Forest Encroachment Research Articles

Kajian Perubahan Kerapatan Vegetasi Pada Kawasan Taman Wisata Alam Ruteng Site Hutan Lok Pahar Akibat Perambahan Hutan

The activity of encroaching on the forest that occurs in the Ruteng Natural Park area site LokPahar forest to be used as agricultural land has had an impact, namely changes in the density ofvegetation in the forest area. This study aims to examine changes in vegetation density in the RutengNature Park area site Lok Pahar forest due to forest encroachment and examine efforts to prevent andcontrol forest encroachment. The results showed that there was a change in vegetation density in theRuteng Nature Park area based on the results of overlay NDVI (Normalized Difference VegetationIndex) on 2 Landsat 8 images, namely Landsat 8 Imagery in 2014 and in 2021. Changes in vegetationdensity in the Tourism Park area Alam Ruteng based on the results of the NDVI (NormalizedDifference Vegetation Index) overlay on 2 Landsat 8 images, namely Landsat 8 Imagery in 2014 andLandsat 8 Imagery 2021. The results of the 2014 Landsat Image NDVI calculation, the forest densityarea in the sparse vegetation density class is 49 .95 ha, and decreased by 1.29% in 2021 to 32.46 ha.In 2014 the medium-level vegetation density class was 384.39 ha, and in 2021 it increased by 2.74%,the medium-level vegetation density class was 421.64 ha. Then, in the dense vegetation density classof 926.73 ha, it decreased by 1.45% so that the area of dense vegetation density class became 906.97ha.

TANGGUNG JAWAB PENGAWASAN PEMERINTAH DALAM MELINDUNGI HUTAN PRODUKSI TERBATAS MAPONGKA DI KABUPATEN TANA TORAJA

Abstract This study aims to formulate, identify, and analyze the type of provincial government oversight necessary to safeguard the Mapongka Limited Production Forest (HPT) in Tana Toraja Regency, as well as the barriers that prevent the provincial government from keeping an eye on and reining in forest encroachment there. By gathering primary data in the form of interviews and secondary data obtained through literature study, this type of research discusses the manner in which the provincial government supervises itself as well as the barriers that prevent it from keeping an eye on and reining in forest squatters in the Tana Toraja Regency's Mapongka Limited Production Forest Area (HPT). The collected data were then subjected to qualitative analysis. The findings of this study suggest that (1) forestry authorities are in charge of supervision. Special police powers are granted to some officials. (1) Obstacles that prevent the provincial government from monitoring and controlling forest encroachers in the Mapongka Limited Production Forest Area (HPT) of Tana Toraja Regency because of a lack of personnel/HR UPT Saddang I Forest Management Unit, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of public awareness of the importance of controlling forest encroachment are covered by the authority of the forestry police. Keywords: Forest with little production, Government, Responsibility.

Global change effects on Mediterranean small mammal population dynamics: Demography of Algerian mice (Mus spretus) along land use and climate gradients

Climate and land use change are key global change drivers shaping future species' distributions and abundances. Negative interactions among effects of drivers can reduce the accuracy of models aimed at predicting such distributions. Here we analyse how climate and land use affected population dynamics and demography of the Algerian mouse (Mus spretus), an open-land thermophilic Mediterranean small mammal. Change to a warmer and drier climate would facilitate the expansion of the species, whereas landscape change (forest encroachment following extensive land abandonment) would produce its retreat. We correlated abundance and demography parameters computed from captures obtained in 16 plots during a 10-years period (2008–2017; SEMICE small mammal monitoring) with climate, vegetation and land use change. Climate became warmer and dryer, and afforestation due to encroachment occurred in 81 % of plots. Expected positive effects of climate warming, derived from bioclimatic niche models, were counterbalanced by negative effects of both increasing hydric deficit and changes in vegetation and landscape structure. Abundance showed a slight but significant decline (−5 %). The species' range was more resilient to change, as shown by occupancy analyses, apparently due to strong local effects of vegetation structure on occupancy. This result highlighted that negative population trends would not necessarily produce range retractions. Simultaneously analysing both abundance trends and occupancy patterns may thus allow for deeper understanding and more accurate predictions of expected population trends in response to interacting global change drivers.

Population development and landscape preference of reintroduced wild ungulates: successful rewilding in Southern Italy.

In the past decades, the abandonment of traditional land use practices has determined landscape changes inducing reforestation dynamics. This phenomenon can be contrasted with rewilding practices, i.e., the reintroduction of animals that may promote the recovery of landscape diversity. In this study, we explore the dynamics of expansion of two reintroduced populations of wild ungulates, Italian roe deer (Capreolus capreolus italicus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus), assessing their contribution in the recovery of landscape diversity. By using direct and indirect information on the two species, collected by nocturnal and diurnal surveys and camera trapping, we modelled a habitat suitability map, and estimated the density and distribution of the populations. We also performed a land use changes analysis, combining the presence of wild ungulates and livestock. We demonstrated that deer dispersed gradually from their release location, increasing in population size, and this occurred in the entire study area. Moreover, we show that areas with lower grazing density are significantly affected by forest encroachment. A possible interpretation of this result could be that wild grazers (roe deer and red deer) prefer semi-open areas surrounded by the forest. This, in association with other factors, such as domestic grazing, could be one of the main responsible in maintaining landscape mosaic typical of the Apennine mountain, confirming the value of grazers as a landscape management tool. Moreover, we show the possibility to conserve through reintroduction the vulnerable C.c. italicus.

Application of QUAL2kw and Forecasting models for assessment of pollutants in upper Athi River catchment in Kenya

Water pollution in the Athi river drainage basin, the fourth largest drainage basin in Kenya, has the potential of adversely impacting the aquatic biota and communities living downstream of the river. The upper part of the basin has experienced rapid industrialization in the recent past and there has also been increased encroachment of wetlands and forests for agriculture and settlement to cater for the increased population. The objective of this study was geared towards the generation of scenarios to predict future water quality trends in the upper parts of the Athi river basin. The prediction of the future water quality trends was undertaken in two phases: (i) the development of longitudinal water quality profile using QUAL2Kw model and (ii) prediction of the future water quality trends using the SPSS Forecasting tool. The collection of water quality data in established sampling stations located in the upper parts of the basin was carried out between January and December 2018. The archival data for the period 2015-2018 was obtained from Water Resources Authority (WRA) database for the determination of future trends in selected water quality parameters. The correlation analysis between the observed and predicted water quality parameters yielded strong R2 values for temperature-0.82, electrical conductivity-0.99, total dissolved solids-0.94, biochemical oxygen demand-0.66, chlorophyll a-0.89, total nitrogen-0.75 and total phosphorous-0.94. The standard error ranged between 0.01-0.42, indicating that the model is reliable for predicting water quality parameters in the river. The available archival monthly data from 2015 to 2018 were averaged for time series forecasting to generate future water quality scenarios of the river for the period 2019-2030. The results showed that dissolved oxygen exhibit a decreasing trend in future indicating depletion of oxygen in water. There will also be significant increasing trends for Electrical Conductivity, Total Suspended Solids, Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Iron in future. There is a risk that the pollutants will increase to unsafe levels in the Athi River if appropriate management actions are not taken by the concerned agencies

Spatio-temporal Analysis of Changes in Land Use-Land Cover for Conservation Efficacy of Urban Forest Reserve: The Case of Rau Forest Reserve, Tanzania

Changes in land use and land cover in different places around the globe have a significant impact on ecological structure and functions as well. Analysis of the changes in land use and land cover is useful in management activities, especially forest reserves as it reflects the interaction between adjacent communities and natural resources. Due to the rapid sprawl in urbanisation, there has been a rapid change in the human-land relationship. Rau Forest is situated in Moshi Municipality of Kilimanjaro Region in Tanzania. There have been several claims of a decrease in vegetation cover in this important forest reserve, although there is no documentation on such claims. It is on the basis of this background this study was conducted to explore the changes in land use and land cover in the Rau Forest reserve to show the management status of this ecosystem which is also located in an urban area where management activities have been a challenge. The land use and cover (LULC) Spatio-temporal changes in the Rau Forest were classified as Densely Vegetation, Slightly Vegetation, Grassland, Bare land, Built-up, and Waterbodies to evaluate qualitative and quantitative changes in this reserve through the use of GIS techniques and tools over time (1990, 2000 and 2019). Forest encroachment has driven changes in land use and land cover and transformed parts of the Rau Forest reserve into the urban settlement, and grazing lands which has ultimately led to gradual forest degradation. Landsat imageries for the year were used to identify the Spatio-temporal changes in vegetation in the area. This study shows the downward trend for the densely vegetated part of the reserve at the expense of expansion in the built-up area. The results demonstrate the urgent need for strong and more severe regulations concerning the protection of Rau Forest and other urban situated forest reserves against land use and land cover changes for the benefit of the present and future generations.

Back to the future: Climate change effects on habitat suitability of Parnassius apollo throughout the Quaternary glacial cycles

Abstract Alpine grasslands above the treeline are severely threatened by climate change, mainly due to forest expansion driven by warmer conditions. Analogous lowland grasslands experience severe reductions due to land‐use abandonment and forest encroachment. To address how climate change impacted open‐areas insects, we used Parnassius apollo as a model, a butterfly with wide Palearctic distribution inhabiting both alpine and low‐altitude steppe grasslands. We modelled upper Pleistocene range changes from the Last Interglacial (130 Kya) to the present and future (2050/2070), using medium and high greenhouse gas emission rates for the latter. We combined bioclimatic variables (Worldclim, Paleoclim, Chelsa) with distribution records of P. apollo and two of its most often used larval host plants (Sedum album; Hylotelephium telephium) to formulate species distribution models (SDMs) via the Maximum entropy method. We estimated a substantial range expansion during cold periods (last glacial maximum, 22 Kya) and contractions in warmer periods. Including the host plants in the models brought reduced suitable areas estimate, possibly due to differences in climatic requirements of hosts and the butterfly. Future projections of the extent of suitable climates are surprisingly better than would be expected from a warming climate, likely because the current distribution, especially at lower elevations, is probably restricted by habitat loss due to land abandonment and afforestation. We recommend preventing afforestation in critical habitats across Europe and Asia, and increasing survey activities to perform more accurate SDMs.

Presence-absence of plant habitat specialists in 15 patches of dry calcareous grassland.

Dry grasslands on calcareous bedrock in warm climates around the Oslo Fjord are naturally fragmented biodiversity hotspots. This habitat geographically coincides with the most densely populated area of Norway. Many habitat specialists, along with the habitat itself, are red-listed because of land-use change, forest encroachment, and invasive species that cause habitat loss and greater isolation of remaining patches. To ensure effective conservation, data on species presences and absences are necessary to quantify states, changes, and extinction risks in specific populations and habitat patches. We present presence-absence data of 49 vascular plant species in 15 patches of dry calcareous grassland habitat, surveyed in 2009, 2019, and in 2020. The species are considered to be habitat specialists and, thus, unlikely to occur between the patches.

Generating annual high resolution land cover products for 28 metropolises in China based on a deep super-resolution mapping network using Landsat imagery

ABSTRACT High resolution of global land cover dynamic is indicative for understanding the influence of anthropogenic activity on environmental change. However, most of the land cover products are based on Landsat image that only has 30 m resolution, which is insufficient to distinguish the heterogenous urban structure; while very high spatial resolution image usually has low temporal resolution, which is difficult to monitor the urban dynamic. Deep-learning-driven super-resolution mapping is a prevailing way of achieving very-high-resolution land cover dynamic products in aspect of alleviating the mixed pixel problem of Landsat image. However, two limitations are obvious: 1) the fixed grid of kernel during the upsampling process favors spatial homogeneity and suppresses the learning of spatial heterogeneity of urban composition and 2) geometric or radiation variation over large spatial and long temporal extent in remote sensing images makes the super-resolution mapping approach difficult to transfer for application. Here, we attempt to solve these two limitations: 1) a progressive edge-guided super-resolution architecture is designed to allow nonuniformed kernel specific at the low-confidence edge region and intensify the learning of heterogenous compositions’ patterns and 2) an alternating optimization strategy is designed to minimize the resultant entropy and modulate the classification hyperplane to accommodate to the manifold of the discrepant region. Validation experiments are investigated based on a fine-grained and large-extent super-resolution (FLAS) dataset constructed in this study, and it is found that our approach remarkably enhances rich detailed patterns of heterogenous region and outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms. Besides, we applied DETNet to the large spatial extent of 28 metropolises in China (>40,000 km2) and the large temporal extent of continuous 21-year (2000–2020) in Wuhan city to examine transferability. From the land cover areas variation, we find that the expansion rate of cropland is faster than the urban expansion over the past 10 years, which are gradually becoming the principal source for the encroachment of forest and lakes. From detailed urban dynamic reflected by the 21-year products, we find that urban-villages between the old city zone and the outer high-tech development zone are gradually disappeared. The captured dynamic is consistence with the urban-village renovation policy during this period, which is meant to redistribute the spatial configuration of the city for a more sustainable urban structure. We believe that the proposed method can facilitate a seamless and fine-grained observation system that can fill the weakness of the existing land cover activities and provide a brand-new insight into the urban dynamic and its underlying mechanism.

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON RISING WATER LEVELS OF LAKE NAKURU

Lake Nakuru is one of the rift valley lakes that has experienced flooding occasioned by climate change and catchment areas degradation. The increasing water levels have been a great threat to livelihoods and flora and fauna, to the extent of the lake experiencing flamingoes’ migration. There have been attempts to establish the causes of flooding, with some scientists attributing the phenomenon to tectonic movements and geothermal power plant activities. This research aimed at studying the impact of climate change on the rising water levels of the lake. The objective of this study included assessing the rainfall amounts and temperature variations around the lake over time and predicting the lake's flooding by modelling the surface area variations. Validated rainfall and temperature data, lake’s water level data with regards to surface area variations and Mau encroachment data were collected from the Kenya Meteorological Department, GIS applications and Landsat 8 and composite bands 5, 4 and 3 and the Kenya Water Towers Agency, respectively. Statistical analysis was done using Microsoft Excel 2013 and the relationship amongst various variables was determined. The statistical analysis involved a regression model equation, y=0.933x+26.606 with an r2 value of 0.79, where y-Lake Nakuru surface area (km2) and x- count of years since 1990. The findings showed that encroachment of Mau forest and high rainfall and temperature amounts in the 2010-2019 decade attributed to climate change are contributing factors to the lake’s flooding. It is concluded that climate change is a major contributing factor to the rising water levels of the lake and it greatly impacts hydrologic changes that the lake continues to experience. Therefore, catchment areas have to be protected to save the situation, not only for Lake Nakuru but also for other lakes in the region.

Forest Land Encroachment in Kehmil Forest Division of Kupwara District: Dimensions, Causes and Consequences.

This research aims to identify the areas under encroachment and its causes and consequences in the Kehmil forest division of the district of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir. The survey was conducted for two consecutive years during September 2020 to November 2020 and September 2021 to November 2021. The study area is dominated by (Himalayan dry-temperate to subalpine forest types). Cedrus deodar, Pinus excelsa, and Abies pindrow are the species in the Kupwara region with the highest importance value (IV). For data collection, direct observations of the encroached site, interviews and opinion of the locals, literature studies and analysis were done. The study area of 546.89 hectare land was encroached by 2178 encroachers. It was determined that the encroached area's agricultural system is a dry land one with horticultural crops as its primary plant types. The main reason for forest encroachment by the population is relatively huge such as rise in population and unemployment, restrictions on agricultural land and forest guard forces. Due to forest encroachment, the abolition of forest plant species in study area has altered the expected ranking of tree species identified in the undisturbed forest. Based on the present study, it is concluded that there is a need of extensive land-use regulations at the national and municipal levels to stop future deforestation by well-built protections for the remaining forest land in the Kehmil forest division.

Mapping Grounds for Infrastructural Reparations in Jaraguá Peak

Abstract For the Guarani Mbya, ka'aguy (Atlantic Forest) is sacred. Yet, only 12 percent of the Atlantic Forest's original coverage remains. A portion of that is in Jaraguá Peak. Two hundred years ago, São Paulo was ka'aguy. São Paulo's urban growth and the expansion of infrastructural networks (roads, power lines, dams) have disrupted Guarani infrastructures (the presence of Atlantic Forest, the continuity of paths between Guarani villages, access to clean water). Nonetheless, Guarani communities in São Paulo remake Guarani geographies every day, resisting Atlantic Forest encroachment and circumventing colonial networks. Guarani communities in the north and south of São Paulo hold a crucial infrastructural and environmental role for the entire city, increasing São Paulo's environmental security by recovering degraded soils and recuperating Atlantic Forest areas. This project maps the history of infrastructural dispossession in Jaraguá Peak. It represents the history of each infrastructural layer (roads, telecommunication towers, power lines) in sectional maps that expose long-term changes on the ground.

Rapid mixed forest encroachment and the expansion of red maple (Acer rubrum) in a peatland: a dendroecological and paleoecological approach

Some ombrotrophic peatlands in temperate regions have been characterized by a process of rapid densification of their forest cover for several decades. This phenomenon is particularly marked in southern Québec (Canada), where a number of peatlands now contain mixed forest stands. The present study aimed to document the woody encroachment dynamics of a peatland colonized by Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch and Acer rubrum L. The specific objectives were to characterize the contemporary dynamics of the forest cover through analysis of dendrometric, dendrochronological, and aerial photographs, and to reconstruct the evolution of tree species present in situ since the peatland’s origin through botanical identification of ligneous remains collected in excavations of the peat as well as macrofossil analysis of a sedimentary core. The vegetation cover underwent rapid transformation beginning in the 1970s, first by the densification of L. laricina, followed by the expansion of A. rubrum. This transformation followed several millennia during which the peatland continuously presented a shrub-dominated cover with a few scattered coniferous trees. The rapid expansion of a mixed forest cover is a unique event in the peatland’s history. Acer rubrum progressively replaced L. laricina and, in the more or less long-term, should become the dominant species.

Impact of COVID-19 in the forestry sector: A case of lowland region of Nepal

All walks of life have been affected by COVID-19 but smallholders from developing countries have been impacted more than others as they are heavily reliant on forest and agriculture for their livelihoods and have limited capacity to deal with COVID-19. Scholars are heavily engaged in assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on health and wellbeing, gender, food production and supply, stock market and the overall economy but not on the forestry sector. Using questionnaire surveys and key informant interviews—informed by grey literature and published articles— representing Division Forest Offices, Provincial Forest Directorates, and the Ministry of Forests and Environment in Nepal, this study assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the forestry sector of Nepal. Our analysis suggests that: (1) nature-based tourism is more severely affected than other sectors; (2) private, religious and leasehold forests faced minimal impacts of COVID-19 than that of community and government-managed forests; (3) wild boar (Sus scrofa), different species of deer, and birds have been more impacted than other wild animals; (4) the price of the timber has increased significantly whereas the price of non-timber forests products (NTFPs) has decreased; and (5) illegal logging and poaching have increased but the incidence of forest encroachment has been reduced. Our study further reveals that agroforestry practices in home gardens, borrowing money from neighbors/banks/landlords and liquidating livestock remained key alternatives for smallholders during COVID-19. Many studies reported that reverse migration could create chaos in Nepal, but our study suggests that it may enhance rural innovation and productivity, as returnees may use their acquired knowledge and skills to develop new opportunities. As COVID-19 has created a war-like situation worldwide, Nepal should come up with a forward-looking fiscal response with alternative income generation packages to local living to counter the impacts of COVID-19 on the forestry sector. One of the options could be implementing similar programs to that of India’s US$ 800 Compensatory Afforestation Program and Pakistan’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Program, which will create a win-win situation, i.e., generate employment for reverse migrants and promotes forest restoration.

Tropical environmental change in North Sumatra at the Last Glacial Maximum: Evidence from the stable isotope composition of cave guano

Insular Southeast Asia is of critical importance to global biodiversity, climate, and socioeconomics. Past environmental histories are a crucial factor influencing contemporary patterns and, in this region, fluctuating sea-level and climate change during the Last Glacial Period (LGP) resulted in drastic changes in both land extent and vegetation cover. However, understanding the past environments of this tropical region is hampered by its sheer size and relative lack of traditional continental proxy records, such as lake sediments. To provide further insight into the response of vegetation to the changing environmental conditions, we use the stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of a bat guano sequence from Liang Mbelen Cave in North Sumatra, to determine whether tropical grass (C4 vegetation) or forest (C3 vegetation) was present in the area from c. 30 to 10 cal kyr BP. Our results confirm the presence of C4 vegetation during the LGP; however, we find that the timing of grass expansion was just prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 23–19 kyr BP). Comparing Liang Mbelen with the other evidence from across the region, we find a generally consistent pattern of peak tropical grasses often occurring prior to the LGM in Sundaland, with the timing of forest encroachment variable, although beginning at c. 25 cal kyr BP. We find that the timing of the shift from savanna to forest systems in Sundaland is similar to changes in obliquity, likely resulting in a decrease or elimination of the dry season that favoured forest expansion. Understanding past vegetation history will help the management and protection of the fragile and ecologically valuable ecosystems of SE Asia.

Feedback in tropical forests of the Anthropocene.

Tropical forests are complex systems containing myriad interactions and feedbacks with their biotic and abiotic environments, but as the world changes fast, the future of these ecosystems becomes increasingly uncertain. In particular, global stressors may unbalance the feedbacks that stabilize tropical forests, allowing other feedbacks to propel undesired changes in the whole ecosystem. Here, we review the scientific literature across various fields, compiling known interactions of tropical forests with their environment, including the global climate, rainfall, aerosols, fire, soils, fauna, and human activities. We identify 170 individual interactions among 32 elements that we present as a global tropical forest network, including countless feedback loops that may emerge from different combinations of interactions. We illustrate our findings with three cases involving urgent sustainability issues: (1) wildfires in wetlands of South America; (2) forest encroachment in African savanna landscapes; and (3) synergistic threats to the peatland forests of Borneo. Our findings reveal an unexplored world of feedbacks that shape the dynamics of tropical forests. The interactions and feedbacks identified here can guide future qualitative and quantitative research on the complexities of tropical forests, allowing societies to manage the nonlinear responses of these ecosystems in the Anthropocene.

Impact of Plantation Induced Forest Degradation on the Outbreak of Emerging Infectious Diseases-Wayanad District, Kerala, India.

Simple SummaryThe emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) have increased recently due to forest degradation. This research is an attempt to understand the direct and indirect impact of forest degradation on infectious disease outbreaks in a specific context of the Wayanad district in Kerala, India. The study was done in two parts. In the first part, land use and land cover change of the Wayanad district was analyzed for the period of 1950 to 2018. The result of the analysis shows that a significant amount of forest has been converted into agricultural and forest plantations over the time. The second part involves understanding the impact of plantations on the outbreak of EIDs. We have employed GIS tools, remote sensing data, extensive field work and disease data to discover the relationship between the LULCC and disease outbreak. It was found that cases of EIDs were high in those gram panchayats where forests were encroached by plantations.The world has been facing a pandemic owing to COVID-19. We have also seen the geographic expansion and outbreaks of other emerging infectious diseases (EID) in recent years. This paper investigates the direct and indirect effects of land use land cover change (LULCC) on EID outbreaks in the context of Wayanad District of Kerala, India. Wayanad is in the vulnerable tropical forested region, and it is named as one of the four environmental change hotspots. The focus of this project is mainly three EIDs prevalent in this region: Kyasanur forest disease (KFD), Dengue and Leptospirosis. Our results, based on topographical map, remote sensing and extensive field work, show that the natural forest in Wayanad was replaced with agriculture and forest plantation during 1950–2018. This paper further suggests that encroachment of forest by forest plantation causes the human–animal conflict resulting in the outbreak of KFD cases. Our analysis reveals that a high number of Dengue cases is found in the forested regions of the district and over the adjacent human-made agriculture plantation areas. High and medium number of Leptospirosis cases contain a high portion of land area devoted to paddy cultivation and agricultural plantation. In summary, the results clearly show the linkage between the outbreak of above mentioned EIDs and LULCC in the context of Wayanad district, Kerala. We also discuss in detail the causal pathway involving human–environmental dynamics through which plantation leads to the outbreak of KFD. Replacing forests with plantations poses an alarming threat of disease outbreak in the community.

Geospatial Approaches to Model Renewable Energy Requirements of the New Capital City of Indonesia

Predicting how a planned city will develop and expand after its construction, and which resources, such as energy, the city will need over time is only possible if one can rely on similar examples and reliable models. Given the existing spatial plans for the design of the new capital city of Indonesia, there is a need to develop and compare city development scenarios–in spatial expansion, population size, resource, energy and food requirements. A combination of various geospatial data approaches can address this knowledge and assessment gap. This article investigates spatial expansion, forest encroachment and sustainable energy infrastructure requirements using open access geodata and models. The hypothesis is that the constitution of the new capital city of Indonesia can rely on existing energy infrastructures but may also need to rely on additional resources. The research approach was to collect and integrate different types of geospatial data related to land use, terrain characteristics and population growth assumptions and connect these to both urban growth models and predictions and energy. This relied on land use change methodologies and urban growth models to simulate and predict spatial effects, with ca particular focus on the expansion of energy requirements. The choice to focus on energy requirements additionally required a comparison of different kinds of energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. The conclusion is that all design and expansion scenarios indicate a possible spatial conflict between locating sustainable energy production facilities with maintaining ecologically sensitive areas. A possible solution is to make use of existing mining infrastructures to enhance sustainable energy production and to make use of dual land and water solar energy systems.

Environmental externalities of wood pellets from fast-growing and para-rubber trees for sustainable energy production: A case in Thailand

Wood pellets are one of biomass-based energy carriers considered important as renewable energy source. This study considers wood pellets for heat and power generation from fast-growing Leucaena and Acacia trees and para-rubber trees in a life cycle perspective. The objectives of this study are to estimate the actual cost (including environmental externalities) of heat and electricity production from wood pellets, and comparison with the external cost of fossil fuels, as well as forecasting the external cost arising from the increase in wood pellet demand. For both heat and electricity production, it was seen that when external costs are included, wood pellets are cheaper than lignite and fuel oil although the latter are cheaper when only internal costs are considered. Four recommendations for reducing the external costs of wood pellet production are: 1) to support sustainable agriculture for para-rubber trees and fast-growing trees, 2) to consider clean transportation in the supply chain, 3) wood pellet factory zoning, including good logistics, and 4) considering the external cost of wood pellets for polluter pays principle. These results and recommendations of the study can provide important information to consider towards adjusting the national energy plan and to have strict measures for avoiding problem shifting from the use of non-renewable resources (fossil fuels) to issues related to the use of biomass-based fuels (use of agro-chemicals, forest encroachment, and so on).

Inventarisasi Jenis dan Kerapatan Vegetasi di Resort Pengelolaan Hutan Alue Geulima Tahura Pocut Meurah Intan Aceh Besar

Abstract. The type of forest cover/vegetation in the Pocut Meurah Intan Forest Park Conservation Area (Tahura PMI) consists of primary natural forest, secondary natural forest and cultivation areas (gardens) that occurred due to forest encroachment by communities around the Tahura location. This study aimed to take an inventory of species and determine the density of vegetation in the Alue Geulima Forest Management Resort. This research used purposive sampling method with random start. The placement of plots with uniform systematic distribution sampling, namely the shape and distance of the plots are uniform. The results showed that of the 22 types of vegetation found in the Forest Management Resort Alue Geulima Tahura Pocut Meurah Intan Aceh Besar there were 492 individuals and the dominant species was puspa (Schima wallichi). Species density for seedlings, saplings, poles, and trees was 4200, 1248, 556, and 233 individuals ha-1, respectively. The species density at the seedling and sapling levels did not meet the average density standard for natural forest vegetation, while at the pole and tree levels met the standard.