Identification of land-use conflicts: a novel framework combining scientific expertise and local stakeholders’ views

Divergent perspectives on future land-use changes, known as land-use conflicts (LUCs), significantly affect the local environment, human well-being, and sustainable development goals. However, the accurate identification and resolution of LUCs remain challenging. This study proposed a framework for LUC identification by integrating the land characteristics obtained from expert analyses with local stakeholder preferences. It outlined four types of LUCs and ten conflict combinations. The results indicated that 44.64% of the land plots exhibited at least one type of conflict. Among these, 896, 324, 115, 15, and 12 plots encountered suitability, preference-current use, preference-evaluation, and preference-preference conflicts, respectively. These findings validated the feasibility of the proposed framework and methods. Furthermore, different types of conflict combinations require different coordination rules, which indirectly reflect the complexity of conflict resolution. This framework aids the classification and identification of LUCs; offers targeted conflict resolution strategies; and contributes to informed and inclusive land-use and spatial planning.