scholarly journals A Spatiotemporal Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of Arshaly District, Kazakhstan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onggarbek Alipbeki ◽  
Chaimgul Alipbekova ◽  
Arnold Sterenharz ◽  
Zhanat Toleubekova ◽  
Meirzhan Aliyev ◽  
...  

In this study, the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) were evaluated in the peri-urban area of the Arshaly district, which borders the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Landsat multispectral images were used to study the changes in LULC. The analysis of LULC dynamics was carried out using supervised classification with a multi-temporal interval (1998, 2008, and 2018). During the study period, noticeable changes occurred in LULC. There was an increase in the area of arable land and forests and a reduction in the pastures. There was a sharp increase in the built-up area; that is, there was an intensification of land use through an increase in the share of arable land as well as the transformation of agricultural land for development. However, in general, the influence of urban sprawl in this peri-urban area has so far been accompanied by only a slight focus on its sustainable development.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1241
Author(s):  
Anastasia Krina ◽  
Fotios Xystrakis ◽  
Kostas Karantininis ◽  
Nikos Koutsias

Wetlands are areas of high biodiversity and provide many ecosystem services of high value. However, they are under constant threat from intense anthropogenic pressures, mainly agriculture intensification, urbanization, pollution, and climate change. The temporal and spatial patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) changes within eleven large wetlands in Greece were analyzed based on thematic maps generated from aerial orthophotos taken in 1945, 1975, and 2007. Socio-economic developments and the consequent need for more arable land and utilization of water resources are among the factors that mainly determine their evolution. In 2007, LULC classes related to wetland vegetation were reduced to one third as compared to 1945 and they were mainly replaced with croplands and urban infrastructures. Each of the different sub-periods that was considered (1945–1975 and 1975–2007) was distinguished by characteristic patterns of change. Agricultural land increased up to 42% from 1945 to 1975 and became the dominant LULC class in all deltaic areas but Evros. A considerable stability was observed for the period 1975–2007 for all LULC classed but it is remarkable the extent of urban areas that doubled. There is a tendency of landscape simplification and homogenization among the deltaic areas and the output of Markov chain analysis indicates that future composition of deltaic landscapes will be similar to the current one if the main driving forces remain constant. Changes in LULC composition and structure are also combined with coastal erosion in all deltaic areas. This is attributed to the modification of sedimentary deposits due to dam construction. The results summarize the change trajectories of the major deltaic areas in Greece from 1945 to 2007 thus offering a great outlook of changes that allows managers to understand how policies and socio-economic requirements affect the deltaic ecosystems and what decisions should be made to protect and enhance them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3331
Author(s):  
József Lennert ◽  
Jenő Zsolt Farkas ◽  
András Donát Kovács ◽  
András Molnár ◽  
Rita Módos ◽  
...  

The loss of farmland to urban use in peri-urban areas is a global phenomenon. Urban sprawl generates a decline in the availability of productive agricultural land around cities, causing versatile conflicts between nature and society and threatening the sustainability of urban agglomerations. This study aimed to uncover the spatial pattern of long-term (80 years) land cover changes in the functional urban area of Budapest, with special attention to the conversion of agricultural land. The paper is based on a unique methodology utilizing various data sources such as military-surveyed topographic maps from the 1950s, the CLC 90 from 1990, and the Urban Atlas from 2012. In addition, the multilayer perceptron (MLP) method was used to model land cover changes through 2040. The research findings showed that land conversion and the shrinkage of productive agricultural land around Budapest significantly intensified after the collapse of communism. The conversion of arable land to artificial surfaces increased, and by now, the traditional metropolitan food supply area around Budapest has nearly disappeared. The extent of forests and grasslands increased in the postsocialist period due to national afforestation programs and the demand of new suburbanites for recreational space. Urban sprawl and the conversion of agricultural land should be an essential issue during the upcoming E.U. Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms.


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Barbara Wiatkowska ◽  
Janusz Słodczyk ◽  
Aleksandra Stokowska

Urban expansion is a dynamic and complex phenomenon, often involving adverse changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This paper uses satellite imagery from Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, Sentinel-2 MSI, and GIS technology to analyse LULC changes in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The research was carried out in Opole, the capital of the Opole Agglomeration (south-western Poland). Maps produced from supervised spectral classification of remote sensing data revealed that in 20 years, built-up areas have increased about 40%, mainly at the expense of agricultural land. Detection of changes in the spatial pattern of LULC showed that the highest average rate of increase in built-up areas occurred in the zone 3–6 km (11.7%) and above 6 km (10.4%) from the centre of Opole. The analysis of the increase of built-up land in relation to the decreasing population (SDG 11.3.1) has confirmed the ongoing process of demographic suburbanisation. The paper shows that satellite imagery and GIS can be a valuable tool for local authorities and planners to monitor the scale of urbanisation processes for the purpose of adapting space management procedures to the changing environment.


Author(s):  
Perminder Singh ◽  
Ovais Javeed

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is an index of greenness or photosynthetic activity in a plant. It is a technique of obtaining  various features based upon their spectral signature  such as vegetation index, land cover classification, urban areas and remaining areas presented in the image. The NDVI differencing method using Landsat thematic mapping images and Landsat oli  was implemented to assess the chane in vegetation cover from 2001to 2017. In the present study, Landsat TM images of 2001 and landsat 8 of 2017 were used to extract NDVI values. The NDVI values calculated from the satellite image of the year 2001 ranges from 0.62 to -0.41 and that of the year 2017 shows a significant change across the whole region and its value ranges from 0.53 to -0.10 based upon their spectral signature .This technique is also  used for the mapping of changes in land use  and land cover.  NDVI method is applied according to its characteristic like vegetation at different NDVI threshold values such as -0.1, -0.09, 0.14, 0.06, 0.28, 0.35, and 0.5. The NDVI values were initially computed using the Natural Breaks (Jenks) method to classify NDVI map. Results confirmed that the area without vegetation, such as water bodies, as well as built up areas and barren lands, increased from 35 % in 2001 to 39.67 % in 2017.Key words: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,land use/landcover, spectral signature 


BMC Zoology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariëtte Pretorius ◽  
Wanda Markotter ◽  
Mark Keith

Abstract Background Modification and destruction of natural habitats are bringing previously unencountered animal populations into contact with humans, with bats considered important zoonotic transmission vectors. Caves and cave-dwelling bats are under-represented in conservation plans. In South Africa, at least two cavernicolous species are of interest as potential zoonotic hosts: the Natal long-fingered bat Miniopterus natalensis and the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus. Little information is available about the anthropogenic pressures these species face around important roost sites. Both bats are numerous and widespread throughout the country; land-use changes and urban expansions are a rising concern for both conservation and increased bat-human contact. Results Our study addressed this shortfall by determining the extent of land-cover change around 47 roosts between 2014 and 2018 using existing land cover datasets. We determined the land-cover composition around important roost sites (including maternity, hibernacula and co-roosts), distances to urban settlements and assessed the current protection levels of roost localities. We detected an overall 4% decrease in natural woody vegetation (trees) within 5 km buffer zones of all roost sites, with a 10% decrease detected at co-roost sites alone. Agricultural land cover increased the most near roost sites, followed by plantations and urban land-cover. Overall, roosts were located 4.15 ± 0.91 km from urban settlements in 2018, the distances decreasing as urban areas expand. According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute Ecosystem Threat Status assessment, 72% of roosts fall outside of well-protected ecosystems. Conclusions The current lack of regulatory protection of cavernicolous bats and their roosts, increasing anthropogenic expansions and proximity to human settlements raises concerns about increased human-bat contact. Furthermore, uncontrolled roost visitation and vandalism are increasing, contributing to bat health risks and population declines, though the extent of roosts affected is yet to be quantified. In an era where pandemics are predicted to become more frequent and severe due to land-use change, our research is an urgent call for the formal protection of bat-inhabited caves to safeguard both bats and humans.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cláudia M. Viana ◽  
Luis Encalada ◽  
Jorge Rocha

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open-access Volunteered geographic information (VGI) platform that has been widely used over the last decade as a source for Land Use Land Cover (LULC) mapping and visualization. However, it is known that the spatial coverage and accuracy of OSM data are not evenly distributed across all regions, with urban areas being likelier to have promising contributions (in both quantity and quality) than rural areas. The present study used OSM data history to generate LULC datasets with one-year timeframes as a way to support regional and rural multi-temporal LULC mapping. We evaluated the degree to which the different OSM datasets agreed with two existing reference datasets (CORINE Land Cover and the official Portuguese Land Cover Map). We also evaluated whether our OSM dataset was of sufficiently high quality (in terms of both completeness accuracy and thematic accuracy) to be used as a sampling data source for multi-temporal LULC maps. In addition, we used the near boundary tag accuracy criterion to assesses the fitness of the OSM data for producing training samples, with promising results. For each annual dataset, the completeness ratio of the coverage area for the selected study area was low. Nevertheless, we found high thematic accuracy values (ranged from 77.3% to 91.9%). Additionally, the training samples thematic accuracy improved as they moved away from the features’ boundaries. Features with larger areas (> 10 ha), e.g., Agriculture and Forest, had a steadily positive correlation between training samples accuracy and distance to feature boundaries


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 5704-5709
Author(s):  
Yi Lin ◽  
Bing Liu ◽  
Feng Xie ◽  
Wen Wei Ren

This paper illustrates almost twenty years (1986~2007) of Land use/land cover change (LULCC) in Qingpu-one district of Shanghai. Qingpu District is an area of Upper Huangpu Catchment for fresh water supply with considerable ecological value, but it is also experiencing urban sprawl from development. To reveal the trends underlie LULCC, we propose a novel procedure to quantify different land use/land covers and implement it in the case study. In this procedure, we first collect historical remote-sensing data and co-registered or corrected them to the same spatial resolution and radioactive level. Based upon preliminary interpretation or investigation, land use/land cover types in study area can be included in 5 categories, i.e. Water, Agricultural Land, Urban or Built-up Land, Forest Land, and Barren Land or others. Moreover, data is clipped via boundary of study area for reducing computation load, followed by FPCR-ISODATA classification to divide the data into k groups (k>the number of land types). After postprocessing, e.g., merge the same connoted subgroups and correct misclassified units accompany with validation and verification, the detailed land use/land cover results can be achieved accurately. The quantitative and regression analysis indicate that during the past twenty years the area of agricultural land of Qingpu decreased coupled with urban or built-up area increased linearly. The water area had the minimum change during the decades. Forests had the smallest average proportion (9.6%) of the total area. It occupied so small proportion of land that we can only find points of it in the maps. Barren land can be an indicator for monitoring uncompleted redevelopment or transition of land.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8778
Author(s):  
Teodoro Semeraro ◽  
Elisa Gatto ◽  
Riccardo Buccolieri ◽  
Valentina Catanzaro ◽  
Luigi De Bellis ◽  
...  

The Apulian Region (Italy) is a socio-ecological system shaped by the millennial co-evolution between human actions and ecological processes. It is characterized by monumental olive groves protected from Regional Law 14/2007 for the cultural value of the landscape, currently threatened by the spread of a devastating phytopathogen, the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa. The aim of this paper is to apply landscape resilience analysis focusing on ecosystem services to understand the potential effects and trade-offs of regeneration policies in a peri-urban area characterized by monumental olive groves land cover. The study involved land-cover and land-use analysis, supported by a survey on the inhabitants and an ecosystem services analysis. The results showed a mismatch between the agroecosystem and the social and economic use linked to leisure or hospitality. The study area was defined as a peri-urban landscape characterized by tourist use. From the interviews of the users, the cultural heritage of olive groves seems linked to the presence of olive trees like a status quo of the landscape and olive oil productions. The culture aspect could thus be preserved by changing the type of olive trees. In addition, the analysis showed that the microclimate could be preserved and enhanced in terms of air temperature and thermal comfort, by replacing the olive trees with varieties resistant to Xylella, such as cv. Leccino. Therefore, regeneration policies that promote replacing dead olive groves with new olive trees could be efficient to stimulate social components of the landscape and improve the resilience of ecosystem services in peri-urban areas in the interest of the cultural heritage of the users and benefits that they provide. An ecosystem services analysis at a local scale could be a strategy for an integrated regenerate approach between land-use and land-cover with social, ecological, and economic evolutions vision orientated to a sustainable and desirable future.


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