What are the effects of changed land use???
Answers
Land is one of three major factors of production in classical economics (along with labor and capital) and an essential input for housing and food production. Thus, land use is the backbone of agricultural economies and it provides substantial economic and social benefits. Land use change is necessary and essential for economic development and social progress.
Land use change, however, does not come without costs (see Table 1). Conversion of farmland and forests to urban development reduces the amount of lands available for food and timber production. Soil erosion, salinization, desertification, and other soil degradations associated with intensive agriculture and deforestation reduce the quality of land resources and future agricultural productivity (Lubowski et al. 2006).
Urbanization presents many challenges for farmers on the urban fringe. Conflicts with nonfarm neighbors and vandalism, such as destruction of crops and damage to farm equipment, are major concerns of farmers at the urban fringe (Lisansky, 1986). Neighboring farmers often cooperate in production activities, including equipment sharing, land renting, custom work, and irrigation system development. These benefits will disappear when neighboring farms are converted to development. Farmers may no longer be able to benefit from information sharing and formal and informal business relationships among neighboring farms. Urbanization may also cause the “impermanence syndrome” (i.e., a lack of confidence in the stability and long–run profitability of farming), leading to a reduction in investment in new technology or machinery, or idling of farmland (Lopez, Adelaja, and Andrews, 1988).
As urbanization intensifies, agricultural and nonagricultural land use conflicts become more severe. This may lead to an increase in local ordinances designed to force farmers to pay for some of the negative impacts generated by agriculture. As the nearest input suppliers close because of insufficient demand for farm inputs, a farmer may have to pay more for inputs or spend more time to obtain equipment repairs (Lynch and Carpenter, 2003). Competition for labor from nonagricultural sectors may raise farmers’ labor costs. When the total amount of farmland falls below a critical mass, the local agricultural economy may collapse as all agricultural supporting sectors disappear.
Urbanization also presents important opportunities to farmers. The emergence of a new customer base provides farmers new opportunities for selling higher value crops. For example, Lopez, Adelaja, and Andrews (1988) found that vegetable producers tend to receive higher prices in urbanized areas. The explosion of nurseries, vegetable farms, vineyards, and other high–value crop industries in many suburban areas illustrates how quickly agricultural economies can evolve. Many farmers have shown remarkable adaptability in adjusting their enterprises to take advantage of new economic opportunities at the urban fringe. They farm more intensively in areas with high population density (Lockeretz 1988). More than half the value of total U.S. farm production is derived from counties facing urbanization pressure (Larson, Findeis, and Smith 2001).
Urbanization has changed rural communities in many places. In some rural areas, urban sprawl has encroached to such an extent that the community itself has been lost. In other areas, the lack of opportunities has turned once–viable communities into ghost towns. Urban sprawl intensifies income segregation and economic disparities between urban and suburban communities (Wu, 2006). Cities tend to gain lower–income residents and lose upper–income population. Between 1969 and 1998, the share of low–income families in central cities grew from 21.9% to 25.5% compared with a decline from 18.3% to 16.6% for high–income households (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2000). The change in income mix led to a smaller tax base and the need for more social services in urban communities.
Suburbanization brings urban and rural people and problems together. Most land areas are rural, most watersheds are in rural places, and most of the atmosphere exists above rural space. Urbanites and agencies have legitimate concerns about the use and condition of rural natural resources, just as rural populations have legitimate concerns about urban–based pressures on the natural world. These shared interests in the natural environment have important economic, social, and political implications, which may profoundly impact society in the future.
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