Plot Borders Research Articles

Lindleys’ Map of Warsaw (1:2,500) as a tool for understanding the urban space preservation

The article focuses primarily on the 1:2,500 Lindleys’ map (1897–1901), one of the results of the cartographic work undertaken in connection with the development of the Warsaw sewage and waterways system. The map served as a basis for the edition of urban plots presented in the source. The obtained spatial data enabled comparing the stability of urban plot borders established at the turn of the twentieth century against current geodetic data.

Assessing the water conservation potential of optimized surface irrigation management in Northern Italy

The effects of climate change on water availability affect the performance of surface irrigation, which is the oldest and most common method of water application to row crops worldwide. A paradigm shift towards strategies aimed at increasing flexibility of irrigation scheduling and improving the design and management of field layouts and irrigation practices should be explored to promote water conservation at the farm scale. In this study, we investigate how by adopting a more flexible irrigation scheduling and optimizing irrigation management variables and field layout it is possible to increase the efficiency of border irrigation and thus achieve water conservations and improve quality of crop production. The analysis of the actual performance of border irrigation was carried out on two maize fields located in the Padana Plain (Northern Italy) in 2 years characterized by different rainfall patterns (i.e. 2021 and 2022). Based on this information, continuous monitoring of soil moisture status combined with the AquaCrop-OS agro-hydrological model was used to manage flexible irrigation scheduling over the experimental fields, while the optimization of irrigation management (flowrate per unit width and cutoff time) and field geometries (border width and slope) was studied using WinSRFR 5.1 USDA software, which was properly calibrated by measures of waterfront advance and recession. The results show that with flexible irrigation scheduling and proper irrigation management and field layout, significant water conservation can be achieved. Specifically, in the case study, seasonal water conservation of about 10% was obtained just by scheduling irrigation based on actual crop water needs in a very dry agricultural season, while water conservation reached up to 60% in a wetter season. On average, an additional 7% of water conservation was achieved over the agricultural season when the irrigation duration was correctly applied to each border of the experimental plots, while approximately 20% of water was conserved when the border width was correctly designed based on inflow availability. These results provide useful information for improving the management of border irrigation in practice, both under current conditions and in prospective of increasing freshwater scarcity in the future.

Evaluating French marigold as a border insectary plant for the enhancement of beneficial arthropods in sweet corn plantings

Non-crop flora is often used on arable lands to augment beneficial arthropods in cropping systems. Though there may be an enhancement in the abundance of beneficials, this increase may be limited to crop borders or may not result in greater herbivore suppression. French marigold (Tagetes patula L.) was evaluated as an insectary plant for sweet corn (Zea mays L.) and compared with monoculture sweet corn plots. Several families of parasitoids and predators representing multiple taxa were attracted to marigold plants and more parasitoids were captured on sticky card traps located at the margins of sweet corn plots bordered by marigold as opposed to margins of sweet corn plots without marigold strips. Still, similar numbers of predators and/or parasitoids were found on sweet corn plants and/or card traps within the border and interior rows of sweet corn plots in both treatments. Furthermore, the percentage of sweet corn ears with herbivore feeding damage was similar in marigold diversified and monoculture sweet corn plots. Though marigold attracted some beneficial insects, it may not result in enhanced biological control of herbivorous pests in sweet corn plantings.

Eco-friendly management of insect pests infesting cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

The present research work was carried out at Agronomy Farm, College of Agriculture, Dapoli during Kharif, 2016 on seven flowering plants (cosmos, cowpea, marigold, mustard, niger, sesamum and zinnia) on the borders of cucumber plots for conservation of natural enemies. The flowering plants niger, sesamum, mustard, cowpea and marigold on cucumber bunds proved to be best for reducing the red pumpkin beetle incidence. Niger, mustard, marigold and cowpea proved best for reducing flea beetle incidence. Niger, marigold, cowpea, mustard and sesamum proved best for reducing serpentine leaf miner incidence. Niger, cosmos, cowpea, sesamum and zinnia were found best for reducing the fruit fly infestation. The results of the present study will be helpful in the eco-friendly management of pests of cucurbits.

Plant\u2013rodent interactions after a heavy snowfall decrease plant regeneration and soil carbon emission in an old-growth forest

BackgroundClimate extremes are likely to become more common in the future and are expected to change ecosystem processes and functions. As important consumers of seeds in forests, rodents are likely to affect forest regeneration following an extreme weather event. In April 2015, we began a field experiment after an extreme snowfall event in January 2015 in a primary forest that was > 300 years old. The heavy snow broke many tree limbs, which presumably reduced the numbers of seeds produced. Two treatments (rodent exclusion and rodent access) were established in the forest, in which rodent exclusion were achieved by placing stainlessness nets around the plot borders. Plant abundance, plant species richness, soil properties, soil microbial community composition, basal and substrate-induced respiration were determined in December 2017.ResultsPlant abundance and species richness significantly increased, but soil microbial biomass decreased with rodent exclusion. Urease activity and soil basal respiration also significantly decreased with rodent exclusion. Most other soil properties, however, were unaffected by rodent exclusion. The relative effects of multiple predictors of basal respiration were mainly explained by the composition of the soil microbial community.ConclusionsAfter a heavy snowfall in an old-growth forest, exclusion of rodents increased plant regeneration and reduced microbial biomass and soil basal respiration. The main factor associated with the reduction in soil basal respiration was the change in the composition of the soil microbial community. These findings suggest that after a heavy snowfall, rodents may interfere with forest regeneration by directly reducing plant diversity and abundance but may enhance carbon retention by indirectly altering the soil microbial community.

Resistance, Resilience, and Recovery of Dryland Soil Bacterial Communities Across Multiple Disturbances.

Dryland ecosystems are sensitive to perturbations and generally slow to recover post disturbance. The microorganisms residing in dryland soils are especially important as they contribute to soil structure and nutrient cycling. Disturbance can have particularly strong effects on dryland soil structure and function, yet the natural resistance and recovery of the microbial components of dryland soils has not been well documented. In this study, the recovery of surface soil bacterial communities from multiple physical and environmental disturbances is assessed. Samples were collected from three field sites in the vicinity of Moab, UT, United States, 6 to 7 years after physical and climate disturbance manipulations had been terminated, allowing for the assessment of community recovery. Additionally, samples were collected in a transect that included three habitat patches: the canopy zone soils under the dominant shrubs, the interspace soils that are colonized by biological soil crusts, and edge soils at the plot borders. Field site and habitat patch were significant factors structuring the bacterial communities, illustrating that sites and habitats harbored unique soil microbiomes. Across the different sites and disturbance treatments, there was evidence of significant bacterial community recovery, as bacterial biomass and diversity were not significantly different than control plots. There was, however, a small number of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence variants that distinguished particular treatments, suggesting that legacy effects of the disturbances still remained. Taken together, these data suggest that dryland bacterial communities may possess a previously unappreciated potential to recover within years of the original disturbance.

Tree Crowns Cause Border Effects in Area-Based Biomass Estimations from Remote Sensing

The estimation of forest biomass by remote sensing is constrained by different uncertainties. An important source of uncertainty is the border effect, as tree crowns are not constrained by plot borders. Lidar remote sensing systems record the canopy height within a certain area, while the ground-truth is commonly the aboveground biomass of inventory trees geolocated at their stem positions. Hence, tree crowns reaching out of or into the observed area are contributing to the uncertainty in canopy-height–based biomass estimation. In this study, forest inventory data and simulations of a tropical rainforest’s canopy were used to quantify the amount of incoming and outgoing canopy volume and surface at different plot sizes (10, 20, 50, and 100 m). This was performed with a bottom-up approach entirely based on forest inventory data and allometric relationships, from which idealized lidar canopy heights were simulated by representing the forest canopy as a 3D voxel space. In this voxel space, the position of each voxel is known, and it is also known to which tree each voxel belongs and where the stem of this tree is located. This knowledge was used to analyze the role of incoming and outgoing crowns. The contribution of the border effects to the biomass estimation uncertainty was quantified for the case of small-footprint lidar (a simulated canopy height model, CHM) and large-footprint lidar (simulated waveforms with footprint sizes of 23 and 65 m, corresponding to the GEDI and ICESat GLAS sensors). A strong effect of spatial scale was found: e.g., for 20-m plots, on average, 16% of the CHM surface belonged to trees located outside of the plots, while for 100-m plots this incoming CHM fraction was only 3%. The border effects accounted for 40% of the biomass estimation uncertainty at the 20-m scale, but had no contribution at the 100-m scale. For GEDI- and GLAS-based biomass estimates, the contributions of border effects were 23% and 6%, respectively. This study presents a novel approach for disentangling the sources of uncertainty in the remote sensing of forest structures using virtual canopy modeling.

Towards zero-energy residential complexes in high-density conditions

Carbon dioxide is the largest component of the human footprint and one of the major components of all greenhouse gases. The expected increase in population will lead to growth in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The building industry has the highest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, buildings should become not only efficient consumers but also energy producers, not a simple task in dense cities. The paper describes the feasibility and limitations of near zero energy design in highly dense urban conditions. The study was carried out by examination and comparison of various density design, alternatives of an existing urban plot in the coastal climate zone of Israel. Increased dwelling units’ number leads to higher total energy use on the one hand and mutual shading of new high-rise residential buildings on the other. Preserving solar rights for PV systems installation become more complex. The relation between urban density and solar rights in urban design, energy consumption and energy generation within plot borders and their implications are presented and discussed in the paper.

Geographical distribution of quinoa crop wild relatives in the Peruvian Andes: a participatory mapping initiative

The Peruvian Andes are among the world’s most important centers of origin for genetic diversity of crops and plants. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) was domesticated in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andean region around Lake Titicaca. In situ conservation systems for quinoa germplasm and its wild relatives can still be found in the traditional systems of Peruvian farming communities. Quinoa crop wild relatives (CWRs), like the majority of CWRs of other agricultural species, are being affected by the considerable changes in the natural landscapes of the Andes. This article analyzes the presence and distribution of seven quinoa CWRs at the agroecosystem level and considers the social and environmental Andean contexts in which they are found. A qualitative research method based on participatory mapping in six local communities of the Puno region in Peru was applied to establish the presence and distribution of the species. We present the results that were confirmed with local actors on participatory GIS maps. Based on our analyses, we conclude that conservation programs should consider both permanent native meadows and cultivated land with their fallow cycles and plot borders. The diversity of the presence of quinoa CWRs is one result of the coexistence of these two land uses.

Retention of Swine Slurry Constituents in Soil and Crop Residue as Affected by Setback Distance

Setbacks are prescribed distances from surface waters within which manure application is not allowed. Little information is available concerning the retention of swine slurry constituents in soil and crop residue materials within setback areas. This study was conducted to measure the retention of selected constituents within a setback area following the upslope application of swine slurry and the introduction of simulated rainfall. The no-till cropland site had a slope gradient of 4.9% and a mean winter wheat residue cover of 7.73 Mg ha−1. Soil and vegetative samples were collected on 3.7 m wide by 23.2 m long plots with and without the addition of slurry. Slurry was added at the 0–4.9 m distance on selected plots, and simulated rainfall was then applied to the entire plot area during two separate events. Soil cores and vegetative samples were collected from each plot at distances of 2.44, 5.18, 7.92, 11.0, 14.0, 17.1, and 20.1 m from the upper plot border. The soil cores were separated into 0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm depth increments. Significant increases in soil concentrations of chloride, nitrate, phosphorus, and zinc were found both within and downslope from the slurry application area. Residue materials located both within and downslope from the slurry application area contained significantly increased concentrations of boron, calcium, copper, magnesium, sulfur, and zinc. When estimating the downslope transport of constituents contained in swine slurry, contributions from runoff, soil, and residue should all be considered.

CADASTRAL EFFECTS OF THE CONSOLIDATION PROCEDURE

Agricultural land consolidation schemes have been implemented in Poland with European Union financial support since 2004. The improvement of farm layout facilitates the achievement of economic benefits by farmers. However, methods for full evaluation of the economic viability of consolidation projects are still lacking. The aim of the paper was an attempt at determining the cadastral effects of consolidation proceedings received by land owners and county administrator offices as a result of sorting out plot borders and land registration as a consequence of the consolidation procedure. Conducted analyses show that, in entities characterised by the most fragmented area structure of farms, the overall non-productive benefits obtained jointly by land owners and county administrator offices, as a result of completing the consolidation procedure, can exceed the total cost of carrying out consolidation. However, where farms are characterised by a larger average surface area of agricultural plots subject to consolidation and where the shapes of such plots are regular, much smaller benefits should be expected. The proposed solutions require further improvement and adaptation to local conditions. Still, even these pioneer studies clearly demonstrate that cadastral effects of consolidation proceedings can prove important in the discussion over the economic viability of consolidation projects. It can encourage land owners and county administrator offices to take advantage of consolidation schemes, and constitute a strong argument in favour of continuing to finance consolidation projects from public funds.

The Main Tasks of Forensic Research Conducted in Trials on Land Disputes

The article provides a list and details the content of tasks solved within the forensic land survey and construction examinations assigned during trials on land disputes. Said tasks are classified by the type of conducted research. The work of a forensic expert in a case begins with the establishment of presence (absence) of the object of examination (the existential task). At first, the presence of title, legal, and other documents for the disputed land and buildings (structures) located on it is established. In the absence of certain documents necessary for the study, the expert takes measures to replace them. When conducting field studies, the expert establishes the existence of civil dispute’s objects on the ground. After that, the expert solves the identification task – establishes the identity of these objects with their documentary display. It also should be identified to which specific class, kind, type the object belongs (addressing classification task) – it allows verifying the category of land and the type of permitted use of the disputed land; recognizing the kind, type, and functional purpose of the construction objects located on it. The solution of the attributive task aims at identifying the properties of the objects under examination, which relate to its subject, the content of questions raised by the court before the expert. The solution of the situational task helps to establish the relative position of objects. The expert determines whether there is an intersection of the borders of adjacent plots, sets the distance from construction sites to the boundaries of the land. Particular attention is paid to structures that are sources of negative impact on the neighboring property. The position of the property regarding the zones with special conditions of the use is also to be determined. The purpose of addressing the diagnostic task is to ascertain the condition of the land in terms of possibility to use it for its intended purpose taking into account the type of permitted use and to determine the technical condition of construction objects located on the land plot. The cost task solution aims at determining the market, and other value of the land, the number of costs required to restore the land after being exposed to destructive natural and technogenic factors. The main direction of research when solving the transformative task is to ascertain the possibility and develop options for a real division of the land plot and the construction sites located on it between their owners following the conditions set by the court.

Planning territory as control element city development

Since January 1, 2017 the new definition - activities for complex and sustainable development of the territory was published in the Town-planning code of the Russian Federation. The authors consider features of preparation of documentation on planning of the territory which is carried out for ensuring its sustainable development, including for allocation of the elements of planning structure and also establishment of borders of the land plots and establishment of borders of zones of the planned seating in this territory of capital construction projects. In the paper the problems arising in process are allocated documents preparation on planning the territory of city districts.

Use of filbertworm (Cydia latiferreana) mating disruption within a hazelnut IPM program

The management of filbertworm, Cydia latiferreana (Walsingham) using synthetically formulated pheromones for mating disruption was studied as an alternative to grower standard full-cover insecticide applications in the McKenzie River Valley of Oregon during 2012–2013. The data indicate a significant reduction of filbertworm caught in pheromone-baited traps in plots subject to mating disruption compared to grower standard plots during both experimental seasons. Supplemental insecticide applications were applied to the borders of mating disruption plots, and these plots received 80% less pesticide (9.6 of 48 ha sprayed) compared to grower standard plots. There were no differences in crop damage between mating disruption plots and grower standard plots. Over the whole experimental period, counts of filbert aphid, Myzocallis coryli (Goeze), a secondary pest of hazelnuts, were 1.27–1.5 times higher in grower standard plots compared to mating disruption plots and percent parasitism of M. coryli by the parasitoid Trioxys pallidus (Haliday) was 1.3 times greater in mating disruption plots compared to grower standard plots. This indicates that mating disruption may have the additional benefit of conserving natural enemies in the orchard due to reduced levels of full cover broad-spectrum insecticide use. The average cost of mating disruption ($136.41 ha-1) is comparable to that of chemical management of filbertworm ($129.68 ha-1). Together these data suggest that maing disruption of filbertworm in conjunction with appropriately timed border sprays can be used as a viable alternative to grower standard filbertworm management using full-cover insecticide applications.

Evaluation of Heracleum sosnowskyi Frost Resistance after Snow Cover Removal in Early Spring

The development of environmentally safe and cost-effective methods for controlling invasive species Sosnowsky’s hogweed (Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden.) is an urgent issue for the European part of Russia. The article presents findings of an experiment on the effect of snow cover removal from the areas occupied by H. sosnowskyi in the early spring period (the beginning of March 2018) in the vicinity of the city of Syktyvkar (Komi Republic, Russia). The snow depth reached 100 cm on the intact plots; the sum of below-zero air temperatures measured at 6 a.m. constituted –448°C, with a minimum of –29.0°C during the experiment. The number of H. sosnowskyi plants of all age groups at the experimental plots (with removed snow cover) was shown to be significantly decreased. The median seedling density (pcs. per square meter) was equal to zero. Most of the surviving plants were located along the sides and in the corners of experimental plots. This can be explained by the higher temperature of soil on the borders of plots with an intact snow cover. The results of the experiment may be used for development of invasive plant eradication technology by removal of the snow cover. This technology can be suitable for kindergartens, schools, hospitals, and water protection zones, where the use of chemical methods of plant control is limited or prohibited. The obtained data set with respect to H. sosnowskyi monitoring is available in the repository of Zenodo.

Modeling potential tree belt functions in rural landscapes using a new GIS tool

The increasing human pressure on the environment requires effective protection activities. One way to stop the degradation of natural resources is the presence of woody vegetation networks, mainly linear in character, called linear woody features, greenways or tree belts. These objects, thanks to the many natural and economic functions they serve, enable the realization of sustainable development policy. To properly design a greenway network, the natural conditions and degree of environmental degradation in a given area must first be evaluated. Based on these data, it is possible to determine appropriate afforestation needs.To evaluate the ability of a given area to meet the requirements of greenway functions, we propose a new computer modeling system – a tree belt modeling (TBM). TBM defines the availability of tree belt functions in the planned network and is one of preparation stages in the design of an optimal greenway structure. In this work, to analyze the studied area potential, application of a cadastral dataset was proposed. Thanks to this approach, the obtained results may be related to specific plot borders, which is optimal for greenway construction. To automatize the process of analysis, the TBM was implemented into an ArcGIS toolbox. The result of using this toolbox is a tree belt functions geodatabase. This database contains information about the available functions in the analyzed lines that are potential sites for afforestation. This solution, both at the methodological and technological levels, may significantly increase the effectiveness of greenway planning and thus contribute to more effective activities for sustainable development.

Иск об установлении границ земельного участка

Иск об установлении границ земельного участка

Об установлении границ зон радиоактивного загрязнения в результате крупных радиационных аварий. Сообщение II. Принципиальный подход

Purpose: Development of methods of establishing the borders of radioactive contamination caused by major radiation accidents.
 Material and Methods: Approaches for establishing Radioactive Contamination Zones (RCZ) and defining their borders are proposed based on the notion of a ‘RCZ’s accounting unit’. An area representing a generalized land plot, settlement, forestry and/or water body (i.e. minimum registration units of: the State Cadastre, the Administrative-Territorial Classifiers, the State Forest Registry, and the State Water Register) is proposed to be taken as the RCZ’s accounting unit. 
 Results: The basic formal procedure provides for identification of the RCZ status for each contaminated area based on the condition of intervention level (criterion) excess by the relevant radiation-situation index. When developing a regulatory document on RCZ establishment, a list of land plots and settlements is drawn up with indication of the RCZ status (rank), the plot’s category and its unique number. Using information about the plot borders, a list of coordinates of characteristic points located at RCZ borders ranked by the RCZ status is made. Such a list may constitute an integral part of the relevant regulatory-and-legal document that establishes RCZ borders. 
 Conclusions: Taking of a land plot, settlement, forestry or water body as the ‘RCZ’s accounting unit’ enables RCZ’s establishment and determination of their borders using simple formal procedures and a specified number of indices. The RCZs can be presented as cumulative lists of cadastral plots and settlements, whereas their boundaries via the relevant descriptions of boundaries of the plots having different RCZ status.

Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

The scholarly debate around ‘global land grabbing’ is advancing theoretically, methodologically and empirically. This study contributes to these ongoing efforts by investigating a set of ‘small-scale land acquisitions’ in the context of a recent boom in banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. In relation to the actors, scales and processes involved, the banana acquisitions differ from the state-granted large-scale land acquisitions dominating the literature on ‘land grabbing’ in Laos. Starting from the experience of a rural village in Laos, where two Chinese banana investors leased land on six-year contracts in 2010, we trace the strategies employed by the investors to gain access to the land, the experience of the villagers in the process and the outcome of the acquisitions in terms of land use change. The findings reveal how the investors established networks of local middlemen who facilitate negotiations over land directly at the village level, thus enabling them to circumvent any formal involvement of government authorities. The informal acquisition process also ensured a rapid and successful implementation of the plantations with consequent land use change, including the destruction of field structures, plot borders and irrigation systems, as well as erosion and heavy chemical input. Drawing upon the literature on ‘powers of exclusion’ and ‘control grabbing’, the paper argues that despite the apparent small-scale and short-term nature of these leases, the forceful acquisition strategies pursued by the investors coupled with the rapid land use conversion and associated cultivation practices results in strong and longer-term alienation of land from the local communities involved. This implies the need to take these more informal forms of land acquisitions into account when designing policies to address the negative implications of land grabbing in Laos and elsewhere.

Edge-Tree Correction for Predicting Forest Inventory Attributes Using Area-Based Approach With Airborne Laser Scanning

We describe a novel method to improve the correspondence between field and airborne laser scanning (ALS) measurements in an area-based approach (ABA) forest inventory framework. An established practice in forest inventory is that trees with boles falling within a fixed border field measurement plot are considered “in” trees; yet their crowns may extend beyond the plot border. Likewise, a tree bole may fall outside of a plot, but its crown may extend into a plot. Typical ABA approaches do not recognize these discrepancies between the ALS data extracted for a given plot and the corresponding field measurements. In the proposed solution, enhanced ABA (EABA), predicted tree positions, and crown shapes are used to adjust plot and grid cell boundaries and how ALS metrics are computed. The idea is to append crowns of “in” trees to a plot and cut down “out” trees, then EABA continues in the traditional fashion as ABA. The EABA method requires higher density ALS data than ABA because improvement is obtained by means of detecting individual trees. When compared to typical ABA, the proposed EABA method decreased the error rate (RMSE) of stem volume prediction from 23.16% to 19.11% with $127\;{{\rm m}^2}$ plots and from 19.08% to 16.95% with $254\;{{\rm m}^2}$ plots. The greatest improvements were obtained for plots with the largest residuals.