Dominant Land Use Research Articles

Habitat selection of female sharp-tailed grouse in grasslands managed for livestock production.

Habitat selection links individual behavior to population abundance and dynamics, so evaluation of habitat selection is necessary for conservation and management. Land management can potentially alter both the structure and composition of habitats, thus influencing habitat selection and population size. Livestock grazing is the dominant land use worldwide and, while overstocking has been linked to the decline of many wildlife species, properly managed grazing could improve habitat quality and maintain native rangeland habitats. We evaluated breeding season habitat selection of female sharp-tailed grouse, an indicator species for grassland ecosystems, in relation to grazing management and landscape features in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. At broad spatial scales, females selected for multiple landscape features, including grassland, but exhibited no selection for either landscape or management variables when selecting habitat at smaller spatial scales. Females selected for pastures managed with rest-rotation grazing when choosing a home range, but selection did not equate to improved fitness. Moreover, we observed strong individual variation in both home range size and third-order habitat selection. While the high variability among individuals makes specific management recommendations difficult, selection for grassland habitats at broad scales suggests that strategies that maintain intact native rangelands are important for the conservation of sharp-tailed grouse.

Soil Organic Carbon and Soil Physical Characteristics as Affected by Land Uses under Semiarid Irrigated Conditions

ABSTRACT Rice-Wheat rotation is the dominant land use in the state of Punjab, resulting in over exploitation of ground water resources. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate other land uses that requires less water and are sustainable. The present investigation was planned with four land uses viz., fallow (FLU), rice-wheat (ALU), grasses (GLU) and pear (PLU) with respect to their effect on soil organic carbon and soil physical characteristics in surface and subsurface depth in district Ludhiana, Punjab. The soil organic carbon (SOC) content was higher by 10, 30.9 and 24.9% under rice-wheat, grasses, and pear than that under fallow. The grasses showed higher soil moisture characteristics curve (SMCC) and lower bulk density (Db) than that under rice-wheat. The larger mean weight diameter (MWD) were observed under pear, grasses and fallow than that under rice-wheat by 0.21, 0.51 and 0.41 mm, respectively. The saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) was higher in magnitude by 56.1, 55.4 and 28%, respectively under PLU, GLU and FLU over ALU. Of the evaluated land uses, pear and grasses proved to be more sustainable by retaining more moisture, maintaining better soil physical characteristics and SOC under semiarid irrigated conditions in the state on long term gradual response.

Assessment of dissolved organic carbon and iron effects on water color between a forest and pasture-dominated fine-scale catchment in a Central Appalachian region, West Virginia.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and iron (Fe) have been observed to be the important contributors to surface water brownification. Additionally, the DOC quality influences water color by forming Fe-DOC complexes that provide additive effects and is influenced by dominant land use type within watersheds. However, the influence of quantity and quality of DOC on Fe and water color is poorly understood in headwater streams. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of DOC and Fe on water color in forest (FC) and pasture (GFC) fine-scale watersheds to remove the confounding effects of climate and soil parent material. Significant differences of DOC, Fe, and water absorbance at 420 nm (a420) between FC and GFC were found (p < 0.05). A dominant contribution to water color was from DOC (95.5 - 63.7%) with a decreasing trend when Fe increased from 0.011 to 0.258 mg L-1. There were no significant interactions between FC and GFC and Fe on either a420/DOC (p = 0.06) or specific ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (SUVA254) (p = 0.30). Increasing values of a420/DOC and SUVA254 were significantly associated with increasing Fe concentration (p < 0.01). Significant interactions were found between FC and GFC and Fe on spectral slope ratio (S ratio) (p < 0.01). The response rate of S ratio with increasing Fe per unit was 0.235 for GFC while it was - 11.043 for FC. These differences indicate that land use may change the quality of DOC, influence Fe-DOC interactions, and thus affect water color. Linking the effects of soil Fe and DOC and headwater Fe and DOC may help identify optimal management practice to mitigate surface water brownification.

Effects of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change on Nitrogen Transport in Northern Taihu Basin, China during 1990–2017

Different land uses have varying degrees of impact on nitrogen transport in the catchments. In recent decades, rapid urbanization has dramatically changed the Earth’s land surface, which may cause excessive nitrogen losses and a negative influence on the environment. In the long-term scale, it is important to explore how the nitrogen transport responds to land use change and its effects on aquatic habitats. In this study, the water and sediment samples were collected from northern Taihu Basin, and nine periods of land use data were obtained using the techniques of supervised classification. Results revealed that the proportion of farmland area decreased from 28.33% to 7.09%, while that of constructed land area increased from 23.85% to 61.72% during 1990–2017. Most of the constructed land originated from farmland, which makes it the dominant land use type due to rapid urbanization. In spatial distribution, high total nitrogen (TN) losses regions remain distributed over constructed land and farmland, which may aggravate the trend of local water quality deterioration. Of these regions, constructed land was the dominant contributor (46.29%–63.62%) of TN losses from surface runoff. In temporal variation, the TN losses of runoff decreased by 47% from 175 t N·a−1 in 1990. However, they increased by 2.91% from 75.28 t N·a−1 after 2013 with rapid population growth and high fertilizer application (&gt;570 kg·ha−1). The nitrogen load in sediments also has a significant response (t = 2.43, p = 0.02) to the effects of land use change on the overlying water, indicating that the role of nitrogen in the sediment as a source and/or sink to the waterbody may change frequently. Given the increasing accumulation of nitrogen loads in highly urbanized regions, water quality would cause more aggravation in the long-term without reasonable land management measures.

Pollution Load Capacity Analysis of BOD, COD, and TSS in Karang Mumus River, Samarinda

The Rivers in Indonesia often accommodate pollution from all community activities. This happened due to a large number of people who use watersheds for living. One of those rivers is the Karang Mumus River in Samarinda City, East Kalimantan. This study aims to analyze the capacity of the Karang Mumus River pollution load in segments 2, 3 and 4. The analysis model used in this study was the QUAL2Kw and ArcGIS models. The former used to calculate the capacity of river pollution and the latter used to determine land use. The results of the QUAL2Kw Model analysis shown that the capacity of the BOD was exceeded in all segments, COD was exceeded in all segments except segment 3. The entire segment had an allocation of sectoral pollution load originated from domestic activities. This study concluded that the dominant land use of settlements was one of the main causes of this problem.

Exploring adoption price effects on life cycle inventory results

The environmental impact of a product may change according to who adopts it, where it is adopted, and how it is used. Market forces are an inherent part of consequential LCA and the practice of coupling economic models with life cycle inventory data has increased in popularity. Nevertheless, the actual relationship between the price of a commodity and potential changes to its life cycle inventory has rarely been discussed explicitly. The adoption price effect refers to a change in a product’s environmental impact associated with a change in price, calculated on a functional unit basis. The price of a product influences the type and quantity of incumbent product(s) it displaces. This study provides insights on when the adoption price of a product is likely to influence its life cycle inventory and also identifies conditions where adoption price is expected to have negligible effects on inventory results. A switchgrass bioenergy case is used to demonstrate the adoption price effect on life cycle inventory results when introducing a new product (i.e., switchgrass) into a system with multiple incumbents (i.e., crops, hay, pasture). This study estimates the adoption price effect on nutrient emissions by coupling biogeochemical models with a simplified economic breakeven model that estimates potential switchgrass adoption. In this case study, high switchgrass prices correspond to nitrate emission reductions that are three times greater than low switchgrass prices (0.67 kg N reduced/Mg switchgrass vs 0.21 kg N reduced/Mg switchgrass). The large adoption price effect found within the Southeastern USA is due to the highly heterogeneous landscape in the region. There is no single dominant land use, each incumbent product has a different environmental baseline, and each is displaced at a different switchgrass price range. Meanwhile, the adoption price effect is expected to be negligible in mostly homogenous landscapes, such as the more commonly studied Corn Belt, which has a single dominant incumbent in the form of corn-soy production. In addition to the specific case study, this analysis discusses general adoption conditions likely to lead to adoption price effects when conducting consequential LCA.

Transitioning towards human–large carnivore coexistence in extensive grazing systems

In light of escalating threats to biodiversity, conflicts between humans and large carnivores in production landscapes must be resolved. We explore how interactions between humans, large carnivores, and livestock can be modified to promote coexistence. We identify four rationales for building coexistence capacities in extensive rangeland livestock production systems: (1) livestock production is a dominant terrestrial land use; (2) large carnivores provide critical contributions to ecological functions; (3) the persecution of large carnivores has high ethical, welfare, reputational and social costs; and (4) a growing body of evidence shows that lethal control can be counterproductive to reducing predation risk. Two key leverage points to foster human-carnivore coexistence are the adoption of preventive non-lethal innovations, and the creation of an enabling environment. Leverage points must be appropriate at the local landscape scale and contribute towards global efforts to conserve large carnivores.

Grazing regulation of phosphorus cycling in grassland ecosystems: Advances and prospects

Grassland ecosystems, which cover a total area of 52.5 million square kilometers and account for 40.5% of the global land surface, are the largest biomes in the world. Grazing is the most dominant and direct land use type in grasslands and a predominant driver regulating multiple ecosystem functions and services, such as primary production, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling, carbon sequestration, forage and food production, and water and soil erosion control etc. Many studies have demonstrated that primary production of grasslands is often limited by water, N and P availability, which interact with grazing to influence the maintenance of ecosystem functions and services. However, compared with numerous studies on the effects of grazing on N cycling and plant water use, fewer studies have explored how grazing influence P cycling of grasslands, particularly the internal cycling of P among main pools within ecosystems. Here we reviewed the advances in grazing effects on soil and plant P pools and biological processes of P cycling. Our review is mainly focused on: (1) Grazing effects on internal and external cycles of P in grassland ecosystems; (2) grazing effects on soil P vertical distribution, and P inputs and outputs mediated by soil erosion and spatial heterogeneity; and (3) mechanisms underlying grazing-induced changes in plant P content and P pools across different levels of organization (individual, species, functional group and community). Finally, we proposed a unified framework synthesizing the influence of grazing on P pools and key biological processes of P cycling in grassland ecosystems. We also proposed eight key questions that need to be addressed in future studies: (1) How do the dominant P forms (e.g., nucleic acids, phospholipids, cytoplasmic inorganic P, cytoplasmic organic P, and polyphosphate) and concentration within soil microbial biomass vary with grazing intensity? How does the role of microorganisms as sink and source of P change with increasing grazing intensity? (2) How does grazing affect enzyme activities, including phosphomonoesterases, phosphodiesterases, triphosphoric monoester hydrolases, and enzymes acting on phosphoryl-containing anhydrides and on P–N bonds, and thereby P mineralization in soil? (3) How does grazing regulate the biological processes of P transformation in plant-soil-microbial P cycle? (4) To what degree molecular approaches and omics analyses can improve our understanding of the important role of plants and rhizosphere microorganisms in P cycling? (5) How does grazing affect the relationship between plant diversity and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) diversity, and thereby plant P uptake and utilization? (6) How do grazing animals differ in their effects on the pools and pathways of P cycling due to the interspecific differences in diet and foraging preference? (7) How do other herbivores in terms of grasshoppers, rodents, earthworms, and plant feeding nematodes influence the biological processes of P cycling? (8) How does grazing affect the N:P stoichiometry of key ecosystem compartments, and hence the coupled N and P cycles.

A Study on the Participatory Forestry Land Use and Farming Practices in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Bangladesh

The study explored the genesis and current status and forms of land use and farming practices in Chittagong hill tracts region of Bangladesh. Some major observations include the following: (i) Lands allotted for horticulture and agriculture were converted to forestry, agro-forestry and agriculture by the participants of the government and NGO projects. Livestock rearing was found as a common practice, (ii) Forestry was preferred topographically as a suitable land use in the region. Both the government and NGO participants were found to be practicing some form of pure forestry, particularly in the comparatively steep slopes. (Hi) Agroforestry, by combining long gestation forestry with short-term horticultural and agricultural species, was found to be the dominant land use practice in CHT. (iv) Agriculture was found as a general land use practice in CHT, mainly following the traditional system (v) Inter-sectoral coordination among the PF agencies and necessary service provision by GO and NGO agencies were almost absent. Strong linkages through inter-sectoral coordination for both GO and NGO agencies must be undertaken in order to involve related agencies in land-based development interventions.

Relative performance of different data mining techniques for nitrate concentration and load estimation in different type of watersheds

The increasing availability of water quality datasets has led to a greater focus on hydrologic and water quality analysis, thus requiring more efficient and accurate modelling methods. Data mining techniques have been increasingly used for water quality analysis and prediction of the concentration and load of nitrogen pollutants instead of more traditional simulation methods. In this study, we tested the multilayer perceptron (MLP), k-nearest neighbor (k-NN), random forest, and reduced error pruning tree (REPTree) methods, along with the traditional linear regression, to predict nitrate levels based on long-term data from six watersheds with different land-use practices in the midwestern United States. Both the concentration and load results indicated that REPTree had the best performance, with an R2 of 0.61–0.85 and a relative absolute error of <75.8%. The different watershed types, however, influenced the performance of the data mining methods, where all four methods showed a higher accuracy for urban dominant watershed and lower accuracy for agricultural and forest watersheds. Out of these four methods, classification tree methods (REPTree and RF) performed better than cluster methods (MLP and k-NN) for agricultural and forested watersheds. Our results indicated that both the data structure based on the dominant land use and type of algorithmic method should be carefully considered for selecting a data mining method to predict nitrate concentration and load for a watershed.

Rangeland Sharing by Cattle and Bees: Moderate Grazing Does Not Impair Bee Communities and Resource Availability

Rangelands are a dominant anthropogenic land use and a main driver of natural habitat loss worldwide. Land sharing, the integration of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, may provide a platform for managing rangelands to fulfill multiple ecosystem services. However, livestock grazing can greatly affect biodiversity and little is known about its effects on providers of focal ecosystem services, such as pollinators. We investigated the effect of cattle grazing on bee communities and their foraging and nesting resources in Mediterranean rangelands. Specifically, we explored the effect of moderate cattle grazing on flowering plant abundance, species richness and composition, the diversity of nesting substrates, and consequently, the possible effects on wild bee and honey bee foraging activity, species diversity, and community composition. We conducted field research in the Mediterranean rangelands of Israel during the main bee activity season, in the spring of 2012 and 2013, comparing paired cattle-grazed and ungrazed areas. The availability of floral and nesting resources for bees was unaffected or positively affected by grazing. Similarly, wild bee abundance, species richness, and composition were not affected by grazing, but were instead shaped by spatiotemporal factors. Nor was honey bee activity level impaired by grazing. The foraging preferences of bees, as well as flower species composition and peak bloom differed between grazed and ungrazed areas. Therefore, in our studied rangelands, grazing had its main effect on the foraging choices of honey bees and wild bees, rather than on their abundance and diversity. Moreover, our results indicate the potentially important role of ungrazed patches in increasing nectar and pollen diversity and availability in rangelands for both honey bees and wild bees in the spring. Hence, maintaining a mosaic of moderately grazed and ungrazed patches is expected to provide the greatest benefits for wild bee conservation and honey bee activity in Mediterranean rangelands. Our findings support the notion of rangeland sharing by cattle and bees in Mediterranean ecosystems under moderate grazing intensities, mimicking the coexistence of honey bees, wild bees, and cattle in Mediterranean ecosystems on an evolutionary timescale.

Applicability of MODIS land cover and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) for the assessment of spatial and temporal changes in strength of vegetation in tropical rainforest region of Borneo

Rainforests in the equatorial tropical regions are facing severe changes in strength and distribution due to natural and anthropogenic activities. Climate change causes major issues in vegetation characteristics whereas logging and developmental activities destruct the natural characteristics of terrain and vegetation. In the present research, MODIS vegetation cover type and vegetation indices (Enhanced Vegetation Index –EVI) data were interpreted to assess the decade (2008–2017) variation in vegetation types and strength characteristics in the Baram River Basin (BRB) in Borneo. International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) based classification identified ten land cover types in the BRB and the mean EVI in most periods varies between −0.30 and greater than 0.80. Results showed spatial and temporal variation in the area covered by individual land cover during the period of analysis and the fluctuation in mean EVI values indicates variation in strength characteristics of land cover types in the region. Statistical analysis showed a significant correlation (r > 0.50) of mean EVI values between consecutive years of analysis. Though the IGBP classification scheme could not categorise the most dominant land use activities in the BRB i.e. logging and oil palm plantations, the findings of the present research validate the use of MODIS data in equatorial tropical rainforest regions for characterising the regional scale vegetation dynamics.

Maize production and environmental costs: Resource evaluation and strategic land use planning for food security in northern Ghana by means of coupled emergy and data envelopment analysis

This paper applies an integrated methodology which is constituted of the following: (i) the Emergy-Data Envelopment Analysis (EM-DEA), (ii) environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), (iii) Value Chain Analysis (VCA), and (iv) Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) approaches, -to support multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) for strategic agricultural land use planning, which could contribute to improve food security in northern Ghana. Five scenarios of land use and resource management practices for maize production were modelled. The business-as-usual scenario was based on primary data, which were collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to 56 small-scale maize farmers through personal interviews. The dominant land use was characterised by an external input ≤12 kg/ha/yr inorganic fertilizer with/without the addition of manure in rainfed maize systems. The project scenarios were based on APSIM simulations of maize yield response to 0, 20, 50 and 100 kg/ha/yr urea dosages, with/without supplemental irrigation. The scenarios were dubbed as follows: (1) no/low input systems were denoted by Extensive0, Extensive12, and Intercrop20, and (2) moderate/high input systems were denoted by Intensive50, and Intensive100. The EM-DEA approach was used to assess the resource use efficiency (RUE) and sustainability in maize production systems, Ghana. The measured RUE and sustainability were used as a proxy for further analyses by applying the environmental CBA and VCA approaches to calculate: (a) the environmental costs of producing maize, i.e. resource use measured as total emergy (U), and (b) benefits from the yielded maize, i.e. (b i) food provision from grain measured in kcal/yr, and (b ii) potential electricity (bioenergy) which could be generated from residue measured in MWh/yr. The information which was derived from the applications of the EM-DEA, CBA and VCA approaches was aggregated by applying the SBSC approach to do a sustainability appraisal of the scenarios. The results show that, when labour and services are included in the assessment of RUE and sustainability, Intercrop20 and Intensive50 achieved greater marginal yield, better RUE, sustainability and appraisal score. The same scenarios caused lesser impacts in terms of expansion of area cultivated compared to Extensive0 and Extensive12. Meanwhile the impacts of Intercrop20 and Intensive50 in terms of ecotoxicity, emissions, and demand for resources (energy, materials, labour and services) were lesser compared to Intensive100. The implications of the various scenarios are discussed. The environmental performance of the scenarios are compared to maize production systems in other developing regions in order to put this study within a broader context. We conclude that, the EM-DEA approach is useful for assessing RUE and sustainability of agricultural production systems at farm and regional scales, as well as in connecting the management planning level and regional development considerations.

Basin characteristics, river morphology, and process in the Chure-Terai landscape

The study aims to illustrate the basin characteristics, river morphology and river processes in the Chure- terai Landscape. The basin and morphological variables used in the study were derived from the satellite imageries available on Google earth, digital elevation models, and relevant maps. The cross-section survey and hydrometric data, incorporated in the study were obtained from the secondary sources, reports, and documents. The Bakraha River basin is underlain by the rocks of the Siwalik group in the south. The rocks are highly deformed and fractured and have the steep and variable slope and are subject to strong seismic shaking. The network of drainage is dense, with the predominance of colluvial streams that receive sediments from slope failure and erosion. The steep profile of the river demonstrates the ability to transport a huge sediment load during a high flood. The climatic regime and daily annual extreme rainfall between 100-300mm can initiate shallow landslides to large and deep-seated landslides. Landslides very large, small to shallow types are quite numerous, which indicates terrain highly susceptible to slope failure and erosion. The forest cover is above 84% but largely has been degraded and interspersed by agricultural patches and settlements with population dependent on agriculture and livestock. The lower catchment has dominant agricultural land use. The role of riparian vegetation for bank protection and flood control is limited. In the hilly areas, the river reaches are mainly sinuous to straight controlled by bedrock and in Terai, the reaches are straight, wandering to meandering towards the south. River slope is very steep, up to 15.2% in hills and mild in the meandering reaches in Terai decreasing to 0.1%. In the straight reaches, sediments are mainly boulders, gravels, bedrocks and sands in the hill, while in meandering reaches in Terai, sediments are sand and silt. The discharge varies 200-734 cusec from upstream (close to outlet) to downstream, (16.5 km away). The estimated sediment load transport during extreme flood events highly varies. Potential sediment load decreases from straight to meandering reaches, with some fluctuations in certain locations, owing to change in local morphological conditions. Bank erosion, bend scour, confluence scour, and protrusion scours, and avulsions are the river processes, which provide a source of sediments to the river. Change in planform and cross-section view of the river morphology indicate the river is unstable and dynamic due to the frequent shifts between accretion to erosion processes.

Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics and its Environmental Impacts in Kulfo Watershed, Gamo Highlands, South Western Ethiopia

Gamo highland have experienced drastic cover dynamics of land resource resulted from historic settlement, heavy concentration of human and livestock population, and obsolete farming practices. The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of the land use/land cover and its consequent environmental impacts in Kulfo watershed located in South Western Ethiopia. Historic spatial and socio-economic data were used in GIS and Remote Sensing environment to analyze and map the research data. The result of this study revealed that the Land use/ cover change analysis conducted in three periods (1986, 1999 and 2017) showed a remarkable dynamics and modification over varying cover types. In 1986 the dominant land use land covers were cultivated land (42%) followed by pasture land (23%) and forest land (18.3%). After 32 years (2017), cultivated land (71%), shrub land (7.5%) and bare lands (6.2%) were the three dominant land uses/cover types in the study area. During the study period, cultivation encroached to marginal steep slopes (with gradient more than 60%) and mountain grasslands where once used as a place of celebrating traditional festivals and grazing lands. Such a dramatic change in three-decade period has further increased degraded lands and raised erosion vulnerable areas to 97.2%, the resultant effects of which has greatly threatened the livelihood of communities in the watershed. The land use in the study watershed is not as of the land capability, excess forest, shrub and grasslands were unnecessarily brought under agriculture. Therefore, it is recommended that land has to be used as per its capability and conservation measures shall give attention to erosion prone areas.

Perennial plant patches are sinks for seeds in semi‐arid woodlands in varying condition

AbstractQuestionsUnderstanding the processes that influence resilience in semi‐arid woodland communities is of critical importance in landscapes where livestock grazing is the dominant land use and an important driver of site condition. Seed banks are a critical component of site resilience as their persistence can be crucial for recovering from disturbances. We predicted that site condition and landscape structural elements (perennial plant patches) would strongly influence the richness and density of the soil seed bank.LocationNew South Wales, Australia.MethodsWe conducted a seedling emergence study to investigate the germinable seed bank in semi‐arid woodland. Soil samples were collected from three woodland communities (Cypress pine, Black box, Red gum) from sites in three levels of site condition (poor, average, good) and from four patch types (tree, shrub, grass, open). Seed bank species were assigned to three plant trait groups based on: (a) origin; (b) lifespan; and (c) palatability. We used linear models to assess the effects of community, site condition and patch type on the richness and seed density of the germinable seed bank.ResultsSite condition did not affect the seed bank density or richness, except for a lower density of highly palatable species at poor‐condition sites. Across all communities the importance of patch type on the soil seed bank density and richness varied with plant traits. The seed bank of perennial plant patches had a greater density of perennial species, a lower density of low palatability plants, and a greater richness of native and perennial species than interspaces.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that the germinable soil seed bank in semi‐arid woodlands can be relatively resilient to degradation. This suggests that disturbed sites where perennial patches remain, may still have the ability to recover, because these patches act as important seed reservoirs.

Understanding Land use/Land cover dynamics and impacts of human activities in the Mekong Delta over the last 40 years

The Mekong Delta is the third largest delta in the world, and a globally recognized agricultural production zone and biodiversity hotspot. In recent decades, land use and land cover (LULC) in the Mekong Delta has undergone tremendous changes due to increasing anthropogenic activities. However, accurate and long-term LULC mapping products for the entire delta are scarce. This study aims to use the Landsat and Chinese HJ-1B satellite images for nearly 40 years to detect the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC in the Mekong Delta applying the classification and regression trees (CART) technique and analyze its driving factors. Seven main LULC categories were identified with an overall accuracy of 89–94%. We generated seven LULC maps of the whole Mekong Delta from 1979 to 2015 at a 30 m spatial resolution. The results showed that the area of aquaculture and residential land increased, while the area of mangroves, planting land, other forests, wasteland, and unused land decreased from 1979 to 2015. The planting land has been the dominant land use type in the delta since 1979, and still occupied over 72% of the delta area in 2015. The change to aquaculture is most pronounced in all LULC categories, with its percentage of area in the delta increasing to 19% in 2015. With the transformation of large-scale inland planting land into aquaculture ponds, aquaculture has become the second largest land use type following the planting land in the Mekong Delta from the late 20th century. Although the mangrove area showed only slight reduction during 1979–2015, the degree of patch fragmentation increased significantly. We found that the rapid changes of the LULC were mainly driven by economic development and land policies. This study gives insights into LULC dynamics and provides a valuable dataset for regional sustainable development planning and ecological assessment in the Mekong Delta.

Development of Tourism Village Based On Agro-Creative And Disaster Consideration, case of Cikondang Village, Cingambul District, Majalengka Regency

Cikondang Village in Majalengka has the potential to be developed as an Agro-creative tourism village because of agriculture as its dominant land use and also the residents’ matches to the characteristics of creative tourism. Cikondang Village also has the potential based on its tourism attractiveness. However, these potentials are still idle because of less optimum management. This paper aims at assessing the prospect of Cikondang Village to develop into tourism village considering the existing circumstances of Cikondang Village based on the classifications and elements of agro-creative tourism village including disasters. This paper descriptively elaborate primary and secondary data in the analysis mainly in identifying existing potentials and attractiveness of Cikondang Village so that prioritized strategies can be formulated. Primary data is gained based on direct observation and Focus Group Discussion (FGD), while secondary data is obtained from relevant literatures. The result show that Cikondang village has the potential (strength and opportunity) to be an agro-creative tourism village based on agrotourism services and creative tourism characteristics. But note must be given as there are several weaknesses and threats that need improvement in the management sector and collaboration between the government and the community.

Earth Observation-based Damage Assessment of 2018 Flood in Parts of Hadejia-Jama’ are River Basin, Nigeria

Floods, Landslides, Forest fire, Volcanoes, Hurricanes and Tsunami among others are indeed considered as the most natural hazards that cause loosed of resources which includes human lives. Hadejia-Jama’ are River Valley has a well-known seasonal occurrence of floodings with maximum interval of five years incidents historically. Among these disasters floods especially along the river basin particularly in developing nations like Nigeria became a regular disaster with state of frequent occurrences almost seasonally. This study assessed pre-flood and post-flood nature of floodplain along Hadejia-Jama’ are from Jigawa to Tiga Dam in Kano State. Remotely sensed sentinel 2 satellite data and ALOS Digital Surface Model (DSM) was used for the study. The sentinel images were subjected to image pre-processing activities such as geometric correction and radiometric correction. To focus on the flood plain, a 5 km buffer of the area around Hadejia-Jama’are River Basin from Jigawa to Tiga dam were extracted from the data by using the extract/clip tools in ArcGIS 10.3 software. Findings of the study revealed that dominant land use along the floodplain prior to flood include bare surface, patches of agriculture/vegetation, settlement, water body. The study also revealed that patterns of flood damages vary irrespective of the risk with areas like Dawakin Kudu and Garun mallam were witnessing more flood damages than Miga LGA of Jigawa State. It is, therefore, concluded that Earth observation and its applications are useful tools/methods for flood damages assessment and evaluation as well as a basis for taking proactive steps in mitigating flood hazard along floodplains and another flood prone environment.

Quantifying Escherichia coli and Suspended Particulate Matter Concentrations in a Mixed-Land Use Appalachian Watershed

The relationships between Escherichia (E) coli concentration, suspended particulate matter (SPM) particle size class, and land use practices are important in reducing the bacterium’s persistence and health risks. However, surprisingly few studies have been performed that quantify these relationships. Conceivably, such information would advance mitigation strategies for practices that address specific SPM size classes and, by proxy, E. coli concentration. To advance this needed area of research, stream water was sampled from varying dominant land use practices in West Run Watershed, a representative mixed-land use Appalachian watershed of West Virginia in the eastern USA. Water samples were filtered into three SPM intervals (&lt;5 µm; 5 µm to 60 μm; and &gt;60 μm) and the E. coli concentration (colony forming units, CFU) and SPM of each interval was quantified. Statistically significant relationships were identified between E. coli concentrations and size intervals (α &lt; 0.0001), and SPM (α = 0.05). The results show a predominance (90% of total) of E. coli CFUs in the &lt;5 μm SPM interval. The results show that land use practices impact the relationships between SPM and E. coli concentrations. Future work should include additional combined factors that influence bacterial CFUs and SPM, including hydrology, climate, geochemistry and nutrients.