Expansion Of Land Use Research Articles

Expansion of traditional land-use and deforestation: a case study of an adat forest in the Kandilo Subwatershed, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Deforestation issues are more problematic when indigenous (adat) communities, living within a forest, have lived there for many generations. These adat communities, who employ traditional land-use, are frequently accused of encroaching on the forest. To understand existing and future trends in the spatial patterns of the expansion of traditional land-use and deforestation, we conducted a case study in the Kandilo Subwatershed using mixed methods with image interpretation, spatial modelling and sociocultural surveys to examine the interrelationships between physical conditions, community characteristics and traditional land-use expansion. We investigated community characteristics through household interviews, communication with key informants, and discussions with focus groups. By using an area production model, we were able to analyze the effect of improved farming systems, policy intervention and law enforcement on traditional land-use expansion and deforestation. Based on our examination of a 20-year period of traditional land-use activities in adat forests, the evidence indicated that the steeper the slope of the land and the farther the distance from the village, the lower the rate of deforestation. Our study found that customary law, regulating traditional land-use, played an important role in controlling deforestation and land degradation. We conclude that the integration of land allocation, improved farming practices and enforcement of customary law are effective measures to improve traditional land productivity while avoiding deforestation and land degradation.

Urban expansion using remote-sensing data and a monocentric urban model

The expansion of urban land use is an indispensable tool of urban policy, particularly in developing countries which are facing rapid urbanization. However, most sophisticated spatial-analysis methods used in developed countries are not applicable to developing countries due to the limited availability of spatially-resolved statistical data. This study examines the applicability of a simple, classic monocentric urban model for capturing urban activities in three Chinese cities in 2003 and 2013. The model estimates traffic cost, goods consumption, area of available residential floor space, and rents for residential floor space by aggregating urban statistics and estimating urban areas using remote sensing data. We find that some predictions of our model are inaccurate due to its simple, static nature; however, the model predicts meaningful temporal trends in key variables and meaningful differences among the population and economic growth trajectories of the three cities. Our results imply that the classic monocentric model is useful for approximating urban activities and for strategic planning of urban traffic policies, as it allows tracing of the causal mechanisms of urban activity and furnishes estimates for several critical statistical measures needed for policy evaluation. Although a monocentric model may not allow detailed representation of urban activity, we show that our simple model nonetheless offers advantages for studying urban planning practices in developing nations in which the availability of statistical data is limited.

Investigation on the Expansion of Urban Construction Land Use Based on the CART-CA Model

Change in urban construction land use is an important factor when studying urban expansion. Many scholars have combined cellular automata (CA) with data mining algorithms to perform relevant simulation studies. However, the parameters for rule extraction are difficult to determine and the rules are simplex, and together, these factors tend to introduce excessive fitting problems and low modeling accuracy. In this paper, we propose a method to extract the transformation rules for a CA model based on the Classification and Regression Tree (CART). In this method, CART is used to extract the transformation rules for the CA. This method first adopts the CART decision tree using the bootstrap algorithm to mine the rules from the urban land use while considering the factors that impact the geographic spatial variables in the CART regression procedure. The weights of individual impact factors are calculated to generate a logistic regression function that reflects the change in urban construction land use. Finally, a CA model is constructed to simulate and predict urban construction land expansion. The urban area of Xinyang City in China is used as an example for this experimental research. After removing the spatial invariant region, the overall simulation accuracy is 81.38% and the kappa coefficient is 0.73. The results indicate that by using the CART decision tree to train the impact factor weights and extract the rules, it can effectively increase the simulation accuracy of the CA model. From convenience and accuracy perspectives for rule extraction, the structure of the CART decision tree is clear, and it is very suitable for obtaining the cellular rules. The CART-CA model has a relatively high simulation accuracy in modeling urban construction land use expansion, it provides reliable results, and is suitable for use as a scientific reference for urban construction land use expansion.

Identification of the long-term patterns of catchment development and diatom community changes in Xihu Lake, Dali, Yunnan, China

Limnological studies have long focused on the nine largest plateau lakes and ecological assessment of lake eutrophication in Yunnan. However, comprehensive surveys of small and me-dium-sized lakes and their response to multiple stressors are largely absent. Here, we combined multi-proxy sediment analyses and documentary data, aiming to identify the long-term pattern of diatom community changes under the influence of climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, and to quantify their driving strengths. The results showed that Xihu Lake was in a pre-impact state with little ecological variability before the 1950s. Thereafter, expansion of land use increased the nutrient input and altered the lake hydrology, resulting in a significant shift of dominant diatoms from Cocconeis placentula to Fragilaria spp. From 1997, accelerating nutrient enrichment and hydrological changes led to the replacement of benthic diatoms by planktonic ones, resulting in a consistent loss of macrophytes and a decrease of ecological stability. Therefore, the types and strength of catchment development should be fully evaluated for effective protection of small and medium-sized alpine lakes in the context of global warming.

Resisting Dams and Plantations: Indigenous Identity in Sarawak

The market and community are always intertwined, and sustained through economic power, social obligations and ideologies. In Sarawak, Malaysia, the expansion of land use for the development of cash crops and energy infrastructure has faced resistance from indigenous communities who depend upon land for subsistence lifestyles. In this encounter, values and cultures are reworked, and the ways in which the community and market rely upon each other in the community changes. The examination of the rice and wild foods sustenance lifestyle of the indigenous Kenyah in Sarawak, Malaysia, and resistance against land development projects, suggest that in the conflicts over land use, the indigenous groups increasingly view themselves less as subsistence farmers and more as autonomous landowners. During these encounters, indigenous groups become increasingly dependent on the market, but in doing so, construct an identity that is even more communal, although without any cultural specificity.

Examining the impacts of socioeconomic factors, urban form, and transportation networks on CO2 emissions in China’s megacities

In addition to socioeconomic factors, urban planning and transportation organization are beginning to play an increasingly important role in the reduction of CO2 emissions. However, little attention has been paid to the ways in which this emerging role can be framed. Therefore, this study aims to examine the combined impacts of socioeconomic and spatial planning factors on CO2 emissions in cities that have experienced rapid urbanization, using an econometric model and a comprehensive panel dataset incorporating socioeconomic, urban form, and transportation factors for four Chinese megacities—Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou, —in the period 1990–2010. Making use of remote sensing land-use data, the digitization of transportation maps, and a set of socioeconomic data, we developed an extended STRIPAT model in order to empirically estimate the impacts of the selected variables on CO2 emission levels in these cities. The results indicate that the socioeconomic factors of economic growth, urbanization, and industrialization will lead to increased CO2 emissions, while the service level and technology level can contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The results also suggest that the expansion of urban land use and increases in urban population density should be controlled through urban planning measures in order to reduce CO2 emissions. In addition, pursuing compact urban development patterns would also help to reduce CO2 emissions. Transportation factors including urban road density and the traffic coupling factor were both found to have exerted significant negative effects on CO2 emission levels, indicating that increases in the coupling degree between urban spatial structure and traffic organization can also contribute to reducing such emissions. Our results cast a new light on the importance of practices of urban planning and spatial optimization measures in achieving CO2 emission reductions. The findings obtained in this study are seen as providing important decision support in building low-carbon cities in China.

Study on the formation and geometries of rainfall-induced landslide dams

Recently, the occurrence of landslide dam problems has been aggravated due to the effects caused by climate change and the further expansion of land use in mountainous areas. Knowledge of landslide dam formation and its geometry is very necessary to accurately evaluate dam stability and hence provide good predictions for disaster preparedness. In previous studies, landslide dam formation was considered as a separate issue; its link with slope failure was ignored, and thus their description and interpretation are still inadequate. Previous models also were limited to evaluate landslide dam shape in 2 dimensions (2D). Through a series of experiments, this study aims to analyze the effect of different slope failure mechanism on the formation of landslide dam. This study also integrated 2D seepage flow model, 2D slope stability model, landslide dam-geometry evaluation model in a single unit and proposed a new method to estimate the landslide dam shape in lateral direction (3D). The experimental results indicated that in the sudden failure, the failed mass can quickly block the river width, making a high impact in regard to dam construction. In retrogressive failure, the shape of dam was formed layers by layers which slowly span to the other side of river and to both up and downstream direction. The results also showed the failed volume and river bottom slope are the two most essential factors that dominate the shape of landslide dam. The simulation results including the failure surface, landslide volume and shape of landslide dam in lateral direction were comparable with those observed from the experiments.

The influence of historic land-use changes on hillslope erosion and sediment redistribution

Agricultural societies around the world have dramatically altered the natural landscape, particularly through accelerated soil erosion. The expansion of agricultural land use into steeper headwater areas during the Medieval period in central Europe is known to have caused large increases in soil erosion and sediment redistribution downstream. Although land-use practices changed and improved following this initial impact, it is currently unknown whether changes in land-use techniques also improved hillslope soil erosion and sediment redistribution rates. In this paper, we use a variety of techniques, including chrono-stratigraphy, wood charcoal analysis and a geostatistical model, to reconstruct land-use and erosion rates for the period spanning the Medieval Period to the present (1100–300 years ago) in a small headwater catchment in central Europe. Coupling land-use, hillslope erosion and sediment redistribution fluxes, we find the largest flux change occurs because of the initial deforestation at the beginning of the Medieval Period (1100 years ago). Following deforestation, we identified three main types of land-use techniques that were practised between ~1100 and 300 years ago: Horticulture, cropping agriculture and rotational birch silviculture, the last of which represents the earliest evidence for this practice found in central Europe to date. However, we find only small differences in hillslope fluxes throughout the catchment despite the variable land-use techniques employed. This is because the land-use techniques primarily influenced and increased the hillslope sediment storage capacity rather than erosion rates directly, which is an important distinction to consider for future work attempting to link changes in human land use and hillslope erosion.

Large-scale impact of climate change vs. land-use change on future biome shifts in Latin America.

Climate change and land-use change are two major drivers of biome shifts causing habitat and biodiversity loss. What is missing is a continental-scale future projection of the estimated relative impacts of both drivers on biome shifts over the course of this century. Here, we provide such a projection for the biodiverse region of Latin America under four socio-economic development scenarios. We find that across all scenarios 5-6% of the total area will undergo biome shifts that can be attributed to climate change until 2099. The relative impact of climate change on biome shifts may overtake land-use change even under an optimistic climate scenario, if land-use expansion is halted by the mid-century. We suggest that constraining land-use change and preserving the remaining natural vegetation early during this century creates opportunities to mitigate climate-change impacts during the second half of this century. Our results may guide the evaluation of socio-economic scenarios in terms of their potential for biome conservation under global change.

Proposed Relief Map of the Suitability of the Maranhão River Basin, Brazil, for Anthropogenic Use

In this paper, we proposed a method for mapping the suitability of land for intensive anthropogenic use in the Maranhao River Basin, in the state of Goiás, Brazil. We analyzed existing 1:250,000 maps of the local geology, drainage system topography and geomorphological features. We generated new information based on our analysis, including a compilation of basic morphometric data and a map of the slopes in the basin, which we used to construct the geomorphological suitability map of the watershed. Our results indicate that 40% of the study area can support intensive anthropogenic use; the remaining 60% of the basin area is categorized as “fragile” regarding the expansion of intensive land use.

The seed bank of subtropical grasslands with contrasting land-use history in southern Brazil

The expansion of land use for agriculture is among the main reasons for the reduction of natural grasslands around the world, and little is known about the recovery potential of original native grassland vegetation from seed banks. The aim of this study was to assess the seed bank potential of grassland areas with or without history of cultivation in southern Brazil. Specifically, we aimed at evaluating if agricultural use allowed for the persistence of species typical of natural grasslands in soil seed banks. We analyzed seed banks in two areas with a history of cultivation and in two natural grasslands. Samples were collected in spring and autumn in order to assess transient and persistent components, and were characterized by density, richness, presence of exotic species and relationship between seed bank and established vegetation. Both richness and density were high; we found a total of 114 species and a mean density of 61,796 seedlings/m2 for all four areas in the spring sampling. In the natural grasslands, the dominant species of established vegetation were mostly absent from the soil seed bank. Our study indicates that the seed bank is of little relevance for the recovery of typical grassland vegetation after disturbance.

Patterns and changes of land use and land-use efficiency in Africa 1980–2005: an analysis based on the human appropriation of net primary production framework

African land systems play a decisive role in addressing future sustainability challenges for food and energy supply—in Africa and potentially elsewhere. Knowledge on the magnitude and efficiency of current land use and its socio-economic frame conditions is scarce but required to provide an appropriate basis for estimating production potentials and efficiency improvements. We apply the human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) framework to analyze African land systems and their dynamics between 1980 and 2005. HANPP measures human-induced changes in ecological biomass flows and allows analyzing the efficiency with which humans use the natural resource NPP (Net Primary Production). In 2005, African HANPP amounts to 20 %, which is below the global average of 23 %, and has grown significantly (+55 %) since 1980. HANPP efficiency (i.e., the ratio of used biomass extraction to total HANPP) is low (35 %) in contrast to the global average of 48 %. Large regional variations (ranging from 18 % in Central Africa to >100 % in Northern Africa) and only small improvements of +11 % on average have been observed. In the study period, the growth of HANPP has been mostly driven by land-use expansion. We conclude that the observed low HANPP efficiency in Africa suggests that there may be potentials for improving the efficiency of biomass production on existing land-uses rather than increasing output trough further land expansion. We discuss policy implications that could help better utilizing existing potentials to increase land-use efficiency in a sustainable manner.

Are High-Severity Fires Burning at Much Higher Rates Recently than Historically in Dry-Forest Landscapes of the Western USA?

Dry forests at low elevations in temperate-zone mountains are commonly hypothesized to be at risk of exceptional rates of severe fire from climatic change and land-use effects. Their setting is fire-prone, they have been altered by land-uses, and fire severity may be increasing. However, where fires were excluded, increased fire could also be hypothesized as restorative of historical fire. These competing hypotheses are not well tested, as reference data prior to widespread land-use expansion were insufficient. Moreover, fire-climate projections were lacking for these forests. Here, I used new reference data and records of high-severity fire from 1984–2012 across all dry forests (25.5 million ha) of the western USA to test these hypotheses. I also approximated projected effects of climatic change on high-severity fire in dry forests by applying existing projections. This analysis showed the rate of recent high-severity fire in dry forests is within the range of historical rates, or is too low, overall across dry forests and individually in 42 of 43 analysis regions. Significant upward trends were lacking overall from 1984–2012 for area burned and fraction burned at high severity. Upward trends in area burned at high severity were found in only 4 of 43 analysis regions. Projections for A.D. 2046–2065 showed high-severity fire would generally be still operating at, or have been restored to historical rates, although high projections suggest high-severity fire rotations that are too short could ensue in 6 of 43 regions. Programs to generally reduce fire severity in dry forests are not supported and have significant adverse ecological impacts, including reducing habitat for native species dependent on early-successional burned patches and decreasing landscape heterogeneity that confers resilience to climatic change. Some adverse ecological effects of high-severity fires are concerns. Managers and communities can improve our ability to live with high-severity fire in dry forests.

Soil Property Variations Under Different Land Use/ Cover Types In Traditional Agricultural Landscape In Northeast India

Clearing of forests and their subsequent conv ersion into croplands greatly influence soils in terms of its water holding capacity, structure stability and compactness, nutrient supply and storage as well as its biological life. Consequently, many agricultural soils in the tropics are now below their potential levels. In this paper we are reporting that there is expansion of agricultural land use in Northeast India at the expense of forest area in order to meet increasing human population and market demands. New land use/ cover types are also being introduced for commercial and well as subsistence purpose. On the other hand fallow period of shifting agriculture has been reduced. We suggest that a minimum fallow period of seven years is necessary sufficiency of soil nutrients and vegetation in this humid subtropical mountain landscape of Northeast India.

Socio-hydrological water balance for water allocation between human and environmental purposes in catchments

Abstract. Rebalancing water allocation between human consumptive uses and the environment in water catchments is a global challenge. This paper proposes a socio-hydrological water balance framework by partitioning catchment total evapotranspiration (ET) into ET for society and ET for natural ecological systems, and establishing the linkage between the changes of water balance and its social drivers and resulting environmental consequences in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, over the period 1900–2010. The results show that the 100-year period of water management in the MDB could be divided into four periods corresponding to major changes in basin management within the socio-hydrological water balance framework: period 1 (1900–1956) – expansion of water and land use for the societal system, period 2 (1956–1978) – maximization of water and land use for the societal system, period 3 (1978–2002) – maximization of water use for the societal system from water diversion, and period 4 (2002–present) – rebalancing of water and land use between the societal and ecological systems. Most of management changes in the MDB were passive and responsive. A precautionary approach to water allocation between the societal and ecological systems should be developed. The socio-hydrological water balance framework could serve as a theoretical foundation for water allocation to evaluate the dynamic balance between the societal and ecological systems in catchments.

Future Land-Use Changes and the Potential for Novelty in Ecosystems of the United States

Rapid global changes due to changing land use, climate, and non-native species are altering environmental conditions, resulting in more novel communities with unprecedented species combinations. Understanding how future anthropogenic changes may affect novelty in ecosystems is important to advance environmental management and ecological research in the Anthropocene. The main goal of this study was to understand how alternative scenarios of future land-use change may affect novelty in ecosystems throughout the conterminous United States. We used five spatially explicit scenarios of future land-use changes, reflecting different land-use policies and changes in agricultural markets, to quantify and map potential drivers of novelty. Our results showed large areas where future land-use changes may increase novelty in ecosystems. The major land-use changes known to increase novelty, including land abandonment and land-use expansion, were widespread in all scenarios (73 million to 95 million ha), especially in the eastern U.S. and along the West Coast. Our scenarios revealed that, at broad scales, future land-use changes will increase novelty in ecosystems, and that traditional conservation policies may have limited ability to prevent the process. In places such as the eastern U.S., conserving and maintaining historical conditions and associated biological diversity may become increasingly difficult due to future land-use changes and related ecological factors. Successful biodiversity conservation and environmental management in the Anthropocene will require novel conservation approaches to be relevant in areas with high levels of novelty in ecosystems.

The transformation of urban industrial land use: A quantitative method

A large number of cities around the world today owe their land use growth to the rapid development of industrial areas. The spatial structure of industrial distribution in cities shape urban spatial morphology linking with land use, transportation, economic activities, and housing. Meanwhile, growth and expansion of city population and land use reconfigure the spatial structure of industrial distribution. Research into urban industrial spatial distribution and its transformation process may help urban planners and decision makers understand the land use and population dynamics of a city. Genetic algorithms are believed to be one kind of the promising methods to simulate this dynamic process. In this paper, we propose a novel method to simulate urban industrial spatial distribution and its transformation process in Shanghai, China. The results show that along with increasing urban land price over time, industries are going to move outward from the city center. However, the maximum profit of a firm tends to decrease, which could lead industrial factories to move beyond city boundary. The analysis of the current industrial spatial distribution in Shanghai indicates that, when land price in a city rises above a specific threshold, new government policies and other competitive advantages need to be enacted if the city wants to retain industrial firms within the city boundary.

Spatial expansion and potential of construction land use in the Yangtze River Delta

Based on remote sensing data of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in the years of 1991, 2001 and 2008, the paper built an index system of land use potential restraint factors in YRD, according to geological condition, terrain condition, water area, natural reserve area and basic farmland, and evaluated construction land potential based on the platform of GIS spatial analysis model. The results showed that: (1) the construction land increased rapidly since 1991 and reached 24,951.21 km2 in 2008, or 21.27% of the total area. Among all the cities in the YRD, Shanghai took the greatest percentage, followed by Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Spatially, areas where government departments are located became the growth center of construction land. Prefecture-level cities were the fastest growth region and the changing trend showed circle layered characteristics and significant increase with Shanghai and Suzhou as the core. (2) The higher the quality of construction land potentials (CLP), the smaller the number of CLP units. High sensitive area accounted for the largest percentage (40.14%) among all types of constraint regions and this was followed by medium sensitive region (31.53%) of the whole region. (3) The comprehensive CLP in the YRD was 24,989.65 km2, or 21.76% of the total YRD. The land use potential showed spatial distribution imbalance. CLP of Zhejiang was obviously larger than that of Jiangsu. CLP was insufficient in regional central city. Moreover, CLP in the YRD formed a circle layered spatial pattern that increasingly expanded centered in prefecture-level cities. Low potential area expanded from north to south. High potential area was mainly located in south YRD. Areas with zero potential in the YRD formed a northwest-southeast “Y-shaped” spatial pattern in north Hangzhou Bay. (4) CLP per capita in YRD was 0.045 ha/person and also unevenly distributed. Some 25.57% of the study units at county level nearly had no construction land and 8.24% of the units had CLP per capita below the national average level. CLP per capita in less than 25% of the county-level units was larger than the YRD average level, which were mainly located in Zhejiang. Therefore, research on the construction potential area in YRD was favorable for analysis of the development status and potential space of this region under the background of rapid urbanization and industrialization.

Digital Modeling of Land Use Changes in Some Parts of Eastern Nigeria

Landuse expansion, spatial and temporal variability of the area has been studied between 1986 and 2002 via statistical classification approaches based on the remotely sensed images obtained from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Extended Thematic Mapper (ETM+) sensors. Multi-temporal images, landuse/land cover changes were detected by means of remote sensing. From the result of supervised classification, the process of landuse/land cover changes and the model of expansion were analyzed by Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies. Seven cover classes were identified namely light vegetation, thick vegetation, swamp vegetation, settlement, sand dune, bare soil/erosional areas and water body. The confusion matrix showed a high overall classification accuracy of 77% and Ksat statistics of 71% for the classified map. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area was created from digitized topographic contour lines at 1:50,000 scale. Additional information was derived from geologic and vegetation maps of the area to delineate spatial extent of landuse/land cover. Maps generated for these years were overlaid to obtain a change detection map showing the dynamic growth in land use changes for the two periods. Result also showed that during the study period from 1986 to 2002, the vegetation reduced from 47.7% to 14.4% in the study, more than double in 16 years, showing a strong trend of expansion of settlement as well as growth in baresoil area, perhaps due to sand mine or erosion. The research work shows that land use/land cover change detection using multi-temporal images by means of remote sensing and GIS modeling are good means of analyzing dynamic changes in time sequence.

Abandoned altitudes? Decrease and expansion of grassland in the hinterland of Popayán, Southern Colombian Andes

Due to their ecological disadvantages, many mountain regions have experienced land-use abandonment and shrub encroachment on former grassland at higher altitudinal zones—especially during recent decades of urbanization. But does this trend also apply to the hinterland of urban settlements? By using the Southern Colombian example of Popayan, a medium-sized city located in the Northern Andes, we can show that the landscape changes observed between 1989 and 2010 can hardly be related to agricultural abandonment. Hypsometric variations of land-cover change indicate that, until 2001, woods or shrubland expanded faster at the lower altitudinal range adjacent to the city than at the more remote higher zones. In contrast, after 2001 grassland areas increased on former woods or shrubland at all altitudinal belts. Both periods thus present developments that can be interpreted as the result of land-use expansion below 2000 m asl and land-use persistence in the tierra fria of the mountain city’s hinterland.