than the pension rate of return, the mixed payment of dividend and lump-sum currency will be optimal; if not, the mixed payment of pension and lump-sum currency will be optimal. Conclusions: Differences in regions, enterprise attributes, and farmers’ characteristics will make the optimal proportion of pension or stock capital in land increment income (OPPSC) different. Generally, OPPSC is often between 40% and 60%. Full article

The transfer of rural collective construction land into the market (RCCL marketization) is an important starting point for breaking the urban–rural dual system, realizing the sustainable use of land resources and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas in China. This study aims to explore the decision-making of rural households in the marketization of rural collective construction land (RCCL) by constructing a two-stage (cognition-decision) theoretical framework. Based on the household survey data collected from the pilot areas in the three northeastern provinces in China, the structural equation modelling (SEM) has been applied. The main findings are as follows: (1) the four types of exogenous latent variables, including information dissemination, management of collective economic organizations (CEOs), family characteristics, and household head characteristics, are intermediary by household cognition, which then positively affect households’ behavior and decision-making. (2) among the factors affecting household cognition, the management of CEOs exhibits the most significant impact, followed by information dissemination, family characteristics, and household head characteristics. (3) the measurable variables, including participation rights, whether there are collective operating assets, education level, and whether members have social insurance, have significant effects on the four exogenous latent variables. (4) the understanding of income distribution policy has the greatest positive impact on household cognition, while risk perception has the opposite effect, indicating an obvious “risk aversion” tendency for rural households. The findings imply that the government should improve the existing RCCL market entry system from the aspects of strengthening collective economic organization construction, land value-added income sharing mechanism, and clarifying rural land property rights, so as to reduce farmers’ decision-making risks and enhance value perception. Overall, the research presented here contributes to investigating the theoretical mechanism of household decision-making and providing empirical evidence on how to improve the marketization of rural collective construction land in China. Full article

The paper performs a critical overview concerning the construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management issues in Romania. Five main stages related to C&DW management are highlighted such as: (i) illegal dumping on public lands; (ii) C&DW collection and disposal in urban landfills; (iii) C&DW treatment and reuse in civil constructions (roads, coating material for landfills); (iv) regional integrated waste management systems; (v) recycling of building materials (e.g., cement industry and recycled aggregates). The paper reveals the poor monitoring of C&DW flows across Romanian counties and the geographical dimension of this waste stream collected by waste operators. The paper examines the current challenges in Romania and it reveals the future prospects to provide a reliable transition towards sustainable C&DW management activities. The targeted route: waste fractions can be recycled and/or reused as building materials via integrated waste management systems, which enable a circular economy in urban and rural municipalities. Full article