Nigel Walford

Productivism is allegedly dead, long live productivism. Evidence of continued productivist attitudes and decision-making in South-East England

Abstract The adjustment of the European Unions Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) initiated in the mid-1980s in response to its high cost and in-built tendency for overproduction set in train a series of measures that have been interpreted as reversing the former emphasis on agricultural production and diverting farmers towards alternative approaches to running their businesses. The policy reform measures have been characterised as contributing to a structural transition from a ‘productivist’ to ‘post-productivist’ era in agriculture, although empirical evidence for such reorientation at the farm level is less than conclusive. This paper reports on results from an analysis of large-scale commercial farmers in an area of relatively intensive arable and mixed livestock farming using documentary and survey sources to seek evidence of this transition over the long-term. Although these farmers have engaged with policy reform measures where these do not conflict with their primary objective, they continue to intensify and specialise their agricultural operations and to concentrate productive farm resources through accumulation and expansion.

Patterns of development in tourist accommodation enterprises on farms in England and Wales.

Abstract The spatial distribution of UK farm-based tourist accommodation is not known in detail, although this type of facility has been an important element in the growth of rural tourism and the most common option for farm diversification. A database of farms in England and Wales offering tourist accommodation has been prepared and the individual entries georeferenced to enable their locations to be determined with respect to selected Scenic Areas (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Heritage Coasts and National Parks). Exploratory analysis of this database indicates a possible ‘neighbourhood effect’ in which the provision of farm-based accommodation within buffer zones immediately surrounding these designated areas has a higher level of penetration in the farming community than in more distant areas. Further research is outlined to examine the interaction between actors in farming and planning communities using the geographical framework presented here.

Agricultural adjustment: adoption of and adaptation to policy reform measures by large-scale commercial farmers

Abstract The 1992 reform of the European Unions Common Agricultural Policy included an ‘Accompanying Measure’ that sought to co-ordinate the agri-environmental programmes of member states alongside initially voluntary and later compulsory set-aside measures designed to restrain agricultural production. These reforms have been seen as signalling a transition from a productivist to post-productivist philosophy in agricultural policy, although survey evidence is less than conclusive that this change of direction has permeated through the industry at the grassroots level. This paper reports on results from a farmer survey that shows contrasting responses according to whether policy measures are compulsory or voluntary. Commercial farmers are more willing to volunteer participation in optional agri-environmental schemes, where they feel they have greater control over its effects on farming operations but respond by adapting their implementation of compulsory set-aside to suit their own agricultural production purposes. Such a response casts considerable doubt over whether large-scale commercial farmers can be regarded as having made a transition to post-productivism.

A past and a future for diversification on farms? Some evidence from large-scale, commercial farms in South East England

Abstract Diversification has been identified as a common response to the agricultural crisis of the 1980s and to the changing ethos of agricultural policy in the closing decade of the twentieth century. In particular, farmers operating large‐scale farms have been prominent in adopting this approach, just as they were innovative across a range of farming practices in the expansion and modernisation of their agricultural production in earlier decades. Can we identify serial diversifiers within this sector of the farming community, who are disposed to react in an entrepreneurial fashion to the changing fortunes of agriculture? The paper draws on results from a survey of large‐scale commercial farmers in South East England and, by examining the sequence in which various forms of diversification were adopted, identifies a temporal pattern as farmers responded to the fluctuating fortunes of the agricultural industry over the past thirty years. But has the potential for diversification been exhausted? The paper also considers future prospects for diversification within the large‐scale, commercially oriented sector of the agricultural industry.

Planning for an ageing society: voices from the planning profession

The population of the United Kingdom is ageing inexorably, a trend which requires policy-makers, including spatial planners, to be creative and innovative in meeting the needs of older people. The significance of place in the lives of older people has been demonstrated by many researchers (see for example Peace et al., 2006; Gilroy, 2008) and underlines that spatial planners must be age aware. This paper uses qualitative research with planning practitioners to explore the extent of their age awareness and the means by which the opportunities and challenges of an ageing population are factored into their work. This is examined in the context of the wide-ranging multidisciplinary literature on the spatial experience of older people, and concludes that a clearer articulation of the elements of older peoples relationships with place would assist planners in unpicking this complex subject and building locally appropriate age-integrated solutions for our ageing population which reach beyond predominantly physical dimensions of the environment.

Accuracy of remote sensing data versus other sources of information for estimating net primary production in Eucalyptus globulus Labill. and Pinus pinaster Ait. ecosystems in Portugal

Net primary production (NPP) quantifies vegetation growth. It reflects the impact of biotic and abiotic factors over an ecosystem and is an important ecological variable for monitoring the impact of human activity on ecosystems. Though conceptually simple, NPP can be very difficult to measure accurately. In this paper, different temporal and spatial NPP products are compared, improving our understanding of the accuracy of these methods for measuring NPP in small forested areas of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. and Pinus pinaster Ait. stands. The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NPP products were compared with NPP values obtained from FOREST-BGC (a well-known ecophysiological model) and field measurements. The paper also examines the possibility of estimating the leaf area index (LAI), a key FOREST-BGC input, using remote sensing techniques. The results indicate that the most accurate estimates were achieved using the FOREST-BGC model, which is normally applied at the stand level. Since LAI can be estimated from remotely sensed data, this ecophysiological model may now be regarded as suitable for use at the regional and global scales. The results also showed that, although average NPP values are similar to field measurements, MODIS NPP products are inefficient for identifying extreme NPP values.

Connecting historical and contemporary small-area geography in Britain: the creation of digital boundary data for 1971 and 1981 census units

This paper reports on the outcome from a project that has developed a GISbased procedure to capture digital boundaries for the small spatial units used in the British Population Census in 1981, and for the geographically comparable units connecting back with the previous enumeration in 1971. 1981 census geography was originally recorded as linear and textual annotations on paper base maps that were subsequently microfilmed. Four methods involving varying degrees of automation for capturing digital representations of these census units from the scanned microfilm imagery are evaluated. Details presented are in the context of British census geography before digital capture of small census units became routine, but the evaluation of the methods and the final procedure cover issues that are generally applicable in situations where the capture of historical mapping is attempted.

A PROPOSED METHODOLOGY FOR THE CORRECTION OF THE LEAF AREA INDEX MEASURED WITH A CEPTOMETER FOR PINUS AND EUCALYPTUS FORESTS

Leaf area index (LAI) is an important parameter controlling many biological and physiological processes associated with vegetation on the Earths surface, such as photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, carbon and nutrient cycle and rainfall interception. LAI can be measured indirectly by sunfleck ceptometers in an easy and non-destructive way but this practical methodology tends to underestimated when measured by these instruments. Trying to correct this underestimation, some previous studies heave proposed the multiplication of the observed LAI value by a constant correction factor. The assumption of this work is LAI obtained from the allometric equations are not so problematic and can be used as a reference LAI to develop a new methodology to correct the ceptometer one. This new methodology indicates that the bias (the difference between the ceptometer and the reference LAI) is estimated as a function of the basal area per unit ground area and that bias is summed to the measured value. This study has proved that while the measured Pinus LAI needs a correction, there is no need for that correction for the Eucalyptus LAI. However, even for this last specie the proposed methodology gives closer estimations to the real LAI values.

An analysis of the changing dependency ratios for small areas in 1981, 1991 and 2001: a Norfolk case study

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. The analysis of demographic and socio-economic change in the UK is hampered by adjustments made to the principal, reliable source of data for small areas, the decennial Population Census, and by the statistical problem of absolute changes having disproportionate effects on of account of variability in population totals at the start of the period(s) under investigation. The two main sets of adjustments to the census affect its geography and statistical content. This paper explores the use of a spatial analysis technique known as dasymetric mapping to create estimates of census counts for consistent geographical features spanning the 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses. Parallel analyses of age structure have been carried out for two sets of small geographical features: one set comprises the 1981 enumeration districts for which estimates of comparable 1991 and 2001 attributes have been computed; and the other the 2001 Census Output Areas for which the 1981 and 1991 age structure counts have been estimated. Selected census count estimates have been mapped at a scale of 1:2,820,000 to explore how age structure has changed in these small areas in order to exemplify potential use of the output datasets from this spatial analysis. Rather than attempting to visualise age structure dynamics for 130,000 1981 enumeration districts and 220,000 output areas, this paper focuses on the county of Norfolk in the East of England Government Office Region, which is noted for having experienced considerable growth in its population over the last three decades.

The changing nature of GIS and the provision of formal GIS education in the UK : a case study

Abstract The arrival of the term Geographical Information System (GIS) in the 1960s soon created a demand for training and education in the use of this specialist hardware and software. Initially the main focus was on training people to use GIS, formal named degree programmes leading to postgraduate and undergraduate qualifications arrived later. This paper explores the changing landscape of U.K. degree level GIS education drawing on contemporary information from Higher Education Institution websites and a case study of the first single honours degree in GIS in Europe. The paper identifies a rise and fall in the number of named undergraduate “GIS” degrees since the late 1980s sandwiched between the continuation and development of postgraduate qualifications. In parallel with this trend the teaching and learning of GIS skills has emerged as a core component of undergraduate degree programmes with “Geography” in their title and in national school and degree level benchmarking statements for the discipline.