Doctoral Dissertation Research: Forests, Fields, and Factories: Spatial Contexts of Land Conservation in China

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Satellite imagery reveals that China is losing forests and farmland to rapidly expanding urban areas, with negative consequences for environmental sustainability and food security. This doctoral dissertation research project will explain where and under what circumstances land conservation policies succeed in China, with special emphasis given to identifying the effects of regional economic contexts on land-use decisions by local officials. This project will use both remote sensing techniques and social science approaches to understanding the patterns and causes of land-use change in rural China. Imagery from AVHRR, DMSP, and Landsat satellites spanning two decades will be being analyzed to quantify the rates of urban expansion and the loss of undeveloped land across north China, with detailed studies focusing on Zouping County and Beijing. In those locations, interviews with land managers and village leaders will provide community land-use histories, allowing the doctoral student analyze land-use decisions made in different points within the North China regional system. Rates of land-use change will be interpreted within the Hierarchical Regional Space (HRS) model developed by anthropologist G. William Skinner, which builds on the geographical concepts of von Thunen, Christaller, and Hagerstrand to explain the spatial structure of agrarian societies. This analysis will test the importance of the regional economic context, as represented by the HRS model, in defining the constraints and opportunities for land conservation, and it will facilitate the development of more effective, spatially targeted conservation efforts. Land-use change in China is a phenomenon with global consequences. China is estimated to be losing millions of hectares of forest and farmland to urban development, thereby releasing tremendous volumes of carbon into the earth's atmosphere, which contributes to global climate change. Policies to control land use must assert a collective claim on land resources, countering the trend of Chinese society towards economic liberalization. The interdisciplinary methods applied in this study bridge the gap between remote sensing techniques and the social sciences, linking "people to pixels." By developing a more nuanced, theoretically grounded understanding of land-use change in China, this research will suggest how land-conservation policies can be made more successful by targeting political and economic incentives appropriate to specific locales. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.