scholarly journals Environmental Land Use Conflicts in a Macroscale River Basin: A Preliminary Study Based on the Ruggedness Number

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1222
Author(s):  
Janaína Guidolini ◽  
Jean Ometto ◽  
Gustavo Arcoverde ◽  
Angélica Giarolla
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
Land Use Conflict ◽  
Land Use Conflicts ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Preliminary Study

Inadequate land use planning is one of the main driving forces leading to the occurrence of erosion and environmental degradation. The negative impacts of poor planning influence soil physical quality and fertility, agricultural productivity, water quality and availability, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. In some areas, actual land use is not consistent with potential use. When this occurs, the area is termed as being in environmental land use conflict. Many studies have demonstrated the efficiency of the ruggedness number (RN) method for determining land use potential in watersheds. The RN method is simple and can be carried out using geographic information systems (GIS). However, the absence of potential land use or agricultural land suitability assessments is recurrent in territorial management plans or integrated water resources plans (IWRP), especially for macroscale river basins. Therefore, the aim of this preliminary study is to identify possible environmental land use conflicts at the Rio Grande Basin (BHRG), Brazil, using the Ruggedness Number. The results indicate high agricultural use potential and the predominance of appropriate or acceptable soil use at the BHRG. However, class 1, 2 and 3 environmental conflicts were identified in some Rio Grande sub-basins, suggesting greater environmental degradation risks. The findings clearly indicate that more exhaustive studies on environmental quality (soil capability, water, biodiversity) are required at the BHRG, especially in environmental land use conflict areas. We emphasize that this is an important preliminary study which may be carried out in any other macroscale hydrographic basin.

How feasible is Regional Integration for reconciling land use conflicts across the urban-rural interface? Evidence from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan region in China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenqiu Ma
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Landscape Pattern ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Original Structure ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Land Use Conflict ◽  
Land Use Structure ◽  
Land Use Conflicts ◽  
Urban Rural

<p>Competition among different uses for land is becoming acute under the process of urbanization, and conflicts related to this competition are becoming more frequent and more complex. This article presents a methodology for confronting this issue. By applying an integrated framework, we explore the implicit role of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Regional Integration (BRI) policy in land use conflicts by focusing on the urban-rural interface, and try to address the research question: “How feasible is BRI for reconciling land use conflicts across the urban-rural interface?” An original structure of the analysis is developed based on the identification of three types of conflicts, namely, conflicts over land use structure, conflicts over land conversion and conflicts over landscape pattern. According to the interactions and relationships among these conflicts, we define broad categories of land use conflict areas. Indeed, these conflicts are all related to the unplanned use of agricultural land reserves, which competes with other more immediate uses, and the over-exploitation of land resources caused by unsustainable urban practices. This policy is clearly a critical objective for optimizing the land use structure. It, however, fails to reconcile the conflicts over land conversion and landscape pattern, especially for considerable agricultural land conversion to non-agricultural uses, and low-density development pattern with mixed residential and industrial land uses. Hence, alternative strategies involving public participation, spatial equity, rural revitalization, land-use system reform, and new type of urbanization, can be identified as viable solutions for land use conflict management, which may be complementary to regional integration. The findings of our paper may also contribute to the policy debate on BRI concerning land use planning and regional sustainability.</p>

scholarly journals Identification of Potential Land-Use Conflicts between Agricultural and Ecological Space in an Ecologically Fragile Area of Southeastern China

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1011
Author(s):  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Xinming Chen ◽  
Congmou Zhu ◽  
Bingbing Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Southeastern China ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Land Use Conflict ◽  
Hilly Region ◽  
Land Use Conflicts

In the context of ensuring national food security, high-intensity agricultural production and construction activities have aggravated the conflicts between agricultural and ecological spaces in ecologically fragile areas, which have become one of the most important factors hindering regional sustainable development. This study took Lin’an District, a typical hilly region of southeastern China, as an example. By constructing a landscape ecological risk evaluation model, land-use conflicts between agricultural and ecological spaces were identified, spatial autocorrelation and topographic gradient characteristics were analyzed, and land-use conflict trade-off mechanisms were proposed. During 2008 and 2018, the degree of land-use conflict in Lin’an District displayed an increasing trend, and the proportion of severe conflicts increased obviously. Slope is the main factor affecting land-use conflicts in a hilly region and shows a negative correlation, mainly because areas with flat terrain are more conducive to human activities. Based on the characteristics of land-use conflicts in Lin’an District, conflict trade-off mechanisms were proposed to provide a theoretical basis and practical support for land-use conflict management. Our study provides scientific evidence for sustainable land-use planning and ecological management in ecologically fragile areas.

scholarly journals An Integrated Economic, Environmental and Social Approach to Agricultural Land-Use Planning

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 364
Author(s):  
Sahar Shahpari ◽  
Janelle Allison ◽  
Matthew Tom Harrison ◽  
Roger Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Agricultural Land Use ◽  
Climate Type ◽  
Crop Selection ◽  
Regional Impacts ◽  
Farmer Decision Making

Agricultural land-use change is a dynamic process that varies as a function of social, economic and environmental factors spanning from the local to the global scale. The cumulative regional impacts of these factors on land use adoption decisions by farmers are neither well accounted for nor reflected in agricultural land use planning. We present an innovative spatially explicit agent-based modelling approach (Crop GIS-ABM) that accounts for factors involved in farmer decision making on new irrigation adoption to enable land-use predictions and exploration. The model was designed using a participatory approach, capturing stakeholder insights in a conceptual model of farmer decisions. We demonstrate a case study of the factors influencing the uptake of new irrigation infrastructure and land use in Tasmania, Australia. The model demonstrates how irrigated land-use expansion promotes the diffusion of alternative crops in the region, as well as how coupled social, biophysical and environmental conditions play an important role in crop selection. Our study shows that agricultural land use reflected the evolution of multiple simultaneous interacting biophysical and socio-economic drivers, including soil and climate type, crop and commodity prices, and the accumulated effects of interactive decisions of farmers.

scholarly journals Spatial Distribution and Evaluation of Arsenic and Zinc Content in the Soil of a Karst Landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6976
Author(s):  
Dimitrios E. Alexakis ◽  
George D. Bathrellos ◽  
Hariklia D. Skilodimou ◽  
Dimitra E. Gamvroula
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Soil ◽  
Agricultural Soil ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Land Evaluation ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
North West ◽  
Total Study Area

Karst features such as polje are highly vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic pollution. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the soil quality in the Ioannina polje (north-west Greece) concerning arsenic (As) and zinc (Zn), and delineate their origin as well as compare the As and Zn content in soil with criteria recorded in the literature. For this purpose, the geomorphological settings, the land use, and the soil physicochemical properties were mapped and evaluated, including soil texture and concentrations of aqua-regia extractable As and Zn. The concentration of elements was spatially correlated with the land use and the geology of the study area, while screening values were applied to assess land suitability. The results reveal that 72% of the total study area has a very gentle slope. This relief favors urban and agricultural activity. Thus, the urban and agricultural land used cover 92% of the total area. The spatial distribution for As and Zn in the soil of the study area is located on very gentle slopes and is strongly correlated with the geological parent materials and human-induced contamination sources. Arsenic and Zn can be considered enriched in the soil of the area studied. The median topsoil contents (in mg kg−1) for As (agricultural soil 16.0; urban soil 17.8) and Zn (agricultural soil 92.0; urban soil 95.0) are higher compared to the corresponding median values of European topsoils. Land evaluation suitability concerning criteria given from the literature is discussed. The proposed work may be helpful in the project of land use planning and the protection of the natural environment.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Approaches to Regional Land-Use Capability Analysis for Agricultural Land-Planning

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Tara A. Ippolito ◽  
Jeffrey E. Herrick ◽  
Ekwe L. Dossa ◽  
Maman Garba ◽  
Mamadou Ouattara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Field Samples ◽  
Agricultural Potential ◽  
Fertility Data ◽  
Using Data

Smallholder agriculture is a major source of income and food for developing nations. With more frequent drought and increasing scarcity of arable land, more accurate land-use planning tools are needed to allocate land resources to support regional agricultural activity. To address this need, we created Land Capability Classification (LCC) system maps using data from two digital soil maps, which were compared with measurements from 1305 field sites in the Dosso region of Niger. Based on these, we developed 250 m gridded maps of LCC values across the region. Across the region, land is severely limited for agricultural use because of low available water-holding capacity (AWC) that limits dry season agricultural potential, especially without irrigation, and requires more frequent irrigation where supplemental water is available. If the AWC limitation is removed in the LCC algorithm (i.e., simulating the use of sufficient irrigation or a much higher and more evenly distributed rainfall), the dominant limitations become less severe and more spatially varied. Finally, we used additional soil fertility data from the field samples to illustrate the value of collecting contemporary data for dynamic soil properties that are critical for crop production, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.

scholarly journals Developing a User Friendly Decision Tool for Agricultural Land Use Allocation at a Regional Scale

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumbangan Baja ◽  
Samsu Arif ◽  
Risma Neswati
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Land Suitability ◽  
Soil Survey ◽  
Agricultural Land Use ◽  
Suitability Evaluation ◽  
Land Suitability Evaluation ◽  
Land Use Allocation ◽  
User Friendly

Agricultural land use planning should always be guided by a reliable tool to ensure effective decision making in the allocation of land use and activities. The primary aim of this study is to develop a user friendly system on a spatial basis for agricultural land suitability evaluation of four groups of agriculture commodities, including food crops, horticultural crops, perennial (plantation) crops, grazing, and tambak (fish ponds) to guide land use planning. The procedure used is as follows: (i) conducting soil survey based on generated land mapping units; (ii) developing soil database in GIS; and (iii) designing a user friendly system. The data bases of the study were derived from satellite imagery, digital topographic map, soil characteristics at reconnaissance scale, as well as climate data. Land suitability evaluation in this study uses the FAO method. The study produces a spatial based decision support tool called SUFIG-Wilkom that can give decision makers sets of information interactively for land use allocation purposes.This user friendly system is also amenable to various operations in a vector GIS, so that the system may accommodate possible additional assessment of other land use types.

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