Area-based scenario development in land-use change modeling: A system dynamics-assisted approach for mixed agricultural-residential landscapes

Abstract

This study aimed to enhance land use and land cover (LULC) change models by addressing their main limitations, which include the lack of accountability and temporal stability of driving forces. Additionally, the study aimed to create area-based scenarios to forecast future LULCs, rather than solely relying on distribution-based scenarios. To accomplish this goal, the study developed a coupled System Dynamics (SD) and Cellular Automata (CA) modeling system to simulate possible LULC changes in the Gavkhooni Basin, central Iran. The study utilized LULC maps from Landsat images in 2001, 2011, and 2021 to analyze spatio-temporal land use changes in the region. Agricultural and residential transition suitability layers were produced using a spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation procedure and applied to inform the CA model in the proper allocation of LULC changes. Three interconnected water supply, agricultural, and residential area projection subsystems were developed using system dynamics method to determine land requirements for LULC conversions from 2020 to 2041, taking into account factors such as water availability, land suitability, agricultural labor force, and economic development. Ten scenarios were developed based on changes in the key variables affecting the limiting factors, such as climatic conditions and water management policies, to project agricultural and residential areas in the future. The CA's spatial allocation informed by transition suitability layers was found to be satisfactory with a Kappa-location value of 0.85. The subsystems were competent in projecting water supply with Mean Absolute Error (MAE) values of 6.57% and the dynamics of agricultural and residential areas with MAE values of 2.94%, whereas those of the Markovian Chain model were found to be 23.02% and 7.5% for agricultural and residential areas, respectively. The study found that available agricultural areas varied significantly between 86.53 and 1480 sq.km under different climatic conditions, irrigation efficiency, and agricultural water assignment coefficients between 2024 and 2033. Residential area demand was found to be increasing with different rates under the scenarios between 47.40 and 73.01 sq.km. The SD-CA coupled framework presented in this research can be viewed as a decision support system to develop compensatory strategies for better management and planning of agricultural and residential lands.