Institutional Change in Land Planning: Two Cases from Galicia

Why do societies implement land policies? A number of arguments have been put forward in the literature, ranging from economic conceptions based on market failure and the problem of negative externalities to a more social conception based on welfare distribution and collaborative planning. However, neither all societies with similar market failures or negative externalities develop and implement land planning nor implemented land planning always results from collaborative planning. The arguments found in the literature seem not to fit the reality and, in most cases, cannot explain why societies create or undertake innovations in land planning. Within the framework of institutional change theory and based on the analysis of the emergence of two land planning devices—a land use law and a land banking law—in Galicia, Northwest Spain, this paper argues that land planning is developed to tackle negative outcomes of former institutional setups. However, the negativity of such outcomes is measured not in terms of economic performance, but in terms of social acceptance. The search for a workable definition of property within the Galician society seems to be the main driver of institutional change in land use planning analysed in this paper.     

Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) isotopic ecology in southern South America: spatial and temporal tendencies, and archaeological implications

We synthesize and discuss available isotopic data on Holocene guanaco samples from southern South America, extending from Tierra del Fuego Island to northern Patagonia and the Pampean region. We evaluate temporal and spatial tendencies on the basis of 91 samples (mainly based on δ¹³C_collagen values), presenting implications for paleodietary research in archaeology. We conclude that there are no strong correlations with latitude in the macro-spatial scale, while there is a set of interesting patterns at smaller regional scales. These patterns lead us to evaluate the role of ecologic and topographic variables (e.g. canopy effect, variations in altitude, ecotones) in structuring isotopic variability. Finally, on the basis of the present analysis we suggest a number of hypotheses and perspectives for the use of stable isotopes as geographic tracers of guanaco distribution in the past, and specific implications for the paleodietary study of human samples.     

The Effect of Public Infrastructure on the Private Productive Sector of Spanish Regions

In this paper we analyze the effect of infrastructure on the cost and productivity performance of the private productive sector of Spanish regions over the period 1980–1993. We use a dual approach based on cost functions that allows us to recover the usual parameters estimated with production functions. In addition, we obtain rates of return and cost elasticities of production factors at the regional level. Our framework explicitly considers that some factors are quasi-fixed and their volume can differ from their optimal endowment levels. Our results indicate that the public sector has contributed significantly to enhance productivity and reduce costs in the private sector of almost every Spanish region. Nevertheless, there is still scope for the government to continue its investment efforts, given that there remains an appreciable gap between observed and optimal public capital, and we find that in the long run, public capital promotes private investment.     

Microeconomic Formulation and Estimation of a Residential Location Choice Model: Implications for the Value of Time

Abstract We formulate a microeconomic model of residential location choice behavior as an aggregate of the individual behaviors of household members, subject to individual time constraints and a common income budget. A simplified version of the model is estimated from stated preference rank‐order data, yielding a function that may be interpretated as a conditional indirect utility function. We consider Box‐Tukey transformations, segmentation by income class, and a consistent treatment of data at different rank depths using the simultaneous mixed‐estimation method. Measures of the household's willingness‐to‐pay (through rents) for reducing travel times to work and study in the short run, are interpreted as subjective values of time and compared with such values derived from mode choice models. Our results are plausible, and consistent with recent findings showing that the short‐run benefits of transport projects derived by transport models are larger than benefits measured at the land use system.     

Understanding Population Decline Trajectories in Spain using Sequence Analysis

Population decline is a key contemporary demographic challenge. Previous work has measured the national extent of population decline, and we know that it is more acute in Japan and Eastern Europe and is set to accelerate across many industrialized countries. Yet, little is known about the population trajectories leading to current trends of depopulation and their underpinning demographic and contextual factors. To address this gap, we aim to identify and characterize the different trajectories of depopulation in Spain from 2000 to 2020 at the small area level using sequence analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, decomposition techniques, and multinomial logistic modeling. We show that while Spain recorded an overall 17.2% national population growth between 2000 and 2020, 63% of municipalities experienced depopulation. We identify six trajectories of population decline, with a well-defined northwest-south divide. These trajectories include mostly rural municipalities, but also certain small- and medium-sized cities. Natural decline comprises the main demographic component underpinning differences in the extent of depopulation across trajectories, and international migration plays an important role in explaining transitions to decline since the financial crisis of 2008. Small and old populations, and, to a lesser extent, remoteness from cities are key features characterizing areas of high decline.     

Three decades of land-use changes in the region of Madrid and how they relate to territorial planning

In recent decades, the region of Madrid has experienced extensive changes in land use-land cover (LULC). Most of these changes are related to an increase in developed areas (urban, industrial, commercial and transport) and abandonment of agricultural uses. The general guideline for regional management has been disregarded and the legal framework overstepped, allowing such changes to go ahead unchecked. Using four maps for different points in time, 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2006, LULC dynamics are analysed and the changes are related to Madrid regional policies. The IDRISI Land Change Modeller is used in order to quantify the changes and find out where they took place. The results show that developed areas doubled in size between 1982 and 2006. Changes were concentrated around the Madrid metropolis and around the main road network, with an increase in urban sprawl and with new, small urban patches in mountain areas of high scenic beauty. These fast and extensive changes were largely made possible by public disinterest and limitations in land and natural resource conservation mechanisms and in housing market regulation.     

Biological differences related to cultural variability during the Neolithic in a micro-geographical area of the Iberian Peninsula

This paper presents dental morphological data of Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age populations from the Catalan Pre-Pyrenean area. The Neolithic group, in particular, differs from those of surrounding areas in its funerary culture: the building of cists, which is not present in the Sepulcres de Fossa Culture. A minimum number of 118 individuals from this area were studied for this work, and the data were compared with those of other Iberian and European groups. The results indicate that the two micro-regional groups from the Catalan area (Pre-Pyrenean and Pre-Coastal) were biologically different during the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic, but not in the Bronze Age, when they also appeared to be more homogeneous culturally. In addition, both areas differ biologically from coetaneous Italian groups, although those closer to the coast show slightly smaller differences. Finally, the Bronze Age groups also present fewer differences with regard to the Italian Bronze Age’s group. Therefore, the results suggest that the Catalan Neolithic population had two separate origins, related to cultural patterns, and that differences between the groups decreased within time, probably due to trade-related activities. Moreover, the fact that the difference with Italian populations decreased during the Bronze Age suggests major population movements through the Mediterranean that would affect the biological composition of the human groups.     

Micro-photogrammetric and morphometric differentiation of cut marks on bones using metal knives,quartzite, and flint flakes

In a previous article, we presented an innovative method to analyze cut marks produced with metal tools on animal bones from a metrical and tridimensional perspective (Maté-González et al. 2015). Such analysis developed a low-cost alternative technique to traditional microscopic methods for the tridimensional reconstruction of marks, using their measurements and sections. This article presents the results of an experimental study to test this photogrammetric and morphometric method for differentiating cut marks generated with metal, flint, and quartzite flakes. The results indicate statistically significant differences among cut marks produced by these three types of raw material. These results encourage the application of this method to archeological assemblages in order to establish a link between carcass processing and lithic reduction sequences on different raw materials and also to define the kind of tools used during butchery.     

Kukulkanus,a new genus of buxtoniin brachiopod from the Artinskian–Kungurian (Early Permian) of Mexico

Torres-Martínez, M.A., Sour-Tovar, F. & Barragán, R., November 2017. Kukulkanus, a new genus of buxtoniin brachiopod from the Artinskian–Kungurian (Early Permian) of Mexico. Alcheringa 42, 268–276. ISSN 0311–5518.

Kukulkanus is the first genus of the tribe Buxtoniini recorded from rocks of the late Cisuralian (Artinskian–Kungurian). The Early Permian (Cisuralian) outcrops of the Santa Rosa Group, from southeastern Chiapas, are one of the most important marine Palaeozoic successions of Mexico. The Artinskian–Kungurian Paso Hondo Formation is the youngest unit in the succession and is dominated by massive limestone. Different marine invertebrates deposited in massive calcareous rocks characterize this formation. The buxtoniin Kukulkanus spinosus gen. et sp. nov. is reported from a single bed within the unit. The outcrops are located in southeastern Chiapas, very near the Guatemala–Mexico border. The lithological features and the preservation of fossils indicate that the fossil-bearing rocks were deposited in a low-energy open-waters paleoenvironment over the continental platform. Fusulinids, cephalopods and brachiopods previously described for the Paso Hondo Formation have been correlated with faunas of different coeval localities from Texas, New Mexico, Coahuila, Chiapas and Venezuela, regions that form part of the biotic Grandian Palaeo-Province.

Miguel A. Torres-Martínez [miguelatm@geologia.unam.mx] Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Avenida Universidad No. 3000. Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico. Francisco Sour-Tovar [fcosour@ciencias.unam.mx] Museo de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Av. Universidad No. 3000, Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico. Ricardo Barragán [ricardor@geologia.unam.mx] Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Avenida Universidad No. 3000. Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico.     

Agricultural Settlement and Ecological Crisis in the Ecuadorian Amazon Frontier

This article discusses several structural factors in the policy environment of Ecuador thought to determine the process of occupation by agricultural colonists of the country's segment of Amazonia and the emerging land settlement patterns in the region. These factors are fundamentally concerned with (a) national sovereignty interests over remote, peripheral territories characterized by low population density and ill-defined land ownership, (b) the reduction of demographic and social pressures in other regions of the country, and (c) the extension of the agricultural frontier. For economic and geopolitical reasons, the Ecuadorian state is likely to maintain a moderate and rather ineffectual set of incentives supporfted by the current legislation to allow the occupation of the Amazon region. Consequently, as migrants continue to flow into the easily degradable areas of the Amazon, and without increased population carrying capacity outrside the Amazon, some conversion of the rainforest environment of eastern Ecuador to other uses is certain to continue. A more detailed microlevel understanding of the interrelationship among factors influencing land-use decisions by settler farmers is needed to find policy-entry points.