Architecture of the global land acquisition system: applying the tools of network science to identify key vulnerabilities
Seaquist, Jonathan LU ; Johansson, Emma LU and Nicholas, Kimberly LU
(2014)
In Environmental Research Letters
9(11).
- Abstract
- Global land acquisitions, often dubbed 'land grabbing' are increasingly becoming drivers of land change. We use the tools of network science to describe the connectivity of the global acquisition system. We find that 126 countries participate in this form of global land trade. Importers are concentrated in the Global North, the emerging economies of Asia, and the Middle East, while exporters are confined to the Global South and Eastern Europe. A small handful of countries account for the majority of land acquisitions (particularly China, the UK, and the US), the cumulative distribution of which is best described by a power law. We also find that countries with many land trading partners play a disproportionately central role in providing... (More)
- Global land acquisitions, often dubbed 'land grabbing' are increasingly becoming drivers of land change. We use the tools of network science to describe the connectivity of the global acquisition system. We find that 126 countries participate in this form of global land trade. Importers are concentrated in the Global North, the emerging economies of Asia, and the Middle East, while exporters are confined to the Global South and Eastern Europe. A small handful of countries account for the majority of land acquisitions (particularly China, the UK, and the US), the cumulative distribution of which is best described by a power law. We also find that countries with many land trading partners play a disproportionately central role in providing connectivity across the network with the shortest trading path between any two countries traversing either China, the US, or the UK over a third of the time. The land acquisition network is characterized by very few trading cliques and therefore characterized by a low degree of preferential trading or regionalization. We also show that countries with many export partners trade land with countries with few import partners, and vice versa, meaning that less developed countries have a large array of export partnerships with developed countries, but very few import partnerships (dissassortative relationship). Finally, we find that the structure of the network is potentially prone to propagating crises (e.g., if importing countries become dependent on crops exported from their land trading partners). This network analysis approach can be used to quantitatively analyze and understand telecoupled systems as well as to anticipate and diagnose the potential effects of telecoupling. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4944758
- author
- Seaquist, Jonathan
LU
; Johansson, Emma
LU
and Nicholas, Kimberly
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- land grabbing, telecoupling, complex network, globalization, vulnerability, land systems science
- in
- Environmental Research Letters
- volume
- 9
- issue
- 11
- article number
- 114006
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000346573900012
- scopus:84928725092
- ISSN
- 1748-9326
- DOI
- 10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114006
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 31379849-a177-494c-aa81-5e299e925749 (old id 4944758)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 14:49:28
- date last changed
- 2022-01-28 02:42:23
@article{31379849-a177-494c-aa81-5e299e925749,
abstract = {{Global land acquisitions, often dubbed 'land grabbing' are increasingly becoming drivers of land change. We use the tools of network science to describe the connectivity of the global acquisition system. We find that 126 countries participate in this form of global land trade. Importers are concentrated in the Global North, the emerging economies of Asia, and the Middle East, while exporters are confined to the Global South and Eastern Europe. A small handful of countries account for the majority of land acquisitions (particularly China, the UK, and the US), the cumulative distribution of which is best described by a power law. We also find that countries with many land trading partners play a disproportionately central role in providing connectivity across the network with the shortest trading path between any two countries traversing either China, the US, or the UK over a third of the time. The land acquisition network is characterized by very few trading cliques and therefore characterized by a low degree of preferential trading or regionalization. We also show that countries with many export partners trade land with countries with few import partners, and vice versa, meaning that less developed countries have a large array of export partnerships with developed countries, but very few import partnerships (dissassortative relationship). Finally, we find that the structure of the network is potentially prone to propagating crises (e.g., if importing countries become dependent on crops exported from their land trading partners). This network analysis approach can be used to quantitatively analyze and understand telecoupled systems as well as to anticipate and diagnose the potential effects of telecoupling.}},
author = {{Seaquist, Jonathan and Johansson, Emma and Nicholas, Kimberly}},
issn = {{1748-9326}},
keywords = {{land grabbing; telecoupling; complex network; globalization; vulnerability; land systems science}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{11}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
title = {{Architecture of the global land acquisition system: applying the tools of network science to identify key vulnerabilities}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114006}},
doi = {{10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114006}},
volume = {{9}},
year = {{2014}},
}