Influences of Growth: ALI Research Team Publishes Project's Second Paper

The Alberta Land Institute's three-year project Economic Evaluation of Farmland Conversion and Fragmentation in Alberta is examining the province's agricultural landscape.

Led by Principal Investigators Dr. Scott Jeffrey and Dr. Brent Swallow, along with Co-Investigators Dr. Feng Qiu and Dr. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, this research is helping create a clearer understanding of the ways in which rapid population growth in Alberta is influencing agricultural land from the standpoints of its use, its value, and even the way it is perceived by the public. The project wraps up in 2016, but members of the research team have already begun publishing their work.

The first paper from the project, "Impacts of fragmentation and neighbor influences on farmland conversion: A case study of the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, Canada," was published this month in the journal Land Use Policy (Volume 48, November 2015, Pages 482–494).

A second journal article is now available: "Assessing Neighbor and Population Growth Influences on Agricultural Land Conversion," by Darren Haarsma and Dr. Feng Qiu, has been accepted for publication by Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy. It is currently available to download by clicking here.

This paper was developed from Darren's Master's thesis, "Spatial Analysis of Agricultural land Conversion and its Associated Drivers in Alberta," which he completed as part of the ALI project last year. He currently works with Parkland County in Alberta, as the ALUS Program Coordinator.

More information from this project will be available in the coming months, and some of its findings will be featured at ALI's next conference, Land Use 2016, for which registration is now open.

To learn more about Economic Evaluation of Farmland Conversion and Fragmentation in Alberta, visit the project page, and download the research team's first year report. Stay tuned to this website for more information.