A case study of legal mechanism for controlling the land use in Taipei Water Source Domain

　　

1. Introduction

　　
1.1. Land use and ecological quality in freshwater protected areas

　　
Freshwater demands and endangered ecosystem promote the protected area established to protect freshwater habitats and resources (Blaine et al., 2006; Saunders et al., 2002). For developing the theoretical base, scientist began to develop the correlation between land use and ecological quality. In an Italian case, Mancini et al. (2005) found protected areas do not automatically lead to improved biological quality of streams, and the size of a protected area is not the determinative role. In the research, land use was represented by an index based on specific coefficient for land use category and its relative frequency.

　　
Since research about landscape and ecology was moving from concept to practice (Ashley et al., 2006), the environmental management in freshwater protected areas trended to consider the condition and change of land use. In order to establish a water-quality monitoring project for New York, Blaine et al. (2006) integrated the historical and contemporary land use to give consideration to four issues: water resources, ecosystem services, compatibility of environment and economics, and stakeholders. Similarly, Conway and Lathrop (2005) assessing the future impact of four types of land use regulations in the Barnegat Bay watershed (in New Jersey, USA).

　　
To bridge the gaps between theoretical and practical studies, it is necessary to build some principles that helps academic research contributes to management. For example, according to Allan’s (2004) review over the influence of land use on stream ecosystem, he argued the variation in land cover is often greater at the reach and riparian scales, rather than at the catchment scale. Since there have been a lot of research proving the effect of land use on freshwater protected areas, it is important to find the mechanism controlling land use to practice the management. As a descriptive case study, this article focuses on this question: (how) does the legal mechanism of land use work?　(未完待續)