Spatial Distribution Of Land Research Articles

Development and application of a simulation model for changes in land-use patterns under drought scenarios

In arid and semiarid areas of northern China, one of the most vulnerable regional environments, water resources are a key constraint on socioeconomic development. We constructed a simulation model for land-use patterns under a drought transition (i.e., the increased frequency and duration of drought since the late 1970s in the Yongding River Basin study area) to account for the complexity of both the driving factors behind land-use change and the micro-level changes in land-use patterns. This model was a combination of the “top-down” system dynamics model, the “bottom-up” cellular automaton model, and the artificial neural network model. In this model, we considered the socioeconomic development and water resource restrictions, as well as the balance between the land-use requirements and the land supply. We then verified the model through a case study. The results demonstrated the value of constructing a simulation model driven by water resource constraints under the influence of drought. The spatial distribution of land uses in future scenarios will help support decision-making for sustainable regional development.

Evaluating Land-Use Change in Rapidly Urbanizing China: Case Study of Shanghai

Historical patterns and driving forces of land-use change were investigated in Shanghai under the background of drastic socioeconomic transition in China. Differing from the previous researches, this paper highlights the investigation of not only the socioeconomic factors driving urban area growth, but also the physical elements affecting urban land's spatial distribution through remote sensing and multivariable regression methods. The results indicate that land-use changes have been occurring at an accelerating pace in Shanghai over the past two decades, and are characterized by a massive increase of urban land and a loss of croplands. The growth in urban land use has primarily been driven by population, economy, and transportation, and its spatial distribution has mainly been influenced by accessibility to the transport network and the city center, together with the constraints of existing land-use patterns. The implications for policy are that improvements are needed in the efficient use of resources and the layout of a more adequate transport network; simple restrictions on the migration to cities are not a long-term solution. The conservation and exploitation of agricultural land, as well as the promotion of urban green spaces, are also crucial instruments for sustainable city development.

Buenos Aires: Involuntary Incentives to Metropolitan Dispersal

This article explains the shortage of public infrastructure in Buenos Aires as a byproduct of the manner in which resources have been deployed over the territory and suggests that Buenos Aires represents an early case of metropolitanization; this process of geographical expansion was supported by its active port and advanced streetcar networks, followed by railways, hospitals and other modern developments. With the increase in automobiles and construction of freeways, the city continued to expand and organize into enclaves, each of which operated with its unique culture, value systems and administrative design. This gradual spatial distribution of land and population has created numerous jurisdictional and political hurdles, most clearly evidenced by the case of urban trains. Active urban planning is needed to re-organize the city and take account of the ecological costs and the stresses the current system poses, particularly to the middle and working classes.(A)

Evaluation of Urban Structure for More Effective Use of Regional Subway Network

The paper reports on a research to conduct a measurement of the regional accessibility of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway in Korea with respect to its network topology and the spatial distribution of land uses in the urban region as well as in each catchment area of the subway stations seeking for its more effective use. This research assumed that the stagnated use of the subway is due to regional imbalance between the jobs and the residences located in the catchment areas. Therefore, the regional accessibility of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway in terms of work trips was represented by the amounts of population and employment which can reach a station from all other stations of the network. The difference between the two accessibility indicators means the rate of jobs-housing imbalance in the catchment areas of the subway. An accessibility measurement model developed using raster GIS technique disaggregates population and employment of the catchment areas into numerous tiny raster cells and determines the network travel times between the raster cells using a time-oriented minimum-path algorithm. The model represents the both accessibility indicators for a cell after calculating the amounts of population and employment as a function of travel time.

Mapping land use/cover in a tropical coastal area using satellite sensor data, GIS and artificial neural networks

A common problem when classifying remotely sensed images in order to map land use/cover is spectral confusion: different land use/cover classes present similar spectral signatures and are misclassified. This paper presents a procedure for mapping land use/cover combining the spectral information from a recent image and data about spatial distribution of land use/cover types obtained from outdated cartography and ancillary data. Two fuzzy maps, which indicate the membership of each land use/cover class, were generated from the ancillary and spectral data, respectively, using an artificial neural networks approach. The combination of both maps was obtained using fuzzy rules. In comparison with spectral classification, this procedure allowed a statistically significant increase of accuracy of land use/cover classification (from 67% to 79%). The advantages of this procedure for combining spectral and ancillary data, with regard to others previously published in the literature, are that it allows one to take into account previous mapping efforts and to establish relationships between land use/cover and environmental variables specific to the mapped area.

La déglaciation de la région de Rimouski, Bas-Saint-Laurent (Québec) : indices d’une récurrence glaciaire dans la Mer de Goldthwait entre 12 400 et 12 000 BP

La distribution des dépôts de marge glaciaire de la région de Rimouski a été analysée en fonction du cadre morphostructural préglaciaire, caractérisé par un relief appalachien typique dont les barres et les sillons, orientés NE-SO, sont subparallèles à la vallée du Saint-Laurent. Cette étude met en lumière l'influence déterminante du contexte morphostructural sur le mode de déglaciation, tant à l'échelle régionale que locale. L'invasion de la Mer de Goldthwait le long du Saint-Laurent, à partir de 14 000 BP, isole progressivement une calotte glaciaire régionale dans les Appalaches. Vers 13 400 BP, la marge septentrionale de la calotte appalachienne suit le tracé de la limite marine, fixée à 140 m d'altitude entre Rimouski et Luceville. Elle s'est stabilisée le long des premières grandes barres appalachiennes qui représentaient la première ligne d'ancrage de la marge glaciaire après l'invasion marine. Durant la phase de retrait qui suit, entre 13 360 et 12 700 ans BP, des masses de glace résiduelles sont abandonnées dans la vallée de ligne de faille de la Neigette et les sillons appalachiens de Saint-Fabien qui s'encombrent de formes de décrépitude (kames et kettles). Entre 12 400 BP et environ 12 000 BP, la marge glaciaire se stabilise sur le rebord du plateau de Sainte-Blandine, à moins de 13 km du littoral actuel. Cette période se signale par une récurrence glaciaire mise en évidence dans trois sites différents. Les modalités et la chronologie de la déglaciation au-delà de la limite marine ne sont pas connues.

Mapping land use/cover distribution on a mountainous tropical island using remote sensing and GIS

The land use/cover distribution on Langkawi Island, Malaysia was mapped using remote sensing and a Geographic Information System (GIS). A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite image taken in March 1995 was processed, geocorrected and analysed using IDRISI, raster-based GIS software. An unsupervised classification was performed based on spectral data from a composite image of the bands TM3, TM4 and TM5. Using this output, field data together with available secondary data consisting of topography, land use and soil maps were used to perform a maximum likelihood supervised classification. The overall accuracy of the output image was 90% and individual class accuracy ranged from 74% for rubber to 100% for paddy fields. The classified areas on the image were mainly confined to the mountainous and hilly regions on the island. A shaded relief map, simulating sunshine conditions, showed that the unclassified areas are located in the shadowed slopes, i.e. the slopes facing west. Consequently, the imagery was subdivided on the basis of slope aspect and a stratified classification was performed. As a result of this procedure, the overall accuracy increased to 92% and the individual class accuracy for the inland forest class increased by 9% to 90% . Using IDRISI, individual class areas as well as percentages were calculated. The kappa coefficient for the classified image was 0.90. Qualitative analysis indicates that topography is the main control on the spatial distribution of land use/cover types on the island. As Langkawi Island has been developing rapidly over the last decade, successful planning will require reliable information about land use/cover distribution and change. This study illustrates that remote sensing and GIS techniques are capable of providing such information.

Proximity‐based measure of land use impacts to aquatic ecosystem integrity

AbstractA proximity‐based measure of land‐use impacts to aquatic ecosystem integrity based on both the relative abundance and spatial distribution of land uses within a watershed is developed and evaluated. This hydrologic proximity measure assumes that the impact of the land use at a specific position in the watershed upstream from a sample site is related to the relative volume of water that would be expected to flow through that position during a storm event. In order to evaluate the utility of this measure, the fit of several models based on land use and habitat assessment measures to biological integrity data is compared to the fit of a similar model based on hydrologic proximity measures. This hydrologic proximity model explained more of the variability in observed Hilsenhoff biotic index scores (R2 = 0.92) than land use impacts estimated as the watershed surface area occupied by each land use (R2 = 0.83), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency habitat assessment methods (R2 = 0.68), or Ohio Environmental Protection Agency habitat assessment methods (R2 = 0.68). Additionally, an algorithm based on the hydrologic proximity measure is presented for optimizing land use conversion projects to enhance biological integrity.

Agricultural Land Use Change in England and Wales, 1892-1992

The paper presents a method for transforming Agricultural Census data on land use from arbitrary administrative reporting units to a set of more environmentally meaningful land classes. The procedure is used to analyse historical patterns of land use in England and Wales. The results demonstrate that cropping patterns are related systematically to land capability and reveal the complex adjustments in the spatial distribution of land uses that have underlain changes in the overall cropping mix over the past century.

Application of multidate satellite imagery for land use planning and management in the drought prone areas of Karnataka

Based on visual interpretation of Multidate Landsat Imagery, the spatial distribution of land use/land cover over 45,000 sq.km, spread over the three drought prone districts of Bijapur, Belgaum and Dharwar in NW Karnataka, has been mapped. The land use/land cover is classified into five Level-I and twelve Level-II classes. The pattern of change in land use/land cover during the period October, 1980 and January, 1982 has been one of decline in all the land use classes (except for agricultural use, which is more due to seasonal change) which highlight the land use/land cover changes in the drought prone area.

Economies of Size and the Spatial Distribution of Land in Farming Units

AbstractEconomies of size studies may erroneously point to excessive machinery capacities on large‐scale farming units. This paper shows a simple but illustrative example of the influence of the spatial distribution of land on machinery requirements for increasing sizes of farms in the Imperial Valley of California.