Total Land Use Research Articles

THE EFFECT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL AREA ON ROAD NETWORK PERFORMANCE (WARU SURABAYA – MOJOKERTO STREET)

The development of the industrial zone outside the area of the city of Surabaya increased rapidly. A problem arises when most industrial zones clutter the streets from the main collector between cities (Surabaya-Mojokerto street, Waru Surabaya-Sidoarjo street and Surabaya-Gresik street). The purpose of this study are; (1) find out the characteristics of land use, (2) obtain a network model of interaction with land use and measure the level of service of the corridor, (3) discover the effect of the contribution of current flows from industrial zones to level road services in the corridor. Descriptive method with qualitative analysis, correlational method and quantitative analysis which includes: a stepwise regression analysis, an ANOVA analysis for land use / attraction and Indonesia Road Capacity Manual (IRCM) to calculate the level of service of the road. The results showed that V_total = 21,275 pcu / day (internal) + 55,426 pcu / day (external) = 76,701 pcu / day. The trip is higher than the road’s capacity which reaches 5,810 pcu / hour. The road service level is poor at certain times; noon and afternoon. The influence of the traction volume drawn from the industrial zone outside the industrial zone is 8.882 pcu / day or 41.75% of total land use and advertisements are 4.053 pcu / day or 19.05% of total land use. While the flow of local movements from land use planning contributed 21,275 pcu / day or 28% of the total volume of traffic movement on the main road section.

A spatial total nitrogen budget for Great Britain

Understanding nutrient budgets makes it possible to predict where and by how much nutrients are accumulating in the environment. Previous studies have considered this problem for nitrogen (N) but have limited themselves to reactive N species (i.e. excluding N2) or have considered total N (including N2) but have been limited to regional or national scales. In this study the spatially-distributed total nitrogen (N) budget of Great Britain (GB) was estimated at a 1 km2 grid scale. The inputs of N considered were: biological N fixation; atmospheric deposition; food and feed transfer; and inorganic synthetic fertilizer. The outputs of N considered were: atmospheric emission; terrestrial denitrification; fluvial loss from the soil; gaseous emissions from sewage treatment plants; direct sewage flux loss; and groundwater loss. All pathways were considered over a number of years. This study constructed a spatially-differentiated total N budget for GB, which not only includes all major N pathways but also distributes the N budget to various land uses with a 1 km2 spatial resolution. The results showed that both sink and source areas exist across GB, although the majority of 1 km2 grid squares were identified as sources. Based on a mass balance model calculated for 2015, total N exhibited a net flux of a source of −1045 (±244) ktonnes N/year. The spatial N budget across GB ranged from −21 (±3) tonnes N/year to 34 (±5) tonnes N/year, where 66% of grid squares were source areas and 34% were sink areas. Urban and arable land use were predominantly source areas: 97% of total urban land use and 98.5% of total arable land use. 65% of grassland was a sink area. The total amount of N released to the environment by human activity in 2015 was −16.65 kg N/ca/yr.

Quantifying the Effect of Land Use Change Model Coupling

Land-use change (LUC) is a complex process that is difficult to project. Model collaboration, an aggregate term for model harmonization, comparison and/or coupling, intends to combine the strengths of different models to improve LUC projections. Several model collaborations have been performed, but to the authors’ knowledge, the effect of coupling has not been evaluated quantitatively. Therefore, for a case study of Brazil, we harmonized and coupled the partial equilibrium model GLOBIOM-Brazil and the demand-driven spatially explicit model PLUC, and then compared the coupled-model projections with those by GLOBIOM-Brazil individually. The largest differences between projections occurred in Mato Grosso and Pará, frontiers of agricultural expansion. In addition, we validated both projections for Mato Grosso using land-use maps from remote sensing images. The coupled model clearly outperformed GLOBIOM-Brazil. Reductions in the root mean squared error (RMSE) for LUC dynamics ranged from 31% to 80% and for total land use, from 10% to 57%. Only for pasture, the coupled model performed worse in total land use (RMSE 9% higher). Reasons for a better performance of the coupled model were considered to be, inter alia, the initial map, more spatially explicit information about drivers, and the path-dependence effect in the allocation through the cellular-automata approach of PLUC.

Impact of land use on coastline change of island cities: A case of Zhoushan Island, China

Anthropogenic activities have an important effect on the natural coastlines of island cities as a result of urbanization and population agglomeration in developing countries. In order to identify the relationships between land use and coastline changes in the typical island city, this study used land use data, remote sensing technology, and geographic information system (GIS) technology to analyze the land use situation and coastline changes in the coastal zone of Zhoushan Island in China. The results show that, from 2012 to 2017, the coastal land area of Zhoushan Island increased from 121.54 km2 to 126.00 km2. New agricultural land accounted for the highest proportion of total land use growth (46.86%), followed by residential land, land for street, and transportation and industrial land. The length of the coastline increased from 137.98 km to 142.7 km. The indicators of agricultural land, industrial land, land price, and production coastline had a significant positive impact on the rate of coastline changes. Moreover, the coastline was more than just a natural coastline but also had 336 multiple functions in terms of production, daily living, leisure, and transportation. The study found that the rapid growth of tideland reclamation-based, land reclamation-based aquaculture, and the harbour/port construction-based logistics industry are the main reasons for the continuous changes in coastlines.

How regional economic integration influence on urban land use efficiency？ A case study of Wuhan metropolitan area, China

Many emerging economies have experienced rapid urbanization in an unprecedented scale and speed in the past few decades. While the urban expansion has led to the formation of metropolitan areas and promoted the economic development, it also exerts enormous pressure on environment and threatens food security. The efficient use of urban land becomes one of paramount challenges for governments to achieve sustainable and balanced growth. However, most literature has ignored the fact that in the metropolitan areas, the regional economic integration may cause the urban input-output structure readjustment through the flow of the market factors and industrial structure redistribution, thus ultimately influencing the urban land use efficiency. In this paper, we use the Wuhan metropolitan area, a rapidly growing urban agglomeration, in central China as a case to investigate the spatial spillover effects of regional economic integration on urban land use efficiency in the core development zones and the restricted development zones from 2001 to 2015. We quantify the total factor urban land use efficiency (TFULE) with data envelopment analysis, and then estimate the underlying determinants of the TFULE with a spatial panel model. Results show that 1) the TFULE values across counties (districts) are spatially autocorrelated and exhibit clustering patterns during the study period; 2) total external economic linkage (TEEL), quantified with a gravity model, has a significantly positive effect on TFULE of counties (districts) and neighboring counties (districts), especially in the core development zones; 3) the industrial structure upgrading improves the TFULE of counties (districts), but it brings down the TFULE in surrounding areas except for the core development zones. We conclude that regional economic integration in the metropolitan areas can facilitate the optimal allocation of resources for improving urban land use efficiency during the socioeconomic transformation process. Therefore, we suggest the government should establish a distinctly cross-regional fiscal compensation system to improve the regional coordination and balance in economic development.

The interactive effects of climate change and land use on boreal stream fish communities

Ongoing and projected climate change is likely to greatly alter co-occurring stressor mechanisms, yet these potential interactions remain poorly understood in natural freshwater systems worldwide. As the global biodiversity crisis deepens, successful conservation efforts will hinge on developing mechanistic multiple stressor frameworks that have been ground-truthed in natural systems containing complex species dynamics and ecological processes. Our study examined the combined and interacting effects of potential climate and land use stressors on boreal stream fishes using data from over 300 catchments across a broad 250,000 km2 region. To characterize boreal fish community health, we examined four indicators including species richness, total catch per unit effort, the proportion of lithophilic spawners (fish sensitive to sedimentation), and the assemblage tolerance index which provides a measurement of the overall community tolerance to disturbance. Land use stressors included total anthropogenic land use area and linear disturbance at multiple watershed scales as well as two site-specific habitat degradation indicators (dissolved oxygen and the proportion of fine substrate). Overall community richness and productivity were not negatively related to land use changes indicating potential compensatory dynamics (e.g. where intolerant species are replaced with more tolerant species as habitat quality degrades). In contrast, we observed declines for sensitive species, including highly valued salmonids, that varied depending on interactions between local climate, land use, and stream type. Sensitive species declines were concentrated in regions experiencing increased land use and warming, whereas increases were observed in cooler regions consistent with a subsidy-stress response. In addition, lithophilic spawners declined in watersheds experiencing warmer and wetter conditions owing to potential indirect effects on spawning habitat quality. Results from our study provide novel insight into complex climate and land use interactions occurring across a broad, real-world landscape, and highlight the potential for amplified species declines under future warming and land use scenarios.

A taste of the new ReCiPe for life cycle assessment: consequences of the updated impact assessment method on food product LCAs

PurposeRecently, an update of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method ReCiPe was released: ReCiPe 2016. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of using this update instead of the previous version: ReCiPe 2008. Do the absolute outcomes change significantly and if so, does this lead to different conclusions and result-based recommendations?MethodsLife cycle assessments (LCAs) were conducted for 152 foods for which cradle-to-plate inventories were available and that together are estimated to account for 80% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, land use and fossil resource depletion of food consumption in the Netherlands. The LCIA was performed on midpoint and endpoint level, with both ReCiPe 2008 and 2016, and using the three perspectives provided by ReCiPe. Both the uses of the global-average characterisation factors (CFs) and the Dutch-specific CFs were explored.Results and discussionResults showed a strong correlation between LCAs performed with ReCiPe 2008 and with 2016 on midpoint and endpoint level, with Spearman’s rank correlation between 0.85 and 0.99. Ranking of foods related to their overall environmental impact did not differ significantly between methods when using the default hierarchist perspective. Differences on endpoint level were largest when using the individualist perspective. The predicted average absolute impact of the foods studied did change significantly when using the new ReCiPe, regardless of which perspective was used: a larger impact was found for climate change, freshwater eutrophication and water consumption and a lower impact for acidification and land use. The use of Dutch CFs in ReCiPe 2016 leads to significant differences in LCA results compared with the use of the global-average CFs. When looking at the average Dutch diet, ReCiPe 2016 predicted a larger impact from greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater eutrophication, and a lower impact from acidification and land use than ReCiPe 2008.ConclusionsThe update of ReCiPe leads to other LCIA results but to comparable conclusions on hotspots and ranking of food product consumption in the Netherlands. Looking at the changes per product due to the update, we recommend updating endpoint-level LCAs conducted with ReCiPe 2008, especially for products that emit large amounts of PM2.5 or consume large amounts of water within their life cycle. As new and updated methods reflect the scientific state of art better and therefore include less model uncertainty, we recommend to always use the most recent and up-to-date methodology in new LCAs.

Practical constraints to timber management among African American owners of heir property

Managing timberland can increase productivity and income for owners, but serious constraints to meeting these or other goals face owners of heir property. The term heir property is used to describe property owned as an undivided interest among heirs of an original owner who died without a probated will. Heirs may be numerous, span multiple generations and geographies, and have very different connections to the land. Heir property is a common phenomenon among African American landowners in the southeastern United States (“South”), a region where timberland represents over 60 percent of total land use. Because owners are numerous, title to the land is considered “clouded,” limiting access to government programs and commercial credit that could be used to engage in the many activities (e.g., stand establishment, fertilization, prescribed burning, thinning, harvesting, replanting) associated with timberland management. We use available data to estimate that over one million acres of timberland in the South are owned as heir property. We document the financial costs and the specific obstacles likely to be encountered by heir property owners, including long time horizons associated with timberland management and the likelihood that heir owners representing different generations may not agree on how to manage the property. We propose a set of policy changes that state and federal government agencies could consider to increase productivity and income for heir property owners while improving overall forest health.

Land use related to Dutch consumption, 1990–2013

Effects of Dutch consumption reach far beyond the country borders. The international consequences of consumption are related to imports of many commodities for consumptive needs. The goal of this study was to show the amount and distribution of land needed for Dutch national consumption, inside and outside the national borders. While this question has been investigated in general terms, the present study is motivated by the need to provide more accurate and precise product-level results that can be used in a practical way, for example to guide circular economy policy goals.A model was developed to determine land use of 40 commodities, combining use- /supply-based consumption data with agricultural/forestry yields in the main regions of origin, plus land used for housing, recreation etc. The model thus calculates a land footprint that reflects actual occupied hectares. The model comprises the time series from 1990 to 2013.The land used for the consumptive needs of Dutch people amounts to 8.6 million hectares in 2013, corresponding to 0.51 ha per capita. This is over two and a half times the land area of the Netherlands itself. Land use is primarily related to forestry and agriculture, with paper and meat as important land requiring products. During the 1990–2013 period total land use has decreased by 10%, despite a population increase of 13% and an increase in GDP by 54%. The main causes for this decrease are increased agricultural yields and a decrease in paper and wood consumption after 2010. For the years 1990 and 2013 a comparison was made between land use with actual region-specific yields and global average yields. This exercise showed that, for the year 2013, land use calculated using global average yields was almost twice as much as that calculated using regional yields. This means our commodities originate from regions with relatively productive lands. For the year 1990 the difference was even larger, indicating a converging trend in global yields. In 2013 most land for Dutch consumption was occupied within the EU (53%, of which 20% in the Netherlands) and South America (18%).

Hierarchical modeling assessment of the influence of watershed stressors on fish and invertebrate species in Gulf of Mexico estuaries

The northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) spans five U.S. states and encompasses estuaries that vary greatly in size, shape, upstream river input, eutrophication status, and biotic communities. Given the variability among these estuaries, assessing their biological condition relative to anthropogenic stressors is challenging, but important to regional fisheries management and habitat conservation initiatives. Here, a hierarchical generalized linear modeling approach was developed to predict species presence in bottom trawl samples, using data from 33 estuaries over a nineteen-year study period. This is the first GoM estuary assessment to leverage Gulf-wide trawl data to develop species-level indicators and a quantitative index of estuary disturbance. After controlling for sources of variability at the sampling event, estuary, state, and sampling program levels, our approach screened for statistically significant relationships between watershed-level anthropogenic stressors and fish and invertebrate species presence. Modeling results indicate species level indicators with sensitivities to landscape stressor gradients. The most influential stressors include total anthropogenic land use, crop land use, and the number of toxic release sites in upstream watersheds, as well as agriculture in the shoreline buffer, each of which was significantly related to between 21% and 39% of the 57 species studied. Averaging the effects of these influential stressors across species, we develop a quantitative estuary stress index that can be compared against benchmark conditions. In general, disturbance levels were greatest in estuaries west of the Mississippi delta and in highly developed estuaries in southwest Florida. Estuaries from the Florida panhandle to the eastern Mississippi delta had less anthropogenic stress.

Modelled impacts of policies and climate change on land use and water quality in Austria

Climate change is a major driver of land use with implications for the quality and quantity of water resources. We apply a novel integrated impact modelling framework (IIMF) to analyze climate change impacts until 2040 and stakeholder driven scenarios on water protection policies for sustainable management of land and water resources in Austria. The IIMF mainly consists of the sequentially linked bio-physical process model EPIC, the regional land use optimization model PASMA[grid], the quantitative precipitation/runoff TUWmodel, and the nutrient emission model MONERIS. Three climate scenarios with identical temperature trends but diverging precipitation patterns shall represent uncertainty ranges from climate change, i.e. a dry and wet situation. Water protection policies are clustered to two policy portfolios WAP_I and WAP_II, which are targeted to regions (WAP_I) or applied at the national scale (WAP_II). Policies cover agri-environmental programs and legal standards and tackle management measures such as restrictions in fertilizer, soil and crop rotation management as well as establishment of buffer strips. Results show that average national agricultural gross margin varies by ±2%, but regional impacts are more pronounced particularly under a climate scenario with decreasing precipitation sums. WAP_I can alleviate pressures compared to the business as usual scenario but does not lead to the achievement of environmental quality standards for P in all rivers. WAP_II further reduces total nutrient emissions but at higher total private land use costs. At the national average, total private land use costs for reducing nutrient emission loads in surface waters are 60–200 €/kg total N and 120–250 €/kg total P with precipitation and the degree of regional targeting as drivers. To conclude, the IIMF is able to capture the interfaces between climate change, land use, and water quality in a policy context. Despite efforts to improve model linkages and the robustness of model output, uncertainty propagations in integrated modelling frameworks need to be tackled in subsequent studies.

Is afforestation-induced land use change the main contributor to vegetation dynamics in the semiarid region of North China?

Quantitatively analyzing the response of vegetation dynamics to land use change is very important, especially it relates to gaining a better understanding of the effects of ecological restoration projects. Previous studies have focused on the effects of land use change caused by the Grain for Green Project (GGP) on vegetation dynamics, but the effects from other changes in land use have less been explored. Therefore, in order to bridge this gap, Landsat images and MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data were used to examine how land use had changed from 2000 to 2014 as well as to study its influence on vegetation growth in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia, China. For this, four major land use change processes were identified through land use trajectories analysis: the Grain for Green Program (GGP), agricultural intensification, cropland abandonment, and cropland degradation. The GGP caused 36.60% of the total land use change in our study area, while three other processes caused the remaining of 44.40%. Anthropogenic activities significantly influenced vegetation coverage in 10.47% of the research area based on residual trend analysis. Pixels analysis showed 8.72% of the research area experienced a significant increase in vegetation coverage, where 39.53% of this increase was caused by afforestation while 33.25% was attributable to agricultural intensification. However, vegetation degradation was observed in 1.75% of the research area, of which 12.91% was caused by afforestation, an amount that was lower than that caused by the combined effects of the other three practices. Overall, afforestation can effectively increase vegetation coverage, but the overall effects can be undermined by other unstainable land use. However, although agricultural intensification contributed greatly to an increase in vegetation coverage, it also caused severe land degradation. This study demonstrates that ecological restoration projects and regional ecological systems are facing increasing pressure in Ulanqab City caused by an increase in human activity. Managing and maintaining restoration projects sustainably and appropriately in fragile areas will help land managers to achieve better results during vegetation restoration as well as to contribute to sustainable development.

An urban stream can support a healthy population of coastal cutthroat trout

Urbanization presents numerous challenges to aquatic species. For fish, typical threats include altered flow dynamics, poor water quality, and degraded food webs. These threats can be detrimental to fish and whether urban environments can support healthy populations is unclear. Tryon Creek is one of the largest urban watersheds in Portland, Oregon where developed land accounts for 55.6% of total land use. We used demographic, life history, disease, and genetic indices to assess the overall health of the Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) population in Tryon Creek. Results of these population indicators were within ranges for streams with Coastal Cutthroat Trout populations not influenced by urbanization and considered healthy. Coastal Cutthroat Trout in Tryon Creek exhibited a mean condition factor of 1.07 (95% CI 0.95–1.19, range 0.94–1.24), four size-classes, an estimated density of 0.01–0.03 individuals/m2, and migratory behavior. The population did not exhibit excessive deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Genetic diversity in Tryon Creek (He = 0.76; allelic richness = 6.6) was comparable to that observed in non-urbanized streams in the Mt. Hood National Forest (He = 0.72; allelic richness = 5.6). Moreover, allele frequencies appeared stable, and no genetic divergence was detected among generations (F ST ~0.00; non-significant allele frequency heterogeneity tests). The population tested negative for 12 different pathogens and results for Renibacterium salmoninarum were inconclusive. The characteristics of Coastal Cutthroat Trout in Tryon Creek were similar to populations not influenced by urbanization which suggests an urban stream can support a healthy fish population.

Understanding the life cycle surface land requirements of natural gas-fired electricity

The surface land use of fossil fuel acquisition and utilization has not been well characterized, inhibiting consistent comparisons of different electricity generation technologies. Here we present a method for robust estimation of the life cycle land use of electricity generated from natural gas through a case study that includes inventories of infrastructure, satellite imagery and well-level production. Approximately 500 sites in the Barnett Shale of Texas were sampled across five life cycle stages (production, gathering, processing, transmission and power generation). Total land use (0.62 m2 MWh−1, 95% confidence intervals ±0.01 m2 MWh−1) was dominated by midstream infrastructure, particularly pipelines (74%). Our results were sensitive to power plant heat rate (85–190% of the base case), facility lifetime (89–169%), number of wells per site (16–100%), well lifetime (92–154%) and pipeline right of way (58–142%). When replicated for other gas-producing regions and different fuels, our approach offers a route to enable empirically grounded comparisons of the land footprint of energy choices. Understanding land-use requirements for the life cycle of electricity generation allows for consistent comparisons of different technologies. Jordaan et al. present a method that leverages highly resolved, empirical data sets to give robust estimates of land use for natural-gas-fired electricity.

Spatial-temporal change in urban agricultural land use efficiency from the perspective of agricultural multi-functionality: A case study of the Xi’an metropolitan zone

The excessive expansion of urbanized areas has resulted in haphazard land utilization, immoderate consumption of superior agricultural land and water resources, significant fragmentation of agricultural landscape, and gradual deterioration of the agro-ecological environment. Combined, these factors cause poor land use efficiency. Under these circumstances, comprehensively assessing land use efficiency for urban agriculture is a key issue in land use research. Currently, evaluation methods for agricultural land use efficiency narrowly concentrate on aspects of economic input and output. However, urban agro-ecosystems can provide diverse economic, social, and ecological services and functions. In particular, the social and ecological services and functions originating from agricultural land, which have a higher value than economic services, play a significant role in ensuring regional social, ecological, and environmental security. However, recent research has rarely taken these benefits into consideration. Therefore, land use value has been greatly underestimated, which has resulted in mishandled and poor land use policies. In this study, we apply Landsat imagery and social and economic statistical data for the Xi’an metropolitan zone (XMZ) to investigate agricultural multi-functionality. We develop an evaluation framework for urban agricultural land use efficiency and identify agro-ecosystem services and functions as important outputs from agricultural land. The land use efficiency of urban agriculture is then evaluated using ecosystem services models, providing a mechanism for assessing spatial-temporal changes in land use efficiency in the XMZ from 1999 to 2015. Four important conclusions are reached from this analysis. First, the rapid urbanization and agricultural transformation from traditional cereal cultivation to modern urban agriculture has resulted in steadily increasing costs, outputs, and land use efficiency of urban agriculture. The total output value increased 41% and land use efficiency per hectare increased by 33.13% on average. Second, the spatial patterns of comprehensive output and land use efficiency were dominated by economic outputs from agricultural land. Areas near cities, which are dominated by orchard and arable land, provide more economic functions. These areas support and regulate services due to the transformation from extensive cereal production to intensive modern urban agriculture; therefore, they have higher output value and land use efficiency. In contrast, areas distant from cities, towns, and high traffic roads, namely, remote rural areas, provide more support and regulating services, but have relatively lower economic function due to inaccessibility to urban markets and slow agricultural transformation. Therefore, these areas have lower output value and land use efficiency. The spatial change in agricultural output and land use efficiency in urban areas is strongly dependent on the degree of urbanization and agricultural transformation. Third, the total output value and land use efficiency of urban agriculture measured with our approach are much higher than evaluations using traditional methods. However, the spatial patterns measured using the two approaches are in agreement. The evaluation framework integrates ecological services and economic and social functions into a comprehensive output from agricultural land. This approach is more methodical and accurate for evaluating the comprehensive efficiency of land use based on quantities and spatial scale because they are at the pixel scale. Finally, the evaluation results have important implications for enhancing current agricultural subsidies and even implementing ecological payment policies in China. Most importantly, they can be directly applied to agricultural transformation regulations, decision- making, and guidance for rational land utilization.

Japan's ban on the production or import of organic pigments with >50 ppm PCBs

Under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II, the EU will phase out the use of palm oil for biodiesel feedstock. Environmental concerns are the main reasons for the EU to implement this initiative. This study analyzes the economic and environmental impact of EU import ban to Indonesia at provincial level, using 2 scenarios (a direct and direct-indirect import ban). The analysis is performed using a global-subnational Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) with environmental extensions. This study shows that a direct (combined) import ban of palm oil by the EU will reduce Indonesia's GDP by −0.2 % (−0.26 %) and employment by −0.12 % (−0.54 %) from baseline. At provincial level, Riau, North Sumatra, Lampung, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan experience the highest impact on their domestic product (more than −0.5 %). Under a direct import ban, job losses mostly happen in outside Java (96.26 %) and in the oilseeds sector (75.21 %). Low and middle skilled jobs decline more than high skilled jobs and count for 95 % of the total loss. This study also shows that a direct (combined) import ban reduces national GHG emissions by −0.19 % (−0.24 %) and total land use by −0.48 % (−0.6 %). Potential carbon sequestration can be 34.55 (42.27) million tons C equivalent to 149.74 (182.67) million tons CO2e under assumption a full rewilding from the reduction of land use in oilseed. Our study shows that an EU import ban on Indonesian palm oil has relatively small economic and environmental impacts at national and provincial level. Yet, this policy can create potential carbon sequestration that can absorb CO2 by vegetation and soil.

A two-stage DEA model to evaluate sustainability and energy efficiency of tomato production

The aims of this study were to evaluate the sustainability and efficiency of tomato production and to investigate the determinants of inefficiency of tomato farming in Marand region of East Azerbaijan province, Iran. For these purposes, a two-stage methodology was applied, in which for the first time a fractional regression model (FRM) was employed in the second stage of analysis, so that, in the first stage a nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to analyze the efficiencies of tomato production and in the second stage, farm specific variables such as education level, farmers’ age, total land size and use of manure were used in a fractional regression model to explain how these factors influenced efficiency of tomato farming. The results of the first stage showed that there are considerable differences between efficient and inefficient farmers in the studied area, so that the main differences were in the use of chemical fertilizers, biocides and water for irrigation. Also, the results of second stage revealed that farmers’ age, education level and total land size positively affected efficiency in tomato production. So, better use of land, chemical fertilizers, water for irrigation and improving the farmers’ educational levels through literacy campaign and land consolidation would probably increase the efficiency in the long term.

Study on the Land Intensive Use Analysis and Evaluation of Industrial Land in Development Zone of Qinzhou City, China

The purpose of this paper is to design evaluation index system and analyze the intensive land use of so as to provide reference for economical and intensive land use of industry. The methods used include synthesis evaluation and Delphi method. Results show that the total land use intensity score is 73.26 in eight industry development zones of Qinzhou City which reached the level of pass. Conclusion is that the degree of industrial land intensive use is overall in the level of inefficient use in Qinzhou and the use intensity of industry is not high. Land supply rate, comprehensive volume rate and integrated volume rate of industrial land are major factors to affect industrial of Qinzhou City, which could be pathways to improve the land intensive use level in development zone. Promote the land intensive use in development zone of Qinzhou City through strengthening the land management of new entrant enterprises, strict access mechanism, rational planning and control land structure of development zone.

Modelling environmental effects of selected agricultural management strategies with regional statistically based screening LCA

Despite the farm being considered by many as the most suitable level of decision-making and strategic management in agriculture, there is an increasing interest in evaluating agricultural management strategies at the regional level. Recent initiatives attempted to aggregate and generalise farm-level lifecycle inventory (LCI) data and lifecycle impact assessment (LCIA) results to describe the environmental performance of agricultural regions. This article describes our development and application of a regional statistics-based approach for constructing virtual representative farms (VRFs), representing dominant farm types for a given region, as a tool for comparing alternative regional agricultural strategies in contexts of insufficient farm (e.g. LCI) data. Based on statistical sources, we constructed VRFs of the dominant farm types in the largely agricultural region of Brittany, France. Environmental impacts of different agricultural management strategies were estimated at the regional level by modelling the strategies as changes in VRF-based LCIs, calculating LCIAs and extrapolating their mean per-ha impacts to the total land use in the region. Based on this assessment, performed using a regional lifecycle assessment framework, we analysed relative environmental impacts of each management strategy on the region. A strategy-comparison table was built to allow decision makers to understand the potential regional environmental consequences of implementing each strategy. Once VRFs impact assessment results were extrapolated to the regional level, all strategies show environmental impacts per ha similar to those of the baseline, with differences ranging from −15 to +6%. The scenario featuring centralised fodder drying by 50% of cattle farms (50FOD) is the only one featuring surpluses for all products, due to associated cattle diet adjustments including reduced maize silage intake and partial substitution of concentrate feeds. The scenario featuring grass specialisation by all cattle farms (100GRA) shows a large deficit of grassland products, suggesting that a region-wide extensification strategy would not be self-sufficient. The method developed enables comparing environmental consequences of region-wide implementation of agricultural strategies, yet, for our case study, it is particularly difficult to identify a “best” one. Nonetheless, the method serves as an initial step for preselecting strategies to investigate at a more detailed level. Prioritisation of a given strategy would likely be based on the environmental pressures considered most pressing by regional decision makers.

Anthropogenic litter is abundant, diverse, and mobile in urban rivers: Insights from cross-ecosystem analyses using ecosystem and community ecology tools

Anthropogenic litter (AL; trash) in the environment is increasing and persistent. Rivers are considered a major source of AL to oceans, but AL ecology within rivers is rarely examined. Also, the rapidly developing field of AL research will benefit from fundamental approaches in community and ecosystem ecology. We adapted methods for communities of organisms and movement of organic matter to measure density, mass, assemblages, sources, and flux of AL in riparian and benthic zones at 15 sites in five rivers. We compared riverine AL density, mass, and assemblages to marine habitats worldwide. Benthic zones had greater AL mass and a different assemblage than riparian zones. Reach-scale metrics of human activity (e.g., parking spaces) explained more variation in AL assemblages than total urban land use. AL export was driven by material type and hydrology, and turnover time was ≤ 1 yr. Riparian AL density was similar to beaches, but benthic AL density was higher than marine benthic habitats. Finally, AL assemblages in river benthic and riparian zones were similar to assemblages at beaches rather than marine benthic habitats. AL is abundant and mobile in rivers, which show dynamic periods of AL retention and export. Rivers are likely sites of AL breakdown and burial, with significant biotic interactions which have not yet been studied. Comprehensive assessments of AL across ecosystems require continued adaptation of fundamental ecosystem and community ecology tools. Results will integrate riverine AL dynamics with the growing field of marine AL ecology, and inform management of global AL accumulations.