2.3 SPATIAL POLICIES (AREA RESTRICTIONS)
This option indicates areas where land use changes are restricted through spatial (land
use) policies or tenure status. Maps that indicate the areas for which the spatial policy is
implemented must be supplied. Some spatial policies restrict all land use change in a
certain area, e.g., when in a forest reserve all logging is banned. Other land use policies
restrict a set of specific land use conversions, e.g., residential construction in designated
agricultural areas. In this exercise we will only address policies that restrict all land use
changes in designated areas.
With the DEMO version of the model we supply three area restriction files that can be
selected through the user-interface. Each file contains a map designating the areas
where land use change is restricted. The maps are shown in Figure 14 but can also be
imported in ArcView as ASCII Raster file similar to the procedure used to import the
results of the simulations. The files are located in the installation directory.
Area restriction files:
region_nopark.fil: no spatial policies included.
region_park1.fil: one large nature park following the boundaries of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines
region_park2.fil: instead of one large nature park protection is proposed for small areas
which are assumed to face large land use change pressure.