Land In Study Area Research Articles

Comprehensive assessment of land degradation in the arid and semiarid area based on the optimal land degradation index model

Paying attention to land degradation in drylands is of international significance because it plays a crucial role in global food production. This study developed the optimal land degradation index (OLDI) model for arid and semiarid areas. The model utilized a system that assessed soil condition, climate response, human disturbance, and vegetation growth. It was based on a constrained optimization algorithm. Based on the analysis of the distribution pattern of the OLDI in the Hexi Corridor, this study aims to explore the spatial and temporal characteristics of land degradation and the variations in land sensitivity to degradation across different seasons through trend analysis. Furthermore, the main variables that control the environment and are responsible for land degradation or improvement were revealed through the analysis of driving factors. It was found that the oasis areas in the southern part of the Hexi Corridor experienced land improvement due to the combined influence of human activities and climate change, while the northern region underwent continuous land degradation. However, overall, the majority of the study area's land remained stable. The reduction in precipitation and the increase in wind speed were identified as the primary driving forces behind land degradation. Different vegetation types exhibited distinct responses to environmental control factors, and these responses varied significantly with the changing seasons. Based on the regional variations in land degradation and the observed sensitivity characteristics during different seasons, this study proposes a land management strategy that combines natural recovery with artificial restoration to achieve effective prevention, control, and management of land degradation. This study provided an effective tool for monitoring land degradation in arid and semiarid areas, which is of significant importance for land resource management and the sustainable development of the green economy, not only in the northwest region of China but also in arid and semiarid areas worldwide.

Land Suitability Assessment for Cereal Crops in Sainamaina Municipality Nepal


 
 
 Land suitability is the fitness of a given type of land for a defined use. The land may be considered in its present condition or after improvements. This paper aims to present the land suitability of the study area for major cereal crops. The present study is conducted in ward no. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of Sainamaina municipality Rupandehi district Nepal. Soil samples were taken from 29 different pits from polygon generated by intersecting land system map and land capability map within agricultural land use map with the help of geographic information system. Collected soil samples were tested in soil the laboratory of central department of geography, Tribhuwan University. Land suitability for major cereal crops paddy, wheat, maize and millet were derived from FAO guideline for land evaluation. As a result, the land of study area is found more suitable for wheat followed by paddy maize and millet.
 
 

Impact of overgrazing and climate change on the lake ecosystem in arid region

Mongolia's geographical location, extreme climate, fragile ecosystems, agricultural dependence on climate requires adaptation to global climate change and smart usage of natural resources. The water level of most lakes in Mongolia had been steadily increasing from mid-1960s to 1995 and declining from 1996. The purpose of this study is to determine current condition by each ecosystem compartment in and around the Lake Duruutsagaan and to define cause of the lake shrinking and deterioration of ecosystem. The Lake Duruutsagaan ecosystem study was carried out in the following natural elements: climate, hydrology, hydrobiology, forest, soil, pasture, plant species composition, and animals. The lake surface area was slightly decreased by 24.21% from 10.02 km2 in 2003 to 7.59 km2 in 2017. The lake water is highly mineralized, probably due to increases of evaporation of water. Also elevated concentrations of some chemical elements are detected in the lake water, including Phosphorus (22.6 mg L-1) and Arsenic (198 mg L-1). The high concentration of these two elements shown different kind of pollution existed in the lake. Probably, arsenic content in lake water is related to the geological composition of surrounding area, but elevated concentration of P can be attributed to the nutrient pollution due to soil erosion in surrounding area of lake. Species diversity in this lake is limited and only a few species of crustaceans that can tolerate under high salinity and polluted condition are present. All of soil samples have a low content of clay particles (between 2.6-8.5%). According to the soil samples data, pasture land in study area is moderately 80.95%, strongly 7.04% deteriorated due to direct and indirect effects of overgrazing. Especially, natural regeneration is not observed in the forest area. According to the study results, current condition of Lake Duruutsagaan and its surrounding area is indicating the need for some protection and restoration management.

Study on the Impact of Land-Use Change on Runoff Variation Trend in Luojiang River Basin, China

To reveal the influence process of land use changes on runoff variation trends, this paper takes the Luojiang River of China as the study area, and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was constructed to quantitatively analyze the impact of different land uses on runoff formation in the watershed, and used the Cellular Automata-Markov (CA-Markov) model to predict future land use scenarios and runoff change trends. The results show that: (1) the SWAT model can simulate the runoff in the Luojiang River basin; (2) the runoff in the Luojiang River basin has a decreasing trend in recent 10 years, caused by the decrease of rainfall and runoff due to changes in land use; (3) the forecast shows that the land-use changes in the basin will lead to an increase in runoff coefficient in 2025. The increase of the runoff coefficient will bring some adverse effects, and relevant measures should be taken to increase the water storage capacity of urban areas. This study can help plan future management strategies for the study area land coverage and put forward a preventive plan for the possible adverse situation of runoff variation.

Susceptibility assessment of human–leopard conflict in Aravalli landscape of Haryana using geospatial techniques

Increasing global population pressure and related proliferations in demands for resources which eventually resulted in sensitive pressure on regions covering valued biodiversity. Human–wildlife conflict is one of the most common issues in conservation, encircling a huge diversity of circumstances and species. However, reasons of conflict are frequently more complex than predicted and issues which can affect human behaviour in these circumstances need to be implicit. The Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) populations are being isolated in their micro habitat due to landscape fragmentation and increasing anthropogenic pressure over the India. Therefore, encounters between Leopards, livestock and humans are increasing in many areas, rising concerns about the costs of Leopards conservation. The present study aimed to assess of human–leopard conflict in the Aravalli landscape of Haryana (Gurugram, Mewat and Faridabad districts), India. The study was undertaken to investigate the ecological aspects of human–leopard conflict through spatial characteristics and dynamics of such conflict. In the present study, GPS field survey and mapping were done for the conflict’s sites in three districts of Haryana by the reference of newspaper articles, news reports and internet sources. Afterwards, GPS field survey was carried out to verify conflict sites in the landscape. To understand ecological aspects of human–leopard conflict, the result shows that forest cover in the Aravalli landscape has been decreased continuously from 1996 to 2018. It has been also recorded that barren rocky land has been reduced in the given time period. In contrast, agriculture and settlement have been increased dramatically from 1996 to 2018. The change matrix analyses show that forest cover and barren rocky land has been converted in agriculture land as well as human settlements. In the study area, it has also been found that water bodies have also been declined. For Susceptibility zonation, 10 parameters were selected and prepared by help of literature review and validated using linear support vector machine model. Maxent model was run for 30-m grain size and output suggested a susceptibility zone for human–leopard conflict in the Gurugram, Faridabad and Mewat. The study concludes that the human–leopard conflicts were mostly recorded in the area which has been converted from forest land to agriculture or settlements and they were found to be most susceptible. The human–leopard conflicts were also recorded at the edge of forested land in study area.

Penentuan Tingkat Kerusakan Lahan pada Berbagai Bentuk Penggunaan Lahan di Daerah Gumelar, Kabupaten Banyumas Jawa Tengah

Land degradation represents a form of land productivity decrease that occurs due to the presence of incompatible land usage with land characteristic, which resulted in land capacity deterioration. Land degradation evaluation is determined based on Government Regulation No.150/2000 regarding land degradation control for biomass production, and Living Environment Minister Regulation No. 7/2006 for criteria standardization on soil measurement of biomass production. This research was conducted to evaluate land degradation levels based on physical characteristics of several land use patterns in Gumelar Region. The research used a survey method with homogenous land unit (HLU). HLU approaches were obtained from overlay between land use map and slope map. The measured parameters were i.e. solum thickness, surface rockiness, soil texture, bulk density, porosity and permeability. Results of the samples analysis were compared with the parameters values on Goverment Regulation No. 150/2000. The results of the research showed 69,7% of the total area of Gumelar had undergone land degradation. Garden land use contributed 51.5% land degradation, which was divided into several classes i.e. good and slight damage potential was 12.0%, slightly damaged was 17.7%, slightly damaged with damage potential was 4.8%, and damaged was 17.1%. Dry land contributed to damaged land degradation of 11.3%, and categorized entirely as slightly damaged, while the shrub land use contributes 6.9% of degraded land (with 2.8% and 4.1% were good with slight damage potential and slightly damaged with damage potential, respectively). Largest contribution of land damage towards land degradation was dry land, all dry land in study area were in slightly damaged condition. Garden was the land use with lowest land degradation, which indicates the most suitable land use in the studied area was garden. Keywords: land use, land degradation, homogenous land unit, overlay

SPATIO-TEMPORAL ASSESSMENT OF MARGALLA HILLS FOREST BY USING LANDSAT IMAGERY FOR YEAR 2000 AND 2018

Abstract. Environmental imbalance due to human activities has shown serious threat to ecosystem and produced negative impacts. The main goal of this study is to identify, monitor and classify temporal changes of forest cover, build up and open spaces in Margalla Hills National Park, Islamabad. Geographic Information Sciences (GISc) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques has been used for the assessment of analysis. LANDSAT-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) and LANDSAT-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) were utilized for obtaining data of year 2000 and 2018. Temporal changes were evaluated after applying supervised classification and discrimination was analyzed by Per-Pixel based change detection. Results depicts forest cover decrease from 87 % to 74 % whereas build up has increased from 5 % to 7 % over the span. Consequences also justify the presence of open land in study area that has been increased from 2 % to 7 % respectively.

A study on the wind erosion potential of agricultural lands after crop harvesting (Case study: Damghan Region)

Aeolian process and subsequently soil erosion are key factors in dryland environments. Such phenomena are related not only to geoecological factors (lithology, topography, and climatology) but also to land-use and plant cover changes. Formation of new sand dunes in Damghan explains the development of human activities over the past. The aim of this study is to explain the land use changes and their contributions and impacts on Aeolian sediments in Damghan Region. The study was carried out using topographic and geologic maps, satellite imagery, aerial photographs, meteorological data, field observation and samplings. According to meteorological data, period of strong winds (May to Jun) were identified. This period is wind activity period. So, based on this period, unprotected soil surface by crop residues with the interpretation of satellite images was determined. The field samples were carried out from May to June 2008 when the wind was active. The study methods include sieving soil granulometry, and analyzing the particle size. Granulometric analyses were performed using conventional dry sieve method. The results of statistical analysis of grain size distribution showed that the mean and median of particle size were composed of coarse and very coarse sand particles. The study indicated that 90% of the agricultural lands contained more than 23% soil aggregates, where in areas with sensitive particles to erosion the Figure was 35%. It can be argued that agricultural land in study area are resistant to wind erosion.

A New Approach for Remote Sensing Image Sample Selection Based on Convex Theory

Advancements in remote sensing technology have led to improvements in the acquisition of land cover information. The extraction of accurate and timely knowledge about land cover from remote sensing imagery largely depends on the classification techniques used. Support vector machine has been receiving considerable attention as a promising method for classifying remote sensing imagery. However, the support vector machine learning process typically requires a large memory and significant computation time for treating a large sample set, in which some of the samples might be redundant and useless for the support vector machine model training. Therefore, higher-quality and fewer samples from the sample selection should be utilized for support vector machine-based remote sensing classification. A convex theory-based remote sensing sample selection algorithm for support vector machine classifiers is developed in this work. A Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper imagery acquired on August 31, 2009 (orbit number 113/27) is adopted in our experiments. The study area's land cover/use was divided into five categories. Using the region of interest tool, we select samples from the image of the study area, with each category consisting of 1000 independent pixels. Results show that for most cases, our method can achieve higher classification accuracy than random sample selection method.

Investigating changes in land use cover and associated environmental parameters in Taihu Lake in recent decades using remote sensing and geochemistry.

Humans have had a significant impact on the terrestrial pedosphere through activities such as agriculture and urbanization. The effects of human activities on land use and the related environmental changes were investigated through point and areal studies surrounding Meiliang Bay, which is an open area of extreme eutrophication in Taihu Lake, China. This study used remote sensing and environmental-tracer profiles [total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total organic carbon (TOC), grain size, and geochemical parameters] to determine the causes of changes in land use and the associated environmental parameters. The results of LUCCs (Land use/cover changes) indicate that over the past three decades, total farmland decreased by 862.49 km2, with an annual decrement rate of 28.75 km2/year, and total urbanized land increased by 859.71 km2, with an annual growth rate of 28.66 km2/year. The geochemical results indicate that the trophic state of Taihu Lake was persistently intensifying and that the TN, TP, and TOC concentrations increased twofold, threefold, and twofold, respectively, from 1949 to 2010. The sources of TN, TP, and TOC were highly similar after 1975. However, before 1974, TN and TP originated from different sources than TOC. The grassland and woodland around the lake retain nutrients and sand from the land of study area. The increase in urbanized land and tertiary industries significantly increased the sediment concentrations of TN, TP, and TOC after 1980.

Assessment of land use compatibility and noise pollution at Imam Khomeini International Airport

This study aimed to investigate land use planning around airports, by employing Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), in conjunction with an optimization algorithm using an Integrated Noise Model (INM) software, to establish the potential effects of aircraft noise at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) in Tehran. We also checked for land use compatibility with the noise levels around IKIA and the residents' reaction to the noise. The research was carried out in three stages: a) the establishment of Strategic Noise Map (SNM) scenarios of the airport operation in the years 2011, 2020 and 2030 using the INM software; b) the assessment of the results with emphasis on the study area land uses and application of RS and GIS and the exposure of residents at different levels of environmental noise; and c) the assessment of the intensity of aircraft noise annoyance at various times of day and night. The results indicated that developing IKIA together with the residential development will increase airport noise. Hence proper management and control of noise at IKIA is essential.

Assessment of soil salinity risk on the agricultural area in Basrah Province, Iraq: Using remote sensing and GIS techniques

This study presents an integrated study of expansion process of salinized land in Basrah Province, a typical salt-affected area in southern parts of Iraq, by using geo-information techniques. Satellite images (Landsat TM 1990) and thematic maps (ETM 2003) were used to provide comprehensive views of surface conditions such as vegetation cover and salinization detection. With ERDAS software, the normalized differential salinity index (NDSI) and salinity index (SI) were computed and then evaluated for soil degradation by salinization. ARC/INFO software was used along with field observation data (global positioning system) for analysis. During the past 13 years, the salinized land in study area increased by 6 579.1 km2 and in 2003 covered 34.5% of the total area; in the meantime, vegetation cover has decreased by 4 595.9 km2 and in 2003 covers only 24.1% of the study area. Environmental changes show that, between 1990 and 2003, 37.5% of vegetation cover and 45.9% of marshlands were transformed into salty meadow and wet salty crust, respectively. In addition, there was 16.6% of sand lands converted into dry puffy salty crust. Results using spatial analysis methods showed that 7 894.9 km2 (41.4%) of land had no risk of environment degradation by soil salinity, 4 595.9 km2 (24.1%) had slight risk, 4 042.8 km2 (21.2%) had moderate risk, and 2 536.3 km2 (13.3%) of the total land area was at a high risk of environment degradation by soil salinity. In conclusion, the study area was exposed to a high risk of soil salinity.

주왕산국립공원의 계절별 조류군집 특성 및 관리방안

This study was conducted to clarify the characteristics, and proper way of protection and management of bird community in Juwangsan National Park from March, 2005 to February, 2006. Habitat preservation of valley surrounding, maintenance of various forest environment, conservation of various environment in edge area, conservation of breeding season were the most conservation factor of bird community. And there were systematic settlement of gabage, continuous carrying out of Nature Restoration Area, thorough intermittence of prohibition area, conservation of various habitat and management of arable land in study area. Total 74 bird species were recorded in Juwangsan National Park. Maximum 55 species in summer and 653 individuals in winter were observed. Natural monument and extinction crisis wild animal confirmed total 11 species. They were observed at valley neighborhood, arable land of edge area and Jusanji surrounding mainly. Therefore, habitat conservation about this area is very important. For the protection and management of bird community in Juwangsan National Park, diversity of natural habitats, such as, old tree, bluff, arable land that small mammals is rich, edge area. that Family Paridae bird is rich, scrub around Nature Restoration Area and various broadleaf in forest, should be maintained.

The Impact of Climate Change, Sea-Storm Events and Land Subsidence in the Adriatic

The Northern Adriatic coastland comprised between the cities of Monfalcone and Cattolica is characterised by locations of great tourist interest, such as the Venice Lagoon and the Romagna Riviera, and areas with a very precarious environmental setting, such as the Valli di Comacchio and the Po river delta. Therefore the coastal management and the design of new defense works of the littoral have to be made with the utmost care, possibly with the aid of numerical predictions of the coastal morphodynamics and the flood risk analysis of the lowland involved. In the study area land may subside due to sediment natural compaction and subsurface fluid (water and gas) withdrawal. At the same time littoral transport of solid material can contribute appreciably to change the shore morphology. Mean sea level may rise permanently due to global climate change and occasionally due to tides and intensive storm events. The predictions of each individual process are obtained using ad hoc mathematical models and the outcome of the numerical simulations are managed with a GIS (Geographical Information System). Coastline evolution until the year 2100 is investigated and risk factor maps of the low-lying coastal areas are generated which account for the hazard of the expected event, and the land economic value and vulnerability.