Impacts of Fragmentation and Neighbor Influences on Farmland Conversion: A Case Study of the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, Canada
Impacts of Fragmentation and Neighbor Influences on Farmland Conversion: A Case Study of the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, Canada
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DOI:
10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.06.024
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发表时间:
2015-11
期刊:
影响因子:
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通讯作者:
F. Qiu;B. Swallow;S. Jeffrey;L. Laliberté
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
F. Qiu;B. Swallow;S. Jeffrey;L. Laliberté
Under heavy development pressure, farmland is rapidly being converted to non-agricultural uses such as houses, roads, and industrial uses. A great deal of research has investigated these farmland losses and their associated drivers. However, the existing empirical studies have neglected two important issues related to farmland conversion: spillover effects from neighboring areas and the impacts of farmland fragmentation. This study incorporates fragmentation and neighboring impacts into the farmland conversion analysis and provides new insights for the land-use/cover change literature. Empirical results indicate that increases in fragmentation further encourage farmland conversion to urban uses, but the effects are not linear with decreasing marginal influences. Land-use activities and decisions have strong spillover effects on neighboring areas. Ignoring this externality could result in biased estimates and marginal effects and thus misleading policy decisions and recommendations.