Earth Resources Research Articles

Multiphase Flow in Porous Media in Earth Resource and Environmental Engineering

Multiphase Flow in Porous Media in Earth Resource and Environmental Engineering

Climate Crisis

The concept of sustainable development implies seeking a balance between exploitation and protection of the Earth's resources in an attempt to preserve our basis for living. Sustainable development must satisfy people’s present needs without jeopardizing future generations’ chances of satisfying theirs. Among architects, the concept of sustainable architecture emerged from various social interests based on various interpretations of the problem and characterized by quite a number of different pathways, each pointing to sustainable solutions as responses to the climate crisis. Architects' diverse views on sustainable architecture have become a battleground for ‘the right attitudes’ - artistic schools of thought and cultural movements with competing logics of sustainability. In this respect, the role of the architect and the choice of sustainable logic become central to the design process of sustainable architecture - and also to the development of Danish social housing. Various incentives have helped influence sustainability in a Danish context, for instance in site conditions, sustainable technologies, infrastructure, facilities, financing and social ideals. Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, the development of sustainable social housing in Denmark has also been influenced by various pathways in this fluid system of changing logics, values and beliefs as social responses to the climate crisis.

A Bayesian optimization hyperband-optimized incremental deep belief network for online battery behaviour modelling for a satellite simulator

Simulation tools play crucial roles in the stable implementation of space missions during satellite operations; they are typically utilized for satellite behaviour monitoring by comparing obtained telemetry values and predicted values according to pretrained prediction models. However, as telemetry data streams arrive in a chunk-by-chunk manner, a common practice is to retrain the employed simulation tool based on the newly arrived data, which results in the consumption of many computing resources and time lags. Therefore, an incremental learning algorithm is required to achieve accurate and fast satellite behaviour prediction. This paper proposes a Bayesian optimization hyperband-optimized incremental learning-based deep belief network (BOHB-ILDBN) to reproduce battery voltage behaviours, where the BOHB algorithm is utilized to obtain a group of optimal hyperparameter configurations to initialize a DBN model, the DBN model is incrementally updated by a fine-tuning process, and the variance difference between the actual and forecasted values is taken as the criterion for determining the completion of model training. Finally, the effectiveness and robustness of the model are verified on telemetry data obtained from an on-orbit sun-synchronous remote sensing satellite, the China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-4A).

REE mineralization age and geodynamic setting of the Huanglongpu deposit in the East Qinling orogen, China: Evidence from mineralogy, U–Pb geochronology, and in-situ Nd isotope

The Huanglongpu deposit is one of the most representative igneous carbonatite-type molybdenum-rare earth element (Mo-REE) deposits in the eastern Qinling metallogenic region. The molybdenum resources exceed 180 kt, whilst the total rare earth resources are about 37.8 kt. However, the age of REE mineralization, sources of ore-forming minerals, and tectonic setting are not well characterized. Therefore, this study carried out detailed mineralogical, geochronological, and geochemical analyses to provide new insights. Monazite, bastnäsite, parisite, and xenotime were found to be the dominant REE-bearing minerals in the Huanglongpu deposit. LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of the REE minerals revealed a two-stage REE mineralization: monazite formed at 219.4 Ma, whereas bastnäsite and xenotime formed at 145.9 Ma and 142.6 Ma, respectively. The carbonatites, as the main ore host, were characterized by a strong enrichment of light rare earth element (LREE) and moderately high heavy rare earth element (HREE) contents. Monazite showed different Nd isotopic compositions, with lower εNd(t) values ranging between −7.12 and −4.18, while the εNd(t) values of bastnäsite and xenotime ranged from −9.57 to −6.49 and from −11.13 to −6.28, respectively. These contrasting geochemical and isotopic signatures suggest that the Huanglongpu REE mineralization occurred over multiple magmatic-hydrothermal events and that the ore-forming material was unlikely to have stemmed from a single enriched mantle (EMI) source. The early REE mineralization stage (219.4 Ma) was closely associated with carbonatite-related Mo mineralization, both of which were products of magmatic mineralization during the crystallization of the host carbonatite emplaced in an extensional environment after the Late Triassic collision. The ore-related magmas may have originated from a hybrid source composed of EMI and partial melting of the lower crust. In contrast, due to the extensive Yanshanian magmatism which could provide massive heat, the later REE mineralization stage (145.9–142.6 Ma) in the Huanglongpu deposit was likely driven by the reactivation and recrystallization of early-formed REE minerals within the host carbonatites, hence representing a hydrothermal redistribution of the primary magmatic ore.

Freshwater as a Sustainable Resource and Generator of Secondary Resources in the 21st Century: Stressors, Threats, Risks, Management and Protection Strategies, and Conservation Approaches.

This paper is a synthetic overview of some of the threats, risks, and integrated water management elements in freshwater ecosystems. The paper provides some discussion of human needs and water conservation issues related to freshwater systems: (1) introduction and background; (2) water basics and natural cycles; (3) freshwater roles in human cultures and civilizations; (4) water as a biosphere cornerstone; (5) climate as a hydrospheric 'game changer' from the perspective of freshwater; (6) human-induced stressors' effects on freshwater ecosystem changes (pollution, habitat fragmentation, etc.); (7) freshwater ecosystems' biological resources in the context of unsustainable exploitation/overexploitation; (8) invasive species, parasites, and diseases in freshwater systems; (9) freshwater ecosystems' vegetation; (10) the relationship between human warfare and water. All of these issues and more create an extremely complex matrix of stressors that plays a driving role in changing freshwater ecosystems both qualitatively and quantitatively, as well as their capacity to offer sustainable products and services to human societies. Only internationally integrated policies, strategies, assessment, monitoring, management, protection, and conservation initiatives can diminish and hopefully stop the long-term deterioration of Earth's freshwater resources and their associated secondary resources.

An experimental study on cement concrete with industrial fly ash and Phosphogypsum

Industrial Flyash (IFA) is a fine powder made from non-combustible materials and a residue of carbon from incomplete combustion. Phosphogypsum (PG) is also a solid by product of phosphoric acid processing, which is employed in a variety of fertilisers and chemicals. Traditional construction material manufacturing processes destroy the earth's vital natural resources. Furthermore, IFA and PG is a solid waste, which is frequently dumped in open spaces. IFA and PG contains natural mineral which can be used as admixture in concrete. It can be used as partial replacement to the cement in the concrete up to certain limit. The experimental findings include compressive strength (CS), flexural strength (FS) and split tensile strength (STS) by partially cement replacement with Industrial IFA and PG employing 0 %, 5 %, 7.5 %, 10 %, 12.5 %, 15 %, and 20 % on M40 grade concrete and water-binder ratios of 0.45. The CS is determined by testing cube specimens for 7 and 28 days, as well as FS and STS is found by testing the beams and cylinders specimens for 7 and 28 days respectively. The optimal proportion shows maximum strength at 15 % IFA and 7.5 % PG respectively. Further increase in percentage, strength of concrete decline marginally. 10 % substitution of cement with IFA + PG (combined 50 % each) used shows the optimal proportion to achieve maximum strength, and further increase in IFA and PG causes a decrease in strength. The addition of IFA and PG increases the amount of water required due to increase in fine particles or a bigger surface area. When compared to the control mix, the workability of concrete with IFA and PG reduces slump value by up to 15 %.44Corresponding Author: E-mail address: sandeepsatheresearch@gmail.com (Sandeep Sathe)

Study on the Erosion Morphology of Cohesive Soil under the Vertical Impact of a High-Pressure Moving Water Jet

In the in situ leaching process of ionic rare earth ore, high-pressure moving water jet technology has been applied to improve floor leakage problems. However, it has been found that the morphology of the erosion surface formed by a moving water jet cannot be accurately predicted. The range of the erosion surface has an important influence on the stability of liquid collection engineering and the liquid collection rate of rare earth resources, which is an important basis for the design of liquid collection engineering. To study this, soil-breaking tests using high-pressure moving water jets for a Pingnan mine were conducted. The influences of jet pressure and nozzle moving speed on soil-breaking morphology were analysed. The mechanism of erosion surface formation was revealed by erosion theory, and a method of predicting the erosion surface geometry based on jet pressure and nozzle speed is proposed. The results show that, in the jet pressure range of 5~10 MPa, with increases in jet pressure and decreases in nozzle speed, the geometric shape of the erosion surface tends to expand, and these parameters have no effect on the morphological characteristics of the erosion surface. In the soil-breaking process, the erosion speed decreases with increases in jet distance. As the nozzle speed becomes greater, the degree of the attenuation of erosion speed at a given jet pressure also becomes greater. Soil-breaking depth has a quadratic relationship with jet pressure and a 0.5 power function relationship with nozzle speed. The geometry of the erosion surface has self-similarity and can be divided into straight and curved sections. Accordingly, an empirical formula of the erosion surface geometric shape is proposed. The error of predicting the soil-breaking depth is less than 11%, which can provide a reference for engineering applications.

Evaluation of Water Resources through Efficiency Index and Water Productivity in EU

Water presents one of the earth resources as a component of environmental change, demanding the research of water use. A nusmber of authors analyzed water use from different perspectives, in different regions, not including the water efficiency index and water productivity in the whole of the EU. The presented contribution is orientated to the evaluation of water resources through the development of efficiency and productivity indexes in EU member states. The research is made by a single analysis of the index in time development, followed by countries’ comparison according to the available data and software support, accessing the sustainability features in water supply that are the three-fold-goals of economic feasibility, social responsibility, and environmental integrity, linked to the purpose of the water use. The results of the contribution show the countries with a positive indexes trend, and countries with a negative indexes trend. Such results can be used for improving measurements to increase water productivity, as well as to make measurements to decrease water use.

New insight into oxidative roasting and leaching for NdFeB waste

NdFeB waste is an essential rare earth (RE) resource, which is the unique solid waste to realize large-scale RE recovery via HCl preferential dissolution method. However, the challenges of low oxidation efficiency and high acid consumption are seriously hindering RE efficient recovery. Herein, the mechanism between the phase structure transformation of roasting RE solid waste and RE elements' leaching behavior was first explored. The results showed the oxidation efficiency of NdFeB oil sludge (NOS) was improved from 2.5 % to 99.2 % with the temperature increasing. And a leaching model was proposed: Dense Layer Structure (≤400 ℃), Loose Layer Structure (400–600 ℃), and RE Insoluble Structure (≥600 ℃). The analysis of the leaching model indicates the dense oxide layer and the RE insoluble structure (RE insoluble NdFeO3 phase and particle adhesion) will affect the leaching efficiency of RE elements. Based on the oxidation efficiency, XPS, SEM, Raman, FTIR, and EDS-mapping analysis, an external oxide layer was verified on the microparticle of roasted NOS. Furthermore, the corresponding mechanism is discussed, and the improvement strategies are put forward. This study will supply a new insight into the theoretical basis for efficient and low HCl consumption recycling of NdFeB waste.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Environmental Sustainability Among The Residents At Jalan Tualang, Kulai Johor Based on Their Educational Background

The environmental sustainability concept is vital to conserve earth resources and protect the earth ecosystems to maintain future generations’ health and well-being. People are becoming aware of the importance of environmental sustainability, but many of them lack practices and attitudes. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices on environmental sustainability among the residents of Jalan Tualang, Kulai, Johor based on their educational background. The correlation between knowledge practices and attitudes toward environmental sustainability was also analysed. In this study, the survey questionnaires were distributed using an online platform. About 132 respondents from the residential area were involved in this survey. The data from this study were analysed using Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s Rho Analysis using SPSS version 20.0 software. Based on the Kruskal-Wallis test, there are no significant differences of knowledge, practices and attitudes on environmental sustainability between different levels of educational background. Besides, results from Spearman’s Rho show a moderate and positive relationship correlation between knowledge-practices, and knowledge-attitudes toward environmental sustainability respectively. A strong and positive relationship was observed between practices and attitudes. In conclusion, the knowledge, attitude and practices on environmental sustainability should be expanded and promoted at all levels of educational background to raise good environmental behaviour through various environmental awareness programs and activities at the community level.

Identifying Urban Heat Effect through Satellite Image Analysis: Focusing on Narayanganj Upazila, Bangladesh

The rapid growth of population and land use cover change are closely connected. Narayanganj Sadar Upazila is the first Growing City in Bangladesh. Land use and land cover change are very first. Global warming, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental issues have become critical issues to address in recent times. Because of the Unplanned Expansion of urban areas, the LULC pattern is changing, and this kind of adverse (LST increasing, Heat Island Growth) impact is increasing. In this area, the amount of vegetation is decreasing day by day. The objectives of this study are to identify land use land cover (LULC) dynamics for the year 2001 to 2021, identify Urban Heat Islands from the value of land surface temperature (LST) and identify hotspots based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), normalized difference water index (NDWI) and land surface temperature (LST) doing weighted overlay among them. To determine the land cover pattern, and change at Narayanganj Upazila in the years 2001, 2011, and 2021, the land cover type was divided into four categories (build-up, vegetation, water bodies, and barren soil) in geographic information system (GIS) and Earth Resources Data Analysis System (ERDAS) Imagine 2014. The overall accuracy of LULC in 2001, 2011, and 2021 was 90.08, 91.34, and 92.02, respectively. And the value of the kappa coefficient for the years 2001, 2011, and 2021 was 0.91, 0.89, and 0.90, respectively. This study demonstrates an increase of 14.22% in built-up area and destruction of 15.5% of vegetation, 3.26% of barren soil, and 1.05% of the waterbody in the previous 21 years in Narayanganj Upazila. This study will help the administration, agricultural directorates, Pourashava office, and city corporation authority to take necessary measures to mitigate the adverse impacts of land cover change. They can make new rules and regulations on the construction of buildings, restrictions on filling water bodies and measures to conserve vegetation.

Environment and its protection from tobacco: a step towards tobacco end game, a perspective from India

The planet is facing numerous environmental concerns. Healthy soil, an appropriate quantity of clean and fresh water, and clean air are just a few of the basic essentials that allow humanity to survive, but are being stressed by rising populations and human demand for the earth's valuable resources. Tobacco-related processes are harmful to the environment, from cultivation to manufacture, distribution, product usage, and post-consumer trash. The tobacco industry's adverse influence on deforestation, climate change, and waste production is huge and expanding, and until now, these components of the tobacco control picture have received very little attention from researchers and policymakers. According to article 18 of the World Health Organization's (WHO) "framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC)," ratifying parties are required to give due consideration to environmental protection and the general well-being of people in relation to tobacco farming and production within their respective territories. Instead of focusing on controlling the tobacco epidemic, national and international discussions have centered on this idea to end it, which has sparked relatively longer-term strategy. Globally many countries including New Zealand, Scotland, United Kingdom, Ireland, United States of America, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland as well as India (third largest tobacco producer nation in the world) have already adopted various initiatives to adhere with end game strategy. This paper investigates the environmental impact of tobacco and its various other detrimental effects on health of living beings', as well as the "tobacco end game" approach to not only control the epidemic but also create a "tobacco-free world".

Deep learning for earth resource and environmental remote sensing

Deep learning for earth resource and environmental remote sensing

Facile synthesis of NaY molecular sieve by low-temperature ultrasonic gelling method for efficient adsorption of rare-earth elements

Due to the lack of rare earth resources, the recovery of rare earth ions from industrial wastewater has been widely concerned. In this work, NaY molecular sieve was synthesized at 50–90 °C for 3–10 h without template and guide agent by low-temperature ultrasonic gelling method, and it was examined as the adsorbent to recover and enrich La3+ and Eu3+ in synthetic rare earth liquids. The properties of the synthesized NaY crystallization at 90 °C for 5 h were determined as follows: relative crystallinity of 99.49%, average particle size of 300 nm, specific surface area of 873.66 m2/g, and average aperture of 0.5617 nm. When the adsorption temperature was 25 °C, the pH was about 7, the initial concentrations of La3+ and Eu3+ were 227.00 mg/L and 195.30 mg/L, respectively, the amount of NaY was 0.01 g, and the volume of the rare earth simulant was 10 ml, the unit adsorption capacity and adsorption efficiency of La3+ were respectively 174.12 mg/g and 75.30%, and the unit adsorption capacity and adsorption efficiency of Eu3+ were 147.47 mg/g and 75.51%, respectively. After four cycles, the unit adsorption efficiency of La3+ and Eu3+ were still respectively 93.20 mg/g and 91.00 mg/g. The adsorption process showed a closer agreement with Langmuir isotherm and quasi-second-order kinetics model. The results indicate that this NaY molecular sieve is a promising adsorbent for rare earth recycling and enrichment from wastewater.

The environmental and moral implications of human space travel

Humans have long dreamed of traveling to space. In response to the recent increase in commercial space flight, this paper evaluates environmental impacts of human space travel, both past and present, to shed light on the large environmental footprint of such activities. This environmental impact also has a moral component, since most of the global population will never be able to participate in such activities, yet still must bear the cost. Ironically, instead of a space future acting as a relief valve on Earth's resources, few activities exact a heavier burden on our planet's resources than the space pursuit, for the number of people it serves.This analysis utilized the structure of life cycle assessment. Data on launch vehicles mass and propellant type and mass was taken from public sources. Combustion emission results were calculated using combustion analysis software. These data were then combined with data from life cycle inventory databases and impact assessment methods to evaluate midpoint impact indicators.The hourly impact from sustaining humans in space over 1500 kg CO2-eq per hour. To put this into context, this is 2000 times greater than the emission rate of the average person on the globe, which we term global citizen equivalents (GCE). This global warming impact is also 650 times greater than the average person in the U.S.In terms of familiar activities, this is equivalent to continuously supplying at least 4 MW of electricity from the U.S. grid; simultaneously driving over sixty diesel buses; or occupying twenty seats on a Boeing 747 that never lands. Clearly such impacts raise questions not only to the sustainability of such activities, but also to the moral and ethical implications where such travel is limited to only the very wealthiest, but the costs are borne by all with few benefits to show from the endeavour.

Geometric accuracy assessment and a framework for automatic sub-pixel registration of WFI images from CBERS-4, CBERS-4A, and Amazonia-1 satellites over Brazil

Brazil faces the challenge of conciliating food production with natural vegetation preservation, and the government has been investing in Earth Observation satellites to assist in this task. In this context, images from the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) sensor onboard the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-4), CBERS-4A, and Amazonia-1 have been used in remote sensing applications in Brazil. However, the geometric accuracy of the WFI data has not yet been documented in the literature, as it was done for other satellites/sensors such as TERRA/MODIS, Landsat-8/OLI, and Sentinel-2/MSI. This work presents the first study to assess the geometric accuracy of WFI images along different spectral channels, from multi-temporal images, and taking Sentinel-2/MSI images as a reference. Surface reflectance WFI images, Level-4 (orthorectified) with spatial resolution of 55 m (CBERS-4A) and 64 m (CBERS-4 and Amazonia-1) were analysed. Thousands of control points (CPs) were used to quantify the geometric accuracy of more than 300 WFI images and to construct multiple mapping functions to correct the displacements found. The NIR band was taken as a reference in the inter-channel (band-to-band) registration evaluation. In this case, all tiles had an RMSE average of fewer than 0.44 pixels. For the multi-temporal case, the CBERS-4A/WFI had the highest average RMSE (0.87 ± 0.34 pixels). Considering the Sentinel-2/MSI as a reference, there were observed shifts up to 1.45 pixels for CBERS-4/WFI and Amazonia-1/WFI and 2.5 pixels for CBERS-4A/WFI. Given the displacements found, image registration is needed for further time series analysis of WFI images for several applications that requiring precise sub-pixel registration (i.e., land use cover change). As a result, we propose a framework for the automatic registration of WFI images to properly foster the use of WFI images. This framework substantially reduced the misregistrations, decreasing the RMSE average to less than 0.29 pixels for the WFI images from the three satellites. The use of the 2nd degree polynomial as a mapping function proved to be appropriate for registering the WFI data.

Human health in peril: The need to upgrade medical education in light of COVID-19.

While we might leave the COVID-19 pandemic behind, future health professionals are still confronted with another global phenomenon: the increasing pandemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Both issues are strongly interwoven, yet current medical education fails to address their syndemic nature accordingly. There is scientific consensus that (i) most emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, (ii) the overexploitation of earth's resources for animal protein production (i.e., tropical deforestation) rapidly escalates human contact with unknown pathogens, and (iii) people following a healthy plant-based diet present fewer rates of NCDs as well as severe illness and mortality from COVID-19. A shift toward whole food plant-based nutrition in the general population thus holds the potential to tackle both public health threats. We are convinced that it is every physician's responsibility to care for individual, public, and global health issues; however, future health professionals are not trained and educated regarding the health potential of plants and plant-based diets. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the urgent need for a “prevention first” approach. Therefore, in order to upgrade medical education worldwide and protect current and future human health properly, greater medical professional awareness of evidence on plant-based diets is urgently needed in classes, universities, and hospitals.

Efficient adsorption of La(III) by magnetic carbon nitride based ZIF-8 nanocomposites

The enrichment and recovery of low concentration rare earth ions from wastewater resources has become an important research direction to achieve high quality utilization of rare earth resources. In this experiment, graphitic carbon nitride was used as the substrate, which was firstly compounded with Fe3O4 to become magnetic graphitic carbon nitride material by alcohol heat method, and then in situ compounded with ZIF-8 in aqueous phase at room temperature to form the composite g-C3N4/Fe3O4@ZIF-8. Finally, the composite was characterized. The adsorption performance of g-C3N4/Fe3O4@ZIF-8 and the control g-C3N4/Fe3O4 and ZIF-8 for La(III) under various conditions was investigated by adsorption experiment. In addition, the types and mechanism of La(III) adsorption were discussed by kinetic, isothermal adsorption line and thermodynamic modeling studies. Finally, the stability performance and reusability of the composite were evaluated by regeneration experiments. The result show that g-C3N4/Fe3O4@ZIF-8 has good adsorption performance on lanthanide ions. g-C3N4/Fe3O4@ZIF-8 reached adsorption equilibrium at about 20 min. When pH is 6 and the solid–liquid ratio of adsorbent is 0.25 g/L, the adsorption amount was 176.68 mg/g. g-C3N4/Fe3O4@ZIF-8 had good selectivity for lanthanum(III), and it retains 81 % of initial adsorption performance after five times of reuse.

Bottom-Up Mechanism and Improved Contract Net Protocol for Dynamic Task Planning of Heterogeneous Earth Observation Resources

Earth observation resources are becoming increasingly indispensable in disaster relief, damage assessment, and other related domains. Many unpredictable factors, such as changes in observation task requirements, bad weather, and resource malfunctions, may cause the scheduled observation scheme to become infeasible. In these cases, it is crucial to promptly reformulate high-quality observation schemes while exerting minimal negative effects on the previously scheduled tasks. Accordingly, in this study, a bottom-up distributed coordination framework together with an improved contract net is proposed, aiming to facilitate dynamic task replanning for heterogeneous Earth observation resources. This hierarchical framework consists of three levels: 1) neighboring resource coordination; 2) single planning center coordination; and 3) multiple planning center coordination. The observation tasks affected by unpredicted factors are managed along with a bottom-up route from resources to planning centers. This bottom-up distributed coordination framework transfers part of the computing load to various nodes of the observation systems to plan tasks more efficiently and robustly. To support the prompt replanning of multiple tasks to proper Earth observation resources in dynamic environments, we propose a multiround combinatorial allocation (MCA) method. Moreover, a new float interval-based local search algorithm is proposed to quickly obtain a promising replanning scheme. The simulation results demonstrate that the MCA method can achieve a better task completion rate for large-scale tasks with satisfactory time efficiency. In addition, this method can efficiently obtain replanning schemes based on original schemes in dynamic environments.

Land Use/Land Cover Changes in a Disturbed River Watershed Kenya

Abstract Drivers of land use change were captured by the use of DPSIR model where Drivers (D) represented human needs, Pressures (P), human activities, State (S), the ecosystem, Impact (I) services from the ecosystem and Response (R), the decisions taken by land users. Land sat MSS and Land sat ETM+ (path 185, row 31) were used in this study. The Land sat ETM+ image (June 1987, May, 2000 and July, 2014) was downloaded from USGS Earth Resources Observation Systems data website. Remote sensing image processing was performed by using ERDAS Imagine 9.1. Two land use/land cover (LULC) classes were established as forest and shrub land. Severe land cover changes was found to have occurred from 1987-2000, where shrub land reduced by −19%, and forestry reduced by −72%. In 2000 – 2014 shrub land reduced by-45%, and forestry reduced by −64%. Forestry and shrub land were found to be consistently reducing.