Erosion modeling of past land-use practices in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina river valley, north-central Sicily

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianna Ayala ◽  
Charly French
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Erosion Modeling ◽  
North Central ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Past Land Use

scholarly journals Mapping Food Production in Hyper Arid and Arid Saharan Africa in the Holocene. A View from the Present

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Lancelotti ◽  
Stefano Biagetti
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Ongoing Effort ◽  
Production Strategies ◽  
Long Time ◽  
New Research ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Past Land Use

The reconstruction of land use practices in hyper arid Saharan Africa is often hampered by the accuracy of the available tools and by unconscious biases that see these areas as marginal and inhospitable. Considered for a long time the living space of pastoral mobile communities, new research is showing of agriculture might have been more important in these areas than previously thought. In this paper, after a review of present-day land use strategies in Saharan Africa, we show how ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological data can offer us a different point of view and help in better defining land use and food production strategies in this area. Ultimately, these insights can be integrated into the ongoing effort of reconstructing past land use globally.

scholarly journals Mapping Food Production in Hyper-Arid and Arid Saharan Africa in the Holocene—A View from the Present

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Carla Lancelotti ◽  
Stefano Biagetti
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Production Strategies ◽  
Long Time ◽  
New Research ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Past Land Use

The reconstruction of land use practices in hyper-arid Saharan Africa is often hampered by the accuracy of the available tools and by unconscious biases that see these areas as marginal and inhospitable. Considered that this has been for a long time the living space of pastoral mobile communities, new research is showing that agriculture might have been more important in these areas than previously thought. In this paper, after a review of present-day land use strategies in Saharan Africa, we show how ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological data can offer us a different point of view and help in better defining land use and food production strategies in this area. Ultimately, these insights can be integrated into the ongoing efforts to reconstruct past land use globally.

Accelerating Change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Stewart Mauldin
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
Contract Negotiations ◽  
Reduced Frequency ◽  
Ecological Event ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Ecological Regime

Emancipation proved to be a far-reaching ecological event. Whereas the ecological regime of slavery had reinforced extensive land-use practices, the end of slavery weakened them. Freedpeople dedicated less time to erosion control and ditching and used contract negotiations and sharecropping arrangements to avoid working in a centrally directed gang. Understandably, freedpeople preferred to direct their own labor on an individual plot of land. The eventual proliferation of share-based or tenant contracts encouraged the physical reorganization of plantations. The combination of these two progressive alterations to labor relations tragically undermined African Americans’ efforts to achieve economic independence by tightening natural limits on cotton production and reducing blacks’ access to the South’s internal provisioning economy. The cessation, or even reduced frequency, of land maintenance on farms exacerbated erosion, flooding, and crops’ susceptibility to drought.

Deferring Crisis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Stewart Mauldin
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Antebellum South ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Ecological Regime

This chapter explores the ecological regime of slavery and the land-use practices employed by farmers across the antebellum South. Despite the diverse ecologies and crop regimes of the region, most southern farmers employed a set of extensive agricultural techniques that kept the cost of farming down and helped circumvent natural limits on crop production and stock-raising. The use of shifting cultivation, free-range animal husbandry, and slaves to perform erosion control masked the environmental impacts of farmers’ actions, at least temporarily. Debates over westward expansion during the sectional crisis of the 1850s were not just about the extension of slavery, they also reflected practical concerns regarding access to new lands and fresh soil. Both were necessary for the continued profitability of farming in the South.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document