Land Management Decisions Research Articles

Social networks influence farming practices and agrarian sustainability.

The social-ecological effects of agricultural intensification are complex. We explore farmers' perceptions about the impacts of their land management and the impact of social information flows on their management through a case study in a farming community in Navarra, Spain, that is undergoing agricultural intensification due to adoption of large scale irrigation. We found that modern technology adopters are aware that their management practices often have negative social-ecological implications; by contrast, more traditional farmers tend to recognize their positive impacts on non-material benefits such as those linked with traditions and traditional knowledge, and climate regulation. We found that farmers' awareness about nature contributions to people co-production and their land management decisions determine, in part, the structure of the social networks among the farming community. Since modern farmers are at the core of the social network, they are better able to control the information flow within the community. This has important implications, such as the fact that the traditional farmers, who are more aware of their impacts on the environment, rely on information controlled by more intensive modern farmers, potentially jeopardizing sustainable practices in this region. We suggest that this might be counteracted by helping traditional farmers obtain information tailored to their practices from outside the social network.

Fragipan Horizons: Definition, Properties, Genesis, and Influence on Soil Behavior

Many Missouri forest soils exhibit fragipans, which influence soil productivity, ecosystem services and land management. Fragipan bearing soils tend to occur where loess thickness is moderate (1 to 2 meters) or where the soil profile exhibits evidence of mass wasting of weathered limestone residuum. Consensus is consolidating around the self-weight collapse of loess and residuum after repeated wetting and desiccation. The use of gravel as an indicator of parent material differences and its correlation with fragipan development is not perfectly aligned, thus although most fragipans do exhibit a bisequal soil profile, the placement of the lithologic discontinuity is difficult given mass wasting, eluviation-illuviation, side slopes, and other soil processes that contribute to increasing the bulk density and conferring strength. Fragipan genesis is evolving; however, research involving Ecosystem Site Descriptions are a fusion of a land parcel’s soil properties, vegetational community, hydrology, and climate to guide land management. Ecological Site Descriptions associated with fragipan bearing soils are necessary, especially when making land management decisions.

A study of modern techniques of land management and cadastre for sustainable Cities

The work is devoted to the study of land resources of Ukraine and search of ways of improvement of modern approaches to land management decisions. Special attention is paid to determination of methods of rational use of land Fund of Ukraine. Investigated the processes occurring in the land sector of the country that require the development of new conceptual approaches to the implementation of the land administration processes on the basis of conscious analysis of modern problems of land management and cadaster.

Herbivore Helpers: Using Livestock to Manage Rangelands

Domestic herbivores – such as cattle, sheep, and goats – are remarkably important to ecosystems. Their feeding behaviours aid the management of natural habitats by preventing any individual plant species dominating the landscape. Thus, understanding livestock dietary preferences is vital for informing land management decisions. Dr John Walker from the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center has devoted his career to exploring livestock dietary preferences, and how they can be manipulated to benefit rangelands. His ‘Aggie Cedar Eater’ (ACE) goats are now helping to control invasive juniper shrubs across the Great Plains of the US.

Agency shifts in agricultural land governance and their implications for land degradation neutrality

Given current land degradation trends, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN, SDG Target 15.3) by 2030 could be difficult to attain. Solutions to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation are not being implemented at sufficiently large scales, pointing to land governance as the main obstacle. In this paper, we review dynamics in agricultural land governance, and the potential this may have to enable land degradation or provide solutions towards LDN. The literature reveals agency shifts are taking place, where value chain actors are given increasing decision-making power in land governance. These agency shifts are manifested in two interrelated trends: First, through agricultural value chain coordination, such as contract farming, value chain actors increasingly influence land management decisions. Second, international large-scale land acquisitions and domestic larger-scale farms, both instances of intensified direct involvement of value chain with land management, are overtaking significant areas of land. These new arrangements are associated with agricultural expansion, and are additionally associated with unsustainable land management due to absent landowners, short-term interests, and high-intensity agriculture. However, we also find that value chain actors have both the tools and business cases to catalyze LDN solutions. We discuss how governments and other LDN brokers can motivate or push private actors to deploy private governance measures to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation. Successful implementation of LDN requires refocusing efforts to enable and, where necessary, constrain all actors with agency over land management, including value chain actors.

Soil Mechanical Composition and Texture as Indices for On-site and Field Precise Choice of Land Use Type to Adopt

The soils of Agoi-Ibami in central Cross River State of Nigeria were evaluated for their mechanical and textural compositions in the field. The objective was to present to small scale, subsistence farmers, with limited access to external farm-inputs for time consuming and expensive laboratory analysis, soil data for on-site and field land use and management decisions. Three profile pits were sunk, along three well defined and selected toposequences, on three landscape elements of crest, middleslope and valley bottom in three land use types of forest (FS), rubber (RS), and arable (AS). Relevant environmental properties were inventorized and the profiles described in the moist state. Their textures were determined by the feel method in the field among other morphological properties. The field investigation showed the soils to be predominatly loamy soils. After the field investigation, soil samples were collected from the morphogenetic horizons for determination of their mechanical composition in the laboratory to supplement the field investigation. Their loamy textures and mechanical composition inferred from their loamy texture impact unique physical and chemical properties like good water holding capacity, good drainage, fertile and productive soils and good for irrigation. Loamy soils exhibit properties intermediate between sandy and clayey soils. Loamy soils are considered best for agricultural production because they hold more water and nutrients than sandy soils and have better drainage, aeration and tillage properties than clayey soils. They have slight plastic and sticky workable properties ideal for crop growth and crop productivity. Therefore knowing the texture of soils and their mechanical composition in the field their properties can be inferred and land use and management decisions can be taken on-site without recourse to expensive and time consuming laboratory analyses which are beyond the capacity of resource poor small-scale and subsistence farmers in developing countries and or sub-Saharan Africa. The land use and management decisions are taken after mutual adaptation and adjustments of the description of the land use and the increasingly known soil qualities in the field.

Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California

A new quantitative mineral resource assessment for tungsten, a critical mineral commodity with highly concentrated production and a moderate risk of global supply disruption, was conducted for the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California. This assessment was part of a larger effort focusing on three regions in the United States and represents the first study of domestic tungsten resources and mineral potential in over twenty years. By integrating geology, bedrock and stream sediment geochemistry, geophysics, and remote sensing data with recently developed software tools and analyses, estimates of undiscovered tungsten skarn deposits in permissive tracts are combined with grade and tonnage distributions of known deposits to generate probabilistic estimates of undiscovered resources. Identified resources in the Great Basin region total 168 thousand metric tons (kt) of tungsten trioxide (WO3), including 116 kt of past production and 52 kt remaining in place. Consistent with the historic significance of the Great Basin region as a past producer containing a large portion of U.S. identified resources, undiscovered resources are likely to occur adjacent to known deposits and prospects and at unexplored depths. Undiscovered deposits are estimated to contain median resources of 940 kt of WO3 with a 90% probability of at least 420 kt and a 10% probability of at least 1.7 million metric tons (Mt), of which 240 kt to 1.1 Mt may be economic to extract. Based on a 20-year average price, median recoverable undiscovered resources are estimated at 570 kt WO3 equivalent with a net present value of $3 billion U.S. dollars. The methods, data, results, and economic significance of the assessment contribute to a scientific understanding of a critical mineral resource with direct implications for policy and land management decisions.

Visualization and ecohydrologic models: Opening the box

AbstractEarth system models synthesize the science of interactions amongst multiple biophysical and, increasingly, human processes across a wide range of scales. Ecohydrologic models are a subset of earth system models that focus particularly on the complex interactions between ecosystem processes and the storage and flux of water. Ecohydrologic models often focus at scales where direct observations occur: plots, hillslopes, streams, and watersheds, as well as where land and resource management decisions are implemented. These models complement field‐based and data‐driven science by combining theory, empirical relationships derived from observation and new data to create virtual laboratories. Ecohydrologic models are tools that managers can use to ask “what if” questions and domain scientists can use to explore the implications of new theory or measurements. Recent decades have seen substantial advances in ecohydrologic models, building on both new domain science and advances in software engineering and data availability. The increasing sophistication of ecohydrologic models however, presents a barrier to their widespread use and credibility. Their complexity, often encoding 100s of relationships, means that they are effectively “black boxes,” at least for most users, sometimes even to the teams of researchers that contribute to their design. This opacity complicates the interpretation of model results. For models to effectively advance our understanding of how plants and water interact, we must improve how we visualize not only model outputs, but also the underlying theories that are encoded within the models. In this paper, we outline a framework for increasing the usefulness of ecohydrologic models through better visualization. We outline four complementary approaches, ranging from simple best practices that leverage existing technologies, to ideas that would engage novel software engineering and cutting edge human–computer interface design. Our goal is to open the ecohydrologic model black box in ways that will engage multiple audiences, from novices to model developers, and support learning, new discovery, and environmental problem solving.

Multi-scale habitat assessment of pronghorn migration routes.

We studied the habitat selection of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) during seasonal migration; an important period in an animal’s annual cycle associated with broad-scale movements. We further decompose our understanding of migration habitat itself as the product of both broad- and fine-scale behavioral decisions and take a multi-scale approach to assess pronghorn spring and fall migration across the transboundary Northern Sagebrush Steppe region. We used a hierarchical habitat selection framework to assess a suite of natural and anthropogenic features that have been shown to influence selection patterns of pronghorn at both broad (migratory neighborhood) and fine (migratory pathway) scales. We then combined single-scale predictions into a scale-integrated step selection function (ISSF) map to assess its effectiveness in predicting migration route habitat. During spring, pronghorn selected for native grasslands, areas of high forage productivity (NDVI), and avoided human activity (i.e., roads and oil and natural gas wells). During fall, pronghorn selected for native grasslands, larger streams and rivers, and avoided roads. We detected avoidance of paved roads, unpaved roads, and wells at broad spatial scales, but no response to these features at fine scales. In other words, migratory pronghorn responded more strongly to anthropogenic features when selecting a broad neighborhood through which to migrate than when selecting individual steps along their migratory pathway. Our results demonstrate that scales of migratory route selection are hierarchically nested within each other from broader (second-order) to finer scales (third-order). In addition, we found other variables during particular migratory periods (i.e., native grasslands in spring) were selected for across scales indicating their importance for pronghorn. The mapping of ungulate migration habitat is a topic of high conservation relevance. In some applications, corridors are mapped according to telemetry location data from a sample of animals, with the assumption that the sample adequately represents habitat for the entire population. Our use of multi-scale modelling to predict resource selection during migration shows promise and may offer another relevant alternative for use in future conservation planning and land management decisions where telemetry-based sampling is unavailable or incomplete.

Relationship between Land Use/Land-Use Change and Human Health in Australia: A Scoping Study.

We undertook a scoping study to map the relevant evidence, summarise the findings, and to help identify gaps in the knowledge base on the relationship between land use/land-use change and human health in Australia. Our systematic search of the scientific literature for relevant articles up to August 2020 identified 37 articles. All 37 articles meeting our inclusion criteria were published after 2003. Zoonotic or vector-borne disease constituted the most common health outcome type studied. Agriculture/grazing was the land use/land-use change type most frequently represented in the literature, followed by coal seam gas extraction and open cut coal mining. The relationship between land use/land use change and human health in Australia, is not conclusive from the existing evidence. This is because of (1) a lack of comprehensive coverage of the topic, (2) a lack of coverage of the geography, (3) a lack of coverage of study types, and (4) conflicting results in the research already undertaken. If we are to protect human health and the ecosystems which support life, more high-quality, specific, end-user driven research is needed to support land management decisions in Australia. Until the health effects of further land use change are better known and understood, caution ought to be practiced in land management and land conversion.

Assessing the Impacts of Urban Land Use Changes on Regional Ecosystem Services According to Urban Green Space Policies Via the Patch-Based Cellular Automata Model.

As urbanization affects the quality of regional ecosystems, which are needed to ensure the well-being of residents, urban land management plans should consider ecosystem services. While several studies have assessed urbanization impacts on regional ecosystem services in developing urban areas, they used limited approaches that only considered options pertaining to urban green space management. A modeling approach that simulates changes in urban land use and associated ecosystem services can better support urban land management decisions by comparing the effects of different scenarios. We simulated urban land use change impacts on regional ecosystem services using a patch-based cellular automata model and assessment tools for seven ecosystem service indicators in different urban management scenarios regarding green space policies in Ansan, South Korea. The simulation results showed spatial patterns of land use changes and impacts on associated ecosystem services although their impacts varied according to different service types. While urbanization affected regional ecosystem services to a lesser extent than land use changes, urban green space policies contributed to increasing ecosystem services. Our approach provides useful information for improved policy decisions with regard to coupling urban management with ecosystem services, as urban green spaces are necessary for residents' well-being.

Correlations between land use and stream nitrate-nitrite concentrations in the Yahara River Watershed in south-central Wisconsin

To better inform land management decisions, we explored relationships between land use data and stream nitrate-nitrite (NO3NO2) concentration data in the Yahara River Watershed (YRW) in south-central Wisconsin, USA. Three metrics were used to evaluate the extent of different land uses in the watershed: (1) the area percentage of each land use in both the watershed and in a range of riparian zone widths, (2) the area factor, which refers to the ratio of the area of woodland, recreational, open and vacant subdivided land, or wetlands in the riparian zone (6.1–213.4 m widths) to agricultural areas in the rest of watershed, which indicates the buffering capacity of the riparian zone, and (3) the inverse-distance-weighted (IDW) area percentage with proximity to sub-watershed outlet and to stream, which characterizes spatial arrangement in the watershed by assigning a higher weight to patches closer to the outlet or stream and a lower weight to those farther away. We found significant, positive correlations between the extent of agricultural areas and stream NO3NO2 concentrations. NO3NO2 concentrations were highly correlated to area factor metrics for all riparian zone widths such that as area factor decreased, NO3NO2 concentrations increased. There was also a marked increase in NO3NO2 concentrations at a threshold of approximately 60% agricultural area with IDW proximity to stream. Wetland area percentage in the entire watershed and IDW wetland area percentage with proximity to stream were negatively correlated to stream NO3NO2 concentrations. Compared to the simple area percentage metric, area factor and IDW wetland area percentage with proximity to stream were better indicators of stream NO3NO2 concentrations. Results from this study indicate that, in addition to land use area percentage, spatial distributions of land uses should be considered when managing watersheds. This study also demonstrates the value of citizen-based sampling data and reveals opportunities to improve the utility of such data.

Direct and indirect valuation of air-quality regulation service as reflected in the preferences towards distinct types of landscape in a biosphere reserve

Air-quality regulation was recently judged to be the most important ecosystem service (ES) provided by open landscape in Israel. However, the socioeconomic value of air-quality regulation (AQR) service may vary among the distinct landscape types providing it, especially where several drivers-of-change affect differently the ES flux at distinct ecosystem types. Using a choice experiment, we assessed directly and indirectly the value of AQR as reflected in the choice preferences towards AQR and towards the types of landscape that potentially provide it. We assessed (a) the value of AQR based on national and regional trade-off choices, (b) the interaction of the respondent's characteristics with the value domain, and (c) the effect of drivers of change on choice preferences. We found that both populations valued AQR above all other attributes, willing to pay $23 to $68 to preserve it. Furthermore, no-payment preferences were still aiming to preserve ES. However, the landscape preferences favoring the preservation of maquis shrubland may not sustain the desired AQR service levels and would require further land management decisions. Although estimating the effect of drivers-of-change on human wellbeing is still a challenge, assessing the change in the regulating services' value can support sustainable management practices.

Scale Optimization in Topographic and Hydrographic Feature Mapping Using Fractal Analysis

A new method for selecting optimal scales when mapping topographic or hydrographic features is introduced. The method employs rank-size partition of heavy-tailed distributions to detect nodes of rescaling invariance in the underlying hierarchy of the dataset. These nodes, known as head/tail breaks, can be used to indicate optimal scales. Then, the Fractal Net Evolution Assessment (FNEA) segmentation algorithm is applied with the topographic or hydrographic surfaces to produce optimally scaled objects. A topological transformation allows linking the two processes (partition and segmentation), while fractal dimension of the rescaling process is employed as an optimality metric. The new method is experimented with the two biggest river basins in Greece, namely Pinios and Acheloos river basins, using a digital elevation model as the only input dataset. The method proved successful in identifying a set of optimal scales for mapping elevation, slope, and flow accumulation. Deviation from the ideal conditions for implementing head/tail breaks are discussed. Implementation of the method requires an object-based analysis program and few common geospatial functions embedded in most GIS programs. The new method will assist in revealing underlying environmental processes in a variety of earth science fields and, thus, assist in land management decision-making and mapping generalization.

Tillage and residue management effects on irrigated maize performance and water cycling in a semiarid cropping system of Eastern Colorado

Residue removal from maize (Zea mays) fields offers an opportunity to increase farmer profits, but potential tradeoffs for water dynamics and crop performance merit further evaluation. This study, established in 2014, compared the effects of two tillage practices (no-till and conventional) and two residue management practices (harvested vs. kept in place) on maize grain yields, water infiltration, evapotranspiration, and soil physical attributes. On average, maize grain yields under limited irrigation increased with residue retention by 1.1 Mg ha−1 year−1 between 2016 and 2018, but tillage had no significant effect. Total infiltration (over 30 min) was higher with residue retention. Neither tillage nor residue management had a significant impact on evapotranspiration during the vegetative growth stage. However, there was a significant residue by tillage interaction where vegetative evapotranspiration was reduced by no-till and residue retention. Conversely, penetrometer resistance was significantly reduced by both tillage and residue retention. Volumetric water content in the soil profile at planting was higher with residue retention. These results suggest that plots with residue removal would on average require 60 mm year−1 of additional irrigation to attain the same yields as fields with residue retention. In summary, our findings suggest that high rates of crop residue removal under limited irrigation in a semiarid environment can negatively affect water conservation and yields, and that tradeoffs surrounding residue export need to be fully considered in land management and policy decisions.

Using movement to inform conservation corridor design for Mojave desert tortoise

BackgroundPreserving corridors for movement and gene flow among populations can assist in the recovery of threatened and endangered species. As human activity continues to fragment habitats, characterizing natural corridors is important in establishing and maintaining connectivity corridors within the anthropogenic development matrix. The Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a threatened species occupying a variety of habitats in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. Desert tortoises have been referred to as corridor-dwellers, and understanding how they move within suitable habitat can be crucial to defining corridors that will sustain sufficient gene flow to maintain connections among populations amidst the increases in human development.MethodsTo elucidate how tortoises traverse available habitat and interact with potentially inhospitable terrain and human infrastructure, we used GPS dataloggers to document fine-scale movement of individuals and estimate home ranges at ten study sites along the California/Nevada border. Our sites encompass a variety of habitats, including mountain passes that serve as important natural corridors connecting neighboring valleys, and are impacted by a variety of linear anthropogenic features. We used path selection functions to quantify tortoise movements and develop resistance surfaces based on landscape characteristics including natural features, anthropogenic alterations, and estimated home ranges with autocorrelated kernel density methods. Using the best supported path selection models and estimated home ranges, we determined characteristics of known natural corridors and compared them to mitigation corridors (remnant habitat patches) that have been integrated into land management decisions in the Ivanpah Valley.ResultsTortoises avoided areas of high slope and low perennial vegetation cover, avoided moving near low-density roads, and traveled along linear barriers (fences and flood control berms).ConclusionsWe found that mitigation corridors designated between solar facilities should be wide enough to retain home ranges and maintain function. Differences in home range size and movement resistance between our two natural mountain pass corridors align with differences in genetic connectivity, suggesting that not all natural corridors provide the same functionality. Furthermore, creation of mitigation corridors with fences may have unintended consequences and may function differently than natural corridors. Understanding characteristics of corridors with different functionality will help future managers ensure that connectivity is maintained among Mojave desert tortoise populations.

Payment for Environment Services to Promote Compliance with Brazil’s Forest Code: The Case of “Produtores de Água e Floresta”

Payments for ecosystems services (PES) can promote natural resource conservation by increasing compliance with environmental laws. Law enforcement and PES proponents assume that individuals make decisions about compliance based on expectations of gains, likelihood of being caught in non-compliance, and magnitude of sanctions. Brazil’s Forest Code, characterized by low levels of compliance, includes incentive and disincentive mechanisms. We interviewed landowners in the Atlantic Forest to understand their motivations to participate (or not) in a PES project, the effects of knowledge and perceptions of environmental regulations on compliance, and how both environmental regulations and PES affect land management decision-making. We found that neither expectations of financial gains nor PES payments drive behavioral change and that the perception of systemic corruption reduced compliance with environment regulations. There were important behavioral differences between long-term residents for whom the land is their main source of income and recent residents with little dependence on land-generated income.

Digital land management and land resource data generation

The article deals with issues related to the creation of digital land management, the information basis of which is data obtained by replacing traditional methods of obtaining information with new technologies, including: unmanned aerial vehicles, laser scanning, high-resolution satellite images. New technologies should create a higher level of information support for land management, due to a significant increase in information content and, in accordance with this, taking into account more factors that affect land management decisions. In this regard, the state data Fund formed on the basis of land management documentation should be improved and such modernization should be carried out simultaneously with the technological reequipment of land management, based on network cloud storage of information, big data and blockchain, using modern computer tools.

Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Their Driving Factors in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau Based on Geographical Detectors and Google Earth Engine: A Case Study in Gannan Prefecture

As an important production base for livestock and a unique ecological zone in China, the northeast Tibetan Plateau has experienced dramatic land use/land cover (LULC) changes with increasing human activities and continuous climate change. However, extensive cloud cover limits the ability of optical remote sensing satellites to monitor accurately LULC changes in this area. To overcome this problem in LULC mapping in the Ganan Prefecture, 2000–2018, we used the dense time stacking of multi-temporal Landsat images and random forest algorithm based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The dynamic trends of LULC changes were analyzed, and geographical detectors quantitatively evaluated the key driving factors of these changes. The results showed that (1) the overall classification accuracy varied between 89.14% and 91.41%, and the kappa values were greater than 86.55%, indicating that the classification results were reliably accurate. (2) The major LULC types in the study area were grassland and forest, and their area accounted for 50% and 25%, respectively. During the study period, the grassland area decreased, while the area of forest land and construction land increased to varying degrees. The land-use intensity presents multi-level intensity, and it was higher in the northeast than that in the southwest. (3) Elevation and population density were the major driving factors of LULC changes, and economic development has also significantly affected LULC. These findings revealed the main factors driving LULC changes in Gannan Prefecture and provided a reference for assisting in the development of sustainable land management and ecological protection policy decisions.

Homogenization of the terrestrial water cycle

Land-use and land-cover changes are accelerating. Such changes can homogenize the water cycle and undermine planetary resilience. Policymakers and practitioners must consider water–vegetation interactions in their land-management decisions.