Assessing Land Use Change
This report provides a review of behavioural models used to understand what motivates landowners and how they make decisions about land use change. It looks at the financial mechanisms used to influence these behaviours and their impact on land values, as well as decision-making processes across various land use sectors.
What were we trying to find out?
The goal was to identify the underlying factors influencing decision-making among different types of landowners and to select a suitable model for our analysis in the later stages of the project.
What did we learn?
From the models and approaches we reviewed, the Individual Social Material (ISM) model, the policy 'nudge' approach and the concept of the 'moment of change' are appropriate and useful for developing a framework to map and provide meaning for land use change towards net zero targets amongst a wide range of owners and land uses. We created a framework to help understand the different pathways and factors influencing land use change. It builds on the ISM model developed by Scottish Government by adding pathways of change to it and is flexible enough to explain the motivations and behaviours of a wide range of landowners in different land uses.
What happens next?
This conceptual framework can be useful for policymakers to understand the different times landowners/ managers may be susceptible to change.
The conceptual framework will be used later in the project to map decision-making 'pathways' for a range of landowners, geographies and land uses.
Read more in the full report and research briefing report below.
Full report DOI: https://doi.org/10.58073/SRUC.23198294.v1
Research Briefing DOI: https://doi.org/10.58073/SRUC.23198669.v1
