Analysis of noise distributions at heliports and vertiports: A guide for site selection and land use planning

Sustainable land use systems planning and management requires a wider understanding of the spatial extent and detailed human-ecosystem interactions astride any landscape. This study assessed the extent of historical, current, and future land use systems in Uganda. The specific objectives were to (i) characterize and assess the extent of historical and current land use systems, and (ii) project future land use systems. The land use systems were defined and classified using spatially explicit land use/cover layers for the years 1990 and 2015, while the future prediction (for the year 2040) was determined using land use systems datasets for both years through a Markov chain model. This study reveals a total of 29 classes of land use systems that can be broadly categorized as follows: three of the land use systems are agricultural, five are under bushland, four under forest, five under grasslands, two under impediments, three under wetlands, five under woodland, one under open water and urban settlement respectively. The highest gains in the land amongst the land use systems were experienced in subsistence agricultural land and grasslands protected, while the highest losses were seen in grasslands unprotected and woodland/forest with low livestock densities. By 2040, subsistence agricultural land is likely to increase by about 1% while tropical high forest with livestock activities is expected to decrease by 0.2%, and woodland/forest unprotected by 0.07%. High demand for agricultural and settlement land are mainly responsible for land use systems patchiness. This study envisages more land degradation and disasters such as landslides, floods, droughts, and so forth to occur in the country, causing more deaths and loss of property, if the rate at which land use systems are expanding is not closely monitored and regulated in the near future.

Cities worldwide have been trying to achieve a sustainable urban form to handle their rapid urban growth. Many sustainable urban forms have been studied and two of them, the compact city and the eco city, were chosen in this study as urban form foundations. Based on these forms, four sustainable city criteria (compactness, compatibility, dependency, and suitability) were considered as necessary functions for land use optimisation. This study presents a land use optimisation as a method for achieving a sustainable urban form. Three optimisation methods (particle swarm optimisation, genetic algorithms, and a local search method) were combined into a single hybrid optimisation method for land use in Bekasi city, Indonesia. It was also used for examining Bekasi city’s land-use-plan (2010–2030) after optimising current (2015) and future land use (2030). After current land use optimisation, the score of sustainable city criteria increased significantly. Three important centres of land use (commercial, industrial, and residential) were also created through clustering the results. These centres were slightly different from centres of the city plan zones. Additional land uses in 2030 were predicted using a nonlinear autoregressive neural network with external input. Three scenarios were used for allocating these additional land uses including sustainable development, government policy, and business-as-usual. Future land use allocation in 2030 found that the sustainable development scenario showed better performance compared to government policy and business-as-usual scenarios.

DNA-content and chromosome number in populations of Poa alpina in the Alps reflect land use history

Exceedance of modern ‘background’ fine-grained sediment delivery to rivers due to current agricultural land use and uptake of water pollution mitigation options across England and Wales

After the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model was calibrated and validated to historic flow records for the current land use conditions, two additional land cover scenarios (a prehistoric land cover and a potential maximum plantation pine cover) were used to evaluate the impacts of land cover change on total water yields, groundwater flow, and quick flow in the Motueka River catchment, New Zealand. Low-flow characteristics and their potential impacts on availability for water abstraction and for support of in-stream habitat values were focused on. The results showed that the annual total water yields, quick flow and baseflow decreased moderately in the two scenarios when compared with the current actual land use. The annual water balance for the pine potential land cover scenario did not differ substantially from the prehistoric scenario for the catchment as whole. However, there were more notable differences among individual tributary catchments, which could be attributed to the relative area of land cover altered and location of those catchments. Simulated low flows for the prehistoric and potential pine land cover scenarios were both significantly lower than the low flows for the current land use. In summary, under the current land use conditions, both annual water yield and low flow are higher than was the case before human intervention in the area or in a maximum commercial reforestation scenario.

Continuous use of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers, sporadic sewer overflow events, and an increase in urbanization have led to significant nutrient/pollutant loadings into the semi-arid Arroyo Colorado River basin, which is located in South Texas, U.S. Priority nutrients that require reduction include phosphorus and nitrogen and to mitigate issues of low dissolved oxygen, in some of its river segments. Consequently, the river’s potential to support aquatic life has been significantly reduced, thus highlighting the need for restoration. To achieve this restoration, a watershed protection plan was developed, comprising several preventive mitigation measures, including installing green infrastructure (GI) practices. However, for effective reduction of excessive nutrient loadings, there is a need to study the effects of different combinations of GI practices under current and future land use scenarios to guide decisions in implementing the cost-effective infrastructure while considering factors such as the existing drainage system, topography, land use, and streamflow. Therefore, this study coupled the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model with the System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis Integration (SUSTAIN) model to determine the effects of different combinations of GI practices on the reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus under changing land use conditions in three selected Arroyo Colorado subwatersheds. Two land use maps from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Forecasting Scenarios of land use (FORE-SCE) model for 2050, namely, A1B and B1, were implemented in the coupled SWAT-SUSTAIN model in this study, where the urban area is projected to increase by 6% and 4%, respectively, with respect to the 2018 land use scenario. As expected, runoff, phosphorus, and nitrogen slightly increased with imperviousness. The modeling results showed that implementing either vegetated swales or wet ponds reduces flow and nutrients to meet the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) targets, which cost about USD 1.5 million under current land use (2018). Under the 2050 future projected land use changes (A1B scenario), the cost-effective GI practice was implemented in vegetated swales at USD 1.5 million. In contrast, bioretention cells occupied the least land area to achieve the TMDL targets at USD 2 million. Under the B1 scenario of 2050 projected land use, porous pavements were most cost effective at USD 1.5 million to meet the TMDL requirements. This research emphasizes the need for collaboration between stakeholders at the watershed and farm levels to achieve TMDL targets. This study informs decision-makers, city planners, watershed managers, and other stakeholders involved in restoration efforts in the Arroyo Colorado basin.

Land suitability analysis is very important to assess and propose the most suitable land-use options. The reliability of land suitability evaluation is controlled by choosing the most limiting land characteristics and their ratings for the proposed land utilization types (LUTs). This study aims at examining the possibility of using current land use and farmers' knowledge as a starting point to suggest and/or modify land evaluation criteria, and to improve the land suitability evaluation process. The potential suitability of land for five LUTs (open range, improved range, rainfed barley, drip-irrigated vegetables and drip-irrigated trees) was evaluated near Al-Mafraq in Jordan using the maximum limitation method. The results indicated variable agreement levels between potential land suitability and current land use for different LUTs. Sixteen farms were selected to represent different cases of disagreement between potential suitability and current land use and were visited to explore the farmers' improved management practices adopted to overcome land-use limitations. Using proposed criteria, only 1% of the study area was highly suitable for drip irrigation, whereas most of the area was moderately or marginally suitable for other uses. This represents the conventional land evaluation procedures, which, in most cases, overlook the farmers' knowledge and practices that are adopted in a particular area to overcome biophysical limitations. The ratings for different land characteristics were modified based on comparisons with current land use, and by referring to farmers’ adopted management practices. Using modified criteria, the highly suitable area for drip-irrigated vegetables increased by 18% and the highly suitable area for drip-irrigated trees increased by 25%. The results emphasized that the consideration of the farmer's indigenous knowledge and current land use improve the land evaluation process, which leads to better utilization of limited land resources in fragile environments.

The conflict between grain production and wetland resource protection in plain wetland is prominent. Understanding the future impacts of current land use policies on wetlands is the key to rationally evaluating and adjusting these policies. Therefore, the objective of the research was to predict the potential distribution of Sanjiang plain wetland under the current land use and protection policy using remote sensing images and CA Markov models. Methodologically, Landsat TM remote sensing images of the Sanjiang Plain (2010–2020) were used to extract wetland distribution based on object-oriented methods, and the characteristics and patterns of wetland change caused by the land use and protection policies during this period were analyzed. A CA–Markov model was used to predict the potential distribution of Sanjiang Plain wetland in 2030, 2040, 2050, and 2060. Then, we summarized the advantages and disadvantages of current land use policies and put forward adjustment measures. The results indicate that during 2010 and 2020, the wetland area of Sanjiang Plain decreased by 22.34%. The conversion ratio of wetland to non-wetland type (mainly farmland) in the first half and the second half of the decade was 46.41% and 15.31%, respectively, and the decrease in wetland showed an obvious slowing trend. The spatial distribution prediction in future showed that the wetland area will continue to decline in 2030, and the decline will basically stop in 2040. Finally, the proportion of wetland area will remain at 8.68% of the total area of Sanjiang Plain, with that of some counties and cities less than 5%. It is concluded that, although the current land use policies in Sanjiang Plain can effectively slow down the wetland area shrinking and stabilize the spatial pattern, a very low proportion of wetland area in some areas will make it difficult for the wetland ecosystem to exert ecological functions and ensure regional ecological security. The wetland conservation managers should adjust the current land use policies according to relevant requirements of farmland protection policies and restore the areal proportion and spatial pattern of wetland in order to help with regional sustainable development.

In the present study, a land suitability assessment was conducted in the basin of four Uruguayan coastal lagoons (Southwestern Atlantic) to analyze the productive development while minimizing eutrophication, biodiversity loss and conflicts among different land uses. Suitable land for agriculture, forest, livestock ranching, tourism and conservation sectors were initially established based on a multi-attribute model developed using a geographic information system. Experts were consulted to determine the requirements for each land use sector and the incompatibilities among land use types. The current and potential conflicts among incompatible land use sectors were analyzed by overlapping land suitability maps. We subsequently applied a multi-objective model where land (pixels) with similar suitability was clustered into "land suitability groups", using a two-phase cluster analysis and the Akaike Information Criterion. Finally, a linear programming optimization procedure was applied to allocate land use sectors into land suitable groups, maximizing total suitability and minimizing interference among sectors. Results indicated that current land use overlapped by 4.7% with suitable land of other incompatible sectors. However, the suitable land of incompatible sectors overlapped in 20.3% of the study area, indicating a high potential for the occurrence of future conflict. The highest competition was between agriculture and conservation, followed by forest and agriculture. We explored scenarios where livestock ranching and tourism intensified, and found that interference with conservation and agriculture notably increased. This methodology allowed us to analyze current and potential land use conflicts and to contribute to the strategic planning of the study area.

Bertam catchment is increasingly becoming a main concern area on flood disaster caused by the dam release. Further research is required to be conducted at this area. The objective of this study is to determine future flood inundation area at the downstream of Bertam catchment for several scenarios as a result of dam release and climate change. The scenarios are current land use with and without climate change scenarios and future land use with and without climate change scenarios. InfoWorks RS, Geographical Information System (GIS) application and Auto CAD was utilized in this study to develop river modeling. The current land use used in this study is referring to 2010, and future land use refers to 2025. The climate change parameters used in this study are rainfall using climate change factor (CCF) derived by NAHRIM as input data. The design storm used in this study is 24 h storm duration and 100-years Annual Recurrence Interval (ARI). The results obtained using four scenarios show the differences of inundation areas. The model is validated based on actual maximum flood depth on site which is 1.2 m. The highest percentage of inundation area is when the water depth is greater than 1.2 m. For current land use, the difference in inundation area between with and without climate change scenarios is 12.6 %, while for future land use the difference is about 12.80 %. The finding of this study shows that impact of climate change has exaggerated the effect of water release from the dam to the downstream catchment.

基于景观安全格局理论的宜兴市生态用地分类保护

Land use changes associated with the expansion of sugar cane crops and their influences on soil removal in a tropical watershed in São Paulo State (Brazil)

Examining the current land use problems is essential for designing management options for sustainable use and to obtain optimal benefit out of land. This study was intended to examine the current land use problems and propose management options and strategies for sustainable land use in Debre Tsyon kebele of Enebsie Sar Midir district, Ethiopia. The Landsat-8 OLI-TIRS of 2017, ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model, interview and field observation was employed to generate data on the current land use, land use problems and management options for the future use. The hybrid pixel-based image classification (supervised and unsupervised) method was used to map the land use classes. The results show that the cropland occupy the vast portion (75%) of the study area. However, the improper land use was very high in agricultural and grazing lands use classes. The growing demand for land resources pushed the community to expand farmlands to fragile steep areas with slope > 30%. Of the total agricultural land, 12.6% found in fragile areas with slope > 30%. Likewise, the grazing land has already deteriorated and could not bring pasture for livestock year-round. The vegetation cover has been declining due to improper use. Hence, this calls for the local government to implement appropriate land use plan and efficient land management options to curb the unsustainability spiral.

Abstract. The primary issues related the spatial organization of urban settlements are based on the development of density and land use decisions leading due to the market mechanisms. The current spatial land use pattern of cities have emerged depending various factors such as the migration movements increased rapidly from the 1950s, the rapid and uncontrolled urbanization, the pressures of rent directing the market mechanisms, etc. This urbanization process also has accompanied many problems as the insecure construction for disasters, dense and solid urban texture, various weaknesses or deficiencies of urban infrastructure. As a consequence of the evaluation for social facility areas (gaps in urban area, open and green areas, etc.) as “potential investment areas”, the loss of solid – void ratio and dense built-environment have been experienced in urban centres and also urban development directions. The main aim of this study is to examine the spatial effects of land use decisions between the years of 2002 – 2017 under the influence of the Law 6360 in terms of urban planning discipline. These spatial variations related land use pattern are determined using Google Earth and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). According to the results, it is clearly understood that current land use patterns in Guzelbahce district have changed significantly in 15-years period. The results of analyses related the case area which the urban sprawl has seen are discussed and a variety of policies have been developed.

Land use more than 200 years ago explains current grassland plant diversity in a Swedish agricultural landscape