Comprehensive Land Research Articles

Postsocialist informality: The making of owners, squatters and state rule in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (1989–1993)

In this paper, I analyze struggles over land in the capital city of Phnom Penh in the course of Cambodia's postsocialist transition. In 1989 Cambodia's socialist regime adopted a set of liberal reforms including comprehensive land reform. While land reform was a source of authority for the regime, the rapidity and unevenness of the land reform process created deep divisions within its state apparatus itself. Drawing on land disputes filed with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia in 1992 and 1993, I document shifting conditions of ownership and authority in the city. I first discuss the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia land dispute files in general, before analyzing two, group disputes over formerly state lands in detail. Struggles over formerly state lands were particularly contentious, as who could claim, govern, and allocate these lands was an open question in the transitional period. I argue that these struggles were integral to the remaking of state rule. I use the term “postsocialist informality” to foreground this particular historical moment of state–society reconfiguration, while also underscoring the political constitution of the categories of public and private, owner and squatter, themselves.

Application of Strategic Environmental Assessment as a Land Use Planning Tool in India : A Case of Gurgaon-Manesar Development Plan, Haryana, India

Lack of comprehensive land use planning in India has posed significant challenges in achieving more optimal utilisation of land resources. This has also limited the opportunities for developing land use plans that adequately reflect the rationale and objectives of planning. This calls for developing a comprehensive and holistic approach to review the compatibility of actions associated with development plans involving multiple sectors with the ground realities. This paper is an attempt to apply strategic environmental assessment (SEA) as a promising tool to identify environmental risks and deficiencies in the land use planning process in India. The paper draws on the experience of applying SEA to Gurgaon-Manesar Development Plan for 2031 and elaborates on the merits and usefulness of adopting SEA in land use planning in the Indian context.

Development of an integrated fisheries co-management framework for new and emerging commercial fisheries in the Canadian Beaufort Sea

The Canadian Beaufort Sea is one of the last places on Earth that has not experienced large-scale commercial fisheries. The aboriginal people of the western Canadian Arctic, the Inuvialuit, have become increasingly concerned about the potential effects of large-scale commercial operations on key subsistence species of fish and marine mammals and the marine ecosystem upon which they depend. A 1984 comprehensive land settlement agreement (treaty) between Canada and the Inuvialuit established a co-management regime for limited aspects of fish and marine mammal resource management, and gave the Inuvialuit rights to subsistence fisheries and existing commercial fisheries but no preference for new commercial fisheries. The Fisheries Joint Management Committee (the fisheries co-management body), the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Inuvialuit Game Council have developed an integrated fisheries management framework agreement for the review and assessment of any proposed commercial fisheries within the Canadian Beaufort Sea. The agreement provides clarity and transparency for decision making and strengthens the protection of fish stocks. The development of the framework depended upon a history of cooperation between the parties and a bridging initiative by the Fisheries Joint Management Committee and an NGO that brought together the Inuvialuit and the government.

Effects of Land Use Change on Phosphorus Levels in Surface Waters—a Case Study of a Watershed Strongly Influenced by Agriculture

Phosphorus (P) loss from diffuse sources remains as the main cause of freshwater eutrophication in agricultural regions. The amount of land used for different agricultural practices may be a strong explanatory factor for the P loading to runoff waters. A prerequisite is that the effect of changes in land use on P levels in surface waters needs to be ascertained and quantified. In this study, a comprehensive approach has been developed to explore the environmental consequences of P levels in receiving water with corresponding land use change in a heavily agriculturally influenced watershed. A coupled simulation using Dyna-CLUE model with grey relational analysis (GRA) and grey model GM (1,1) model was employed to stimulate spatial distribution and area demand. Besides, a comprehensive land use index with degree of P saturation (DPS%) as weight coefficient was developed to examine the statistical and spatial relationships of land use and P levels in receiving waters on regional watershed. Moreover, in order to evaluate the practical impact of land use change on water quality, a planned emigration and watershed ecological reconstruction planning were designed into the scenarios. The potential of changes in land use as an abatement action to curb eutrophication was evaluated by modelling the effect of issued emigration and ecological restoration programs in the local watershed of the Yuqiao water reservoir in northeastern China. Kappa indexes above 0.85 for the validation period verify that the coupled land use change model is able to simulate the effect of the abatement actions on land use. Scenario predictions reveals that local emigration and a comprehensive ecological restoration project as abatement actions could significantly decrease contents of P in receiving surface waters: Relative to year 2012, total P and orthophosphate could be reduced by 36 and 45 %, respectively, by the end of year 2018. This modelling approach can, with moderate modifications, also be adapted to other watersheds. The model developed in this study can thus be used by environmental managers as a tool to identify risk for P loss from diffuse sources within a watershed and assist policy makers to assess the effect on P losses by implementing abatement actions that changes land use.

Canada’s Strategy of Dispossession: Aboriginal Land and Rights Cessions in Comprehensive Land Claims

AbstractThis paper offers a sociological interpretation of the Canadian Comprehensive Land Claims (CLC) process, arguing that CLC is a strategy used by the state to dispossess Aboriginal peoples. CLC does this through leveraging the cession of Aboriginal rights and the relinquishing of indigenous lands. Drawing upon the ongoing Innu Nation Tshash Petapen (‘New Dawn’) agreement, I examine four related aspects of the process and the agreement which operate to dispossess the Innu: (1) the undemocratic social and political contexts in which agreement is elicited, (2) the depletion of Aboriginal rights of the indigenous party, (3) the depletion of indigenous lands, and (4) the creation of wealth and debt. Finally, I will interpret these processes as building on social changes inflicted on the Innu. These are characterized by imposed law and the state of exception.

The Effect of Rural Comprehensive Food Planting Land Consolidation on the Ecological Landscape in Hilly and Mountainous

The effect of comprehensive food planting land consolidation on the regional ecological landscape is multifaceted. In this study, by comprehensive food planting land consolidation project in DaLu town to be example, comment on change of ecological environment and the rural landscape in research area. Shown that: (1) through rural comprehensive land consolidation, ecological environmental levels on the rise in the study area. (2) After the consolidation, the total number of plaques reduces 837, average shape index decreased to 1.98. Indicate the originally bent changeable plaques boundaries have become straight, conducive to mechanized farming; Also the arable land from 63.75% (3) After the consolidation, landscape fragmentation reduces 0.0008, aggregation indices increased 0.03, show through rural comprehensive land consolidation, making the overall pattern tends to be simple. But while this landscape pattern reduces species diversity and may accelerate the spread of pests and diseases. In summary, through rural comprehensive land consolidation, help to improve the productivity of the land, raise the level of regional ecological environment. At the same time, the effects of which on regional landscape ecological Positive and negative effects.

Sea Level Change in the Western James Bay Region of Subarctic Ontario: Emergent Land and Implications for Treaty No. 9

<p class="Pa5">In 1905 and 1906, the Cree of the southwestern James Bay region signed Treaty No. 9 whereby they relinquished to the Canadian government their claim to the lands south of the Albany River (the northern boundary of the province of Ontario at the time). The official text of Treaty No. 9 made no mention of land submerged below water cover, and thus the Cree did not relinquish such regions at that time. By contrast, the Cree of the northwestern James Bay and southwestern Hudson Bay region who signed the 1929–30 Adhesions to Treaty No. 9 relinquished their claims to “land covered by water” for the area bounded on the south by the northerly limit of Treaty No. 9, as this clause was specifically included in the text of the adhesion. The issue of “land covered by water” is significant because the western James Bay region has been, and will continue to be, subject to sea level changes associated with ongoing adjustments due to the last ice age and modern global warming signals. In the absence of detailed maps, we used models of these processes, constrained by available geophysical and geodetic data sets, to retrodict shoreline changes and the rate of land emergence over the last two centuries within the boundaries specified by Treaty No. 9. We also project shoreline migration to the end of the 21st century within the same region. The rate of land emergence since 1905 in the area south of the Albany River is estimated as ~3.0 km<sup>2</sup>/yr. Over the next century, land will continue to emerge in this region at a mean rate of ~1.4 km<sup>2</sup>/yr. This emergent land should be a subject of consideration within any comprehensive land claim put forward by the Cree; in this regard, it will be interesting to see how the Canadian judicial system and the Comprehensive Claims Branch handle the novel issue of emergent land.</p>

Land Surface Processes Simulation Over Thar Desert in Northwest India

Land surface processes in data scarce arid northwestern India and their influence on the regional climate including monsoon are now gaining enhanced scientific attention. In this work the seasonal variation of land surface parameters and surface-energy flux components over Lasiurus sindicus grassland system in Thar Desert, western India were simulated using the mesoscale WRF model. The data on surface fluxes from a micrometeorological station, and basic surface level weather data from the Central Arid Zone Research Institute’s experimental field station (26o59′41″N; 71o29′10″E), Jaisalmer, were used for comparison. Simulations were made for typical fair weather days in three seasons [12–14 January (peak winter); 29–31 May (peak summer), 19–21 August (monsoon)] during 2012. Sensitivity experiments conducted using a 5-layer soil thermal diffusion (5TD) scheme and a comprehensive land surface physics scheme (Noah) revealed the 5TD scheme gives large biases in surface fluxes and other land surface parameters. Simulations show large variations in surface fluxes and meteorological parameters in different seasons with high friction velocities, sensible heat fluxes, deep boundary layers in summer and monsoon season as compared to winter. The shortwave radiation is underestimated during the monsoon season, and is overestimated in winter and summer. In general, the model simulated a cold bias in soil temperature in summer and monsoon season and a warm bias in winter; the simulated surface fluxes and air temperature followed these trends. These biases could be due to a negative bias in net radiation resulting from a high bias in downward shortwave radiation in various seasons. The Noah LSM simulated various parameters more realistically in all seasons than the 5TD soil scheme due to inclusion of explicit vegetation processes in the former. The differences in the simulated fluxes with the two LSMs are small in winter and large in summer. The deep mixed layers are distributed in the northeastern parts in summer, northern areas in southwest monsoon and in southwestern parts during winter seasons and associated with the land-cover and vegetation dynamics. Our results present a baseline simulation study in this data scarce arid region.

The impacts of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines: Implications to land use planning

Recent extreme weather events have brought devastating impacts on people’s lives and infrastructure in many parts of the world. The scale of the impact of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines revealed a high degree of vulnerability and exposure of coastal communities to extreme events in a region that is regularly hit by tropical cyclones. This paper is based on initial assessment of the immediate impacts of Typhoon Haiyan. It was conducted in the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc and in the municipality of Palo, which were heavily affected by the impacts of Haiyan. Vulnerability to typhoon-related hazards and impacts of climate change is considered to be one of the major issues affecting land use in these areas. This paper analyzed existing legal framework and how climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) can be incorporated in policies and plans such as the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). It also examined the roles and responsibilities of both central and local governments in the Philippines in terms of land use planning and disaster mitigation strategies and their implications towards the future development of climate resilient communities, particularly in the context of a contentious resettlement process as a result of the application of a hazard-based zoning process. The vulnerability of the Philippines to climate change and natural disasters calls for risk reduction measures that decrease the exposure through land use planning, hazard-based zoning, climate resilient building codes and retrofitting as well as innovative financial incentives. These CCA and DRR measures should be mainstreamed into the local government plans through the CLUP and followed by an effective implementation. However, a key challenge to local decision-makers in these Typhoon Haiyan-affected areas is how to incorporate a range of possible vulnerabilities driven by changing landscape, infrastructure, and socioeconomic conditions in land use planning.

Land Consolidations in Slovakia, Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

Abstract This article describes the process of land consolidations in Slovakia. Fundamental goals of land consolidation are defined in the paper. Land ownership is briefly described with emphasis on historical development. Functional reorganisation of the territory is described in detail. The authors state that this objective is in land consolidation designs, often neglected and landscaping is shifted into the background. Preference is given to activities associated with ownership as evidenced by the common tendency to award contracts for simple land consolidation. The numbers of awarded contracts for comprehensive and simple landscape consolidations from 1990 to the present were evaluated. Reasons for the observed stagnation of comprehensive land consolidation projects have been mentioned. Causes have been found and the problem was displayed from various positions. Finally, possible solutions have been found in order to stimulate discussion on the topic: why there is stagnation in designing of land consolidations in Slovakia.

Key challenges and outcomes of piloting the STDM in the Caribbean

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) was assisted by the Australian government's aid agency, AusAID, with technical input from UNHabitat and the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, in the developing of regional land policy guidelines that will address the most critical land issues being faced by the countries. A key aspect of this project was to evaluate pro-poor land tools that would provide comprehensive land administration and thus facilitate the equitable use and allocation of the limited land resource in the sub-region. This initiative provided for and included an opportunity for introducing the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) to support economic, social or environmental land policy goals. The individual member states of the OECS committed to participate in the project notwithstanding existing institutional shortcomings that may affect implementation.This paper reviews the major characteristics in land administration shared by most of the OECS countries that will affect the implementation of the STDM which is based on the LADM international standard ISO 19152:2012. It then presents a proposed STDM profile that will address the land issues common to most of the OECS states. Lastly, it presents the preliminary results of pilot testing of an implementation of the STDM, software version 0.9.5, developed by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN). The pilot was conducted in Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The primary aim was to examine the practical and social implications of implementing the recording process for informal tenures using the STDM software developed by the GLTN. It was found that some of the technical process went smoothly but middle and lower middle income groups are resistant to the idea of recognising informality because they perceive difficulties in differentiating between legitimate land tenure rights and illegal occupation and use, and because they anticipate impacts on their own legal tenure.

La armonización territorial: su incorporación en la planificación y gestión administrativa mediante la gestión del riesgo

A lo largo del artículo emergen varios elementos con los cuales se puede establecer la incidencia de las políticas públicas en las tomas de decisión en el territorio, sobre todo en la utilización de tres instrumentos de planificación y de gestión territorial como el Plan de Desarrollo (PD), el Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial (POT) y los Planes de Manejo Integral de Cuencas Hidrográficas (Pomca), estructurados por medio de las Unidades de Planificación y de Gestión Territorial (UPGT). Estos permiten articular el desarrollo de programas y proyectos en un territorio asociado en municipios y departamentos, con el motivo de invertir y localizar infraestructuras que reduzcan la vulnerabilidad y amenaza en áreas que han sido objeto de deslizamientos e inundaciones e intervenidas por el Gobierno nacional mediante la Ley 1523 de 2012 de Gestión del Riesgo y complementadas por otras normas que fortalecen la dimensión ambiental, social, económica y administrativa que coadyuvan a un ordenamiento territorial más integral. La participación de actores y sectores públicos y privados y la sociedad civil son coordinados con la puesta en marcha de los Comités de Integración Territorial (CIT), que jalonan los procesos administrativos alrededor del riesgo y de los desastres naturales asociados, en muchos casos, con las actividades humanas

Antimonopoly in American Public Land Law

Public land law is often thought to be divided into historical eras like the Disposition Era, the Reservation Era, and the Modern Era. We think an overarching theme throughout all eras is antimonopoly. Since the Founding, and continuing for over two-and-a-quarter centuries into the 21st century, antimonopoly policy has permeated public land law. In this article we show the persistence of antimonopoly sentiment throughout the public land history, from the Confederation Congress to Jacksonian America to the Progressive Conservation Era and into the modern era. Antimonopoly policy led to widespread ownership of American land, perhaps America’s chief distinction from England and Europe. The policy fostered acreage limits in federal grants, a preference for bona fide settlers, and eventually an evolution from land sales to free land under the Homestead Act. Antimonopoly principles were also present in public timber, mining, and rangeland policies from the earliest days. In the Progressive Conservation Era antimonopoly fueled a public land withdrawal and reservation movement, landmark leasing and licensing programs that maintained public control over fuel minerals and waterways, and the first explicit federal policy concern over future generations. The modern era has seen the codification of multiple use management, the enactment of comprehensive land planning statutes, and the rise of multi-species concerns, among other antimonopoly policies. Although antimonopoly policies seem to be under some threat from recent Congresses, a turn toward monopoly would amount to a renunciation of centuries of public land policy. This history strongly counsels against such these proposals as, however imperfectly realized on-the-ground, antimonopoly has been always been cardinal feature of public land law and policy and is deeply embedded in the nation’s identity as a reflection of republican values of individualism and equal opportunity.

Negotiating Aboriginal Self-Government Agreements in Canada: An Analysis of the Inuvialuit Experience

AbstractIn 1973, the federal government of Canada invited Aboriginal groups to enter into comprehensive land claims negotiations to settle outstanding claims not addressed by historical treaties. After eight years of negotiations, the Inuvialuit became the second group in Canada to sign a modern treaty, doing so in 1984. Missing from that agreement, however, was a self-government chapter, which was not open to negotiation at that time. In 1996, the Inuvialuit initiated self-government negotiations with the Crown but have yet to conclude an agreement despite increased institutional capacity. What explains this puzzle? Drawing upon the existing literature on land claims negotiations, Aboriginal self-government and historical institutionalism, we analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to argue that a number of institutional and non-institutional factors have prevented the Inuvialuit from successfully completing self-government negotiations with the Crown.

Protecting Agricultural Land in Developing Countries: A Case Study from Lahore, Pakistan

Agricultural land needs to be protected for food production. Our objective is to provide a decision support for protecting the agricultural land in Lahore, Pakistan. To do so, first we classified the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) from Landsat images for the years 2009 and 2012. Second, we performed Markov chain analysis to simulate the LULC change over time. The resultant probability of LULC inter conversion was then combined with the Cellular Automata (CA). Third, the spatio-temporal patterns of LULC change from CA-Markov were integrated with the land fitness map obtained through the analysis of soil chemical properties. We observed a gradual increase in built-up land and a decrease in agricultural land from years 2009 to 2012, with an increase of 18.8% to 60.3% in the built- up land, and a decrease of 43.5% to 35.9% in the agricultural land. The Markov-CA analysis further predicted a significant (p = 0.69) LULC change from year 2012 to year 2015, with an increase of 2% in built-up land, and a decrease of 1.3% in agricultural land. The resultant map shows zones to be predicted on priority bases, which can be useful in making comprehensive land policies to protect agricultural land and to secure food in developing countries.

Application of Geographic Information Systems to Assessing the Dynamics of Slum and Land Use Changes in Urban Core of Akure, Nigeria

Ancient city centres are characterised by inadequately planned/unplanned land use and unsecured tenure system, leading overtime to the development of different forms and grades of slum in and around urban core area. This research studied the slum in the urban core of Akure, Nigeria deploying tools of Geographic Information System for comprehensive analysis of slum peculiarity for guiding action. Descriptive and analytical methods based on field survey and extraction of information from satellite images were utilized. The study examined the existing situation in the study area in terms of its housing system, conditions of infrastructure, socio-economic status of respondents and adequacy of livelihood with respect to slum indicators as defined by UN-Habitat (2003). The study revealed specific areas of higher degree of slum conditions and a representation of level of changes in land uses. Another finding shows high rate of conversion, mainly from residential land uses to other uses as the major characteristic of land use changes in the area. Poverty has constituted a dominant factor for continued existence of slum conditions due to paucity of employment opportunities. The study further discovered diverse manifestations of slums within a locality attributed to factors such as strong family linkages, structure of property ownership and high level of economic dependency. Economic empowerment through aids and supports for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), development of market network strategy for Akure and development of a comprehensive land use plan that would ensure sustainable growth of the city core area are canvassed.

Customary land allocation, urbanization and land use planning in Ghana: Implications for food systems in the Wa Municipality

Food insecurity remains persistent in the Global South due to constraints in food production capacities and intricate land tenure systems that stifle investment in agriculture. In the urbanized regions, uncontrolled urbanization and non-compliant land use systems have further worsened the potentials for urban food production. This research is based on a case study of the Wa Municipality in order to assess the influences of customary land allocation and peri-urbanization on land use planning and foods systems in Ghana using explorative and narrative research approaches. The study identified that customary stakeholders responsible for allocating such lands in the Wa Municipality were indiscriminately converting large tracts of hitherto agricultural lands to urban land uses. Statutorily prepared land use plans are hardly enforced and the planning priorities are on residential and commercial land uses that command higher land values to the detriment of agricultural lands. Weak institutional linkages also characterize the mandated planning and land administration institutions, with a planning system that is reactive rather than proactive in addressing development control challenges across the country. There is the need for planning authorities to adopt participatory land uses planning together with customary landholders and educating them on the essence of comprehensive land use planning approaches. Based on the findings, local governments need to partner landowners to identify and reserve high potential agricultural land for sustainable urban food production.

A Review Of Road‒Related Soil Erosion: An Assessment Of Causes, Evaluation Techniques And Available Control Measures

<p>Road construction has increased significantly worldwide in the last decades to meet the demands of the increasing human population and this has led to serious soil erosion problems, the bulk of which is unaccounted for, especially in the developing world. For comprehensive land management decisions and monitoring strategies, a review of work that has been done to assess soil erosion due to roads is critical. This article, therefore, reviews the causes of road‒related soil erosion, assessment methods and available control measures. Specifically, work provides an overview of (i) the linkages between roads and soil erosion; (ii) measurement and prediction of road‒related erosion; and (iii) erosion control and rehabilitation techniques. Literature shows that road construction results in hill-slope profile modification; removal of vegetation cover; as well as the formation of steep slopes that are prone to severe erosion. Furthermore, there is a variety of erosion control measures for controlling road‒related erosion although no study has demonstrated the method that is cost efficient and operational across different landscapes. We are of the view that this study provides guidance in future research on road‒related soil erosion across the developing world were sophisticated monitoring techniques are limited due to resource scarcity for assessing large areas.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Resumen</strong></p>La construcción de carreteras se ha incrementado ampliamente en todo el mundo durante las últimas décadas para cumplir con las demandas de la creciente población humana, lo que ha llevado a serios problemas de erosión de suelos, muchos de los cuales no se previeron, especialmente, en los países en desarrollo. Sobre las decisiones y supervisión de estrategias de un manejo completo del terreno se realizó una revisión al crítico trabajo que se ha hecho para medir la erosión en suelos causados por las carreteras. Por esta razón, este artículo revisa las causas de la erosion relacionada con la construcción de rutas y evalúa los métodos y medidas de control disponibles. Específicamente, este trabajo ofrece una revisión de (a) las relaciones entre las carreteras y la erosión de los suelos; (b) la medida y la predicción de la erosión vinculada a las carreteras, y (c) las técnicas de control de erosión y rehabilitación. La literature muestra que la construcción de carreteras produce modificaciones en el perfil inclinación, remueve la vegetación superficial y aumenta la inclinación en pendientes propensas a erosión severa. Además, existen varias medidas para controlar la erosión causada por la construcción de carreteras, a pesar de que ningún estudio ha demostrado el método que sea más eficiente y operacional para diferentes paisajes. Este estudio guía futuras investigaciones en la erosion causada por la construcción de caminos en los países en desarrollo donde las técnicas de supervisión sofísticas para la evaluación de grandes áreas son limitadas debido a la escasez de recursos.

Towards observation-based gridded runoff estimates for Europe

Abstract. Terrestrial water variables are the key to understanding ecosystem processes, feed back on weather and climate, and are a prerequisite for human activities. To provide context for local investigations and to better understand phenomena that only emerge at large spatial scales, reliable information on continental-scale freshwater dynamics is necessary. To date streamflow is among the best-observed variables of terrestrial water systems. However, observation networks have a limited station density and often incomplete temporal coverage, limiting investigations to locations and times with observations. This paper presents a methodology to estimate continental-scale runoff on a 0.5° spatial grid with monthly resolution. The methodology is based on statistical upscaling of observed streamflow from small catchments in Europe and exploits readily available gridded atmospheric forcing data combined with the capability of machine learning techniques. The resulting runoff estimates are validated against (1) runoff from small catchments that were not used for model training, (2) river discharge from nine continental-scale river basins and (3) independent estimates of long-term mean evapotranspiration at the pan-European scale. In addition it is shown that the produced gridded runoff compares on average better to observations than a multi-model ensemble of comprehensive land surface models (LSMs), making it an ideal candidate for model evaluation and model development. In particular, the presented machine learning approach may help determining which factors are most relevant for an efficient modelling of runoff at regional scales. Finally, the resulting data product is used to derive a comprehensive runoff climatology for Europe and its potential for drought monitoring is illustrated.

USE OF LANDSAT-SERIES DATA IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CONDITION MONITORING IN CHINA

Abstract. To fully grasp the nature and human geography situation information, solve the problem of ecological environment, economic and social development of the country, monitoring the state of geographic condition by uniform index system has great significance. By collecting the existing standard documents, our paper established a suit of index system considering the characteristics of long time series remote sensing data. The index system includes basic, subject, composite statistical indexes, and statistical indexes based on basic geographic element. The spatial and temporal distribution of geographic condition with Landsat TM image in Haidian district of Beijing from 1983 to 2013 are studies. Results show that farmland decreases by 28.60%, build-up land increases by 38.95% in this period. The amount of land resources in different elevation/slope shows that, with the increase of elevation/slope, farmland and build-up land is gradually reduced, while grassland area is gradually increasing. In plains areas of elevation less than 50m and within the scope of the 0 to 3° slope, farmland and build-up land are the main land cover types, and both show the characteristic of tradeoffs. Urban area extended to the west and the north, meanwhile mass center of Haidian also moves to the northwest. The urban compactness decreases and the fractal index increased gradually, reflecting the city saturation degree become reduced, the city boundary becomes complicated gradually. The comprehensive land cover dynamic degree after the first decrease and then increases. Finally, based on the above statistic results, the spatial distribution of land cover in 2015 is predicted.