https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2011/nrs_2011_pickett_001.pdf

Urban ecological systems: Scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Environmental regulation and firm exports: Evidence from the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China

The paper applies a non-parametric propensity score matching approach to evaluate the effects of two types of farm programs (agri-environment (AE) programs and the less favoured area (LFA) scheme) on input use and farm output of individual farms in Germany. The analysis reveals a positive and significant treatment effect of the LFA scheme for farm sales and the area under cultivation. Participants in AE schemes are found to significantly increase the area under cultivation (in particular grassland), resulting in a decrease of livestock densities. Furthermore, participation in AE programs significantly reduced the purchase of farm chemicals (fertilizer, pesticide). We also find substantial differences in the treatment effect between individual farms (heterogeneous treatment effects). Farms which can generate the largest benefit from the program are most likely to participate. (authors' abstract)

Evaluating the effects of farm programmes: results from propensity score matching

The digital divide limits opportunities for those without ready access to Internet. Movement online of essential activities during COVID-19 took inadequate Internet service from inconvenient to emergency/crisis for many households. A negative correlation between rurality and Internet speed was found at the county level, highlighting the struggle for rural areas. Schools tackle challenges of providing equitable educational access by attempting to provide access for students, while even households with service available struggle to maintain sufficient speeds and/or can afford it. Essential activities moved online, yet sufficient Internet is an essential public service that remains unattainable for many US households.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aepp.13104

Revisiting the Digital Divide in the COVID-19 Era.

Rural North America has undergone a major economic transformation over the past century due to labor-saving technological progress, reductions in transport costs, and rising household incomes. The results are greater rural economic diversity, selected rural population decline, increased rural-urban interdependence, emergent exurban areas, and amenity-led rural growth. We summarize key research insights and provide a selected review of the economics literature over the past 100 years with a focus on this economic transformation of rural places, its implications for rural communities, and key modeling innovations and applications. The many important contributions by agricultural economists are highlighted.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/AJAE_AJAEAJAEAAQ008.pdf?abstractid=3569190&mirid=1

A Century of Research on Rural Development and Regional Issues

Maryland has introduced a number of land preservation programs over the past 40 years to permanently preserve resource lands. Although new programs can increase the number of acres being preserved, they might have unintended impact on land preservation due to interaction with existing land preservation programs. The Maryland Rural Legacy program began in 1997 by designating large contiguous blocks of land and focusing its preservation efforts only in those areas. The program’s could attract existing programs to shift their preservation effort into this designated rural legacy areas if there exist economy of scale or they subsidized existing programs’ effort through matching funds. Alternatively, it could crowd out the others’ preservation efforts in these areas if the RL program raises the cost of preserving there. Using parcel level data and a property score matching method, we find: 1) parcels in designated RL areas are more attractive to preservation programs, 2) the RL program crowds in the preservation effort of the other programs, and 3) RL program preserves more parcels and acres of land in these areas due to increased funding.

Does Targeting a Designated Area Crowd out the other Preservation Programs’ Efforts?

Ecological source identification based on the PSR model framework and structural features: a case study in Tianjin, China

• These programs have preserved 2.23 million acres at a cost of $5.47 billion. As the suburbs grow, open space shrinks, and farmland disappears in a wave of housing construction. This affects national and local food supplies because of the current farmland loss and because other farmers begin to lose faith in the viability of the local agricultural sector. Farmland loss also impacts the quality of life for nearby residents. Figure 1 shows the funding that has been used to retain open space; clearly, land conservation is important to U.S. citizens. Purchase of development When purchase of development rights (PDR) programs are in place to prevent farmland from being developed into commercial or residential property, you would expect that less farmland would be converted. But are these programs actually working? Dr. Lori Lynch at the University of Maryland finds out. Do Agricultural Land Preservation Programs Reduce Overall Farmland Loss?

Do Agricultural Land Preservation Programs Reduce Overall Farmland Loss

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are widely used across a range of fields. Several open-source global DEMs have been released, including the advanced land observing satellite world 3D 30 m DEM (AW3D30DEM), advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer global DEM (ASTER GDEM), shuttle radar topography mission DEM (SRTMDEM), and TerraSAR-X for digital elevation measurement (TanDEM-X). ASTER and SRTM are the most widely used DEMs, while the newer models AW3D30DEM and TanDEM-X are becoming increasingly popular. Many studies have evaluated the qualities of these DEMs; however, few multi-regional studies have been conducted in China. To comprehensively and systematically evaluate the qualities of these DEMs in China, the vertical accuracies of AW3D, ASTER, STRM (all 30 m), and TanDEM-X (90 m) were tested across 16 regions in China. Using high-precision global positioning system control points for reference, error values were determined by subtracting these reference values from corresponding global DEM elevation values. As the study only covered flat areas (slope < 5°), slope was treated as a controlled variable. After assessing the impacts of the slope aspect and land cover type, variations in vertical accuracy were examined with respect to longitude and latitude. Overall, TanDEM-X exhibited the highest stability and accuracy, AW3D30 and SRTM also performed well, while ASTER exhibited the worst accuracy. The DEMs showed relationships with the slope aspect and land cover type, assuming that slope had no influence on vertical accuracy. In general, vertical accuracy in high latitudes was slightly better than that in low latitudes, and no evident variations were observed with respect to longitude. This study is the first to conduct DEM analysis across many regions in China from open sources. Since most of the users rely on public domain DEM datasets, this work contributes to their analysis in academic and engineering fields.

/pdf/evaluating-vertical-accuracies-of-open-source-digital-3omnvzwd.pdf

Xiangping Liu

Papers

Does Targeting a Designated Area Crowd out the other Preservation Programs’ Efforts?

Ecological source identification based on the PSR model framework and structural features: a case study in Tianjin, China

Do Agricultural Land Preservation Programs Reduce Overall Farmland Loss

Evaluating Vertical Accuracies of Open-Source Digital Elevation Models over Multiple Sites in China Using GPS Control Points

Does Targeting a Designated Area Crowd out the other Preservation Programs’ Efforts?