Pedro Paiva , Carlos Bacha (p)

This paper analyzes the importance of the agricultural sector into the gross domestic product (GDP) of South American countries versus the importance of the oil and mining sectors during the years 1961 to 2014. Among our findings, we conclude that agricultural production has grown in South America and its trade balance of agricultural and agroprocessed products has been positive. However, there are different patterns according to the country analyzed, defining three distinct groups. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay had positive trade balances for agricultural and agroprocessed products, and also noted that agriculture's share of GDP increased during the recent commodity price boom (from 2002 to 2007). On the other hand, the Andean countries showed a decline in the share of agriculture and livestock in their GDP from 2002 to 2007. Guyana and Suriname have not yet defined their land use orientation, but tend to pay more attention to mining and oil extraction than agriculture.

Etienne Polge (p), Marta Debolini

The need to feed a growing population and to mitigate rural poverty, maintaining or reducing the environmental impact of agricultural production is a challenge for the next decades. Increasing literature on Sustainable intensification, on eco-efficiency agriculture or on agro-ecology deals with this problematic.
Sustainable intensification practices and pathways can be identified at farm level but really make sense at a landscape/regional level. The identification of the trigger or fence enhancing these practices is a relevant research question to regional science, in order to improve the regional public policies on rural development. Scholars working on SI tend to focus mainly on the environmental side, whereas social and economic sustainability should be considered as well. Similarly, the notion of intensification tends to be reduced to the value of yield, whereas a more complete connotation would consider the added value generated by the unit of land, labour and capital, especially in areas where the yield gaps are limited, as in Europe.
In this paper, we aim to identify a set of relevant indicators characterizing sustainable intensification pathways at landscape scale to determine the main socio-economics triggers depending on different regional context and issues raised. Four contrasted case studies delimited at NUTS3 level, including inter-municipal region with notable sustainable intensification processes, were chosen around Europe.
We applied a methodology to assess sustainability and intensification of practices through a set of indicators at NUTS4 level. We analyzed the socio-economic triggers especially those linked with social capital (cooperatives, associations) and with the proximity of agribusiness companies (input providers, advisers, food processers and food manufacturers).
The preliminary results show a huge land system heterogeneity significantly affecting the distribution of sustainability and intensification, confirming that sustainable intensification pathways are strongly dependent on their regional context. Cooperatives and advisers have a positive impact on SI pathway while the presence of first transformation companies tend to simplify productive system. Joined sustainable and intensification practices are implemented in some land system types while this seem to be more difficult in others. The observation of the specific behaviour of these municipalities give good information to understand SI pathways.

Gudrun Haindlmaier (p)

This presentation provides a replicability concept for the energy system which extends the focus on technical replicability with economic dimensions (market place) and further socio-technical dimensions, including user perspectives and institutional embedding. This comprehensive approach, listing a range of dimensions which seem relevant for the development of replication strategies, has been developed within the frame of the ReFlex project (Replicability Concept for Flexible Smart Grids) which deals with sustainable solutions for distributed energy systems that encompass both grid-infrastructures and “social grids". Furthermore, policy implications for the way towards a sustainable, flexible energy system with respect to findings from various demo sites in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden will be discussed.

Artem Korzhenevych (p), Sebastian Langer

This paper aims to quantify the municipal tax-revenue effects of increases in built-up areas. The assumed existence of these effects is one of the key reasons for ongoing land consumption on the part of the municipalities. Some previous case studies have however suggested that these effects may not be large enough, especially in rural municipalities, and would thus make land development unprofitable.
We estimate the effect of built-up industrial and commercial (BIC) area change on business tax revenues in cross-sectional instrumental variable estimations. Based on detailed data for Bavaria, we find that an increase in municipal BIC area has a significant and positive tax-revenue effect. The size of this effect differs sharply between urban and rural municipalities and between cities with different population densities. The positive overall effects become much smaller when large cities are excluded from the sample. Based on these findings, we reflect on the tradable planning permits scheme recently discussed in the literature on land use in the context of policies aiming to limit land consumption. In addition, we relate our estimates to the average municipal costs for land development and undertake a number of robustness checks.

Katsuhiro Sakurai (p), Hiroyuki Shibusawa

In this study, we develop a socio-economic and water environment model to evaluate the water environmental policy in the Toyogawa River Basin, Aichi prefecture, Japan. The Toyogawa River Basin is located in the East Mikawa area of the southern part of Aichi Prefecture in the central Japan. Currently, this development includes high-value-added agricultural systems in the cities of Toyohashi and Tahara as well as the manufacturing base, which includes the automobile industry, beyond the Mikawa Port. Because the area’s water supply also depends on the Toyogawa River, changes in the industrial structure and residents’ lifestyles have resulted in a serious problem of water shortage. This has also caused several policy issues to arise, including water environmental preservation in the Mikawa Bay. However, the water-environment problems such as water contamination have become increasingly important. To clarify the relationship between these factors and determine the best approach to solve these pressing issues, we first analyze regional data of the Toyogawa River Basin and construct a system model to clarify the interaction between the regional economy and the water environment in the basin. The model describes ongoing socio-economic activities and their impact on the water environment in the area. Next, using this model, we will analyze the relationship between the regional economy and water environment, and estimate the impacts of the regional economy on the water environment in the Toyogawa Basin. Finally, we evaluate the land use conversion and industrial subsidy policy as a water environmental measure in the basin via a simulation analysis using the developed model.