Akif Hashimcmp 4260 Mid Term Paper 31618 The Land Is Conside
Akif Hashimcmp 4260mid Term Paper31618the Land Is Considered As A So
Akif Hashim CMP 4260 Mid-Term Paper 3/16/18 The land is considered as a source of wealth and linked with the social status of human beings. But in simple words, it is the solid surface of the planet earth which is not covered with water. According to Rutherford Platt (2004), it is an important element of life similar to water, oxygen, and sunlight. Without these elements, life is not possible on the earth. Almost three-quarters of the world is covered with water, and the rest is the living place of human beings (Platt, 2004, p. 3). The land of the earth is divided into different countries and all countries have some rules and regulations of their acquired land. Land policies are created and implemented in the countries for the occupation, management, land use, and its property rights. In the United States of America, Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 is implemented across the nation as their land policy. It is the federal law of the country which is responsible to administer the public lands by the Bureau of Land Management.
According to FLPMA, the three national systems including the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management are responsible to maintain and manage the land and their purpose is to preserve the natural resources of the country. Land allows the human beings for several uses and it makes them able to fulfill their different objectives. Land use is considered as a basic activity of human beings, and it is a combination of different human activities in which humans create one or more services (Land Use and Land Management Practices in Environmental Perspective, 2013). In the 21st century, US Supreme Court decided in the case of Kelo v. The city of New London. The result of the case declared all of the US states have the right to seize the land from the private owners of the land. It is due to the public of the country as they have the right to use the land. This decision is applied for the fair use of land of the country. The land policies not only provide assistance to the public but also it aims to preserve the natural resources (Grossman & C. Bryner, 2012).
Changes in the land use impacts on several important elements. In the last twenty-five years, major land use changes occurred in the United States that not only impacted its economy but also impacted on the social and environmental factors. Land use changes affect the agricultural system of the economy, urban, and rural communities. The socio-economic impacts and the environmental impacts of land use and their policy implications are addressed below. Production of an economy has three major types including its land. The other two factors are labor and capital of the economy. All these factors contribute to the production system. The land is used in the production of housing and in the food production. The agricultural aspects of the economy are based on the land and it provides several social and economic benefits to the economic system of the country. The agriculture is a way in which humans grow and cultivate their food (Nash & Miller, 2014).
Land use and its changing process are significant and essential for the economic growth and development of any country. It also includes the social benefits and welfare of the society. Land use change is simply the conversion of land into something that is useful for the country or society such as housing or agricultural purposes. Land use change needs cost and without the cost and labor force, it is not possible. Due to an increased rate of human population, land use changes occur to convert the farms and forests in the wilderness into the housing and urban societies. Due to land use, change soil erosion, desertification, and many other degradations occurred and it reduces the land quality which is not effective for the agricultural productivity (Lubowski et al., 2006). Urbanization is a phenomenon in which land use occurs for housing purposes and to accommodate the human population. It offers many challenges to the farmers who are present near the territories of urban areas. It is due to the destruction or damages such as destruction of crops and it impacts the farmers' farms. In these situations, farmers need the assistance of nearby farmers. The neighboring farmers help them to develop their farms, and they also share their farm equipment with the farmers and help them to improve the irrigation system of the farms. All these advantages ended when the nearby farms are converted into the urban settings. This leads to the “impermanence syndrome†which refers to the decrease in confidence level and stability in the farming process. It also leads to the reduction of the interest in the farming process by the farmers (Wu, 2018).
When the urban system spreads into the societies due to massive changes in the population, then the agricultural land conflicts arise and become problems. Land use changes in the process of urbanization also create many profits and give advantages to the farmers. The demands and arrival of new customers occurred, and provide opportunities to sell the crops at higher prices. A study analyzed that the farmers who sell the vegetables are the ones who are able to receive higher prices in the urban areas (Wu, 2018). Moreover, due to land use change, nurseries are created, vegetables and high-value crops industries created and increase the value of agricultural economies. Many farmers adopt the changes due to urbanization and make their enterprises to gain benefits from the new economic opportunities. The most area of US farm production is increased due to the farmers who face urbanization pressure (Wu, 2018). Due to the increasing rate of urbanization, many government systems changed the land use laws and restrict the land use control. These restrictions helped the governments to decrease the level of urban development. The land use regulations and restrictions applied by the authorities decreased the land development between the years of 1982 to 1997 in the United States. The major reduction occurred in Washington State estimated more than 12 percent. In Oregon, the reduction was more than 11 percent, California, it was more than 9 percent, in Nevada, and it was more than 2 percent (Wu, 2018). But it has some potential risks and impacts as well including the higher prices of houses and it leads to the fact that houses are not affordable for the middle-class people. Land use regulations impact negatively on the economy as well and it reduces the housing affordability for the people. The land use regulations and laws must be able to balance between the private properties, rights, and the interests of the general public. In the Oregon States, ballot estimated that there is a difficulty in the balance of the act. Measure 37, is voted by the voters of Oregon State in 2004. It refers to the concept that government authorities should provide assistance to the private property owners, only when the land use laws decrease the “fair market values.†In the assistance, the government should select the three approaches including remove, modify, or not to apply. Measure 37, was not implemented but remain unconstitutional by the lower courts. Due to this measure, more than 6000 case filed in the Supreme Court by October 2007. Their request was to compensate them and the prices were more than $19 billion (Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, 2007). But the modification of this measure 37 was crucial and the voters approved the measure 49, in November 2007, “ensure that Oregon law provides just compensation for unfair burdens while retaining Oregon’s protection for farm and forest land uses and the state’s water resourcesâ (ODLCD, 2008). The land use changes provide several economic as well as societal advantages, but only occur when an economic cost is ready for it. Land use and land conservation are important elements, especially in the long-term processes. It includes the economic, growth and sustainable development. The land use policies should also have a balance so that private property rights and public interest both could be balanced in an appropriate manner. There is no doubt about the fact that the change of land-use has proven itself to be most influencing regarding the unwanted alterations as well as degradation of ecosystems. The changes of land-use include urban development, agriculture, deforestation, and related human activities. All of these changes and alterations have markedly changed the landscape of the planet Earth. It is important to consider the fact that as all of these changes impose their effects in the long run or after the passage of a specific amount of time, the duration and severity of these effects also have long-term and wide-ranging consequences.
Earth, as a planet, is composed of different kinds of areas having a variety of attributes. All of these areas have their benefits to the habitats of Earth according to their characteristics. As the farmland or green areas provide safe and worthy living space to a large variety of wildlife species. Deep and long forests are houses of numerous kinds of species. But the land-use changes like excessive agriculture has disturbed the green portion habitat of wildlife to a dangerous extent. It has not just made an excessive amount of wildlife homeless and close to extinction but also caused vulnerable changes in the earth’s environment. Moreover, this fact has long come to our attention that excessive amount of agriculture is one of the major reasons of production and increase in water pollution. The waste or polluted water (containing various amounts of different chemicals lethal to living organisms) enters into the inland and coastal waters on a regular basis and is playing havoc to every living organism’s life coming in contact. This addition of waste or polluted water containing various injurious chemicals has not only caused water pollution but also has brought a large number of species to the verge of extinction.
It is known and admitted fact that forests play a significant role in Earth overall major ecosystem by providing a variety of services. The services of forests include the availability of good quality fresh habitat for wildlife, biodiversity support to the ecosystem, controlling precipitation present in the atmosphere, reducing flooding and soil erosion, removing carbon dioxide from the air and adding oxygen in return and increase in rain opportunities by increasing evaporation. Photosynthesis, being the most complex and highly carried out process, makes sure the presence of oxygen in the air and thereby sustaining and supporting overall life on Earth. Now if we look at the other side, we can realize the complete picture better that how increased agriculture, deforestation, and other industrial concerns of humans are playing havoc with the world’s ecosystem.
It is because deforestation is the removal of trees (by any method) and thereby killing all of their produced positive effects and benefits. The result is the gradual increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. This ultimately increases the temperature of the overall surrounding as carbon dioxide is known as heat-trapping gas so it majorly affects local, regional as well as worldwide climate by trapping the heat inside the ecosystem of Earth without letting it go outside in the space. On one hand, if the half major part is played by excessive agriculture and deforestation, the other half is played by urban development and industrialization of humans. This increased and elevated concern of modernization and promotion of science and technology beyond bounds has ultimately produced various kinds of pollution including water, air, and other kinds of pollution along with the major loss of green habitat for wildlife.
The urban runoff comprises of different sediments, nutrients as well as toxic materials harmful to everything coming in contact and thus increasing water pollution. It has been proved that increase in deforestation, agriculture, and urban development is a serious and lethal threat to all kinds of the environment surrounding this planet. One might think about the fact of doing these changes if they are causing so much loss. It is a known fact that all the changes of increased and intensive agricultural, urban development, and deforestation along with industrialization do have lots of economic, social, and community benefits but all of these benefits are coming at a very high cost. The important point is that land has become a business and when it comes to business, every matter is seen and interpreted in the sense of ‘profit’ or ‘loss’. The real deal is that when it comes to the environmental externalities, there comes a small or large difference between the social and private cost of some land under use. The reason is that sometimes, the developers might not hold the responsibility or control of all the costs of their projects (infrastructural or environmental costs). The basic point is that farmland (in general) produces both open spaces as well as agricultural supplies. But the farmers are only paid for their agricultural supply area and not for the open space thus decreasing the social value of the farmland. This is considered as ‘market failure’ in the business and therefore it is thought that such land should be used for public use or urban development.
As every thought and action has its both supporters and opponents, this business style is also opposed by a variety of non-profit organizations and private trusts working for global causes. According to the organization of ‘Nature Conservancy’, it has saved and successfully protected almost 117 million acres of ecologically significant and precious piece of land from being used under the name of ‘beneficial development’. The regulation of land use is of various forms and types. Its typical processing and controlling approach include the steps of density regulation, zoning as well as direct usage of land controls. In addition to that, the policies and regulations of incentive-based are now highly used for the purpose of decision-making of private land use. These policies include a variety of different steps like purchases of development rights (PDRs), fees of developmental influence, property taxation on a preferential basis, as well as payments of direct conservation. According to the research, from 1998 to 2006 in the United States of America, the majority of voters went for the approval of 1,197 conservation initiatives in both local as well as state referenda. It formed the basis for Providence for a total of $34 billion for open space and land preservation. Moreover, the incentive-based approach takes the lead over direct use control of land in many perspectives. It can be understood from the fact that the impact fee of development can be utilized to achieve both the land development pattern and the optimal pace available that is a shortcoming in the regulations of zoning. However, it must also be remembered that zoning can be used on a preferential basis in a variety of conditions. Like in the case when environmental costs of conservation of land are markedly uncertain, zoning can be preferred using a practical viewpoint (Wu, 2018). In addition to that, it must be remembered that human and natural patterns interact in highly complex ways, so the existence of nonlinear and threshold dynamics is equally possible. In such cases, zoning is preferred because of the fact that environmental costs could be extremely high and can show sensitivity to the added growth. Now, the federal government has expressed clear-cut visualization of land management owing to the federal expenditure on conservation programs related to land and their increment in the last 25 years.
In the United States of America, the local government holds the control of land use and it largely varies in the municipalities and counties. Majority of local governments are actively involved in the land use regulation and planning while only some have fewer land use control. Because of the swift increase in the urbanization process, many communities are facing the litigious issue of land use regulation. The supporters and proponents of this issue argue that the planning of land use ultimately protects forests, the quality and nature of water, farmland, wildlife habitat, open space as well as causes a visible increment in the human health and property value at the same time. If we see opposite to that, the absence of planning will ultimately deteriorate or destruct long-term economic and social growth as well as the natural environment. The opponents and critics of land use planning claim that all of the above points and fears are over-expressed and estimated. The opponents claim that urbanization refers to an orderly market process leading to the distribution of land from being used for agriculture to urban use. In addition to that, the government tends to over-regulate this process but it highly fears and unlike the cost of regulation. Here, the important point is that the planning process of land use and its proper implementation will reduce the chances to impact negatively on the forests and to the agricultural land. Proper planning will lead to the protection of land linked with agricultural purposes, forests, natural resources, and farmland. Urbanization is essential, especially in the modern world today with a rising population, but it does not mean that due to urbanization, the government or authorities should neglect other essential factors. Planning should be done considering environmental, social, and economic factors that are as important as urbanization. The lack of planning will ultimately weaken or destroy long-term economic and social growth and damage the natural environment, impeding sustainable development and the well-being of future generations.
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The relationship between land and human development has been a central theme in environmental and socio-economic discussions for centuries. Land, which constitutes the solid surface of the Earth not covered by water, is a fundamental resource that sustains all forms of life. Rutherford Platt (2004) emphasized that land is as essential as water, sunlight, and oxygen, underpinning the existence of life. Despite being a natural component, land's strategic importance manifests in its utilization, management, and conservation within societal frameworks, especially highlighted through legal policies in the United States. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976 exemplifies comprehensive land regulation, overseeing public lands through agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service. These entities aim to balance utilization with conservation, ensuring natural resource preservation amidst human development.
Legal frameworks also embrace the complex rights related to land ownership and use. The landmark Supreme Court case of Kelo v. City of New London (2005) underscored that government entities possess eminent domain rights, allowing land seizure for public benefit—an act justified by the need to balance individual property rights against collective societal utility. Such policies reflect the broader goal to optimize land use for economic, social, and environmental benefits while safeguarding natural resources. Urbanization, driven by population growth, has profoundly altered land use patterns over the past twenty-five years in the United States. Urban expansion often transforms rural and agricultural lands into residential, commercial, and industrial zones, which catalyze economic growth but also introduce environmental challenges like soil erosion, desertification, and loss of biodiversity (Lubowski et al., 2006).
These transformations impact agricultural productivity and threaten long-term sustainability. The conversion of farmland and forests into urban landscapes brings economic benefits through higher land values and new business opportunities. Nonetheless, it engenders conflicts such as land scarcity, increased housing prices, and environmental degradation. The concept of “impermanence syndrome” describes the instability and reduced confidence among farmers when their lands are overtaken by urban sprawl, disrupting agricultural cycles and community cohesion (Wu, 2018). Conversely, urbanization elevates opportunities for farmers near cities to expand businesses like nurseries or high-value crop industries, thereby integrating agriculture within urban economies. Land policies have responded with regulations to curb excessive urban growth—such as zoning laws and restrictions on development—aimed at maintaining land in its natural or agricultural state (Grossman & Bryner, 2012).
However, these regulations carry socio-economic implications. For example, in Oregon, measures like Measure 37 sought to compensate landowners when regulations diminished property values, reflecting a tension between private