Arable Land Use Research Articles

Dual stresses of flooding and agricultural land use reduce earthworm populations more than the individual stressors

Global climate change is leading to a significant increase in flooding events in many countries. Current practices to prevent damage to downstream urban areas include allowing the flooding of upstream agricultural land. Earthworms are ecosystem engineers, but their abundances in arable land are already reduced due to pressure from farming practices. If flooding increases on agricultural land, it is important to understand how earthworms will respond to the dual stresses of flooding and agricultural land use. The earthworm populations under three land uses (pasture, field margin, and crops), across two UK fields, were sampled seasonally over an 18-month period in areas of the fields which flood frequently and areas which flood only rarely. Earthworm abundance in the crop and pasture soils and total earthworm biomass in the crop soils was significantly lower in the frequently flooded areas than in the rarely flooded areas. The relative percentage difference in the populations between the rarely and frequently flooded areas was greater in the crop soils (−59.18% abundance, −63.49% biomass) than the pasture soils (−13.39% abundance, −9.66% biomass). In the margin soils, earthworm abundance was significantly greater in the frequently flooded areas (+140.56%), likely due to higher soil organic matter content and lower bulk density resulting in soil conditions more amenable to earthworms. The findings of this study show that earthworm populations already stressed by the activities associated with arable land use are more susceptible to flooding than populations in pasture fields, suggesting that arable earthworm populations are likely to be increasingly at risk with increased flooding.

Land Use Favourability Assessment Based on Soil Characteristics and Anthropic Pollution. Case Study Somesul Mic Valley Corridor, Romania

The Someș Corridor, located in the central Transylvanian region of Romania, is a territory characterised by favourable conditions for habitation and land use with agricultural purposes, offering suitable premises for the development of the settlements and the economic activities taking place in the area. This study aims to identify the parcels of land from outside the built-up area, which can be used as arable land, this particular use being pursued due to the favourability induced by the pedological resources, the morphometrical characteristics of the Someș floodplain and, last but not least, the climatic conditions. GIS technology has been used, enabling the management of the databases representing soil, topography and climatic factors, and thus obtaining the classification of all land parcels using favourability classes for agricultural land use. In order to perform a correct favourability classification, the degree of soil pollution and groundwater pollution have been analysed, using chemical tests of water and soil profiles taken in the area of former abandoned industrial platforms, which are intended to be reintroduced in the local economic use. The highest degree of soil pollution with ammonium and sulphates has been identified in the industrial park from Dej city, on the territory of the former industrial platform of the paper factory, this pollution modifying the quality scores of arable land use, despite the fulfilment of favourable climatic and topographic conditions.

ОПТИМИЗАЦИЯ СТРУКТУРЫ ПОСЕВНЫХ ПЛОЩАДЕЙ ДЛЯ СТЕПНОЙ ЗОНЫ РСО – АЛАНИЯ

The structure of the cultivated areas serves as the basis for the system of crop rotation, the main link in modern farming systems. The structure of sown areas and the system of crop rotations as the fundamental links of the farming system have close direct correlations and feed-backs with all other links of the farming system. On the one hand, they are fundamental, first of all, for organizing the soil protection and nature conservation of the territory, since in each farm the sown areas of agricultural crops on arable land prevail over the area of other agricultural lands. On the other hand, the system of crop rotation, which is developed on the basis of the promising structure of sown areas, is the basis for other links of the farming system. For more efficient use of arable land, increasing the yield of major agricultural crops, meeting the needs of farms with crop production, improving soil fertility, it is necessary to change the structure of sown areas taking into account the specific agro-climatic conditions of the steppe zone. There are two subzones in the considered zone: arid and moderately arid one. We have substantiated and optimized the structure of cultivated areas in order to increase soil fertility, ecological balance and productivity of agricultural landscapes for these two sub-zones of the steppe zone. For the arid sub-zone, in the structure of sown areas, winter and spring crops should occupy 51.7%, legumes – 9.8%, fodder – 12.5%, industrial – 21%, vegetables – 5%. For the moderately arid sub-zone in the structure of sown areas, winter and spring crops should occupy 42.0%, legumes – 10.3%, corn for grain – 13.7%, fodder – 10.5%, industrial – 17.0%, vegetables – 5%, potatoes – 1.5%.

Is there a regularity: the change of arable land use pattern under the influence of human activities in the Loess Plateau of China?

Conventionally, the evolutions of landscape patterns show different regularities in terms of different spatial scales. Therefore, the changes of arable land use pattern under the influence of human activities in the Loess Plateau of China also follow similar rules. To examine this assumption, we selected Per Capita Arable land Area (PCAA) as an index to indicate arable land use pattern, and Human Activity Intensity (HAI) as an index to indicate the influence of human activities. We also used land use data and demographic data at a 5-year interval from 1990 to 2015 to quantify PCAA and HAI in four different spatial scales across over the Loess Plateau region. These four scales include the whole loess Plateau region, provincial (autonomous region) scale, municipal (autonomous prefecture) scale, and county (city, district) scale. The theoretical model of arable land use pattern and the HAI calculation model were used comprehensively. We performed spatial analysis on the whole PCAA and HAI with the support of GIS geographic information technology, and conducted spatial autocorrelation analysis and Pearson’s correlation analysis. We performed analysis of factor driving on the PCAA and HAI for different land-use types at the county (city, district) scale. We found that the changes in arable land use pattern of the Loess Plateau were dominated by human activities at the whole region and provincial scales from 1990 to 2015. However, at the municipal and county scales, human activities account for 60% of the changes in land use pattern. Two interesting findings were found at the municipal and county scales: one is that with the changing rate of HAI increases, the changing rate of PCAA decreased substantially; the second is that with HAI decreases, PCAA increased significantly. Besides, the changes in arable land use pattern can be explained by the synergy effect of multiple factors of human activities. This study provides insight knowledge in understanding the drives under the change of arable land use pattern in the Loess Plateau and hopefully can provide guidance for the sustainable goal of the local and country scale planning from the management perspective.

Integration of algae‐based biofuel production with an oil refinery: Energy and carbon footprint assessment

Biofuel production from algae feedstock has become a topic of interest in the recent decades since algae biomass cultivation is feasible in aquaculture and does therefore not compete with use of arable land. In the present work, hydrothermal liquefaction of both microalgae and macroalgae is evaluated for biofuel production and compared with transesterifying lipids extracted from microalgae as a benchmark process. The focus of the evaluation is on both the energy and carbon footprint performance of the processes. In addition, integration of the processes with an oil refinery has been assessed with regard to heat and material integration. It is shown that there are several potential benefits of co-locating an algae-based biorefinery at an oil refinery site and that the use of macroalgae as feedstock is more beneficial than the use of microalgae from a system energy performance perspective. Macroalgae-based hydrothermal liquefaction achieves the highest system energy efficiency of 38.6%, but has the lowest yield of liquid fuel (22.5 MJ per 100 MJalgae) with a substantial amount of solid biochar produced (28.0 MJ per 100 MJalgae). Microalgae-based hydrothermal liquefaction achieves the highest liquid biofuel yield (54.1 MJ per 100 MJalgae), achieving a system efficiency of 30.6%. Macro-algae-based hydrothermal liquefaction achieves the highest CO2 reduction potential, leading to savings of 24.5 resp 92 kt CO2eq/year for the two future energy market scenarios considered, assuming a constant feedstock supply rate of 100 MW algae, generating 184.5, 177.1 and 229.6 GWhbiochar/year, respectively. Heat integration with the oil refinery is only possible to a limited extent for the hydrothermal liquefaction process routes, whereas the lipid extraction process can benefit to a larger extent from heat integration due to the lower temperature level of the process heat demand.

State policy on the use of former arable land and budget funding of agriculture

This paper contains three scenarios for expansion the production of agricultural raw materials and food in the Russian Federation. Special attention is paid to the Non-Chernozem region, where the country has the largest amount of land not used for agricultural production anymore. In order to determine the influence of state support on the efficiency of resource use, including land, a comprehensive indicator for evaluating the effectiveness of state subsidies is introducing in the regions of Russia. The subjects of the Russian Federation were calculated and classified by the efficiency of the use of subsidies. The hypothesis of the reasons for different levels of use of subsidies in the regions is presented in the article. The identification of these reasons makes it possible to substantiate wise management decisions, and adjust agricultural policy and target programs for the development of agricultural production and rural areas.

Spatial pattern of arable land-use intensity in China

In recent years, the sustainable utilization of China’s arable land has been confronted with several challenges. The China government has been very strict in arable land protection, and a package of policies and measures have been promulgated. All these endeavors are of great significance for proposing an innovative policy system for sustainable land use in China. However, above stated policies are all designed from the perspective of space control with the purpose of reducing arable land loss or increasing arable land area, few policies have been designed from the perspective of utilization control, namely guide the actual arable land farming in sustainable ways and constraint unreasonable land use behavior such as overuse, rough use, land abandonment. In this paper, we analyze spatial distribution of average land-use intensity (ALUI) at the county-level in Mainland China, which can be used as a significant index for evaluating the rationality of arable land use and providing effective decision-making supporting information for design of regional arable land protection policy. Based on the experimental results, there is still considerable room for yield improvement as the ALUI of ∼73.1 % counties are lower than 0.7 while the 53.60 % counties are lower than 0.6. Furthermore, the ALUI dataset shows significant global spatial autocorrelation characteristic. Boundaries of regions that aggregated by counties with high ALUI are more consistent with that of provincial administrative districts, comparing with that of sub-standard farming system regions. On the other hand, counties with low ALUI are mostly cluster in mountains, hills, or plateaus, where grain yield is mainly limited by regional hydrothermal conditions. In addition, counties with different ALUI status have been divided into six classes, using k-means clustering algorithm. This will facilitate the understanding of appropriate arable land protection and utilization paths for different regions and the rethinking of current support policies on farmland protection.

Microbial lipid production by oleaginous yeasts grown on Scenedesmus obtusiusculus microalgae biomass hydrolysate

Due to increasing oil prices and climate change concerns, biofuels have become increasingly important as potential alternative energy sources. However, the use of arable lands and valuable resources for the production of biofuel feedstock compromises food security and negatively affect the environment. Single cell oils (SCOs), accumulated by oleaginous yeasts, show great promise for efficient production of biofuels. However, the high production costs attributed to feedstocks or raw materials present a major limiting factor. The fermentative conversion of abundant, low-value biomass into microbial oil would alleviate this limitation. Here, we explore the feasibility of utilizing microalgae-based cell residues as feedstock for yeast oil production. We developed an efficient, single‐step enzymatic hydrolysis to generate Scenedesmus obtusiusculus hydrolysate (SH) without thermo-chemical pretreatment. With this eco-friendly process, glucose conversion efficiencies reached 90–100%. Cutaneotrichosporon oleaginosus, Cryptococcus curvatus and Rhodosporidium toruloides were cultivated on SH as sole nutrients source. Only C. oleaginosus was able to accumulate intracellular lipids, with a 35% (g lipid/g DCW) content and a yield of 3.6 g/L. Our results demonstrate the potential valorization of algal biomass into desired end-products such as biofuels.Graphic

A spatial total nitrogen budget for Great Britain

Understanding nutrient budgets makes it possible to predict where and by how much nutrients are accumulating in the environment. Previous studies have considered this problem for nitrogen (N) but have limited themselves to reactive N species (i.e. excluding N2) or have considered total N (including N2) but have been limited to regional or national scales. In this study the spatially-distributed total nitrogen (N) budget of Great Britain (GB) was estimated at a 1 km2 grid scale. The inputs of N considered were: biological N fixation; atmospheric deposition; food and feed transfer; and inorganic synthetic fertilizer. The outputs of N considered were: atmospheric emission; terrestrial denitrification; fluvial loss from the soil; gaseous emissions from sewage treatment plants; direct sewage flux loss; and groundwater loss. All pathways were considered over a number of years. This study constructed a spatially-differentiated total N budget for GB, which not only includes all major N pathways but also distributes the N budget to various land uses with a 1 km2 spatial resolution. The results showed that both sink and source areas exist across GB, although the majority of 1 km2 grid squares were identified as sources. Based on a mass balance model calculated for 2015, total N exhibited a net flux of a source of −1045 (±244) ktonnes N/year. The spatial N budget across GB ranged from −21 (±3) tonnes N/year to 34 (±5) tonnes N/year, where 66% of grid squares were source areas and 34% were sink areas. Urban and arable land use were predominantly source areas: 97% of total urban land use and 98.5% of total arable land use. 65% of grassland was a sink area. The total amount of N released to the environment by human activity in 2015 was −16.65 kg N/ca/yr.

Effect of mineral and organic fertilizers on potassium leaching in sandy loam soils

In a model experiment, a study was carried out on potassium leaching from the soil. Soil samples were taken from a protective strip of long-term experiment (established in 1981). Various fertilizers and their mixtures were introduced. The effect of organic matter on the capacity formation of the cationic soil exchange was considered. Significant differences were noted in the potassium migration during various fertilizers application. A significant role is played by liming of acidic soils. Potassium ions displace calcium ions more easily calcium ions from the soil absorption complex than aluminum. Therefore, when liming, leaching of potassium may be reduced. With the introduction of peat and peat-based fertilizers, the cation exchange capacity of the soil increased significantly. The leaching of potassium did not increase. Introduction of cattle manure without heat treatment significantly increased the migration of potassium in the soil and its leaching to the lower lying horizons. In general, the migration and leaching of substances in arable soil rely upon a number of factors and their combinations: natural and climatic factors, physical and chemical properties of the soil, the intensity of agricultural use of arable land, the type and composition of fertilizers, and the mineralogical composition of the soil. When growing plants on calcareous, fertilized with potash fertilizers soils, the loss of potassium does not exceed its leaching from non-fertilized soils.

Population Pressure on Land Resources in Nigeria: The Past and Projected Outcome

Aims: This paper assesses the population pressure on land resources in Nigeria: The past and projected outcome.
 Study Design: 1967 to 2068 time series data were used. The data sets were resorted to due to lack of complete national data.
 Place and Duration of Study: Past (1967-2017) and projected (2018-2068) five decades in Nigeria.
 Methodology: The time series data were obtained from the United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, National Population Commission, International Energy Statistics and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on population levels, renewable and non renewable resources in Nigeria. Others such as transformity were adapted from Odum (1996) and Odum (2000) for specific objectives. Data collected were analyzed using modified ecological footprint/carrying capacity approach, descriptive statistics and Z-statistics.
 Results: Results showed that the mean annual pressure on land resources in the past five decades (1967-2017) was 9.323 hectares per capita, while the projected pressure in the next five decades (2018-2068) was 213.178 hectares per capita. Results also showed that about 73.08 percent of the pressure per capita in the past five decades emanated from arable land consumption (6.813ha), while 75.91percent of the pressure is expected to emanate from fossil land in the next projected five decades due to crude oil and mineral resource exploration and exploitation. The carrying capacity of land resources in the past five decades was 6.4091 hectares per capita, while that of the projected five decades was 1.667 hectares per capita, an indication of ecological overshoot in both periods.
 Conclusion: Population pressures on land resources per capita in the past and projected five decades are higher than the carrying capacity of these resources in the country. Citizens lived and are expected to live unsustainably by depleting and degrading available land resources. Arable land consumption is the major contributor to the total pressure on land resources in the past five decades, while the consumption of fossil land due to exploration and exploitation of crude oil and mineral resources is expected to contribute majorly to the total pressure on land resources in the next five decades. Limiting affluence (per capita consumption of resources) and improving technology will not only ensure sustainable use of arable and fossil lands but place consumption within the limits of these resources for a sustainable future.

Discussing the regional-scale arable land use intensity and environmental risk triggered by the micro-scale rural households’ differentiation based on step-by-step evaluation—a case study of Shandong Province, China

Under the rapid social-economic development process, the income structure and arable land size among rural households are facing with increasing differentiation in China. How the regional-scale arable land use intensity and environmental risk triggered by the rural households' differentiation would be is a question that has not been widely discussed. To fill this research gap, this study established three step-by-step indexes, rural households' ER index, arable land use intensity (LUI), and environmental risk index (RI), to measure rural households' differentiation, regional arable land use intensity, and environmental risk, respectively. By gathering data from questionnaire investigation of 950 rural households in Shandong Province, China, the result showed a wide range of ER index (0.006-0.056), LUI (2748.90-6361.54), and RI (0.0966-0.5032). ER index based on farm income, nonfarm income, and arable land size among rural households showed different distributions among cities. Though huge differences of arable land use existed in different rural households, including land area, crop species, use of production materials (agro-machinery, fertilizer, pesticide), and attitude towards land transferring, the farmers' sense of belonging to farmland and their dependence on agriculture did not disappear in the process of rural households' differentiation. Moreover, as aggregated effects of rural households' behavior, differentiation of regional arable land use intensity and environmental risk appeared later and lower than the level of rural households' differentiation in the same city. Among this process, Laiwu, Weihai, and Yantai became "hotspots" with higher level of rural households' differentiation, arable land use intensity, and agro-environmental risk, respectively. This study pointed out a possibility of policy designation that prior controlling environmental risk of arable land use could be realized by identifying the rural households' differentiation on arable land use.

Decision-making on the use of arable land considering the factors of field crops yield

The solutions of methodological problems arising in connection with the managerial decisions adoption on the arable land use at the level of agricultural organization management are proposed. In place of the existing economic-mathematical toolkit used for this purpose, a nonlinear specification of the stochastic two-stage ED-model of optimal use of arable land is proposed, in which yield is a variable depending on the properties of the plot, fertilizer application, the use of seeds of higher reproduction. The source data of the model are organized so that it can be solved at any moment in the season in order to dispose the released area or to resow the field occupied by the unprofitable culture due to changes in market conditions, as well as in the event of damage or loss of crops.

Competitive ability of grain-forage varieties of spring vetch when grown in a mixture with rapeseed

The object of the research is to study the influence of the method of growing mown and grain-forage varieties of spring vetch in mixed crops with spring rapeseed on the seed yield and crop structure. Indicators that characterize productivity, intensity of arable land use, competitiveness and aggressiveness of crops are considered. Sowing spring vetch with a seeding rate of 1.3, 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4 million germinating seeds per hectare mixed with rapeseed leads to the formation of a grain crop that significantly exceeds the yield for single-species vetch sowing. Evaluation of Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) shows that when using vetch-rapeseed crops, the productivity of 1 ha of arable land increases from 1.38 to 1.98 times, while both the influence of varietal specificity and the seeding rate of the legume component is manifested. The efficiency of arable land use increases due to the interaction of both crops and increasing their competitiveness in the agrocenosis. In the conditions of the Middle Urals, high efficiency of vetch cultivation in mixed crops with rapeseed was revealed, and the influence of changes in the seeding rate on the yield of spring vetch seeds was established.

Land Access, Land Use Conflict and Smallholder Commercialization in Southwest Nigeria

This study examined the effect of land access and land use conflict on crop commercialization of smallholder farmers in Southwest Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 300 respondents and primary data were collected using structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Land Market Index (LMI), Land Use Conflict Index (LUCI), Crop Commercialization Index (CCI) and Tobit regression model. Majority (95.3%) of the farmers were male, natives (81.3%), and married (97.3%) with an average household size of 9 persons. Also, 69.3% had formal education and an average of 24 years of farming experience. Majority (78.0%) of the farmers had their total landholding through non-market means (inheritance, borrowed and gift), 14.0% acquired their total landholding through market means (purchase, rent and lease), and the mean LMI was 0.16(±0.35), showing farmers had access to 16% of farmlands through market participation. Farmers were coping with conflict on majority (90.4%) of their landholdings and 95.2% of conflicts could be attributed to competition for natural resources, especially farmer-herder clashes (94.2%). The mean LUCI was 0.91(±0.27), implying farmers experienced conflicts on 91% of farmlands. Mean commercialization of maize, cassava and yam were 84.19%(±16.0), 84.01%(±16.67) and 61.42%(±24.83), respectively, indicating that the crops driving commercialization were maize and cassava. Tobit regression results indicated that farm size, presence of local market and LMI significantly (P<0.01) increase commercialization. In conclusion, extent of land market participation significantly increases commercialization while land use conflict reduces crop commercialization, although not significantly. Policy efforts should be intensified with a view to facilitating land access by farming households through market participation, and also reducing or resolving all arable land use and related resource use conflict.

Effect of land use type on organic C, physical properties and stability indices of soils in Nanka area, southeast Nigeria

This study was conducted in Ifite-Nanka, Orumba North L.G.A. in Anambra state, Nigeria. The aim of the research was to evaluate the effect of three land use types on soil organic carbon (SOC) and physical properties and to determine the factors that contributed to the stability of the eroded sites. Horizon variability of these soil parameters was also determined. The result showed that Oil palm plantation had significantly (p < 0.05) highest SOC value (0.51 %) followed by arable cropping (0.46 %) and least in cashew plantation (0.28 %). Oil palm plan- tation had the highest value of water stable aggregate (WSA) (15.35) followed by arable farm land (11.67) and least was cashew plantation but aggregate stabil- ity (AS) was highest in arable cropping. Along the profile, SOC was highest in A horizon and so was the WSA and AS. Among SOC, clay and sand content used in determining the stability of the soil, SOC explained 64.9 % and 45.5 % varia- tions in AS and WSA respectively. Collapsing the structural and stability indi- ces, more of the structural indices were improved in arable land use while more of the stability indices were improved oil palm plantation plots.

INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE USE OF ARABLE LAND OF THE ALMATY REGION (ON THE EXAMPLE OF RAIYMBEK DISTRICT)

The article presents problems associated with enhancing the efficiency of arable land use in Raiymbek region of Almaty Oblast. The dynamics of changes in the area of agricultural land, including arable land, are shown based on statistical data for 2011-2018. As a result of the study, the main factors hindering the increase of soil fertility of arable lands and ways to prevent them were considered. The monitoring of rainfed and irrigated arable land was carried out in comparison with the statistical indicators of cultivated areas of rural regions. The number of land users and owners (private farms, jointstock companies, cooperatives and non-state enterprises) was also determined; the dynamics of arable land areas owned by them for 2013-2018 were shown. The analysis of the level of development of arable land identified the main reasons for the withdrawal of land from agricultural turnover. Moreover, the modern system of irrigation system development was studied; recommendations for monitoring and rational use of irrigated lands were developed. Priority areas of efficiency of arable land use, taking into account territorial features of the area, are defined. A map of the area’s agricultural land was developed using the GIS (ArcGIS) program.

Optimal allocation of direct and embodied arable land associated to urban economy: Understanding the options deriving from economic globalization

Land resources do not flow directly but can be allocated as “embodied land” in goods and services during economic globalization. The term “embodied arable land” can help link local land allocation strategies to the global and national supply chains and trade activities, and suggest new lens in optimizing arable land allocation. China is facing a serious arable land shortage, especially in municipal administrative areas. Based on the nested input-output analysis (Nested IOA), this work takes Shanghai as an example, exploring the allocation of direct and embodied arable land of an urban economy within the process of economic globalization. The amount of embodied arable land associated with Shanghai economy is 6.09 Mha, broken down into local arable land use (0.20 Mha), domestic inflows (3.20 Mha) and foreign inflows (2.69 Mha). This area supports local final demand (4.32 Mha), domestic outflows (1.24 Mha) and foreign outflows (0.53 Mha). Land-related imbalances emerge in the study, namely the economy’s demand versus the city’s size, the arable land demand versus supply, and embodied arable land inflows versus outflows. Regarding the role of the urban economy in allocation of global arable land under economic globalization, on the one hand, Shanghai has intensively involved with a large amount of embodied foreign arable land resources, and has been heavy dependent on foreign embodied arable land; On the other hand, there is still large potential for Shanghai to take the opportunity of economic globalization for an optimal allocation of direct and embodied arable land. Policy suggestions on taking the opportunity of economic globalization for an optimal allocation of direct and embodied arable land are put forward.

GIS as a tool for creating a global geographic information platform for digital transformation of agriculture

The article highlights the issues of digitabltalization of the economy of the Russian Federation, in particular, “Digital Agriculture” state program. The goals and objectives of digitalization of agriculture in Russia are discussed. The main point is made about the fact that it is impossible to create digital agriculture, which implies the introduction of “smart land use” bypassing the creation of “digital land management”. The analysis of “Digital Agriculture” project concept is given; its goals and directions are considered. “Digital land use and land management” direction has been studied in details. The authors of the article suggest introducing “Smart Agrolandscape” land information system (ZIS “Smart Agrolandscape”). The basis of this system includes a scheme of ecological and economic zoning, taking into account the suitability of agrolandscapes for arable land and fodder land use. The article presents the structure of the proposed system, its goals, objectives, purpose, and algorithm of work in the system. In conclusion, the authors of the article recommend the inclusion of ZIS “Smart Agrolandscape” into the Digital Land Use and Land Management project, due to the fact that the process of making recommendations on the efficient use of land in municipalities using this system is fully automated and does not require time, labour and financial costs; its use is maximally simplified and accessible to unlimited interested parties.

Long-term development of landscape openness and arable land use in an agricultural region of southern Sweden: the potential of REVEALS estimates using pollen records from wells

The twofold aim of this study was to investigate the long-term landscape development in an intensely cultivated region of south-western Scania, southern Sweden, and to discuss the potential of pollen records from wells for this purpose. Pollen records from 36 different wells from 12 archaeological sites were compiled. Based on 35 of the wells, ranging ca 800 cal bc–cal ad 1900, regional vegetation cover for seven different time-windows was quantified using the REVEALS model and a multiple small sites approach. According to the REVALS output, landscape openness was high and relatively constant during the last ca 2,500 years (open-land vegetation covered 90–97%), whereas arable land use expanded more gradually (cereal vegetation expanded from 9% cover 800–500 bc to 38% cover ad 1700–1900). This gradual increase in arable farming at the expense of grassland enabled an increase in food production within an already agriculturally colonized landscape. The REVEALS estimates based on pollen records from wells were in general accordance with earlier published REVEALS reconstructions based on lake sediments from neighbouring regions. A GIS analysis of arable land use in south-western Scania around ad 1800, based on old cadastral maps, gave similar results as the REVEALS reconstruction of cereal vegetation cover for the ad 1700–1900 time-window. It gives support to the conclusion that pollen records from wells may be used for REVEALS reconstructions of past vegetation cover.