WorldWideScience

Sample records for included agricultural land

  1. Ukraine Agricultural Land Market Formation Preconditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evgen Dankevych

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The theoretical land relations reforming principles were reviewed.Land relations in agriculture transformation process was studied. The land use features were detected and agricultural land use efficiency analysis was conducted.Ukraine land market formation research problems results have been shown. It was established that private land ownership institution ambiguous attitude, rent relations deformation, lack of the property rights ensure mechanism inhibit the land market development. Sociological research of Ukrainian Polesie region to determine the prerequisites for agricultural land marketformation preconditions has been conducted. 787 respondents from Zhytomyr, Rivne and Volyn regions were interviewed. Land shares owners age structure, their distribution by education level, their employment, land shares owners and agricultural enterprises executives to the agricultural land sale moratorium cancellation attitudes, land purchase financial resources, directions of Ukrainian Polissya region land shares use, shares owners land issues level of awareness have been determined during the research. Was substantiated that agricultural land market turnover includes not only land sale moratorium cancellation but also the adoption of the legislative framework and the appropriate infrastructure development, one of the key elements of which is land relations regulation specialized state agency – State Land Bank.

  2. Agriculture: Land Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Land Use and agriculture. Information about land use restrictions and incentive programs.Agricultural operations sometimes involve activities regulated by laws designed to protect water supplies, threatened or endangered plants and animals, or wetlands.

  3. Land Use, Conservation, Forestry, and Agriculture in Puerto Rico

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    William A. Gould

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Global food security concerns emphasize the need for sustainable agriculture and local food production. In Puerto Rico, over 80 percent of food is imported, and local production levels have reached historical lows. Efforts to increase local food production are driven by government agencies, non-government organizations, farmers, and consumers. Integration of geographic information helps plan and balance the reinvention and invigoration of the agriculture sector while maintaining ecological services. We used simple criteria that included currently protected lands and the importance of slope and forest cover in protection from erosion to identify land well-suited for conservation, agriculture and forestry in Puerto Rico. Within these categories we assessed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA farmland soils classification data, lands currently in agricultural production, current land cover, and current land use planning designations. We found that developed lands occupy 13 percent of Puerto Rico; lands well-suited for conservation that include protected areas, riparian buffers, lands surrounding reservoirs, wetlands, beaches, and salt flats, occupy 45 percent of Puerto Rico; potential working lands encompass 42 percent of Puerto Rico. These include lands well-suited for mechanized and non-mechanized agriculture, such as row and specialty crops, livestock, dairy, hay, pasture, and fruits, which occupy 23 percent of Puerto Rico; and areas suitable for forestry production, such as timber and non-timber products, agroforestry, and shade coffee, which occupy 19 percent of Puerto Rico.

  4. Agricultural Land and Land Tax – Significant Indicators of Agriculture Business Activities in the Slovak Republic

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    Krajčírová Renáta

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The article is focused on the consideration between the agricultural land acreage and the amount of land tax in the selected sample of companies of agricultural primary production in the Slovak Republic within the period from 2010 to 2014 based on the data from departmental database of enterprises with primary agricultural production drawn from the factsheets of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic presented by the selected statistical methods. In particular, the article presents the agricultural land and land tax from the accounting and tax perspective of the Slovak Republic and the European Union. It can be resulted that a slightly declining trend of the mean acreage of agricultural land was recorded for the evaluated group of agricultural enterprises within the reported period, while the mean land tax value per hectare of agricultural land had increasing trend. Results of the survey on significances of differences in the values of the dependent variables at the level of combinations of factors of year and enterprise indicate that the acreage of agricultural land and the volume of the land tax are statistically dependant at the level of year, however there are not dependent at the level of combination of factors of year and enterprise within the surveyed period.

  5. Agriculture land use and environmental issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, S.M.L

    2005-01-01

    There is agro-pastoral farming system prevalent in mountainous and sub-mountainous areas of Himalayan region including Azad Jammu and Kashmir. As such, Agriculture Sector includes Crop-husbandry, livestock farming and forestry in its ambit. There are varied forms of land uses, like crop farming, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, wildlife conservation etc. Therefore, the paper attempts to spotlight the interplay of these land uses with respect to the environment in general with specific reference to AJK and other mountainous and sub- mountainous regions of Northern Pakistan. Agricultural activities have both negative and beneficial effects on the environment. The negative effects in the forms of physical degradation of the soil due to agriculture are: soil erosion, desertification, water logging and salinity and soil compaction. The land use practices such as overgrazing, deforestation and some cultivation practices, removal of vegetative cover or hedgerows, lack of proper drainage outlets, accentuate these problems. The improper management of water use and sometimes excessive mechanization and Ploughing further aggravates problem of physical degradation of the soil. The chemical degradation, as a result of agricultural practices, include acidification, Salinization, contamination caused by pesticides and insecticides and resultantly water and air pollution, and loss of habitats and biodiversity. Further negative effects emerging out of agricultural practices are greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient losses and lowering of humus content, which makes soil susceptible to compaction and erosion. The beneficial environmental effects emanating from the use of best agricultural management practices and integrated farming systems are protection of soil fertility and stability, prevention of excessive run offs. It also provides habitats for varied forms of flora and fauna, reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO/sub 2)/ and reduce the incidence and severity of natural

  6. Land Grabbing and the Commodification of Agricultural Land in Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Odorico, P.; Rulli, M. C.

    2014-12-01

    The increasing global demand for farmland products is placing unprecedented pressure on the global agricultural system. The increasing demand can be met through either the intensification or the expansion of agricultural production at the expenses of other ecosystems. The ongoing escalation of large scale land acquisitions in the developing world may contribute to both of these two processes. Investments in agriculture have become a priority for a number of governments and corporations that are trying to expand their agricultural production while securing good profits. It is unclear however to what extent these investments are driving the intensification or the expansion of agriculture. In the last decade large scale land acquisitions by external investors have increased at unprecedented rates. This global land rush was likely enhanced by recent food crises, when prices skyrocketed in response to crop failure, new bioenergy policies, and the increasing demand for agricultural products by a growing and increasingly affluent human population. Corporations recognized the potential for high return investments in agricultural land, while governments started to enhance their food security by purchasing large tracts of land in foreign countries. It has been estimated that, to date, about 35.6 million ha of cropland - more than twice the agricultural land of Germany - have been acquired by foreign investors worldwide. As an effect of these land deals the local communities lose legal access to the land and its products. Here we investigate the effect of large scale land acquisition on agricultural intensification or expansion in African countries. We discuss the extent to which these investments in agriculture may increase crop production and stress how this phenomenon can greatly affect the local communities, their food security, economic stability and the long term resilience of their livelihoods, regardless of whether the transfer of property rights is the result of an

  7. Agricultural Crown Land in Saskatchewan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pyle, W.E.

    1998-01-01

    The petroleum industry's interest in provincial crown land in the agricultural area of Saskatchewan has grown over the last two decades. Agricultural land is regulated by the Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture and Food, Lands Branch. Since 1974 surface lease contracts by oil and gas companies have increased from 1,400 to the present 3,700. Resource lands are regulated by Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management. There are 8.8 million acres of crown agricultural land in Saskatchewan, most of which is held without title. Crown land management is meant to provide a long term management approach to crown lands that balances economic, environmental and social benefits for present and future generations. The oil and gas industry is an important participant in crown land management. Revenues from petroleum and gas surface leasing, and seismic licensing totals more than five million dollars annually. In 1995/96, there were 54 companies establishing new oil and gas leases on crown land in Saskatchewan. This paper provides details of current policies which apply to petroleum and gas leasing and seismic exploration, and environmental guidelines for companies developing well sites, compressor and metering stations, access roads and easements. 3 tabs

  8. Demand for Agricultural Land in Slovakia

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    Dirgasová Katarína

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available In general, soil is perceived as an unreplaceable and unrenewable natural resource that allows plants, animals and man to live. It is significant in several ways out of which the most important is the production of food for population, the production of fodder for livestock and the production of raw materials for food and light industry. Due to these as well as the other reasons, land becomes the object of competition between different subjects which are trying to get it and use it. The aim of the paper is to map and to characterise the demand for agricultural land at the agricultural land market based on the certificates on fulfilment of the requirements on purchase of agricultural land. Based on the data collected throughout 31 months, it was proved that the demand for agricultural land is influenced by price, land quality, area, fragmentation of land ownership, distance of the offered plot from a county seat and localisation of a given land plot.

  9. Aligning Land Use with Land Potential: The Role of Integrated Agriculture

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    M. A. Liebig

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Contemporary agricultural land use is dominated by an emphasis on provisioning services by applying energy-intensive inputs through relatively uniform production systems across variable landscapes. This approach to agricultural land use is not sustainable. Achieving sustainable use of agricultural land should instead focus on the application of innovative management systems that provide multiple ecosystem services on lands with varying inherent qualities. Integrated agricultural systems (IAS represent an alternative approach to prevailing land use, whereby site-adapted enterprises are implemented to enhance synergistic resource transfer among enterprises and sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. Sustainable deployment of IAS on agricultural land involves placing the “right enterprise” at the “right intensity” at the “right time” on the “right location,” with the inherent attributes of location providing guidance for management decisions. There is an urgent need to design IAS that enhance delivery of ecosystem services while ensuring land potential thresholds are not exceeded.

  10. Theoretical and practical aspects of accounting agricultural land

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    Bryk Galyna Volodymyrivna

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The role of agricultural land as an important object of accounting is showed. The features of agricultural land as the main means of agricultural sector and as a major biological asset are characterized. The state of the current system of synthetic and analytical accounting of agricultural land are reflected, the proposals to adapt this accounting information for management are analyzed. The need of accounting agricultural land to the disclosure of qualitative indicators are established, the possibility and feasibility of tax rules to them are suggested. Directions for improvement of accounting agricultural land to ensure rational land using and uniform taxation.

  11. Financial support of agricultural land in Ukraine

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    Davydenko Nadiia Mykolayivna

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The article stipulates that a prerequisite for expanded reproduction in agriculture is a sustainable use of land and measures for its reproduction by maintaining its fertility and environmental suitability. It is noted that in order to maintain and improve soil fertility, it is necessary to have an appropriate financial support. Possible sources of financial support of reproduction of agricultural landare described, including: income, depreciation, funds from the sale of used fixed assets, proceeds from the issue of shares; bank credit, forfeiting, mortgage, government loans, foreign loans, bond issues, agricultural receipts, operational and financial leasing, investment tax credits, subsidies, grants, subsidies. It is proved that the strategy of financial security of reproduction of land at the macro level should match the overall national strategy to develop agriculture in Ukraine.

  12. Agricultural Land Use in Ahlat District

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    Necmettin ELMASTAŞ

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Ahlat district has suitable topography for growing of agricultural products. Almost half of Ahlat district is suitable for agricultural. Today, 32.7% of the land use in Ahlat is agricultural area. 90% of agricultural area is dry farming area. 10% of agricultural area is irrigated. 60.3%of land use in Ahlat district is pasturage area. The economy of Ahlat is based on agricultural and animal husbandry. Today, agricultural products such as wheat, potato and sugar beet are grown in agricultural areas. Ahlat district has some problems like unplanned production, irrigation and marketing.

  13. 12 CFR 619.9025 - Agricultural land.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Agricultural land. 619.9025 Section 619.9025 Banks and Banking FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM DEFINITIONS § 619.9025 Agricultural land. Land improved or unimproved which is devoted to or available for the production of crops and other...

  14. SOME ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT AGRICULTURAL LAND USE AREAS WITHIN THE TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES

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    Kapinos N.

    2016-05-01

    should include withdrawal from intensive land use, which in its modal properties can not ensure sustainability of land use. In this respect, proposed to use as a criterion factor environmental sustainability of land use and anthropogenic load factor. Assessing the impact of land in the sustainability area council, which depends on the stability of agricultural development area, and tillage intensity of land, construction work is characterized by a coefficient of environmental sustainability of land use. Proved that the crucial part of the ecological optimization of land use on the territory of local communities is a balanced structure of land on the basis of ecologically appropriate use. It is important that quality indicators improve the structure of agricultural land in the optimization occurs within the environmental feasibility, increases the stability of land use and contributes to sustainable and balanced agrolandscapes territory. Economic optimization based on the requirements of the environmental is the next stage will determine on the basis of performance indicators such structure of land crops, which will be harmonized achieved high performance, yield and profitability management.

  15. BEFORE THE SALE RIGHTS TO AGRICULTURAL LAND

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    KUSTOVSKA О.

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available One of the most important problems of the Ukrainian economy is the formation of a civilized land market. We have to admit that the process of formation of private ownership of land in Ukraine entered into a protracted and uncertain nature. Another introduction in Ukraine of the moratorium on sale of agricultural land due to the lack of resolution of many land issues and not sformovat market infrastructure. Because for the majority of producers of agricultural products the sale of lease rights is an innovation. On the sale of lease rights still they are almost not heard, and especially not used in practice, although the possibility of disposal of property rights, which is owned and leasehold, provided by norms of the Civil code of Ukraine. The issue of land bidding (auction is relevant, because the law of Ukraine set the priority of this method of trading in the sale or lease of land. The auction is open and transparent way the exclusion of land resources of the territorial community, that is, eliminates the influence of corruption and receipt of funds in local budgets adds the ability to invest in the economy of human settlements and agriculture. Among the economic benefits to the development industry is not only improving the investment climate, replenishment of budgets of all levels and approaching the level of EU countries in matters of land. Holding of auctions is very attractive from the point of view of filling the local budget, the sale of land has its advantages, namely a quick and significant revenue. The lease right may be alienated in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine and some legislative solution is not needed. The procedure of land auctions includes the following steps: 1. The organizer of land sales (public authority or local authority determines the list of land plots of state or municipal property and rights thereto, which are exposed at the land auction as separate lots. 2. The decision of a public authority or

  16. THE INCREASE THE FERTILITY OF AGRICULTURAL LAND AND MONITORING OF THIS LAND ARE THE NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR ENSURING FOOD SECURITY

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    Stanislav Lipski

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The availability of suitable land for agricultural activities and the quality of this land are the main factors determining the maximum number of the population of the planet. In the Russian Federation is 8.9 % of the world's arable land. But the natural-climatic conditions of Russia are rather complicated from the point of view of agricultural production. Therefore, the special significance is having the land reclamation and the measures of enhance soil fertility. Meanwhile, the share of reclaimed land in Russia is much lower than by our competitors in the global food market. From 2014 the state is starting the realization of the Federal target program of land reclamation agricultural purposes. The information systems about the land in the period of the agrarian and land transformation and development of a market turnover of land (including agricultural were attending more of legal aspects and of technical side (technology, electronic information exchange rather than on the characteristics of the land as the main means of production. Currently agricultural producers are demanding the land information. But the modern systems, containing information on agricultural lands, are not enough characterizing this land as a productive resource. It is negatively affects the development of agriculture. Now the Ministry of agriculture of Russia develops the proposals on establishment of a special system of monitoring agricultural lands. However, this system is created very slowly.

  17. Spatial pattern of agricultural land conversion in West Java Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maryati, S.; Humaira, A. N. S.; Pratiwi, F.

    2018-03-01

    Population growth has an implication on increasing demand for land. The demand for built-up area is filled by land conversion, mostly from agricultural land. On the other hand, population growth requires an increase in food production as well as land for agriculture. Conversion of agricultural land can threaten the availability and food security. The purpose of this study is to identify the spatial pattern of changes in agricultural land in West Java Province as input to improve food security condition in this province. Descriptive statistics and spatial analysis were used to analyse the area of agricultural land, conversion of agricultural land, and spatial pattern of changes in agricultural land in West Java Province. The data used is time series data in the period of 2005-2014. The result of analysis shows that there are still areas with a high percentage of agricultural land in West Java Province. The rate of conversion of agricultural land varies widely. Cities or regions with very high land conversion rate tend to concentrate in metropolitan areas.

  18. THE PROBLEMS USE AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN MODERN CONDITIONS

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    Bavrovska N.M.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Land is the fundamental national wealth under special state protection. It is believed that the efficiency of land use is the main indicator of the development of society and the state as a whole. Article 5 of the Land code of Ukraine defines ensuring rational use and protection of land the principle of land legislation. A study of the use and protection of land resources, analysis of specific measures of protection of land resources and soils is always relevant and is of interest to companies and scientists. Because the system of land use is in critical condition, the complexity and diversity of issues related to the implementation of the principles for sustainable land management in practice, necessitates further research. The purpose of this article analyzes the current state of use of agricultural lands in Ukraine and the definition of priority actions whose implementation will contribute to improving the efficiency of agricultural land use, the protection and rational use of agricultural land. Ukraine is one of Europe's largest countries, covering an area of almost 6% in Europe, and agricultural land account for about 19% of European, including arable land - nearly 27%. In the structure of agricultural land arable land occupies 78.1 per cent, which is significantly more than in the European countries and the USA. All this is evidence of the high level of development and the load on agricultural soil cover, increases the likelihood of proliferation threats of erosion processes and degradation of the land Fund of the country As of 01.01.2016 g in Ukraine, the largest share belongs to agricultural land 42.7 million ha or 70.8 per cent, the second place is occupied by forests and forest lands is 10.6 million ha, or 17.6 percent, the third – the territory is covered by water bodies is 2.4 million ha or 4.0 %. Agrarian reform in Ukraine has led to significant changes in agriculture, in particular it partly influenced the structure of

  19. ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPROVING OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE ON REGIONAL LEVEL

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    Butenko E.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Land Reform in Ukraine is already a considerable period of time. Priority land reform was to be the formation of land market relations that would ensure continued efficient reallocation of land resources based on market self-regulation. Implementation of large-scale land reforms in these areas has caused huge problems of acute social, economic and environmental. Properly not the rational use and protection of land resources, reproduction of the productive potential of agricultural lands. Particularly acute problem of management and expanded reproduction of land resources as a basis for sustainable development of Ukraine. Pressing problem today is to resolve these matters in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. Particulary attention should be focused on the implementation of integrated land use by solving problems of the rational use of land, an important aspect of which is to optimize land use. Irrational land use system has led to serious environmental consequences, namely the presence of such manifestations of land degradation as erosion, technogenic pollution, secondary alkalinity, flooding and landslides. The high level of tilled land, including hills, a significant expansion of crops cultivated crops and almost complete cessation of work package for soil protection, violation of the cultivation leads to land degradation. The current state of land use Cherkasy region does not meet the requirements of environmental management. Violated environmentally acceptable ratio of arable land, natural grasslands, which adversely affects the stability of agricultural landscapes. Optimizing the efficiency of land use requires evidence-based approach to land. So based on upgraded inventory system and effective land management by taking into account environmental and economic component of their assessment, you can achieve a significant positive impact on the economy of the region and the state as a whole. The current system of land

  20. Land Market and Price of the Agricultural Land after the End of the Transitional Period

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    Dirgasová Katarína

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available After the end of the transition period for the purchase of the agricultural land by foreigners, the legislation regulating the acquisition of the agricultural land was adopted for the purpose of harmonization of the Slovak legislation with the legislation of the European Union. The Law no. 140/2014 Coll. on the acquisition of ownership to the agricultural land and amending and supplementing determines the subjects that are legitimated to acquire the ownership to the agricultural land. In addition, due to the creation of the Register of Offers of the Agricultural Land, the legislation allows the landowner to set a price on the sale of the agricultural land. In Slovakia, apart from the administrative prices and the market prices, there is a new type of prices, so-called „supply price“. The aim of the paper is to sum up the impact of the current legislation on the land market and the prices of agricultural land.

  1. Lease of agricultural land in public ownership

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    Baturan Luka

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyzes the legal norms which regulate leasing of agricultural land in public ownership. The basic hypothesis is that the main goal of land leasing should be to achieve an efficient allocation and maximization of public rental income. It was concluded that we should eliminate all restrictions that serve as barriers to market allocation. These include provisions that restrict some groups from participating in the land lease auctions, then the preemptive right of lease, as well as the ban on subleasing. It also criticizes the application of the principles of affectation, or restriction of freedom of local governments in the use of funds received from land leasing.

  2. Quantitative analysis of agricultural land use change in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Jieming; Dong, Wenjie; Wang, Shuyu; Fu, Yuqing

    This article reviews the potential impacts of climate change on land use change in China. Crop sown area is used as index to quantitatively analyze the temporal-spatial changes and the utilization of the agricultural land. A new concept is defined as potential multiple cropping index to reflect the potential sowing ability. The impacting mechanism, land use status and its surplus capacity are investigated as well. The main conclusions are as following; During 1949-2010, the agricultural land was the greatest in amount in the middle of China, followed by that in the country's eastern and western regions. The most rapid increase and decrease of agricultural land were observed in Xinjiang and North China respectively, Northwest China and South China is also changed rapid. The variation trend before 1980 differed significantly from that after 1980. Agricultural land was affected by both natural and social factors, such as regional climate and environmental changes, population growth, economic development, and implementation of policies. In this paper, the effects of temperature and urbanization on the coverage of agriculture land are evaluated, and the results show that the urbanization can greatly affects the amount of agriculture land in South China, Northeast China, Xinjiang and Southwest China. From 1980 to 2009, the extent of agricultural land use had increased as the surplus capacity had decreased. Still, large remaining potential space is available, but the future utilization of agricultural land should be carried out with scientific planning and management for the sustainable development.

  3. Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceddia, Michele Graziano; Bardsley, Nicholas Oliver; Gomez-y-Paloma, Sergio; Sedlacek, Sabine

    2014-05-20

    In this paper we address two topical questions: How do the quality of governance and agricultural intensification impact on spatial expansion of agriculture? Which aspects of governance are more likely to ensure that agricultural intensification allows sparing land for nature? Using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the World Database on Protected Areas, and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, we estimate a panel data model for six South American countries and quantify the effects of major determinants of agricultural land expansion, including various dimensions of governance, over the period 1970-2006. The results indicate that the effect of agricultural intensification on agricultural expansion is conditional on the quality and type of governance. When considering conventional aspects of governance, agricultural intensification leads to an expansion of agricultural area when governance scores are high. When looking specifically at environmental aspects of governance, intensification leads to a spatial contraction of agriculture when governance scores are high, signaling a sustainable intensification process.

  4. Agricultural land management options following large-scale environmental contamination - evaluation for Fukushima affected agricultural land

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vandenhove, Hildegarde

    2013-01-01

    The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the food chain and the possibility of continued restricted future land use. This paper summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the radionuclides transfer in the food chain and to facilitate the return of potentially affected soils to agricultural practices in areas impacted by a nuclear accident. (authors)

  5. Agricultural land management options following large-scale environmental contamination - evaluation for Fukushima affected agricultural land

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vandenhove, Hildegarde [Biosphere Impact Studies, Belgian Nuclear Research Center SCK-CEN, Mol (Belgium)

    2013-07-01

    The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the food chain and the possibility of continued restricted future land use. This paper summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the radionuclides transfer in the food chain and to facilitate the return of potentially affected soils to agricultural practices in areas impacted by a nuclear accident. (authors)

  6. Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceddia, Michele Graziano; Bardsley, Nicholas Oliver; Gomez-y-Paloma, Sergio; Sedlacek, Sabine

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we address two topical questions: How do the quality of governance and agricultural intensification impact on spatial expansion of agriculture? Which aspects of governance are more likely to ensure that agricultural intensification allows sparing land for nature? Using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the World Database on Protected Areas, and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, we estimate a panel data model for six South American countries and quantify the effects of major determinants of agricultural land expansion, including various dimensions of governance, over the period 1970–2006. The results indicate that the effect of agricultural intensification on agricultural expansion is conditional on the quality and type of governance. When considering conventional aspects of governance, agricultural intensification leads to an expansion of agricultural area when governance scores are high. When looking specifically at environmental aspects of governance, intensification leads to a spatial contraction of agriculture when governance scores are high, signaling a sustainable intensification process. PMID:24799696

  7. Preservation of Agricultural Land as an Issue of Societal Importance

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    Elin Slätmo

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Based on concerns about food security and food sovereignty, it is appropriate to scrutinise societal measures for protecting agricultural land from conversion to other uses. Changes from agricultural to urban land use are particularly problematic, as they are largely irreversible. By analysing relevant Swedish policy, the present study investigated how the protection of agricultural land is framed as an issue of societal importance. Protection of agricultural land is enshrined in Swedish law, but its use is still continually changing to housing and other constructions. In a structured policy analysis, two questions were examined: (1 what are the societal motives for protecting agricultural land in Sweden, and (2 how do these motives influence the governance of agricultural land? The meaning of ‘national importance’, ‘suitable for cultivation’ and ‘significant national interests’ in Swedish land-use law was also analysed. The results showed that formulations in the law reflect the ambivalent discourses on agricultural land preservation and that the Swedish authorities view other land uses as more important than agriculture. The Swedish governance system is currently built on trust that municipal institutions will make satisfactory decisions concerning land and water use. However, it has been shown that these decisions have not been satisfactory concerning the protection of agricultural land, and it is important to acknowledge that the sum of local decisions can be degrading for these life-supporting resources. The present analysis revealed a looming conflict between the preservation of soils for food production, on one hand, and local participation in decision making, on the other. This raises the question of whether it is more important to defend subsidiarity or to preserve certain resources which are important for food security, such as agricultural land.

  8. Agricultural land use change in the Northeast

    Science.gov (United States)

    The USDA Census of Agriculture (http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/) provides county-level estimates of farm numbers, land use area and livestock and crop production every five years. In 2007, only eight of the 299 counties that make up the twelve Northeastern states had no agricultural land use. About 20...

  9. Assessing the recreational demand for agricultural land in Finland

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    E. POUTA

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available It is widely assumed that the scenic attractiveness and other public good aspects of agricultural land can be utilized as a source of livelihood in rural areas in the form of recreation and tourism. In this study we use two approaches to consider whether agricultural landscapes are preferred as a destination for recreation (day trips and rural tourism (overnight trips. We first analyse the choice of recreation site type based on a model that aggregates sites using the presence of agricultural land as an aggregation variable. Population survey data on recreation trips reveal an association between the respondent’s living environment, recreational activities and visit characteristics and the probability of choosing a destination with agricultural land. Second, we also estimate the demand functions for trips to agricultural sites and other destination types to consider whether the presence of agricultural land, as opposed to other land use categories, increases the number of trips and the benefits of recreation. The results suggest that agricultural landscapes are inferior to alternative site types in terms of per-trip benefits. However, agricultural landscapes are associated with high annual benefits because of the high rate of visitation.;

  10. Climate change - Agricultural land use - Food security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagy, János; Széles, Adrienn

    2015-04-01

    In Hungary, plougland decreased to 52% of its area by the time of political restructuring (1989) in comparison with the 1950s. Forested areas increased significantly (18%) and lands withdrawn from agricultural production doubled (11%). For today, these proportions further changed. Ploughlands reduced to 46% and forested areas further increased (21%) in 2013. The most significat changes were observed in the proportion of lands withdrawn from agricultural production which increased to 21%. Temperature in Hungary increased by 1°C during the last century and predictions show a further 2.6 °C increase by 2050. The yearly amount of precipitation significantly decreased from 640 mm to 560 mm with a more uneven temporal distribution. The following aspects can be considered in the correlation between climate change and agriculture: a) impact of agriculture on climate, b) future impact of climate change on agriculture and food supply, c) impact of climate change on food security. The reason for the significant change of climate is the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) which results from anthropological activities. Between 2008 and 2012, Hungary had to reduce its GHG emission by 6% compared to the base period between 1985-1987. At the end of 2011, Hungarian GHG emission was 43.1% lower than that of the base period. The total gross emission was 66.2 million CO2 equivalent, while the net emission which also includes land use, land use change and forestry was 62.8 million tons. The emission of agriculture was 8.8 million tons (OMSZ, 2013). The greatest opportunity to reduce agricultural GHG emission is dinitrogen oxides which can be significantly mitigated by the smaller extent and more efficient use of nitrogen-based fertilisers (precision farming) and by using biomanures produced from utilised waste materials. Plant and animal species which better adapt to extreme weather circumstances should be bred and maintained, thereby making an investment in food security. Climate

  11. Features of the standard evaluation of agricultural land in 2017

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Володимир Опара

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Normative pecuniary valuation of land belongs to important economic regulators of land relations in Ukraine. Indicators of monetary valuation of land plots are used to determine the size of the land tax, the State duty at exchange, inheritance and the donation of land rent for land plots of the state and communal property, loss of agricultural and forestry production, as well as in the development of indicators and economic mechanisms to stimulate rational use and protection of lands. Normative monetary valuation of agricultural land is defined according to the standards of capitalized rent income on land for agricultural purposes and indicators of soils bonitet by drafting evaluation scales of agroindustrial groups of soils in natural agricultural areas. Index of standard capitalized rent on income reflects the profitability of a business. The soil differences appear on soil maps and they are the main target of the regulatory evaluation. The main source of information about the soil cover of agricultural land should actually be made by Derzhgeocadastr archives and its subordinate State enterprises according to the results of standard evaluation of a single agricultural land plot under the territorial authority of Derzhgeocadastr through administrative services at the location of the land. An extract from the technical documentation about the regulatory assessments of land must be published in time not exceeding three working days from the date of receipt of the corresponding application. The introduction of new methodological approach to the standard evaluation of agricultural lands involves the simplification of access of landowners and land users to data evaluation, based on possible continuous evaluation of administrative districts and providing information about the assessment of the particular land plot in the form of extract from the technical documentation of the standard evaluation, which will be determined on the basis of standard

  12. A Scale-Explicit Framework for Conceptualizing the Environmental Impacts of Agricultural Land Use Changes

    OpenAIRE

    Iago Lowe Hale; Wilfred M. Wollheim; Richard G. Smith; Heidi Asbjornsen; André F. Brito; Kirk Broders; A. Stuart Grandy; Rebecca Rowe

    2014-01-01

    Demand for locally-produced food is growing in areas outside traditionally dominant agricultural regions due to concerns over food safety, quality, and sovereignty; rural livelihoods; and environmental integrity. Strategies for meeting this demand rely upon agricultural land use change, in various forms of either intensification or extensification (converting non-agricultural land, including native landforms, to agricultural use). The nature and extent of the impacts of these changes on non-f...

  13. Inventory of Agricultural Land Area of Egypt Using Modis Data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hereher, M.E.

    2009-01-01

    A new generation of satellite data has been emerged since the launch of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro radiometer (MODIS), in 1999, for monitoring land resources and terrestrial environments. Agricultural land area of Egypt in 2005 was estimated using MODIS data. Four scenes were utilized to extract the total country area. MODIS vegetation Indices product (MOD 13 QI) was the most suitable to extract the total gross cultivated land area of Egypt. An unsupervised classification algorithm was applied to estimate the cultivated land area, which approached 8.2 million feddans in 2005. The Nile Delta contains the majority of agricultural lands (63.2%). The Nile Valley and EI-Fayoum Depression possess 33.9% and the remaining little percent (∼3%) represents the scattered agricultural land along the Suez Canal, Sinai and the Western Desert. The classification accuracy of agricultural land reached 84%, revealing higher confidence of assessment. The present study asserts on the importance of using remote sensing in monitoring agricultural land resources

  14. NEW METHODS OF NORMATIVE MONETARY EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Tretiak

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Approaches to the normative monetary evaluation of agricultural lands, adopted by the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 23, 1995 No. 213, did not allow to accomplish objective actualization of the indicators, as they did not take into account changes in the economy and the system of agricultural land use that occurred during the implementation of land reform in agriculture. So there is no doubt of the necessity to take into consideration the changes and to improve methodical approaches to the evaluation of agricultural land. The resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated November 16, 2016 No. 831 adopted the updated "Methodology of normative monetary evaluation of agricultural lands ". According to the paragraph 3 of the methodology, normative monetary evaluation of agricultural lands is determined in accordance with the requirements of capitalized rental income for agricultural lands of natural and agricultural districts of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, regions, cities of Kiev and Sevastopol in accordance with the Annex and indicators of soil evaluation by drawing up scales of normative monetary evaluation of agricultural industrial groups of soils of natural and agricultural areas (for farmlands. The first question that arises regarding the updated methods is a natural-agricultural zoning. In fact, in this methodology there is no list of borders, natural agricultural areas in the section of the territories of village councils and settlements included in one or another area. If we use the map of the natural-agricultural zoning and the reference book to it proposed for consideration by the site of State Geocadaster of Diagrams, it contains other boundaries, and another list of village councils, settlements, for example in the section of the mentioned Radekhiv district, than the natural-agricultural zoning was previously approved. So, one of them combines 29, and others combine 2 village councils each

  15. Agricultural land acquisitions: a lens on Southeast Asia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Polack, Emily

    2012-04-15

    Recent years have seen 'land grabbing' emerge as a big issue in media houses across the world, with reporters quick to write about deals involving millions of hectares, particularly within Africa. Yet large-scale land acquisitions are not a purely African phenomenon. Other parts of the world are also subject to the global land rush. Home to emerging economies with profit potential, Southeast Asia has become ever more appealing to investors from both within and beyond the region seeking to include agriculture in their portfolios. Regional agribusiness companies are booming. And rapid change in land ownership and use is already taking place. Set against a backdrop of insecure rights and weak land governance, land acquisitions here are posing significant threats to local livelihoods and environments alike.

  16. Challenges for Sustainable Land Management through Climate-Smart Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dougill, Andrew; Stringer, Lindsay

    2017-04-01

    There are increasing pushes for agricultural land management to be both sustainable and climate-smart (in terms of increasing productivity, building resilience to climate change and enhancing carbon storage). Climate-smart agriculture initiatives include conservation agriculture, based on minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation, and agroforestry. Such efforts address key international goals of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), but as yet have not seen widespread uptake. Based on analyses of different project interventions from across a range of southern African countries, we outline the inter-related challenges that are preventing adoption of climate-smart agriculture initiatives. We then identify routes to building multi-stakeholder partnerships and empowering communities through participatory monitoring with the aim of increasing uptake of such sustainable land management practices. Good practice examples remain largely restricted to local-level project interventions with significant donor (or private-sector) support, aligned to short-term community priorities relating to access to inputs or reduced labour requirements. Scaling-up to district- and national-level initiatives is yet to be widely successful due to problems of: limited policy coherence; a lack of communication between stakeholders at different levels; and limited understanding of long-term benefits associated with changes in agricultural practices. We outline opportunities associated with improved communication of climate information, empowerment of district-level adaptation planning and diversification of agricultural livelihood strategies as key routes to guide farmers towards more sustainable, and climate-smart, land management practices. Recent experiences in Malawi, which has experienced significant floods and an El Niño drought year in the last two years, are used to

  17. The importance of agricultural lands for Himalayan birds in winter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elsen, Paul R; Kalyanaraman, Ramnarayan; Ramesh, Krishnamurthy; Wilcove, David S

    2017-04-01

    The impacts of land-use change on biodiversity in the Himalayas are poorly known, notwithstanding widespread deforestation and agricultural intensification in this highly biodiverse region. Although intact primary forests harbor many Himalayan birds during breeding, a large number of bird species use agricultural lands during winter. We assessed how Himalayan bird species richness, abundance, and composition during winter are affected by forest loss stemming from agriculture and grazing. Bird surveys along 12 elevational transects within primary forest, low-intensity agriculture, mixed subsistence agriculture, and intensively grazed pastures in winter revealed that bird species richness and abundance were greatest in low-intensity and mixed agriculture, intermediate in grazed pastures, and lowest in primary forest at both local and landscape scales; over twice as many species and individuals were recorded in low-intensity agriculture than in primary forest. Bird communities in primary forests were distinct from those in all other land-use classes, but only 4 species were unique to primary forests. Low-, medium-, and high-intensity agriculture harbored 32 unique species. Of the species observed in primary forest, 80% had equal or greater abundance in low-intensity agricultural lands, underscoring the value of these lands in retaining diverse community assemblages at high densities in winter. Among disturbed landscapes, bird species richness and abundance declined as land-use intensity increased, especially in high-intensity pastures. Our results suggest that agricultural landscapes are important for most Himalayan bird species in winter. But agricultural intensification-especially increased grazing-will likely result in biodiversity losses. Given that forest reserves alone may inadequately conserve Himalayan birds in winter, comprehensive conservation strategies in the region must go beyond protecting intact primary forests and ensure that low-intensity agricultural

  18. Modeling Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in Henan Province, China: An Integration of Land Use and Socioeconomic Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jiang

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available China has experienced rapid urban expansion and agricultural land loss, and the land conversion has accelerated in central provinces since the mid-1990s. The goal of this paper is to examine the relative importance of socioeconomic and policy factors on the urban conversion of agricultural land in Henan Province, China. Using panel econometric models, we examine how socioeconomic and policy factors affect agricultural land conversion at the county level across three time periods, 1995–2000, 2000–2005, and 2005–2010. The results show that both urban land rent and urban wages are essential factors that positively contribute to the conversion of agricultural land. It is also found that per capita GDP is correlated with more urban development and agricultural land loss. Consistent with expectations, agricultural financial support is negatively correlated with agricultural land conversion, suggesting a policy success. Finally, the decomposition analysis illustrates that urban wages are the most influential positive factor and agricultural financial support is the most influential negative factor affecting the urban conversion of agricultural land.

  19. Deriving a per-field land use and land cover map in an agricultural mosaic catchment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, B.; Bogner, C.; Poppenborg, P.; Martin, E.; Hoffmeister, M.; Jun, M.; Koellner, T.; Reineking, B.; Shope, C. L.; Tenhunen, J.

    2014-09-01

    Detailed data on land use and land cover constitute important information for Earth system models, environmental monitoring and ecosystem services research. Global land cover products are evolving rapidly; however, there is still a lack of information particularly for heterogeneous agricultural landscapes. We censused land use and land cover field by field in the agricultural mosaic catchment Haean in South Korea. We recorded the land cover types with additional information on agricultural practice. In this paper we introduce the data, their collection and the post-processing protocol. Furthermore, because it is important to quantitatively evaluate available land use and land cover products, we compared our data with the MODIS Land Cover Type product (MCD12Q1). During the studied period, a large portion of dry fields was converted to perennial crops. Compared to our data, the forested area was underrepresented and the agricultural area overrepresented in MCD12Q1. In addition, linear landscape elements such as waterbodies were missing in the MODIS product due to its coarse spatial resolution. The data presented here can be useful for earth science and ecosystem services research. The data are available at the public repository Pangaea (doi:110.1594/PANGAEA.823677).

  20. Effects of Governance on Availability of Land for Agriculture and Conservation in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sparovek, Gerd; Barretto, Alberto Giaroli de Oliveira Pereira; Matsumoto, Marcelo; Berndes, Göran

    2015-09-01

    The 2012 revision of the Brazilian Forest Act changed the relative importance of private and public governance for nature conservation and agricultural production. We present a spatially explicit land-use model for Brazilian agricultural production and nature conservation that considers the spatial distribution of agricultural land suitability, technological and management options, legal command, and control frameworks including the Atlantic Forest Law, the revised Forest Act, and the Amazonian land-titling, "Terra Legal," and also market-driven land use regulations. The model is used to analyze land use allocation under three scenarios with varying priorities among agricultural production and environmental protection objectives. In all scenarios, the legal command and control frameworks were the most important determinants of conservation outcomes, protecting at least 80% of the existing natural vegetation. Situations where such frameworks are not expected to be effective can be identified and targeted for additional conservation (beyond legal requirements) through voluntary actions or self-regulation in response to markets. All scenarios allow for a substantial increase in crop production, using an area 1.5-2.7 times the current cropland area, with much of new cropland occurring on current pastureland. Current public arrangements that promote conservation can, in conjunction with voluntary schemes on private lands where conversion to agriculture is favored, provide important additional nature conservation without conflicting with national agricultural production objectives.

  1. The Land Cover Dynamics and Conversion of Agricultural Land in Northwestern Bangladesh, 1973-2003.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pervez, M.; Seelan, S. K.; Rundquist, B. C.

    2006-05-01

    The importance of land cover information describing the nature and extent of land resources and changes over time is increasing; this is especially true in Bangladesh, where land cover is changing rapidly. This paper presents research into the land cover dynamics of northwestern Bangladesh for the period 1973-2003 using Landsat satellite images in combination with field survey data collected in January and February 2005. Land cover maps were produced for eight different years during the study period with an average 73 percent overall classification accuracy. The classification results and post-classification change analysis showed that agriculture is the dominant land cover (occupying 74.5 percent of the study area) and is being reduced at a rate of about 3,000 ha per year. In addition, 6.7 percent of the agricultural land is vulnerable to temporary water logging annually. Despite this loss of agricultural land, irrigated agriculture increased substantially until 2000, but has since declined because of diminishing water availability and uncontrolled extraction of groundwater driven by population pressures and the extended need for food. A good agreement (r = 0.73) was found between increases in irrigated land and the depletion of the shallow groundwater table, a factor affecting widely practiced small-scale irrigation in northwestern Bangladesh. Results quantified the land cover change patterns and the stresses placed on natural resources; additionally, they demonstrated an accurate and economical means to map and analyze changes in land cover over time at a regional scale, which can assist decision makers in land and natural resources management decisions.

  2. URBAN EXPANSION AND LOSS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Dr Osondu

    1987-09-23

    Sep 23, 1987 ... study and to assess its influence on agricultural lands. ... average annual rates of urban growth in Uyo Urban area were 4.48%, 0.56% between 1978/1988, 8.57% .... region (Woodwell et, al; 1984 and Williams, ... The reverse was the case with agricultural land. ... cohesive, organized network of vegetable.

  3. Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Loss in China: A Multiscale Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaifang Shi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available China’s rapid urbanization has contributed to a massive agricultural land loss that could threaten its food security. Timely and accurate mapping of urban expansion and urbanization-related agricultural land loss can provide viable measures to be taken for urban planning and agricultural land protection. In this study, urban expansion in China from 2001 to 2013 was mapped using the nighttime stable light (NSL, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, and water body data. Urbanization-related agricultural land loss during this time period was then evaluated at national, regional, and metropolitan scales by integrating multiple sources of geographic data. The results revealed that China’s total urban area increased from 31,076 km2 in 2001 to 80,887 km2 in 2013, with an average annual growth rate of 13.36%. This widespread urban expansion consumed 33,080 km2 of agricultural land during this period. At a regional scale, the eastern region lost 18,542 km2 or 1.2% of its total agricultural land area. At a metropolitan scale, the Shanghai–Nanjing–Hangzhou (SNH and Pearl River Delta (PRD areas underwent high levels of agricultural land loss with a decrease of 6.12% (4728 km2 and 6.05% (2702 km2 of their total agricultural land areas, respectively. Special attention should be paid to the PRD, with a decline of 13.30% (1843 km2 of its cropland. Effective policies and strategies should be implemented to mitigate urbanization-related agricultural land loss in the context of China’s rapid urbanization.

  4. The Land Use Change From Agricultural to Non-Agricultural in Bungo Regency, Jambi Province, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolly, Fajar Ifan; Kismartini, Kismartini; Purnaweni, Hartuti

    2018-02-01

    This study aimed at observing the development of agricultural land use in Bungo Regency, Jambi Province, for other purposes, such as plantation, mining, and other commercial buildings. According to the sustainable agriculture supposed by the government, a change in land use has become an important issue to be taken into account as such that the change does not tend to damage the environment. The research findings from Bungo Regency demonstrated the change in agricultural land into copra and rubber plantation areas. Local people had changed their mindset towards reluctance to become farmers, which caused the loss of farmer regeneration and weakened the farmer exchange rate towards the agricultural commodities.

  5. Determinants of Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in 25 EU Countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustaoglu, Eda; Williams, Brendan

    2017-10-01

    Agricultural land conversion is resulting from ongoing complex interaction between the physical environment, policy settings and socio-economic factors. Case studies of the determinants of agricultural land conversion potentially contribute to the analysis of the main causes of land-use change. This can assist authorities and policy makers in understanding the relative importance of a wide range of factors on urban expansion and associated agricultural land-use change. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural land conversion to urban uses in the studied 25 European Union countries between 2000 and 2006. European-level as well as region-specific land-use changes are studied. The research is using the spatial data adapted from European Corine Land Cover maps of 2000 and 2006 and utilised other European sources regarding socio-economic, natural, geological, climate, and policy-related data. The differences in urbanisation processes observed in different regions in Europe emphasise the regional variations of urban conversion process of agricultural land use. This study identifies a combination of socio-economic drivers, policy-related factors, nature and location-based factors as key influences on agricultural land conversion processes in Europe. Specifically we found that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies were influential in curbing urbanisation and reducing agricultural land consumption.

  6. Determinants of Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in 25 EU Countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustaoglu, Eda; Williams, Brendan

    2017-10-01

    Agricultural land conversion is resulting from ongoing complex interaction between the physical environment, policy settings and socio-economic factors. Case studies of the determinants of agricultural land conversion potentially contribute to the analysis of the main causes of land-use change. This can assist authorities and policy makers in understanding the relative importance of a wide range of factors on urban expansion and associated agricultural land-use change. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural land conversion to urban uses in the studied 25 European Union countries between 2000 and 2006. European-level as well as region-specific land-use changes are studied. The research is using the spatial data adapted from European Corine Land Cover maps of 2000 and 2006 and utilised other European sources regarding socio-economic, natural, geological, climate, and policy-related data. The differences in urbanisation processes observed in different regions in Europe emphasise the regional variations of urban conversion process of agricultural land use. This study identifies a combination of socio-economic drivers, policy-related factors, nature and location-based factors as key influences on agricultural land conversion processes in Europe. Specifically we found that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies were influential in curbing urbanisation and reducing agricultural land consumption.

  7. Global land-water nexus: Agricultural land and freshwater use embodied in worldwide supply chains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, B; Han, M Y; Peng, K; Zhou, S L; Shao, L; Wu, X F; Wei, W D; Liu, S Y; Li, Z; Li, J S; Chen, G Q

    2018-02-01

    As agricultural land and freshwater inextricably interrelate and interact with each other, the conventional water and land policy in "silos" should give way to nexus thinking when formulating the land and water management strategies. This study constructs a systems multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model to expound global land-water nexus by simultaneously tracking agricultural land and freshwater use flows along the global supply chains. Furthermore, land productivity and irrigation water requirements of 160 crops in different regions are investigated to reflect the land-water linkage. Results show that developed economies (e.g., USA and Japan) and major large developing economies (e.g., mainland China and India) are the overriding drivers of agricultural land and freshwater use globally. In general, significant net transfers of these two resources are identified from resource-rich and less-developed economies to resource-poor and more-developed economies. For some crops, blue water productivity is inversely related to land productivity, indicating that irrigation water consumption is sometimes at odds with land use. The results could stimulus international cooperation for sustainable land and freshwater management targeting on original suppliers and final consumers along the global supply chains. Moreover, crop-specific land-water linkage could provide insights for trade-off decisions on minimizing the environmental impacts on local land and water resources. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Altering the use of agricultural into construction land: Practice and trends

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Počuča Milan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Preservation of agricultural land as an imperative of prosperity of agriculture of the Republic of Serbia needs to be observed through causal questions as well, such as change of purpose of agricultural land into construction land, which is necessarily followed by conversion, a decade-long problem. Insufficiently resolved current questions of the aforementioned within legislative framework open up the possibility for improper use and exploitation of agricultural land. It is necessary to regulate the issue of conversion of construction land by legislative regulations i.e. altering use rights into property rights on construction land, and by doing so, open the way to investments in the Republic of Serbia. With the analysis of the effects of conversion and the adoption of a special law on this issue, construction activity would further prosper. The aim of this paper is to assess adequately the current problems of consumption, preservation and actual implementation of transferring agricultural land to construction land, with a view of the facts, practices and tendencies.

  9. Climate, Agriculture, Energy and the Optimal Allocation of Global Land Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinbuks, J.; Hertel, T. W.

    2011-12-01

    The allocation of the world's land resources over the course of the next century has become a pressing research question. Continuing population increases, improving, land-intensive diets amongst the poorest populations in the world, increasing production of biofuels and rapid urbanization in developing countries are all competing for land even as the world looks to land resources to supply more environmental services. The latter include biodiversity and natural lands, as well as forests and grasslands devoted to carbon sequestration. And all of this is taking place in the context of faster than expected climate change which is altering the biophysical environment for land-related activities. The goal of the paper is to determine the optimal profile for global land use in the context of growing commercial demands for food and forest products, increasing non-market demands for ecosystem services, and more stringent GHG mitigation targets. We then seek to assess how the uncertainty associated with the underlying biophysical and economic processes influences this optimal profile of land use, in light of potential irreversibility in these decisions. We develop a dynamic long-run, forward-looking partial equilibrium framework in which the societal objective function being maximized places value on food production, liquid fuels (including biofuels), timber production, forest carbon and biodiversity. Given the importance of land-based emissions to any GHG mitigation strategy, as well as the potential impacts of climate change itself on the productivity of land in agriculture, forestry and ecosystem services, we aim to identify the optimal allocation of the world's land resources, over the course of the next century, in the face of alternative GHG constraints. The forestry sector is characterized by multiple forest vintages which add considerable computational complexity in the context of this dynamic analysis. In order to solve this model efficiently, we have employed the

  10. Ecosystem Services Provided by Agricultural Land as Modeled by Broad Scale Geospatial Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kokkinidis, Ioannis

    Agricultural ecosystems provide multiple services including food and fiber provision, nutrient cycling, soil retention and water regulation. Objectives of the study were to identify and quantify a selection of ecosystem services provided by agricultural land, using existing geospatial tools and preferably free and open source data, such as the Virginia Land Use Evaluation System (VALUES), the North Carolina Realistic Yield Expectations (RYE) database, and the land cover datasets NLCD and CDL. Furthermore I sought to model tradeoffs between provisioning and other services. First I assessed the accuracy of agricultural land in NLCD and CDL over a four county area in eastern Virginia using cadastral parcels. I uncovered issues concerning the definition of agricultural land. The area and location of agriculture saw little change in the 19 years studied. Furthermore all datasets have significant errors of omission (11.3 to 95.1%) and commission (0 to 71.3%). Location of agriculture was used with spatial crop yield databases I created and combined with models I adapted to calculate baseline values for plant biomass, nutrient composition and requirements, land suitability for and potential production of biofuels and the economic impact of agriculture for the four counties. The study area was then broadened to cover 97 counties in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, investigating the potential for increased regional grain production through intensification and extensification of agriculture. Predicted yield from geospatial crop models was compared with produced yield from the NASS Survey of Agriculture. Area of most crops in CDL was similar to that in the Survey of Agriculture, but a yield gap is present for most years, partially due to weather, thus indicating potential for yield increase through intensification. Using simple criteria I quantified the potential to extend agriculture in high yield land in other uses and modeled the changes in erosion and runoff should

  11. Prospects for land-use sustainability on the agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galford, Gillian L; Soares-Filho, Britaldo; Cerri, Carlos E P

    2013-06-05

    The Brazilian Amazon frontier shows how remarkable leadership can work towards increased agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability without new greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to initiatives among various stakeholders, including national and state government and agents, farmers, consumers, funding agencies and non-governmental organizations. Change has come both from bottom-up and top-down actions of these stakeholders, providing leadership, financing and monitoring to foster environmental sustainability and agricultural growth. Goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-cover and land-use change in Brazil are being achieved through a multi-tiered approach that includes policies to reduce deforestation and initiatives for forest restoration, as well as increased and diversified agricultural production, intensified ranching and innovations in agricultural management. Here, we address opportunities for the Brazilian Amazon in working towards low-carbon rural development and environmentally sustainable landscapes.

  12. Mapping environmental land use conflict potentials and ecosystem services in agricultural watersheds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Ilkwon; Arnhold, Sebastian

    2018-07-15

    In mountainous watersheds, agricultural land use cause changes in ecosystem services, with trade-offs between crop production and erosion regulation. Management of these watersheds can generate environmental land use conflicts among regional stakeholders with different interests. Although several researches have made a start in mapping land use conflicts between human activities and conservation, spatial assessment of land use conflicts on environmental issues and ecosystem service trade-offs within agricultural areas has not been fully considered. In this study, we went further to map land use conflicts between agricultural preferences for crop production and environmental emphasis on erosion regulation. We applied an agricultural land suitability index, based on multi-criteria analysis, to estimate the spatial preference of agricultural activities, while applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to reflect the environmental importance of soil erosion. Then, we classified the agricultural catchment into four levels of land use conflicts (lowest, low, high and highest) according to preference and importance of farmland areas, and we compared the classes by crop type. Soil loss in agricultural areas was estimated as 45.1thayr, and agricultural suitability as 0.873; this indicated that land use conflicts in the catchment could arise between severe soil erosion (environmental importance) and agricultural suitability (land preferences). Dry-field farms are mainly located in areas of low land use conflict level, where land preference outweighs environmental importance. When we applied farmland management scenarios with consideration of services, conversion to highest-conflict areas (Scenario 1) as 7.5% of the total area could reduce soil loss by 24.6%, while fallow land management (Scenario 2) could decrease soil loss 19.4% more than the current scenario (Business as usual). The result could maximize land management plans by extracting issues of spatial

  13. THE FORMATION OF INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF AGRICULTURAL LAND CONSOLIDATION IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andriy Popov

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Every theory requires an application tool. Land consolidation is the multidisciplinary tool for sustainable rural development with its dynamic structure that gives possibilities getting the best solutions for land management decision. That is why the main purpose of the article is a theoretical study and development of scientific and practical recommendations concerning the formation of institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation in Ukraine. The subject of study is the formation of agricultural land consolidation. Methodology. The study used the following methods: dialectical, logical and abstract, system analysis (theoretical and methodological generalizations, defining the essence of the content of institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation. This paper identifies the role of the institutions in economic development and characterised the regulatory, procedural, distributive, informational, development and accumulation functions of agricultural land consolidation institution. As a novelty items offered and provided the detailed description of the main components of the institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation such as: traditional and mental, legal, causal, organizational and structural, and procedural. The essence of institutions of each of these components and their meaning and relationships are presented. Theoretically investigated that the formation of institutional mechanism of consolidation should be a symbiosis of both traditional and market institutions based on democratic principles under community participation. The article focuses on the feasibility of the formation of mechanism for monitoring the effectiveness of institutions. As the result of the study the author proposed to consider the institutional environment of agricultural land consolidation as a regulatory system harmonizing relations of the agricultural production, social and natural resources, designed to optimize the

  14. Forest to agriculture conversion in southern Belize: Implications for migrant land birds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spruce, J.P.; Dowell, B.A.; Robbins, C.S.; Sader, S.A.; Doyle, Jamie K.; Schelhas, John

    1993-01-01

    Central America offers a suite of neotropical habitats vital to overwintering migrant land birds. The recent decline of many forest dwelling avian migrants is believed to be related in part to neotropical deforestation and land use change. However, spatio-temporal trends in neotropical habitat availability and avian migrant habitat use are largely unknown. Such information is needed to assess the impact of agriculture conversion on migrant land birds. In response, the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Maine began a cooperative study in 1988 which applies remote sensing and field surveys to determine current habitat availability and avian migrant habitat use. Study sites include areas in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and southern Mexico. Visual assessment of Landsat TM imagery indicates southern Belize forests are fragmented by various agricultural systems. Shifting agriculture is predominant in some areas, while permanent agriculture (citrus and mixed animal crops) is the primary system in others. This poster focuses on efforts to monitor forest to agriculture conversion in southern Belize using remote sensing, field surveys and GIS techniques. Procedures and avian migrant use of habitat are summarized.

  15. Exclusion of agricultural lands in spatial conservation prioritization strategies: consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem service representation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durán, América P; Duffy, James P; Gaston, Kevin J

    2014-10-07

    Agroecosystems have traditionally been considered incompatible with biological conservation goals, and often been excluded from spatial conservation prioritization strategies. The consequences for the representativeness of identified priority areas have been little explored. Here, we evaluate these for biodiversity and carbon storage representation when agricultural land areas are excluded from a spatial prioritization strategy for South America. Comparing different prioritization approaches, we also assess how the spatial overlap of priority areas changes. The exclusion of agricultural lands was detrimental to biodiversity representation, indicating that priority areas for agricultural production overlap with areas of relatively high occurrence of species. By contrast, exclusion of agricultural lands benefits representation of carbon storage within priority areas, as lands of high value for agriculture and carbon storage overlap little. When agricultural lands were included and equally weighted with biodiversity and carbon storage, a balanced representation resulted. Our findings suggest that with appropriate management, South American agroecosystems can significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  16. Foreign Agricultural Land Acquisition and the Visibility of Water Resource Impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Philip Woodhouse

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The many headlines focusing on 'land grabbing' have distracted attention from the role that access to water plays in underpinning the projected productivity of foreign direct investment in acquisition of agricultural land in developing countries. This paper identifies questions that arise about the explicit and implicit water requirements for irrigation in agricultural projects on land that is subject to such foreign investment deals. It focuses particularly on land acquisition in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA, where, for savanna ecosystems that cover some two thirds of the region, rainfall uncertainty is the principal constraint to increased agricultural productivity. The paper argues that, even where land acquisition deals do not specify irrigation, choice of location and/or crop type indicates this is invariably an implicit requirement of projects. It is arguable that private investment in water infrastructure (e.g. for water storage could provide wider benefits to neighbouring small-scale producers, thus reducing the risk inherent in much of African agriculture. However, it is also possible that foreign investment may compete with existing water use, and some land deals have included provisions for priority access to water in cases of scarcity. Empirical studies are used to identify the mechanisms through which large-scale land investments influence water availability for smaller-scale land users. The paper concludes that, although effects on water resources may constitute one of the main impacts of land deals, this is likely to be obscured by the lack of transparency over water requirements of agricultural projects and the invisibility of much existing local agricultural water management to government planning agencies.

  17. Regional Climate Change Impact on Agricultural Land Use in West Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, K. F.; Wang, G.; You, L.

    2014-12-01

    Agriculture is a key element of the human-induced land use land cover change (LULCC) that is influenced by climate and can potentially influence regional climate. Temperature and precipitation directly impact the crop yield (by controlling photosynthesis, respiration and other physiological processes) that then affects agricultural land use pattern. In feedback, the resulting changes in land use and land cover play an important role to determine the direction and magnitude of global, regional and local climate change by altering Earth's radiative equilibrium. The assessment of future agricultural land use is, therefore, of great importance in climate change study. In this study, we develop a prototype land use projection model and, using this model, project the changes to land use pattern and future land cover map accounting for climate-induced yield changes for major crops in West Africa. Among the inputs to the land use projection model are crop yield changes simulated by the crop model DSSAT, driven with the climate forcing data from the regional climate model RegCM4.3.4-CLM4.5, which features a projected decrease of future mean crop yield and increase of inter-annual variability. Another input to the land use projection model is the projected changes of food demand in the future. In a so-called "dumb-farmer scenario" without any adaptation, the combined effect of decrease in crop yield and increase in food demand will lead to a significant increase in agricultural land use in future years accompanied by a decrease in forest and grass area. Human adaptation through land use optimization in an effort to minimize agricultural expansion is found to have little impact on the overall areas of agricultural land use. While the choice of the General Circulation Model (GCM) to derive initial and boundary conditions for the regional climate model can be a source of uncertainty in projecting the future LULCC, results from sensitivity experiments indicate that the changes

  18. [Theories and methodologies of engineering designs on sustainable agricultural land consolidation project--a case study of Xuemeiyang land consolidation project in Changtai County, Fujian Province].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Yanmei; Wu, Cifang; Cheng, Chengbiao; Qiu, Lingzhang; Huang, Shengyu; Zheng, Ruihui

    2002-09-01

    The concept and characteristics of engineering designs on sustainable agricultural land consolidation project were discussed in this paper. Principles, basic methods and procedures of engineering designs on agricultural land consolidation project were put forward, which were successfully adopted for designing agricultural land consolidation in Xuemeiyang region of Changtai County, including diversity designs of sustainable land use, engineering designs of soil improvement, roads, ditches, and drains for protecting existent animal environments, and design of ecological shelter-forests in farmland. Moreover, from sustainable economic, ecological and social points, the results of these engineering designs were evaluated based on fouteen important indexes. After carrying out these engineeringdesigns, the eco-environments and agricultural production conditions were significantly improved, and the farm income was increased in planned regions.

  19. Highest and best use of agricultural land in multifunctional land market evidence from South Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Reed, L

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Traditionally, rural lands are important for agricultural production, land value strongly related to productive potential of land income based and measurable. Transition towards multifunctional rural environment, income from land not only...

  20. Patterns of land use, extensification, and intensification of Brazilian agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dias, Lívia C P; Pimenta, Fernando M; Santos, Ana B; Costa, Marcos H; Ladle, Richard J

    2016-08-01

    Sustainable intensification of agriculture is one of the main strategies to provide global food security. However, its implementation raises enormous political, technological, and social challenges. Meeting these challenges will require, among other things, accurate information on the spatial and temporal patterns of agricultural land use and yield. Here, we investigate historical patterns of agricultural land use (1940-2012) and productivity (1990-2012) in Brazil using a new high-resolution (approximately 1 km(2) ) spatially explicit reconstruction. Although Brazilian agriculture has been historically known for its extensification over natural vegetation (Amazon and Cerrado), data from recent years indicate that extensification has slowed down and was replaced by a strong trend of intensification. Our results provide the first comprehensive historical overview of agricultural land use and productivity in Brazil, providing clear insights to guide future territorial planning, sustainable agriculture, policy, and decision-making. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. Use of agricultural land evaluation and site assessment in Linn County, Oregon, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huddleston, J. Herbert; Pease, James R.; Forrest, William G.; Hickerson, Hugh J.; Langridge, Russell W.

    1987-07-01

    points to perimeter conflicts. The LESA model was validated by testing on 23 parcels in Linn County for which requests to partition and/or convert to nonagricultural uses had been received by the County Planning Department. This testing was an essential part of the development process, as it pointed out inconsistencies and errors in the model and allowed continuous adjustment of factors and point scales. The results of application of the final model to three of the case studies are presented to illustrate the concepts. Three possible uses of the information generated by the LESA system include determining the relative agricultural value of a parcel, determining grades of agricultural land suitability, and determining the impacts of changing land use on other parcels in the vicinity. Relative agricultural value is a direct outcome of application of the evaluation criteria in the LESA model. Good, marginal, and nonagricultural grades of agricultural suitability were determined by examining the data from all 23 test cases and establishing threshold point values for soil quality, conflict, parcel size, and total LESA score. Impact analyses were not done in this study, but could be achieved by calculating LESA scores for all parcels possibly affected by a land-use change both before and after a proposed change. All three applications fall short of making a specific land-use decision, but they do provide information that should be of value to the local jurisdiction charged with making such decisions.

  2. Land evaluation for agricultural development : some explorations of land-use systems analysis with particular reference to Latin America

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beek, K.J.

    1978-01-01

    LAND EVALUATION

    Increases in the demand for agricultural produce and for space to meet non-agricultural needs are provoking rapid changes in the use of land. These changes have stimulated a critical examination of our methods of looking at land. Most useful is a land evaluation that predicts the

  3. Analysis of Changes in Land Use Patterns Pursuant to the Conversion of Agricultural Land to Non-Agricultural Use in the Context of the Sustainable Development of the Malopolska Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malgorzata Busko

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This research paper presents the results of analyses that address the direction in which the issue of land use in Malopolska has been heading in recent years. The authors formulated the thesis that changes occurring in the use of agricultural land are advanced and, despite its legal protection, this land is continuously subjected to permanent conversion to non-agricultural use year by year. Verification of the thesis was carried out using taxonomic analyses. As a result, it was proven that as much as 68% of the land converted to non-agricultural use in the study period was earmarked for residential use. Importantly, as much as 19% of these areas are of the best quality classes, i.e., classes I and II, which account for a mere 7% of all agricultural land in Malopolska. Another 79% of the converted agricultural land belonged to the mid class, i.e., class III, which—at the time of writing—represents only 26% in the Malopolska Province. This data demonstrates that the best lands of the Malopolska Province, which belonged to classes I, II and III (i.e., top quality arable soils, were irreversibly degraded by their conversion to non-agricultural use. The paper proposes systemic solutions supporting the decision-making process of administrative bodies aimed at agricultural land protection.

  4. Conservation Management of Agriculture Land using Geospatial Approach (A Case Study in the Bone Watershed, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maryati Sri

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Bone Watershed is one of the major watersheds in Gorontalo Province. Bone watershed has a very important role for the people of Gorontalo Province. The role of Bone Watershed is mainly related to the providing clean water, producing oxygen, controlling flood, providing habitat for endemic flora fauna and other environmental functions. The role of Bone Watershed for the community’s economic sector is also very important, the Bone watershed provides livelihood for surrounding communities includes fertile land resources for agriculture and plantations, forest products, and livestock feed. This research is important considering the Bone watershed has limited availability of land for agriculture and the high risk of natural disasters such as floods and landslides. Geospatial data includes topography map, landform map, soil map, integrated with field survey results and soil properties were analized to determine conservation management of agriculture land in the Bone Watershed, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. The result of this study shows that based on soil properties and physical land characteristics, land use for agriculture should consider appropriate conservation techniques, land capability and respect to local wisdom.

  5. Conservation Management of Agriculture Land using Geospatial Approach (A Case Study in the Bone Watershed, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maryati, Sri; Eraku, Sunarty; Kasim, Muh

    2018-02-01

    Bone Watershed is one of the major watersheds in Gorontalo Province. Bone watershed has a very important role for the people of Gorontalo Province. The role of Bone Watershed is mainly related to the providing clean water, producing oxygen, controlling flood, providing habitat for endemic flora fauna and other environmental functions. The role of Bone Watershed for the community's economic sector is also very important, the Bone watershed provides livelihood for surrounding communities includes fertile land resources for agriculture and plantations, forest products, and livestock feed. This research is important considering the Bone watershed has limited availability of land for agriculture and the high risk of natural disasters such as floods and landslides. Geospatial data includes topography map, landform map, soil map, integrated with field survey results and soil properties were analized to determine conservation management of agriculture land in the Bone Watershed, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. The result of this study shows that based on soil properties and physical land characteristics, land use for agriculture should consider appropriate conservation techniques, land capability and respect to local wisdom.

  6. Measures to overcome consequences of agricultural land fragmentation: European experience and Ukrainian realities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andriy Popov

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available One of the land reform implementation results in Ukraine is the distribution of the state-owned agricultural land to the rural population in the form of physical land parcels. As a consequence, however, the land was subdivided into many small units. This land fragmentation has led to fundamental changes in the formation of the new agricultural enterprises and brought some negative consequences in their functioning. The problem of the land fragmentation in Ukraine is quite new and uninvestigated. The aim of the article is to analyze the existing measures (instruments in European countries for reducing the effects of agricultural land fragmentation and to determine the possibility of «transplantability» of Western experience to Ukraine. The principal measures to decrease the agricultural land fragmentation in European countries are: voluntary parcel exchange, land banking and land consolidation. The article presents the characteristics and comparative analysis of these measures. One of the four types of land fragmentation is a main problem of Ukraine, namely the discrepancy between the landownership and the land use. The Western European countries have been used the three instruments for reducing only two types of land fragmentation: the land use fragmentation and the internal fragmentation. Consequently, the using of Western European measures to decrease agricultural land fragmentation is impossible without their adaptation to the Ukrainian realities. Therefore, the actual problem in Ukraine today is to find the own measures to overcome the problem of agricultural land fragmentation based on the Western European experience.

  7. The Prospects for Development of the Agricultural Land Market in Ukraine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kushnir Nina B.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The article is aimed at studying the basic aspects of establishment and development of the land market. A mechanism for securing against the leasehold estate and a model of an agricultural land market have been proposed. It has been specified that the most important component on formation of land market in our State is to work to change public opinion, people attitudes regarding the private ownership of land and deals with it. The proposed mechanism for securing against the leasehold estate has not only economic, but also social significance, which, above all, is that securing against the leasehold estate does not change the owner of the land, and, consequently, does not threaten villagers with dispossession of land. With introduction of the presented model of an agricultural land market it can be argued that such a market is an open, complex system based on the interaction between its actors over the use, disposal and market turnover of agricultural lands.

  8. Measuring land-use and land-cover change using the U.S. department of agriculture's cropland data layer: Cautions and recommendations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lark, Tyler J.; Mueller, Richard M.; Johnson, David M.; Gibbs, Holly K.

    2017-10-01

    Monitoring agricultural land is important for understanding and managing food production, environmental conservation efforts, and climate change. The United States Department of Agriculture's Cropland Data Layer (CDL), an annual satellite imagery-derived land cover map, has been increasingly used for this application since complete coverage of the conterminous United States became available in 2008. However, the CDL is designed and produced with the intent of mapping annual land cover rather than tracking changes over time, and as a result certain precautions are needed in multi-year change analyses to minimize error and misapplication. We highlight scenarios that require special considerations, suggest solutions to key challenges, and propose a set of recommended good practices and general guidelines for CDL-based land change estimation. We also characterize a problematic issue of crop area underestimation bias within the CDL that needs to be accounted for and corrected when calculating changes to crop and cropland areas. When used appropriately and in conjunction with related information, the CDL is a valuable and effective tool for detecting diverse trends in agriculture. By explicitly discussing the methods and techniques for post-classification measurement of land-cover and land-use change using the CDL, we aim to further stimulate the discourse and continued development of suitable methodologies. Recommendations generated here are intended specifically for the CDL but may be broadly applicable to additional remotely-sensed land cover datasets including the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based land cover products, and other regional, national, and global land cover classification maps.

  9. Urban Expansion: a Geo-Spatial Approach for Temporal Monitoring of Loss of Agricultural Land

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumari, N. S.; Shao, Z.; Huang, M.; Sanga, C. A.; Van Genderen, J. L.

    2017-09-01

    This paper presents some preliminary results from research on monitoring the urban growth of Shenzhen in China. Agriculture is still the pillar of national economies in many countries including China. Thus, agriculture contributes to population growth. Population growth follows either exponential or logistic growth models. These models can be examined using a time-series of geospatial data, mainly historical earth observation imagery from satellites such as LANDSAT. Such multitemporal data may provide insights into settlement analysis as well as on population dynamics and hence, quantify the loss of agricultural land. In this study, LANDSAT data of ten dates, at approximately five yearly intervals from 1977 to 2017 were used. The remote sensing techniques used for analysis of data for 40 years were image selection, then followed by geometric and radiometric corrections and mosaicking. Also, classification, remote sensing image fusion, and change detection methods were used. This research extracted the information on the amount, direction, and speed of urbanization, and hence, the number of hectares of agricultural land lost due to urban expansion. Several specific elements were used in the descriptive model of landscape changes and population dynamics of the city of Shenzhen in China. These elements are: i) quantify the urban changes, from a small town (37.000 people in the early 1970's) to the megalopolis of around 20 million habitants today. ii) Examining the rate of urban extension on the loss of agricultural landscape and population growth. iii) The loss of food production was analysed against the economic growth in the region. iv) The aspects of loss of agricultural land, area of built-up urban land, and increase in population are studied quantitatively, by the temporal analysis of earth observation geospatial data. The experimental results from this study show that the proposed method is effective in determining loss of agricultural land in any city due to

  10. DIRECTIONS FOR THE RECOVERY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION ON RADIOACTIVELY CONTAMINATED LANDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kustovska O.V.

    2016-05-01

    friendly. The suspension of activities and the provision of radioactively clean food products led to the growth of volumes of consumption of contaminated food of local production, the increase in the number of people exceeding the doses of internal irradiation and the deterioration of the health status of the people of radioactively contaminated territories. The main component of the mechanism by contaminated land is agricultural activities (placement of crops, depending on the ability to accumulate radionuclides, soil treatment, agrochemical activities (liming of acidic soils, application of mineral and organic fertilizers and the use of sorbents, change of mode of feeding of animals and processing of animal products to reduce the content of radionuclides. Of course, the above list of events is far from complete, this is only the basic that require mandatory implementation in agricultural production. Among the measures of rehabilitation of polluted areas leading place belongs to the radical improvement of meadows and pastures, which in turn requires a considerable amount of seeds of cereals and legumes. The analysis of economic efficiency of growing of the testes, including radioactively contaminated region shows that even in marginal soils of Polesye in low yield of the seed farms have substantial profits. On soils with acidity the most common and affordable event reduce radionuclide accumulation in products is liming, which not only reduces the accumulation of radionuclides in agricultural crops but also improves soil fertility, increases yield and contributes to the dilution of radionuclides per unit mass of crop production. Only a comprehensive use of differentiated areas of contaminated land will allow some measure to improve the ecological situation on the territory of the object.

  11. Application of the WEPS and SWEEP models to non-agricultural disturbed lands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Tatarko

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Wind erosion not only affects agricultural productivity but also soil, air, and water quality. Dust and specifically particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM-10 has adverse effects on respiratory health and also reduces visibility along roadways, resulting in auto accidents. The Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS was developed by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service to simulate wind erosion and provide for conservation planning on cultivated agricultural lands. A companion product, known as the Single-Event Wind Erosion Evaluation Program (SWEEP, has also been developed which consists of the stand-alone WEPS erosion submodel combined with a graphical interface to simulate soil loss from single (i.e., daily wind storm events. In addition to agricultural lands, wind driven dust emissions also occur from other anthropogenic sources such as construction sites, mined and reclaimed areas, landfills, and other disturbed lands. Although developed for agricultural fields, WEPS and SWEEP are useful tools for simulating erosion by wind for non-agricultural lands where typical agricultural practices are not employed. On disturbed lands, WEPS can be applied for simulating long-term (i.e., multi-year erosion control strategies. SWEEP on the other hand was developed specifically for disturbed lands and can simulate potential soil loss for site- and date-specific planned surface conditions and control practices. This paper presents novel applications of WEPS and SWEEP for developing erosion control strategies on non-agricultural disturbed lands. Erosion control planning with WEPS and SWEEP using water and other dust suppressants, wind barriers, straw mulch, re-vegetation, and other management practices is demonstrated herein through the use of comparative simulation scenarios. The scenarios confirm the efficacy of the WEPS and SWEEP models as valuable tools for supporting the design of erosion control plans for disturbed lands that are not only cost-effective but

  12. Application of the WEPS and SWEEP models to non-agricultural disturbed lands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tatarko, J; van Donk, S J; Ascough, J C; Walker, D G

    2016-12-01

    Wind erosion not only affects agricultural productivity but also soil, air, and water quality. Dust and specifically particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM-10) has adverse effects on respiratory health and also reduces visibility along roadways, resulting in auto accidents. The Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS) was developed by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service to simulate wind erosion and provide for conservation planning on cultivated agricultural lands. A companion product, known as the Single-Event Wind Erosion Evaluation Program (SWEEP), has also been developed which consists of the stand-alone WEPS erosion submodel combined with a graphical interface to simulate soil loss from single (i.e., daily) wind storm events. In addition to agricultural lands, wind driven dust emissions also occur from other anthropogenic sources such as construction sites, mined and reclaimed areas, landfills, and other disturbed lands. Although developed for agricultural fields, WEPS and SWEEP are useful tools for simulating erosion by wind for non-agricultural lands where typical agricultural practices are not employed. On disturbed lands, WEPS can be applied for simulating long-term (i.e., multi-year) erosion control strategies. SWEEP on the other hand was developed specifically for disturbed lands and can simulate potential soil loss for site- and date-specific planned surface conditions and control practices. This paper presents novel applications of WEPS and SWEEP for developing erosion control strategies on non-agricultural disturbed lands. Erosion control planning with WEPS and SWEEP using water and other dust suppressants, wind barriers, straw mulch, re-vegetation, and other management practices is demonstrated herein through the use of comparative simulation scenarios. The scenarios confirm the efficacy of the WEPS and SWEEP models as valuable tools for supporting the design of erosion control plans for disturbed lands that are not only cost-effective but also incorporate

  13. A Scale-Explicit Framework for Conceptualizing the Environmental Impacts of Agricultural Land Use Changes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iago Lowe Hale

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Demand for locally-produced food is growing in areas outside traditionally dominant agricultural regions due to concerns over food safety, quality, and sovereignty; rural livelihoods; and environmental integrity. Strategies for meeting this demand rely upon agricultural land use change, in various forms of either intensification or extensification (converting non-agricultural land, including native landforms, to agricultural use. The nature and extent of the impacts of these changes on non-food-provisioning ecosystem services are determined by a complex suite of scale-dependent interactions among farming practices, site-specific characteristics, and the ecosystem services under consideration. Ecosystem modeling strategies which honor such complexity are often impenetrable by non-experts, resulting in a prevalent conceptual gap between ecosystem sciences and the field of sustainable agriculture. Referencing heavily forested New England as an example, we present a conceptual framework designed to synthesize and convey understanding of the scale- and landscape-dependent nature of the relationship between agriculture and various ecosystem services. By accounting for the total impact of multiple disturbances across a landscape while considering the effects of scale, the framework is intended to stimulate and support the collaborative efforts of land managers, scientists, citizen stakeholders, and policy makers as they address the challenges of expanding local agriculture.

  14. An economic theory-based explanatory model of agricultural land-use patterns

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Diogo, V.; Koomen, E.; Kuhlman, T.

    2015-01-01

    An economic theory-based land-use modelling framework is presented aiming to explain the causal link between economic decisions and resulting spatial patterns of agricultural land use. The framework assumes that farmers pursue utility maximisation in agricultural production systems, while

  15. Landscape diversity and the resilience of agricultural returns: a portfolio analysis of land-use patterns and economic returns from lowland agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abson David J

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Conventional agriculture is increasingly based on highly specialized, highly productive farms. It has been suggested that 1 this specialization leads to farms that lack resilience to changing market and environmental conditions; and 2 that by decreasing agricultural diversity, the resilience of the farming system also decreases. Methods We used agricultural gross margin (GM forecasts from 1966 to 2010 and remote sensing data from agricultural landscapes in the lowland UK, in conjunction with modern portfolio theory, to test the hypothesis that decreasing land-use diversity results in landscapes that provide higher, but more volatile, economic returns. We considered the role of spatial scale on the expected levels of volatility and resilience of agricultural returns. Results We found that: 1 there was a strong linear trade-off between expected GMs and the expected volatility of those GMs in real lowland agricultural landscapes in the UK; 2 land-use diversification was negatively correlated with expected GMs from agriculture, and positively correlated with decreasing expected volatility in GMs; 3 the resilience of agricultural returns was positively correlated with the diversity of agricultural land use, and the resilience of agricultural returns rose quickly with increased land-holding size at small spatial extents, but this effect diminished after landholdings reached 12,000 hectares. Conclusions Land-use diversity may have an important role in ensuring resilient agricultural returns in the face of uncertain market and environmental conditions, and land-holding size plays a pivotal role in determining the relationships between resilience and returns at a landscape scale. Creating finer-grained land-use patterns based on pre-existing local land uses may increase the resilience of individual farms, while maintaining aggregate yield across landscapes.

  16. Bridging the gaps between agricultural policy, land-use and biodiversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mattison, Elizabeth H A; Norris, Ken

    2005-11-01

    The fate of biodiversity is intimately linked to agricultural development. Policy reform is an important driver of changes in agricultural land-use, but there is considerable spatial variation in response to policy and its potential impact on biodiversity. We review the links between policy, land-use and biodiversity and advocate a more integrated approach. Ecologists need to recognize that wildlife-friendly farming is not the only land-use strategy that can be used to conserve biodiversity and to research alternative options such as land sparing. There is also a need for social scientists and ecologists to bring their approaches together, so that land-use change and its consequences can be investigated in a more holistic way.

  17. Virtual land use and agricultural trade. Estimating environmental and socio-economic impacts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wuertenberger, Laura; Koellner, Thomas; Binder, Claudia R.

    2006-01-01

    Liberalization has caused an increase in the global trade of goods and services. In particular, the value and physical volume of agricultural goods traded have largely increased. As the environmental and social consequences of trade are complex, they are rarely included in the national and international agricultural policies. One reason is that there is a lack of concepts and methods for assessing the environmental and social impacts of trade policies. In this paper we develop a method for quantifying and assessing the land use hidden in the export and import of agricultural goods for the case of Switzerland. For our analysis we focus on arable crops. The first methodological step of our research illustrates the spatial relationship of Switzerland with countries all over the world through the import and export of land use for arable crops. The second step links this spatial dimension with a qualitative assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of agricultural land use. We applied the method to the case of wheat cultivation within Switzerland and import to Switzerland. The major problem we were confronted with was the availability of data, which had both to be reliable and available for the countries wheat is imported from. The results show that the calculation of land use is credible. In spite of the problems related with data availability, the assessment results for each indicator are in agreement with the current situation in the respective countries. In addition, the aggregation seems to accurately reflect the countries' agricultural polices. The developed method is used to estimate the overall environmental and socio-economic impacts of an increase in wheat imports to Switzerland. We argue that this method could be applied for anticipating potential impacts of trade agreements. Still, further research is required for fine-tuning of the utility functions, including a weighting procedure in the aggregation procedure. For practical applications

  18. Having it both ways? Land use change in a U.S. midwestern agricultural ecoregion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auch, Roger F.; Laingen, Chris R.

    2015-01-01

    Urbanization has been directly linked to decreases in area of agricultural lands and, as such, has been considered a threat to food security. Although the area of land used to produce food has diminished, often overlooked have been changes in agricultural output. The Eastern Corn Belt Plains (ECBP) is an important agricultural region in the U.S. Midwest. It has both gained a significant amount of urban land, primarily from the conversion of agricultural land between 1973 and 2000, and at the same time continued to produce ever-increasing quantities of agricultural products. By 2002, more corn, soybeans, and hogs were produced on a smaller agricultural land base than in 1974. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, ECBP ecoregion society appeared to have “had it both ways”: more urbanization along with increased agricultural output.

  19. Carrying capacity of U.S. agricultural land: Ten diet scenarios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian J. Peters

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Strategies for environmental sustainability and global food security must account for dietary change. Using a biophysical simulation model we calculated human carrying capacity under ten diet scenarios. The scenarios included two reference diets based on actual consumption and eight “Healthy Diet” scenarios that complied with nutritional recommendations but varied in the level of meat content. We considered the U.S. agricultural land base and accounted for losses, processing conversions, livestock feed needs, suitability of land for crops or grazing, and land productivity. Annual per capita land requirements ranged from 0.13 to 1.08 ha person-1 year-1 across the ten diet scenarios. Carrying capacity varied from 402 to 807 million persons; 1.3 to 2.6 times the 2010 U.S. population. Carrying capacity was generally higher for scenarios with less meat and highest for the lacto-vegetarian diet. However, the carrying capacity of the vegan diet was lower than two of the healthy omnivore diet scenarios. Sensitivity analysis showed that carrying capacity estimates were highly influenced by starting assumptions about the proportion of cropland available for cultivated cropping. Population level dietary change can contribute substantially to meeting future food needs, though ongoing agricultural research and sustainable management practices are still needed to assure sufficient production levels.

  20. Fitoremediation for the Rehabilitation of Agricultural Land Contaminated by Cadmium and Copper

    OpenAIRE

    SA'AD, N. SUTRISNO; ARTANTI, R; DEWI, T

    2009-01-01

    There are many agricultural land using irrigation water from polluted industrial waste of heavy metals. Improvement of agricultural land quality using fitoremediation is needed to overcome heavy metal pollution. The reasearch aims to make remedies for paddy field polluted by cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) using plants that have the ability to absorb heavy metals in order to increase the quality of the land. This research was conducted at the screen house of Indonesian Agricultural Enviroment Re...

  1. Land Tenure as a Factor Underlying Agricultural Landscape Changes in Europe: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krčílková Š.

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Land tenure is generally considered to be an important factor affecting farming, landscape, and rural development. This paper reviews selected case studies to identify how land tenure influences agricultural landscape changes in Europe. We identified how land tenure information was transformed into variables, grouping these variables into general thematic categories: (1 land rights variables based on references to the type of stakeholders and duration of land occupancy, (2 land structure variables describing general land structure, and (3 behavioural variables dependent on stakeholders’ attitudes, perceptions, and personal values. Each thematic category can be defined on three spatial levels: parcel or production block, stakeholder, and landscape. The results show that the tenure factor is not frequently included into landscape-change studies. When a land tenure factor was part of a given study, it either played a minor role among other drivers of landscape change or, if it influenced significant landscape changes, it had only locally specific effects. Moreover, there were studies with contradictory results and so it is difficult to generalize specific findings. Nevertheless, land tenure is frequently discussed within landscape-change research in relation to land abandonment as well as green services and their connection with the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

  2. GCAM 3.0 Agriculture and Land Use: Data Sources and Methods

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kyle, G. Page; Luckow, Patrick; Calvin, Katherine V.; Emanuel, William R.; Nathan, Mayda; Zhou, Yuyu

    2011-12-12

    This report presents the data processing methods used in the GCAM 3.0 agriculture and land use component, starting from all source data used, and detailing all calculations and assumptions made in generating the model inputs. The report starts with a brief introduction to modeling of agriculture and land use in GCAM 3.0, and then provides documentation of the data and methods used for generating the base-year dataset and future scenario parameters assumed in the model input files. Specifically, the report addresses primary commodity production, secondary (animal) commodity production, disposition of commodities, land allocation, land carbon contents, and land values.

  3. Livelihood profiling and sensitivity of livelihood strategies to land cover dynamics and agricultural variability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berchoux, Tristan; Hutton, Craig; Watmough, Gary; Amoako Johnson, Fiifi; Atkinson, Peter

    2017-04-01

    With population increase and the urbanisation of rural areas, land scarcity is one of the biggest challenges now faced by communities in agrarian societies. At the household level, loss of land can be due to physical processes such as erosion, to social constraints such as inheritance, or to financial constraints such as loan reimbursement or the need of cash. For rural households, whose livelihoods are mainly based on agriculture, a decrease in the area of land cultivated can have significant consequences on their livelihood strategies, thus on their livelihood outcomes. However, it is still unclear how changes in cultivated area and agricultural productivity influence households' livelihood systems, including community capitals and households' livelihood strategies. This study aims to answer this gap by combining together earth observation from space, national census and participatory qualitative data into a community-wise analysis of the relationships between land cover dynamics, variability in agricultural production and livelihood activities. Its overarching aim is to investigate how land cover dynamics relates to changes in livelihood strategies and livelihood capitals. The study demonstrates that a change in land cover influences livelihood activities differently depending on the community capitals that households have access to. One significant aspect of integrating land dynamics with livelihood activities is its capacity to provide insights on the relationships between climate, agriculture, livelihood dynamics and rural development. More broadly, it gives policymakers new methods to characterise livelihood dynamics, thus to monitor some of the key Sustainable Development Goals: food security (SDG2), employment dynamics (SDG8), inequalities (SDG10) and sustainability of communities (SDG11).

  4. Lease of agricultural land of the Treasury in the light of new regulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam Majchrzak

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available After 1992 lease was in Poland the primary form of land management of Treasury agricul-ture property. It was preferred by both the state because of the possibility of quick disposal of property and by farmers because of the need to involve the smaller one-off funding, which could be used instead for production and investment. In recent years the importance of leasing as a way of public land management has been decreasing in favour of the sale. It follows with the growing demand for agricultural land, as well as government policies and actions undertaken by the Agricultural Property Agency. This results in the new law regula-tions on public agricultural property management, which on 3 December 2011 introduced significant changes in the public land lease. The aim of new regulations is to accelerate the privatization of state land resources, which will be carried out in the first place by disabling part of the leased agricultural land from large-area farms, as well as for sale of the land, for which the lease will be ended. In this article the author tries to assess the impact of introduced regulations on the role of leasing of public agricultural land in Poland. It is expected that due to the new law, the lease will concern mainly small plots, while interest in the lease as a way to increase land resources by individual farmers will be reduced.

  5. Taxation of agricultural and forest land: Comparative perspective and practice in Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vasiljević Dušan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses contradiction between theoretical preferences for using land as an object of taxation and modest revenues collected through property taxes imposed on agricultural and forest land. The paper starts with a summary of specificities of the land as an object of the property tax; then, classical economists' preferences for the wide use of the land tax are confronted with the comparative research finding numerous examples of exemptions and favorable treatment enjoyed by agricultural and forest land. The second part of the paper builds on a database of average square meter prices of agricultural and forest land determined by local governments for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. The quantitative research provides evidences of inconsistency and volatility of land value assessments at significantly higher level than we find for structures, indicating that key principles of tax equity are undermined, placing disproportionately high burden on certain categories of land owners.

  6. DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND EXPANSION IN NIGERIA: APPLICATION OF ERROR CORRECTION MODELING (ECM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A Oyekale

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available This study used an ECM to analyze the determinants of agricultural land expansion in Nigeria. Results show that at first differencing, Augmented Dickey Fuller test indicated stationarity for all the variables (p< 0.05 and there were 7 cointegrating vectors using Johansen test. The dynamic unrestricted short-run parameters of permanent cropland growth rates (68.62, agricultural production index (10.23, livestock population (0.003, human population (-0.145, other land (-0.265 and cereal cropland growth rate (0.621 have significant impact on agricultural land expansion (p< 0.05. The study recommended that appropriate policies to address the problem of expansion of agricultural land and agricultural production must focus on development of cereal and permanent crop hybrids that are high yielding and resistant to environmental stress, human population control and guided use of land for industrial and urban development, among others.

  7. PV water pumping for carbon sequestration in dry land agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olsson, Alexander; Campana, Pietro Elia; Lind, Mårten; Yan, Jinyue

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A novel model for carbon sequestration in dry land agriculture is developed. • We consider the water-food-energy-climate nexus to assess carbon sequestration. • Using water for carbon sequestration should be assessed critically. • Co-benefits of carbon sequestration should be included in the assessment. • Moisture feedback is part of the nexus model. - Abstract: This paper suggests a novel model for analysing carbon sequestration activities in dry land agriculture considering the water-food-energy-climate nexus. The paper is based on our on-going studies on photovoltaic water pumping (PVWP) systems for irrigation of grasslands in China. Two carbon sequestration projects are analysed in terms of their water productivity and carbon sequestration potential. It is concluded that the economic water productivity, i.e. how much water that is needed to produce an amount of grass, of grassland restoration is low and that there is a need to include several of the other co-benefits to justify the use of water for climate change mitigation. The co-benefits are illustrated in a nexus model including (1) climate change mitigation, (2) water availability, (3) downstream water impact, (4) energy security, (5) food security and (6) moisture recycling. We argue for a broad approach when analysing water for carbon sequestration. The model includes energy security and food security together with local and global water concerns. This makes analyses of dry land carbon sequestration activities more relevant and accurate. Without the nexus approach, the co-benefits of grassland restoration tend to be diminished

  8. Percent Agricultural Land Cover on Steep Slopes

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Clearing land for agriculture tends to increase soil erosion. The amount of erosion is related to the steepness of the slope, farming methods used and soil type....

  9. TRENDS Historical and Recent In South Dakota’s Agricultural Land Market

    OpenAIRE

    Yonas Hamda; Burton Pflueger; Larry Janssen

    2003-01-01

    Long-term (20th century) and recent (1991–2003) trends in South Dakota’s agricultural land values are the main topics of this report. It is written for farmers and ranchers, landowners, agricultural professionals (lenders, rural appraisers, Extension educators, and agribusiness persons) and policymakers interested, for various decision- making purposes, in agricultural land market trends. Topics covered in the first section are: (1) historical trends in South Dakota farm real estate values fr...

  10. Implications of agricultural land use change to ecosystem services in the Ganges delta.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Islam, G M Tarekul; Islam, A K M Saiful; Shopan, Ahsan Azhar; Rahman, Md Munsur; Lázár, Attila N; Mukhopadhyay, Anirban

    2015-09-15

    Ecosystems provide the basis for human civilization and natural capital for green economy and sustainable development. Ecosystem services may range from crops, fish, freshwater to those that are harder to see such as erosion regulation, carbon sequestration, and pest control. Land use changes have been identified as the main sources of coastal and marine pollution in Bangladesh. This paper explores the temporal variation of agricultural land use change and its implications with ecosystem services in the Ganges delta. With time agricultural lands have been decreased and wetlands have been increased at a very high rate mainly due to the growing popularity of saltwater shrimp farming. In a span of 28 years, the agricultural lands have been reduced by approximately 50%, while the wetlands have been increased by over 500%. A large portion (nearly 40%) of the study area is covered by the Sundarbans which remained almost constant which can be attributed to the strict regulatory intervention to preserve the Sundarbans. The settlement & others land use type has also been increased to nearly 5%. There is a gradual uptrend of shrimp and fish production in the study area. The findings suggest that there are significant linkages between agricultural land use change and ecosystem services in the Ganges delta in Bangladesh. The continuous decline of agricultural land (due to salinization) and an increase of wetland have been attributed to the conversion of agricultural land into shrimp farming in the study area. Such land use change requires significant capital, therefore, only investors and wealthier land owners can get the higher profit from the land conversion while the poor people is left with the environmental consequences that affect their long-term lives and livelihood. An environmental management plan is proposed for sustainable land use in the Ganges delta in Bangladesh. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE TOWN COVACI, TIMIS COUNTY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anişoara DUMA COPCEA

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The goal of the present paper is to get information concerning the technical and fertility features of agricultural lands to be able to determine their present general production capacity in different crops and, implicitly, the uses that underlies technically and scientifically the most proper practical measures of rational use and conservation of the land for the benefit of the specialists. We focussed in the present study on the lands belonging to the cadastral territory of the commune of Covaci (Timiş County, i.e. the soil types identified within this perimeter. They are studied in relation to environmental factors that impact them and making up, with them, homogeneous ecological territory units with specific suitability for different agricultural or forestry uses and with different improvement requirements and technologies. The goals were: - characterising the natural framework; -identifying and characterising soil types and subtypes; -calculating land assessment grades; establishing suitability and classifying agricultural lands into fertility classes.

  12. Economic feasibility of CHP facilities fueled by biomass from unused agriculture land

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pfeifer, Antun; Dominkovic, Dominik Franjo; Ćosić, Boris

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, the energy potential of biomass from growing short rotation coppice on unused agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia is used to investigate the feasibility of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities fueled by such biomass. Large areas of agricultural land that remain unused...... work and is now used to investigate the conditions in which such energy facilities could be feasible. The overall potential of biomass from short rotation coppice cultivated on unused agricultural land in the scenarios with 30% of the area is up to 10PJ/year. The added value of fruit trees pruning...... biomass represents an incentive for the development of fruit production on such agricultural land. Sensitivity analysis was conducted for several parameters: cost of biomass, investment costs in CHP systems and combined change in biomass and technology cost....

  13. Spatial and temporal predictions of agricultural land prices using DSM techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carré, F.; Grandgirard, D.; Diafas, I.; Reuter, H. I.; Julien, V.; Lemercier, B.

    2009-04-01

    Agricultural land prices highly impacts land accessibility to farmers and by consequence the evolution of agricultural landscapes (crop changes, land conversion to urban infrastructures…) which can turn to irreversible soil degradation. The economic value of agricultural land has been studied spatially, in every one of the 374 French Agricultural Counties, and temporally- from 1995 to 2007, by using data of the SAFER Institute. To this aim, agricultural land price was considered as a digital soil property. The spatial and temporal predictions were done using Digital Soil Mapping techniques combined with tools mainly used for studying temporal financial behaviors. For making both predictions, a first classification of the Agricultural Counties was done for the 1995-2006 periods (2007 was excluded and served as the date of prediction) using a fuzzy k-means clustering. The Agricultural Counties were then aggregated according to land price at the different times. The clustering allows for characterizing the counties by their memberships to each class centroid. The memberships were used for the spatial prediction, whereas the centroids were used for the temporal prediction. For the spatial prediction, from the 374 Agricultural counties, three fourths were used for modeling and one fourth for validating. Random sampling was done by class to ensure that all classes are represented by at least one county in the modeling and validation datasets. The prediction was done for each class by testing the relationships between the memberships and the following factors: (i) soil variable (organic matter from the French BDAT database), (ii) soil covariates (land use classes from CORINE LANDCOVER, bioclimatic zones from the WorldClim Database, landform attributes and landform classes from the SRTM, major roads and hydrographic densities from EUROSTAT, average field sizes estimated by automatic classification of remote sensed images) and (iii) socio-economic factors (population

  14. Legislation on The Protection of Agricultural Land in the context of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Slovak Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Palšová Lucia

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Protecting the qualitative aspect of the agricultural land is in the interest of European Union policies and Slovakia as well. The EU adopted in 2006 a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection to ensure protection and sustainable use of land, including agricultural land. The aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate legislation protecting agricultural land in the context of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Slovakia. The basic legislation for the protection of agricultural land in Slovakia is the Act No. 220/2004 Coll. on the conservation and use of agricultural land and amending Act No. 245/2003 Coll. concerning integrated pollution prevention and control and amending certain laws, as amended, which provides a basic framework for conservation of the agricultural land. In terms of preserving, agricultural land has significant importance in the Common Agricultural Policy -pillar I and II which stipulate cross-compliance requirements, requirements for agri-environmental measures for applicants for single area payment scheme, for applicants for support under agri-environmental measures respectively.

  15. Resilience with Mixed Agricultural and Urban Land Uses in Tokyo, Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giles Bruno Sioen

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Urban agriculture can enhance the resilience of neighborhoods by providing fresh food in times of natural disasters; however, there is little empirical evidence to support this. Therefore, this study proposes a methodology to identify patterns of agricultural production in urban areas by quantifying self-sufficiency rates in vegetable weight and key nutrients. A spatial grid cell analysis using a geographic information system (GIS identifies the current and potential self-sufficiency of each land use pattern in Tokyo. In a total of 1479 grid cells, the dominant land use and locations of 49,263 agricultural plots led to the categorization of six distinguishable land use patterns. The results showed that Tokyo has a fruit and vegetable self-sufficiency of 4.27% and a potential of 11.73%. The nutritional self-sufficiency of selected nutrients was the highest in vitamin K (6.54%, followed by vitamin C (3.84% and vitamin A (1.92%. Peri-urban areas showed the highest resilience in relation to aggregated risks and population density because of the mixture in agricultural and urban land uses.

  16. Redistributive land and tenancy reform in Bangladesh agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taslim, M A

    1993-04-01

    Land is scarce and population dense in Bangladesh. Accordingly, there is great need to maximize agricultural production with intensive cultivation and the diffusion of modern technology. The realization of this goal, however, is impeded by the prevailing inequitable and inefficient structure of agricultural land tenure in which a few rural households hold the bulk of cultivatable land. Cropsharing and the system of land tenancy perpetuates low productivity and stagnation throughout the country. Development professionals, ruling politicians, and general populations in many countries under similar circumstances often suggest that share tenancy be abolished and tenants given ownership of tenanted plots, with large farms broken into smaller ones with an ultimate ceiling on farm size. The political and undertaken by new governments coming to power after violent social upheavals. Careful review reveals that such reform has hardly ever led to the establishment of prosperous and independent peasantries. Small family farms have instead become more dependent on the state and on off-farm employment. The rural elite is destroyed and a small peasant proprietorship dependent on the state is established which is ultimately controlled by the urban elite of the country; control over rural populations is reinforced. The dubious historical motivation for and results of land reform suggest that Bangladesh abandon its consideration in favor of promoting vocational training and education; providing research and extension services to agriculture for more rapid diffusion of high-yield innovations; mobilizing domestic resources to build up the infrastructure; fostering the development of private initiatives; and informing and advising about sustainable development practices to encourage their adoption so that an ecological balance may be maintained.

  17. ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE REPUBLIC OF KALMYKIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. M. Borlikov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim The aim is to analyze the ecological, economic and social issues of land use and to define organizational and economic measures to improve its effectiveness. Methods. We used scientific methods: comparison, generalization, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, system methods etc., as well as specific scientific methods: economic and mathematical, statistical, expert assessments, and others. On the basis of these methods we have carried out ecological and geographical, ecological and economic analysis in historical perspective, evaluating the degree of the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors on the degradation of agricultural land and efficiency of land use in general. Thus it revealed that the main problems of land-use issues in Kalmykia and possible ways to resolve the problem. Results. Regional studies of ecological and economic problems of land use, the study of the historical experience of grazing industry, the assessment of the current state of arid areas have allowed developing mechanisms for land management and environmental protection, preventing negative social and economic consequences. Conclusions. The present state of agricultural land in the Republic of Kalmykia has led to a significant change in the direction of deterioration of fragile arid ecosystems, which explains the decrease in the total ecological and socio-economic effects, manifested in the reduction of all benefits received by the population. Solving the problems identified above requires an effective economic mechanism of rational land use and environmental protection in the arid zone, which includes science-based land-use regulations, an effective system of land management, a set of measures to prevent further degradation of natural ecosystems. 

  18. Determination of the Impact of Urbanization on Agricultural Lands using Multi-temporal Satellite Sensor Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaya, S.; Alganci, U.; Sertel, E.; Ustundag, B.

    2015-12-01

    Throughout the history, agricultural activities have been performed close to urban areas. Main reason behind this phenomenon is the need of fast marketing of the agricultural production to urban residents and financial provision. Thus, using the areas nearby cities for agricultural activities brings out advantage of easy transportation of productions and fast marketing. For decades, heavy migration to cities has directly and negatively affected natural grasslands, forests and agricultural lands. This pressure has caused agricultural lands to be changed into urban areas. Dense urbanization causes increase in impervious surfaces, heat islands and many other problems in addition to destruction of agricultural lands. Considering the negative impacts of urbanization on agricultural lands and natural resources, a periodic monitoring of these changes becomes indisputably important. At this point, satellite images are known to be good data sources for land cover / use change monitoring with their fast data acquisition, large area coverages and temporal resolution properties. Classification of the satellite images provides thematic the land cover / use maps of the earth surface and changes can be determined with GIS based analysis multi-temporal maps. In this study, effects of heavy urbanization over agricultural lands in Istanbul, metropolitan city of Turkey, were investigated with use of multi-temporal Landsat TM satellite images acquired between 1984 and 2011. Images were geometrically registered to each other and classified using supervised maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Resulting thematic maps were exported to GIS environment and destructed agricultural lands by urbanization were determined using spatial analysis.

  19. Climate change impacts on global agricultural land availability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Xiao; Cai Ximing

    2011-01-01

    Climate change can affect both crop yield and the land area suitable for agriculture. This study provides a spatially explicit estimate of the impact of climate change on worldwide agricultural land availability, considering uncertainty in climate change projections and ambiguity with regard to land classification. Uncertainty in general circulation model (GCM) projections is addressed using data assembled from thirteen GCMs and two representative emission scenarios (A1B and B1 employ CO 2 -equivalent greenhouse gas concentrations of 850 and 600 ppmv, respectively; B1 represents a greener economy). Erroneous data and the uncertain nature of land classifications based on multiple indices (i.e. soil properties, land slope, temperature, and humidity) are handled with fuzzy logic modeling. It is found that the total global arable land area is likely to decrease by 0.8-1.7% under scenario A1B and increase by 2.0-4.4% under scenario B1. Regions characterized by relatively high latitudes such as Russia, China and the US may expect an increase of total arable land by 37-67%, 22-36% and 4-17%, respectively, while tropical and sub-tropical regions may suffer different levels of lost arable land. For example, South America may lose 1-21% of its arable land area, Africa 1-18%, Europe 11-17%, and India 2-4%. When considering, in addition, land used for human settlements and natural conservation, the net potential arable land may decrease even further worldwide by the end of the 21st century under both scenarios due to population growth. Regionally, it is likely that both climate change and population growth will cause reductions in arable land in Africa, South America, India and Europe. However, in Russia, China and the US, significant arable land increases may still be possible. Although the magnitudes of the projected changes vary by scenario, the increasing or decreasing trends in arable land area are regionally consistent.

  20. 25 CFR 162.201 - Must agricultural land be managed in accordance with a tribe's agricultural resource management...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... identify holistic management objectives; and (5) Identify actions to be taken to reach established... tribe's agricultural resource management plan? 162.201 Section 162.201 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS... Must agricultural land be managed in accordance with a tribe's agricultural resource management plan...

  1. Economic feasibility of CHP facilities fueled by biomass from unused agriculture land

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pfeifer, Antun; Dominkovic, Dominik Franjo; Ćosić, Boris

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, the energy potential of biomass from growing short rotation coppice on unused agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia is used to investigate the feasibility of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities fueled by such biomass. Large areas of agricultural land that remain unused...

  2. Underlying drivers and spatial determinants of post-Soviet agricultural land abandonment in temperate Eastern Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prishchepov, Alexander; Müller, Daniel; Baumann, Matthias

    2016-01-01

    Our goal was to understand the underlying drivers and spatial determinants of agricultural land abandonment following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent transition from state-command to market-driven economies from 1990 to 2000. We brought an example of agricultural land-use change...... in one agro-climatic zone stretching across Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia. Here, we provide an overview of the agricultural changes for the studied countries. We estimated the rates and patterns of agricultural land abandonment based on Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite images and linked these data...... %), and the differences in land abandonment rates reflected the contrasting strategies for transitioning toward a market economy. The spatial patterns of agricultural land abandonment across Lithuania and Russia corresponded to the land rent theory of von Thünen, as sites with low crop yields that were distant from...

  3. STUDIES ON THE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE TOWN HALANGA COUNTY MEHEDINTI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anişoara DUMA COPCEA

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The goal of the paper was to assess the production capacity of agricultural lands for rational use. This paper relies on a selective land assessment of data in literature concerning some general and particular features of the production of agricultural lands at Halânga (Mehedinţi County. The mean land assessment grade thus obtained supplied general information on the suitability of the agricultural lands for different uses and on their suitability for different crops, as well as on their proper use in the production process. They are presented in tables containing data on land assessment grades per land unit, per unit, per farm, and per parcel. Since the production capacity of the lands is impacted by both natural and man-made factors, land assessment should reflect this. In managed and improved lands, the land assessment grade for natural conditions should be multiplied using the land assessment coefficients corresponding to the improvement works in discussion.

  4. Large-scale Agricultural Land Acquisitions in West Africa | IDRC ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    This project will examine large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in nine West African countries -Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Benin, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Niger, and Côte d'Ivoire. ... They will use the results to increase public awareness and knowledge about the consequences of large-scale land acquisitions.

  5. Mediterranean California’s water use future under multiple scenarios of developed and agricultural land use change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Tamara; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Cameron, D. Richard

    2017-01-01

    With growing demand and highly variable inter-annual water supplies, California’s water use future is fraught with uncertainty. Climate change projections, anticipated population growth, and continued agricultural intensification, will likely stress existing water supplies in coming decades. Using a state-and-transition simulation modeling approach, we examine a broad suite of spatially explicit future land use scenarios and their associated county-level water use demand out to 2062. We examined a range of potential water demand futures sampled from a 20-year record of historical (1992–2012) data to develop a suite of potential future land change scenarios, including low/high change scenarios for urbanization and agriculture as well as “lowest of the low” and “highest of the high” anthropogenic use. Future water demand decreased 8.3 billion cubic meters (Bm3) in the lowest of the low scenario and decreased 0.8 Bm3 in the low agriculture scenario. The greatest increased water demand was projected for the highest of the high land use scenario (+9.4 Bm3), high agricultural expansion (+4.6 Bm3), and high urbanization (+2.1 Bm3) scenarios. Overall, these scenarios show agricultural land use decisions will likely drive future demand more than increasing municipal and industrial uses, yet improved efficiencies across all sectors could lead to potential water use savings. Results provide water managers with information on diverging land use and water use futures, based on historical, observed land change trends and water use histories.

  6. Effects of population density on agricultural land use and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study examined agricultural land use and productivity with particular reference to its effects on population density in the Nsukka Agricultural Zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. The study involved distribution of questionnaires to 96 respondents, with only 60 being valid. Majority of the respondents had farms of between one ...

  7. Exploring relationships among land ownership, agricultural land use, and native fish species richness in the Upper Mississippi River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeJager, Nathan R.; Rohweder, Jason J.

    2012-01-01

    The general effects of agriculture on in-stream fish communities in the Upper Midwestern United States have been well studied for nearly three decades (Karr et al. 1985; Nerbonne and Vondracek 1991; Zimmerman et al. 2001; Goldstein and Meador 2005). Specific impacts include: lowered water levels, sediment loading and nutrient enrichment, loss of riparian habitat, changes to channel morphometry and physical habitat, and changes to the forage base. As part of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP), an initiative to protect, restore, and enhance the nation's fish and aquatic communities, the Fishers and Farmers Partnership specifically focuses on working with agricultural producers to help protect and restore aquatic resources in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) (Fig. 1). Successful protection and/or restoration will require the partnership and local conservation agencies to effectively communicate and work with local landowners. However, roughly 43% of the agricultural lands in the UMRB are not operated by those who own the land (National Agricultural Statistics Service 2009) and this is expected to increase as heirs of farm estates now reside greater distances from their home farms than ever before (Arbuckle 2010).

  8. Decree No. 922 on land use and exercise of agricultural activities, 19 May 1989.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1989-01-01

    The Bulgarian Decree 922, May 19, 1989, regulates land use and the exercise of agricultural activities. It stipulates in general that agricultural activities and land use will be based on the principles of company organization, ensuring the unity and indivisibility of socialist property and the variety of forms of land use and management, using collective farms and companies. Citizens may engage in agricultural activities without having a registered company; users of farmland must protect the environment; observe veterinary, plant protection, and sanitary hygiene regulations; and protect and improve soil fertility. Farms and other companies will carry out their activities under equal conditions, may sell their commodities may set up an association for the protection of their economic and social interests, and may establish agricultural stock exchanges and other cooperatives in accordance with stipulated procedures. Individual farms include an individual farmer or several farmers. Farmers may rent or purchase agricultural equipment without restriction as to model, capacity, or other features. Limitations apply on the number of workers employed on a nonseasonal basis. Farmers may form associations for specified purposes. Taxation is based on the general income tax law. Piece rate is a form of organization and payment of labor in agriculture; written agreements are required regarding wages, quality, quantity, deadlines, and supplies furnished. Lease contracts must be in writing, be registered by the municipal people's council at the location of the project, and contain specified information.

  9. FOOD CRISIS AS FACTOR OF FUTURE VALUE OF THE AGRICULTURAL LAND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Avramchuk Bogdan

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available At the present stage of human development, food is one of the most acute problems. Over the past 30-40 years, the growth rate of population in many countries of the world is ahead of the growth rate of agricultural production, which leads to acute shortage of food. This is especially true of developing countries, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the population of the planet that is under-eating and starving. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, in the world now about half a billion people are constantly hungry and twice asleep. Insufficient consumption affects children in particular. Nearly 300 million children in Asia, Africa and Latin America are lagging behind in physical and mental development as a result of poor nutrition. Every day from hunger there are about 12 thousand people dying. According to FAO, food products around the world are produced in general enough to feed the entire population of the Earth. However, the main reason for the global food crisis is not that products are distributed among countries irrelevant to the population, although such a problem exists. Researchers believe that the food crisis is caused by the coincidence of demographic, environmental and energy problems with the effects of adverse weather conditions, as well as a colossal increase in military spending. Investigated the interconnection between the dynamics of population growth and world food production volumes with the areas of agricultural land and the possible influence of projected changes in agricultural land use on increasing the cost of agricultural land is substantiated. It was investigated that the average national land rent in Ukraine would increase by 25.5%. This in turn will lead to an increase in the value of agricultural land in Ukraine.

  10. Nickel, Cobalt, Chromium and Copper in agricultural and grazing land soils of Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albanese, Stefano; Sadeghi, Martiya; De Vivo, Benedetto; Lima, Annamaria; Cicchella, Domenico; Dinelli, Enrico

    2014-05-01

    In the framework of the GEMAS (Geochemical Mapping of Agricultural and Grazing Land Soils) project, concentrations of Ni, Co, Cu and Cr were determined for the whole available dataset (2218 samples of agricultural soil and 2127 samples of grazing land soil) covering a total area of 5.6 million sq km all over Europe. The distribution pattern of Ni in the European soils (both agricultural and grazing land soils) shows the highest concentrations in correspondence with the Mediterranean area (especially in Greece, the Balcan Peninsula and NW Italy) with average values generally ranging between 40 mg/kg and 140 mg/kg and anomalous areas characterized by peaks higher than 2400 mg/kg. Concentrations between 10 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg characterize Continental Europe north of Alps and, partly, the Scandinavian countries. Lower concentrations (agricultural and grazing land soils. The maximum concentration peaks of Cobalt and Cr rise up to respectively 126 mg/kg and 696 mg/kg in agricultural soils and up to 255 mg/kg and 577 mg/kg in grazing land soils. Copper distribution in the soils collected across Europe, although has a general correspondence with the patterns of Ni, Co, Cr, shows some peculiarities. Specifically, Cu is characterized by high concentration values (up to 395 mg/kg in agricultural soils and 373 mg/kg in Grazing land soils) also in correspondence with the Roman Comagmatic Province and the south western coast of France characterized by a wide spread of vineyards.

  11. Siting Urban Agriculture as a Green Infrastructure Strategy for Land Use Planning in Austin, TX

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charles M. Rogers

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Green infrastructure refers to a type of land use design that mimics the natural water cycle by using the infiltration capacities of vegetation, soils, and other natural processes to mitigate stormwater runoff. As a multifunctional landscape, urban agriculture should be seen as a highly beneficial tool for urban planning not only because of its ability to function as a green stormwater management strategy, but also due to the multiple social and environmental benefits it provides. In 2012, the city of Austin adopted a major planning approach titled the “Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan” (IACP outlining the city’s vision for future growth and land use up to 2039. The plan explicitly addresses the adoption of green infrastructure as a target for future land use with urban agriculture as a central component. Addressing this area of land use planning will require tools that can locate suitable areas within the city ideal for the development of green infrastructure. In this study, a process was developed to create a spatially explicit method of siting urban agriculture as a green infrastructure tool in hydrologically sensitive areas, or areas prone to runoff, in east Austin. The method uses geospatial software to spatially analyze open access datasets that include land use, a digital elevation model, and prime farmland soils. Through this method a spatial relationship can be made between areas of high surface runoff and where the priority placement of urban farms should be sited as a useful component of green infrastructure. Planners or geospatial analysts could use such information, along with other significant factors and community input, to aid decision makers in the placement of urban agriculture. This spatially explicit approach for siting potential urban farms, will support the integration of urban agriculture as part of the land use planning of Austin.

  12. The mechanisms for social and environmentally responsible agricultural land use

    OpenAIRE

    Ye. Mishenin; I. Yarova

    2015-01-01

    This paper deals with arguments that the most effective mechanism for greening use of land resources is to increase the level of social and environmental responsibility. The mechanisms for social and environmentally responsible agricultural land use are formed.

  13. Agricultural Land Use Determines the Trait Composition of Ground Beetle Communities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helena I Hanson

    Full Text Available In order to improve biological control of agricultural pests, it is fundamental to understand which factors influence the composition of natural enemies in agricultural landscapes. In this study, we aimed to understand how agricultural land use affects a number of different traits in ground beetle communities to better predict potential consequences of land-use change for ecosystem functioning. We studied ground beetles in fields with different agricultural land use ranging from frequently managed sugar beet fields, winter wheat fields to less intensively managed grasslands. The ground beetles were collected in emergence tents that catch individuals overwintering locally in different life stages and with pitfall traps that catch individuals that could have a local origin or may have dispersed into the field. Community weighted mean values for ground beetle traits such as body size, flight ability and feeding preference were estimated for each land-use type and sampling method. In fields with high land-use intensity the average body length of emerging ground beetle communities was lower than in the grasslands while the average body length of actively moving communities did not differ between the land-use types. The proportion of ground beetles with good flight ability or a carnivorous diet was higher in the crop fields as compared to the grasslands. Our study highlights that increasing management intensity reduces the average body size of emerging ground beetles and the proportion of mixed feeders. Our results also suggest that the dispersal ability of ground beetles enables them to compensate for local management intensities.

  14. Agricultural Land Use Determines the Trait Composition of Ground Beetle Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanson, Helena I; Palmu, Erkki; Birkhofer, Klaus; Smith, Henrik G; Hedlund, Katarina

    2016-01-01

    In order to improve biological control of agricultural pests, it is fundamental to understand which factors influence the composition of natural enemies in agricultural landscapes. In this study, we aimed to understand how agricultural land use affects a number of different traits in ground beetle communities to better predict potential consequences of land-use change for ecosystem functioning. We studied ground beetles in fields with different agricultural land use ranging from frequently managed sugar beet fields, winter wheat fields to less intensively managed grasslands. The ground beetles were collected in emergence tents that catch individuals overwintering locally in different life stages and with pitfall traps that catch individuals that could have a local origin or may have dispersed into the field. Community weighted mean values for ground beetle traits such as body size, flight ability and feeding preference were estimated for each land-use type and sampling method. In fields with high land-use intensity the average body length of emerging ground beetle communities was lower than in the grasslands while the average body length of actively moving communities did not differ between the land-use types. The proportion of ground beetles with good flight ability or a carnivorous diet was higher in the crop fields as compared to the grasslands. Our study highlights that increasing management intensity reduces the average body size of emerging ground beetles and the proportion of mixed feeders. Our results also suggest that the dispersal ability of ground beetles enables them to compensate for local management intensities.

  15. Percent Agricultural Land Cover on Steep Slopes (Future)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Clearing land for agriculture tends to increase soil erosion. The amount of erosion is related to the steepness of the slope, farming methods used and soil type....

  16. Agricultural land cover changes in metropolitan areas of Poland for the period 1990–2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nalej Marta

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural land covers more than half the area of metropolitan areas in Poland, and is therefore particularly prone to the influences of the processes associated with their development. The aim of the study was to analyse changes in agricultural land cover within the metropolitan areas of Poland for the years 1990–2012; and to capture their dynamics, types and directions. The percentage share of the total study area, for each of the forms of agricultural land cover and their changes were traced, with the spatial distribution of the changes also being determined. The results of the study show that in metropolitan areas, agricultural land cover is undergoing transformations that do not result in the loss of agricultural lands, or that involve a decrease in surface area due to their change into anthropogenic forms of land cover. The greatest transitions occurred between 2000 and 2006 and were observed in the outer zones of metropolitan areas.

  17. Environmental characteristics, agricultural land use, and vulnerability to degradation in Malopolska Province (Poland).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nowak, Agnieszka; Schneider, Christian

    2017-07-15

    Environmental degradation encompasses multiple processes that are rarely combined in analyses. This study refers to three types of environmental degradation resulting from agricultural activity: soil erosion, nutrient loss, and groundwater pollution. The research was conducted in seven distinct study areas in the Malopolska Province, Poland, each characterized by different environmental properties. Calculations were made on the basis of common models, i.e., USLE (soil erosion), InVEST (nutrient loss), and DRASTIC (groundwater pollution). Two scenarios were calculated to identify the areas contributing to potential and actual degradation. For the potential degradation scenario all study areas were treated as arable land. To identify the areas actually contributing to all three types of degradation, the de facto land use pattern was used for a second scenario. The results show that the areas most endangered by agricultural activity are located in the mountainous region, whereas most of the degraded zones were located in valley bottoms and areas with intensive agriculture. The different hazards rarely overlap spatially in the given study areas - meaning that different areas require different management approaches. The distribution of arable land was negatively correlated with soil erosion hazard, whereas no linkage was found between nutrient loss or groundwater pollution hazards and the proportion of arable land. This indicates that the soil erosion hazard is the most influential factor in the distribution of arable land, whereas nutrient loss and groundwater pollution is widely ignored during land use decision-making. Slope largely and most frequently influences all hazard types, whereas land use also played an important role in the case of soil and nutrient losses. In this study we presented a consistent methodology to capture complex degradation processes and provide robust indicators which can be included in existing impact assessment approaches like Life Cycle

  18. Agriculture and Energy: Implications for Food Security, Water, and Land Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tokgoz, S.; Zhang, W.; Msangi, S.; Bhandary, P.

    2011-12-01

    Sustainable production of agricultural commodities and growth of international trade in these goods are challenged as never before by supply-side constraints (such as climate change, water and land scarcity, and environmental degradation) and by demand-side dynamics (volatility in food and energy markets, the strengthening food-energy linkage, population growth, and income growth). On the one hand, the rapidly expanding demand can potentially create new market opportunities for agriculture. On the other hand, there are many threats to a sufficient response by the supply side to meet this growing and changing demand. Agricultural production systems in many countries are neither resource-efficient, nor producing according to their full potential. The stock of natural resources such as land, water, nutrients, energy, and genetic diversity is shrinking relative to demand, and their use must become increasingly efficient in order to reduce environmental impacts and preserve the planet's productive capacity. World energy prices have increased rapidly in recent years. At the same time, agriculture has become more energy-intensive. Higher energy costs have pushed up the cost of producing, transporting and processing agricultural commodities, driving up commodity prices. Higher energy costs have also affected water use and availability through increased costs of water extraction, conveyance and desalinization, higher demand for hydroelectric power, and increased cost of subsidizing water services. In the meantime, the development of biofuels has diverted increasing amounts of agricultural land and water resources to the production of biomass-based renewable energy. This more "intensified" linkage between agriculture and energy comes at a time when there are other pressures on the world's limited resources. The related high food prices, especially those in the developing countries, have led to setbacks in the poverty alleviation effort among the global community with more

  19. Economic Potential of Biomass from Unused Agriculture Land for Energy Use

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pfeifer, A.; Dominkovic, Dominik Franjo; Ćosić, B.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper the energy potential of biomass from growing short rotation coppice (SRC) on unused agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia was examined. At present, SRC is not completely recognized in Croatian legislative and considerations in energy strategy and action plans. The paper aspires...... to contribute to better understanding of the role SRC can take in national and local energy planning. The methodology is provided for regional analysis of biomass energy potential on unused agricultural land and for assessing the cost of the biomass at the power plant (PP) location considering transport...... plants and appropriate size of seasonal heat storage is discussed for each case study. Case studies have shown the potential for use of previously unused agricultural land to help achieve national targets for renewable energy sources as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions, help diversify...

  20. The Monitoring Erosion of Agricultural Land and spatial database of erosion events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapicka, Jiri; Zizala, Daniel

    2013-04-01

    In 2011 originated in The Czech Republic The Monitoring Erosion of Agricultural Land as joint project of State Land Office (SLO) and Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation (RISWC). The aim of the project is collecting and record keeping information about erosion events on agricultural land and their evaluation. The main idea is a creation of a spatial database that will be source of data and information for evaluation and modeling erosion process, for proposal of preventive measures and measures to reduce negative impacts of erosion events. A subject of monitoring is the manifestations of water erosion, wind erosion and slope deformation in which cause damaged agriculture land. A website, available on http://me.vumop.cz, is used as a tool for keeping and browsing information about monitored events. SLO employees carry out record keeping. RISWC is specialist institute in the Monitoring Erosion of Agricultural Land that performs keeping the spatial database, running the website, managing the record keeping of events, analysis the cause of origins events and statistical evaluations of keeping events and proposed measures. Records are inserted into the database using the user interface of the website which has map server as a component. Website is based on database technology PostgreSQL with superstructure PostGIS and MapServer UMN. Each record is in the database spatial localized by a drawing and it contains description information about character of event (data, situation description etc.) then there are recorded information about land cover and about grown crops. A part of database is photodocumentation which is taken in field reconnaissance which is performed within two days after notify of event. Another part of database are information about precipitations from accessible precipitation gauges. Website allows to do simple spatial analysis as are area calculation, slope calculation, percentage representation of GAEC etc.. Database structure was designed

  1. Dynamic Agricultural Land Unit Profile Database Generation using Landsat Time Series Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres-Rua, A. F.; McKee, M.

    2012-12-01

    Agriculture requires continuous supply of inputs to production, while providing final or intermediate outputs or products (food, forage, industrial uses, etc.). Government and other economic agents are interested in the continuity of this process and make decisions based on the available information about current conditions within the agriculture area. From a government point of view, it is important that the input-output chain in agriculture for a given area be enhanced in time, while any possible abrupt disruption be minimized or be constrained within the variation tolerance of the input-output chain. The stability of the exchange of inputs and outputs becomes of even more important in disaster-affected zones, where government programs will look for restoring the area to equal or enhanced social and economical conditions before the occurrence of the disaster. From an economical perspective, potential and existing input providers require up-to-date, precise information of the agriculture area to determine present and future inputs and stock amounts. From another side, agriculture output acquirers might want to apply their own criteria to sort out present and future providers (farmers or irrigators) based on the management done during the irrigation season. In the last 20 years geospatial information has become available for large areas in the globe, providing accurate, unbiased historical records of actual agriculture conditions at individual land units for small and large agricultural areas. This data, adequately processed and stored in any database format, can provide invaluable information for government and economic interests. Despite the availability of the geospatial imagery records, limited or no geospatial-based information about past and current farming conditions at the level of individual land units exists for many agricultural areas in the world. The absence of this information challenges the work of policy makers to evaluate previous or current

  2. Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America

    OpenAIRE

    CEDDIA Michele Graziano; BARDSLEY N. O.; GOMEZ Y PALOMA Sergio; SEDLACEK S

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we address two topical questions: How do the quality of governance and agricultural intensification impact on spatial expansion of agriculture? Which aspects of governance are more likely to ensure that agricultural intensification allows sparing land for nature? Using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the World Database on Protected Areas, and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, we estimate a panel data model for six South A...

  3. Applying parcel-specific land-use data to map conflicts and convergences between agriculture and biodiversity in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levin, Gregor

    2010-01-01

    Provision of semi-natural habitats is an important service of agricultural ecosystems. Quality and extent of semi-natural habitats is closely linked with intensity of agricultural management. Grass-dominated habitat types often depend on extensive management in terms of grazing or mowing. Lack...... compositions of semi-natural habitats disappear. For Denmark, we apply parcel-specific data on agricultural land use to map convergences and conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity. We group land-uses into intensive and extensive and overlay these with a map of grass-dominated semi-natural habitats. 61...... % of habitats overlap with extensively managed land, indicating convergence between agriculture and biodiversity. In contrast, 13 % of habitats overlap with intensively managed land, pointing at severe conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity. 27 % of habitats are located outside any agricultural land...

  4. ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMIC MECHANISM ON THE SUSTAINABLE USE STIMULATION OF AGRICULTURAL APPOINTMENT LAND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O.P. Atamaniuk

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available It is well-known that the use of incentives should lead to an improvement of the existing economic, environmental and social status, to raising the level of economic indicators for the benefit of the person who provides incentives and who is the object of stimulation. The current socio-economic conditions dictate the need to find effective forms of land management and rational land use management, correcting mistakes and resolving existing issues. This is possible only after all agricultural land use is fully provided with the necessary land management works. These issues can be solved by implementing the planning documents for the development of territories (national, regional, local, etc.. They put in place an algorithm of action to address the issue, but the greatest advantage of the proposed development program is the possibility of developing a land management process on agricultural lands. Clear financing of development programs, allows to ensure the implementation of the outlined plans for the implementation of land management works that are necessary on agricultural land. But in the context of the limited economic opportunities of Ukraine, the financing of land management measures provided for by the program should be only partially depending on the possibilities and level of environmental issues of land use.

  5. Farmers’ Practices in Developing Agricultural Land in Malaysia: Is there an Islamic Microfinance Solution?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Hakimi

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective – This paper attempts to highlight the farmers’ lives in Malaysia and their problems in developing idle agricultural land.Methods - This paper is using descriptive and exploratory method of study which refer to the situation of agricultural sector in Malaysia.Results - The scheme aPLS (agricultural production and loss sharing that proposed cannot stand alone in the traditional fiqh to be implemented now. Therefore, the combinations of aPLS contract with ujrah principle are really needed. This is important to ensure the flexibility of the contract that can offer a fully comprehensive scheme of Islamic agricultural finance.Conclusion – The land together with labour can be considered as a form of capital and therefore has a similarity to the contracts of mudaraba and musharaka. Hence, it can be said that these principles are “agricultural production and loss sharing (aPLS” because land will naturally produce an output or a product. Muzara’a and musaqa therefore can be said to be contracts which are based on sharing output rather than sharing profit.Keywords: Idle Agricultural Land, Islamic agricultural finance, Malaysia

  6. The trajectories and determinants of agricultural land-use change over the last two decades in post-Soviet European Russia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prishchepov, A. V.; Müller, D.; Sieber, A.; Kuemmerle, T.; Radeloff, V. C.; Hostert, P.

    2012-04-01

    The transition from state-command to market-driven economies in Russia in 1991 triggered fundamental political, economic and institutional changes, which in turn drastically affected agricultural land use. Large tracks of agricultural lands became abandoned, particularly during the first decade of the transition. However, it is not clear how the changing socio-economic and political conditions in post-Soviet Russia changed abandonment trajectories over the last two decades. We analyzed agricultural land-use change, both agricultural land abandonment and recultivation of once abandoned agricultural lands, with multitemporal Landsat TM/ETM+ images for 1990-2000-2009 to study Ryazan province in the forest-steppe transition zone and Rostov province in the steppe zone of European Russia. We classified agricultural land use change over 1990-2000-2009 with Support Vector Machines and assessed classification accuracies with independently of training datasets collected validation data. Overall accuracies were over 80%. We summarized the rates of agricultural land use change, and quantified the spatial determinants of these land use change processes using logistic regressions. Results indicated that 28% of agricultural land managed in 1990 were abandoned by the year 2000 in Ryazan province. From 2000 to 2009, agricultural land abandonment increased by another half what was abandoned from 1990 to 2000 and comprised 42% of abandoned agricultural that was managed in 1990 while only 1.4% of previously abandoned agricultural land was recultivated. In other words, agricultural abandonment was a continuous and permanent land use change in Ryazan province. In Rostov province, abandonment rates were substantially lower at nearly 10% of the agricultural land managed in 1990 and only minor additional abandonment from 2000 to 2009. The pattern of agricultural land abandonment in Ryazan province was largely determined by a mix of socio-economic and environmental factors (e.g. increased

  7. Developing a Land Suitability Index for Agricultural uses in Dry Lands from Geologic Point of View Using GIS - a Case Study from Jordan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammmad Al Farajat

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available DOI:10.17014/ijog.2.2.63-76In the context of the study, a Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE in GIS was used in developing suitability index to optimize suitable lands for agricultural uses and seasonal farming in dry lands from geologic point of view. This study was performed in the areas between Mafraq and Zarqa Cities in Jordan which are classified as arid lands. The study aims at protecting groundwater from pollution, reducing soil salting, reducing irrigation water loss caused by evaporation, and increasing crop productivity. The geo-environmental parameters of the named area including geology, groundwater depths, soil depths and textures, climatic conditions, topographic settings, and groundwater vulnerability conditions were mapped and converted into layers with special rates, given weights, and then modeled using the multi criteria evaluation (MCE option, using Decision Making Modeling in IDRISI (GIS software to reach at the best choice of lands for agricultural activities, and also to determine which of these lands are suitable for summer farming and which are suitable for winter farming.

  8. The Effect of No Agricultural Productivity Growth on Future Land Use and Climate through Biogeophysical Mechanisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies-Barnard, T.; Valdes, P. J.; Singarayer, J. S.; Jones, C.

    2012-12-01

    Future land use and the consequent land cover change will have a significant impact on future climate through biogeophysical (albedo, surface roughness and latent heat transfer, etc.) as well as biogeochemical (greenhouse gas emissions etc.) mechanisms. One of the major determinants of the extent of land use induced land cover change is the agricultural productivity growth within the socio-economic models used for developing the RCP scenarios. There are considerable uncertainties in the size of agricultural productivity under climate change, as yields are projected to vary spatially in signal and strength. Previous climate modeling work has considered the impacts to the carbon cycle of different levels of agricultural productivity growth, but has failed to consider the biogeophysical effects of the land use induced land cover change on climate. Here we examine the climate impacts of the assumption of agricultural productivity growth and business as usual land use. The effects are considered through the biogeophysical land use induced land cover change, using the Hadley Centre climate model HadGEM2. The model simulations use the set biogeochemical climate forcing of the RCP 4.5 scenario, but the biogeophysical land use change specification is altered over a 100 year simulation. Simulations are run with combinations of no land use change; standard RCP 4.5 land use change; business as usual land use change; and zero agricultural productivity growth. The key effect of no agricultural productivity growth is that more cropland is required to feed the same population, necessitating cropland expansion. The expansion of cropland and consequent deforestation increases the albedo and gives an extensive cooling effect in the northern hemisphere (up to 2°C). Differences in global mean temperature between the zero agricultural productivity growth with business as usual land use change specified run and the standard RCP 4.5 run are -0.2°C by 2040 and -0.7°C by 2100. There is

  9. Studies investigating economic, agricultural-economic and demographic factors influencing land use dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mora, R.; San Juan, C.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, we review studies investigating economic, agricultural-economic and demographic factors influencing land use dynamics, making special emphasis on the policy framework in the European Union. We find several conclusions, among which the following should be emphasized. First, this review highlights the existence of different methodologies to build up models to identify the effects of policy reforms affecting land use and desertification. Second, use of micro data to set up an econometric-process simulation model of land use has already been used with success. Third, in the geographical distribution of land use, prices drive all short and long-rung processes. Finally, logistic models have recently been used to study micro decisions at the agricultural sector to identify relative rents and land characteristics such as location and soil fertility as main determinants of land use patters. (Author) 8 refs.

  10. Analysis of land snail marketing in Owerri agricultural zone of Imo ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Analysis of land snail marketing in Owerri agricultural zone of Imo state, ... The study was conducted in Owerri Agricultural Zone of Imo state, Nigeria to assess the profitability of snail marketing during ... EMAIL FULL TEXT EMAIL FULL TEXT

  11. Groundwater Ecosystems Vary with Land Use across a Mixed Agricultural Landscape.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korbel, K L; Hancock, P J; Serov, P; Lim, R P; Hose, G C

    2013-01-01

    Changes in surface land use may threaten groundwater quality and ecosystem integrity, particularly in shallow aquifers where links between groundwater and surface activities are most intimate. In this study we examine the response of groundwater ecosystem to agricultural land uses in the shallow alluvial aquifer of the Gwydir River valley, New South Wales, Australia. We compared groundwater quality and microbial and stygofauna assemblages among sites under irrigated cropping, non-irrigated cropping and grazing land uses. Stygofauna abundance and richness was greatest at irrigated sites, with the composition of the assemblage suggestive of disturbance. Microbial assemblages and water quality also varied with land use. Our study demonstrates significant differences in the composition of groundwater ecosystems in areas with different surface land use, and highlights the utility of groundwater biota for biomonitoring, particularly in agricultural landscapes. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  12. A reconstruction of global agricultural areas and land cover for the last millennium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pongratz, J.; Reick, C.; Raddatz, T.; Claussen, M.

    2008-09-01

    Humans have substantially modified the Earth's land cover, especially by transforming natural ecosystems to agricultural areas. In preindustrial times, the expansion of agriculture was probably the dominant process by which humankind altered the Earth system, but little is known about its extent, timing, and spatial pattern. This study presents an approach to reconstruct spatially explicit changes in global agricultural areas (cropland and pasture) and the resulting changes in land cover over the last millennium. The reconstruction is based on published maps of agricultural areas for the last three centuries. For earlier times, a country-based method is developed that uses population data as a proxy for agricultural activity. With this approach, the extent of cropland and pasture is consistently estimated since AD 800. The resulting reconstruction of agricultural areas is combined with a map of potential vegetation to estimate the resulting historical changes in land cover. Uncertainties associated with this approach, in particular owing to technological progress in agriculture and uncertainties in population estimates, are quantified. About 5 million km2 of natural vegetation are found to be transformed to agriculture between AD 800 and 1700, slightly more to cropland (mainly at the expense of forested area) than to pasture (mainly at the expense of natural grasslands). Historical events such as the Black Death in Europe led to considerable dynamics in land cover change on a regional scale. The reconstruction can be used with global climate and ecosystem models to assess the impact of human activities on the Earth system in preindustrial times.

  13. Characterization of agricultural land using singular value decomposition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herries, Graham M.; Danaher, Sean; Selige, Thomas

    1995-11-01

    A method is defined and tested for the characterization of agricultural land from multi-spectral imagery, based on singular value decomposition (SVD) and key vector analysis. The SVD technique, which bears a close resemblance to multivariate statistic techniques, has previously been successfully applied to problems of signal extraction for marine data and forestry species classification. In this study the SVD technique is used as a classifier for agricultural regions, using airborne Daedalus ATM data, with 1 m resolution. The specific region chosen is an experimental research farm in Bavaria, Germany. This farm has a large number of crops, within a very small region and hence is not amenable to existing techniques. There are a number of other significant factors which render existing techniques such as the maximum likelihood algorithm less suitable for this area. These include a very dynamic terrain and tessellated pattern soil differences, which together cause large variations in the growth characteristics of the crops. The SVD technique is applied to this data set using a multi-stage classification approach, removing unwanted land-cover classes one step at a time. Typical classification accuracy's for SVD are of the order of 85-100%. Preliminary results indicate that it is a fast and efficient classifier with the ability to differentiate between crop types such as wheat, rye, potatoes and clover. The results of characterizing 3 sub-classes of Winter Wheat are also shown.

  14. Analysis of road development and associated agricultural land use change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alphan, Hakan

    2017-12-05

    Development of road network is one of the strongest drivers of habitat fragmentation. It interferes with ecological processes that are based on material and energy flows between landscape patches. Therefore, changes in temporal patterns of roads may be regarded as important landscape-level environmental indicators. The aim of this study is to analyze road development and associated agricultural land use change near the town of Erdemli located in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The study area has witnessed an unprecedented development of agriculture since the 2000s. This process has resulted with the expansion of the road network. Associations between agricultural expansion and road development were investigated. High-resolution satellite images of 2004 and 2015 were used to analyze spatial and temporal dimensions of change. Satellite images were classified using a binary approach, in which land areas were labeled as either "agriculture" or "non-agriculture." Road networks were digitized manually. The study area was divided into 23 sublandscapes using a regular grid with 1-km cell spacing. Percentage of landscape (PL) for agriculture and road density (RD) metrics were calculated for the earlier (2004) and later (2015) years. Metric calculations were performed separately for each of the 23 sublandscapes in order to understand spatial diversity of agriculture and road density. Study results showed that both RD and PL exhibited similar increasing trends between 2004 and 2015.

  15. Agricultural land for urban development : The process of land conversion in Central Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Phuc, Nguyen Quang; Westen, A. C M van; Zoomers, Annelies

    Since the 1990s, Vietnam's progressive integration into the global market economy has triggered major economic and social transformations. In spatial terms, these are marked by a massive conversion of agricultural land for industrial and urban development. While this process has attracted

  16. Agricultural land for urban development: The process of land conversion in Central Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nguyen, C.P.; Westen, A.C.M. van; Zoomers, A.

    2014-01-01

    Since the 1990s, Vietnam’s progressive integration into the global market economy has triggered major economic and social transformations. In spatial terms, these are marked by a massive conversion of agricultural land for industrial and urban development. While this process has attracted

  17. eFarm: A Tool for Better Observing Agricultural Land Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiangyi Yu

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Currently, observations of an agricultural land system (ALS largely depend on remotely-sensed images, focusing on its biophysical features. While social surveys capture the socioeconomic features, the information was inadequately integrated with the biophysical features of an ALS and the applications are limited due to the issues of cost and efficiency to carry out such detailed and comparable social surveys at a large spatial coverage. In this paper, we introduce a smartphone-based app, called eFarm: a crowdsourcing and human sensing tool to collect the geotagged ALS information at the land parcel level, based on the high resolution remotely-sensed images. We illustrate its main functionalities, including map visualization, data management, and data sensing. Results of the trial test suggest the system works well. We believe the tool is able to acquire the human–land integrated information which is broadly-covered and timely-updated, thus presenting great potential for improving sensing, mapping, and modeling of ALS studies.

  18. Stages of Agricultural Land Consolidation in Ukraine with Consideration for International Best Practices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Popov Andriy S.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to develop recommendations on defining stages of consolidation of agricultural land in Ukraine on the basis of the best international practices. The analysis, systematization and generalization of scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists made it possible to determine a possible order of land consolidation in Ukraine and provide a detailed description of each stage. As a result of the research, the following main stages of land consolidation were proposed: the initiation, inventory, planning, implementation and final one. Each of these stages is considered consistently with justification of its expediency, the list of necessary measures and land management documentation, presentation of practical examples from different countries of the world. It is determined that each stage of the land consolidation procedure should be conducted in compliance with the principle of openness, which ensures the involvement of the maximum number of landowners/land users and protection of their interests, creates a positive attitude of the society towards land consolidation. A structural and logical model of the procedure for consolidating agricultural land, which clearly reflects the stages and activities of its implementation, is drawn up. There presented recommendations on the need to introduce new land management documentation for land consolidation with a detailed description of their essence. The relevance of further studies of the procedure for the agricultural land consolidation is in bringing a flexible, simple, cost-effective and short-term approach to its implementation.

  19. Data model for the collaboration between land administration systems and agricultural land parcel identification systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Inan, Halil Ibrahim; Sagris, Valentina; Devos, Wim; Milenov, Pavel; van Oosterom, Peter; Zevenbergen, Jaap

    2010-12-01

    The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) has dramatically changed after 1992, and from then on the CAP focused on the management of direct income subsidies instead of production-based subsidies. For this focus, Member States (MS) are expected to establish Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), including a Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) as the spatial part of IACS. Different MS have chosen different solutions for their LPIS. Currently, some MS based their IACS/LPIS on data from their Land Administration Systems (LAS), and many others use purpose built special systems for their IACS/LPIS. The issue with these different IACS/LPIS is that they do not have standardized structures; rather, each represents a unique design in each MS, both in the case of LAS based or special systems. In this study, we aim at designing a core data model for those IACS/LPIS based on LAS. For this purpose, we make use of the ongoing standardization initiatives for LAS (Land Administration Domain Model: LADM) and IACS/LPIS (LPIS Core Model: LCM). The data model we propose in this study implies the collaboration between LADM and LCM and includes some extensions. Some basic issues with the collaboration model are discussed within this study: registration of farmers, land use rights and farming limitations, geometry/topology, temporal data management etc. For further explanation of the model structure, sample instance level diagrams illustrating some typical situations are also included. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Land Use Change and Agricultural Land Fragmentation due to Anthropogenic Activities in an Hot Spot Area: A Case Study for Thrace Region of Turkey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altürk, Bahadır; Konukcu, Fatih

    2017-04-01

    Agricultural lands that supply food, energy and ecosystem services for human life have been lost due to anthropogenic activities such as construction of roads, urban and industry areas. The significant reasons for the increase of artificial surfaces were poorly planned economic decisions by the government and internal migration due to this poorly planning. Unplanned urban sprawl also give rise to land fragmentation. Fragmentation of agricultural land affects both the agricultural production capacity and rural sustainable employment. In this study: i) Land use changes between 1990-2014 period were assessed using remotely sensed data and ii) Spatial and temporal agricultural land fragmentation were investigated using landscape pattern indice (effective mesh size), Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) and Entropy method for 25 years period. The selected"hot spot" study area is located on east Thrace region of Turkey, being the service and industrial development zone where agricultural activities, water resources and natural habitat have been damaged due to rapid urban and industrial development for about 25 years. The results showed that agricultural lands decreased 6.44%, urban areas increased 111.68% and industry areas increased 251.19% during this 25 years period. Additionally, fragmentation analyses demonstrated that core agricultural areas sharply decreased and relative fragmentation (effective mesh size) increased from 50.68% to 56.77% during 1990 and 2014.

  1. Agricultural land-use change in a Mexican oligotrophic desert depletes ecosystem stability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández-Becerra, Natali; Tapia-Torres, Yunuen; Beltrán-Paz, Ofelia; Blaz, Jazmín; Souza, Valeria; García-Oliva, Felipe

    2016-01-01

    Global demand for food has led to increased land-use change, particularly in dry land ecosystems, which has caused several environmental problems due to the soil degradation. In the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB), alfalfa production irrigated by flooding impacts strongly on the soil. In order to analyze the effect of such agricultural land-use change on soil nutrient dynamics and soil bacterial community composition, this work examined an agricultural gradient within the CCB which was comprised of a native desert grassland, a plot currently cultivated with alfalfa and a former agricultural field that had been abandoned for over 30 years. For each site, we analyzed C, N and P dynamic fractions, the activity of the enzyme phosphatase and the bacterial composition obtained using 16S rRNA clone libraries. The results showed that the cultivated site presented a greater availability of water and dissolved organic carbon, these conditions promoted mineralization processes mediated by heterotrophic microorganisms, while the abandoned land was limited by water and dissolved organic nitrogen. The low amount of dissolved organic matter promoted nitrification, which is mediated by autotrophic microorganisms. The microbial N immobilization process and specific phosphatase activity were both favored in the native grassland. As expected, differences in bacterial taxonomical composition were observed among sites. The abandoned site exhibited similar compositions than native grassland, while the cultivated site differed. The results suggest that the transformation of native grassland into agricultural land induces drastic changes in soil nutrient dynamics as well as in the bacterial community. However, with the absence of agricultural practices, some of the soil characteristics analyzed slowly recovers their natural state.

  2. Agricultural land-use change in a Mexican oligotrophic desert depletes ecosystem stability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natali Hernández-Becerra

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Background Global demand for food has led to increased land-use change, particularly in dry land ecosystems, which has caused several environmental problems due to the soil degradation. In the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB, alfalfa production irrigated by flooding impacts strongly on the soil. Methods In order to analyze the effect of such agricultural land-use change on soil nutrient dynamics and soil bacterial community composition, this work examined an agricultural gradient within the CCB which was comprised of a native desert grassland, a plot currently cultivated with alfalfa and a former agricultural field that had been abandoned for over 30 years. For each site, we analyzed C, N and P dynamic fractions, the activity of the enzyme phosphatase and the bacterial composition obtained using 16S rRNA clone libraries. Results The results showed that the cultivated site presented a greater availability of water and dissolved organic carbon, these conditions promoted mineralization processes mediated by heterotrophic microorganisms, while the abandoned land was limited by water and dissolved organic nitrogen. The low amount of dissolved organic matter promoted nitrification, which is mediated by autotrophic microorganisms. The microbial N immobilization process and specific phosphatase activity were both favored in the native grassland. As expected, differences in bacterial taxonomical composition were observed among sites. The abandoned site exhibited similar compositions than native grassland, while the cultivated site differed. Discussion The results suggest that the transformation of native grassland into agricultural land induces drastic changes in soil nutrient dynamics as well as in the bacterial community. However, with the absence of agricultural practices, some of the soil characteristics analyzed slowly recovers their natural state.

  3. Fighting for rents: agricultural windfall gains and social change in land-abundant developing countries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvid, Anna

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, a global increase in demand for agricultural commodities and land has contributed to increasing agricultural prices. This trend can be expected to continue in the future, and may result in significantly higher land rents. This paper investigates the potential distributional effec...

  4. Geographical view on agricultural land and structural changes plant production Montenegro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Rajović

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE This paper analyzes agricultural land and structural changes in plant production Montenegro. The Montenegro represents a significant potential for agricultural development, but plant production insufficiently developed in relation to natural resources and the demands of intensive agricultural production. Average possession by agricultural holdings in 1960 amounts is 5.34 ha with only 2.05 ha arable area per agricultural holdings. Yet more unfavorable is the situation with arable surfaces. Namely, agricultural holdings in the Montenegro in 1960 are on average dispose with maximum of 0.74 ha of arable land. Judging by the size of the cultivated area, production volume, as well as according other parameters, plant production in the Montenegro in 2007, mainly used for meeting need households. A smaller area for is market. The role of the Montenegrin village and agriculture must be first-rate, as are its potentials, the main power future development of Montenegro. This requires radically new relationship between society and science to agriculture and the countryside. Instead of the existing approach in which they observed the preventive as producers of cheap food has to be developed a new concept, a comprehensive agricultural and rural development, which will be based on demographic, natural, economic and socio-cultural potential of Montenegro. 

  5. Forests to fields. Restoring tropical lands to agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, D

    1993-04-01

    In discussing land use in tropical forest regions, there is an emphasis on the following topics: the need for the expansion of cropping areas, the precedent for use of the tropical forest for cropping based on past use patterns, the pressure from conservationists against cropping, debunking the mythology that forests are "natural" and refuting the claims that forest clearance is not reversible, the archeological evidence of past forest use for agricultural purposes, abandonment of tropical land to forest, and rotation of forest and field. The assumption is that the way to stop food importation is to increase crop production in the tropics. Crop production can be increased through 1) land intensification or clearing new land, 2) output per unit of land increases, or 3) reallocation to agriculture land previously cleared and overgrown with tropical forest. "Temporary" reuse of land, which reverted back to tropical forest, is recommended. This reuse would ease population pressure, and benefit bioconservation, while populations stabilize and further progress is made in international plant breeding. The land would eventually be returned to a forest state. Conservation of tropical forest areas should be accomplished, after an assessment has been made of its former uses. Primary forests need to identified and conversion to farming ceased. Research needs to be directed to understanding the process of past forest regeneration, and to devising cropping systems with longterm viability. The green revolution is unsuitable for traditional cropping systems, is contrary to demands of international funding agencies for sustainability, and is not affordable by most poor farmers. Only .48 million sq. km of closed forest loss was in tropical rainforests; 6.53 million sq. km was lost from temperate forests cleared for intensive small-scale peasant farming. The use of tropical forest land for farming has some benefits; crops in the wetter tropics are perennial, which would "reduce

  6. Cultivated Land Changes and Agricultural Potential Productivity in Mainland China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linlin Xiao

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available With rapid and continuous population growth and the associated declining quality of cultivated land, food security in China has been attracting the attention of scholars both domestically and internationally. In recent decades, the implications of the cultivated land balance policy have promoted spatial changes of cultivated land. Estimating the agricultural potential productivity and assessing its response to cultivated land changes could provide a scientific basis for strategic decision-making concerning grain production and thus guarantee food security. In the present study, the Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ model was applied to estimate the agricultural potential productivity. Data from the second national land survey were first applied to characterize the changes of cultivated land (by comparing the cultivated land in 2009 with that in 2012 and their influence on potential productivity in Mainland China. We propose a utilization degree of total potential productivity (UTP and its ratio coefficient (RUTP to reveal the utilization status of potential productivity and its change characteristics at the provincial level. It was found that there was a trend for cultivated land to be shifted away from cities, and the average productive capability per hectare of cultivated land declined from 7386.5 kg/ha to 6955.2 kg/ha by occupying highly productive cultivated land generally near the cities and compensating less productive cultivated land in remote areas. UTPs and RUTPs indicate a significant difference in the utilization status of potential productivity among the 31 provinces of Mainland China. Grain production with the aim of sustainable development should be strategized according to the particular facts of each province. The methods we applied can mine the impacts of cultivated land changes on potential productivity and the utilization of potential productivity effectively.

  7. The centrifugal and centripetal force influence on spatial competition of agricultural land in Bandung Metropolitan Region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadewo, E.

    2017-06-01

    Agricultural activity has suffered a massive land functional shift caused by market mechanism in Bandung metropolitan region (BMR). We argue that the existence of agricultural land in urban spatial structure is the result of interaction between centrifugal and centripetal force on spatial competition. This research aims to explore how several recognized centrifugal and centripetal force influence to the existence of agricultural land in BMR land development. The analysis using multivariate regression indicates that there exists spatial competition between population density and degree of urbanization with agricultural land areas. Its extended spatial regression model suggested that neighboring situation plays an important role to preserve agricultural land areas existences in BMR. Meanwhile, the influence of distance between the location of the city center and employment opportunities is found to be insignificant in the spatial competition. It is opposed to the theory of von Thünen and monocentric model in general. One of the possible explanation of such condition is that the assumption of centrality does not met. In addition, the agricultural land density decay in the southern parts of the area was related to its geographical conditions as protected areas or unfavorable for farming activity. It is suggested that BMR was in the early phase of polycentric development. Hence, better policies that lead redirected development to the southern part of the region is needed as well as population control and regulation of land use.

  8. Sustainable land management : strategies to cope with the marginalisation of agriculture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, F.M.; Rheenen, van T.; Dhillion, S.; Elgersma, A.M.

    2008-01-01

    In large parts of the world, the reduction in the viability of agriculture and rural areas is an escalating problem. "Sustainable Land Management" offers a contemporary overview of the strategies employed to cope with the marginalisation of agriculture, through analyses of case studies and regional

  9. EnviroAtlas - Percent Land Cover with Potentially Restorable Wetlands on Agricultural Land per 12-Digit HUC - Contiguous United States

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This EnviroAtlas dataset shows the percent land cover with potentially restorable wetlands on agricultural land for each 12-digit Hydrologic Unit (HUC) watershed in...

  10. Change in agricultural land use constrains adaptation of national wildlife refuges to climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, Christopher M.; Thogmartin, Wayne E.; Radeloff, Volker C.; Plantinga, Andrew J.; Heglund, Patricia J.; Martinuzzi, Sebastian; Pidgeon, Anna M.

    2015-01-01

    Land-use change around protected areas limits their ability to conserve biodiversity by altering ecological processes such as natural hydrologic and disturbance regimes, facilitating species invasions, and interfering with dispersal of organisms. This paper informs USA National Wildlife Refuge System conservation planning by predicting future land-use change on lands within 25 km distance of 461 refuges in the USA using an econometric model. The model contained two differing policy scenarios, namely a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario and a ‘pro-agriculture’ scenario. Regardless of scenario, by 2051, forest cover and urban land use were predicted to increase around refuges, while the extent of range and pasture was predicted to decrease; cropland use decreased under the business-as-usual scenario, but increased under the pro-agriculture scenario. Increasing agricultural land value under the pro-agriculture scenario slowed an expected increase in forest around refuges, and doubled the rate of range and pasture loss. Intensity of land-use change on lands surrounding refuges differed by regions. Regional differences among scenarios revealed that an understanding of regional and local land-use dynamics and management options was an essential requirement to effectively manage these conserved lands. Such knowledge is particularly important given the predicted need to adapt to a changing global climate.

  11. Bayesian spatial modelling and the significance of agricultural land use to scrub typhus infection in Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wardrop, Nicola A; Kuo, Chi-Chien; Wang, Hsi-Chieh; Clements, Archie C A; Lee, Pei-Fen; Atkinson, Peter M

    2013-11-01

    Scrub typhus is transmitted by the larval stage of trombiculid mites. Environmental factors, including land cover and land use, are known to influence breeding and survival of trombiculid mites and, thus, also the spatial heterogeneity of scrub typhus risk. Here, a spatially autoregressive modelling framework was applied to scrub typhus incidence data from Taiwan, covering the period 2003 to 2011, to provide increased understanding of the spatial pattern of scrub typhus risk and the environmental and socioeconomic factors contributing to this pattern. A clear spatial pattern in scrub typhus incidence was observed within Taiwan, and incidence was found to be significantly correlated with several land cover classes, temperature, elevation, normalized difference vegetation index, rainfall, population density, average income and the proportion of the population that work in agriculture. The final multivariate regression model included statistically significant correlations between scrub typhus incidence and average income (negatively correlated), the proportion of land that contained mosaics of cropland and vegetation (positively correlated) and elevation (positively correlated). These results highlight the importance of land cover on scrub typhus incidence: mosaics of cropland and vegetation represent a transitional land cover type which can provide favourable habitats for rodents and, therefore, trombiculid mites. In Taiwan, these transitional land cover areas tend to occur in less populated and mountainous areas, following the frontier establishment and subsequent partial abandonment of agricultural cultivation, due to demographic and socioeconomic changes. Future land use policy decision-making should ensure that potential public health outcomes, such as modified risk of scrub typhus, are considered.

  12. Identification of biomes affected by marginal expansion of agricultural land use induced by increased crop consumption

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kløverpris, Jesper Hedal

    2009-01-01

    to characterise these areas. The present study ascribes so-called biomes (natural potential vegetation) to the areas affected by agricultural expansion in order to provide a basis for assessing the environmental impacts from land use in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). The methodology builds...... on agricultural statistics and maps of global agricultural areas and the global distribution of biomes. The application of the method is illustrated with four examples. The results indicate that agricultural expansion on land suited for crop cultivation (cultivable land) typically affects forest biomes...... or potential grassland/steppe, whereas expansion on land suited for grazing but not for crop cultivation (grazable land) typically occurs on potential shrubland or a few other biomes depending on the region. Some uncertainty applies to the results but it is concluded that it is feasible to identify biomes...

  13. Impacts of agricultural land use on biological integrity: A causal analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riseng, C.M.; Wiley, M.J.; Black, R.W.; Munn, M.D.

    2011-01-01

    Agricultural land use has often been linked to nutrient enrichment, habitat degradation, hydrologic alteration, and loss of biotic integrity in streams. The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Quality Assessment Program sampled 226 stream sites located in eight agriculture-dominated study units across the United States to investigate the geographic variability and causes of agricultural impacts on stream biotic integrity. In this analysis we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to develop a national and set of regional causal models linking agricultural land use to measured instream conditions. We then examined the direct, indirect, and total effects of agriculture on biotic integrity as it acted through multiple water quality and habitat pathways. In our nation-wide model, cropland affected benthic communities by both altering structural habitats and by imposing water quality-related stresses. Regionspecific modeling demonstrated that geographic context altered the relative importance of causal pathways through which agricultural activities affected stream biotic integrity. Cropland had strong negative total effects on the invertebrate community in the national, Midwest, and Western models, but a very weak effect in the Eastern Coastal Plain model. In theWestern Arid and Eastern Coastal Plain study regions, cropland impacts were transmitted primarily through dissolved water quality contaminants, but in the Midwestern region, they were transmitted primarily through particulate components of water quality. Habitat effects were important in the Western Arid model, but negligible in the Midwest and Eastern Coastal Plain models. The relative effects of riparian forested wetlands also varied regionally, having positive effects on biotic integrity in the Eastern Coastal Plain andWestern Arid region models, but no statistically significant effect in the Midwest. These differences in response to cropland and riparian cover suggest that best management practices and

  14. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. A case study of Argentina

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wicke, Birka; Smeets, Edward; Faaij, Andre; Tabeau, Andrzej; Hilbert, Jorge

    2009-01-01

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input-output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural intensification, which is needed to make agricultural land become available for bioenergy production, are assessed following a scenario approach. The methodology is applied to a case study of Argentina. The results of this study reveal that large-scale pellet production in 2015 would directly increase GDP by 4%, imports by 10% and employment by 6% over the reference situation in 2001. When accounting for indirect and induced impacts, GDP increases by 18%, imports by 20% and employment by 26% compared to 2001. Agricultural intensification reduces but does not negate these positive impacts of bioenergy production. Accounting for agricultural intensification, the increase in GDP as a result of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land would amount to 16%, 20% in imports and 16% in employment compared to 2001. (author)

  15. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. A case study of Argentina

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wicke, Birka; Smeets, Edward; Faaij, Andre [Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation - Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht (Netherlands); Tabeau, Andrzej [Landbouw Economisch Instituut - Wageningen University and Research Centre, Burgermeester Partijnlaan 19, 2585 BE Den Haag (Netherlands); Hilbert, Jorge [Instituto Ingenieria Rural - Instituto Nacional de la Tecnologia Agropecuario, C.C. 25, 1712 Castelar (Buenos Aires) (Argentina)

    2009-12-15

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input-output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural intensification, which is needed to make agricultural land become available for bioenergy production, are assessed following a scenario approach. The methodology is applied to a case study of Argentina. The results of this study reveal that large-scale pellet production in 2015 would directly increase GDP by 4%, imports by 10% and employment by 6% over the reference situation in 2001. When accounting for indirect and induced impacts, GDP increases by 18%, imports by 20% and employment by 26% compared to 2001. Agricultural intensification reduces but does not negate these positive impacts of bioenergy production. Accounting for agricultural intensification, the increase in GDP as a result of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land would amount to 16%, 20% in imports and 16% in employment compared to 2001. (author)

  16. Agricultural land abandonment in Mediterranean environment provides ecosystem services via soil carbon sequestration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novara, Agata; Gristina, Luciano; Sala, Giovanna; Galati, Antonino; Crescimanno, Maria; Cerdà, Artemi; Badalamenti, Emilio; La Mantia, Tommaso

    2017-01-15

    Abandonment of agricultural land leads to several consequences for ecosystem functions. Agricultural abandonment may be a significant and low cost strategy for carbon sequestration and mitigation of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions due to the vegetation recovery and increase in soil organic matter. The aim of this study was to: (i) estimate the influence of different Soil Regions (areas characterized by a typical climate and parent material association) and Bioclimates (zones with homogeneous climatic regions and thermotype indices) on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics after agricultural land abandonment; and (ii) to analyse the efficiency of the agri-environment policy (agri-environment measures) suggested by the European Commission in relation to potential SOC stock ability in the Sicilian Region (Italy). In order to quantify the effects of agricultural abandonment on SOC, a dataset with original data that was sampled in Sicily and existing data from the literature were analysed according to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) methodology. Results showed that abandonment of cropland soils increased SOC stock by 9.03MgCha -1 on average, ranging from 5.4MgCha -1 to 26.7MgCha -1 in relation to the Soil Region and Bioclimate. The estimation of SOC change after agricultural use permitted calculation of the payments for ecosystem service (PES) of C sequestration after agricultural land abandonment in relation to environmental benefits, increasing in this way the efficiency of PES. Considering the 14,337ha of abandoned lands in Sicily, the CO 2 emission as a whole was reduced by 887,745Mg CO 2 . Therefore, it could be concluded that abandoned agricultural fields represents a valid opportunity to mitigate agriculture sector emissions in Sicily. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Conversion of traditional agricultural land to built-up areas. Land use/cover changes in the municipality of Valencia (1956-2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Valera Lozano

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to understand the land use-cover dynamics from the mid- 1950s to 2012 in the municipality of Valencia, eastern Spain. The study area is a very interesting example of the many land use and land cover changes in the landscape of Mediterranean alluvial plains. The analysis was based on photo interpretation of aerial photographs (1956, 1984, 2006 and 2012 and GIS based methodology. At a detailed scale (1:10,000, results show that there has been a highly dynamic process produced by the extent of land developed as urban area. In 1956 11,112 hectares were occupied by agricultural land and natural areas. During fifty five years, the sealed surface was 2,396 hectares. In 2012 the built-up extent was around 33% of the studied area. In the municipality of Valencia much of the land converted to urban use was once highly productive agricultural land.

  18. Farm, land, and soil nitrogen budgets for agriculture in Europe calculated with CAPRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leip, Adrian; Britz, Wolfgang; Weiss, Franz; Vries, Wim de

    2011-01-01

    We calculated farm, land, and soil N-budgets for countries in Europe and the EU27 as a whole using the agro-economic model CAPRI. For EU27, N-surplus is 55 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in a soil budget and 65 kg N 2 O-N ha -1 yr -1 and 67 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in land and farm budgets, respectively. NUE is 31% for the farm budget, 60% for the land budget and 63% for the soil budget. NS values are mainly related to the excretion (farm budget) and application (soil and land budget) of manure per hectare of total agricultural land. On the other hand, NUE is best explained by the specialization of the agricultural system toward animal production (farm NUE) or the share of imported feedstuff (soil NUE). Total N input, intensive farming, and the specialization to animal production are found to be the main drivers for a high NS and low NUE. - Highlights: → Farm, land and soil N-budgets are important tools to characterize agricultural systems. → Farm N Use Efficiency (NUE) is lower than soil NUE; farm nitrogen surplus is higher. → On EU27 average, farm NUE is 31%, soil NUE is 63%, N surplus is 55-67 kg N ha -1 yr -1 . → Soil NUE is best explained by the share of imported feedstuff. → Intensive farming and specialization to animal production cause a high NS and low NUE. - Consistent calculations of farm, land and soil N-budgets for agriculture in Europe are presented and discussed at the national level and for EU27.

  19. LAND USE CHANGE AND RECOMMENDATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF PEATLAND FOR AGRICULTURE: Case Study at Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts, West Kalimantan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wahyunto Wahyunto

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Peatland is an increasingly important land resource for livelihood, economic development, and terrestrial carbon storage. Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts of West Kalimantan rely their future agricultural development on this environmentally fragile peatland because of the dominance (58% and 16% area, respectively of this land in the two districts. A study aimed to evaluate land use changes on peatland and to develop strategies for sustainable peatland use and management for agriculture. Time series satellite imageries of land use and land cover, ground truthing, and statistical data of land use change were analyzed for generating the dynamics of land use changes in the period of 1986-2008. Field observation, peat sampling, and peat analyses of representative land use types were undertaken to assess peat characteristics and its agricultural suitability. The study showed that within 22 years (1986-2008, the area of peat forests in Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts decreased as much as 13.6% from 391,902 ha to 328,078 ha. The current uses of the peatland in the two districts include oil palm plantation (8704 ha, smallholder rubber plantation (13,186 ha, annual crops (15,035 ha, mixed cropping of trees and annual crops (22,328 ha, and pineapple farming (11,744 ha. Our evaluation showed unconformity of the current uses of peatland with regulations and crops agronomic requirements such as peat thickness and maturity, rendering unsustainability. This study recommends that expansion of agriculture and plantation on peatland areas be limited over idle land within the agricultural production and conversion production forest areas. About 34,362 ha (9.7% of uncultivated log-over forest and shrubs can potentially be developed for agriculture. Peat soils with the thickness of >3 m should be allocated for conservation or forest protection due to low inherent soil fertility and high potential greenhouse gas emissions if converted for agriculture.

  20. Grasslands, wetlands, and agriculture: the fate of land expiring from the Conservation Reserve Program in the Midwestern United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morefield, Philip E.; LeDuc, Stephen D.; Clark, Christopher M.; Iovanna, Richard

    2016-09-01

    The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is the largest agricultural land-retirement program in the United States, providing many environmental benefits, including wildlife habitat and improved air, water, and soil quality. Since 2007, however, CRP area has declined by over 25% nationally with much of this land returning to agriculture. Despite this trend, it is unclear what types of CRP land are being converted, to what crops, and where. All of these specific factors greatly affect environmental impacts. To answer these questions, we quantified shifts in expiring CRP parcels to five major crop-types (corn, soy, winter and spring wheat, and sorghum) in a 12-state, Midwestern region of the United States using a US Department of Agriculture (USDA), field-level CRP database and USDA’s Cropland Data Layer. For the years 2010 through 2013, we estimate almost 30%, or more than 530 000 ha, of expiring CRP land returned to the production of these five crops in our study area, with soy and corn accounting for the vast majority of these shifts. Grasslands were the largest type of CRP land converted (360 000 ha), followed by specifically designated wildlife habitat (76 000 ha), and wetland areas (53 000 ha). These wetland areas were not just wetlands themselves, but also a mix of land covers enhancing or protecting wetland ecosystem services (e.g., wetland buffers). Areas in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and southern Iowa were hotspots of change, with the highest areas of CRP land moving back to agriculture. By contrast, we estimate only a small amount (˜3%) of the expiring land shifted into similar, non-CRP land-retirement or easement programs. Reconciling needs for food, feed, fuel, and healthy ecosystems is an immense challenge for farmers, conservationists, and state and federal agencies. Reduced enrollment and the turnover of CRP land from conservation to agriculture raises questions about sustaining ecosystem services in this region.

  1. Urban Expansion and the Loss of Prime Agricultural Lands in Puerto Rico

    Science.gov (United States)

    T. Mitchell Aide Tania del Mar López

    2001-01-01

    In many countries where the economy has shifted from mainly agricultural to industrial, abandoned agricultural lands are lost to urbanization. For more than 4 centuries the Puerto Rican economy depended almost entirely on agriculture, but sociopolitical changes early in the 20th century resulted in a shift to industry. This shift in the economy, and an increase in...

  2. Effects of institutional changes on land use: agricultural land abandonment during the transition from state-command to market-driven economies in post-Soviet Eastern Europe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prishchepov, Alexander V; Müller, Daniel; Radeloff, Volker C; Baumann, Matthias; Kuemmerle, Tobias

    2012-01-01

    Institutional settings play a key role in shaping land cover and land use. Our goal was to understand the effects of institutional changes on agricultural land abandonment in different countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the collapse of socialism. We studied ∼273 800 km 2 (eight Landsat footprints) within one agro-ecological zone stretching across Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and European Russia. Multi-seasonal Landsat TM/ETM + satellite images centered on 1990 (the end of socialism) and 2000 (one decade after the end of socialism) were used to classify agricultural land abandonment using support vector machines. The results revealed marked differences in the abandonment rates between countries. The highest rates of land abandonment were observed in Latvia (42% of all agricultural land in 1990 was abandoned by 2000), followed by Russia (31%), Lithuania (28%), Poland (14%) and Belarus (13%). Cross-border comparisons revealed striking differences; for example, in the Belarus–Russia cross-border area there was a great difference between the rates of abandonment of the two countries (10% versus 47% of abandonment). Our results highlight the importance of institutions and policies for land-use trajectories and demonstrate that radically different combinations of institutional change of strong institutions during the transition can reduce the rate of agricultural land abandonment (e.g., in Belarus and in Poland). Inversely, our results demonstrate higher abandonment rates for countries where the institutions that regulate land use changed and where the institutions took more time to establish (e.g., Latvia, Lithuania and Russia). Better knowledge regarding the effects of such broad-scale change is essential for understanding land-use change and for designing effective land-use policies. This information is particularly relevant for Northern Eurasia, where rapid land-use change offers vast opportunities for carbon balance and

  3. Land use efficiency: anticipating future demand for land-sector greenhouse gas emissions abatement and managing trade-offs with agriculture, water, and biodiversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryan, Brett A; Crossman, Neville D; Nolan, Martin; Li, Jing; Navarro, Javier; Connor, Jeffery D

    2015-11-01

    Competition for land is increasing, and policy needs to ensure the efficient supply of multiple ecosystem services from land systems. We modelled the spatially explicit potential future supply of ecosystem services in Australia's intensive agricultural land in response to carbon markets under four global outlooks from 2013 to 2050. We assessed the productive efficiency of greenhouse gas emissions abatement, agricultural production, water resources, and biodiversity services and compared these to production possibility frontiers (PPFs). While interacting commodity markets and carbon markets produced efficient outcomes for agricultural production and emissions abatement, more efficient outcomes were possible for water resources and biodiversity services due to weak price signals. However, when only two objectives were considered as per typical efficiency assessments, efficiency improvements involved significant unintended trade-offs for the other objectives and incurred substantial opportunity costs. Considering multiple objectives simultaneously enabled the identification of land use arrangements that were efficient over multiple ecosystem services. Efficient land use arrangements could be selected that meet society's preferences for ecosystem service provision from land by adjusting the metric used to combine multiple services. To effectively manage competition for land via land use efficiency, market incentives are needed that effectively price multiple ecosystem services. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Long-term agricultural land-cover change and potential for cropland expansion in the former Virgin Lands area of Kazakhstan

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kraemer, Roland; Prishchepov, Alexander; Müller, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    of Northern Kazakhstan. Further, we assessed the potential of currently idle cropland for re-cultivation. We reconstructed the cropland extent before and after the Virgin Lands Campaign using archival maps, and we mapped the agricultural land cover in the late Soviet and post-Soviet period using multi...... until 1990, as well as cropland contraction after 1990, occurred mainly in areas that were less favorable for agriculture. Cropland re-cultivation after 2000 was occurring on lands with relatively favorable agro-environmental conditions in comparison to remaining idle croplands, albeit with much lower...... agro-environmental endowment compared to stable croplands from 1990 to 2010. In sum, we found that cropland production potentials of the currently uncultivated areas are much lower than commonly believed, and further cropland expansion is only possible at the expense of marginal lands. Our results...

  5. Current Status and Future Potential of Energy Derived from Chinese Agricultural Land: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ningning Zhai

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Energy crisis is receiving attention with regard to the global economy and environmental sustainable development. Developing new energy resources to optimize the energy supply structure has become an important measure to prevent energy shortage as well as achieving energy conservation and emission reduction in China. This study proposed the concept of energy agriculture and constructed an energy agricultural technical support system based on the analysis of energy supply and demand and China’s foreign dependence on energy resources, combined with the function of agriculture in the energy field. Manufacturing technology equipment and agricultural and forestry energy, including crop or forestry plants and animal feces, were used in the system. The current status and future potential of China’s marginal land resources, energy crop germplasm resources, and agricultural and forestry waste energy-oriented resources were analyzed. Developing the function of traditional agriculture in food production may promote China’s social, economic, and environmental sustainable development and achieve energy saving and emission reduction.

  6. Agricultural Intensification in the Brazilian Agricultural-Forest Frontier: Land Use Responses to Development and Conservation Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrett, R.; Koh, I.; le Polain de Waroux, Y.; Lambin, E.; Kastens, J.; Brown, J. C.

    2017-12-01

    Agricultural expansion, extensive cattle ranching, and deforestation remain pressing challenges for sustainable development and climate mitigation throughout South America. In response to these challenges, national and local governments, as well as private and non-governmental actors have developed new forest conservation governance mechanisms. The objective of this study is to better understand how conservation policies interact with supply chain development to influence land use. In particular, we endeavor to understand the timing and spatial patterns of crop and cattle intensification, an understudied phenomenon that is critical to understanding the future of agricultural-forest frontiers and the impacts of conservation policies. We focus on Mato Grosso, the largest soy and cattle producing state in Brazil, which spans the Cerrado and Amazon biomes and has experienced higher levels of deforestation for agricultural expansion than any other state globally over the last decade. Using a newly created spatially explicit data set of land use intensity, supply chain development, and forest policy, we find that agricultural intensification is occurring rapidly in the region, but is only partially driven by changes in conservation policies. The intensification of cattle production is the result of improvements in deforestation monitoring, penalties, and enforcement, and increased land scarcity. Crop intensification, in contrast, preceded increases in conservation restrictions, and is associated with the positive spillovers resulting from agribusiness agglomeration and development. These results suggest that intensification is not a foregone conclusion of increasing forest conservation restrictions, but is highly dependent on wider development processes. A combined effort to direct agribusiness development away from forest regions via tax credits and subsidized credit, when applied in concert with stringent conservation requirements, could help promote intensification

  7. Decision making algorithm of the rehabilitation of agricultural lands contaminated with heavy natural radionuclides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khomutyinyin, Yu.V.; Yivanov, Yu.O.; Kirichenko, V.K.

    2013-01-01

    Problem of rehabilitation of agricultural land contaminated with heavy natural radionuclides ( 210 Pb, 210 Po, 226 Ra, 232 Th, 238 U) was considered. Algorithm of decision making support on advisability of rehabilitation of mentioned land was suggested. Proposed algorithm was tested on the base of agricultural farmlands located in the affected zone of Pridneprovsky Chemicals Plant and its tailing dumps

  8. How Could Agricultural Land Systems Contribute to Raise Food Production Under Global Change?

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    WU Wen-bin; YU Qiang-yi; Verburg H Peter; YOU Liang-zhi; YANG Peng; TANG Hua-jun

    2014-01-01

    To feed the increasing world population, more food needs to be produced from agricultural land systems. Solutions to produce more food with fewer resources while minimizing adverse environmental and ecological consequences require sustainable agricultural land use practices as supplementary to advanced biotechnology and agronomy. This review paper, from a land system perspective, systematically proposed and analyzed three interactive strategies that could possibly raise future food production under global change. By reviewing the current literatures, we suggest that cropland expansion is less possible amid iferce land competition, and it is likely to do less in increasing food production. Moreover, properly allocating crops in space and time is a practical way to ensure food production. Climate change, dietary shifts, and other socio-economic drivers, which would shape the demand and supply side of food systems, should be taken into consideration during the decision-making on rational land management in respect of sustainable crop choice and allocation. And ifnally, crop-speciifc agricultural intensiifcation would play a bigger role in raising future food production either by increasing the yield per unit area of individual crops or by increasing the number of crops sown on a particular area of land. Yet, only when it is done sustainably is this a much more effective strategy to maximize food production by closing yield and harvest gaps.

  9. A Spatial Data Model Desing For The Management Of Agricultural Data (Farmer, Agricultural Land And Agricultural Production)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taşkanat, Talha; İbrahim İnan, Halil

    2016-04-01

    Since the beginning of the 2000s, it has been conducted many projects such as Agricultural Sector Integrated Management Information System, Agriculture Information System, Agricultural Production Registry System and Farmer Registry System by the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Turkish Statistical Institute in order to establish and manage better agricultural policy and produce better agricultural statistics in Turkey. Yet, it has not been carried out any study for the structuring of a system which can meet the requirements of different institutions and organizations that need similar agricultural data. It has been tried to meet required data only within the frame of the legal regulations from present systems. Whereas the developments in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and standardization, and Turkey National GIS enterprise in this context necessitate to meet the demands of organizations that use the similar data commonly and to act in terms of a data model logic. In this study, 38 institutions or organization which produce and use agricultural data were detected, that and thanks to survey and interviews undertaken, their needs were tried to be determined. In this study which is financially supported by TUBITAK, it was worked out relationship between farmer, agricultural land and agricultural production data and all of the institutions and organizations in Turkey and in this context, it was worked upon the best detailed and effective possible data model. In the model design, UML which provides object-oriented design was used. In the data model, for the management of spatial data, sub-parcel data model was used. Thanks to this data model, declared and undeclared areas can be detected spatially, and thus declarations can be associated to sub-parcels. Within this framework, it will be able to developed agricultural policies as a result of acquiring more extensive, accurate, spatially manageable and easily updatable farmer and

  10. No evidence of increased fire risk due to agricultural land abandonment in Sardinia (Italy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Ricotta

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Different land cover types are related to different levels of fire hazard through their vegetation structure and fuel load composition. Therefore, understanding the relationships between landscape changes and fire behavior is of crucial importance for developing adequate fire fighting and fire prevention strategies for a changing world. In the last decades the abandonment of agricultural lands and pastoral activities has been the major driver of landscape transformations in Mediterranean Europe. As agricultural land abandonment typically promotes an increase in plant biomass (fuel load, a number of authors argue that vegetation succession in abandoned fields and pastures is expected to increase fire hazard. In this short paper, based on 28 493 fires in Sardinia (Italy in the period 2001–2010, we show that there is no evidence of increased probability of fire ignition in abandoned rural areas. To the contrary, in Sardinia the decreased human impact associated with agricultural land abandonment leads to a statistically significant decrease of fire ignition probability.

  11. Bioenergy Crop Production in the United States. Potential Quantities, Land Use Changes, and Economic Impacts on the Agricultural Sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walsh, Marie E.; Torre Ugarte, D.G. de la; Shapouri, H.; Slinsky, S.P.

    2003-01-01

    The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy jointly analyzed the economic potential for, and impacts of, large-scale bioenergy crop production in the United States. An agricultural sector model (POLYSYS) was modified to include three potential bioenergy crops (switchgrass, hybrid poplar, and willow). At farmgate prices of US $2.44/GJ, an estimated 17 million hectares of bioenergy crops, annually yielding 171 million dry Mg of biomass, could potentially be produced at a profit greater than existing agricultural uses for the land. The estimate assumes high productivity management practices are permitted on Conservation Reserve Program lands. Traditional crops prices are estimated to increase 9 to 14 percent above baseline prices and farm income increases annually by US $6.0 billion above baseline. At farmgate prices of US $1.83/GJ, an estimated 7.9 million hectares of bioenergy crops, annually yielding 55 million dry Mg of biomass, could potentially be produced at a profit greater than existing agricultural uses for the land. The estimate assumes management practices intended to achieve high environmental benefits on Conservation Reserve Program lands. Traditional crops prices are estimated to increase 4 to 9 percent above baseline prices and farm income increases annually by US $2.8 billion above baseline

  12. Influence of agricultural land-use and pesticides on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in an agricultural river basin in southeast Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Egler

    Full Text Available Land-use alterations and pesticide run-offs are among the main causes for impairment in agricultural areas. We evaluated the influence of different land-uses (forest, pasture and intensive agriculture on the water quality and on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages on three occasions: in the dry season, wet season and at the end of the wet season. Macroinvertebrates responded to this gradient of impairment: agricultural sites had significantly lower richness numbers than forested and pasture sites, and all major invertebrate groups were significantly affected. Most taxa found in forested sites were found in pasture sites, but often with lower densities. In this case, the loss of habitats due to sedimentation and the lower complexity of substrates seem to be the disruptive force for the macroinvertebrate fauna.

  13. Land-use change affects water recycling in Brazil's last agricultural frontier.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spera, Stephanie A; Galford, Gillian L; Coe, Michael T; Macedo, Marcia N; Mustard, John F

    2016-10-01

    Historically, conservation-oriented research and policy in Brazil have focused on Amazon deforestation, but a majority of Brazil's deforestation and agricultural expansion has occurred in the neighboring Cerrado biome, a biodiversity hotspot comprised of dry forests, woodland savannas, and grasslands. Resilience of rainfed agriculture in both biomes likely depends on water recycling in undisturbed Cerrado vegetation; yet little is known about how changes in land-use and land-cover affect regional climate feedbacks in the Cerrado. We used remote sensing techniques to map land-use change across the Cerrado from 2003 to 2013. During this period, cropland agriculture more than doubled in area from 1.2 to 2.5 million ha, with 74% of new croplands sourced from previously intact Cerrado vegetation. We find that these changes have decreased the amount of water recycled to the atmosphere via evapotranspiration (ET) each year. In 2013 alone, cropland areas recycled 14 km(3) less (-3%) water than if the land cover had been native Cerrado vegetation. ET from single-cropping systems (e.g., soybeans) is less than from natural vegetation in all years, except in the months of January and February, the height of the growing season. In double-cropping systems (e.g., soybeans followed by corn), ET is similar to or greater than natural vegetation throughout a majority of the wet season (December-May). As intensification and extensification of agricultural production continue in the region, the impacts on the water cycle and opportunities for mitigation warrant consideration. For example, if an environmental goal is to minimize impacts on the water cycle, double cropping (intensification) might be emphasized over extensification to maintain a landscape that behaves more akin to the natural system. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Land tenure and the adoption of agricultural technology in Haiti:

    OpenAIRE

    Smucker, Glenn R.; White, T. Anderson; Bannister, Michael

    2000-01-01

    There has long been an active debate in Haiti - as in many other developing countries - over whether or not the customary tenure system constrains technology adoption and agricultural development, and whether cadaster and land titling should be national priorities. This paper contributes to this debate by reviewing and interpreting the body of literature and new empirical evidence concerning the relationship between land tenure and the adoption of technology in rural Haiti. The findings sugge...

  15. Coupled social and ecological outcomes of land use change and agricultural intensification in Costa Rica and the future of biodiversity conservation in tropical agricultural regions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanfiorenzo, A. R.; Shaver, I.; Chain Guadarrama, A.; Cleary, K.; Santiago-Garcia, R.; Finegan, B.; Hormel, L.; Sibelet, N.; Vierling, L. A.; Bosque-Perez, N.; DeClerck, F.; Fagan, M. E.; Waits, L.

    2017-12-01

    Tropical ecosystem conversion to agriculture has caused widespread habitat loss and created fragmented landscapes composed of remnant forest patches embedded in a matrix of agricultural land uses. Non- traditional agricultural export (NTAE) crops such as pineapple are rapidly replacing multiuse landscapes characterized by a diverse matrix of pasture and smallholder crops with intensive, large-scale, monoculture plantations. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we conduct a case study to examine the coupled social and ecological implications of LUCC and agricultural intensification in this region, with larger application to regions experiencing similar patterns. Guided by frameworks from both political and landscape ecology, we: (1) describe the social and economic implications of pineapple expansion, specifically the concentration of land, labor and financial resources, (2) quantify pineapple cultivation's spatial characteristics, and (3) assess the effects of pineapple expansion on surrounding forest ecosystems, on the agricultural matrix and on biodiversity conservation. Our results indicate that pineapple production concentrates land, labor, and financial resources, which has a homogenizing effect on the agricultural economy in the study region. This constrains farm-based livelihoods, with larger implications for food security and agricultural diversity. Landscape ecology analyses further reveal how pineapple production simplifies and homogenizes the agricultural matrix between forest patches, which is likely to have a negative effect on biodiversity. To offset the effects of pineapple expansion on social and environmental systems, we recommend developing landscape level land use planning capacity. Furthermore, agricultural and conservation policy reform is needed to promote landscape heterogeneity and economic diversity within the agricultural sector. Our interdisciplinary research provides a detailed examination of the social and ecological impacts of

  16. Agricultural land-use change and disappearance of farmlands in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The four imageries (Landsat MSS 1980, Landsat TM 1990, Landsat ETM+ 2005 and Nigeria Sat X 2012) used were classified and compared to understand the rate and extent of agricultural land-use change during the different periods. The findings revealed that the study area experienced a significant reduction in

  17. 'Underutilised' agricultural land: its definitions, potential use for future biomass production and its environmental implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyake, Saori; Bargiel, Damian

    2017-04-01

    A growing bioeconomy and increased demand for biomass products on food, health, fibre, industrial products and energy require land resources for feedstock production. It has resulted in significant environmental and socio-economic challenges on a global scale. As a result, consideration of such effects of land use change (LUC) from biomass production (particularly for biofuel feedstock) has emerged as an important area of policy and research, and several potential solutions have been proposed to minimise such adverse LUC effects. One of these solutions is the use of lands that are not in production or not suitable for food crop production, such as 'marginal', 'degraded', 'abandoned' and 'surplus' agricultural lands for future biomass production. The terms referring to these lands are usually associated with the potential production of 'marginal crops', which can grow in marginal conditions (e.g. poor soil fertility, low rainfall, drought) without much water and agrochemical inputs. In our research, we referred to these lands as 'underutilised' agricultural land and attempted to define them for our case study areas located in Australia and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Our goal is to identify lands that can be used for future biomass production and to evaluate their environmental implications, particularly impacts related to biodiversity, water and soil at a landscape scale. The identification of these lands incorporates remote sensing and spatially explicit approaches. Our findings confirmed that there was no universal or single definition of the term 'underutilised' agricultural land as the definitions significantly vary by country and region depending not only on the biophysical environment but also political, institutional and socio-economic conditions. Moreover, our results highlighted that the environmental implications of production of biomass on 'underutilised' agricultural land for biomass production are highly controversial. Thus land use change

  18. Methods for reducing internal collective doses due to contamination of agricultural lands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prister, B.S.; Novikova, N.K.; Tkachenko, N.V.; Nagovisyna, L.I.; Berezhnaya, T.I.; Semenyuk, N.D.; Rudoj, V.M.

    1990-01-01

    Radioactive contamination of agricultural lands in 30 km vicinity of Chernobyl NPP asw well as agricultural products involved in food chains is considered. Attention is paid to population collective doses due to intake of contaminated food. It is shown that target optimization of agricultural production structure in territories where food contamination does not result in increase of population dose limit lies in achievement of minimal inclusion of radionuclides in human diet

  19. Namibia specific climate smart agricultural land use practices: Challenges and opportunities for enhancing ecosystem services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuhn, Nikolaus J.; Talamondjila Naanda, Martha; Bloemertz, Lena

    2015-04-01

    Agriculture is a backbone for many African economies, with an estimated 70% of Africans active in agricultural production. The sector often does not only directly contribute to, but sustains food security and poverty reduction efforts. Sustaining this productivity poses many challenges, particularly to small scale subsistence farmers (SSF) in dry land areas and semi-arid countries like Namibia. SSF in northern central Namibia mix crop and livestock production on degraded semi-arid lands and nutrient-poor sandy soils. They are fully dependent on agricultural production with limited alternative sources of income. Mostly, their agricultural harvests and outputs are low, not meeting their livelihood needs. At the same time, the land use is often not sustainable, leading to degradation. The Namibia case reveals that addressing underlying economic, social and environmental challenges requires a combination of farm level-soil management practices with a shift towards integrated landscape management. This forms the basis for SSF to adopt sustainable land management practices while building institutional foundations, like establishing SSF cooperatives. One way in which this has been tested is through the concept of incentive-based motivation, i.e. payment for ecosystem services (PES), in which some of the beneficiaries pay, for instance for farmers or land users, who provide the services. The farmers provide these services by substituting their unsustainable land and soil management and adopting new (climate smart agricultural) land use practices. Climate Smart Agricultural land use practices (CSA-LUP) are one way of providing ecosystem services, which could be fundamental to long-term sustainable soil and land management solutions in Africa. There are few PES cases which have been systematically studied from an institutional development structure perspective. This study presents lessons evolving from the notion that direct participation and involvement of local people

  20. Breeding biology of Mottled Ducks on agricultural lands in southwestern Louisiana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durham, R.S.; Afton, A.D.

    2006-01-01

    Breeding biology of Anas fulvigula maculosa (Mottled Ducks) has been described in coastal marsh and associated habitats, but little information is available for agricultural habitats in Louisiana. We located nests to determine nest-initiation dates and clutch sizes during the primary breeding season (February-May) in 1999 (n = 29) and 2000 (n = 37) on agricultural lands in southwestern Louisiana. In 1999, 60% of located nests were initiated between 22 March and 10 April, whereas in 2000, only 22% of nests were initiated during the same time period. Average clutch size was 0.9 eggs smaller in 2000 than in 1999. Annual differences in reproductive parameters corresponded with extremely dry conditions caused by low rainfall before the laying period in 2000. Flooded rice fields appear to be important loafing and feeding habitat of Mottled Ducks nesting in agricultural lands, especially during drought periods when other wetland types are not available or where natural wetlands have been eliminated.

  1. EnviroAtlas - Potentially Restorable Wetlands on Agricultural Land - Contiguous United States

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Potentially Restorable Wetlands on Agricultural Land (PRW-Ag) dataset shows potentially restorable wetlands at 30-meter resolution. Beginning two...

  2. The effects of China's Sloping Land Conversion Program on agricultural households

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Zhen; Henningsen, Arne

    2016-01-01

    In the late 1990s, China aimed to mitigate environmental degradation from agricultural production activities by introducing the world's largest "Payments for Environmental Services" program: the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP). We develop a microeconomic Agricultural Household Model, which...... nonfarm labor supply and total consumption in some regions, these effects could not be observed in others. The recent reduction of the SLCP compensation payment rates generally had negligible effects on agricultural production and off-farm work and only very small effects on household consumption....

  3. THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES OF EVALUATION OF EFFICIENCY OF SOIL CONSERVATION MEASURES IN AGRICULTURAL LAND-USE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shevchenko O.

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available In the article modern scientific and theoretical positions concerning determination of the effectiveness of soil protection measures on agricultural lands are investigated. It is analyzed that the protection of land from degradation is one of the most important problems of agriculture, as this process leads to a significant decrease in soil fertility and crop yields. That is why in today's conditions, when the protection of agricultural land became urgent and a priority task, the scientific substantiation of the economic assessment of the damage caused by the degradation of land to agriculture, as well as the development of methods for determining the economic efficiency of the most progressive soil protection measures, technologies and complexes based on their overall Comparative evaluation. It was established that ground protection measures are a system of various measures aimed at reducing the negative degradation effect on the soil cover and ensuring the preservation and reproduction of soil fertility and integrity, as well as increasing their productivity as a result of rational use. The economic essence of soil protection measures is the economic effect achieved by preventing damage caused by land degradation to agriculture, as well as for obtaining additional profit as a result of their action. The economic effectiveness of soil protection measures means their effectiveness, that is, the correlation between the results and the costs that they provided. The excess of the economic result over the cost of its achievement indicates the economic efficiency of soil protection measures, and the difference between the result and the expenditure characterizes the economic effect. Ecological efficiency is characterized by environmental parameters of the soil cover, namely: the weakening of degradation effects on soils; improvement of their qualitative properties; An increase in production without violation of environmental standards, etc. Economic

  4. Evaluation of land capability and suitability for irrigated agriculture in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, using an integrated AHP-GIS model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aldababseh, A.; Temimi, M.; Maghelal, P.; Branch, O.; Wulfmeyer, V.

    2017-12-01

    The rapid economic development and high population growth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have impacted utilization and management of agricultural land. The development of large-scale agriculture in unsuitable areas can severely impact groundwater resources in the UAE. More than 60% of UAE's water resources are being utilized by the agriculture, forestry, and urban greenery sectors. However, the contribution of the agricultural sector to the national GDP is negligible. Several programs have been introduced by the government aimed at achieving sustainable agriculture whilst preserving valuable water resources. Local subsistence farming has declined considerably during the past few years, due to low soil moisture content, sandy soil texture, lack of arable land, natural climatic disruptions, water shortages, and declined rainfall. The limited production of food and the continuing rise in the food prices on a global and local level are expected to increase low-income households' vulnerability to food insecurity. This research aims at developing a suitability index for the evaluation and prioritization of areas in the UAE for large-scale agriculture. The AHP-GIS integrated model developed in this study facilitates a step by step aggregation of a large number of datasets representing the most important criteria, and the generation of agricultural suitability and land capability maps. To provide the necessary criteria to run the model, a comprehensive geospatial database was built, including climate conditions, water potential, soil capabilities, topography, and land management. A hieratical structure is built as a decomposition structure that includes all criteria and sub-criteria used to define land suitability based on literature review and experts' opinions. Pairwise comparisons matrix are used to calculate criteria' weights. The GIS Model Builder function is used to integrate all spatial processes to model land suitability. In order to preserve some flexibility

  5. Economic feasibility of CHP facilities fueled by biomass from unused agriculture land: Case of Croatia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pfeifer, Antun; Dominković, Dominik Franjo; Ćosić, Boris; Duić, Neven

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Potential of unused agricultural land for biomass and fruit production is assessed. • Technical and energy potential of biomass from SRC and fruit pruning is calculated. • Economic feasibility of CHP plants utilizing biomass from SRC is presented for Croatia. • Sensitivity analysis and recommendations for shift toward feasibility are provided. - Abstract: In this paper, the energy potential of biomass from growing short rotation coppice on unused agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia is used to investigate the feasibility of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities fueled by such biomass. Large areas of agricultural land that remain unused for food crops, represent significant potential for growing biomass that could be used for energy. This biomass could be used to supply power plants of up to 15 MW_e in accordance with heat demands of the chosen locations. The methodology for regional energy potential assessment was elaborated in previous work and is now used to investigate the conditions in which such energy facilities could be feasible. The overall potential of biomass from short rotation coppice cultivated on unused agricultural land in the scenarios with 30% of the area is up to 10 PJ/year. The added value of fruit trees pruning biomass represents an incentive for the development of fruit production on such agricultural land. Sensitivity analysis was conducted for several parameters: cost of biomass, investment costs in CHP systems and combined change in biomass and technology cost.

  6. A GIS-based hedonic price model for agricultural land

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demetriou, Demetris

    2015-06-01

    Land consolidation is a very effective land management planning approach that aims towards rural/agricultural sustainable development. Land reallocation which involves land tenure restructuring is the most important, complex and time consuming component of land consolidation. Land reallocation relies on land valuation since its fundamental principle provides that after consolidation, each landowner shall be granted a property of an aggregate value that is approximately the same as the value of the property owned prior to consolidation. Therefore, land value is the crucial factor for the land reallocation process and hence for the success and acceptance of the final land consolidation plan. Land valuation is a process of assigning values to all parcels (and its contents) and it is usually carried out by an ad-hoc committee. However, the process faces some problems such as it is time consuming hence costly, outcomes may present inconsistency since it is carried out manually and empirically without employing systematic analytical tools and in particular spatial analysis tools and techniques such as statistical/mathematical. A solution to these problems can be the employment of mass appraisal land valuation methods using automated valuation models (AVM) based on international standards. In this context, this paper presents a spatial based linear hedonic price model which has been developed and tested in a case study land consolidation area in Cyprus. Results showed that the AVM is capable to produce acceptable in terms of accuracy and reliability land values and to reduce time hence cost required by around 80%.

  7. Agricultural Land Use Change after NAFTA in Central West Mexico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Quetzalcóatl Orozco-Ramírez

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available It has been suggested that agricultural land use change and modernization in agricultural production techniques are related to the loss of crop diversity. Two processes contribute to this loss; first is the replacement of landraces by modern varieties, and second is the abandonment of traditional crops in favor of cash crops. We studied the expression of these processes in a region that is both an agro-biodiversity and cultural center and one of the most significant fruit exporters of Mexico. We analyzed agricultural change based on the transformation of cropping areas and the primary crops’ locations in Michoacán state. We examined the crop-harvested area statistics from 1950 to 2015, and identified 23 crops as the most important in terms of harvested area and monetary value. After NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement, harvested area for nine crops changed significantly: seven crops increased, and two decreased. Positive trends were observed for commercial fruits oriented to export markets, and negative trends were observed for traditional crops. These crops, such as beans and maize, are important for food security. Additionally, we analyzed how these land-use and agricultural changes overlap in zones of maize planted-area change. Using a maize-race collection database, we identified three native maize races that could be at risk due to the abandonment of maize in favor of commercial crops.

  8. Agricultural land change in the Carpathian ecoregion after the breakdown of socialism and expansion of the European Union

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, Patrick; Müller, Daniel; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Hostert, Patrick

    2013-12-01

    Widespread changes of agricultural land use occurred in Eastern Europe since the collapse of socialism and the European Union’s eastward expansion, but the rates and patterns of recent land changes remain unclear. Here we assess agricultural land change for the entire Carpathian ecoregion in Eastern Europe at 30 m spatial resolution with Landsat data and for two change periods, between 1985-2000 and 2000-2010. The early period is characterized by post-socialist transition processes, the late period by an increasing influence of EU politics in the region. For mapping and change detection, we use a machine learning approach (random forests) on image composites and variance metrics which were derived from the full decadal archive of Landsat imagery. Our results suggest that cropland abandonment was the most prevalent change process, but we also detected considerable areas of grassland conversion and forest expansion on non-forest land. Cropland abandonment was most extensive during the transition period and predominantly occurred in marginal areas with low suitability for agriculture. Conversely, we observed substantial recultivation of formerly abandoned cropland in high-value agricultural areas since 2000. Hence, market forces increasingly adjust socialist legacies of land expansive production and agricultural land use clusters in favorable areas while marginal lands revert to forest.

  9. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND MANAGEMENT IN THE NORTH CAUCASIAN FEDERAL DISTRICT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. R. Musayev

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim. The aim is to assess the environmental problems in the North Caucasus Federal District of the Russian Federation. Methods. An analysis of the literature and own research at a high anthropogenic pressure on agricultural land through the development of more stringent criteria for assessing the already degraded areas. Results. In the Stavropol region, Andropov district is in the most catastrophic state: of eight ratings five have the highest (fifth catastrophic degree degree of degradation; two the first (low and one rating has the second (middle. On the territory of Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, the highest degree of degradation of agricultural land is assigned to rocky ground, where it has a catastrophic rate of 9.76 points. For agricultural workers on steppe plains, the priority is to fight against deflation, as there is also a high degradation level 6.67 (above catastrophic. Conclusion. It was established that in the North Caucasus Federal District the system of rational use of land should be of environmental and resource-conserving nature and provide for the preservation of the soil, limiting the impact on flora and fauna, geological formations, and other components of the environment.

  10. SUSTAINABLE DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE AND LAND MANAGEMENT IN THE HIMALAYA: IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. M. Bajracharya

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The soil and land resources play a vital role in sustaining the local livelihoods of rural communities in the Himalaya. Most of the arable land has already been brought under cultivation, hence the ever-increasing demand for food and fiber has left farmers with no choice but to intensify agriculture. However, producing more crops and greater quantities of food, fiber and other materials on the same parcel of land can to soil fertility and productivity decline with overall degradation of land quality. Therefore, ways and means to intensify agriculture to enhance productivity without degrading the soil and land resource base have become imperative. Agro-forestry, agro-slivi-pastoral systems, and the adoption of a variety of crop, soil and water management and conservation practices offer potential to deliver multiple benefits without sacrificing the very resource upon which the human population depends. Presented herein are findings on approaches to sustainable intensification of agriculture and land management related to soil OM management and C sequestration for multiple benefits, and, agro-forestry as a crop diversification strategy with both livelihood, and climate change adaptation/mitigation benefits. The results indicate that sustainable soil management practices could lead to significant SOC accumulations (4-8 t/ha over 6 yrs. SOC and soil C stocks tend to increase with elevation due to cooler climate and slow decomposition rates. Carbon stocks for the 3 LU types was in the order CF>AF/LH>AG, suggesting that diversified cropping practices including agro-forestry have good potential sequester C while providing livelihood opportunities and climate adaptive capacity for local farming communities. Biochar amendment increased growth of both coffee plants and radish with mixed grass/weed biochar being most effective. Biochar application also significantly decreased emission of GHGs, especially N2O.

  11. Adaptation Options for Land Drainage Systems Towards Sustainable Agriculture and Environment: A Czech Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulhavý, Zbyněk; Fučík, Petr

    2015-04-01

    In this paper, issues of agricultural drainage systems are introduced and discussed from the views of their former, current and future roles and functioning in the Czech Republic (CR). A methodologically disparate survey was done on thirty-nine model localities in CR with different intensity and state of land drainage systems, aimed at description of commonly occurred problems and possible adaptations of agricultural drainage as perceived by farmers, land owners, landscape managers or by protective water management. The survey was focused on technical state of drainage, fragmentation of land ownership within drained areas as well as on possible conflicts between agricultural and environmental interests in a landscape. Achieved results confirmed that there is obviously an increasing need to reassess some functions of prevailingly single-purpose agricultural drainage systems. Drainage intensity and detected unfavourable technical state of drainage systems as well as the risks connected with the anticipated climate change from the view of possible water scarcity claims for a complex solution. An array of adaptation options for agricultural drainage systems is presented, aiming at enhancement of water retention time and improvement of water quality. It encompasses additional flow-controlling measures on tiles or ditches, or facilities for making selected parts of a drainage system inoperable in order to retain or slow down the drainage runoff, to establish water accumulation zones and to enhance water self-cleaning processes. However, it was revealed that the question of landowner parcels fragmentation on drained land in CR would dramatically complicate design and realization of these measures. Presented solutions and findings are propounded with a respect to contemporary and future state policies and international strategies for sustainable agriculture, water management and environment.

  12. EnviroAtlas - 2011 Agricultural Land Cover on Steep Slopes for the Conterminous United States

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This EnviroAtlas dataset represents the percentage land area that is classified as agricultural land cover that occurs on slopes above a given threshold for each...

  13. An economic theory-based explanatory model of agricultural land-use patterns: The Netherlands as a case study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Diogo, V.; Koomen, E.; Kuhlman, T.

    2015-01-01

    An economic theory-based land-use modelling framework is presented aiming to explain the causal link between economic decisions and resulting spatial patterns of agricultural land use. The framework assumes that farmers pursue utility maximisation in agricultural production systems, while

  14. Simulating Changes in Land-Atmosphere Interactions From Expanding Agriculture and Irrigation in India and the Potential Impacts on the Indian Monsoon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas, E. M.; Beltran-Przekurat, A.; Niyogi, D.; Pielke, R. A.

    2006-05-01

    With over 57 million hectares under irrigation in 2002, India has the largest irrigated agricultural area on the planet. Between 80 and 90% of India's water use goes to support irrigated agriculture. The Indian monsoon belt is a home to a large part of the world's population and agriculture is the major land-use activity in the region. Previous results showed that annual vapor fluxes in India have increased by 17% (340 km3) over that which would be expected from a natural (non-agricultural) land cover. Two-thirds of this increase was attributed to irrigated agriculture. The largest increases in vapor and latent heat fluxes occurred where both cropland and irrigated lands were the predominant contemporary land cover classes (particularly northwest and north-central India). Our current study builds upon this work by evaluating possible changes in near-surface energy fluxes and regional atmospheric circulation patterns resulting from the expansion of irrigated agriculture on the Indian sub-continent using a regional atmospheric model RAMS. We investigate three separate land- use scenarios: Scenario 1, with a potential (pre-agricultural) land cover, Scenario 2: the potential land-cover overlain by cropland and Scenario 3: potential land-cover overlain by cropland and irrigated area. We will assess the impact of agricultural land-cover conversion and intensive irrigation on water and energy fluxes between the land and the atmosphere and how these flux changes may affect regional weather patterns. The simulation period covers July 16-20, 2002 which allow us to assess potential impacts of land-cover changes on the onset of the Indian Monsoon.

  15. Land Cover Classification in Complex and Fragmented Agricultural Landscapes of the Ethiopian Highlands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Eggen

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Ethiopia is a largely agrarian country with nearly 85% of its employment coming from agriculture. Nevertheless, it is not known how much land is under cultivation. Mapping land cover at finer resolution and global scales has been particularly difficult in Ethiopia. The study area falls in a region of high mapping complexity with environmental challenges which require higher quality maps. Here, remote sensing is used to classify a large area of the central and northwestern highlands into eight broad land cover classes that comprise agriculture, grassland, woodland/shrub, forest, bare ground, urban/impervious surfaces, water, and seasonal water/marsh areas. We use data from Landsat spectral bands from 2000 to 2011, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI and its temporal mean and variance, together with a digital elevation model, all at 30-m spatial resolution, as inputs to a supervised classifier. A Support Vector Machines algorithm (SVM was chosen to deal with the size, variability and non-parametric nature of these data stacks. In post-processing, an image segmentation algorithm with a minimum mapping unit of about 0.5 hectares was used to convert per pixel classification results into an object based final map. Although the reliability of the map is modest, its overall accuracy is 55%—encouraging results for the accuracy of agricultural uses at 85% suggest that these methods do offer great utility. Confusion among grassland, woodland and barren categories reflects the difficulty of classifying savannah landscapes, especially in east central Africa with monsoonal-driven rainfall patterns where the ground is obstructed by clouds for significant periods of time. Our analysis also points out the need for high quality reference data. Further, topographic analysis of the agriculture class suggests there is a significant amount of sloping land under cultivation. These results are important for future research and environmental monitoring in

  16. Prospects for cultivation of agricultural crops on highly contaminated fallow lands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Podolyak, A.G.; Las'ko, T.V.; Tagaj, S.A.; Potipko, N.S.; Bogachenko, D.S.

    2015-01-01

    In the long term after a nuclear accident, there is a necessity to address the issues associated with the recovery of contaminated fallow lands and their agricultural use for crop production. (authors)

  17. Seawater/Saline Agriculture for Energy, Warming, Water, Rainfall, Land, Food and Minerals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bushnell, Dennis

    2006-01-01

    The combination of the incipient demise of cheap oil and increasing evidence of Global Warming due to anthropogenic fossil carbon release has reinvigorated the need for and efforts on Renewable energy sources, especially for transportation applications. Biomass/Bio-diesel appears to have many benefits compared to Hydrogen, the only other major renewable transportation fuel candidate. Biomass Production is currently limited by available arable land and fresh water. Halophyte Plants and seawater irrigation proffer a wholly new biomass production mantra using wastelands and very plentiful seawater. Such an approach addresses many-to-most of the major emerging Societal Problems including Land, Water, Food, Warming and Energy. For many reasons, including seawater agriculture, portions of the Sahara appear to be viable candidates for future Biomass Production. The apparent nonlinearity between vegetation cover and atmospheric conditions over North Africa necessitates serious coupled boundary layer Meteorology and Global Circulation Modeling to ensure that this form of Terra Forming is Favorable and to avoid adverse Unintended Consequences.

  18. Land-use policies and corporate investments in agriculture in the Gran Chaco and Chiquitano

    Science.gov (United States)

    le Polain de Waroux, Yann; Garrett, Rachael D.; Heilmayr, Robert; Lambin, Eric F.

    2016-01-01

    Growing demand for agricultural commodities is causing the expansion of agricultural frontiers onto native vegetation worldwide. Agribusiness companies linking these frontiers to distant spaces of consumption through global commodity chains increasingly make zero-deforestation pledges. However, production and land conversion are often carried out by less-visible local and regional actors that are mobile and responsive to new agricultural expansion opportunities and legal constraints on land use. With more stringent deforestation regulations in some countries, we ask whether their movements are determined partly by differences in land-use policies, resulting in “deforestation havens.” We analyze the determinants of investment decisions by agricultural companies in the Gran Chaco and Chiquitano, a region that has become the new deforestation “hot spot” in South America. We test whether companies seek out less-regulated forest areas for new agricultural investments. Based on interviews with 82 companies totaling 2.5 Mha of properties, we show that, in addition to proximity to current investments and the availability of cheap forestland, lower deforestation regulations attract investments by companies that tend to clear more forest, mostly cattle ranching operations, and that lower enforcement attracts all companies. Avoiding deforestation leakage requires harmonizing deforestation regulations across regions and commodities and promoting sustainable intensification in cattle ranching. PMID:27035995

  19. Land-use policies and corporate investments in agriculture in the Gran Chaco and Chiquitano.

    Science.gov (United States)

    le Polain de Waroux, Yann; Garrett, Rachael D; Heilmayr, Robert; Lambin, Eric F

    2016-04-12

    Growing demand for agricultural commodities is causing the expansion of agricultural frontiers onto native vegetation worldwide. Agribusiness companies linking these frontiers to distant spaces of consumption through global commodity chains increasingly make zero-deforestation pledges. However, production and land conversion are often carried out by less-visible local and regional actors that are mobile and responsive to new agricultural expansion opportunities and legal constraints on land use. With more stringent deforestation regulations in some countries, we ask whether their movements are determined partly by differences in land-use policies, resulting in "deforestation havens." We analyze the determinants of investment decisions by agricultural companies in the Gran Chaco and Chiquitano, a region that has become the new deforestation "hot spot" in South America. We test whether companies seek out less-regulated forest areas for new agricultural investments. Based on interviews with 82 companies totaling 2.5 Mha of properties, we show that, in addition to proximity to current investments and the availability of cheap forestland, lower deforestation regulations attract investments by companies that tend to clear more forest, mostly cattle ranching operations, and that lower enforcement attracts all companies. Avoiding deforestation leakage requires harmonizing deforestation regulations across regions and commodities and promoting sustainable intensification in cattle ranching.

  20. A multi-tracer approach to assess fingerprints of nitrate in an aquifer under agriculturally used land

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasten-Zapata, Ernesto; Ledesma-Ruiz, Rogelio; Ramirez, Aldo; Harter, Thomas; Mahlknecht, Jürgen

    2014-05-01

    To effectively manage groundwater quality it is essential to understand sources of contamination and underground processes. The objective of the study was to identify sources and fate of nitrate pollution occurring in an aquifer underneath a sub-humid to humid region in NE Mexico which provides 10% of national citrus production. Nitrate isotopes and halide ratios were applied to understand nitrate sources and transformations in relation to land use/land cover. It was found that the study area is subject to diverse nitrate sources including organic waste and wastewater, synthetic fertilizers and soil processes. Animal manure and sewage from septic tanks were the causes of groundwater nitrate pollution within orchards and vegetable agriculture. Dairy activities within a radius of 1,000m from a sampling point increased nitrate pollution. Leachates from septic tanks incited nitrate pollution in residential areas. Soil nitrogen and animal waste were the sources of nitrate in groundwater under shrubland and grassland. Partial denitrification processes were evidenced. The denitrification process helped to attenuate nitrate concentration in the agricultural lands and grassland particularly during summer months.

  1. Agriculture, Food Production, and Rural Land Use in Advanced Placement® Human Geography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moseley, William G.; Watson, Nancy H.

    2016-01-01

    ''Agriculture, Food, and Rural Land Use" constitutes a major part of the AP Human Geography course outline. This article explores challenging topics to teach, emerging research trends in agricultural geography, and sample teaching approaches for concretizing abstract topics. It addresses content identified as "essential knowledge"…

  2. Arthropods Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes: Effects of Land Use and Anthropization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Enrico Previati

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available The greatest proportion of Po river plain is occupied by arable lands. Negative effects of modern intensive agriculture on biodiversity can derive from various phenomena operating at different spatial scales, from local to regional ones. If agricultural fields are subjected to periodical disturbances by farming practices, also landscape structure can influence community structure in the fields providing refugial areas or alternative trophic resources. In the same way in perennial habitats, such as strips and meadows, community structure and composition may be linked to both local factors and surrounding land use, that can influence organism persistence and dispersal mechanisms. We studied some natural and anthropized habitats in a wide agricultural area in the province of Ferrara (conventional annual and perennial fields, herbaceous strips, hedgerows and meadows to investigate relationships between arthropod community structure and both local impact factors (habitat type, management and surronding landscape structure and use. Results from uni and multivariate analysis showed a great influence on trophic and taxonomic structure of habitat type and quality.A less complex landscape had only slightly influence on trophic structure, leading to higher abundance and richness of generalist taxa. In conclusion we emphasize the importance of maintaining high-quality habitats to enhance arthopod diversity in agricultural landscapes.

  3. Potential Land Mapping for Agricultural Extentification in Mengwi Sub-district to Support Food Balance in Badung Regency, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Made Trigunasih, Ni; Lanya, Indayati; Ratna Adi, I. G. P.; Hutauruk, Jeremia; Feronika

    2017-12-01

    The availability of agricultural land for food crops, especially in Bali, is rapidly declining every year. The availability of rice fields in Badung regency, especially in Mengwi Sub-district until 2040 is no longer exist, this means that Mengwi Sub-district has lost the rice fields. The existence of land conversion will affect food availability for the country, so there will be food deficit. The food balance in Badung Regency in 2015 with Cultivation Index (IP) and initial productivity in each Sub-district showed a food deficit of 32,843.44 tons, then after increasing IP of 2,5 the productivity in Kecamatan Petang and Kuta at 7 tons / ha, and Abiansemal, Mengwi and North Kuta Sub-districts with 8 tons / ha which indicate a surplus in 2020 and 2030 respectively of 25,155.19 tons, and 3,401.79 tons. But in 2040 and 2050 there was a food deficiency of 18,434.78 tons and 11,824.82 tons respectively. Considering that productivity improvement efforts cannot rely solely on intensification approaches, but also need to be done with extensification or expansion of agricultural areas to support food production. This research was conducted in Mengwi Sub-district, Badung Regency. Mengwi Sub-district consists of 20 villages. The objectives of this research are: (1) to map potential land that can be converted to agricultural land of food crops, and (2) to know the amount of food demand to supply food balance in Badung Regency in 2040. Research methodology includes (1) preliminary study, (2) interpretation of satellite images, (3) mapping and measurement of land area, and (4) calculation of additional food availability. The results indicate that the potential land that can be converted to agricultural land for food crops is 132 ha, consists of 128.51 ha of mixed plantation and 3.49 ha of bare land/bush. The result of additional land produced 1601.73 tons of rice that increased the food availability in Mengwi Sub-district to 45425.7 tons. The addition of surplus in 2040 in Mengwi

  4. Conservation Agriculture for combating land degradation in Central Asia: a synthesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J.P.A. Lamers

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This manuscript reviews scientific findings on agricultural systems, associated land degradation and selected remedies such as Conservation Agricultural (CA practices to counterbalance these. In particular, this review addresses the research findings onCA practices conducted in the rainfed and irrigated systems in Central Asia. The arid and semi-arid croplands in this region are vulnerable to different types of soil and environmental degradation, and particularly to degradation caused by intensive tillage, irrigation water mismanagement, and cropping practices, especially in the Aral Sea Basin. Overall, the evidence shows that various CA elements, such as permanent beds, seems to be technically suitable for the major cropping systems and despite the heterogeneous conditions in the region. CA practices can contribute to combating on-going land degradation. No-till seeding along with the maintenance of a permanent soil coverage e.g. by residue retention, reduces wind and water erosion, increases water infiltration and storage which can reduce crop water stress, improve soil quality and increase soil organic matter. Further, CA practices can lead to similar or even higher crop yields while reducing production resource needs and costs considerably, including fuel, seeds, agrochemicals, water and labour. Nevertheless, the growing research evidence on the productivity, economic and environmental benefits that can be harnessed with CA, still is from a limited number of studies and hence more research at local scale is needed.

  5. Watershed Analysis of Nitrate Transport as a Result of Agricultural Inputs for Varying Land Use/Land Cover and Soil Type

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, M. E.; Sykes, J. F.

    2006-12-01

    The Grand River Watershed is one of the largest watersheds in southwestern Ontario with an area of approximately 7000 square kilometers. Ninety percent of the watershed is classified as rural, and 80 percent of the watershed population relies on groundwater as their source of drinking water. Management of the watershed requires the determination of the effect of agricultural practices on long-term groundwater quality and to identify locations within the watershed that are at a higher risk of contamination. The study focuses on the transport of nitrate through the root zone as a result of agricultural inputs with attenuation due to biodegradation. The driving force for transport is spatially and temporally varying groundwater recharge that is a function of land use/land cover, soil and meteorological inputs that yields 47,229 unique soil columns within the watershed. Fertilizer sources are determined from Statistics Canada's Agricultural Census and include livestock manure and a popular commercial fertilizer, urea. Accounting for different application rates yields 60,066 unique land parcels of which 22,809 are classified as croplands where manure and inorganic fertilizes are directly applied. The transport for the croplands is simulated over a 14-year period to investigate the impact of seasonal applications of nitrate fertilizers on the concentration leaching from the root zone to the water table. Based on land use/land cover maps, ArcView GIS is used to define the location of fertilizer applications within the watershed and to spatially visualize data and analyze results. The large quantity of input data is stored and managed using MS-Access and a relational database management system. Nitrogen transformations and ammonium and nitrate uptake by plants and transport through the soil column are simulated on a daily basis using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) within MS-Access modules. Nitrogen transformations within the soil column were simplified using

  6. Mapping irrigated lands at 250-m scale by merging MODIS data and National Agricultural Statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pervez, Md Shahriar; Brown, Jesslyn F.

    2010-01-01

    Accurate geospatial information on the extent of irrigated land improves our understanding of agricultural water use, local land surface processes, conservation or depletion of water resources, and components of the hydrologic budget. We have developed a method in a geospatial modeling framework that assimilates irrigation statistics with remotely sensed parameters describing vegetation growth conditions in areas with agricultural land cover to spatially identify irrigated lands at 250-m cell size across the conterminous United States for 2002. The geospatial model result, known as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Irrigated Agriculture Dataset (MIrAD-US), identified irrigated lands with reasonable accuracy in California and semiarid Great Plains states with overall accuracies of 92% and 75% and kappa statistics of 0.75 and 0.51, respectively. A quantitative accuracy assessment of MIrAD-US for the eastern region has not yet been conducted, and qualitative assessment shows that model improvements are needed for the humid eastern regions where the distinction in annual peak NDVI between irrigated and non-irrigated crops is minimal and county sizes are relatively small. This modeling approach enables consistent mapping of irrigated lands based upon USDA irrigation statistics and should lead to better understanding of spatial trends in irrigated lands across the conterminous United States. An improved version of the model with revised datasets is planned and will employ 2007 USDA irrigation statistics.

  7. Modeling nitrate from land surface to wells' perforations under agricultural land: success, failure, and future scenarios in a Mediterranean case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, Yehuda; Shapira, Roi H.; Chefetz, Benny; Kurtzman, Daniel

    2017-07-01

    Contamination of groundwater resources by nitrate leaching under agricultural land is probably the most troublesome agriculture-related water contamination worldwide. Contaminated areas often show large spatial variability of nitrate concentration in wells. In this study, we tried to assess whether this spatial variability can be characterized on the basis of land use and standard agricultural practices. Deep soil sampling (10 m) was used to calibrate vertical flow and nitrogen-transport numerical models of the unsaturated zone under different agricultural land uses. Vegetable fields (potato and strawberry) and deciduous orchards (persimmon) in the Sharon area overlying the coastal aquifer of Israel were examined. Average nitrate-nitrogen fluxes below vegetable fields were 210-290 kg ha-1 yr-1 and under deciduous orchards were 110-140 kg ha-1 yr-1. The output water and nitrate-nitrogen fluxes of the unsaturated-zone models were used as input data for a three-dimensional flow and nitrate-transport model in the aquifer under an area of 13.3 km2 of agricultural land. The area was subdivided into four agricultural land uses: vegetables, deciduous orchards, citrus orchards, and non-cultivated. Fluxes of water and nitrate-nitrogen below citrus orchards were taken from a previous study in the area. The groundwater flow model was calibrated to well heads by changing the hydraulic conductivity. The nitrate-transport model, which was fed by the above-mentioned models of the unsaturated zone, succeeded in reconstructing the average nitrate concentration in the wells. However, this transport model failed in calculating the high concentrations in the most contaminated wells and the large spatial variability of nitrate concentrations in the aquifer. To reconstruct the spatial variability and enable predictions, nitrate fluxes from the unsaturated zone were multiplied by local multipliers. This action was rationalized by the fact that the high concentrations in some wells cannot

  8. CONSIDERATIONS ON UTILIZED AGRICULTURAL LAND AND FARM STRUCTURE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agatha POPESCU

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper aimed to analyze the EU-27 agricultural land, farms structure and size based on Eurostat data. In the EU, farm structure shows that farms have a small size accounting for 12 ha in average. The highest farm size is in Czech Republic (152 ha and the smallest one in Romania and Cyprus (3 ha. The size of farms has slowly increased from a year to another while the number of farms declined. About 80 % farms are situated in Romania, Italy, Poland, Spain, Greece, Hungary and France. Three countries France, Italy and Germany produces 50.51 % gross margin of the EU-27 which accounted for Euro 278.33 Billion in 2010. A number of 199,400 farms achieved 46.6 % of the total gross margin, more exactly Euro 129,810 million. These farms utilized 25 % of the Eu-27 agricultural land. The farms with less than Euro 2,000 gross margin represent 45.44 % of the total number of farms and keep 5 % of the utilized agricultural land and produce 3.39 % of the EU-27 gross margin. The farms with a higher dimension produce the highest gross margin proving that farm size has a direct influence on profitability and economic efficiency.

  9. A simulation-based interval two-stage stochastic model for agricultural nonpoint source pollution control through land retirement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luo, B.; Li, J.B.; Huang, G.H.; Li, H.L.

    2006-01-01

    This study presents a simulation-based interval two-stage stochastic programming (SITSP) model for agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution control through land retirement under uncertain conditions. The modeling framework was established by the development of an interval two-stage stochastic program, with its random parameters being provided by the statistical analysis of the simulation outcomes of a distributed water quality approach. The developed model can deal with the tradeoff between agricultural revenue and 'off-site' water quality concern under random effluent discharge for a land retirement scheme through minimizing the expected value of long-term total economic and environmental cost. In addition, the uncertainties presented as interval numbers in the agriculture-water system can be effectively quantified with the interval programming. By subdividing the whole agricultural watershed into different zones, the most pollution-related sensitive cropland can be identified and an optimal land retirement scheme can be obtained through the modeling approach. The developed method was applied to the Swift Current Creek watershed in Canada for soil erosion control through land retirement. The Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) was used to simulate the sediment information for this case study. Obtained results indicate that the total economic and environmental cost of the entire agriculture-water system can be limited within an interval value for the optimal land retirement schemes. Meanwhile, a best and worst land retirement scheme was obtained for the study watershed under various uncertainties

  10. Water limited agriculture in Africa: Climate change sensitivity of large scale land investments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rulli, M. C.; D'Odorico, P.; Chiarelli, D. D.; Davis, K. F.

    2015-12-01

    The past few decades have seen unprecedented changes in the global agricultural system with a dramatic increase in the rates of food production fueled by an escalating demand for food calories, as a result of demographic growth, dietary changes, and - more recently - new bioenergy policies. Food prices have become consistently higher and increasingly volatile with dramatic spikes in 2007-08 and 2010-11. The confluence of these factors has heightened demand for land and brought a wave of land investment to the developing world: some of the more affluent countries are trying to secure land rights in areas suitable for agriculture. According to some estimates, to date, roughly 38 million hectares have been acquired worldwide by large scale investors, 16 million of which in Africa. More than 85% of large scale land acquisitions in Africa are by foreign investors. Many land deals are motivated not only by the need for fertile land but for the water resources required for crop production. Despite some recent assessments of the water appropriation associated with large scale land investments, their impact on the water resources of the target countries under present conditions and climate change scenarios remains poorly understood. Here we investigate irrigation water requirements by various crops planted in the acquired land as an indicator of the pressure likely placed by land investors on ("blue") water resources of target regions in Africa and evaluate the sensitivity to climate changes scenarios.

  11. A Remote Sensing Approach for Regional-Scale Mapping of Agricultural Land-Use Systems Based on NDVI Time Series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beatriz Bellón

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In response to the need for generic remote sensing tools to support large-scale agricultural monitoring, we present a new approach for regional-scale mapping of agricultural land-use systems (ALUS based on object-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI time series analysis. The approach consists of two main steps. First, to obtain relatively homogeneous land units in terms of phenological patterns, a principal component analysis (PCA is applied to an annual MODIS NDVI time series, and an automatic segmentation is performed on the resulting high-order principal component images. Second, the resulting land units are classified into the crop agriculture domain or the livestock domain based on their land-cover characteristics. The crop agriculture domain land units are further classified into different cropping systems based on the correspondence of their NDVI temporal profiles with the phenological patterns associated with the cropping systems of the study area. A map of the main ALUS of the Brazilian state of Tocantins was produced for the 2013–2014 growing season with the new approach, and a significant coherence was observed between the spatial distribution of the cropping systems in the final ALUS map and in a reference map extracted from the official agricultural statistics of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE. This study shows the potential of remote sensing techniques to provide valuable baseline spatial information for supporting agricultural monitoring and for large-scale land-use systems analysis.

  12. Assessing the effect of agricultural land abandonment on bird communities in southern-eastern Europe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zakkak, Sylvia; Radovic, Andreja; Nikolov, Stoyan C; Shumka, Spase; Kakalis, Lefteris; Kati, Vassiliki

    2015-12-01

    Agricultural land abandonment is recognized as a major environmental threat in Europe, being particularly pronounced in south-eastern Europe, where knowledge on its effects is limited. Taking the Balkan Peninsula as a case study, we investigated agricultural abandonment impact on passerine communities at regional level. We set up a standard methodology for site selection (70 sites) and data collection, along a well-defined forest-encroachment gradient that reflects land abandonment in four countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece. Regardless the different socio-economic and political histories in the Balkans that led to diverse land abandonment patterns in space and time, rural abandonment had a consistent negative effect on bird communities, while regional-level analysis revealed patterns that were hidden at local level. The general trends were an increase of forest-dwelling bird species at the expense of farmland birds, the decline of overall bird species richness, as well as the decline of Species of European Conservation Concern (SPECs) richness and abundance. Many farmland bird species declined with land abandonment, whereas few forest species benefited from the process. In conclusion, our results support CAP towards hampering rural land abandonment and preserving semi-open rural mosaics in remote upland areas, using a suite of management measures carefully tailored to local needs. The maintenance of traditional rural landscapes should be prioritized in the Balkans, through the timely identification of HNV farmland that is most prone to abandonment. We also suggest that coordinated transnational research is needed, for a better assessment of conservation options in remote rural landscapes at European scale, including the enhancement of wild grazers' populations as an alternative in areas where traditional land management is rather unlikely to be re-established. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Agricultural land change in the Carpathian ecoregion after the breakdown of socialism and expansion of the European Union

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Griffiths, Patrick; Müller, Daniel; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Hostert, Patrick

    2013-01-01

    Widespread changes of agricultural land use occurred in Eastern Europe since the collapse of socialism and the European Union’s eastward expansion, but the rates and patterns of recent land changes remain unclear. Here we assess agricultural land change for the entire Carpathian ecoregion in Eastern Europe at 30 m spatial resolution with Landsat data and for two change periods, between 1985–2000 and 2000–2010. The early period is characterized by post-socialist transition processes, the late period by an increasing influence of EU politics in the region. For mapping and change detection, we use a machine learning approach (random forests) on image composites and variance metrics which were derived from the full decadal archive of Landsat imagery. Our results suggest that cropland abandonment was the most prevalent change process, but we also detected considerable areas of grassland conversion and forest expansion on non-forest land. Cropland abandonment was most extensive during the transition period and predominantly occurred in marginal areas with low suitability for agriculture. Conversely, we observed substantial recultivation of formerly abandoned cropland in high-value agricultural areas since 2000. Hence, market forces increasingly adjust socialist legacies of land expansive production and agricultural land use clusters in favorable areas while marginal lands revert to forest. (letter)

  14. Effects of Land Degradation on Agriculture in Anambra State: Issue ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study examined the effects of land degradation on agriculture in Anambra state. Two Local Government Areas were purposively selected from the state while a town community was purposively selected from each of the Local Government Areas. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select 50% of the villages ...

  15. GOLD AND LAND PRICES WITH CAPITAL ACCUMULATION IN AN ECONOMY WITH INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL SECTORS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHANG WEI-BIN

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine dynamic interactions among gold value, land price and economic structure in a growth model with capital accumulation. The paper proposes a two-sector general equilibrium model with land and gold prices as endogenous variables. The economy consists of industrial and agricultural sectors with fixed land and gold. Land is used for residential use and agricultural production and gold is used for saving and decorations. The portfolio equilibrium growth model is based on the neoclassical growth theory and Ricardian theory. We simulate the model to demonstrate that the economic system has a unique stable steady state. We show how exogenous changes in preference and technology affect the transitory processes and long-term equilibrium.

  16. Estimating Hydrologic Fluxes, Crop Water Use, and Agricultural Land Area in China using Data Assimilation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Tiziana; McLaughlin, Dennis B.; Hoisungwan, Piyatida

    2016-04-01

    Crop production has significantly altered the terrestrial environment by changing land use and by altering the water cycle through both co-opted rainfall and surface water withdrawals. As the world's population continues to grow and individual diets become more resource-intensive, the demand for food - and the land and water necessary to produce it - will continue to increase. High-resolution quantitative data about water availability, water use, and agricultural land use are needed to develop sustainable water and agricultural planning and policies. However, existing data covering large areas with high resolution are susceptible to errors and can be physically inconsistent. China is an example of a large area where food demand is expected to increase and a lack of data clouds the resource management dialogue. Some assert that China will have insufficient land and water resources to feed itself, posing a threat to global food security if they seek to increase food imports. Others believe resources are plentiful. Without quantitative data, it is difficult to discern if these concerns are realistic or overly dramatized. This research presents a quantitative approach using data assimilation techniques to characterize hydrologic fluxes, crop water use (defined as crop evapotranspiration), and agricultural land use at 0.5 by 0.5 degree resolution and applies the methodology in China using data from around the year 2000. The approach uses the principles of water balance and of crop water requirements to assimilate existing data with a least-squares estimation technique, producing new estimates of water and land use variables that are physically consistent while minimizing differences from measured data. We argue that this technique for estimating water fluxes and agricultural land use can provide a useful basis for resource management modeling and policy, both in China and around the world.

  17. Improving Agricultural Water Use Efficiency: A Quantitative Study of Zhangye City Using the Static CGE Model with a CES Water−Land Resources Account

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Liu

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Water resources play a vital role in human life and agriculture irrigation, especially for agriculture-dominant developing countries and regions. Improving agricultural water use efficiency has consequently become a key strategic choice. This study, based on Zhangye City’s economic characteristics and data, applies a static Computable General Equilibrium (CGE model with a constant elasticity of substitution (CES composited water−land resources account to assess the impact of improving agricultural water use efficiency on economy, water conservation and land reallocation. Results reveal that: Zhangye City’s GDP increases by 0.10% owing to an increasing average technical level by improving agricultural water use efficiency; total water consumption decreases by 122 million m3, 69% of which comes from a reduction of surface water use; and land demand increases by 257.43 hectares mainly due to agricultural land demands. With respect to the sectors’ output, export-oriented sectors with higher water intensities in the agricultural sectors benefit most. In contrast, land-intensive sectors contract the most, as the rental price of land rises. Therefore, agricultural water conservation technology should be introduced considering more in surface water. Furthermore, higher demand for agricultural land would reduce land availability for other sectors, thus inhibiting urbanization pace on a small scale.

  18. Quantifying gross vs. net agricultural land use change in Great Britain using the Integrated Administration and Control System

    OpenAIRE

    Tomlinson, Samuel J.; Dragosits, Ulrike; Levy, Peter E.; Thomson, Amanda M.; Moxley, Janet

    2018-01-01

    Land use change has impacts upon many natural processes, and is one of the key measures of anthropogenic disturbance on ecosystems. Agricultural land covers 70% of Great Britain's (GB) land surface and annually undergoes disturbance and change through farming practices such as crop rotation, ploughing and the planting and subsequent logging of forestry. It is important to quantify how much of GB's agricultural land undergoes such changes and what those changes are at an annual temporal resolu...

  19. Spatially differentiated trends in urbanization, agricultural land abandonment and reclamation, and woodland recovery in Northern China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chao; Gao, Qiong; Wang, Xian; Yu, Mei

    2016-11-01

    Uncovering magnitude, trend, and spatial pattern of land cover/land use changes (LCLUC) is crucial for understanding mechanisms of LCLUC and assisting land use planning and conservation. China has been undergoing unprecedented economic growth, massive rural-to-urban migration, and large-scale policy-driven ecological restoration, and therefore encountering enormous LCLUC in recent decades. However, comprehensive understandings of spatiotemporal LCLUC dynamics and underlying mechanisms are still lacking. Based on classification of annual LCLU maps from MODIS satellite imagery, we proposed a land change detection method to capture significant land change hotspots over Northern China during 2001-2013, and further analyzed temporal trends and spatial patterns of LCLUC. We found rapid decline of agricultural land near urban was predominantly caused by urban expansion. The process was especially strong in North China Plain with 14,057 km2 of urban gain and -21,017 km2 of agricultural land loss. To offset the loss of agricultural land, Northeast China Plain and Xinjiang were reclaimed. Substantial recovery of forests (49,908 km2) and closed shrubland (60,854 km2) occurred in mountainous regions due to abandoned infertile farmland, secondary succession, and governmental conservation policies. The spatial patterns and trends of LCLUC in Northern China provide information to support effective environmental policies towards sustainable development.

  20. Soil, land use time, and sustainable intensification of agriculture in the Brazilian Cerrado region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trabaquini, Kleber; Galvão, Lênio Soares; Formaggio, Antonio Roberto; de Aragão, Luiz Eduardo Oliveira E Cruz

    2017-02-01

    The Brazilian Cerrado area is in rapid decline because of the expansion of modern agriculture. In this study, we used extensive field data and a 30-year chronosequence of Landsat images (1980-2010) to assess the effects of time since conversion of Cerrado into agriculture upon soil chemical attributes and soybean/corn yield in the Alto do Rio Verde watershed. We determined the rates of vegetation conversion into agriculture, the agricultural land use time since conversion, and the temporal changes in topsoil (0-20 cm soil depth) and subsurface (20-40 cm) chemical attributes of the soils. In addition, we investigated possible associations between fertilization/over-fertilization and land use history detected from the satellites. The results showed that 61.8% of the native vegetation in the Alto do Rio Verde watershed was already converted into agriculture with 31% of soils being used in agriculture for more than 30 years. While other fertilizers in cultivated soils (e.g., Ca +2 , Mg +2 , and P) have been compensated over time by soil management practices to keep crop yield high, large reductions in C org (38%) and N tot (29%) were observed in old cultivated areas. Furthermore, soybean and cornfields having more than 10 years of farming presented higher values of P and Mg +2 than the ideal levels necessary for plant development. Therefore, increased risks of over-fertilization of the soils and environmental contamination with these macronutrients were associated with soybean and cornfields having more than 10 years of farming, especially those with more than 30 years of agricultural land use.

  1. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land: a case study of Argentina

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wicke, B.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/306645955; Smeets, E.M.W.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/311445217; Tabeau, A.; Hilbert, J.; Faaij, A.P.C.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/10685903X

    2009-01-01

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input–output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural

  2. The impact of German biogas production on European and global agricultural markets, land use and the environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Britz, Wolfgang; Delzeit, Ruth

    2013-01-01

    As part of its climate policy, Germany promotes the production of biogas via its so-called Renewable-Energy-Act (EEG). The resulting boost in biogas output went along with a significant increase in production of green maize, the dominant feedstock. Existing studies of the EEG have analysed its impacts on German agriculture without considering market feedback. We thus expand existing quantitative analysis by also considering impacts on European and global agricultural markets, land use and the environment by combining a detailed location model for biogas plants, the Regionalised Location Information System-Maize (ReSi-M2012), with a global Partial Equilibrium model for agriculture, the Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact (CAPRI) model. Our results indicate that the German biogas production is large enough to have sizeable impacts on global agricultural markets in prices and quantities, causing significant land use change outside of Germany. While profits in the agricultural sector increase, food consumer face higher prices, and subsidies for biogas production are passed on to electricity consumers. The German biogas program, as long as it is almost entirely based on non-waste feedstocks, is probably not a promising avenue towards a GHG-saving renewable energy production, but a rather expensive one. - Highlights: • Recent changes to that program decrease green maize use but increase land demands. • The program could raise EU prices for cereals by 3%. • Agricultural land use expansion outside of the EU estimated at 1 Mio ha

  3. U.S.-State Agricultural Data. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 512.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Womack, Letricia M.; Traub, Larry G.

    This report presents agricultural information for each state and the United States as a whole for the years 1981-1985. Included are data on population, land use, agricultural production, farm income, value of assets on farms, and selected characteristics of farms. The primary data sources are the "1982 Census of Agriculture," the…

  4. Estimating the effects of potential climate and land use changes on hydrologic processes of a large agriculture dominated watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neupane, Ram P.; Kumar, Sandeep

    2015-10-01

    Land use and climate are two major components that directly influence catchment hydrologic processes, and therefore better understanding of their effects is crucial for future land use planning and water resources management. We applied Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to assess the effects of potential land use change and climate variability on hydrologic processes of large agriculture dominated Big Sioux River (BSR) watershed located in North Central region of USA. Future climate change scenarios were simulated using average output of temperature and precipitation data derived from Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) (B1, A1B, and A2) for end-21st century. Land use change was modeled spatially based on historic long-term pattern of agricultural transformation in the basin, and included the expansion of corn (Zea mays L.) cultivation by 2, 5, and 10%. We estimated higher surface runoff in all land use scenarios with maximum increase of 4% while expanding 10% corn cultivation in the basin. Annual stream discharge was estimated higher with maximum increase of 72% in SRES-B1 attributed from higher groundwater contribution of 152% in the same scenario. We assessed increased precipitation during spring season but the summer precipitation decreased substantially in all climate change scenarios. Similar to decreased summer precipitation, discharge of the BSR also decreased potentially affecting agricultural production due to reduced future water availability during crop growing season in the basin. However, combined effects of potential land use change with climate variability enhanced for higher annual discharge of the BSR. Therefore, these estimations can be crucial for implications of future land use planning and water resources management of the basin.

  5. Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    The report entitled Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation : A Canadian Perspective, presents a summary of research regarding the impacts of climate change on key sectors over the past five years as it relates to Canada. This chapter on agriculture describes how climate change will affect primary agriculture production in Canada with particular focus on potential adaptation options, and vulnerability of agriculture at the farm level. Agriculture is a vital part of the Canadian economy, although only 7 per cent of Canada's land mass is used for agricultural purposes due to the limitations of climate and soils. Most parts of Canada are expected to experience warmer conditions, longer frost-free seasons and increased evapotranspiration. The impacts of these changes on agriculture will vary depending on precipitation changes, soil conditions, and land use. Northern regions may benefit from longer farming seasons, but poor soil conditions will limit the northward expansion of agricultural crops. Some of the negative impacts associated with climate change on agriculture include increased droughts, changes in pest and pathogen outbreaks, and moisture stress. In general, it is expected that the positive and negative impacts of climate change would offset each other. 74 refs., 2 tabs., 1 fig

  6. Capitalising on the financialisation of agriculture: Cargill’s land investment techniques in the Philippines

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Salerno, T.

    2014-01-01

    This paper has two objectives. First, it aims to analyse how transnational agricultural traders are positioning themselves in, and capitalising on, the financialisation of agriculture. Second, it seeks to position land investments in this process. This is done by situating Cargill - one of the

  7. Greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture and land-use practices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burke, L.M.; Lashof, D.A.

    1990-01-01

    This paper reports on the effects of increasing trace gas concentrations and concomitant climate change on agriculture which are likely to be substantial. With cropland and pasture now covering 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O. Land clearing for agriculture and other purposes is responsible for 10 to 30% of total net CO 2 emissions; the rest is due to fossil fuel combustion. In addition, intentional burning of agricultural wastes, grasslands, and forests makes a significant contribution to global emissions of CO, CH 4 , NO x and N 2 O. Methane emissions from anaerobic respiration in rice (Oryza sativa L.) paddies and domestic animal remains account for 30 to 50% of the global total, making agriculture the dominant anthropogenic source of this gas. The amount of N 2 O emitted as a result of N fertilizer applications is highly uncertain, but may be on the order of 10% of total N 2 O emissions. Future agricultural greenhouse gas emissions will be affected by population growth, economic development, and agricultural practices. Greenhouse gas emissions are likely to increase substantially in the future unless steps are taken to control them. Investigating potential approaches to reducing these emissions while expanding production presents a major challenge to the agricultural research community

  8. How conflict affects land use: agricultural activity in areas seized by the Islamic State

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eklund, Lina; Degerald, Michael; Brandt, Martin; Prishchepov, Alexander V.; Pilesjö, Petter

    2017-05-01

    Socio-economic shocks, technogenic catastrophes, and armed conflicts often have drastic impacts on local and regional food security through disruption of agricultural production and food trade, reduced investments, and deterioration of land and infrastructure. Recently, more research has focused on the effects of armed conflict on land systems, but still little is known about the processes and outcomes of such events. Here we use the case of Syria and Iraq and the seizure of land by the Islamic State (IS) since 2014 as an example of armed conflict, where we investigate the effects on agricultural land use. We apply a reproducible approach using 250 m satellite-based time-series data to quantify the areas under cultivation from 2000 to 2015. Despite a common belief about widespread land abandonment in areas under conflict, results point to multiple trajectories regarding cropland cultivation in the IS seized area: (1) expansion of cropland to formerly un-cultivated areas, (2) cropland abandonment, and (3) decrease of high-intensity cropland. Our study highlights the need to understand these diverse conflict-related and context-dependent changes to the land system.

  9. Yalova: potential organic agricultural land of Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Süheyla Balcı Akova

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available La pression qui augmente de jour en jour sur les ressources naturelles et les problèmes de la malnutrition conduisent à porter un intérêt croissant aux produits biologiques. Il est assez important de s'interroger sur les surfaces convenables pour la récolte des produits biologiques et d’évaluer les potentiels d’agriculture de ces surfaces. La ville de Yalova, sujet d’étude de cet article, dispose des conditions convenables pour pratiquer l’agriculture biologique. La pratique des activités agricoles effectuées dans la région adaptée aux bases fondamentales de l’agriculture biologique permettra de valoriser le potentiel d’agriculture biologique de la région. De cette manière, les revenus obtenus augmenteront le niveau de vie des habitants de la région, les ressources naturelles de la région seront conservées et les produits biologiques obtenus seront des ressources de vie saine.Dans ce travail, on a étudié le potentiel d’agriculture biologique et l’importance de ce type d’agriculture pour la région. On a tout d’abord réfléchi sur le potentiel de la région pour l’agriculture et la situation générale de l’agriculture biologique en Turquie et dans le monde entier. On a ensuite traité du processus du développement et des caractéristiques de l’agriculture biologique à Yalova.Increasing pressure on natural resources and the problems caused by unhealthy eating habits have brought along an increase in demands for organic products. Therefore, determining the lands suitable for organic farming with an evaluation of their potentials is of great importance. The city of Yalova which constitutes our research sector has convenient conditions for organic farming. After a regulation of current agricultural activities in accordance with the fundamentals of organic farming, remarkable potential of the field would be availed by putting them into practice. Welfare level of the citizens would also be enhanced with

  10. Modeling nitrate from land surface to wells' perforations under agricultural land: success, failure, and future scenarios in a Mediterranean case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Levy

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Contamination of groundwater resources by nitrate leaching under agricultural land is probably the most troublesome agriculture-related water contamination worldwide. Contaminated areas often show large spatial variability of nitrate concentration in wells. In this study, we tried to assess whether this spatial variability can be characterized on the basis of land use and standard agricultural practices. Deep soil sampling (10 m was used to calibrate vertical flow and nitrogen-transport numerical models of the unsaturated zone under different agricultural land uses. Vegetable fields (potato and strawberry and deciduous orchards (persimmon in the Sharon area overlying the coastal aquifer of Israel were examined. Average nitrate–nitrogen fluxes below vegetable fields were 210–290 kg ha−1 yr−1 and under deciduous orchards were 110–140 kg ha−1 yr−1. The output water and nitrate–nitrogen fluxes of the unsaturated-zone models were used as input data for a three-dimensional flow and nitrate-transport model in the aquifer under an area of 13.3 km2 of agricultural land. The area was subdivided into four agricultural land uses: vegetables, deciduous orchards, citrus orchards, and non-cultivated. Fluxes of water and nitrate–nitrogen below citrus orchards were taken from a previous study in the area. The groundwater flow model was calibrated to well heads by changing the hydraulic conductivity. The nitrate-transport model, which was fed by the above-mentioned models of the unsaturated zone, succeeded in reconstructing the average nitrate concentration in the wells. However, this transport model failed in calculating the high concentrations in the most contaminated wells and the large spatial variability of nitrate concentrations in the aquifer. To reconstruct the spatial variability and enable predictions, nitrate fluxes from the unsaturated zone were multiplied by local multipliers. This action was rationalized by the fact

  11. Historical Changes in the Land Use Connected with Appropriation of Agricultural Land – Case Study of Cadastral Areas Dolní Věstonice and Modřice (Czech Republic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Szturc Jan

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The article focuses on the issue of agricultural soil sealing in the Dolní Věstonice and Modřice cadastres (South Moravian Region. Available data and map resources were used for this purpose (historical and up-to-date. Data was processed using manual digitalisation which helped to generate the needed map output. The decrease in area of agricultural land is analysed in individual periods starting in the year 1824 (source of data stable cadastre - the first half of the 19th century until the present, and the sealing of different types of plots and soil kinds is assessed according to Evaluated Soil-Ecological Units (ESEU. In most cases, agricultural land sealing is associated with municipal expansion. To compare future development, potential (forthcoming agricultural land sealing proposed within the valid landscape plans was also explored. Likewise, the overall price of sealed plots in both locations was calculated. The results show that there was a significant change in the use of both model territories between 1824 and the present. In Modřice, the area of the built-up area was changed from 16 ha (1824 to 409 ha (2016. The area of the site has expanded from 90% to agricultural land. The most significant change in this area is the development of builtup areas on agricultural land. In the model territory of Dolní Věstonice, the area of the built-up area increased from 16 ha (1824 to 48 ha (2016. The area of the site has expanded from 70% to agricultural land. Due to the construction of water reservoirs “Nové Mlýny”, the area of water bodies increased by 569 ha (during the period 1824- 2016. The water reservoirs occupy 65% of the cadastral area of Dolní Věstonice. The most significant change in landscape is the increase in water areas in Dolní Věstonice. Should this trend persist, an extensive reduction in agricultural soil and ensuing problems associated with sustainable agriculture, potentially also deficient food resources must be

  12. THE PREEMPTION RIGHT REGARDING THE TRANSACTIONS OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE BUILT-UP AREAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simona Chirică

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The sale of agricultural lands located out-side the built-up areas has been recently limited through the obligation to follow the preemption procedure based on Law no. 17/2014, as subsequently amended (”Law 17”2 on the regulation measures for sale of agricultural lands located out-side the built-up areas and for the amendment of Law no. 268/2011 on the privatization of companies holding in administration public or private State owned agricultural lands and the establishment of the State Domains Agency. The preemptors are: (i the joint owners, (ii the lessees, (iii the neighboring owners, (iv Romanian State, through State Domain Agency. The preemption procedure commence with posting by the seller of its sale offer at the competent city hall and ends with the issuance of the positive/negative sale approval or, as the case may be, the conclusion of the sale agreement with one of the pre-emptors.

  13. The potential and sustainability of agricultural land use in a changing ecosystem in southern Greenland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunziker, Matthias; Caviezel, Chatrina; Kuhn, Nikolaus J.

    2015-04-01

    Southern Greenland currently experiences an increase in summer temperatures and a prolonged growing season (Masson-Delmotte et al. 2012), resulting in an increased potential regarding agricultural land use. Subsequently, the agricultural sector is expected to grow. Thereby, a higher hay production and grazing capacity is pursued by applying more efficient farming practices (Greenland Agriculture Advisory Board 2009). However, agricultural potential at borderline ecotones is not only influenced by factors like temperature and growing season but also by other ecologic parameters. In addition, the intensification of land use in the fragile boreal - tundra border ecotone has various environmental impacts (Perren et al. 2012; Normand et al. 2013). Already the Norse settlers practiced animal husbandry in southern Greenland between 986-1450 AD. Several authors mention the unadapted land use as main reason for the demise of the Norse in Greenland, as grazing pressure exceeded the resilience of the landscape and pasture economy failed (Fredskild 1988; Perren et al. 2012). During the field work in summer 2014, we compared the pedologic properties of already used hay fields, grazed land, birch woodland and barren, unused land around Igaliku (South Greenland), in order to estimate the potential and the sustainability of the land use in southern Greenland. Beside physical soil properties, nutrient condition of the different land use types, the shrub woodland and barren areas was analyzed. The results of the study show that the most suitable areas for intensive agricultural activity are mostly occupied. Further on, the fields, which were used by the Norse, seem to be the most productive sites nowadays. Less productive hay fields are characterized by a higher coarse fraction, leading to a reduced ability to store water and to an unfavorable nutrient status. An intensification of the agricultural land use by applying fertilizer would lead to an increased environmental impact

  14. Spatial modeling of agricultural land use change at global scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meiyappan, P.; Dalton, M.; O'Neill, B. C.; Jain, A. K.

    2014-11-01

    Long-term modeling of agricultural land use is central in global scale assessments of climate change, food security, biodiversity, and climate adaptation and mitigation policies. We present a global-scale dynamic land use allocation model and show that it can reproduce the broad spatial features of the past 100 years of evolution of cropland and pastureland patterns. The modeling approach integrates economic theory, observed land use history, and data on both socioeconomic and biophysical determinants of land use change, and estimates relationships using long-term historical data, thereby making it suitable for long-term projections. The underlying economic motivation is maximization of expected profits by hypothesized landowners within each grid cell. The model predicts fractional land use for cropland and pastureland within each grid cell based on socioeconomic and biophysical driving factors that change with time. The model explicitly incorporates the following key features: (1) land use competition, (2) spatial heterogeneity in the nature of driving factors across geographic regions, (3) spatial heterogeneity in the relative importance of driving factors and previous land use patterns in determining land use allocation, and (4) spatial and temporal autocorrelation in land use patterns. We show that land use allocation approaches based solely on previous land use history (but disregarding the impact of driving factors), or those accounting for both land use history and driving factors by mechanistically fitting models for the spatial processes of land use change do not reproduce well long-term historical land use patterns. With an example application to the terrestrial carbon cycle, we show that such inaccuracies in land use allocation can translate into significant implications for global environmental assessments. The modeling approach and its evaluation provide an example that can be useful to the land use, Integrated Assessment, and the Earth system modeling

  15. Research Needs for Carbon Management in Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Negra, C.; Lovejoy, T.; Ojima, D. S.; Ashton, R.; Havemann, T.; Eaton, J.

    2009-12-01

    Improved management of terrestrial carbon in agriculture, forestry, and other land use sectors is a necessary part of climate change mitigation. It is likely that governments will agree in Copenhagen in December 2009 to incentives for improved management of some forms of terrestrial carbon, including maintaining existing terrestrial carbon (e.g., avoiding deforestation) and creating new terrestrial carbon (e.g., afforestation, soil management). To translate incentives into changes in land management and terrestrial carbon stocks, a robust technical and scientific information base is required. All terrestrial carbon pools (and other greenhouse gases from the terrestrial system) that interact with the atmosphere at timescales less than centuries, and all land uses, have documented mitigation potential, however, most activity has focused on above-ground forest biomass. Despite research advances in understanding emissions reduction and sequestration associated with different land management techniques, there has not yet been broad-scale implementation of land-based mitigation activity in croplands, peatlands, grasslands and other land uses. To maximize long-term global terrestrial carbon volumes, further development of relevant data, methodologies and technologies are needed to complement policy and financial incentives. The Terrestrial Carbon Group, in partnership with UN-REDD agencies, the World Bank and CGIAR institutions, is reviewing literature, convening leading experts and surveying key research institutions to develop a Roadmap for Terrestrial Carbon: Research Needs for Implementation of Carbon Management in Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses. This work will summarize the existing knowledge base for emissions reductions and sequestration through land management as well as the current availability of tools and methods for measurement and monitoring of terrestrial carbon. Preliminary findings indicate a number of areas for future work. Enhanced information

  16. Linking river nutrient concentrations to land use and rainfall in a paddy agriculture-urban area gradient watershed in southeast China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Yongqiu; Ti, Chaopu; She, Dongli; Yan, Xiaoyuan

    2016-10-01

    The effects of land use and land-use changes on river nutrient concentrations are not well understood, especially in the watersheds of developing countries that have a mixed land use of rice paddy fields and developing urban surfaces. Here, we present a three-year study of a paddy agricultural-urban area gradient watershed in southeast China. The annual anthropogenic nitrogen (N) input from the agricultural region to the urban region was high, yet the results showed that the monthly nutrient concentrations in the river were low in the rainy seasons. The nutrient concentrations decreased continuously as the river water passed through the traditional agriculture region (TAR; paddy rice and wheat rotation) and increased substantially in the city region (CR). The traditional agricultural reference region exported most of the nutrient loads at high flows (>1mmd(-1)), the intensified agricultural region (IAR, aquaculture and poultry farming) exported most of the nutrient loads at moderate flows (between 0.5 and 1mmd(-1)), and the CR reference area exported most of the nutrient loads under low to moderate flows. We developed a statistical model to link variations in the nutrient concentrations to the proportion of land-use types and rainfall. The statistical results showed that impervious surfaces, which we interpret as a proxy for urban activities including sewage disposal, were the most important drivers of nutrient concentrations, whereas water surfaces accounted for a substantial proportion of the nutrient sinks. Therefore, to efficiently reduce water pollution, sewage from urban areas must be addressed as a priority, although wetland restoration could also achieve substantial pollutant removal. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  17. EFFICIENCY OF USE AGRICULTURAL LAND ON THE BASIS FORMATION OF THE EROSION MODEL REGIONAL LEVEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Butenko

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available A general characteristic degradation processes at regional level. The dependence between the coefficients of the properties of agricultural land and soil conservation index value. Calculated losses of major crops due to the use of arable land, which belong to the degraded and unproductive. The measures to restore the effectiveness ofthe use ofthese lands.

  18. Soil Properties in Natural Forest Destruction and Conversion to Agricultural Land,in Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatera Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Basuki Wasis

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Destruction of the Gunung Leuser National Park area of North Sumatera Province through land clearing and land cover change from natural forest to agricultural land. Less attention to land use and ecosystem carrying capacity of the soil can cause soil degradation and destruction of flora, fauna, and wildlife habitat destruction. Environmental damage will result in a national park wild life will come out of the conservation area and would damage the agricultural community. Soil sampling conducted in purposive sampling in natural forest and agricultural areas.  Observation suggest that damage to the natural forest vegetation has caused the soil is not protected so that erosion has occurred. Destruction of natural forest into agricultural are as has caused damage to soil physical properties, soil chemical properties, and biological soil properties significantly. Forms of soil degradation caused by the destruction of natural forests, which is an increase in soil density (density Limbak by 103%, a decrease of 93% organic C and soil nitrogen decreased by 81%. The main factors causing soil degradation is the reduction of organic matter and soil erosion due to loss of natural forest vegetation.  Criteria for soil degradation in Governance Regulation Number 150/2000 can be used to determine the extent of soil degradation in natural forest ecosystems.Keywords: Gunung Leuser National Park, natural forest, agricultural land, land damage, soil properties

  19. THE DEMAND FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS: LAND TITLING, CREDIT, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN MEXICO

    OpenAIRE

    Johnson, Nancy L.

    1998-01-01

    Land titles can increase agricultural productivity by increasing access to collateralized credit. However, increased credit use depends on the assumption that farmers face asset-based credit rationing. This assumption is tested using data from Mexico's voluntary land titling program. The results do not support the existence of widespread credit rationing.

  20. Assessment on the rates and potentials of soil organic carbon sequestration in agricultural lands in Japan using a process-based model and spatially explicit land-use change inventories - Part 2: Future potentials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yagasaki, Y.; Shirato, Y.

    2014-08-01

    Future potentials of the sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC) in agricultural lands in Japan were estimated using a simulation system we recently developed to simulate SOC stock change at country-scale under varying land-use change, climate, soil, and agricultural practices, in a spatially explicit manner. Simulation was run from 1970 to 2006 with historical inventories, and subsequently to 2020 with future scenarios of agricultural activity comprised of various agricultural policy targets advocated by the Japanese government. Furthermore, the simulation was run subsequently until 2100 while forcing no temporal changes in land-use and agricultural activity to investigate duration and course of SOC stock change at country scale. A scenario with an increased rate of organic carbon input to agricultural fields by intensified crop rotation in combination with the suppression of conversion of agricultural lands to other land-use types was found to have a greater reduction of CO2 emission by enhanced soil carbon sequestration, but only under a circumstance in which the converted agricultural lands will become settlements that were considered to have a relatively lower rate of organic carbon input. The size of relative reduction of CO2 emission in this scenario was comparable to that in another contrasting scenario (business-as-usual scenario of agricultural activity) in which a relatively lower rate of organic matter input to agricultural fields was assumed in combination with an increased rate of conversion of the agricultural fields to unmanaged grasslands through abandonment. Our simulation experiment clearly demonstrated that net-net-based accounting on SOC stock change, defined as the differences between the emissions and removals during the commitment period and the emissions and removals during a previous period (base year or base period of Kyoto Protocol), can be largely influenced by variations in future climate. Whereas baseline-based accounting, defined

  1. Impact of changes in diet on the availability of land, energy demand, and greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fazeni, Karin; Steinmueller, Horst [Johannes Kepler Univ. (JKU Linz), Linz (Austria). Energy Inst.

    2011-12-15

    Recent scientific investigations have revealed a correlation between nutrition habits and the environmental impacts of agriculture. So, it is obviously worthwhile to study what effects a change in diet has on land use patterns, energy demand, and greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural production. This study calculates the amount of energy and emission savings as well as changes in land use that would result from different scenarios underlying a change in diet. Based on the healthy eating recommendations of the German Nutrition Society, meat consumption in Austria should decrease by about 60%, and consumption of fruits and vegetables has to increase strongly. This investigation showed that compliance with healthy eating guidelines leads to lower energy demand and a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to a decrease in livestock numbers. Furthermore, arable land and grassland no longer needed for animal feed production becomes redundant and can possibly be used for the production of raw materials for renewable energy. The scenario examination shows that in the self-sufficiency scenario and in the import/export scenario, up to 443,100 ha and about 208,800 ha, respectively, of arable land and grassland are released for non-food uses. The cumulative energy demand of agriculture is lower by up to 38%, and the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture decrease by up to 37% in these scenarios as against the reference situation. The land use patterns for the scenario demonstrate that animal feed production still takes up the largest share of agricultural land even though the extent of animal husbandry decreased considerably in the scenarios. (orig.)

  2. Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land: The contribution of agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zomer, Robert J; Neufeldt, Henry; Xu, Jianchu; Ahrends, Antje; Bossio, Deborah; Trabucco, Antonio; van Noordwijk, Meine; Wang, Mingcheng

    2016-07-20

    Agroforestry systems and tree cover on agricultural land make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not systematically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or national carbon accounting. This paper assesses the role of trees on agricultural land and their significance for carbon sequestration at a global level, along with recent change trends. Remote sensing data show that in 2010, 43% of all agricultural land globally had at least 10% tree cover and that this has increased by 2% over the previous ten years. Combining geographically and bioclimatically stratified Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 1 default estimates of carbon storage with this tree cover analysis, we estimated 45.3 PgC on agricultural land globally, with trees contributing >75%. Between 2000 and 2010 tree cover increased by 3.7%, resulting in an increase of >2 PgC (or 4.6%) of biomass carbon. On average, globally, biomass carbon increased from 20.4 to 21.4 tC ha(-1). Regional and country-level variation in stocks and trends were mapped and tabulated globally, and for all countries. Brazil, Indonesia, China and India had the largest increases in biomass carbon stored on agricultural land, while Argentina, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone had the largest decreases.

  3. A method for calculating a land-use change carbon footprint (LUC-CFP) for agricultural commodities - applications to Brazilian beef and soy, Indonesian palm oil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Persson, U Martin; Henders, Sabine; Cederberg, Christel

    2014-11-01

    The world's agricultural system has come under increasing scrutiny recently as an important driver of global climate change, creating a demand for indicators that estimate the climatic impacts of agricultural commodities. Such carbon footprints, however, have in most cases excluded emissions from land-use change and the proposed methodologies for including this significant emissions source suffer from different shortcomings. Here, we propose a new methodology for calculating land-use change carbon footprints for agricultural commodities and illustrate this methodology by applying it to three of the most prominent agricultural commodities driving tropical deforestation: Brazilian beef and soybeans, and Indonesian palm oil. We estimate land-use change carbon footprints in 2010 to be 66 tCO2 /t meat (carcass weight) for Brazilian beef, 0.89 tCO2 /t for Brazilian soybeans, and 7.5 tCO2 /t for Indonesian palm oil, using a 10 year amortization period. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is its flexibility: it can be applied in a tiered approach, using detailed data where it is available while still allowing for estimation of footprints for a broad set of countries and agricultural commodities; it can be applied at different scales, estimating both national and subnational footprints; it can be adopted to account both for direct (proximate) and indirect drivers of land-use change. It is argued that with an increasing commercialization and globalization of the drivers of land-use change, the proposed carbon footprint methodology could help leverage the power needed to alter environmentally destructive land-use practices within the global agricultural system by providing a tool for assessing the environmental impacts of production, thereby informing consumers about the impacts of consumption and incentivizing producers to become more environmentally responsible. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Linking Agricultural Trade, Land Demand and Environmental Externalities: Case of Oil Palm in South East Asia

    OpenAIRE

    Othman, Jamal

    2003-01-01

    Reduction of support measures affecting soybean oil in the major soybean producing countries, as a consequence of WTO rules, coupled with rising demand for palm oil in non-traditional palm oil importing countries may lead to pronounced increases in agricultural land demand for oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia – two main palm oil producing and exporting countries. However, it is expected that the effects on agricultural land demand and consequently impact upon the environment will ...

  5. Thermal Band Analysis of Agricultural Land Use and its Effects on Bioclimatic Comfort: The Case of Pasinler

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avdan, Uǧur; Demircioglu Yildiz, Nalan; Dagliyar, Ayse; Yigit Avdan, Zehra; Yilmaz, Sevgi

    2014-05-01

    Resolving the problems that arise due to the land use are not suitable for the purpose in the rural and urban areas most suitable for land use of parameters to be determined. Unintended and unplanned developments in the use of agricultural land in our country caused increases the losses by soil erosion. In this study, Thermal Band analysis is made in Pasinler city center with the aim of identifying bioclimatic comfort values of the different agricultural area. Satellite images can be applied for assessing the thermal urban environment as well as for defining heat islands in agricultural areas. In this context, temperature map is tried to be produced with land surface temperature (LST) analysis made on Landsat TM5 satellite image. The Landsat 5 images was obtained from USGS for the study area. Using Landsat bands of the study area was mapped by supervised classification with the maximum likelihood classification algorithm of ERDAS imagine 2011 software. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) image was produced by using Landsat images. The digital number of the Landsat thermal infrared band (10.40 - 12.50 µm) is converted to the spectral radiance. The surface emissivity was calculated by using NDVI. The spatial pattern of land surface temperature in the study area is taken to characterize their local effects on agricultural land. Areas having bioclimatic comfort and ecologically urbanized, are interpreted with different graphical presentation technics. The obtained results are important because they create data bases for sustainable urban planning and provide a direction for planners and governors. As a result of rapid changes in land use, rural ecosystems and quality of life are deteriorated and decreased. In the presence of increased building density, for the comfortable living of people natural and cultural resources should be analyzed in detail. For that reason, optimal land use planning should be made in rural area.

  6. Compounding Effects of Agricultural Land Use and Water Use in Free-Flowing Rivers: Confounding Issues for Environmental Flows.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardie, Scott A; Bobbi, Chris J

    2018-03-01

    Defining the ecological impacts of water extraction from free-flowing river systems in altered landscapes is challenging as multiple stressors (e.g., flow regime alteration, increased sedimentation) may have simultaneous effects and attributing causality is problematic. This multiple-stressor context has been acknowledged in environmental flows science, but is often neglected when it comes to examining flow-ecology relationships, and setting and implementing environmental flows. We examined the impacts of land and water use on rivers in the upper Ringarooma River catchment in Tasmania (south-east Australia), which contains intensively irrigated agriculture, to support implementation of a water management plan. Temporal and spatial and trends in river condition were assessed using benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. Relationships between macroinvertebrate community structure and environmental variables were examined using univariate and multivariate analyses, focusing on the impacts of agricultural land use and water use. Structural changes in macroinvertebrate communities in rivers in the catchment indicated temporal and spatial declines in the ecological condition of some stretches of river associated with agricultural land and water use. Moreover, water extraction appeared to exacerbate impairment associated with agricultural land use (e.g., reduced macroinvertebrate density, more flow-avoiding taxa). The findings of our catchment-specific bioassessments will underpin decision-making during the implementation of the Ringarooma water management plan, and highlight the need to consider compounding impacts of land and water use in environmental flows and water planning in agricultural landscapes.

  7. Compounding Effects of Agricultural Land Use and Water Use in Free-Flowing Rivers: Confounding Issues for Environmental Flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardie, Scott A.; Bobbi, Chris J.

    2018-03-01

    Defining the ecological impacts of water extraction from free-flowing river systems in altered landscapes is challenging as multiple stressors (e.g., flow regime alteration, increased sedimentation) may have simultaneous effects and attributing causality is problematic. This multiple-stressor context has been acknowledged in environmental flows science, but is often neglected when it comes to examining flow-ecology relationships, and setting and implementing environmental flows. We examined the impacts of land and water use on rivers in the upper Ringarooma River catchment in Tasmania (south-east Australia), which contains intensively irrigated agriculture, to support implementation of a water management plan. Temporal and spatial and trends in river condition were assessed using benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. Relationships between macroinvertebrate community structure and environmental variables were examined using univariate and multivariate analyses, focusing on the impacts of agricultural land use and water use. Structural changes in macroinvertebrate communities in rivers in the catchment indicated temporal and spatial declines in the ecological condition of some stretches of river associated with agricultural land and water use. Moreover, water extraction appeared to exacerbate impairment associated with agricultural land use (e.g., reduced macroinvertebrate density, more flow-avoiding taxa). The findings of our catchment-specific bioassessments will underpin decision-making during the implementation of the Ringarooma water management plan, and highlight the need to consider compounding impacts of land and water use in environmental flows and water planning in agricultural landscapes.

  8. Spatio-temporal analysis of agricultural land-use intensity across the Western Siberian grain belt.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kühling, Insa; Broll, Gabriele; Trautz, Dieter

    2016-02-15

    The Western Siberian grain belt covers 1millionkm² in Asiatic Russia and is of global importance for agriculture. Massive land-use changes took place in that region after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the state farm system. Decreasing land-use intensity (LUI) in post-Soviet Western Siberia was observed on grassland due to declining livestock whilst on cropland trends of land abandonment reversed in the early 2000s. Recultivation of abandoned cropland as well as increasing fertilizer inputs and narrowing crop rotations led to increasing LUI on cropland during the last two decades. Beyond that general trend, no information is available about spatial distribution and magnitude but a crucial precondition for the development of strategies for sustainable land management. To quantify changes and patterns in LUI, we developed an intensity index that reflects the impacts of land-based agricultural production. Based on subnational yearly statistical data, we calculated two separate input-orientated indices for cropland and grassland, respectively. The indices were applied on two spatial scale: at seven provinces covering the Western Siberian grain belt (Altay Kray, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen) and at all districts of the central province Tyumen. The spatio-temporal analysis clearly showed opposite trends for the two land-use types: decreasing intensity on grassland (-0.015 LUI units per year) and intensification on cropland (+0.014 LUI units per year). Furthermore, a spatial concentration towards intensity centres occurred during transition from a planned to a market economy. A principal component analysis enabled the individual calculations of both land-use types to be combined and revealed a strong link between biophysical conditions and LUI. The findings clearly showed the need for having a different strategy for future sustainable land management for grassland (predominantly used by livestock of households

  9. Diversity and Abundance of Insect Pollinators in Different Agricultural Lands in Jambi, Sumatera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elida Hafni Siregar

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural land use is an artificial ecosystem. Insect pollinators are important keys to success of the agroecosystem. Converting natural landscapes to agricultural land, such as oil palm and rubber plantations, affects the insects. The research aims to study diversity and abundance of insect pollinators in three different agricultural land uses, i.e. oil palm plantation, rubber plantation, and jungle-rubber. Scan sampling method was used to explore the diversity of insect pollinators. Observations of the insects were conducted from 08.00 to 10.00 AM and 02.00 to 04.00 PM in sunny days. There were 497 individuals of insect pollinators collected, which belong to 43 species in three orders (Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera. Number of species and individual of insect pollinators found in rubber plantations (31 species, 212 individuals and oil palm plantation (23 species, 188 individuals were higher than that in jungle rubber (7 species, 97 individuals. Insect pollinators in oil palm plantations were dominated by giant honey bee (Apis dorsata and stingless bee (Trigona sp. [=aff. T. planifrons], whereas in rubber plantation, they were dominated by small carpenter bees (Ceratina lieftincki and Ceratina simillima, and in jungle-rubbers were dominated by hoverfly (Syrphid sp. and Apis andreniformis. Higher foraging activities of insect pollinators occured in the morning.

  10. Adaptation with climate uncertainty: An examination of agricultural land use in the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mu, Jianhong E.; McCarl, Bruce A.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Abatzoglou, John T.; Zhang, Hongliang

    2018-01-01

    This paper examines adaptation responses to climate change through adjustment of agricultural land use. The climate drivers we examine are changes in long-term climate normals (e.g., 10-year moving averages) and changes in inter-annual climate variability. Using US county level data over 1982 to 2012 from Census of Agriculture, we find that impacts of long-term climate normals are as important as that of inter-annual climate variability. Projecting into the future, we find projected climate change will lead to an expansion in crop land share across the northern and interior western United States with decreases in the south. We also find that grazing land share increases in southern regions and Inland Pacific Northwest and declines in the northern areas. However, the extent to which the adaptation potential would be is dependent on the climate model, emission scenario and time horizon under consideration.

  11. Microbial Community-Level Physiological Profiles (CLPP) and herbicide mineralization potential in groundwater affected by agricultural land use

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Janniche, Gry Sander; Spliid, Henrik; Albrechtsen, Hans-Jørgen

    2012-01-01

    Diffuse groundwater pollution from agricultural land use may impact the microbial groundwater community, which was investigated as Community-Level Physiological Profiles (CLPP) using EcoPlate™. Water was sampled from seven piezometers and a spring in a small agricultural catchment with diffuse......-galacturonic acid, tween 40, and 4-hydroxy benzoic acid as substrates, whereas none preferred 2-hydroxy benzoic acid, α-d-lactose, d,l-α-glycerol phosphate, α-ketobutyric acid, l-threonine and glycyl-l-glutamic acid. Principal Component Analysis of the CLPP's clustered the most agriculturally affected groundwater...... samples, indicating that the agricultural land use affects the groundwater microbial communities. Furthermore, the ability to mineralize atrazine and isoproturon, which have been used in the catchment, was also associated with this cluster....

  12. Land-Sparing Opportunities for Solar Energy Development in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study of the Great Central Valley, CA, United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffacker, Madison K; Allen, Michael F; Hernandez, Rebecca R

    2017-12-19

    Land-cover change from energy development, including solar energy, presents trade-offs for land used for the production of food and the conservation of ecosystems. Solar energy plays a critical role in contributing to the alternative energy mix to mitigate climate change and meet policy milestones; however, the extent that solar energy development on nonconventional surfaces can mitigate land scarcity is understudied. Here, we evaluate the land sparing potential of solar energy development across four nonconventional land-cover types: the built environment, salt-affected land, contaminated land, and water reservoirs (as floatovoltaics), within the Great Central Valley (CV, CA), a globally significant agricultural region where land for food production, urban development, and conservation collide. Furthermore, we calculate the technical potential (TWh year -1 ) of these land sparing sites and test the degree to which projected electricity needs for the state of California can be met therein. In total, the CV encompasses 15% of CA, 8415 km 2 of which was identified as potentially land-sparing for solar energy development. These areas comprise a capacity-based energy potential of at least 17 348 TWh year -1 for photovoltaic (PV) and 2213 TWh year -1 for concentrating solar power (CSP). Accounting for technology efficiencies, this exceeds California's 2025 projected electricity demands up to 13 and 2 times for PV and CSP, respectively. Our study underscores the potential of strategic renewable energy siting to mitigate environmental trade-offs typically coupled with energy sprawl in agricultural landscapes.

  13. The potential for agricultural land use change to reduce flood risk in a large watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Effects of agricultural land management practices on surface runoff are evident at local scales, but evidence for watershed-scale impacts is limited. In this study, we used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model to assess changes in downstream flood risks under different land uses for the large, ...

  14. The dominant factors affecting agricultural land use (rice field change in Yogyakarta Special Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadi Sabari Yunus

    2013-07-01

    The research shows that the period of 1980 - 2000 in Yogyakarta Special Province has indicated very significantly the increase in population, the development of road and the extension of built up area. For the time being, agricultural land mainly in Sleman Regency, Bantul Regency and Yogyakarta Municipality has decreased. Sleman regency performed the largest decrease of rice field and followed after then by Bantul regency and Yogyakarta Municipality. The regency of Kulon Progo and Gunung Kidul have experienced reverse phenomenon i.e. the increase of rice field during this period. Individually or simultaneously, three variables used in this research (number of people, road's length and built up area have significantly influenced the agricultural land use.

  15. Agricultural land use at East Akim municipality in the Eastern Region ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The last decade has witnessed a flow in large-scale and long-term acquisition of agricultural land in many developing countries. This trend has been driven by the recent global food price crises, fears about energy insecurity and a surge in Foreign Direct Investment flows. The objectives of the study are to present an ...

  16. Zaraščanje kmetijskih zemljišč v slovenskem alpskem svetu = Abandoning of agricultural land in the Slovenian Alps

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomaž Cunder

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available Abandoning of agricultural land belongs to the most prominent indicators of partial disintegration of cultivated landscape. The Slovenian Alps are undoubtedly among those regions in which the abandoning is the most intensive and widely extended. The stagnation of agriculture, which is going on at present, is influenced by natural and social and demographic conditions which also affect the extensification of the most unfavourable areas followed by permanent abandoning of production. If the reasons for this situation are considered, the abandoning of agricultural land can be defined as a reflection of a disturbed balance between the socio-economic situation of agricultural population and the natural disposition for agricultural production. Areas with the most severe degradation of cultured landscape are, as a rule, the most prominent depopulation and deagrarisation areas in the Alps. Revitalisation of agricultural land in the process of abandoning is not only important from the productionally strategic point of view but also from the regional and ecological one.

  17. Soil respiration and carbon loss relationship with temperature and land use conversion in freeze-thaw agricultural area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouyang, Wei; Lai, Xuehui; Li, Xia; Liu, Heying; Lin, Chunye; Hao, Fanghua

    2015-11-15

    Soil respiration (Rs) was hypothesized to have a special response pattern to soil temperature and land use conversion in the freeze-thaw area. The Rs differences of eight types of land use conversions during agricultural development were observed and the impacts of Rs on soil organic carbon (SOC) loss were assessed. The land use conversions during last three decades were categorized into eight types, and the 141 SOC sampling sites were grouped by conversion type. The typical soil sampling sites were subsequently selected for monitoring of soil temperature and Rs of each land use conversion types. The Rs correlations with temperature at difference depths and different conversion types were identified with statistical analysis. The empirical mean error model and the biophysical theoretical model with Arrhenius equation about the Rs sensitivity to temperature were both analyzed and shared the similar patterns. The temperature dependence of soil respiration (Q10) analysis further demonstrated that the averaged value of eight types of land use in this freeze-thaw agricultural area ranged from 1.15 to 1.73, which was lower than the other cold areas. The temperature dependence analysis demonstrated that the Rs in the top layer of natural land covers was more sensitive to temperature and experienced a large vertical difference. The natural land covers exhibited smaller Rs and the farmlands had the bigger value due to tillage practices. The positive relationships between SOC loss and Rs were identified, which demonstrated that Rs was the key chain for SOC loss during land use conversion. The spatial-vertical distributions of SOC concentration with the 1.5-km grid sampling showed that the more SOC loss in the farmland, which was coincided with the higher Rs in farmlands. The analysis of Rs dynamics provided an innovative explanation for SOC loss in the freeze-thaw agricultural area. The analysis of Rs dynamics provided an innovative explanation for SOC loss in the freeze

  18. National Governance Approach for Agriculture Land in Natura 2000 Areas. Evidence from Plovdiv District, Bulgaria

    OpenAIRE

    Yanka KAZAKOVA-MATEVA

    2018-01-01

    The designation and implementation of Natura 2000 sites faced many challenges across most of the member states in the EC. Some related to consultation and involvement of stakeholders, funding the conservation objectives and providing compensation to land owners, farmers and foresters for restrictions on their land use. The national governments adopted different approaches to address these issues. The aim of the paper is to assess the governance approach for agricultural land in Natura 2000 in...

  19. Impacts of Biofuel-Induced Agricultural Land Use Changes on Watershed Hydrology and Water Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Z.; Zheng, H.

    2015-12-01

    The US Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 has contributed to widespread changes in agricultural land uses. The impact of these land use changes on regional water resources could also be significant. Agricultural land use changes were evaluated for the Red River of the North Basin (RRNB), an international river basin shared by the US and Canada. The influence of the land use changes on spring snowmelt flooding and downstream water quality was also assessed using watershed modeling. The planting areas for corn and soybean in the basin increased by 62% and 18%, while those for spring wheat, forest, and pasture decreased by 30%, 18%, and 50%, from 2006 to 2013. Although the magnitude of spring snowmelt peak flows in the Red River did not change from pre-EISA to post-EISA, our uncertainty analysis of the normalized hydrographs revealed that the downstream streamflows had a greater variability under the post-EISA land use scenario, which may lead to greater uncertainty in predicting spring snowmelt floods in the Red River. Hydrological simulation also showed that the sediment and nutrient loads at the basin's outlet in the US and Canada border increased under the post-EISA land use scenario, on average sediment increasing by 2.6%, TP by 14.1%, nitrate nitrogen by 5.9%, and TN by 9.1%. Potential impacts of the future biofuel crop scenarios on watershed hydrology and water quality in the RRNB were also simulated through integrated economic-hydrologic modeling.

  20. The impact of agricultural land use on stream chemistry in the Middle Hills of the Himalayas, Nepal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins, Robert; Jenkins, Alan

    1996-11-01

    The chemistry of streams draining agricultural and forested catchments in the Middle Hills of Nepal is described. Differences between mean streamwater chemistry are attributable to the effects of the terraced agriculture and land management practices. The agricultural catchments were found to exhibit higher mean concentrations of base cations (Na, Mg, K), bicarbonate, acid anions (SO 4, Cl), metals (Al, Fe) and nutrients (NO 3, PO 4). Increased base cations apparently result from tillage practices exposing fresh soil material to weathering. Increased acid anions result from inputs of inorganic fertiliser, notably ammonium sulphate, and from an apparent increase in evapotranspiration from the flooded terraces in the agricultural catchments. Increased metal concentrations may be promoted by increased weathering and erosion rates, and this is further supported by observations of dramatically higher turbidity in the streamwater draining the agricultural catchments. Higher levels of nutrients are the direct result of fertiliser input but concentrations are generally low from all catchments as a result of denitrification, indicating that eutrophication downstream is not a likely consequence of land use change. The major dynamics of water chemistry occur during the monsoon, which is also the main season for agricultural production. Mean wet season concentrations of base cations tend to be lower than in the dry season at all catchments as higher flow dilutes the relatively constant weathering input. Ammonium concentrations are higher from the agricultural catchments in the wet season as a result of direct washout of fertiliser. Detailed monitoring through storm periods at one agricultural catchment indicates that the chemistry responds very rapidly to changing flow, with cations decreasing and acid anions increasing followed by equally rapid recovery as flow recedes. Bicarbonate concentrations also decline markedly but are still sufficiently high to maintain pH near

  1. Effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems along an agriculture-to-urban land-use gradient, Milwaukee to Green Bay, Wisconsin, 2003-2004

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, Kevin D.; Scudder, Barbara C.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.; Steuer, Jeffery J.; Bell, Amanda H.; Peppler, Marie C.; Stewart, Jana S.; Harris, Mitchell A.

    2010-01-01

    In 2003 and 2004, 30 streams near Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin, were part of a national study by the U.S. Geological Survey to assess urbanization effects on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics along an agriculture-to-urban land-use gradient. A geographic information system was used to characterize natural landscape features that define the environmental setting and the degree of urbanization within each stream watershed. A combination of land cover, socioeconomic, and infrastructure variables were integrated into a multi-metric urban intensity index, scaled from 0 to 100, and assigned to each stream site to identify a gradient of urbanization within relatively homogeneous environmental settings. The 35 variables used to develop the final urban intensity index characterized the degree of urbanization and included road infrastructure (road area and road traffic index), 100-meter riparian land cover (percentage of impervious surface, shrubland, and agriculture), watershed land cover (percentage of impervious surface, developed/urban land, shrubland, and agriculture), and 26 socioeconomic variables (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). Characteristics examined as part of this study included: habitat, hydrology, stream temperature, water chemistry (chloride, sulfate, nutrients, dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic carbon, pesticides, and suspended sediment), benthic algae, benthic invertebrates, and fish. Semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) were used to assess the potential for bioconcentration of hydrophobic organic contaminants (specifically polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine and pyrethroid insecticides) in biological membranes, such as the gills of fish. Physical habitat measurements reflective of channel enlargement, including bankfull channel size and bank erosion, increased with increasing urbanization within the watershed. In this study, percentage of riffles and streambed substrate size were

  2. Land quality, sustainable development and environmental degradation in agricultural districts: A computational approach based on entropy indexes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zambon, Ilaria; Colantoni, Andrea; Carlucci, Margherita; Morrow, Nathan; Sateriano, Adele; Salvati, Luca

    2017-01-01

    Land Degradation (LD) in socio-environmental systems negatively impacts sustainable development paths. This study proposes a framework to LD evaluation based on indicators of diversification in the spatial distribution of sensitive land. We hypothesize that conditions for spatial heterogeneity in a composite index of land sensitivity are more frequently associated to areas prone to LD than spatial homogeneity. Spatial heterogeneity is supposed to be associated with degraded areas that act as hotspots for future degradation processes. A diachronic analysis (1960–2010) was performed at the Italian agricultural district scale to identify environmental factors associated with spatial heterogeneity in the degree of land sensitivity to degradation based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area Index (ESAI). In 1960, diversification in the level of land sensitivity measured using two common indexes of entropy (Shannon's diversity and Pielou's evenness) increased significantly with the ESAI, indicating a high level of land sensitivity to degradation. In 2010, surface area classified as “critical” to LD was the highest in districts with diversification in the spatial distribution of ESAI values, confirming the hypothesis formulated above. Entropy indexes, based on observed alignment with the concept of LD, constitute a valuable base to inform mitigation strategies against desertification. - Highlights: • Spatial heterogeneity is supposed to be associated with degraded areas. • Entropy indexes can inform mitigation strategies against desertification. • Assessing spatial diversification in the degree of land sensitivity to degradation. • Mediterranean rural areas have an evident diversity in agricultural systems. • A diachronic analysis carried out at the Italian agricultural district scale.

  3. Land quality, sustainable development and environmental degradation in agricultural districts: A computational approach based on entropy indexes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zambon, Ilaria, E-mail: ilaria.zambon@unitus.it [Department of Agricultural and Forestry scieNcEs (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, I-01100 Viterbo (Italy); Colantoni, Andrea [Department of Agricultural and Forestry scieNcEs (DAFNE), Tuscia University, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, I-01100 Viterbo (Italy); Carlucci, Margherita [Department of Social and Economic Science, University of Rome La Sapienza, Piazzale A. Moro 5, I-00185 Rome (Italy); Morrow, Nathan [Tulane University, Payson Program in International Development at the School of Law, New Orleans (United States); Sateriano, Adele; Salvati, Luca [Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-RPS), Via della Navicella 2-4, I-00184 Rome (Italy)

    2017-05-15

    Land Degradation (LD) in socio-environmental systems negatively impacts sustainable development paths. This study proposes a framework to LD evaluation based on indicators of diversification in the spatial distribution of sensitive land. We hypothesize that conditions for spatial heterogeneity in a composite index of land sensitivity are more frequently associated to areas prone to LD than spatial homogeneity. Spatial heterogeneity is supposed to be associated with degraded areas that act as hotspots for future degradation processes. A diachronic analysis (1960–2010) was performed at the Italian agricultural district scale to identify environmental factors associated with spatial heterogeneity in the degree of land sensitivity to degradation based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area Index (ESAI). In 1960, diversification in the level of land sensitivity measured using two common indexes of entropy (Shannon's diversity and Pielou's evenness) increased significantly with the ESAI, indicating a high level of land sensitivity to degradation. In 2010, surface area classified as “critical” to LD was the highest in districts with diversification in the spatial distribution of ESAI values, confirming the hypothesis formulated above. Entropy indexes, based on observed alignment with the concept of LD, constitute a valuable base to inform mitigation strategies against desertification. - Highlights: • Spatial heterogeneity is supposed to be associated with degraded areas. • Entropy indexes can inform mitigation strategies against desertification. • Assessing spatial diversification in the degree of land sensitivity to degradation. • Mediterranean rural areas have an evident diversity in agricultural systems. • A diachronic analysis carried out at the Italian agricultural district scale.

  4. A spatially-explicit data driven approach to assess the effect of agricultural land occupation on species groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elshout, P.; van Zelm, R.; Karuppiah, R.; Laurenzi, I.; Huijbregts, M.

    2013-12-01

    Change of vegetation cover and increased land use intensity can directly affect the natural habitat and the wildlife it houses. The actual impact of agricultural land use is region specific as crops are grown under various climatic conditions and ways of cultivation and refining. Furthermore, growing a specific crop in a tropical region may require clearance of rainforest while the same crop may replace natural grasslands in temperate regions. Within life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), methods to address impacts of land use on a global scale are still in need of development. We aim to extend existing methods to improve the robustness of LCIA by allowing spatial differentiation of agricultural land use impacts. The goal of this study is to develop characterization factors for the direct impact of land use on biodiversity, which results from the replacement of natural habitat with farmland. The characterization factor expresses the change in species richness under crop cultivation compared to the species richness in the natural situation over a certain area. A second goal was to identify the differences in impacts caused by cultivation of different crop types, sensitivity of different taxonomic groups, and differences in natural land cover. Empirical data on species richness were collected from literature for both natural reference situations and agricultural land use situations. Reference situations were selected on an ecoregion or biome basis. We calculated characterization factors for four crop groups (oil palm, low crops, cereals, and perennial grasses), four species groups (arthropods, birds, mammals, vascular plants), and six biomes.

  5. Political Economy of Global Rush for Agricultural Land: a Tract on India’s Overseas Acquisitions

    OpenAIRE

    Verma, Santosh Kumar

    2015-01-01

    This paper is an attempt to map the global land acquisitions with a focus on Indian MNCs in acquiring overseas land for agricultural purposes. It tries to outline the contemporary political economy of capital accumulation at the global level, especially, in the emerging developing economies like India and China, where the emergence of a new capitalist class has engaged itself into acquisition of land and control of other natural resources in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and South Eas...

  6. Benchmarking the performance of a land data assimilation system for agricultural drought monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    The application of land data assimilation systems to operational agricultural drought monitoring requires the development of (at least) three separate system sub-components: 1) a retrieval model to invert satellite-derived observations into soil moisture estimates, 2) a prognostic soil water balance...

  7. lands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.T. O'Geen

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Groundwater pumping chronically exceeds natural recharge in many agricultural regions in California. A common method of recharging groundwater — when surface water is available — is to deliberately flood an open area, allowing water to percolate into an aquifer. However, open land suitable for this type of recharge is scarce. Flooding agricultural land during fallow or dormant periods has the potential to increase groundwater recharge substantially, but this approach has not been well studied. Using data on soils, topography and crop type, we developed a spatially explicit index of the suitability for groundwater recharge of land in all agricultural regions in California. We identified 3.6 million acres of agricultural land statewide as having Excellent or Good potential for groundwater recharge. The index provides preliminary guidance about the locations where groundwater recharge on agricultural land is likely to be feasible. A variety of institutional, infrastructure and other issues must also be addressed before this practice can be implemented widely.

  8. Spatially quantifying and attributing 17 years of land cover change to examine post-agricultural forest transition in Hawai`i

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucas, M.; Trauernicht, C.; Carlson, K. M.; Miura, T.; Giambelluca, T. W.; Chen, Q.

    2017-12-01

    The past decades in Hawaii have seen large scale land use change and land cover shifts. However, much these dynamics are only described anecdotally or studied at a single locale, with little information on the extent, rate, or direction of change. This lack of data hinders any effort to assess, plan, and prioritize land management. To improve assessments of statewide vegetation and land cover change, this project developed high resolution, sub-pixel, percent cover maps of forest, grassland and bare earth at annual time steps from 1999 to 2016. Vegetation cover was quantified using archived LANDSAT imagery and a custom remote-sensing algorithm developed in the Google Earth Engine platform. A statistical trend analysis of annual maps of the these three proportional land covers were then used to detect land cover transitions across the archipelago. The aim of this work focused on quantifying the total area of change, annual rates of change and final vegetation cover outcomes statewide. Additionally these findings were attributed to past and current land uses and management history by compiling spatial datasets of development, agriculture, forest restoration sites and burned areas statewide. Results indicated that nearly 10% of the state's land surfaces are suspected to have transitioned between the three cover classes during the study period. Total statewide net change resulted in a gain in forest cover with largest areas of change occurring in unmanaged areas, current and past pastoral land, commercial forestry and abandoned cultivated land. The fastest annual rates of change were forest increases that occurred in restoration areas and commercial forestry. These findings indicate that Hawaii is going through a forest transition, primarily driven by agricultural abandonment with likely feedbacks from invasive species, but also influenced by the establishment of forestry production on former agricultural lands that show potential for native forest restoration. These

  9. "Left High and Dry": Federal Land Policies and Pima Agriculture, 1860-1910

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dejong, David H.

    2009-01-01

    The Akimel O'odham, or "River People" (Pima), have lived in the middle Gila River Valley for centuries, irrigating and cultivating the same land as their Huhugam ancestors did for millennia. Continuing their irrigated agricultural economy bequeathed to them by their Huhugam ancestors, the Pima leveraged a favorable geopolitical setting into a…

  10. The Effects of Agricultural Land-use on Stream Fish and Invertebrate Communities and Food-web Structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    North, C. A.; Fischer, R. U.

    2005-05-01

    Incorporating knowledge of the surrounding landscape can further the understanding of stream processes. This is particularly true in areas like the Midwest where human alteration of the landscape, such as conversion of natural cover types into cultivated row crops, is widespread. When assessing stream health, the composition and structure of biological communities themselves often are the best indicators of water quality. Previous work in Hurricane Creek (Coles and Cumberland Counties, IL) demonstrated significant differences in water chemistry and community metabolism between sites subject to differing intensities of farming in the upstream watershed. Our objective was to examine differences in fish and invertebrate communities at four sites along the stream representing varying degrees of agricultural land-use. Fish were sampled using electroseining techniques and invertebrates were collected using the 20-jab method in each of four seasons. Sites were compared using fish and invertebrate community metrics, including indices of biotic integrity (IBI, MBI). Stable isotope analyses were also performed to quantify differences in food-web structure in streams draining watersheds characterized by different degrees of agricultural land-use. This study improves understanding of how landscape alteration impacts stream biota and will facilitate more informed decisions concerning stream rehabilitation.

  11. Soil maps, field knowledge, forest inventory and Ecological-Economic Zoning as a basis for agricultural suitability of lands in Minas Gerais elaborated in GIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir Antonio Silva

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Lands (broader concept than soils, including all elements of the environment: soils, geology, topography, climate, water resources, flora and fauna, and the effects of anthropogenic activities of the state of Minas Gerais are in different soil, climate and socio-economics conditions and suitability for the production of agricultural goods is therefore distinct and mapping of agricultural suitability of the state lands is crucial for planning guided sustainability. Geoprocessing uses geographic information treatment techniques and GIS allows to evaluate geographic phenomena and their interrelationships using digital maps. To evaluate the agricultural suitability of state lands, we used soil maps, field knowledge, forest inventories and databases related to Ecological-Economic Zoning (EEZ of Minas Gerais, to develop a map of land suitability in GIS. To do this, we have combined the maps of soil fertility, water stress, oxygen deficiency, vulnerability to erosion and impediments to mechanization. In terms of geographical expression, the main limiting factor of lands is soil fertility, followed by lack of water, impediments to mechanization and vulnerability to erosion. Regarding agricultural suitability, the group 2 (regular suitability for crops is the most comprehensive, representing 45.13% of the state. For management levels A and B, low and moderate technological level, respectively, the most expressive suitability class is the regular, followed by the restricted class and last, the adequate class, while for the management level C (high technological level the predominant class is the restricted. The predominant most intensive use type is for crops, whose area increases substantially with capital investment and technology (management levels B and C.

  12. Global agricultural land resources--a high resolution suitability evaluation and its perspectives until 2100 under climate change conditions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian Zabel

    Full Text Available Changing natural conditions determine the land's suitability for agriculture. The growing demand for food, feed, fiber and bioenergy increases pressure on land and causes trade-offs between different uses of land and ecosystem services. Accordingly, an inventory is required on the changing potentially suitable areas for agriculture under changing climate conditions. We applied a fuzzy logic approach to compute global agricultural suitability to grow the 16 most important food and energy crops according to the climatic, soil and topographic conditions at a spatial resolution of 30 arc seconds. We present our results for current climate conditions (1981-2010, considering today's irrigated areas and separately investigate the suitability of densely forested as well as protected areas, in order to investigate their potentials for agriculture. The impact of climate change under SRES A1B conditions, as simulated by the global climate model ECHAM5, on agricultural suitability is shown by comparing the time-period 2071-2100 with 1981-2010. Our results show that climate change will expand suitable cropland by additionally 5.6 million km2, particularly in the Northern high latitudes (mainly in Canada, China and Russia. Most sensitive regions with decreasing suitability are found in the Global South, mainly in tropical regions, where also the suitability for multiple cropping decreases.

  13. Weather extremes could affect agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balcerak, Ernie

    2012-05-01

    As Earth's climate warms, agricultural producers will need to adapt. Changes, especially increases in extreme events, are already having an impact on food production, according to speakers at a 1 May session on agriculture and food security at the AGU Science Policy Conference. Christopher Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science of Washington, D. C., pointed out the complex factors that come into play in understanding food security, including spatially varying controls and stresses, incomplete models, and the potential for threshold responses. Factors that are likely to cause problems include increasing population; increasing preference for meat, which needs more land and energy inputs to produce; climate change; and increasing use of agricultural lands for biomass energy.

  14. Performing and updating an inventory of Oregon's expanding irrigated agricultural lands utilizing remote sensing technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, M. J.

    1981-01-01

    An inventory technique based upon using remote sensing technology, interpreting both high altitude aerial photography and LANDSAT multispectral scanner imagery, is discussed. It is noted that once the final land use inventory maps of irrigated agricultural lands are available and approximately scaled they may be overlaid directly onto either multispectral scanner or return beam vidicon prints, thereby providing an inexpensive updating procedure.

  15. Combining global land cover datasets to quantify agricultural expansion into forests in Latin America: Limitations and challenges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Persson, U. Martin

    2017-01-01

    While we know that deforestation in the tropics is increasingly driven by commercial agriculture, most tropical countries still lack recent and spatially-explicit assessments of the relative importance of pasture and cropland expansion in causing forest loss. Here we present a spatially explicit quantification of the extent to which cultivated land and grassland expanded at the expense of forests across Latin America in 2001–2011, by combining two “state-of-the-art” global datasets (Global Forest Change forest loss and GlobeLand30-2010 land cover). We further evaluate some of the limitations and challenges in doing this. We find that this approach does capture some of the major patterns of land cover following deforestation, with GlobeLand30-2010’s Grassland class (which we interpret as pasture) being the most common land cover replacing forests across Latin America. However, our analysis also reveals some major limitations to combining these land cover datasets for quantifying pasture and cropland expansion into forest. First, a simple one-to-one translation between GlobeLand30-2010’s Cultivated land and Grassland classes into cropland and pasture respectively, should not be made without caution, as GlobeLand30-2010 defines its Cultivated land to include some pastures. Comparisons with the TerraClass dataset over the Brazilian Amazon and with previous literature indicates that Cultivated land in GlobeLand30-2010 includes notable amounts of pasture and other vegetation (e.g. in Paraguay and the Brazilian Amazon). This further suggests that the approach taken here generally leads to an underestimation (of up to ~60%) of the role of pasture in replacing forest. Second, a large share (~33%) of the Global Forest Change forest loss is found to still be forest according to GlobeLand30-2010 and our analysis suggests that the accuracy of the combined datasets, especially for areas with heterogeneous land cover and/or small-scale forest loss, is still too poor for

  16. Combining global land cover datasets to quantify agricultural expansion into forests in Latin America: Limitations and challenges.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florence Pendrill

    Full Text Available While we know that deforestation in the tropics is increasingly driven by commercial agriculture, most tropical countries still lack recent and spatially-explicit assessments of the relative importance of pasture and cropland expansion in causing forest loss. Here we present a spatially explicit quantification of the extent to which cultivated land and grassland expanded at the expense of forests across Latin America in 2001-2011, by combining two "state-of-the-art" global datasets (Global Forest Change forest loss and GlobeLand30-2010 land cover. We further evaluate some of the limitations and challenges in doing this. We find that this approach does capture some of the major patterns of land cover following deforestation, with GlobeLand30-2010's Grassland class (which we interpret as pasture being the most common land cover replacing forests across Latin America. However, our analysis also reveals some major limitations to combining these land cover datasets for quantifying pasture and cropland expansion into forest. First, a simple one-to-one translation between GlobeLand30-2010's Cultivated land and Grassland classes into cropland and pasture respectively, should not be made without caution, as GlobeLand30-2010 defines its Cultivated land to include some pastures. Comparisons with the TerraClass dataset over the Brazilian Amazon and with previous literature indicates that Cultivated land in GlobeLand30-2010 includes notable amounts of pasture and other vegetation (e.g. in Paraguay and the Brazilian Amazon. This further suggests that the approach taken here generally leads to an underestimation (of up to ~60% of the role of pasture in replacing forest. Second, a large share (~33% of the Global Forest Change forest loss is found to still be forest according to GlobeLand30-2010 and our analysis suggests that the accuracy of the combined datasets, especially for areas with heterogeneous land cover and/or small-scale forest loss, is still too

  17. Agricultural implications of providing soil-based constraints on urban expansion: Land use forecasts to 2050.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smidt, Samuel J; Tayyebi, Amin; Kendall, Anthony D; Pijanowski, Bryan C; Hyndman, David W

    2018-07-01

    Urbanization onto adjacent farmlands directly reduces the agricultural area available to meet the resource needs of a growing society. Soil conservation is a common objective in urban planning, but little focus has been placed on targeting soil value as a metric for conservation. This study assigns commodity and water storage values to the agricultural soils across all of the watersheds in Michigan's Lower Peninsula to evaluate how cities might respond to a soil conservation-based urbanization strategy. Land Transformation Model (LTM) simulations representing both traditional and soil conservation-based urbanization, are used to forecast urban area growth from 2010 to 2050 at five year intervals. The expansion of urban areas onto adjacent farmland is then evaluated to quantify the conservation effects of soil-based development. Results indicate that a soil-based protection strategy significantly conserves total farmland, especially more fertile soils within each soil type. In terms of revenue, ∼$88 million (in current dollars) would be conserved in 2050 using soil-based constraints, with the projected savings from 2011 to 2050 totaling more than $1.5 billion. Soil-based urbanization also increased urban density for each major metropolitan area. For example, there were 94,640 more acres directly adjacent to urban land by 2050 under traditional development compared to the soil-based urbanization strategy, indicating that urban sprawl was more tightly contained when including soil value as a metric to guide development. This study indicates that implementing a soil-based urbanization strategy would better satisfy future agricultural resource needs than traditional urban planning. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  18. Simulated carbon emissions from land-use change are substantially enhanced by accounting for agricultural management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pugh, T. A. M.; Arneth, A.; Olin, S.

    2015-01-01

    quantified at the global scale. Here we assess the effect of representing agricultural land management in a dynamic global vegetation model. Accounting for harvest, grazing and tillage resulted in cumulative E LUC since 1850 ca. 70% larger than in simulations ignoring these processes, but also changed...... processes are not well defined, particularly the role of emissions from land-use change (E LUC) versus the biospheric carbon uptake (S L; S T = S L − E LUC). One key aspect of the interplay of E LUC and S L is the role of agricultural processes in land-use change emissions, which has not yet been clearly...... the timescale over which these emissions occurred and led to underestimations of the carbon sequestered by possible future reforestation actions. The vast majority of Earth system models in the recent IPCC Fifth Assessment Report omit these processes, suggesting either an overestimation in their present...

  19. Assessment of abandoned agricultural land resource for bio-energy production in Estonia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kukk, Liia; Astover, Alar; Roostalu, Hugo; Suuster, Elsa; Noormets, Merrit; Sepp, Kalev (Estonian Univ. of Life Sciences, Inst. of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu (Estonia)); Muiste, Peeter (Estonian Univ. of Life Sciences, Inst. of Forestry and Rural Engineering, Tartu (Estonia))

    2010-03-15

    The current study locates and quantifies abandoned agricultural areas using the Geographic Information System (GIS) and evaluates the suitability of abandoned fields for bio-energy production in Tartumaa (Tartu County) in Estonia. Soils of abandoned areas are generally of low quality and thereby limited suitability for crop production; as a result soil-crop suitability analyses could form the basis of knowledge-based bio-energy planning. The study estimated suitable areas for bio-energy production using willow (Salix sp), grey alder [Alnus incana (L.) Moench], hybrid aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.Populus tremula L.), reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.), and Caucasian goat's rue (Galega orientalis Lam.) in separate plantations. A combined land-use strategy is also presented as these crops are partially suitable to the same areas. Reed canary grass and grey alder have the highest energy potentials and each would re-use more than 80% of the available abandoned agricultural land. Energy grasses and short-rotation forestry in combined land-use strategy represents the opportunity of covering approximately a quarter of county's annual energy demand. The study estimates only agronomic potential, so further bio-energy analysis should take into account technical and economic limitations. Developed framework supports knowledge-based decision-making processes from field to regional scale to achieve sustainable bio-energy production

  20. Actual Condition of Paddy Field Levee Maintenance by Various Farm Households including Large-scale Farming in the Developed Land Renting Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakata, Yasuyo

    The survey of interview, resource acquisition, photographic operation, and questionnaire were carried out in the “n” Community in the “y” District in Hakusan City in Ishikawa Prefecture to investigate the actual condition of paddy field levee maintenance in the area where land-renting market was proceeding, large-scale farming was dominant, and the problems of geographically scattered farm-land existed. In the study zone, 1) an agricultural production legal person rent-cultivated some of the paddy fields and maintained the levees, 2) another agricultural production legal person rent-cultivated some of the soy bean fields for crop changeover and land owners maintained the levees. The results indicated that sufficient maintenance was executed on the levees of the paddy fields cultivated by the agricultural production legal person, the soy bean fields for crop changeover, and the paddy fields cultivated by the land owners. Each reason is considered to be the managerial strategy, the economic incentive, the mutual monitoring and cross-regulatory mechanism, etc.

  1. Carbon dioxide emissions from forestry and peat land using land-use/land-cover changes in North Sumatra, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basyuni, M.; Sulistyono, N.; Slamet, B.; Wati, R.

    2018-03-01

    Forestry and peat land including land-based is one of the critical sectors in the inventory of CO2 emissions and mitigation efforts of climate change. The present study analyzed the land-use and land-cover changes between 2006 and 2012 in North Sumatra, Indonesia with emphasis to CO2 emissions. The land-use/land-cover consists of twenty-one classes. Redd Abacus software version 1.1.7 was used to measure carbon emission source as well as the predicted 2carbon dioxide emissions from 2006-2024. Results showed that historical emission (2006-2012) in this province, significant increases in the intensive land use namely dry land agriculture (109.65%), paddy field (16.23%) and estate plantation (15.11%). On the other hand, land-cover for forest decreased significantly: secondary dry land forest (7.60%), secondary mangrove forest (9.03%), secondary swamp forest (33.98%), and the largest one in the mixed dry land agriculture (79.96%). The results indicated that North Sumatra province is still a CO2 emitter, and the most important driver of emissions mostly derived from agricultural lands that contributed 2carbon dioxide emissions by 48.8%, changing from forest areas into degraded lands (classified as barren land and shrub) shared 30.6% and estate plantation of 22.4%. Mitigation actions to reduce carbon emissions was proposed such as strengthening the forest land, rehabilitation of degraded area, development and plantation forest, forest protection and forest fire control, and reforestation and conservation activity. These mitigation actions have been simulated to reduce 15% for forestry and 18% for peat land, respectively. This data is likely to contribute to the low emission development in North Sumatra.

  2. Perceptions of Socio-Ecological Changes and Their Implications on Changes in Farming Practises and Agricultural Land Uses in the Savannahs of Northeast Ghana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Kojo Boateng

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This study assesses the perceptions of local farming households in the savannahs of northeast Ghana about the patterns of ecological and social changes happening around them over the years. It then unpacks how those perceptions are influencing farming practices and agricultural land use changes. Theoretical and empirical understandings of the value of local resource users’ perceptual judgements about changes in their socio-ecological environment and how they respond to those changes have far-reaching implications for design of agricultural development and sustainable land management policies. Consideration of local perceptions offers more informed basis to design and implement agricultural development policies in ways that encourage active local participation, sustainable livelihoods development, and responsiveness to changing conditions. This departs from current conventional implementation systems, which are usually top-down and based on technical and political aspects of agricultural land management, but do not necessarily comprehend processes influencing the agency of local communities in shaping various agricultural land use outcomes.

  3. Derivation of ecological criteria for copper in land-applied biosolids and biosolid-amended agricultural soils.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Tao; Li, Jumei; Wang, Xiaoqing; Ma, Yibing; Smolders, Erik; Zhu, Nanwen

    2016-12-01

    The difference in availability between soil metals added via biosolids and soluble salts was not taken into account in deriving the current land-applied biosolids standards. In the present study, a biosolids availability factor (BAF) approach was adopted to investigate the ecological thresholds for copper (Cu) in land-applied biosolids and biosolid-amended agricultural soils. First, the soil property-specific values of HC5 add (the added hazardous concentration for 5% of species) for Cu 2+ salt amended were collected with due attention to data for organisms and soils relevant to China. Second, a BAF representing the difference in availability between soil Cu added via biosolids and soluble salts was estimated based on long-term biosolid-amended soils, including soils from China. Third, biosolids Cu HC5 input values (the input hazardous concentration for 5% of species of Cu from biosolids to soil) as a function of soil properties were derived using the BAF approach. The average potential availability of Cu in agricultural soils amended with biosolids accounted for 53% of that for the same soils spiked with same amount of soluble Cu salts and with a similar aging time. The cation exchange capacity was the main factor affecting the biosolids Cu HC5 input values, while soil pH and organic carbon only explained 24.2 and 1.5% of the variation, respectively. The biosolids Cu HC5 input values can be accurately predicted by regression models developed based on 2-3 soil properties with coefficients of determination (R 2 ) of 0.889 and 0.945. Compared with model predicted biosolids Cu HC5 input values, current standards (GB4284-84) are most likely to be less protective in acidic and neutral soil, but conservative in alkaline non-calcareous soil. Recommendations on ecological criteria for Cu in land-applied biosolids and biosolid-amended agriculture soils may be helpful to fill the gaps existing between science and regulations, and can be useful for Cu risk assessments in

  4. Smart Farming: Including Rights Holders for Responsible Agricultural Innovation

    OpenAIRE

    Kelly Bronson

    2018-01-01

    This article draws on the literature of responsible innovation to suggest concrete processes for including rights holders in the “smart” agricultural revolution. It first draws upon historical agricultural research in Canada to highlight how productivist values drove seed innovations with particular consequences for the distribution of power in the food system. Next, the article uses document analysis to suggest that a similar value framework is motivating public investment in smart farming i...

  5. Prevention and Rehabilitation of Degraded Land to Achieve Sustainable Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jankong, Patcharin

    2010-01-01

    Rapid population growth and the challenge of food security combined with burgeoning urban development have put multiple pressures on land and water resources. Worldwide soil degradation is currently estimated at 1.9 billion hectares and is increasing at a rate of 5 to 7 million hectares each year. Once land resources are degraded, rehabilitation usually requires a long-term effort and is often expensive. To mitigate land and soil degradation, effective soil conservation and suitable rehabilitation practices are required and should be chosen according to the levels and causes of soil degradation. The basic principles of soil conservation and management for preventing land degradation are: (i) to control soil erosion by practices such as terracing, reduced tillage in combination with mulching, intercropping or grass strips, (ii) to improve soil fertility through organic and inorganic fertilizers, and (iii) to prevent accumulation of harmful substances. Natural rehabilitation of degraded land can be a practical and low-cost alternative. For example, soil stabilization through vegetative measures has been used to control wind and water erosion and simultaneously improve soil health by increasing soil organic matter and nutrient availability. Nevertheless, if land has been degraded by mining and/or contaminated by heavy metals or organic pollutants, the surrounding farmlands can also be affected through surface runoff from the contaminated site, thereby rendering them unfit for cultivation. In this case, phytoremediation technologies, defined as the use of plants and trees to remove, immobilize, transform or degrade contaminants in polluted soil or water, in combination with for instance constructed wetlands and/or microbial interactions can be used to remediate polluted land as well as to prevent contamination of farmlands. Therefore both on-farm management and off-site remediation are important to protect and improve agricultural land resources, hence improve crop

  6. Drought Impacts on Agricultural Production and Land Fallowing in California's Central Valley in 2015

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosevelt, C.; Melton, F. S.; Johnson, L.; Guzman, A.; Verdin, J. P.; Thenkabail, P. S.; Mueller, R.; Jones, J.; Willis, P.

    2015-12-01

    The ongoing drought in California substantially reduced surface water supplies for millions of acres of irrigated farmland in California's Central Valley. Rapid assessment of drought impacts on agricultural production can aid water managers in assessing mitigation options, and guide decision making with respect to mitigation of drought impacts. Satellite remote sensing offers an efficient way to provide quantitative assessments of drought impacts on agricultural production and increases in fallow acreage associated with reductions in water supply. A key advantage of satellite-based assessments is that they can provide a measure of land fallowing that is consistent across both space and time. We describe an approach for monthly and seasonal mapping of uncultivated agricultural acreage developed as part of a joint effort by USGS, USDA, NASA, and the California Department of Water Resources to provide timely assessments of land fallowing during drought events. This effort has used the Central Valley of California as a pilot region for development and testing of an operational approach. To provide quantitative measures of uncultivated agricultural acreage from satellite data early in the season, we developed a decision tree algorithm and applied it to timeseries of data from Landsat TM, ETM+, OLI, and MODIS. Our effort has been focused on development of indicators of drought impacts in the March - August timeframe based on measures of crop development patterns relative to a reference period with average or above average rainfall. To assess the accuracy of the algorithms, monthly ground validation surveys were conducted across 650 fields from March - September in 2014 and 2015. We present the algorithm along with updated results from the accuracy assessment, and data and maps of land fallowing in the Central Valley in 2015.

  7. Relating land use patterns to stream nutrient levels in red soil agricultural catchments in subtropical central China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yi; Li, Yong; Liu, Xinliang; Liu, Feng; Li, Yuyuan; Song, Lifang; Li, Hang; Ma, Qiumei; Wu, Jinshui

    2014-09-01

    Land use has obvious influence on surface water quality; thus, it is important to understand the effects of land use patterns on surface water quality. This study explored the relationships between land use patterns and stream nutrient levels, including ammonium-N (NH4 (+)-N), nitrate-N (NO3 (-)-N), total N (TN), dissolved P (DP), and total P (TP) concentrations, in one forest and 12 agricultural catchments in subtropical central China. The results indicated that the TN concentrations ranged between 0.90 and 6.50 mg L(-1) and the TP concentrations ranged between 0.08 and 0.53 mg L(-1), showing that moderate nutrient pollution occurred in the catchments. The proportional areal coverages of forests, paddy fields, tea fields, residential areas, and water had distinct effects on stream nutrient levels. Except for the forest, all studied land use types had a potential to increase stream nutrient levels in the catchments. The land use pattern indices at the landscape level were significantly correlated to N nutrients but rarely correlated to P nutrients in stream water, whereas the influence of the land use pattern indices at the class level on stream water quality differentiated among the land use types and nutrient species. Multiple regression analysis suggested that land use pattern indices at the class level, including patch density (PD), largest patch index (LPI), mean shape index (SHMN), and mean Euclidian nearest neighbor distance (ENNMN), played an intrinsic role in influencing stream nutrient quality, and these four indices explained 35.08 % of the variability of stream nutrient levels in the catchments (pstream nutrient pollution in subtropical central China.

  8. The Growing Importance and Value Implications of Recreational Hunting Leases to Agricultural Land Investors in America

    OpenAIRE

    John S. Baen

    1997-01-01

    This study considers the evolution and explosion growth of recreational hunting leases in America. The traditional European practice of leasing rural lands for the exclusive rights of tenants to hunt and fish is now an important revenue source for American agricultural land investors/owners. Hunting lease income can enhance value to the point that recreation becomes the highest and best use of rural land for both the market and income approaches to valuation. This study offers new perspective...

  9. Evaluation of historical land cover, land use, and land-use change emissions in the GCAM integrated assessment model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calvin, K. V.; Wise, M.; Kyle, P.; Janetos, A. C.; Zhou, Y.

    2012-12-01

    Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) are often used as science-based decision-support tools for evaluating the consequences of climate and energy policies, and their use in this framework is likely to increase in the future. However, quantitative evaluation of these models has been somewhat limited for a variety of reasons, including data availability, data quality, and the inherent challenges in projections of societal values and decision-making. In this analysis, we identify and confront methodological challenges involved in evaluating the agriculture and land use component of the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). GCAM is a global integrated assessment model, linking submodules of the regionally disaggregated global economy, energy system, agriculture and land-use, terrestrial carbon cycle, oceans and climate. GCAM simulates supply, demand, and prices for energy and agricultural goods from 2005 to 2100 in 5-year increments. In each time period, the model computes the allocation of land across a variety of land cover types in 151 different regions, assuming that farmers maximize profits and that food demand is relatively inelastic. GCAM then calculates both emissions from land-use practices, and long-term changes in carbon stocks in different land uses, thus providing simulation information that can be compared to observed historical data. In this work, we compare GCAM results, both in recent historic and future time periods, to historical data sets. We focus on land use, land cover, land-use change emissions, and albedo.

  10. Growth of silver fir (Abies alba Mill. on originally agricultural land in the region of the White Carpathians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaroslav Simon

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available At the Ploščiny-Triangl locality belonging to the northernmost part of the CHKO Bílé Karpaty (Protected Landscape Area White Carpathians, altitude 739 m, typological unit – Nutrient Rich Fir-Beech Forest, comparative analysis was carried out of selected biometrical quantities of the time series of stands originated on former agricultural land and stands originated by the alternation of forest generations. On the basis of examinations it is possible to formulate following conclusions: - the height increment culmination occurs at stands originated on former agricultural land earlier, viz. at an age of about 20 years;- on the other hand, the culmination of volume increment related to a mean stem occurs later, at current increment at an age of 80 years, at a mean increment at an age of 140 years;- the growth curve of a mean stand height of both variants is analogical up to an age of about 20–25 years, further values of stands established on former agricultural land are lower approaching an asymptote of 30 m;- stands of both variants do not show symptoms of rot or other damage to the reference period of about 150 years.As for the current condition of natural regeneration of silver fir and succession distribution on unused agricultural land it is possible to state that it is considerably reduced on the basis of intensive pressure of particularly red deer.

  11. Land Use Change and Recommendation for Sustainable Development of Peatland for Agriculture: Case Study at Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts, West Kalimantan

    OpenAIRE

    Wahyunto, Wahyunto; Supriatna, Wahyu; Agus, Fahmuddin

    2010-01-01

    Peatland is an increasingly important land resource for livelihood, economic development, and terrestrial carbon storage. Kubu Raya and Pontianak Districts of West Kalimantan rely their future agricultural development on this environmentally fragile peatland because of the dominance (58% and 16% area, respectively) of this land in the two districts. A study aimed to evaluate land use changes on peatland and to develop strategies for sustainable peatland use and management for agriculture. Tim...

  12. Between 'Land Grabs' and Agricultural Investment: Land Rent ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The article suggests the need to rectify the gaps in the land transfer contracts and most importantly, the need to render the government a custodian (and not owner) of land in conformity with the FDRE Constitution and to ensure that the termination of land use rights is decided by courts so that executive offices would not ...

  13. TRENDS OF LAND SYSTEM IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Tretiak

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The organization of land use in different countries is characterized by a variety of land system types, those proved their effectiveness in certain countries, but not are necessarily as effective in others. The objective factors that led to the emergence of various models of the land system, include socio-economic, historical, ethnic, cultural, natural and other features of different countries and peoples that inhabit them. During 1991-2016 years,Ukraineestablished basics of a new land order and the respective land relations and the system of market-oriented land use, especially in agriculture. It is characterized by: a new legal and regulatory framework, different types of ownership of land and other natural resources, a multi-structure and paid land use, providing public with land parcels, initiated the establishment of a market-oriented system of state land cadastre, including registration of land parcels and rights to them. So, modern land transformations in Ukraine, which laid the basics of a new land order, requires the development of new approaches to land use management at different hierarchical levels of general land planning throughout the country. It caused by many reasons. Primarily: setting the state boundaries and bounds of administrative units; development of different types of land ownership; increased numbers of new landowning and land tenure of citizens, enterprises, institutions and associations up to more than 23 million; need for separation of state and municipal property for land; establishment of payment for land use; specification of legal and functional status of land and of various restrictions, encumbrances and easements to each individual land parcel. It is hard to overemphasize the importance of work on land-use planning at different hierarchical levels and general land management in modern conditions. Particularly acute need of land planning in urban and agricultural land use sectors of the country. Thus, the

  14. Economics of trees versus annual crops on marginal agricultural lands

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gupta, T.; Mohan, D.

    1982-01-01

    The results of a study conducted by the CMA in Rajasthan, selected as one of the major problem states because of its hot, arid and drought-prone character, and its present declining agricultural, livestock and fuelwood production coupled with an expansion of the area under annual crops. The present situation in Rajasthan is described and estimates made of returns from current land based enterprises (annual crops and livestock rearing) in comparison with the expected costs and returns of establishing suitable tree crops in the area. The financial and social feasibility of changing land use from annual to tree crops (while maintaining livestock production) is discussed, together with a consideration of some management and policy issues. Six tree species (Acacia tortilis, Albizzia (Albizia) lebbek, Prosopis cineraria, P. juliflora, Zizyphus species and Leucaena leucocephala) were identified as adaptable for the region and the economics of raising each over 1 felling cycle calculated. Depending on the species and cycle length, net annual returns were Rs 360-3270/ha (using a discount factor of 11%), with an expected return of Rs1680/ha if the species were allocated equally; this is considerably better than the expected returns from annual crops and standing farm trees (Rs-40 to Rs30/ha, with or without including the costs of family labor). Fifteen tables in the text and 9 in appendices give detailed breakdowns of costs and returns. 104 references.

  15. Land reform and land fragmentation in Central and Eastern Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hartvigsen, Morten B.

    2014-01-01

    It has often been stated that land fragmentation and farm structures characterized by small agricultural holdings and farms divided in a large number of parcels have been the side-effect of land reform in Central and Eastern Europe. This article reports the findings of a study of land reform in 25...... countries in the region from 1989 and onwards and provides an overview of applied land reform approaches. With a basis in theory on land fragmentation, the linkage between land reform approaches and land fragmentation is explored. It is discussed in which situations land fragmentation is a barrier...... for the development of the agricultural and rural sector. The main finding is that land fragmentation is often hampering agricultural and rural development when both land ownership and land use is highly fragmented....

  16. Water and Land Limitations to Future Agricultural Production in the Middle East

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koch, J. A. M.; Wimmer, F.; Schaldach, R.

    2015-12-01

    Countries in the Middle East use a large fraction of their scarce water resources to produce cash crops, such as fruit and vegetables, for international markets. At the same time, these countries import large amounts of staple crops, such as cereals, required to meet the nutritional demand of their populations. This makes food security in the Middle East heavily dependent on world market prices for staple crops. Under these preconditions, increasing food demand due to population growth, urban expansion on fertile farmlands, and detrimental effects of a changing climate on the production of agricultural commodities present major challenges to countries in the Middle East that try to improve food security by increasing their self-sufficiency rate of staple crops.We applied the spatio-temporal land-use change model LandSHIFT.JR to simulate how an expansion of urban areas may affect the production of agricultural commodities in Jordan. We furthermore evaluated how climate change and changes in socio-economic conditions may influence crop production. The focus of our analysis was on potential future irrigated and rainfed production (crop yield and area demand) of fruit, vegetables, and cereals. Our simulation results show that the expansion of urban areas and the resulting displacement of agricultural areas does result in a slight decrease in crop yields. This leads to almost no additional irrigation water requirements due to the relocation of agricultural areas, i.e. there is the same amount of "crop per drop". However, taking into account projected changes in socio-economic conditions and climate conditions, a large volume of water would be required for cereal production in order to safeguard current self-sufficiency rates for staple crops. Irrigation water requirements are expected to double until 2025 and to triple until 2050. Irrigated crop yields are projected to decrease by about 25%, whereas there is no decrease in rainfed crop yields to be expected.

  17. Impact of changes in labor resources and transfers of land use rights on agricultural non-point source pollution in Jiangsu Province, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Hua; Xie, Hualin

    2018-02-01

    This study systematically explores the likely mechanisms driving the effect of the transfer of agricultural land use rights (ALURs) on agricultural non-point source pollution (ANSP) in the context of changing agricultural labor resources. It quantitatively estimates the direction and degree of this influence from a microeconomic perspective using data from rural households. The results reveal that economies of scale caused by ALURs transfers contribute to reducing both the ANSP and marginal costs of inputs. Changes in agricultural labor resources lead to reductions in agricultural labor supply and negatively impact on ANSP. Encouraging farmers to participate in ALURs transfers, therefore, helps to reduce ANSP. The government and related departments should implement policies that support farmers who decide to rent an entire village's land or the adjacent land to achieve economies of scale. Accelerating the development of small farm machinery that is suitable for smaller farm plots and the elderly can serve to reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and promote green production and sustainable agricultural development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Gendered Access and Control Over Land and Water Resources in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna N. Sikira

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper assessed the gendered access and control over land and water, using the Ihemi cluster of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT as a study area. Specifically, the paper answered the question on how decisions are made between men and women over land and water in the SAGCOT area, as well as how access and control over land and water is conducted. Data for this paper was drawn from the baseline study which was conducted for the project known as Laying Foundation for Effective Landscape-level Planning for Sustainable Development (LiFELand. A cross-sectional research design was used, whereby a questionnaire was administered to 167 women and 440 men. In addition, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also conducted to complement and allow triangulation of data. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively; while, qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. In general, the results show that female headed households accounted for more than a quarter of the surveyed households; the number was slightly higher in the Njombe region. Results further show that women had no control over land and water as important productive resources in rural areas. The results also show that a larger proportion of both men and women had no right of occupancy over the land they owned hence their inability to use it as collateral in accessing loans from formal financial institutions. The paper therefore recommends efforts be made to empower women, hence enabling them to actively participate in decision-making, particularly regarding land and water. Equitable decision-making power can immensely enhance ecosystem conservation and sustainable utilization over land and water as women are the major actors in agriculture. To achieve gender equality there is a need for awareness creation for both men and women using gender sensitive programs that will allow not only equality in use but a sustainable utilization of Land

  19. Optimization of land use of agricultural farms in Sumedang regency by using linear programming models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zenis, F. M.; Supian, S.; Lesmana, E.

    2018-03-01

    Land is one of the most important assets for farmers in Sumedang Regency. Therefore, agricultural land should be used optimally. This study aims to obtain the optimal land use composition in order to obtain maximum income. The optimization method used in this research is Linear Programming Models. Based on the results of the analysis, the composition of land use for rice area of 135.314 hectares, corn area of 11.798 hectares, soy area of 2.290 hectares, and peanuts of 2.818 hectares with the value of farmers income of IDR 2.682.020.000.000,-/year. The results of this analysis can be used as a consideration in decisions making about cropping patterns by farmers.

  20. Maize production and land degradation: a Portuguese agriculture field case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, Carla S. S.; Pato, João V.; Moreira, Pedro M.; Valério, Luís M.; Guilherme, Rosa; Casau, Fernando J.; Santos, Daniela; Keizer, Jacob J.; Ferreira, António J. D.

    2016-04-01

    While food security is a main challenge faced by human kind, intensive agriculture often leads to soil degradation which then can threaten productivity. Maize is one of the most important crops across the world, with 869 million tons produced worldwide in 2012/2013 (IGC 2015), of which 929.5 thousand tons in Portugal (INE 2014). In Portugal, maize is sown in April/May and harvest occurs generally in October. Conventional maize production requires high inputs of water and fertilizers to achieve higher yields. As Portuguese farmers are typically rather old (on average, 63 years) and typically have a low education level (INE 2014), sustainability of their land management practises is often not a principal concern. This could explain why, in 2009, only 4% of the Portuguese temporary crops were under no-tillage, why only 8% of the farmers performed soil analyses in the previous three years, and why many soils have a low organic matter content (INE 2014). Nonetheless, sustainable land management practices are generally accepted to be the key to reducing agricultural soil degradation, preventing water pollution, and assuring long-term crop production objectives and food security. Sustainable land management should therefore not only be a concern for policy makers but also for farmers, since land degradation will have negative repercussions on the productivity, thus, on their economical income. This paper aims to assess the impact of maize production on soil properties. The study focusses on an 8 ha maize field located in central Portugal, with a Mediterranean climate on a gently sloping terrain (<3%) and with a soil classified as Eutric Fluvisol. On the field, several experiments were carried out with different maize varieties as well as with different fertilizers (solid, liquid and both). Centre pivot irrigation was largely used. Data is available from 2003, and concerns crop yield, fertilization and irrigation practices, as well as soil properties assessed through

  1. Towards the development of a GHG emissions baseline for the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU sector, South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luanne B. Stevens

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available South Africa is a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC and as such is required to report on Greenhouse gas (GHG emissions from the Energy, Transport, Waste and the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU sectors every two years in national inventories. The AFOLU sector is unique in that it comprises both sources and sinks for GHGs. Emissions from the AFOLU sector are estimated to contribute a quarter of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. GHG emissions sources from agriculture include enteric fermentation; manure management; manure deposits on pastures, and soil fertilization. Emissions sources from Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU include anthropogenic land use activities such as: management of croplands, forests and grasslands and changes in land use cover (the conversion of one land use to another. South Africa has improved the quantification of AFOLU emissions and the understanding of the dynamic relationship between sinks and sources over the past decade through projects such as the 2010 GHG Inventory, the Mitigation Potential Analysis (MPA, and the National Terrestrial Carbon Sinks Assessment (NTCSA. These projects highlight key mitigation opportunities in South Africa and discuss their potentials. The problem remains that South Africa does not have an emissions baseline for the AFOLU sector against which the mitigation potentials can be measured. The AFOLU sector as a result is often excluded from future emission projections, giving an incomplete picture of South Africa’s mitigation potential. The purpose of this project was to develop a robust GHG emissions baseline for the AFOLU sector which will enable South Africa to project emissions into the future and demonstrate its contribution towards the global goal of reducing emissions.

  2. Assessment of Spatio-temporal Barren-lands Expansion and Agricultural Adaptation due to Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activity: A Geospatial Approach in Hot Semi-arid Region of Maharashtra State, India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roy, A.; Inamdar, A. B.

    2017-12-01

    Major parts of Upper Godavari River Basin are intensely drought prone and climate vulnerable in Maharashtra State, India. The economy of the state depends on the agronomic productivity of this region. So, it is necessary to monitor and regulate the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activity on agricultural land in that region. This study investigates and maps the barren-lands and alteration of agricultural lands, their decadal deviations with the multi-temporal LANDSAT satellite images; and finally quantifies the agricultural adaptations. This work involves the utilization of remote sensing and GIS tools and modeling. First, climatic trend analysis is carried out with dataset obtained from India Meteorological Department. Then, multi-temporal LANDSAT images are classified (Level I, hybrid classification technique are followed) to determine the decadal Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes and correlated with the agricultural water demand. Finally, various LANDSAT band analysis is conducted to determine irrigated and non-irrigated cropping area estimation and identifying the agricultural adaptations. The analysis of LANDSAT images shows that barren-lands are most increased class during the study period. The overall spatial extent of barren-lands are increased drastically during the study period. The geospatial study (class-to-class conversion study) shows that, most of the conversion of the barren-lands are from the agricultural land and reserve or open forests. The barren-lands are constantly increasing and the agricultural land is linearly decreasing. Hence, there is an inverse correlation between barren-lands and agricultural land. Moreover, there is a shift to non-irrigated and less water demanding crops, from more water demanding crops, which is a noticeable adaptation. The surface-water availability is highly dependent on rainfall and/or climatic conditions. It is changing either way in a random fashion based upon the quantity of rainfall occurred in

  3. Threats to agriculture at the extensive and intensive margins : economic analyses of selected land-use issues in the U.S. West and British Columbia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eagle, A.J.

    2009-01-01

    Key Words Agriculture-environment interactions, economic modelling, sage grouse, yellow starthistle, urban-rural fringe, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), farmland conservation, direct marketing Agricultural land uses are frequently challenged by competing land demands for urban uses and for

  4. Geo-environmental changes and agricultural land development in Bengal Delta

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyamoto, Shinji; Uchida, Haruo; Ando, Kazuo; Salim, Muhammad

    2010-01-01

    We analyzed changes in the relationship between geo-environment and agricultural land development around the central Jamuna (Brahmaputra) River, central Bangladesh. Based on sedimentary facies analysis and AMS radiocarbon dating, some conclusions are as follows: (1) Natural levees along the Jamuna River formed until ca. 12 to 11 k cal yrs BP; (2) Homesteads (bari-bhiti) were repaired by public works (mati-kata) following some flood events; (3) Paddy fields and homesteads were created since ca. 1.3 k cal yrs BP around central Bangladesh (central Bengal Delta). (author)

  5. Modeling the fate and transport of bacteria in agricultural and pasture lands using APEX

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model is a whole farm to small watershed scale continuous simulation model developed for evaluating various land management strategies. The current version, APEX0806, does not have the modeling capacity for fecal indicator bacteria fate and trans...

  6. Assessing the shelf life of cost-efficient conservation plans for species at risk across gradients of agricultural land use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robillard, Cassandra M; Kerr, Jeremy T

    2017-08-01

    High costs of land in agricultural regions warrant spatial prioritization approaches to conservation that explicitly consider land prices to produce protected-area networks that accomplish targets efficiently. However, land-use changes in such regions and delays between plan design and implementation may render optimized plans obsolete before implementation occurs. To measure the shelf life of cost-efficient conservation plans, we simulated a land-acquisition and restoration initiative aimed at conserving species at risk in Canada's farmlands. We accounted for observed changes in land-acquisition costs and in agricultural intensity based on censuses of agriculture taken from 1986 to 2011. For each year of data, we mapped costs and areas of conservation priority designated using Marxan. We compared plans to test for changes through time in the arrangement of high-priority sites and in the total cost of each plan. For acquisition costs, we measured the savings from accounting for prices during site selection. Land-acquisition costs and land-use intensity generally rose over time independent of inflation (24-78%), although rates of change were heterogeneous through space and decreased in some areas. Accounting for spatial variation in land price lowered the cost of conservation plans by 1.73-13.9%, decreased the range of costs by 19-82%, and created unique solutions from which to choose. Despite the rise in plan costs over time, the high conservation priority of particular areas remained consistent. Delaying conservation in these critical areas may compromise what optimized conservation plans can achieve. In the case of Canadian farmland, rapid conservation action is cost-effective, even with moderate levels of uncertainty in how to implement restoration goals. © 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.

  7. Combining Sustainable Land Management Technologies to Combat Land Degradation and Improve Rural Livelihoods in Semi-arid Lands in Kenya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mganga, K. Z.; Musimba, N. K. R.; Nyariki, D. M.

    2015-12-01

    Drylands occupy more than 80 % of Kenya's total land mass and contribute immensely to the national economy and society through agriculture, livestock production, tourism, and wild product harvesting. Dryland ecosystems are areas of high climate variability making them vulnerable to the threats of land degradation. Consequently, agropastoralists inhabiting these ecosystems develop mechanisms and technologies to cope with the impacts of climate variability. This study is aimed to; (1) determine what agropastoralists inhabiting a semi-arid ecosystem in Kenya attribute to be the causes and indicators of land degradation, (2) document sustainable land management (SLM) technologies being undertaken to combat land degradation, and (3) identify the factors that influence the choice of these SLM technologies. Vegetation change from preferred indigenous forage grass species to woody vegetation was cited as the main indicator of land degradation. Land degradation was attributed to recurrent droughts and low amounts of rainfall, overgrazing, and unsustainable harvesting of trees for fuelwood production. However, despite the challenges posed by climate variability and recurrent droughts, the local community is engaging in simple SLM technologies including grass reseeding, rainwater harvesting and soil conservation, and dryland agroforestry as a holistic approach combating land degradation and improving their rural livelihoods. The choice of these SLM technologies was mainly driven by their additional benefits to combating land degradation. In conclusion, promoting such simple SLM technologies can help reverse the land degradation trend, improve agricultural production, food security including access to food, and subsequently improve livelihoods of communities inhabiting dryland ecosystems.

  8. Combining Sustainable Land Management Technologies to Combat Land Degradation and Improve Rural Livelihoods in Semi-arid Lands in Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mganga, K Z; Musimba, N K R; Nyariki, D M

    2015-12-01

    Drylands occupy more than 80% of Kenya's total land mass and contribute immensely to the national economy and society through agriculture, livestock production, tourism, and wild product harvesting. Dryland ecosystems are areas of high climate variability making them vulnerable to the threats of land degradation. Consequently, agropastoralists inhabiting these ecosystems develop mechanisms and technologies to cope with the impacts of climate variability. This study is aimed to; (1) determine what agropastoralists inhabiting a semi-arid ecosystem in Kenya attribute to be the causes and indicators of land degradation, (2) document sustainable land management (SLM) technologies being undertaken to combat land degradation, and (3) identify the factors that influence the choice of these SLM technologies. Vegetation change from preferred indigenous forage grass species to woody vegetation was cited as the main indicator of land degradation. Land degradation was attributed to recurrent droughts and low amounts of rainfall, overgrazing, and unsustainable harvesting of trees for fuelwood production. However, despite the challenges posed by climate variability and recurrent droughts, the local community is engaging in simple SLM technologies including grass reseeding, rainwater harvesting and soil conservation, and dryland agroforestry as a holistic approach combating land degradation and improving their rural livelihoods. The choice of these SLM technologies was mainly driven by their additional benefits to combating land degradation. In conclusion, promoting such simple SLM technologies can help reverse the land degradation trend, improve agricultural production, food security including access to food, and subsequently improve livelihoods of communities inhabiting dryland ecosystems.

  9. Water (management) as a decisive factor in the land use planning of agriculture in an urbanising context

    OpenAIRE

    Allaert, Georges; Leinfelder, Hans; Vanden Abeele, Peter; Verhoestraete, David

    2005-01-01

    The Centre for Mobility and Physical Planning of the Ghent University coordinates a two-year research project about the preconditions for sustainable land use by agriculture in (the Flemish) urbanising network society. The project questions the traditional legitimacy of agriculture in planning to claim the majority of the surface, merely because of economical reasons. If agriculture wants to have a raison dÂ’être in urbanised and urbanising society, it will have to meet the quality demands of...

  10. Biofuel production potentials in Europe: sustainable use of cultivated land and pastures. Part II: Land use scenarios

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fischer, G.; Prieler, S.; van Velthuizen, H.; Berndes, G.; Faaij, A.P.C.; Londo, H.M.; de Wit, M.P.

    2009-01-01

    Europe's agricultural land (including Ukraine) comprise of 164 million hectares of cultivated land and 76 million hectares of permanent pasture. A “food first” paradigm was applied in the estimations of land potentially available for the production of biofuel feedstocks, without putting at risk food

  11. Review: Lorenzo Cotula, The Great African Land Grab?: Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System (2013

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kerstin Nolte

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Review of the monograph:Lorenzo Cotula, The Great African Land Grab?: Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System, London, New York: Zed Books, 2013, ISBN 9781780324203, 248 pages

  12. Application of Sludges and Wastewaters on Agricultural Land: A Planning and Educational Guide, MCD-35. Research Bulletin 1090.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knezek, Bernard D., Ed.; Miller, Robert H., Ed.

    This report addresses the application of agricultural processing wastes, industrial and municipal wastes on agricultural land as both a waste management and resource recovery and reuse practice. The document emphasizes the treatment and beneficial utilization of sludge and wastewater as opposed to waste disposal. These objectives are achieved…

  13. Object-Based Retro-Classification Of A Agricultural Land Use: A Case Study Of Irrigated Croplands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dubovyk, Olena; Conrad, Christopher; Khamzina, Asia; Menz, Gunter

    2013-12-01

    Availability of the historical crop maps is necessary for the assessment of land management practices and their effectiveness, as well as monitoring of environmental impacts of land uses. Lack of accurate current and past land-use information forestalls assessment of the occurred changes and their consequences and, thus, complicates knowledge-driven agrarian policy development. At the same time, lack of the sampling dataset for the past years often restrict mapping of historical land use. We proposed a methodology for a retro-assessment of several crops, based on multitemporal Landsat 5 TM imagery and a limited sampling dataset. The overall accuracy of the retro-map was 81% while accuracies for specific crop classes varied from 60% to 93%. If further elaborated, the developed method could be a useful tool for the generation of historical data on agricultural land use.

  14. Land degradation causes and sustainable land management practices in southern Jordan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khresat, Saeb

    2014-05-01

    Jordan is one of the world's most water-deficit countries with only about 4% of the total land area considered arable. As a consequence agricultural production is greatly constrained by limited natural resources. Therefore, a major challenge for the country is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources for agricultural purposes. This challenge is being made harder by the ongoing processes of degradation due to increased population pressure, which undermine any social and economic development gains. In the southern plains of Jordan, sustainability of farming practices has worsened in the past three decades, exacerbating pressure on land and increasing land degradation processes. Non-sustainable land use practices include improper ploughing, inappropriate rotations, inadequate or inexistent management of plant residues, overgrazing of natural vegetation, random urbanization, land fragmentation and over-pumping of groundwater. The root cause is the high population growth which exerts excessive pressure on the natural resources to meet increased food and income demand. The poorest farmers who are increasingly growing cereals on marginal areas. Wheat and barley are now grown with little to no rotation, with no nutrient replenishment, and at places avoiding even fallow. Small landholding sizes and topographic features of the area tend to oblige longitudinal mechanized tillage operations along the slopes. Overall, the constraints facing the deprived land users such as, poor access to technology, capital and organization are the factors that lead into unsustainable practices. The main bottlenecks and barriers that hinder mainstreaming of sustainable land management in Jordan can be grouped into three main categories: (i) Knowledge, (ii) Institutional and Governance, and (iii) Economic and Financial. In this case study, the key challenge was to create a knowledge base among local stakeholders - including planners, extension officers, NGO/community leaders, teachers

  15. Quantify the Biophysical and Socioeconomic Drivers of Changes in Forest and Agricultural Land in South and Southeast Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, X.; Jain, A. K.; Calvin, K. V.

    2017-12-01

    Due to the rapid socioeconomic development and biophysical factors, South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) has become a hotspot region of land use and land cover changes (LULCCs) in past few decades. Uncovering the drivers of LULCC is crucial for improving the understanding of LULCC processes. Due to the differences from spatiotemporal scales, methods and data sources in previous studies, the quantitative relationships between the LULCC activities and biophysical and socioeconomic drivers at the regional scale of SSEA have not been established. Here we present a comprehensive estimation of the biophysical and socioeconomic drivers of the major LULCC activities in SSEA: changes in forest and agricultural land. We used the Climate Change Initiative land cover data developed by European Space Agency to reveal the dynamics of forest and agricultural land from 1992 to 2015. Then we synthesized 200 publications about LULCC drivers at different spatial scales in SSEA to identify the major drivers of these LULCC activities. Corresponding representative variables of the major drivers were collected. The geographically weighted regression was employed to assess the spatiotemporally heterogeneous drivers of LULCC. Moreover, we validated our results with some national level case studies in SSEA. The results showed that both biophysical conditions such as terrain, soil, and climate, and socioeconomic factors such as migration, poverty, and economy played important roles in driving the changes of forest and agricultural land. The major drivers varied in different locations and periods. Our study integrated the bottom-up knowledge from local scale case studies with the top-down estimation of LULCC drivers, therefore generated more accurate and credible results. The identified biophysical and socioeconomic components could be used to improve the LULCC modelling and projection.

  16. Clustering of Multi-Temporal Fully Polarimetric L-Band SAR Data for Agricultural Land Cover Mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamiminia, H.; Homayouni, S.; Safari, A.

    2015-12-01

    Recently, the unique capabilities of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) sensors make them an important and efficient tool for natural resources and environmental applications, such as land cover and crop classification. The aim of this paper is to classify multi-temporal full polarimetric SAR data using kernel-based fuzzy C-means clustering method, over an agricultural region. This method starts with transforming input data into the higher dimensional space using kernel functions and then clustering them in the feature space. Feature space, due to its inherent properties, has the ability to take in account the nonlinear and complex nature of polarimetric data. Several SAR polarimetric features extracted using target decomposition algorithms. Features from Cloude-Pottier, Freeman-Durden and Yamaguchi algorithms used as inputs for the clustering. This method was applied to multi-temporal UAVSAR L-band images acquired over an agricultural area near Winnipeg, Canada, during June and July in 2012. The results demonstrate the efficiency of this approach with respect to the classical methods. In addition, using multi-temporal data in the clustering process helped to investigate the phenological cycle of plants and significantly improved the performance of agricultural land cover mapping.

  17. Land-use trends related to Natura2000 sites in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levin, Gregor; Nainggolan, Doan; Frederiksen, Pia

    2018-01-01

    EU-member states are obliged to designate Natura2000 sites for habitat protection. Natura2000 sites comprise approximately 18 percent of the terrestrial area of the EU. On average, around 22 percent of Natura2000 sites are covered by agricultural land use, such as intensive cropland and more...... and change in area of extensive land use for two periods: From 2000 to 2003, before the implementation of the HD and from 2003 to 2013, after its implementation. In order to control for the influences of biophysical constraints on agricultural intensity, we included information on slopes and peat soil...... extensively managed land. Particularly in regions with high proportions of agricultural land use in Natura2000 sites, habitat protection is closely linked with the intensity of agricultural land use. Thus, it is important to understand dynamics between intensive and extensive land use. Denmark, where Natura...

  18. Afforest sDSS: a metamodel based spatial decision support system for afforestation of agricultural land

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gilliams, S.; Orshoven, van J.; Muys, B.; Kros, J.; Heil, G.W.; Deursen, van W.

    2005-01-01

    The concept and structure of the Spatial Decision Support System AFFOREST sDSS dealing with environmental performance (EP) of afforestation on agricultural land in northwestern Europe, is presented. EP is defined in terms of three environmental impact categories: (1) carbon sequestration (2)

  19. Climatic and watershed controls of dissolved organic matter variation in streams across a gradient of agricultural land use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shang, Peng; Lu, YueHan; Du, YingXun; Jaffé, Rudolf; Findlay, Robert H; Wynn, Anne

    2018-01-15

    Human land use has led to significant changes in the character of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in lotic ecosystems. These changes are expected to have important environmental and ecological consequences. However, high spatiotemporal variability has been reported in previous studies, and the underlying mechanisms remain inadequately understood. This study assessed variation in the properties of stream water DOM within watersheds across a gradient of agricultural land use with grazing pasture lands as the dominant agricultural type in the southeastern United States. We collected water samples under baseflow conditions five times over eight months from a regional group of first- to fourth-order streams. Samples were analyzed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, DOM quality based on absorbance and fluorescence properties, as well as DOM biodegradability. We found that air temperature and antecedent hydrological conditions (indicated by antecedent precipitation index and stream water sodium concentrations) positively influenced stream water DOC concentration, DOM fluorescence index, and the proportion of soil-derived, microbial humic fluorescence. This observation suggests that elevated production and release of microbial DOM in soils facilitated by high temperature, in conjunction with strong soil-stream hydrological connectivity, were important drivers for changes in the concentration and composition of stream water DOM. By comparison, watersheds with a high percentage of agricultural land use showed higher DOC concentration, larger proportion of soil-derived, humic-like DOM compounds, and higher DOC biodegradability. These observations reflect preferential mobilization of humic DOM compounds from shallow organic matter-rich soils in agricultural watersheds, likely due to enhanced soil erosion, organic matter oxidation and relatively shallow soil-to-stream flow paths. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. CO2 sequestration. World CO2 emission reduction by forest plantations on agricultural land up to 2050

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dameron, V.; Barbier, C.; Riedacker, A.

    2005-01-01

    The main objective of this study was to determine the possible contribution on CO 2 emission reductions of new forest plantations on agricultural land which may become available in the world from now to 2050. Emission reductions have been calculated by taking into account potential changes in carbon stocks on afforested land (in biomass and soil) and replacement with biomass of fossil fuel and material such as steel, aluminium or concrete. Increase of carbon stocks in wood as building material and final conversion of wood recycled from buildings into energy to replace fossil fuel have also been taken into account. CO 2 emission reductions (or carbon benefits) from afforested agricultural land become significant only after 2030 or 2050, and even at a later stage with long rotations. In the case of the latter, about 100 years are needed to get the full benefits. Forest plantations can therefore only be considered as long term options

  1. Population dynamics of plant nematodes in cultivated soil: length of rotation in newly cleared and old agricultural land.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Good, J M; Murphy, W S; Brodie, B B

    1973-04-01

    During a 6-year study of 1-, 2-, and 3-year crop rotations, population densities of Pratylenchus brachyurus, Trichodorus christiei, and Meloidogyne incognita were significantly affected by the choice of crops but not by length of crop rotation. The density of P. brachyurus and T. christiei increased rapidly on milo (Sorghum vulgate). In addition, populations of P. brachyurus increased significantly in cropping systems that involved crotalaria (C. rnucronata), millet (Setaria italica), and sudangrass (Sorghum sudanense). Lowest numbers of P. brachyurus occurred where okra (Hibiscus esculentus) was grown or where land was fallow. The largest increase in populations of T. christiei occurred in cropping systems that involved millet, sudangrass, and okra whereas the smallest increase occurred in cropping systems that involved crotalaria or fallow. A winter cover of rye (Secale cereale) had no distinguishable effect on population densities of P. brachyurus or T. christiei. Meloidogyne incognita was detected during the fourth year in both newly cleared and old agricultural land when okra was included in the cropping system. Detectable populations of M. incognita did not develop in any of the other cropping systems. Yields of tomato transplants were higher on the newly cleared land than on the old land. Highest yields were obtained when crotalaria was included in the cropping system. Lowest yields were obtained when milo, or fallow were included in the cropping system. Length of rotation had no distinguishable effect on yields of tomato transplants.

  2. Trends in Global Agricultural Land Use: Implications for Environmental Health and Food Security.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramankutty, Navin; Mehrabi, Zia; Waha, Katharina; Jarvis, Larissa; Kremen, Claire; Herrero, Mario; Rieseberg, Loren H

    2018-04-29

    The eighteenth-century Malthusian prediction of population growth outstripping food production has not yet come to bear. Unprecedented agricultural land expansions since 1700, and technological innovations that began in the 1930s, have enabled more calorie production per capita than was ever available before in history. This remarkable success, however, has come at a great cost. Agriculture is a major cause of global environmental degradation. Malnutrition persists among large sections of the population, and a new epidemic of obesity is on the rise. We review both the successes and failures of the global food system, addressing ongoing debates on pathways to environmental health and food security. To deal with these challenges, a new coordinated research program blending modern breeding with agro-ecological methods is needed. We call on plant biologists to lead this effort and help steer humanity toward a safe operating space for agriculture.

  3. Trade-offs of European agricultural abandonment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Zanden, Emma H.; Verburg, Peter H.; Schulp, Catharina J E; Verkerk, Pieter Johannes

    2017-01-01

    Agricultural land abandonment is a policy challenge, especially for areas with unfavorable conditions for agriculture and remote and mountainous areas. Agricultural abandonment is an important land use process in many world regions and one of the dominant land use change processes in Europe.

  4. Trade-off analysis in the Northern Andes to study the dynamics in agricultural land use

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stoorvogel, J.J.; Antle, J.M.; Crissman, C.C.

    2004-01-01

    In this paper we hypothesize that land use change can be induced by non-linearities and thresholds in production systems that impact farmers' decision making. Tradeoffs between environmental and economic indicators is a useful way to represent dynamic properties of agricultural systems. The Tradeoff

  5. Feasibility of Triticale (Tritico secale wittmack. X Cropping in Agricultural Lands of Gorgan County by Spatial Analysis Tools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    maral Niazmoradi

    2017-12-01

    agricultural lands of Gorgan county by spatial analysis of GIS and evaluation of environmental variables. Material and Methods One of the most important areas for crop production in Golestan province located in north of Iran, is the Gorgan region. This area is located between latitude 54° 12.9' N and 54° 44.9' N and longitude 36° 30.6' E and 36° 58.8' E.Almost every farm in Gorgan region are rainfed. In order to spatial feasibility of triticale cropping in Gorgan county, agroecological requirements of triticale was identified and classified from scientific resources. Some environmental factors including, climatic variables such as precipitation and temperature in scale of annual, monthly and seasonal, topographic variables such as elevation, slope aspects and slops percent, and some soil characteristics as texture, EC, pH, fertility, K, P and organic matter were evaluated using geostatistics and classic methods and then thematic layers were produced in ArcGIS media. In multi-criteria assessment process, one of the most important steps is to determine each criteria weight. Generally, AHP is suitable to determine the weights of assessment factors. In this respect, the first step is to construct an AHP model consisting objectives, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives. Then these digital layers were classified based on ecological requirements table of triticale and they were overlaid and interpolated in GIS media and final layer were classified to four classes of high suitable, suitable, less suitable and non-suitable. The suitability analysis was based on matching between land qualities/characteristics and crop requirements. It was accomplished by weighted overlay technique (WOT in GIS. Results and Discussion The results showed that 28.8 thousand ha (44.92% of agricultural lands were located in the high suitable class (S1. This zone was observed occasionally in north and northwest parts of studied region. This zone had the high fertility, high organic matter percent (2

  6. Smart Farming: Including Rights Holders for Responsible Agricultural Innovation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelly Bronson

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available This article draws on the literature of responsible innovation to suggest concrete processes for including rights holders in the “smart” agricultural revolution. It first draws upon historical agricultural research in Canada to highlight how productivist values drove seed innovations with particular consequences for the distribution of power in the food system. Next, the article uses document analysis to suggest that a similar value framework is motivating public investment in smart farming innovations. The article is of interest to smart farming’s decision makers (from farmers to governance actors and a broader audience – anyone interested in engendering equity through innovation-led societal transitions.

  7. Carnivore use of avocado orchards across an agricultural-wildland gradient

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nogeire, Theresa M.; Davis, Frank W.; Duggan, Jennifer M.; Crooks, Kevin R.; Boydston, Erin E.

    2013-01-01

    Wide-ranging species cannot persist in reserves alone. Consequently, there is growing interest in the conservation value of agricultural lands that separate or buffer natural areas. The value of agricultural lands for wildlife habitat and connectivity varies as a function of the crop type and landscape context, and quantifying these differences will improve our ability to manage these lands more effectively for animals. In southern California, many species are present in avocado orchards, including mammalian carnivores. We examined occupancy of avocado orchards by mammalian carnivores across agricultural-wildland gradients in southern California with motion-activated cameras. More carnivore species were detected with cameras in orchards than in wildland sites, and for bobcats and gray foxes, orchards were associated with higher occupancy rates. Our results demonstrate that agricultural lands have potential to contribute to conservation by providing habitat or facilitating landscape connectivity.

  8. Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul L. G. Vlek

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Land provides a host of ecosystem services, of which the provisioning services are often considered paramount. As the demand for agricultural products multiplies, other ecosystem services are being degraded or lost entirely. Finding a sustainable trade-off between food production and one or more of other ecosystem services, given the variety of stakeholders, is a matter of optimizing land use in a dynamic and complex socio-ecological system. Land degradation reduces our options to meet both food demands and environmental needs. In order to illustrate this trade-off dilemma, four representative services, carbon sinks, water storage, biodiversity, and space for urbanization, are discussed here based on a review of contemporary literature that cuts across the domain of ecosystem services that are provided by land. Agricultural research will have to expand its focus from the field to the landscape level and in the process examine the cost of production that internalizes environmental costs. In some situations, the public cost of agriculture in marginal environments outweighs the private gains, even with the best technologies in place. Land use and city planners will increasingly have to address the cost of occupying productive agricultural land or the conversion of natural habitats. Landscape designs and urban planning should aim for the preservation of agricultural land and the integrated management of land resources by closing water and nutrient cycles, and by restoring biodiversity.

  9. Policy Incentives for Reducing Nitrate Leaching in Agricultural Lands: A Case Study of Irrigation and Drainage Dorudzan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheikhzeinoddin, A.; Esmaeili, A.; Zibaei, M.

    2016-01-01

    Agricultural activities increasingly use water, fertilizers and pesticides, which may generate negative impacts on environment. Nowadays, nitrogen leaching from agricultural lands is a widespread global problem. Therefore, alternative land management practices such as nutrient management (rate, method and time of application), tillage operations (conservation and no-tillage), and irrigation management are routinely used to reduce non-point source pollution and improve water quality. In fact, a number of studies have illustrated the positive effects of best management practices on water and nutrient losses. The objective of this paper is to develop a bio-economic model and introducing the policy instrument for reducing nitrate from irrigation and drainage Dorudzan. We aim to identify ‘‘win–win’’ opportunities for improving farm profitability and reducing nitrate leaching.

  10. Does the Recent Growth of Aquaculture Create Antibiotic Resistance Threats Different from those Associated with Land Animal Production in Agriculture?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Done, Hansa Y; Venkatesan, Arjun K; Halden, Rolf U

    2015-05-01

    Important antibiotics in human medicine have been used for many decades in animal agriculture for growth promotion and disease treatment. Several publications have linked antibiotic resistance development and spread with animal production. Aquaculture, the newest and fastest growing food production sector, may promote similar or new resistance mechanisms. This review of 650+ papers from diverse sources examines parallels and differences between land-based agriculture of swine, beef, and poultry and aquaculture. Among three key findings was, first, that of 51 antibiotics commonly used in aquaculture and agriculture, 39 (or 76%) are also of importance in human medicine; furthermore, six classes of antibiotics commonly used in both agriculture and aquaculture are also included on the World Health Organization's (WHO) list of critically important/highly important/important antimicrobials. Second, various zoonotic pathogens isolated from meat and seafood were observed to feature resistance to multiple antibiotics on the WHO list, irrespective of their origin in either agriculture or aquaculture. Third, the data show that resistant bacteria isolated from both aquaculture and agriculture share the same resistance mechanisms, indicating that aquaculture is contributing to the same resistance issues established by terrestrial agriculture. More transparency in data collection and reporting is needed so the risks and benefits of antibiotic usage can be adequately assessed.

  11. Agricultural land use doubled sediment yield of western China's rivers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, A. H.; Bierman, P. R.; Sosa-Gonzalez, V.; Neilson, T. B.; Rood, D. H.; Martin, J.; Hill, M.

    2017-12-01

    Land use changes, such as deforestation and agriculture, increase soil erosion rates on the scale of hillslopes and small drainage basins; however, the effects of these changes on the sediment load in larger rivers is poorly quantified, with a few studies scattered globally, and only 10 data points in the world's most populous nation, China. At 20 different sites in western China, we compare contemporary (1945-1987) fluvial sediment yield data collected daily over 4 to 26 years (median = 19 years) to long-term measures of erosion (sediment generation) based on new isotopic measurements of in situ 10Be in river sediments. We find that median sediment transport at these sites exceeds background sediment generation rates by a factor of two (from 0.13 to 5.79 times, median 1.85 times) and that contemporary sediment yield is statistically significantly different from long-term sediment yield (p measured unsupported 210Pb and 137Cs in 130 detrital samples from throughout the region. We find that only 4 samples (those from high elevation, low relief watersheds) have detectable 137Cs and 31 samples have detectable unsupported 210Pb. The lack of 137Cs in most samples suggests high rates of erosion in the 1950s-1960s when 137Cs would have been delivered to the landscape. Detectable 210Pb in 25% of the watersheds suggests that in some areas erosion rates have slowed since that time allowing 210Pb to accumulate to measurable levels. Together, these data sets demonstrate that upstream agricultural land use has significantly increased sediment supply to rivers in western China, likely increasing turbidity and decreasing ecosystem services such as fisheries.

  12. Co-benefits, trade-offs, barriers and policies for greenhouse gas mitigation in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bustamante, Mercedes; Robledo-Abad, Carmenza; Harper, Richard; Mbow, Cheikh; Ravindranat, Nijavalli H; Sperling, Frank; Haberl, Helmut; Pinto, Alexandre de Siqueira; Smith, Pete

    2014-10-01

    The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for approximately 25% of anthropogenic GHG emissions mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil and nutrient management. Mitigation from the sector is thus extremely important in meeting emission reduction targets. The sector offers a variety of cost-competitive mitigation options with most analyses indicating a decline in emissions largely due to decreasing deforestation rates. Sustainability criteria are needed to guide development and implementation of AFOLU mitigation measures with particular focus on multifunctional systems that allow the delivery of multiple services from land. It is striking that almost all of the positive and negative impacts, opportunities and barriers are context specific, precluding generic statements about which AFOLU mitigation measures have the greatest promise at a global scale. This finding underlines the importance of considering each mitigation strategy on a case-by-case basis, systemic effects when implementing mitigation options on the national scale, and suggests that policies need to be flexible enough to allow such assessments. National and international agricultural and forest (climate) policies have the potential to alter the opportunity costs of specific land uses in ways that increase opportunities or barriers for attaining climate change mitigation goals. Policies governing practices in agriculture and in forest conservation and management need to account for both effective mitigation and adaptation and can help to orient practices in agriculture and in forestry towards global sharing of innovative technologies for the efficient use of land resources. Different policy instruments, especially economic incentives and regulatory approaches, are currently being applied however, for its successful implementation it is critical to understand how land-use decisions are made and how new social, political and economic forces

  13. Combined impacts of land use and soil property changes on soil erosion in a mollisol area under long-term agricultural development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouyang, Wei; Wu, Yuyang; Hao, Zengchao; Zhang, Qi; Bu, Qingwei; Gao, Xiang

    2018-02-01

    Soil erosion exhibits special characteristics in the process of agricultural development. Understanding the combined impacts of land use and soil property changes on soil erosion, especially in the area under long-term agricultural cultivations, is vital to watershed agricultural and soil management. This study investigated the temporal-spatial patterns of the soil erosion based on a modified version of Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and conducted a soil erosion contribution analysis. The land use data were interpreted from Landsat series images, and soil properties were obtained from field sampling, laboratory tests and SPAW (Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Water) model calculations. Over a long period of agricultural development, the average erosion modulus decreased from 187.7tkm -2 a -1 in 1979 to 158.4tkm -2 a -1 in 2014. The land use types were transformed mainly in the reclamation of paddy fields and the shrinking of wetlands on a large scale. Most of the soils were converted to loam from silty or clay loam and the saturated hydraulic conductivity (K s ) of most soil types decreased by 1.11% to 43.6%. The rapidly increasing area of 49.8km 2 of paddy fields together with the moderate decrease of 14.0km 2 of forests, as well as K s values explained 87.4% of the total variance in soil erosion. Although changes in soil physical and water characteristics indicated that soil erosion loads should have become higher, the upsurge in paddy fields played an important role in mitigating soil erosion in this study area. These results demonstrated that land use changes had more significant impacts than soil property changes on soil erosion. This study suggested that rational measures should be taken to extend paddy fields and control the dry land farming. These findings will benefit watershed agricultural targeting and management. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. The impact of land use on biological activity of agriculture soils. An State-of-the-Art

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morugán-Coronado, Alicia; Cerdà, Artemi; García-Orenes, Fuensanta

    2014-05-01

    Biological activity is a crucial soil property affecting soil sustainability and crop production. The unsuitable land management can lead to a loss in soil fertility and a reduction in the abundance and diversity of soil microorganisms. This can be as a consequence of high erosion rates due to the mismanagement of farmers (Cerdà et al., 2009a). However ecological practices and some organic amendments can promote the activities of soil microbial communities, and increase its biodiversity (García-Orenes et al., 2010; 2013). The impact of land use in microbiological properties of agriculture soil are presented and discussed in this review. Biological activity is quantified by microbial soil communities and soil enzyme activities to interpret the effects of soil management practices (Morugán-Coronado et al., 2013). The aim of biological activity tests is to give a reliable description of the state of agricultural soils under the effect of different land uses. Numerous methods have been used to determine the impact of land uses on microbiological properties. The current used methods for detecting microbial diversity are based on molecular techniques centered on the 16S and 18S rRNA encoding sequences such as CLPP: community-level physiological profiles; T-RFLP: terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism; DGGE: denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis; OFRG: oligonucleotide fingerprinting of rRNA genes, ARISA: Automated Ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, SSCP: single-strand conformation polymorphism. And techniques based on the cellular composition of the microbes such as PLFA: phospholipid fatty acid analysis. Other methods are based on the activity of microbes, for example, Cmic: microbial biomass carbon; SIR: substrate induced respiration; BSR: Basal soil respiration; qCO2 metabolic quotient; enzymatic activities (Urease, ß-glucosidase and phosphatase) (Deng, 2012). Agricultural land management can contribute to increased rates of erosion due to

  15. Barn Owl (Tyto alba Diet Composition on Intensively Used Agricultural Land in the Danube Lowland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomáš Veselovský

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on pellets analysis from five localities in south western Slovakia (Malá Mužla, Malé Ripňany, Obid, Opatovský Sokolec and Tešedíkovo, we studied the diet composition of Barn Owl (Tyto alba in intensively cultivated agricultural lands. A total of 6218 specimens of prey, 17 mammalian and 7 bird species were identified. The main prey species found in all food samples was the Common Vole (Microtus arvalis, varying between 56 % and 67 %. The proportion of synanthropic species (Rattus norvegicus, Passer domesticus and species inhabiting agricultural landscapes (Crocidura leucodon, Crocidura suaveolens, Mus sp. increases in localities with a lower ratio of the Common Vole. The results suggest land use affects the diet of Barn Owls, confirming conclusions which have been drawn in previous studies. From faunistic point of view, discovering the Pannonian Root Vole (Microtus oeconomus mehelyi in the diet from Malá Mužla was important.

  16. Estimation of phosphorous loss from agricultural land in the Heartland region of the U.S.A. using the APEX model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Accurate phosphorus (P) loss estimation from agricultural land is important for development of best management practices and protection of water quality. The Agricultural Policy/Environmental Extender (APEX) model is a powerful simulation model designed to simulate edge-of-field water, sediment, an...

  17. An Initial Analysis of LANDSAT-4 Thematic Mapper Data for the Discrimination of Agricultural, Forested Wetland, and Urban Land Covers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrochi, D. A.

    1984-01-01

    An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper (TM) data for the discrimination of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers is conducted using a scene of data collected over Arkansas and Tennessee. A classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data is compared with a classification of TM data for the same area. Results from this comparative analysis show that the multitemporal MSS classification produced an overall accuracy of 80.91% while the TM classification yields an overall classification accuracy of 97.06% correct.

  18. Humans reclaimed lands in NorthEastern Italy and artificial drainage networks: effects of 30 years of Agricultural Surface Water Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sofia, Giulia; Pizzulli, Federica; Tarolli, Paolo

    2017-04-01

    Agriculture and land-use management has changed drastically in Italy since the end of the Second World War, driven by local but also European agricultural policies. As a result of these changes in farming practices and land use, many drainage networks have changed producing a greater exposure to flooding with a broad range of impacts on society, also because of climate inputs coupling with the human drivers. This study focuses on two main points: which kind of land use and farming changes have been observed in the most recent years ( 30 years)? How do these changes interact with climate and soil conditions? An open challenge to understand how these changes influence the watershed response, is, in fact, to understand if rainfall characteristics and climate have a synergistic effect, if their interaction matters, or to understand what element has the greatest influence on the watershed response connected to agricultural changes. The work is based on a simple model of water infiltration due to soil properties, and a connected evaluation of the distributed surface water storage offered by artificial drainage networks in a study area in Veneto (north-eastern Italy). The analysis shows that economic changes control the development of agro-industrial landscapes, with effects on the hydrological response. However, these changes deeply interact with antecedent soil conditions and climate characteristics. Intense and irregular rainfall events and events with a high recurrence should be expected to be the most critical. The presented outcomes highlight the importance of understanding how agricultural practices can be the driver of or can be used to avoid, or at least mitigate, flooding. The proposed methods can be valuable tools in evaluating the costs and benefits of the management of water in agriculture to inform better policy decision-making. References Sofia G, Tarolli P. 2017. Hydrological Response to 30 years of Agricultural Surface Water Management. Land 6 (1): 3 DOI

  19. Reframing the land-sparing/land-sharing debate for biodiversity conservation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kremen, Claire

    2015-10-01

    Conservation biologists are devoting an increasing amount of energy to debating whether land sparing (high-yielding agriculture on a small land footprint) or land sharing (low-yielding, wildlife-friendly agriculture on a larger land footprint) will promote better outcomes for local and global biodiversity. In turn, concerns are mounting about how to feed the world, given increasing demands for food. In this review, I evaluate the land-sparing/land-sharing framework--does the framework stimulate research and policy that can reconcile agricultural land use with biodiversity conservation, or is a revised framing needed? I review (1) the ecological evidence in favor of sparing versus sharing; (2) the evidence from land-use change studies that assesses whether a relationship exists between agricultural intensification and land sparing; and (3) how that relationship may be affected by socioeconomic and political factors. To address the trade-off between biodiversity conservation and food production, I then ask which forms of agricultural intensification can best feed the world now and in the future. On the basis of my review, I suggest that the dichotomy of the land-sparing/land-sharing framework limits the realm of future possibilities to two, largely undesirable, options for conservation. Both large, protected regions and favorable surrounding matrices are needed to promote biodiversity conservation; they work synergistically and are not mutually exclusive. A "both-and" framing of large protected areas surrounded by a wildlife-friendly matrix suggests different research priorities from the "either-or" framing of sparing versus sharing. Furthermore, wildlife-friendly farming methods such as agroecology may be best adapted to provide food for the world's hungry people. © 2015 New York Academy of Sciences.

  20. Agricultural land purchases for alternative uses - evidence from two farming areas in the Western Cape Province, South Africa - AEASA Conference

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Reed, L

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available The presentation starts with a look at the variety of uses of agricultural lands and the transition towards a multifunctional rural environment. A study to determine the extent of alternative land use transactions in WC, and to collect info...

  1. Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework: 3. Land Use and Field Boundary Database Development and Structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomer, Mark D; James, David E; Sandoval-Green, Claudette M J

    2017-05-01

    Conservation planning information is important for identifying options for watershed water quality improvement and can be developed for use at field, farm, and watershed scales. Translation across scales is a key issue impeding progress at watershed scales because watershed improvement goals must be connected with implementation of farm- and field-level conservation practices to demonstrate success. This is particularly true when examining alternatives for "trap and treat" practices implemented at agricultural-field edges to control (or influence) water flows through fields, landscapes, and riparian corridors within agricultural watersheds. We propose that database structures used in developing conservation planning information can achieve translation across conservation-planning scales, and we developed the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) to enable practical planning applications. The ACPF comprises a planning concept, a database to facilitate field-level and watershed-scale analyses, and an ArcGIS toolbox with Python scripts to identify specific options for placement of conservation practices. This paper appends two prior publications and describes the structure of the ACPF database, which contains land use, crop history, and soils information and is available for download for 6091 HUC12 watersheds located across Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and parts of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin and comprises information on 2.74 × 10 agricultural fields (available through /). Sample results examining land use trends across Iowa and Illinois are presented here to demonstrate potential uses of the database. While designed for use with the ACPF toolbox, users are welcome to use the ACPF watershed data in a variety of planning and modeling approaches. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  2. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time-series of idle agriculture lands: A preliminary study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vaiphasa, C.; Piamduaytham, S.; Vaiphasa, T.; Skidmore, A.K.

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, the NDVI time-series collected from the study area between year 2003 and 2005 of all land cover types are plotted and compared. The study area is the agricultural zones in Banphai District, Khonkean, Thailand. The LANDSAT satellite images of different dates were first transformed into

  3. Trade-off between water pollution prevention, agriculture profit, and farmer practice--an optimization methodology for discussion on land-use adjustment in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jianchang; Zhang, Luoping; Zhang, Yuzhen; Deng, Hongbing

    2015-01-01

    Agricultural decision-making to control nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution may not be efficiently implemented, if there is no appropriate cost-benefit analysis on agricultural management practices. This paper presents an interval-fuzzy linear programming (IFLP) model to deal with the trade-off between agricultural revenue, NPS pollution control, and alternative practices through land adjustment for Wuchuan catchment, a typical agricultural area in Jiulong River watershed, Fujian Province of China. From the results, the lower combination of practice 1, practice 2, practice 3, and practice 7 with the land area of 12.6, 5.2, 145.2, and 85.3 hm(2), respectively, could reduce NPS pollution load by 10%. The combination yields an income of 98,580 Chinese Yuan/a. If the pollution reduction is 15%, the higher combination need practice 1, practice 2, practice 3, practice 5, and practice 7 with the land area of 54.4, 23.6, 18.0, 6.3, and 85.3 hm(2), respectively. The income of this combination is 915,170 Chinese Yuan/a. The sensitivity analysis of IFLP indicates that the cost-effective practices are ranked as follows: practice 7 > practice 2 > practice 1 > practice 5 > practice 3 > practice 6 > practice 4. In addition, the uncertainties in the agriculture NPS pollution control system could be effectively quantified by the IFLP model. Furthermore, to accomplish a reasonable and applicable project of land-use adjustment, decision-makers could also integrate above solutions with their own experience and other information.

  4. Carnivore use of avocado orchards across an agricultural-wildland gradient.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Theresa M Nogeire

    Full Text Available Wide-ranging species cannot persist in reserves alone. Consequently, there is growing interest in the conservation value of agricultural lands that separate or buffer natural areas. The value of agricultural lands for wildlife habitat and connectivity varies as a function of the crop type and landscape context, and quantifying these differences will improve our ability to manage these lands more effectively for animals. In southern California, many species are present in avocado orchards, including mammalian carnivores. We examined occupancy of avocado orchards by mammalian carnivores across agricultural-wildland gradients in southern California with motion-activated cameras. More carnivore species were detected with cameras in orchards than in wildland sites, and for bobcats and gray foxes, orchards were associated with higher occupancy rates. Our results demonstrate that agricultural lands have potential to contribute to conservation by providing habitat or facilitating landscape connectivity.

  5. Land-atmosphere coupling and soil moisture memory contribute to long-term agricultural drought

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, S.; Newman, M.; Lawrence, D. M.; Livneh, B.; Lombardozzi, D. L.

    2017-12-01

    We assessed the contribution of land-atmosphere coupling and soil moisture memory on long-term agricultural droughts in the US. We performed an ensemble of climate model simulations to study soil moisture dynamics under two atmospheric forcing scenarios: active and muted land-atmosphere coupling. Land-atmosphere coupling contributes to a 12% increase and 36% decrease in the decorrelation time scale of soil moisture anomalies in the US Great Plains and the Southwest, respectively. These differences in soil moisture memory affect the length and severity of modeled drought. Consequently, long-term droughts are 10% longer and 3% more severe in the Great Plains, and 15% shorter and 21% less severe in the Southwest. An analysis of Coupled Model Intercomparsion Project phase 5 data shows four fold uncertainty in soil moisture memory across models that strongly affects simulated long-term droughts and is potentially attributable to the differences in soil water storage capacity across models.

  6. Historical changes in dispersed kopanitse land type and changes in use of agricultural land on Kysuce region example

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barančok Peter

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Territory of Kysuce is characterised by a high proportion of the traditional agricultural landscape (TAL, which occupy almost 12% of the area. Two types of TAL were allocated here. The first type is represented by TAL with dispersed settlement. The second type is represented by TAL of arable land and grassland landscape. The largest representation has typical forms of anthropogenic relief (FAR. TALs represent the most diverse mosaic of man-made habitats and natural habitats too. In the past, there were the largest representations of arable land and regularly mown meadows. Currently, these areas are dominated by abandoned meadows (fallow meadows, occasionally grazed pastures and meadows. Arable land is represented only minimally. The large part of areas is overgrown by non-forest woody vegetation or passes to the forest vegetation. In this process of landscape changes, significant changes in biodiversity of the areas are realised. Successively, the species of segetal and ruderal vegetation are less represented and species of forest vegetation obtained greater representation. In the process of mapping and evaluation, FAR - shape and orientation of plots, types of balks and some of their basic characteristics - were monitored.

  7. Land Competition and Land-Use Change:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vongvisouk, Thoumthone

    Land competition and land-use changes are taking place in many developing countries as the demand for land increases. These changes are leading to changes in the livelihood conditions of rural people. The Government of Laos (GoL), on the one hand, aims to increase forest protection. On the other...... hand, the government is also working to increase national economic growth by promoting private-sector investment in both agriculture and forest resources – two sectors that compete for the same areas intended for protection. This thesis explores how these contradictory drivers of land-use changes...... software. Quantitative data was compiled in a Microsoft Access database and analyzed in Excel. Land-use and livelihood changes are taking place rapidly in the study sites. Overall, land-use change underwent transformation away from subsistence shifting cultivation to cash crops, intensive agriculture...

  8. Microbial Community-Level Physiological Profiles (CLPP) and herbicide mineralization potential in groundwater affected by agricultural land use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janniche, Gry Sander; Spliid, Henrik; Albrechtsen, Hans-Jørgen

    2012-10-01

    Diffuse groundwater pollution from agricultural land use may impact the microbial groundwater community, which was investigated as Community-Level Physiological Profiles (CLPP) using EcoPlate™. Water was sampled from seven piezometers and a spring in a small agricultural catchment with diffuse herbicide and nitrate pollution. Based on the Shannon-Wiener and Simpson's diversity indices the diversity in the microbial communities was high. The response from the EcoPlates™ showed which substrates support groundwater bacteria, and all 31 carbon sources were utilized by organisms from at least one water sample. However, only nine carbon sources were utilized by all water samples: D-Mannitol, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, putrescine, D-galacturonic acid, itaconic acid, 4-hydroxy benzoic acid, tween 40, tween 80, and L-asparagine. In all water samples the microorganisms preferred D-mannitol, D-galacturonic acid, tween 40, and 4-hydroxy benzoic acid as substrates, whereas none preferred 2-hydroxy benzoic acid, α-D-lactose, D,L-α-glycerol phosphate, α-ketobutyric acid, L-threonine and glycyl-L-glutamic acid. Principal Component Analysis of the CLPP's clustered the most agriculturally affected groundwater samples, indicating that the agricultural land use affects the groundwater microbial communities. Furthermore, the ability to mineralize atrazine and isoproturon, which have been used in the catchment, was also associated with this cluster.

  9. The potential of intercropping food crops and energy crop to improve productivity of a degraded agriculture land in arid tropics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I.K.D. Jaya

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Degraded agricultural lands in the arid tropics have low soil organic carbon (SOC and hence low productivity. Poor farmers that their livelihoods depend highly on these types of lands are suffering. Cropping strategies that are able to improve the soil productivity are needed. In the present study, some intercropping models of food crops with bio-energy crop of castor (Ricinus communis L. were tested to assess their potential to improve the degraded land productivity. The intercropping models were: (1 castor - hybrid maize, (2 castor – short season maize, (3 castor – mungbean, and (4 castor –short season maize – mungbean. The results show that yields of the component crops in monoculture were relatively the same as in intercropping, resulted in a high Land Equivalent Ratio (LER. The highest LER (3.07 was calculated from intercropping castor plants with short season maize crops followed by mungbean with intercropping productivity of IDR 15,097,600.00 ha-1. Intercropping has a great potential to improve degraded agriculture land productivity and castor is a promising plant to improve biodiversity and area coverage on the land.

  10. Agriculture and Water Quality. Issues in Agricultural Policy. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 548.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crowder, Bradley M.; And Others

    Agriculture generates byproducts that may contribute to the contamination of the United States' water supply. Any effective regulations to ban or restrict agricultural chemical or land use practices in order to improve water quality will affect the farm economy. Some farmers will benefit; some will not. Most agricultural pollutants reach surface…

  11. Land resources assessment of El-Galaba basin, South Egypt for the potentiality of agriculture expansion using remote sensing and GIS techniques

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.M. Saleh

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The socio-economic development in Egypt is based on land resources. Recently, the Egyptian government is interested in developing low desert zone areas which are located between the recent Nile flood plain and the limestone plateau, from the east and west sides, and represent an important source of aggregate materials. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the potentiality of El-Galaba basin soils which are located in the western part of the Aswan Governorate and are characterized by Wadi El-Kubbaniya for the horizontal agricultural expansion and their optimum agricultural use. The investigated area was remotely sensed to identify the landscape and its land resources. Terrain units were identified using draped Landsat 8 satellite image over Digital Terrain Model (DTM to express the landscape and the associated soil mapping units. Fifteen mapping units were identified and grouped. Land capability evaluation was performed using Cervatana capability model. The results of capability modeling revealed about 3.33% of land with good use capability, 76.06% land with moderate use capability, and 0.08% marginal or non-productive land. The main capability limitations were soil and erosion risks. The Almagra model was used to produce the optimum cropping pattern and limitations of soil units. Matching the crop requirements with soil characteristics, optimum cropping pattern was obtained for wheat, corn, melon, potatoes, sunflower, sugar beet, Alfalfa, peach, citrus, and olive. The results of the study revealed the potentiality of El-Galaba basin for agricultural uses.

  12. Restoring abandoned agricultural lands in cold desert shrublands: Tradeoffs between water availability and invasive species

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeanne C. Chambers; Eric P. Eldredge; Keirith A. Snyder; David I. Board; Tara Forbis de Queiroz; Vada Hubbard

    2014-01-01

    Restoration of abandoned agricultural lands to create resilient ecosystems in arid and semi-arid ecosystems typically requires seeding or transplanting native species, improving plant-soil-water relations, and controlling invasive species. We asked if improving water relations via irrigation or surface mulch would result in negative tradeoffs between native species...

  13. Morphology, chemistry and distribution of neoformed spherulites in agricultural land affected by metallurgical point-source pollution

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leguedois, S.; Oort, van F.; Jongmans, A.G.; Chevalier, P.

    2004-01-01

    Metal distribution patterns in superficial soil horizons of agricultural land affected by metallurgical point-source pollution were studied using optical and electron microscopy, synchrotron radiation and spectroscopy analyses. The site is located in northern France, at the center of a former entry

  14. Investigating the interdependence between non-hydroelectric renewable energy, agricultural value added, and arable land use in Argentina

    OpenAIRE

    Ben Jebli, Mehdi; Ben Youssef, Slim

    2017-01-01

    We examine the dynamic relationships between per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, real gross domestic product (GDP), non-hydroelectric renewable energy (NHRE) consumption, agricultural value added (AVA), and agricultural land (AGRL) use for the case of Argentina over the period 1980-2013 by employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds approach to cointegration and Granger causality tests. The Wald test confirms the existence of a long-run cointegration between variables. T...

  15. Scale-dependence of land use effects on water quality of streams in agricultural catchments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buck, Oliver; Niyogi, Dev K.; Townsend, Colin R.

    2004-01-01

    The influence of land use on water quality in streams is scale-dependent and varies in time and space. In this study, land cover patterns and stocking rates were used as measures of agricultural development in two pasture and one native grassland catchment in New Zealand and were related to water quality in streams of various orders. The amount of pasture per subcatchment correlated well to total nitrogen and nitrate in one catchment and turbidity and total phosphorous in the other catchment. Stocking rates were only correlated to total phosphorous in one pasture catchment but showed stronger correlations to ammonium, total phosphorous and total nitrogen in the other pasture catchment. Winter and spring floods were significant sources of nutrients and faecal coliforms from one of the pasture catchments into a wetland complex. Nutrient and faecal coliform concentrations were better predicted by pastural land cover in fourth-order than in second-order streams. This suggests that upstream land use is more influential in larger streams, while local land use and other factors may be more important in smaller streams. These temporal and spatial scale effects indicate that water-monitoring schemes need to be scale-sensitive. - Land use influences water quality of streams at various spatial scales

  16. Scale-dependence of land use effects on water quality of streams in agricultural catchments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Buck, Oliver; Niyogi, Dev K.; Townsend, Colin R

    2004-07-01

    The influence of land use on water quality in streams is scale-dependent and varies in time and space. In this study, land cover patterns and stocking rates were used as measures of agricultural development in two pasture and one native grassland catchment in New Zealand and were related to water quality in streams of various orders. The amount of pasture per subcatchment correlated well to total nitrogen and nitrate in one catchment and turbidity and total phosphorous in the other catchment. Stocking rates were only correlated to total phosphorous in one pasture catchment but showed stronger correlations to ammonium, total phosphorous and total nitrogen in the other pasture catchment. Winter and spring floods were significant sources of nutrients and faecal coliforms from one of the pasture catchments into a wetland complex. Nutrient and faecal coliform concentrations were better predicted by pastural land cover in fourth-order than in second-order streams. This suggests that upstream land use is more influential in larger streams, while local land use and other factors may be more important in smaller streams. These temporal and spatial scale effects indicate that water-monitoring schemes need to be scale-sensitive. - Land use influences water quality of streams at various spatial scales.

  17. Agricultural irrigated land-use inventory for the counties in the Suwannee River Water Management District in Florida, 2015

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marella, Richard L.; Dixon, Joann F.; Berry, Darbi R.

    2016-07-28

    A detailed inventory of irrigated crop acreage is not available at the level of resolution needed to accurately estimate agricultural water use or to project future water demands in many Florida counties. A detailed digital map and summary of irrigated acreage during the 2015 growing season was developed for 13 of the 15 counties that compose the Suwannee River Water Management District. The irrigated areas were delineated using land-use data, orthoimagery, and information obtained from the water management district consumptive water-use permits that were then field verified between May and November of 2015. Selected attribute data were collected for the irrigated areas, including crop type, primary water source, and type of irrigation system. Results indicate that an estimated 113,134 acres were either irrigated or had potential for irrigation in all or part of the 13 counties within the Suwannee River Water Management District during 2015. This estimate includes 108,870 acres of field-verified, irrigated crops and 4,264 acres of irrigated land observed as (1) idle (with an irrigation system visible but no crop present at the time of the field-verification visit), (2) acres that could not be verified during field visits, or (3) acres that were located on publicly owned research lands.

  18. Assessment of Land Use Efficiency in Ezine District of Çanakkale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Timuçin EVEREST

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In this study land use efficiency on Ezine District of Çanakkale Province which covers approximately 721 km² was determined with geographical information systems (GIS and remote sensing techniques. In the study, 1982 year data of the Canakkale Provincial Inventory report and 2012 ASTER satellite image were used. To determine the land use efficiency, basic land use types (agriculture, pasture, forest, water surface and non-agricultural areas of 1982 and 2012 images were compared with land use capability classes converted to raster format. With this comparison, it was determined in which land use capability class the land use classes were included. According to results, it was detected that agriculture, pasture, wat er surfaces and non-agricultural areas were increased and forest areas were decreased in 30 years’ period. While nonagricultural uses in I., II., III. and IV. class lands were 665 ha, it was increased approximately by 30% and reached to 865.15 ha in 2012. Non-agricultural uses in VI., VII. and VIII. class lands were 1683 ha in 1982 and it has increased about 5 .03% and reached to 1767.5 ha in 2012. The decline of forest areas in VI and VII class land has led to increases especially in agriculture and pasture use. This increase is thought to lead to increased soil loss due to erosion.

  19. Transformation of Agricultural Land for Urbanisation, Infrastructural Development and Question of Future Food Security: Cases from Parts of Hugli District, West Bengal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giyasuddin Siddique

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Developing countries of the world encounter urbanisation and infrastructural development in or around the fertile tracts and the absence of any landuse plan for desired land use change has led to conversion of farmlands, which is detrimental to future food security and environmental quality. Hugli district is traditionally well known as one of the most prosperous agricultural regions of West Bengal but the district is experiencing rapid urban extension and infrastructural development towards productive agricultural land since 1991. This has caused decline in the amount of agricultural production which may be treated as an indicator of increasing threat to the long run sustainable livelihood security of the people of the whole of West Bengal. This article critically explores the transformation of agricultural (farm land because of growing rate of urbanisation and infrastructural development, which in turn poses the question of threat to food (in security. Although, this is a growing problem across the universe, this article probes the future food security questions of Hugli district, West Bengal by examining the impact of the highly intertwined indicators of urbanisation and infrastructural development on agricultural (farm land use and its effect on food security. Regression analysis, Spearman’s Ranking Correlation Coefficient, Remote Sensing technologies, Markov Chain Model, Projection of future population growth and yield rate are employed to understand the depth of the problem. The result not only shows a direct negative correlation between urban extension and agricultural areal contraction but also the supervised classification of satellite imageries shows that there is rapid change of rural land use from 1996-2016. There is no match between future population growth and future yield rate of crops and the Markov Chain Model further predicts that the cropland will decrease from 62.77% to 42.90% and the built up area will increase from 31

  20. Five challenges to reconcile agricultural land use and forest ecosystem services in Southeast Asia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrasco, L R; Papworth, S K; Reed, J; Symes, W S; Ickowitz, A; Clements, T; Peh, K S-H; Sunderland, T

    2016-10-01

    Southeast Asia possesses the highest rates of tropical deforestation globally and exceptional levels of species richness and endemism. Many countries in the region are also recognized for their food insecurity and poverty, making the reconciliation of agricultural production and forest conservation a particular priority. This reconciliation requires recognition of the trade-offs between competing land-use values and the subsequent incorporation of this information into policy making. To date, such reconciliation has been relatively unsuccessful across much of Southeast Asia. We propose an ecosystem services (ES) value-internalization framework that identifies the key challenges to such reconciliation. These challenges include lack of accessible ES valuation techniques; limited knowledge of the links between forests, food security, and human well-being; weak demand and political will for the integration of ES in economic activities and environmental regulation; a disconnect between decision makers and ES valuation; and lack of transparent discussion platforms where stakeholders can work toward consensus on negotiated land-use management decisions. Key research priorities to overcome these challenges are developing easy-to-use ES valuation techniques; quantifying links between forests and well-being that go beyond economic values; understanding factors that prevent the incorporation of ES into markets, regulations, and environmental certification schemes; understanding how to integrate ES valuation into policy making processes, and determining how to reduce corruption and power plays in land-use planning processes. © 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.

  1. Sustainable agriculture: a challenge in Bangladesh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.A.A. Faroque

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The sustainability of conventional agriculture in Bangladesh is under threat from the continuous degradation of land and water resources, and from declining yields due to indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals. Government is pursuing efforts to promote sustainable agriculture with emphasis on better use of on-farm resources and the reduction of external inputs. This paper presents four dimensions of agricultural sustainability as productivity, environmental stability, economical profitability, and social and economic equity. Six characters were selected to evaluate sustainability. Significant differences were found between the two systems (conventional and sustainable agriculture in crop diversification, soil fertility management, pests and diseases management, use of agro-chemicals and environmental issues. However, no significant variations were found in other indicators such as land-use pattern, crop yield and stability, risk and uncertainties, and food security. Although crop yield and financial return were found to be slightly higher in the conventional system, the economic return and value addition per unit of land did not show any difference. It can be suggested that sustainable agriculture has a tendency towards becoming environmental, economically and socially more sound than conventional agriculture, as it requires considerably less agro-chemicals, adds more organic matter to the soil, provides balanced food, and requires higher local inputs without markedly compromising output and financial benefits. Broad-policy measures, including the creation of mass awareness of adverse health effects of agrochemical-based products, are outlined for the promotion of sustainable agriculture.

  2. Cesium-137 activity in soil from an agricultural land in West Anatolia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aslani, M. A. A.; Yaprak, G.; AYTAS, S.; AKGil, S.; Eral, M.; Yener, G.

    2001-01-01

    Due to the radiocesium derived from the accident at Chernobyl in 1986 deposited on the soil, this study presents experimental data on Cs-137 activity concentrations in soil samples taken from agricultural land of Aegean Region in Turkey in 1997 and 1998. The activity of Cs-137 for these soil samples was found in the range between 0.92±0.15 Bq/kg and 20.75±0.29 Bq/kg. The distribution of Cs-137 in the soil can differ, being dependent on soil properties

  3. An Empirical Study on Sustainable Agriculture Land Use Right Transfer in the Heihe River Basin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ye Sun

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture land use right transfer (ALURT is a new policy designed to meet the demand of the sustainable development of agriculture in China. In the Heihe river basin (HRB, ALURT has also recently been introduced to cope with the emerging challenges in agriculture. In this paper, we empirically study the long-term viability of this new policy in HRB using a sustainability assessment. We collect the documents of ALURT contracts, statistical data of ALURT performance, and conduct interviews with its users. The main finding is that the centralized institutional structure of ALURT in HRB compromises its long-term viability. In particular, the power imbalance under the regulation of the intermediate agency, which causes the dissatisfaction of the participants, is threatening the application of the ALURT policy in the long run. Therefore, we suggest that the role of the intermediate agency in ALURT needs to be redefined, to better serve the sustainable development of agriculture in HRB.

  4. Mitigating greenhouse gases: the importance of land base interactions between forests, agriculture, and residential development in the face of changes in bioenergy and carbon prices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ralph Alig; Greg Latta; Darius Adams; Bruce. McCarl

    2009-01-01

    The forest sector can contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas reduction, while also providing other environmental, economic, and social benefits. Policy tools for climate change mitigation include carbon-related payment programs as well as laws and programs to impede the loss of agricultural and forest lands to development. Policy makers will base their expectations...

  5. Characteristics of the event mean concentration (EMCs) from rainfall runoff on mixed agricultural land use in the shoreline zone of the Yamuna River in Delhi, India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Deepshikha; Gupta, Ruchi; Singh, Ram Karan; Kansal, Arun

    2012-03-01

    This paper is focused on the monitoring of the diffuse pollution characteristics from the agricultural land confining the River Yamuna in Delhi (capital of India). Agricultural fields surrounding the Yamuna river are direct nonpoint source of pollution impacting the river quality. The study includes watershed delineation for the River Yamuna using SWAT (2005) and land use classification for the city using GIS and remote sensing. Thereafter, the rainfall-runoff pollutant concentrations from the mixed agricultural land use were assessed for the 2006 and 2007 monsoon period (July-September). Runoff was measured using SCS method and grab samples of rainfall runoff were collected at three stations namely Old Delhi Railway Bridge (ODRB), Nizamuddin and Okhla bridge in Delhi. The samples were analysed for physico-chemical and biological parameters. Rainfall runoff and event mean concentrations (EMCs) for different water quality parameters were characterized and the effect of land use was analyzed. The average EMCs for BOD, COD, ammonia, nitrate, TKN, hardness, TDS, TSS, chlorides, sulfates, phosphate, fluorides and TC were 21.82 mg/L, 73.48 mg/L, 72.68 μg/L, 229.87 μg/L, 15.32 μg/L, 11.36 mg/L, 117.44 mg/L, 77.60 mg/L, 117.64 mg/L, 135.82 mg/L, 0.08 mg/L, 0.85 mg/L and 2,827.47 MPN/100 mL, respectively. The EMCs of TSS, nitrogen and its compounds, phosphate and BOD were high.

  6. Assessing Agricultural Intensification Strategies with a Sustainable Agriculture Matrix

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, X.; Davidson, E. A.

    2017-12-01

    To meet the growing global demand for food and bioenergy, agricultural production must nearly double by 2050, placing additional pressures on the environment and the society. Thus, how to efficiently use limited land, water, and nutrient resources to produce more food with low pollution (MoFoLoPo) is clearly one of the major challenges of this century. The increasingly interconnected global market provides a great opportunity for reallocating crop production to the countries and regions that use natural resources more efficiently. For example, it is estimated that optimizing the allocation of crop production around the world can mitigate 41% of nitrogen lost to the environment. However, higher efficiency in nutrients use does not necessarily lead to higher efficiency in land use or water use. In addition, the increasing share of international trade in food supply may introduce additional systemic risk and affect the resilience of global food system. Using the data/indicator from a Sustainable Agriculture Matrix and an international trade matrix, we developed a simple model to assess the trade-offs of international trade considering resource use efficiencies (including water, land, nitrogen, and phosphorus), economic costs and benefits, and the resilience of food system.

  7. Linking Energy- and Land-Use Systems: Energy Potentials and Environmental Risks of Using Agricultural Residues in Tanzania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia C. Terrapon-Pfaff

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper attempts to assess whether renewable energy self-sufficiency can be achieved in the crop production and processing sector in Tanzania and if this could be accomplished in an environmentally sustainable manner. In order to answer these questions the theoretical energy potential of process residues from commercially produced agricultural crops in Tanzania is evaluated. Furthermore, a set of sustainability indicators with focus on environmental criteria is applied to identify risks and opportunities of using these residues for energy generation. In particular, the positive and negative effects on the land-use-system (soil fertility, water use and quality, biodiversity, etc. are evaluated. The results show that energy generation with certain agricultural process residues could not only improve and secure the energy supply but could also improve the sustainability of current land-use practices.

  8. Topographic changes detection through Structure-from-Motion in agricultural lands affected by erosion processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prosdocimi, Massimo; Pradetto Sordo, Nicoletta; Burguet, Maria; Di Prima, Simone; Terol Esparza, Enric; Tarolli, Paolo; Cerdà, Artemi

    2016-04-01

    Throughout the world, soil erosion by water is a serious problem, especially in semi-arid and semi-humid areas (Cerdà et al., 2009; Cerdan et al., 2010; García-Ruiz, 2010). Although soil erosion by water consists of physical processes that vary significantly in severity and frequency according to when and where they occur, they are also strongly influenced by anthropic factors such as land-use changes on large scales and unsustainable farming practices (Boardman et al., 1990; Cerdà 1994; Montgomery, 2007). Tillage operations, combined with weather conditions, are recognized to primarily influence soil erosion rates. If, on one hand, tillage operations cause uniform changes based on the tool used, on the other, weather conditions, such as rainfalls, produce more random changes, less easily traceable (Snapir et al., 2014). Within this context, remote-sensing technologies can facilitate the detection and quantification of these topographic changes. In particular, a real opportunity and challenge is offered by the low-cost and flexible photogrammetric technique, called 'Structure-from-Motion' (SfM), combined with the use of smartphones (Micheletti et al., 2014; Prosdocimi et al., 2015). This represents a significant advance compared with more expensive technologies and applications (e.g. Terrestrial Laser Scanner - TLS) (Tarolli, 2014). This work wants to test the Structure from Motion to obtain high-resolution topography for the detection of topographic changes in agricultural lands affected by erosion processes. Two case studies were selected: i) a tilled plot characterized by bare soil and affected by rill erosion located in the hilly countryside of Marche region (central Italy), and ii) a Mediterranean vineyard located within the province of Valencia (south eastern Spain) where rainfall simulation experiments were carried out. Extensive photosets were obtained by using one standalone reflex digital camera and one smartphone built-in digital camera. Digital

  9. An Agent-Based Assessment of Land Use and Ecosystem Changes in Traditional Agricultural Landscape of Portugal

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Acosta, L.; Rounsevell, M.D.A.; Bakker, M.M.; Doorn, van A.M.; Gómez-Delgado, M.; Delgado, M.

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an assessment of land use changes and their impacts on the ecosystem in the Montado, a traditional agricultural landscape of Portugal in response to global environmental change. The assessment uses an agent- based model (ABM) of the adaptive decisions of farmers to simulate the

  10. Conditions for successful land reform in Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JA Groenewald

    2004-11-01

    Full Text Available Land reform has traditionally had two objectives: equity and productivity. Food insecurity and the need for agriculture to contribute to development emphasise the need to maintain and improve productivity while improving equitability. Land must foster production and agriculture must attract good human material. The following areas need to be considered in policy formulation and delivery: an effective institutional framework involving all the relevant public and private bodies; efficient fiscal planning is essential; potentially successful farmers must be selected and given special support, including extension and adult education; complementary services and infrastructure are needed; prioritisation of functions and land tenure reform is often necessary. In addition, international agricultural markets are very important for Africa.  Wealthy nations should cease trade-distorting protection of their own farmers.

  11. Improving weather predictability by including land-surface model parameter uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orth, Rene; Dutra, Emanuel; Pappenberger, Florian

    2016-04-01

    The land surface forms an important component of Earth system models and interacts nonlinearly with other parts such as ocean and atmosphere. To capture the complex and heterogenous hydrology of the land surface, land surface models include a large number of parameters impacting the coupling to other components of the Earth system model. Focusing on ECMWF's land-surface model HTESSEL we present in this study a comprehensive parameter sensitivity evaluation using multiple observational datasets in Europe. We select 6 poorly constrained effective parameters (surface runoff effective depth, skin conductivity, minimum stomatal resistance, maximum interception, soil moisture stress function shape, total soil depth) and explore their sensitivity to model outputs such as soil moisture, evapotranspiration and runoff using uncoupled simulations and coupled seasonal forecasts. Additionally we investigate the possibility to construct ensembles from the multiple land surface parameters. In the uncoupled runs we find that minimum stomatal resistance and total soil depth have the most influence on model performance. Forecast skill scores are moreover sensitive to the same parameters as HTESSEL performance in the uncoupled analysis. We demonstrate the robustness of our findings by comparing multiple best performing parameter sets and multiple randomly chosen parameter sets. We find better temperature and precipitation forecast skill with the best-performing parameter perturbations demonstrating representativeness of model performance across uncoupled (and hence less computationally demanding) and coupled settings. Finally, we construct ensemble forecasts from ensemble members derived with different best-performing parameterizations of HTESSEL. This incorporation of parameter uncertainty in the ensemble generation yields an increase in forecast skill, even beyond the skill of the default system. Orth, R., E. Dutra, and F. Pappenberger, 2016: Improving weather predictability by

  12. Factors Affecting Water Dynamics and Their Assessment in Agricultural Landscapes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakadevan, K.; Nguyen, M.L.

    2015-01-01

    The intensification and extension of agriculture have contributed significantly to the global food production in the last five decades. However, intensification without due attention to the ecosystem services and sustainability of soil and water resources contributed to land and water quality degradation such as soil erosion, decreased soil fertility and quality, salinization and nutrient discharge to surface and ground waters. Land use change from forests to crop lands altered the vegetation pattern and hydrology of landscapes with increased nutrient discharge from crop lands to riverine environment. Global climate change will increase the amount of water required for agriculture in addition to water needed for further irrigation development causing water scarcity in many dry, arid and semi-arid regions. The water and nutrient use efficiencies of agricultural production systems are still below 40% in many regions across the globe. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizer use in agriculture have accelerated the cycling of these nutrients in the landscape and contributed to water quality degradation. Such nutrient pollution has a wide array of consequences including eutrophication of inland waters and marine ecosystems. While intensifying drought conditions, increasing water consumption and environmental pollution in many parts of the world threatens agricultural productivity and livelihood, these also provided opportunities for farmers to use improved land and water management technologies and practices to make agriculture resilient to external shocks

  13. Reduction of solids and nutrient loss from agricultural land by tailwater recovery systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Omer, A.R.; Miranda, Leandro E.; Moore, M. T.; Krutz, L. J.; Prince Czarnecki, J. M.; Kröger, R.; Baker, B. H.; Hogue, J.; Allen, P. J.

    2018-01-01

    Best management practices are being implemented throughout the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley with the aim of alleviating pressures placed on downstream aquatic systems by sediment and nutrient losses from agricultural land; however, research evaluating the performance of tailwater recovery (TWR) systems, an increasingly important practice, is limited. This study evaluated the ability of TWR systems to retain sediment and nutrients draining from agricultural landscapes. Composite flow-based samples were collected during flow events (precipitation or irrigation) over a two-year period in six TWR systems. Performance was evaluated by comparing concentrations and loads in water entering TWR systems (i.e., runoff or influent) from agricultural fields to water overflow exiting TWR systems (effluent). Tailwater recovery systems did not reduce concentrations of solids and nutrients, but did reduce loads of solids, phosphorus (P), and nitrogen (N) by 43%, 32%, and 44%, respectively. Annual mean load reductions were 1,142 kg solids, 0.7 kg of P, and 3.8 kg of N. Performance of TWR systems was influenced by effluent volume, system fullness, time since the previous event, and capacity of the TWR system. Mechanistically, TWR systems retain runoff on the agricultural landscape, thereby reducing the amount of sediment and nutrients entering downstream waterbodies. System performance can be improved through manipulation of influential parameters.

  14. The effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-06-01

    This report provides an assessment of the effects of climate change on U.S. agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity. It is one of a series of 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAP) that are being produced under the auspices...

  15. Developing a Composite Aquifer Vulnerability Assessment Model Combining DRASTIC with Agricultural Land Use in Choushui River Alluvial Fan, Central Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shih-Kai; Hsieh, Chih-Heng; Tsai, Cheng-Bin

    2017-04-01

    Aquifer vulnerability assessment is considered to be an effective tool in controlling potential pollution which is critical for groundwater management. The Choushui River alluvial fan, located in central Taiwan, is an agricultural area with complex crop patterns and various irrigation schemes, which increased the difficulties in groundwater resource management. The aim of this study is to propose an integrated methodology to assess shallow groundwater vulnerability by including land-use impact on groundwater potential pollution. The original groundwater vulnerability methodology, DRASTIC, was modified by adding a land-use parameter in order to assess groundwater vulnerability under intense agricultural activities. To examine the prediction capacity of pollution for the modified DRASTIC model, various risk categories of contamination potentials were compared with observed nitrate-N obtained from groundwater monitoring network. It was found that for the original DRASTIC vulnerability map, some areas with low nitrate-N concentrations are covered within the high vulnerability areas, especially in the northern part of mid-fan areas, where rice paddy is the main crop and planted for two crop seasons per year. The low nitrate-N contamination potential of rice paddies may be resulted from the denitrification in the reduced root zone. By reducing the rating for rice paddies, the modified model was proved to be capable of increasing the precise of prediction in study area. The results can provide a basis for groundwater monitoring network design and effective preserve measures formulation in the mixed agricultural area. Keyword:Aquifer Vulnerability, Groundwater, DRASTIC, Nitrate-N

  16. The analysis of the level of radioactive contamination of agricultural lands in Mogilev region [Belarus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Komleva, S.M.

    2010-01-01

    In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there was analyzed the present level of radioactive situation and contamination of areas of agricultural companies with radiocesium at in Mogilev region. There were suggested methodical approaches on organizing the use of the lands in such a way as to get the minimum content of radionuclides in the manufactured products

  17. Land Use, Land Use History, and Soil Type Affect Soil Greenhouse Gas Fluxes From Agricultural Landscapes of the East African Highlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wanyama, I.; Rufino, M. C.; Pelster, D. E.; Wanyama, G.; Atzberger, C.; van Asten, P.; Verchot, Louis V.; Butterbach-Bahl, K.

    2018-03-01

    This study aims to explain effects of soil textural class, topography, land use, and land use history on soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in the Lake Victoria region. We measured GHG fluxes from intact soil cores collected in Rakai, Uganda, an area characterized by low-input smallholder (soil cores were air dried and rewetted to water holding capacities (WHCs) of 30, 55, and 80%. Soil CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes were measured for 48 h following rewetting. Cumulative N2O fluxes were highest from soils under perennial crops and the lowest from soils under annual crops (P soils had lower N2O fluxes than the clay soils (P soil CO2 fluxes were highest from eucalyptus plantations and lowest from annual crops across multiple WHC (P = 0.014 at 30% WHC and P soil cores from the top soil. This study reveals that land use and soil type have strong effects on GHG fluxes from agricultural land in the study area. Field monitoring of fluxes is needed to confirm whether these findings are consistent with what happens in situ.

  18. Linguosemiotic Actualization of Agroengineering Signs in English and Russian Agricultural Discourse

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Aleksandrovna Sukhova

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Agro-discourse, or agricultural discourse, represents both a person-oriented and an institutional type of communication between the agricultural producers as participants in the agricultural sphere – one of the areas of production, processing and consumption of agricultural products (agronomy, crop production, horticulture, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, mechanization and electrification of agriculture, land reclamation and irrigation of agricultural lands, environmental soil and water pollution, aqua and ichthiological culture. The cognitive model of this type of discourse organizes the entire aspect of agriculture as a semiotic formation comprising a significant part of human culture, and includes the appropriate chronotope, members (agents and customers – producers and consumers of agricultural products, tools, objects and conditions of cultivation, production, processing and consumption . Within the framework of this model we describe the linguosemiotic actualization of signs-pragmatonyms forming the system of concepts and nominations on agroindustrial themes in this discourse. The article describes the linguosemiotic actualization of one of the main types of signspragmatonyms – signs of agroengineering – in English and Russian agricultural discourse. These signs are qualified as signs-instrumentatives nominating the means of production and product operations (manipulations with real material objects for the purpose of their treatment or processing as the procedures of transformation to some agricultural products. The agroengineering signs-pragmatonyms, as one of the agricultural sectors, providing mechanized cultivation and processing of soil for sowing grain, harvesting, growing and harvesting of fruits and vegetables, as well as carrying out many other manipulations and operations with the help of technology, include the signs which gain linguosemiotic actualization in English and Russian agricultural discourse. First of

  19. Recent trends in water quality in an agricultural catchment in Eastern Scotland: elucidating the roles of hydrology and land use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunn, S M; Sample, J; Potts, J; Abel, C; Cook, Y; Taylor, C; Vinten, A J A

    2014-07-01

    Across the EU, programmes of measures have been introduced as part of river basin management planning as a means of tackling problems of diffuse pollution from agriculture. Evidence is required to demonstrate the effectiveness of these measures and with this overarching objective, monitoring of an agricultural catchment in Eastern Scotland was initiated in 2007. As a precursor to evaluating the effect of new management measures it is essential to understand how other factors, including hydrology and land use changes, could have influenced water quality. This study undertook an analysis of the trends in concentrations and loads of nitrate, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), suspended solids (SS) and turbidity measured at six points in the catchment over a six year period. The results identified both differing trends between determinands and differing trends occurring over varying spatial scales. The only direct relationships between land use and water quality that could be identified based on annual data was a positive link between arable cropping and nitrate concentrations. At the sub-catchment scale some temporal changes in land use and management explained short-term trends in nitrate but not in SRP. Lags in the system were identified due to soil adsorption, in-stream/loch processing and groundwater transport making the identification of cause and effect problematic. The results have implications for the demonstration of effectiveness of measures over the shorter term and the timescales of recovery from diffuse pollution. Longer term monitoring at small scales will be important in this regard.

  20. The true extent of agriculture's contribution to national greenhouse gas emissions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bell, M.J.; Cloy, J.M.; Rees, R.M.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Quantification of agricultural GHG emissions is required under legislation. • Alternative approaches to calculating agricultural GHG inventories were compared. • The Scottish Government and IPCC attribute different emissions to the agricultural sector. • High emissions from agriculture are calculated when land-use change is included. • Agriculture is a greater source of emissions using the Scottish Government approach. - Abstract: The agricultural sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and a growing global population means that agricultural production will remain high if food demands are to be met. Mitigation methods to reduce emissions from this sector are thus required, along with identification and quantification of emission sources, so that the agricultural community can act and measure its progress. International legislation requires the submission of annual reports quantifying GHG emissions from agriculture. The importance of attributing the correct sources of emissions to the agricultural sector is clear; however the current approach taken by the IPCC, and reported to the UNFCCC, omits emissions from soils during agricultural land-use change from its agricultural inventory. This paper questions the IPCC approach, and the attribution of agricultural land-use change emissions to a separate category: ‘Land-use, Land-use change and Forestry’. Here a new approach adopted by the Scottish Government is examined, and compared to IPCC guidelines and national communications submitted to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the UNFCCC. The new Scottish Government approach attributes emissions from both land-use conversion and agricultural land under continuous use to the agricultural sector, in addition to those emissions from livestock and energy use on farms. The extent of emissions attributed to the agricultural sector using the Scottish Government approach is much greater than that using

  1. NILAI EKONOMI TOTAL KONVERSI LAHAN PERTANIAN DI KABUPATEN SLEMAN (Total Economic Value of the Land Agricultural Conversion in Sleman Regency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rika Harini

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRAK Konversi lahan pertanian untuk  penggunaan non pertanian  merupakan suatu  fenomena yang tidak dapat dihindarkan. Penilaian secara ekonomi maupun lingkungan perlu dilakukan untuk mengetahui tingkat keuntungan secara finansial maupun kelingkungan dari kegiatan  pertanian. Penelitian dilakukan di Kabupaten Sleman  melalui metode survai dengan 90  responden  sebagai sampel penelitian. Wilayah kajian didasarkan pada tingkat konversi lahan pertanian selama  kurun waktu 17 tahun. Melalui Citra Landsat TM 1992, 2000 dan Citra Alos 2009  dapat diketahui luas konversi lahan pertanian  di semua wilayah di Kabupaten Sleman. Analisis data  dilakukan secara  deskriptif  kualitatif maupun kuantitatif dengan  uji statistik melalui model uji Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR dan juga model Total Economic Value (TEV. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa terjadi variasi tingkat konversi lahan pertanian  di wilayah Kabupaten Sleman. Hasil perhitungan  dengan metode TEV menunjukkan bahwa pada wilayah zone 1 nilai ekonomi usahatani lahan  sawah lebih rendah dibandingkan dengan wilayah zone 2, sedangkan pada zone 3 nilai ekonomi dari usahatani lahan sawah paling tinggi. Tingkat pencemaran akibat adanya konversi lahan pertanian berdampak pada hasil kegiatan usahatani lahan sawah. Pencemaran yang dianggap paling tinggi oleh petani untuk saat ini adalah pencemaran air, sedangkan untuk pencemaran tanah dan udara belum dirasakan. Konversi lahan juga berdampak terhadap  produksi hasil komoditi lahan sawah. Meskipun hasil produksi komoditas pertanian juga dipengaruhi oleh luas lahan sawah, konversi, teknologi dan produktivitas pada setiap zone wilayah kajian.   ABSTRACT The conversion of agricultural land for non agricultural purposes is a phenomenon that inevitable. Economic and environmental assessment needs to be done to determine the level of profit financially and environmentally of farming activities on the agricultural sector. The study was

  2. Projecting large-scale area changes in land use and land cover for terrestrial carbon analyses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ralph J. Alig; Brett J. Butler

    2004-01-01

    One of the largest changes in US forest type areas over the last half-century has involved pine types in the South. The area of planted pine has increased more than 10-fold since 1950, mostly on private lands. Private landowners have responded to market incentives and government programs, including subsidized afforestation on marginal agricultural land. Timber harvest...

  3. The Woman's Land Army: 1918-1920.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laughlin, Margaret

    1994-01-01

    Describes the origins and work of the Women's Land Army, a World War I British volunteer agricultural production unit. Details similar program in the United States. Identifies the impact of the Women's Land Army including enhanced political, economic, and physical freedom for the participants and future generations of women. (CFR)

  4. Transformative optimisation of agricultural land use to meet future food demands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lian Pin Koh

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The human population is expected to reach ∼9 billion by 2050. The ensuing demands for water, food and energy would intensify land-use conflicts and exacerbate environmental impacts. Therefore we urgently need to reconcile our growing consumptive needs with environmental protection. Here, we explore the potential of a land-use optimisation strategy to increase global agricultural production on two major groups of crops: cereals and oilseeds. We implemented a spatially-explicit computer simulation model across 173 countries based on the following algorithm: on any cropland, always produce the most productive crop given all other crops currently being produced locally and the site-specific biophysical, economic and technological constraints to production. Globally, this strategy resulted in net increases in annual production of cereal and oilseed crops from 1.9 billion to 2.9 billion tons (46%, and from 427 million to 481 million tons (13%, respectively, without any change in total land area harvested for cereals or oilseeds. This thought experiment demonstrates that, in theory, more optimal use of existing farmlands could help meet future crop demands. In practice there might be cultural, social and institutional barriers that limit the full realisation of this theoretical potential. Nevertheless, these constraints have to be weighed against the consequences of not producing enough food, particularly in regions already facing food shortages.

  5. Soil water infiltration impacted by maize (zea mays) growth on sloping agricultural land of the loess plateau

    Science.gov (United States)

    Increasing infiltration rates of sloping agricultural land from arid and semiarid regions not only affects water supply and precipitation transformations in soil directly, but also impacts erosion intensity. This is extremely important to the Loess Plateau regions of Northwest China, where a majorit...

  6. Managing forest and marginal agricultural land for multiple tradeoffs : compromising on economic, carbon and structural biodiversity objectives

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Krcmar, E.; Kooten, van G.C.; Vertinsky, I.

    2005-01-01

    In this paper, we use compromise programming to solve a multiple-objective land use and forest management planning model. Long- and short- (`fast¿) term carbon uptake, maintenance of structural diversity, and economic (net returns to forestry and agriculture) objectives are simultaneously achieved

  7. Land use and demographic grids in Cosyma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robinson, C.A.; Hasemann, I.

    1991-01-01

    The spatial distribution of the population, agricultural production, economic activity, and the position of land and sea, are important elements of accident consequence codes. These data are necessary in evaluating the health effects within the population arising from the external dose, inhalation and ingestion pathways. These distributions are also essential in calculating the economic impact of implementing countermeasures, such as relocation and food bans. This paper includes a discussion of the agricultural production and population distribution information available for EC countries, their resolution, availability and sources. The gridded data included in the COSYMA system are described. Particular aspects, such as the difficulties involved with using economic land use information, are also explained. Future developments, and their effect on the requirements for land use and demographic grids, are outlined

  8. Agroecological Substantiation for the Use of Treated Wastewater for Irrigation of Agricultural Land

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yulia Domashenko

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this work is the agroecological substantiation of the use of treated wastewater for irrigation of agricultural land. As the result of the experimental research, it was established that the soil microfloraplays an essential role in strengthening or weakening the biological activity of soil. Therefore, with an irrigation rate of 250 m 3 /ha of wastewater, a 1.5 times increase in the number of microbiota colonies is observed on average both in hog farms and cattle breeding complexes; with a rate of 350 m 3 /ha – a 2-fold increase; with a rate of 450 m 3 /ha – a 3.5–4-fold increase. An increase in nitrifying soil features has also been observed. Thus, if the value on the control in the soil layer from 0 cm to 60 cm is 27.2 mg of nitrate per 1 kg of arid soil, in the version with wastewater irrigation it reaches 46.7 mg. According to the research results, the use of defecate, the waste of sugar production, in the treatment of wastewater of livestock farms does not have a negative agroecological impact on the soil. Therefore, the method of wastewater treatment of pig-breeding complexes and farms can be recommended for use in irrigation reclamation, which includes treatment of wastewater with burnt defecate in the dose of 50–200 mg/dm 3 , with the pH value varying in the range of 7.5–8.5. After settling-out of the obtained mixture in settlers, it is divided into a transparent liquid fraction and the sediment, i.e. an organomineral fertilizer. Afterwards, the fluidbody is fed to irrigation of agricultural land, and its excess is discharged into waterways and reservoirs. The sediment is fed to the vortex layer equipment with mobile ferromagnetic particles or thermolized, where their complete disinfection takes place.

  9. Approaches to contamination problems of agricultural land using Na(I) Tl spectrometer and gamma camera

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yin, Yong-Gen; Suzui, Nobuo; Kawachi, Naoki; Ishii, Satomi; Fujimaki, Shu; Yamaguchi, Mitsutaka; Tanoi, Keitaro; Nakanishi, Tomoko M.; Chino, Mitsuo; Nakamura, Shin-ichi; Watabe, Hiroshi; Yamamoto, Seiichi

    2012-01-01

    The severe accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant made a large area of agricultural land contaminated with radioactive cesium (Cs-134 and 137). Quantitative analysis for radioactivity (discriminating for Cs-134 and Cs-137) taken in vegetables from the land was carried out using NaI (Tl) scintillation spectrometer. Development of gamma camera for their imaging due to Cs 137 was performed. The shape of the peaks in the spectrum, baseline suppression, a solution of lines overlapping, enhancement of high-resolution were studied. Furthermore, the effect of water on cesium absorbing and transferring process from the root to the tissue was studied. (S. Ohno)

  10. Topical radiation protection questions of use of agricultural land in the environs of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carach, J.; Csupka, S.; Petrasova, M.

    1982-01-01

    A survey is presented of the problems of the use of agricultural land in the environs of nuclear power plants. The analysis of emission activity in nuclear power plants presently under construction shows that for normal operation no precautions are necessary. For accidents, specific health protection measures are planned. (author)

  11. Environmental effects of growing short-rotation woody crops on former agricultural lands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tolbert, V.R.; Thornton, F.C.; Joslin, J.D.

    1997-01-01

    Field-scale studies in the Southeast have been addressing the environmental effects of converting agricultural lands to biomass crop production since 1994. Erosion, surface water quality and quantity and subsurface movement of water and nutrients from woody crops, switchgrass and agricultural crops are being compared. Nutrient cycling, soil physical changes, and crop productivity are also being monitored at the three sites. Maximum sediment losses occurred in the spring and fall. Losses were greater from sweetgum planted without a cover crop than with a cover crop. Nutrient losses of N and P in runoff and subsurface water occurred primarily after spring fertilizer application. These field plot studies are serving as the basis for a water shed study initiated in 1997. Results from the two studies will be used to develop and model nutrient and hydrologic budgets for woody crop plantings to identify potential constraints to sustainable deployment of short-rotation woody crops in the southeastern United States. (author)

  12. Assessing the changes in land use and ecosystem services in an oasis agricultural region of Yanqi Basin, Northwest China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Shuixian; Wu, Bin; Yang, Pengnian

    2014-12-01

    The Yanqi Basin, one of the most productive agricultural areas, has a high population density in Xinjiang, Northwest China. Land use changes, mainly driven by oasis expansion, significantly impact ecosystem services and functions, but these effects are difficult to quantify. The valuation of ecosystem services is important to clarify the ecological and environmental changes caused by agriculturalization of oasis. This study aimed to investigate variations in ecosystem services in response to land use changes during oasis agricultural expansion activities in the Yanqi Basin from 1964 to 2009. The methods used were based on formula of ecosystem service value (ESV) and ESV coefficients. Satellite data were combined with the ESV coefficients to quantify land use changes and ecosystem service changes in the study area. Sensitivity analysis determined the effect of manipulating the coefficients on the estimated values. The results show that the total ESVs in the Yanqi Basin were $1,674, $1,692, $1,471, $1,732, and $1,603 million in 1964, 1973, 1989, 1999, and 2009, respectively. The net deline in ESV was $71 million in the past 46 years, but the ESVs of each types of landscape changed significantly. The aggregated ESVs of water areas and wetlands were approximately 80 % of the total ESV. Water supply and waste treatment were the two largest service functions and contributed approximately 65 % of the total ESV. The estimated ESVs in this study were elastic with respect to the value coefficients. Therefore, the estimations were robust in spite of uncertainties on the value coefficients. These significant changes in land use occur within the entire basin over the study period. These changes cause environmental problems, such as land degradation, vegetation degeneracy, and changes in aquatic environment.

  13. The Land Administration Domain Model

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lemmen, C.; Van Oosterom, P.J.M.; Bennett, R.

    2015-01-01

    Societal drivers including poverty eradication, gender equality, indigenous recognition, adequate housing, sustainable agriculture, food security, climate change response, and good governance, influence contemporary land administration design. Equally, the opportunities provided by technological

  14. Virtual water flows related to land use in an intensive agriculture in the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klipstein, A.; Schneider, K.; Breuer, L.; Frede, H. G.

    2009-04-01

    Due to low annual precipitation, agricultural production in Uzbekistan is depending on irrigation from the Syrdarya and Amudarya rivers to a great deal. One of the most important cash crops of the country is cotton. Current irrigation management leads to elevated groundwater levels, salinization of soils and to a degradation of soil and water resources. Through export of cotton and other crops, the problems related to water consumption and water management are transported beyond the producing country. The amount of water transported through production and export is referred to as virtual water. To distinguish between productive and unproductive partitioning of water flows, the terms green and blue water have been introduced. Information on virtual water flows due to crop production usually only exist on country level. To reduce uncertainties related to generalization, the effect of land management and environmental factors on the partitioning of water flows needs to be studied on smaller scales. The presented study analyzes water fluxes in an intensively used agricultural area in the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan. The study aims to a) quantify crop specific water consumption in agricultural production under current management and b) analyze water use efficiency as subject to land use and irrigation management. Based on crop production, irrigation management and environmental conditions in the study area, virtual water flows will be calculated on the level of agricultural collectives (Water Users Associations). In a further step, the partitioning of green and blue water fluxes will be quantified. Alternative scenarios for improved water management will be analyzed in a model study.

  15. Effects of urbanization on agricultural lands and river basins: case study of Mersin (South of Turkey).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duran, Celalettin; Gunek, Halil; Sandal, Ersin Kaya

    2012-04-01

    Largely, Turkey is a hilly and mountainous country. Many rivers rise from the mountains and flow into the seas surrounding the country. Mean while along fertile plains around the rivers and coastal floodplains of Turkey were densely populated than the other parts of the country. These characteristics show that there is a significant relationship between river basins and population or settlements. It is understood from this point of view, Mersin city and its vicinity (coastal floodplain and nearby river basins) show similar relationship. The city of Mersin was built on the southwest comer of Cukurova where Delicay and Efrenk creeks create narrow coastal floodplain. The plain has rich potential for agricultural practices with fertile alluvial soils and suitable climate. However, establishment of the port at the shore have increased commercial activity. Agricultural and commercial potential have attracted people to the area, and eventually has caused rapid spatial expansion of the city, and the urban sprawls over fertile agricultural lands along coastal floodplain and nearby river basins of the city. But unplanned, uncontrolled and illegal urbanization process has been causing degradation of agricultural areas and river basins, and also causing flooding in the city of Mersin and its vicinity. Especially in the basins, urbanization increases impervious surfaces throughout watersheds that increase erosion and runoff of surface water. In this study, the city of Mersin and its vicinity are examined in different ways, such as land use, urbanization, morphology and flows of the streams and given some directions for suitable urbanization.

  16. Making Conventional Agriculture Environmentally Friendly: Moving beyond the Glorification of Organic Agriculture and the Demonization of Conventional Agriculture

    OpenAIRE

    Alon Tal

    2018-01-01

    The article reviews the most recent research surrounding the potential role of organic agriculture in providing food for the planet. It challenges the claims of organic agriculture’s environmental superiority compared to well-managed, conventional agriculture. The relative advantages of these contrasting approaches to farming in areas such as aggregate land requirements, biodiversity/habitat loss, water quality, land degradation and climate change are considered. Legitimate concerns abo...

  17. Sensitivity Analysis in Agent-Based Models of Socio-Ecological Systems: An Example in Agricultural Land Conservation for Lake Water Quality Improvement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ligmann-Zielinska, A.; Kramer, D. B.; Spence Cheruvelil, K.; Soranno, P.

    2012-12-01

    Socio-ecological systems are dynamic and nonlinear. To account for this complexity, we employ agent-based models (ABMs) to study macro-scale phenomena resulting from micro-scale interactions among system components. Because ABMs typically have many parameters, it is challenging to identify which parameters contribute to the emerging macro-scale patterns. In this paper, we address the following question: What is the extent of participation in agricultural land conservation programs given heterogeneous landscape, economic, social, and individual decision making criteria in complex lakesheds? To answer this question, we: [1] built an ABM for our model system; [2] simulated land use change resulting from agent decision making, [3] estimated the uncertainty of the model output, decomposed it and apportioned it to each of the parameters in the model. Our model system is a freshwater socio-ecological system - that of farmland and lake water quality within a region containing a large number of lakes and high proportions of agricultural lands. Our study focuses on examining how agricultural land conversion from active to fallow reduces freshwater nutrient loading and improves water quality. Consequently, our ABM is composed of farmer agents who make decisions related to participation in a government-sponsored Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) managed by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). We also include an FSA agent, who selects enrollment offers made by farmers and announces the signup results leading to land use change. The model is executed in a Monte Carlo simulation framework to generate a distribution of maps of fallow lands that are used for calculating nutrient loading to lakes. What follows is a variance-based sensitivity analysis of the results. We compute sensitivity indices for individual parameters and their combinations, allowing for identification of the most influential as well as the insignificant inputs. In the case study, we observe that farmland

  18. An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper data for the classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrochi, D. A.; Anderson, J. E.; Brannon, D. P.; Hill, C. L.

    1982-01-01

    An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 thematic mapper (TM) data for the delineation and classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers was conducted. A study area in Poinsett County, Arkansas was used to evaluate a classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) data in comparison with a classification of TM data for the same area. Data over Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee were utilized to evaluate the TM for delineating forested wetland species. A classification of the study area was assessed for accuracy in discriminating five forested wetland categories. Finally, the TM data were used to identify urban features within a small city. A computer generated classification of Union City, Tennessee was analyzed for accuracy in delineating urban land covers. An evaluation of digitally enhanced TM data using principal components analysis to facilitate photointerpretation of urban features was also performed.

  19. Identification and Prioritization of Management Practices to Reduce Methylmercury Exports from Wetlands and Irrigated Agricultural Lands

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCord, Stephen A.; Heim, Wesley A.

    2015-03-01

    The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's (Delta) beneficial uses for humans and wildlife are impaired by elevated methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in fish. MeHg is a neurotoxin that bioaccumulates in aquatic food webs. The total maximum daily load (TMDL) implementation plan aimed at reducing MeHg in Delta fish obligates dischargers to conduct MeHg control studies. Over 150 stakeholders collaborated to identify 24 management practices (MPs) addressing MeHg nonpoint sources (NPS) in three categories: biogeochemistry (6), hydrology (14), and soil/vegetation (4). Land uses were divided into six categories: permanently and seasonally flooded wetlands, flooded and irrigated agricultural lands, floodplains, and brackish-fresh tidal marshes. Stakeholders scored MPs based on seven criteria: scientific certainty, costs, MeHg reduction potential, spatial applicability, technical capacity to implement, negative impacts to beneficial uses, and conflicting requirements. Semi-quantitative scoring for MPs applicable to each land use (totaling >400 individual scores) led to consensus-based prioritization. This process relied on practical experience from diverse and accomplished NPS stakeholders and synthesis of 17 previous studies. Results provide a comprehensive, stakeholder-driven prioritization of MPs for wetland and irrigated agricultural land managers. Final prioritization highlights the most promising MPs for practical application and control study, and a secondary set of MPs warranting further evaluation. MPs that address hydrology and soil/vegetation were prioritized because experiences were positive and implementation appeared more feasible. MeHg control studies will need to address the TMDL conundrum that MPs effective at reducing MeHg exports could both exacerbate MeHg exposure and contend with other management objectives on site.

  20. Integrated assessment of agricultural land use policies on nutrient pollution and sustainable development in Taihu Basin, China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reidsma, P.; Feng, S.; Loon, van M.; Luo, X.; Kang, C.; Lubbers, M.T.M.H.; Kanellopoulos, A.; Wolf, J.; Ittersum, van M.K.; Qu, F.

    2012-01-01

    Water pollution in Chinese lakes is a major problem. To reduce nutrient pollution and enhance sustainable development in Taihu Basin, China, an integrated assessment of the impacts of agricultural land use policies has been performed, using the technical coefficient generator TechnoGIN and the

  1. Simulated carbon emissions from land-use change are substantially enhanced by accounting for agricultural management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pugh, T A M; Arneth, A; Bayer, A D; Olin, S; Lindeskog, M; Schurgers, G; Ahlström, A; Klein Goldewijk, K

    2015-01-01

    It is over three decades since a large terrestrial carbon sink (S T ) was first reported. The magnitude of the net sink is now relatively well known, and its importance for dampening atmospheric CO 2 accumulation, and hence climate change, widely recognised. But the contributions of underlying processes are not well defined, particularly the role of emissions from land-use change (E LUC ) versus the biospheric carbon uptake (S L ; S T  = S L  − E LUC ). One key aspect of the interplay of E LUC and S L is the role of agricultural processes in land-use change emissions, which has not yet been clearly quantified at the global scale. Here we assess the effect of representing agricultural land management in a dynamic global vegetation model. Accounting for harvest, grazing and tillage resulted in cumulative E LUC since 1850 ca. 70% larger than in simulations ignoring these processes, but also changed the timescale over which these emissions occurred and led to underestimations of the carbon sequestered by possible future reforestation actions. The vast majority of Earth system models in the recent IPCC Fifth Assessment Report omit these processes, suggesting either an overestimation in their present-day S T , or an underestimation of S L , of up to 1.0 Pg C a −1 . Management processes influencing crop productivity per se are important for food supply, but were found to have little influence on E LUC . (letter)

  2. The rise of Brazilian agriculture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Hans Grinsted; Vink, Nick; Sandrey, Ron

    2014-01-01

    of Brazilian agricultural policies, namely farmer support, the research and technology transfer system and land issues. The implications for South African agriculture can be summarized as the recognition that history, geography, the development path and agricultural policies all matter. The article......The purpose of this article is to explore some of the possible lessons for South African agriculture from the Brazilian experience. To this end, the article discusses the performance of Brazilian agriculture in terms of land and labour use, production, and exports. This is followed by aspects...... then identifies five important lessons for agricultural development in South Africa....

  3. Impacts of the Conversion of Forest to Arable Land and Long Term Agriculture Practices on the Water Pathways in Southern Brazil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinet, J.; Minella, J. P. G.; Schlesner, A.; Lücke, A.; Ameijeiras-Marino, Y.; Opfergelt, S.; Vanderborght, J.; Gerard, G.

    2017-12-01

    Changes in runoff pathways affect many environmental processes. Land use change (LUC), and more specifically forest conversion to arable land, is one of the controls of water fluxes at the hillslope or catchment scale. Still, the long term effects of forest conversion and agricultural activities in (sub-) tropical environments have been relatively understudied. Our objective was therefore to study the impact of deforestation and land degradation through agriculture on runoff pathways. We selected two small catchments with contrasting land use (agriculture vs. natural forest) in a subtropical region in the south of Brazil. Stream-, pore-, subsurface- and rainwater were monitored, sampled and analyzed for Dissolve Silicon concentration (DSi) and δ18O isotopic signature. Both forested and agricultural catchments were highly responsive to rainfall event and only 2 runoff components contributed to the stream discharge were identified: baseflow and peak flow components. The δ18O peak flow signal in the agricultural catchment was closely related to the δ18O rainfall signal. In the forested catchment, the δ18O peak flow signal was similar to a seasonally averaged signal. This suggested that most peak flow was derived from current rainfall events in the agricultural catchment, while being derived from a mixed reservoir in the forested one. The DSi of the peak flow was low in both catchments. Hence, the mixing in the forested catchment cannot have taken place in the soil matrix as the soil pore water contained high DSi concentrations. Instead, the mixing must have taken place in a reservoir with a relatively short residence time and isolated, to some extent, from the soil matrix. The dense channel network left by decayed roots in the forest soil above a clay-rich water-impeding B horizon is the most likely candidate and this was confirmed by visual observations. Contributions of other, deeper reservoirs are unlikely given the quick response time of the catchment

  4. Land-cover change research at the U.S. Geological Survey-assessing our nation's dynamic land surface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Tamara S.

    2011-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an unprecedented, 27-year assessment of land-use and land-cover change for the conterminous United States. For the period 1973 to 2000, scientists generated estimates of change in major types of land use and land cover, such as development, mining, agriculture, forest, grasslands, and wetlands. To help provide the insight that our Nation will need to make land-use decisions in coming decades, the historical trends data is now being used by the USGS to help model potential future land use/land cover under different scenarios, including climate, environmental, economic, population, public policy, and technological change.

  5. Object-Based Land Use Classification of Agricultural Land by Coupling Multi-Temporal Spectral Characteristics and Phenological Events in Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knoefel, Patrick; Loew, Fabian; Conrad, Christopher

    2015-04-01

    Crop maps based on classification of remotely sensed data are of increased attendance in agricultural management. This induces a more detailed knowledge about the reliability of such spatial information. However, classification of agricultural land use is often limited by high spectral similarities of the studied crop types. More, spatially and temporally varying agro-ecological conditions can introduce confusion in crop mapping. Classification errors in crop maps in turn may have influence on model outputs, like agricultural production monitoring. One major goal of the PhenoS project ("Phenological structuring to determine optimal acquisition dates for Sentinel-2 data for field crop classification"), is the detection of optimal phenological time windows for land cover classification purposes. Since many crop species are spectrally highly similar, accurate classification requires the right selection of satellite images for a certain classification task. In the course of one growing season, phenological phases exist where crops are separable with higher accuracies. For this purpose, coupling of multi-temporal spectral characteristics and phenological events is promising. The focus of this study is set on the separation of spectrally similar cereal crops like winter wheat, barley, and rye of two test sites in Germany called "Harz/Central German Lowland" and "Demmin". However, this study uses object based random forest (RF) classification to investigate the impact of image acquisition frequency and timing on crop classification uncertainty by permuting all possible combinations of available RapidEye time series recorded on the test sites between 2010 and 2014. The permutations were applied to different segmentation parameters. Then, classification uncertainty was assessed and analysed, based on the probabilistic soft-output from the RF algorithm at the per-field basis. From this soft output, entropy was calculated as a spatial measure of classification uncertainty

  6. Land Use Change under Biofuel Policies and a Tax on Meat and Dairy Products: Considering Complexity in Agricultural Production Chains Matters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth Delzeit

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Growing demand for meat and dairy products (MDP, biofuels, and scarcity of agricultural land are drivers of global land use competition. Impacts of policies targeting demand for MDP or biofuels have only been analysed separately. We use the computable general equilibrium model DART-BIO to investigate combined effects, since MDP and biofuel production are closely related via feestock use and co-production of animal feed. We implement four scenarios: (a a baseline scenario; (b halving MDP consumption in industrialised countries by a tax; (c abolishing current biofuel policies; and (d no exogenous land use change. We find that a MDP tax and exogenous land use change have larger effects on land use and food markets than biofuel policies. International trade is affected in all scenarios. With respect to combined effects of a MDP tax and biofuel policies, we find decreasing biodiesel but increasing bioethanol production. In addition, the MDP tax decreases the impact of biofuel policies on agricultural markets and land use. Our results highlight the importance of a detailed representation of different vegetable oils used in biodiesel production and related by-products. Finally, since the MDP tax increases the use of fossil fuels, the net climate mitigation potentials of such a tax should be investigated further.

  7. Agriculture and natural resources in a changing world - the role of irrigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sauer, T.; Havlík, P.; Schneider, U. A.; Kindermann, G.; Obersteiner, M.

    2009-04-01

    Fertile land and fresh water constitute two of the most fundamental resources for food production. These resources are affected by environmental, political, economic, and technical developments. Regional impacts may transmit to the world through increased trade. With a global forest and agricultural sector model, we quantify the impacts of increased demand for food due to population growth and economic development on potential land and water use. In particular, we investigate producer adaptation regarding crop and irrigation choice, agricultural market adjustments, and changes in the values of land and water. Against the background of resource sustainability and food security topics, this study integrates the spatial and operational heterogeneity of irrigation management into a global land use model. It represents a first large scale assessment of agricultural water use under explicit consideration of alternative irrigation options in their particular biophysical, economic, and technical context, accounting for international trade, motivation-based farming, and quantified aggregated impacts on land scarcity, water scarcity, and food supply. The inclusion of technical and economic aspects of irrigation choice into an integrated land use modeling framework provides new insights into the interdisciplinary trade-offs between determinants of global land use change. Agricultural responses to population and economic growth include considerable increases in irrigated area and agricultural water use, but reductions in the average water intensity. Different irrigation systems are preferred under different exogenous biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. Negligence of these adaptations would bias the burden of development on land and water scarcity. Without technical progress in agriculture, predicted population and income levels for 2030 would require substantial price adjustments for land, water, and food to equilibrate supply and demand.

  8. Integrated services to support detection, prevention and planning of the agricultural-forest-rural land against fires

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scipioni, A.; Tagliaferri, F.

    2009-04-01

    Objective of the document is to define lines of development and distribution of the services to support detection, prevention and planning of the agricultural-forest-rural land against fire. The services will be a valid support on hand of the Regional and National Administrations involved in the agricultural-forest-rural activities (Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies, National Forest Police, ecc..), through the employment of the SIAN "National Agricultural Informative System", that is the integrated national information system for the entire agriculture, forestry and fisheries Administration. The services proposals would be distributed through the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) of the SIAN: the GIS database is a single nation-wide digital graphic database consisting of: - Ortophotos: Aerial images of approz. 45 km2 each with ground resolution of 50 cm; - Cadastral maps: Land maps; - Thematic layers: Land use and crops identification The GIS services can take full advantage of the benefits of SIAN architectural model designed for best integration and interoperability with other Central and Local P.A. bodies whose main items are: - Integration of information from different sources; - Maintainance of the internal coeherence of any integrated information; - Flexibility with respect to technical or organizational changes The "innovative "services described below could be useful to support the development of institutional tasks of public Agencies and Administrations (es. Regions or Civil Protection agencies) according to than previewed from the D.Lgs. 173/98. Services of support to the management of the phenomenon of wildland fires The activities outlined in below figure, don't have a linear and defined temporal sequence, but a dynamic and time integration. It guarantees not only the integrated use of the various information, but also the value of every product, for level of accuracy, coherence and timeliness of the information. Description of four main

  9. Geo-spatial analysis of land-water resource degradation in two economically contrasting agricultural regions adjoining national capital territory (Delhi).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaur, Ravinder; Minhas, P S; Jain, P C; Singh, P; Dubey, D S

    2009-07-01

    The present study was aimed at characterizing the soil-water resource degradation in the rural areas of Gurgaon and Mewat districts, the two economically contrasting areas in policy zones-II and III of the National Capital Region (NCR), and assessing the impact of the study area's local conditions on the type and extent of resource degradation. This involved generation of detailed spatial information on the land use, cropping pattern, farming practices, soils and surface/ground waters of Gurgaon and Mewat districts through actual resource surveys, standard laboratory methods and GIS/remote sensing techniques. The study showed that in contrast to just 2.54% (in rabi season) to 4.87% (in kharif season) of agricultural lands in Gurgaon district, about 11.77% (in rabi season) to 24.23% (in kharif season) of agricultural lands in Mewat district were irrigated with saline to marginally saline canal water. Further, about 10.69% of agricultural lands in the Gurgaon district and 42.15% of agricultural lands in the Mewat district were drain water irrigated. A large part of this surface water irrigated area, particularly in Nuh (48.7%), Nagina (33.5%), and Punhana (24.1%) blocks of Mewat district, was either waterlogged (7.4% area with water depth) or at risk of being waterlogged (17.1% area with 2-3 m ground water depth). Local resource inventory showed prevalence of several illegal private channels in Mewat district. These private channels divert degraded canal waters into the nearby intersecting drains and thereby increase extent of surface irrigated agricultural lands in the Mewat district. Geo-spatial analysis showed that due to seepage of these degraded waters from unlined drains and canals, ground waters of about 39.6% of Mewat district were salt affected (EC(m)ean = 7.05 dS/m and SAR(m)ean = 7.71). Besides, sub-surface drinking waters of almost the entire Mewat district were contaminated with undesirable concentrations of chromium (Cr 2.0-3.23 ppm), manganese (Mn: 0

  10. FORMS OF DEVELOPMENT AND LAND TENURE AS IMPROVEMENT TOOLS OF land use planning IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tretyak A.M.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Transformations which take place now in the the economy of Ukraine, and in particular in agriculture considerably exacerbated organizational and legal problems and organizational and territorial forms of local agricultural enterprises, protection of land ownership rights. Transformation of land relations violated the the traditional forms of organization of agricultural production, reduced the efficiency of capital investmenst in improvement of using and protection of land. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of agricultural land use in conditions of formation of market economy, general urgent of time is an in-depth analysis of the types and forms of land use which have found their consolidation at the legislative level. Land management is carried out throughout the country. It enveloped lands irrespective of unequivocal purpose, ownership and the character of using. But goals and objectives of land management, it’s content may be different. An important feature of land management are and it’s types. The current Land Code of Ukraineas the the Law of Ukraine "On Land Management" don’t contain legislative provisions on division of land management for certain types. Meanwhile, it should be noted, that normative and legal acts on land management of the Soviet period (Fundamentals of land legislation of the USSR and the United Republics 1968. Land codes 1978., 1990, 1992 there are two separate types of it - intereconomic (Modern terminology of A.M. Tretyak - territorial and internaleconomic. Modern practice of the actions in the field of land management as evidenced by about the existence of another and a third type of land management – separational. Each of them is characterized by a specific purpose, carried out at different levels. It would therefore be appropriate, hat separate species of land management und their consolidation and in legislation level. Given that the process of implementation of land management for the object of land

  11. THE VALUE AND ROLE OF LAND MANAGEMENT AT THE LOCAL LEVEL IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES LAND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Kapinos

    2017-02-01

    (2001 power rural town councils on order, including the management of land use, land narrowed to only settlements. This led to the decline in land management activities performed. Also, due to lack of funding work on complex land use of rational use of land and their health are not implemented. This land use agricultural land use, which functioned until 1990 was destroyed, and new forms of the rational internal build area to date has not been established. According to Art. 130 Land Code of Ukraine emptive right to purchase agricultural land are citizens ofUkraine, permanently residing in the territory of the local council, where the sale of land, as well as relevant local authorities. However, the status of territory of the local council in land law is not defined. No separation of state and municipal property without development of land management projects within the areas of village councils to streamline land farms has created a number of problems of forecasting, planning and organization of rational use and protection of land at local and economic levels, and therefore financially stable communities. Thus, the importance and role of land management at the local level in the development of local communities land use at this stage of development of land relations is growing. But it needs to speed up recovery (existing before the adoption of the Land Code of Ukraine in 2001 the powers of local communities in the sphere of land relations.

  12. Bioprocessing of sewage sludge for safe recycling on agricultural land - BIOWASTE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmidt, Jens Ejbye; Angelidaki, Irini; Christensen, Nina; Batstone, Damien John; Lyberatos, Gerasimos; Stamatelatou, Katerina; Lichtfouse, Eric; Elbisser, Brigitte; Rogers, Kayne; Sappin-Didier, Valerie; Dernaix, Laurence; Caria; Giovanni; Metzger, Laure; Borghi, Veronica; Montcada, Eloi

    2003-07-01

    Disposal and handling of sewage sludge are increasing problems in Europe due to the increasing quantities of the sewage sludge produced. A large amount of the sewage sludge contains small fractions of toxic chemicals, which results in problems with safe use of the sewage sludge on agricultural land. From an ecological and economical point of view, it would be essential to establish methodologies, which could allow sewage sludge to be reused as fertilizers on agricultural land. Energy efficient biotreatment processes of organic waste are, therefore, of crucial importance. BIOWASTE will offer an integrated study of this area. The typical composition of sewage sludge will be characterized with regard to key contaminating compounds. The following compounds will be in focus: Emulsifying agents such as nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) derived from incomplete combustion processes and phthalates, which are used as additives in plastics and surfactants such as linear alkyl benzene sulfonate (LAS). Analytical techniques suitable for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the chemical species involved in the processes under investigation will be determined. Bacteria that are able to degrade selected contaminating compounds under anaerobic and aerobic conditions will be isolated, characterized and bioaugmented for decontamination of sewage sludge through bioprocessing. Aerobic, anaerobic and combination of aerobic/anaerobic bioprocessing of sewage sludge will be applied. A mathematical model will be developed to describe the biodegradation processes of the contaminating compounds after establishing the kinetic parameters for degradation of contaminating compounds. The bioprocessed sewage sludge will be used in eco- and plant- toxicology tests to evaluate the impact of the xenobiotics on the environment. Methodologies will be developed and applied to assess the cleanliness of the bioprocessing as a safe method for waste

  13. Simulation of regional temperature change effect of land cover change in agroforestry ecotone of Nenjiang River Basin in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Tingxiang; Zhang, Shuwen; Yu, Lingxue; Bu, Kun; Yang, Jiuchun; Chang, Liping

    2017-05-01

    The Northeast China is one of typical regions experiencing intensive human activities within short time worldwide. Particularly, as the significant changes of agriculture land and forest, typical characteristics of pattern and process of agroforestry ecotone change formed in recent decades. The intensive land use change of agroforestry ecotone has made significant change for regional land cover, which had significant impact on the regional climate system elements and the interactions among them. This paper took agroforestry ecotone of Nenjiang River Basin in China as study region and simulated temperature change based on land cover change from 1950s to 1978 and from 1978 to 2010. The analysis of temperature difference sensitivity to land cover change based on Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model showed that the land cover change from 1950s to 1978 induced warming effect over all the study area, including the change of grassland to agriculture land, grassland to deciduous broad-leaved forest, and deciduous broad-leaved forest to shrub land. The land cover change from 1978 to 2010 induced cooling effect over all the study area, including the change of deciduous broad-leaved forest to agriculture land, grassland to agriculture land, shrub land to agriculture land, and deciduous broad-leaved forest to grassland. In addition, the warming and cooling effect of land cover change was more significant in the region scale than specific land cover change area.

  14. LandCaRe DSS--an interactive decision support system for climate change impact assessment and the analysis of potential agricultural land use adaptation strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenkel, Karl-Otto; Berg, Michael; Mirschel, Wilfried; Wieland, Ralf; Nendel, Claas; Köstner, Barbara

    2013-09-01

    Decision support to develop viable climate change adaptation strategies for agriculture and regional land use management encompasses a wide range of options and issues. Up to now, only a few suitable tools and methods have existed for farmers and regional stakeholders that support the process of decision-making in this field. The interactive model-based spatial information and decision support system LandCaRe DSS attempts to close the existing methodical gap. This system supports interactive spatial scenario simulations, multi-ensemble and multi-model simulations at the regional scale, as well as the complex impact assessment of potential land use adaptation strategies at the local scale. The system is connected to a local geo-database and via the internet to a climate data server. LandCaRe DSS uses a multitude of scale-specific ecological impact models, which are linked in various ways. At the local scale (farm scale), biophysical models are directly coupled with a farm economy calculator. New or alternative simulation models can easily be added, thanks to the innovative architecture and design of the DSS. Scenario simulations can be conducted with a reasonable amount of effort. The interactive LandCaRe DSS prototype also offers a variety of data analysis and visualisation tools, a help system for users and a farmer information system for climate adaptation in agriculture. This paper presents the theoretical background, the conceptual framework, and the structure and methodology behind LandCaRe DSS. Scenario studies at the regional and local scale for the two Eastern German regions of Uckermark (dry lowlands, 2600 km(2)) and Weißeritz (humid mountain area, 400 km(2)) were conducted in close cooperation with stakeholders to test the functionality of the DSS prototype. The system is gradually being transformed into a web version (http://www.landcare-dss.de) to ensure the broadest possible distribution of LandCaRe DSS to the public. The system will be continuously

  15. Regeneration of forest phytocoenoses after various agricultural land use practices in the conditions of middle taiga subzone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. A. Karpin

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The process of forest cover regeneration after the cessation of human impact was considered. The study area was situated in the southern part of the Kenozersky National Park, Arkhangelsk Oblast. This area has 500 years of agricultural land use history. The territory features a complete spectrum of land at some point used for agricultural production: from sites currently in active use to fully recovered tree stands aged 120–140 years. The reforestation process was considered separately for each of the following land uses: slash-and-burn, multipurpose small-patch, and arable-grassland types, which differ considerably in impact intensity, duration, and degree of disturbance of the forest environment. The course of forest regeneration successions was found to depend on the type of preceding land use. The time required for the forest communities in slash-and-burn sites to recover to their original state is 120–140 years, and the succession involves the deciduous stage. Multipurpose small-patch use left the forest environment more profoundly modified. Eventually, a majority of these sites are now occupied by more productive, although undistinguishable from the original, coniferous-deciduous stands. Some factors have been detected that may lead to the formation in such sites of low-productivity self-regenerating plant communities dominated by deciduous species, which can persist there for an indefinitely long time unless relevant actions are taken. Arable-grassland land use considerably inhibits the regeneration of the forest cover typical of middle taiga, because there forms a thick sod layer. It was only in some grassland patches, where the impact stopped 5–10 years ago, that coniferous species, namely pine, were successfully regenerating.

  16. Proposal for Land Consolidation Project Solutions for Selected Problem Areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wojcik-Len, Justyna; Strek, Zanna

    2017-12-01

    One of the economic tools for supporting agricultural policy are the activities implemented under the Rural Development Program (RDP). By encouraging agricultural activities and creating equal opportunities for development of farms, among others in areas with unfavourable environmental conditions characterized by low productivity of soils exposed to degradation, decision makers can contribute to improving the spatial structure of rural areas. In Poland, one of the major concerns are agricultural problem areas (regions). In view of this situation, the aim of this article was to characterize the problem areas in question and propose land consolidation project solutions for selected fragments of those areas. This paper presents the results of a review of literature and an analysis of geodetic and cartographic data regarding the problem areas. The process of land consolidation, which is one of the technical and legal instruments supporting the development of rural areas, was characterized. The study allowed the present authors to establish criteria for selecting agricultural problem areas for land consolidation. To develop a proposal for rational management of the problem areas, key general criteria (location, topography, soil quality and usefulness) and specific criteria were defined and assigned weights. A conception of alternative development of the agricultural problem areas was created as part of a land consolidation project. The results were used to create a methodology for the development of agricultural problem areas to be employed during land consolidation in rural areas. Every agricultural space includes areas with unfavourable environmental and soil conditions determined by natural or anthropogenic factors. Development of agricultural problem areas through land consolidation should take into account the specific functions assigned to these areas in land use plans, as well as to comply with legal regulations.

  17. Agricultural rent-seeking in developing countries: an empirical investigation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvid, Anna

    2014-01-01

    or rural development? This article finds empirical support for a proposed theory which suggests that the extent of agricultural rent-seeking, in the form of large-scale land acquisitions, is determined by the relative political power of an elite and a farmer group. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.......Recent increases in demand for agricultural land has fuelled academic, as well as public, interest in the potential effects of high value agricultural land, particularly in developing countries. The dominating question seems to be: will increasing demand for agricultural land imply land grabbing...

  18. Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Michael; Tilman, David

    2017-06-01

    Global agricultural feeds over 7 billion people, but is also a leading cause of environmental degradation. Understanding how alternative agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice drive environmental degradation is necessary for reducing agriculture’s environmental impacts. A meta-analysis of life cycle assessments that includes 742 agricultural systems and over 90 unique foods produced primarily in high-input systems shows that, per unit of food, organic systems require more land, cause more eutrophication, use less energy, but emit similar greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as conventional systems; that grass-fed beef requires more land and emits similar GHG emissions as grain-feed beef; and that low-input aquaculture and non-trawling fisheries have much lower GHG emissions than trawling fisheries. In addition, our analyses show that increasing agricultural input efficiency (the amount of food produced per input of fertilizer or feed) would have environmental benefits for both crop and livestock systems. Further, for all environmental indicators and nutritional units examined, plant-based foods have the lowest environmental impacts; eggs, dairy, pork, poultry, non-trawling fisheries, and non-recirculating aquaculture have intermediate impacts; and ruminant meat has impacts ∼100 times those of plant-based foods. Our analyses show that dietary shifts towards low-impact foods and increases in agricultural input use efficiency would offer larger environmental benefits than would switches from conventional agricultural systems to alternatives such as organic agriculture or grass-fed beef.

  19. Optimal Use of Agricultural Water and Land Resources through Reconfiguring Crop Planting Structure under Socioeconomic and Ecological Objectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qian Tan

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Many economic, social and ecological problems can be attributed to the scarcity and mismanagement of water and land resources. In this study, a multi-objective fuzzy–robust programming (MOFRP method was developed for supporting the optimal use of land and water resources in agriculture. MOFRP improved existing methods through taking ecological services of crop cultivation into account. It was also capable of reflecting fuzziness in preferences, priorities and parameters that were largely neglected in previous agricultural decision making. This method was applied to address a case in arid northwestern China. Optimal plans of crop cultivation reconfiguration were generated for sustaining local development under economic, ecological and social objectives as well as physical restraints in water and land resources. Compared to the status quo, the optimized plan would increase economic and ecological benefits by 12.2% and 18.8%, respectively. The efficiency of irrigation water could also be enhanced with the economic and ecological benefits per unit water being raised and the water consumption per unit land being reduced. The comparisons of the MOFRP model to four alternatives validated that it was capable of achieving satisfactory benefits and reducing system-violation risks without neglecting valuable uncertain information and ecological services of crops. The proposed method was also applicable to other multi-objective management problems under uncertainty without loss of generality.

  20. GIS-based assessment of the biomass potential from phytoremediation of contaminated agricultural land in the Campine region in Belgium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schreurs, Eloi; Voets, Thomas; Thewys, Theo

    2011-01-01

    Dedicated energy crop cultivation is expected to be the prevalent form of biomass production for reaching renewable energy targets set by the European Union. However, there are some concerns with regard to its sustainability. This study demonstrates how this problem can be evaded by applying phytoremediation, i.e. the use of plants to remove pollutants from moderately contaminated soils. By selecting the appropriate plants a considerable biomass flow is produced without taking in scarce agricultural land, while simultaneously remediating the soil to levels of contamination below threshold values. Since phytoremediation is only applicable within a limited range of soil pollutant concentrations, the outer values of this range have to be determined at first. Subsequently, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is needed to perform further analyses. The contamination in the region is predicted using GIS, after which the agricultural area is determined that can be committed to energy crop cultivation. This way, the biomass potential and the resulting bioenergy potential from phytoremediation can be assessed. In this paper the Campine region in Belgium, a region diffusely contaminated with heavy metals like cadmium (Cd), is examined. It is illustrated that more than 2000 ha of agricultural land hold Cd concentrations exceeding guide values set by the Flemish Government. However, a large majority of these soils can be remediated by phytoremediation within a reasonable time span of 42 years. Concurrently, a significant amount of biomass is supplied for renewable energy production. -- Highlights: → More than 2000 ha of agricultural land have elevated Cd concentrations. → 87% can be remediated within 42 years by phytoremediation. → Annual biomass flow of 19 067 Mg for 21 years.

  1. Socio-economic scenario development for the assessment of climate change impacts on agricultural land use: a pairwise comparison approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abildtrup, Jens; Audsley, E.; Fekete-Farkas, M.

    2006-01-01

    Assessment of the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change is strongly dependent on concurrent changes in socio-economic development pathways. This paper presents an integrated approach to the construction of socio-economic scenarios required for the analysis of climate change impacts...... on European agricultural land use. The scenarios are interpreted from the storylines described in the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) special report on emission scenarios (SRES), which ensures internal consistency between the evolution of socio-economics and climate change. A stepwise...... downscaling procedure based on expert-judgement and pairwise comparison is presented to obtain quantitative socio-economic parameters, e.g. prices and productivity estimates that are input to the ACCELERATES integrated land use model. In the first step, the global driving forces are identified and quantified...

  2. Profiling agricultural land cover change in the North Central U.S. using ten years of the Cropland Data Layer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandborn, A.; Ebinger, L.

    2016-12-01

    The Cropland Data Layer (CDL), produced by the USDA/National Agricultural Statistics Service, provides annual, georeferenced crop specific land cover data over the contiguous United States. Several analyses were performed on ten years (2007-2016) of CDL data in order to visualize and quantify agricultural change over the North Central region (North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota). Crop masks were derived from the CDL and layered to produce a ten-year time stack of corn, soybeans, and spring wheat at 30m spatial resolution. Through numerous image analyses, a temporal profile of each crop type was compiled and portrayed cartographically. For each crop, analyses included calculating the mean center of crop area over the ten year sequence, identifying the first and latest year the crop was grown on each pixel, and distinguishing crop rotation patterns and replacement statistics. Results show a clear north-western expansion trend for corn and soybeans, and a western migration trend for spring wheat. While some change may be due to commonly practiced crop rotation, this analysis shows that crop footprints have extended into areas that were previously other crops, idle cropland, and pasture/rangeland. Possible factors contributing to this crop migration pattern include profit advantages of row crops over small grains, improved crop genetics, climate change, and farm management program changes. Identifying and mapping these crop planting differences will better inform agricultural best practices, help to monitor the latest crop migration patterns, and present researchers with a way to quantitatively measure and forecast future agricultural trends.

  3. A process-based agricultural model for the irrigated agriculture sector in Alberta, Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ammar, M. E.; Davies, E. G.

    2015-12-01

    Connections between land and water, irrigation, agricultural productivity and profitability, policy alternatives, and climate change and variability are complex, poorly understood, and unpredictable. Policy assessment for agriculture presents a large potential for development of broad-based simulation models that can aid assessment and quantification of policy alternatives over longer temporal scales. The Canadian irrigated agriculture sector is concentrated in Alberta, where it represents two thirds of the irrigated land-base in Canada and is the largest consumer of surface water. Despite interest in irrigation expansion, its potential in Alberta is uncertain given a constrained water supply, significant social and economic development and increasing demands for both land and water, and climate change. This paper therefore introduces a system dynamics model as a decision support tool to provide insights into irrigation expansion in Alberta, and into trade-offs and risks associated with that expansion. It is intended to be used by a wide variety of users including researchers, policy analysts and planners, and irrigation managers. A process-based cropping system approach is at the core of the model and uses a water-driven crop growth mechanism described by AquaCrop. The tool goes beyond a representation of crop phenology and cropping systems by permitting assessment and quantification of the broader, long-term consequences of agricultural policies for Alberta's irrigation sector. It also encourages collaboration and provides a degree of transparency that gives confidence in simulation results. The paper focuses on the agricultural component of the systems model, describing the process involved; soil water and nutrients balance, crop growth, and water, temperature, salinity, and nutrients stresses, and how other disciplines can be integrated to account for the effects of interactions and feedbacks in the whole system. In later stages, other components such as

  4. Land subsidence in Yunlin, Taiwan, due to Agricultural and Domestic Water Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, K.; Lin, P.; Lin, Z.

    2013-12-01

    Subsidence in a layered aquifer is caused by groundwater excess extraction and results in complicated problems in Taiwan. Commonly, responsibility to subsidence for agricultural and domestic water users is difficulty to identify due to the lack of quantitative evidences. An integrated model was proposed to analyze subsidence problem. The flow field utilizes analytical solution for pumping in a layered system from Neuman and Witherspoon (1969) to calculate the head drawdown variation. The subsidence estimation applies Terzaghi (1943) one-dimensional consolidation theory to calculate the deformation in each layer. The proposed model was applied to estimate land subsidence and drawdown variation at the Yuanchang Township of Yunlin County in Taiwan. Groundwater data for dry-season periods were used for calibration and validation. Seasonal effect in groundwater variation was first filtered out. Dry-season pumping effect on land subsidence was analyzed. The results show that multi-layer pumping contributes more in subsidence than single-layer pumping on the response of drawdown and land subsidence in aquifer 2 with a contribution of 97% total change at Yuanchang station. Pumping in aquifer 2 contributes more significant than pumping in aquifer 3 to cause change in drawdown and land subsidence in aquifer 2 with a contribution of 70% total change at Yuanchang station. Larger area of subsidence in Yuanchang Township was attributed pumping at aquifer 2 while pumping at aquifer 3 results in significant subsidence near the well field. The single-layer user contributes most area of subsidence but the multi-layer user generates more serious subsidence.

  5. extent of use of ict by fish farmers in isoko agricultural zone of delta

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mr. TONY A

    Causes of land degradation include climatic factors which relate to the amount and intensity of rainfall released on the land, soil erosion, population density, ignorance and reluctance to embrace technologies on land management. Human engagement activities that can cause land degradation are : agricultural activities ...

  6. Sustainable Water and Agricultural Land Use in the Guanting Watershed under Limited Water Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wechsung, F.; Möhring, J.; Otto, I. M.; Wang, X.; Guanting Project Team

    2012-04-01

    The Yongding River System is an important water source for the northeastern Chinese provinces Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin. The Guanting Reservoir within this river system is one of the major water sources for Beijing, which is about 70 km away. Original planning assumed a discharge of 44 m3/s for the reservoir, but the current mean discharge rate is only about 5 m3/s; there is often hardly any discharge at all. Water scarcity is a major threat for the socio-economic development of the area. The situation is additionally aggravated by climate change impacts. Typical upstream-downstream conflicts with respect to water quantity and quality requests are mixed up with conflicts between different sectors, mainly mining, industry, and agriculture. These conflicts can be observed on different administrative levels, for example between the provinces, down to households. The German-Chinese research project "Sustainable water and agricultural land use in the Guanting Watershed under limited water resources" investigates problems and solutions related to water scarcity in the Guanting Catchment. The aim of the project is to create a vulnerability study in order to assess options for (and finally achieve) sustainable water and land use management in the Guanting region. This includes a comprehensive characterization of the current state by gap analysis and identification of pressures and impacts. The presentation gives an overview of recent project results regarding regionalization of global change scenarios and specification for water supply, evaluation of surface water quantity balances (supply-demand), evaluation of the surface water quality balances (emissions-impact thresholds), and exploration of integrative measurement planning. The first results show that climate in the area is becoming warmer and drier which leads to even more dramatically shrinking water resources. Water supply is expected to be reduced between one and two thirds. Water demand might be

  7. Another countryside? Policy options for land and agrarian reform in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    abel

    The focus on South Africa's land and agrarian policies is relevant at a time ... be coordinated at various policy levels, including macroeconomic policy, trade policy, agricultural policy and local economic development and planning for land.

  8. Evapotranspiration measurements in rainfed and irrigated cropland illustrate trade-offs in land and water management in Southern Amazonia's agricultural frontier

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lathuilliere, M. J.; Dalmagro, H. J.; Black, T. A.; Arruda, P. H. Z. D.; Hawthorne, I.; Couto, E. G.; Johnson, M. S.

    2017-12-01

    Southern Amazonia, Brazil, is home to a rapidly expanding agricultural frontier in which tropical forest and savanna landscapes have been increasingly replaced by agricultural land since the 1990s. One important impact of deforestation is the reduction in water vapour transferred to the atmosphere via evapotranspiration (ET) from rainfed agriculture landscapes compared to natural vegetation, leading to a reduction in regional precipitation recycling. Here, we discuss land and water management choices for future agricultural production in Southern Amazonia and their potential effects on the atmospheric water cycle. We illustrate these choices by presenting ET measurements on an agricultural landscape by eddy covariance (EC) between September 2015 and February 2017. Measurements were made for two fields adjacent to one micrometeorological EC tower: (1) one rainfed field containing a succession of soybean, maize, brachiara and soybean, and (2) one irrigated field with a succession of soybean, rice, beans, and soybean. Over the time period, total ET in the rainfed and irrigated fields was 1266 ± 294 mm and 1415 ± 180 mm, respectively for a total precipitation of 3099 mm. The main difference in ET between the fields was attributed to the application of 118 mm of surface water irrigated for bean production in the irrigated field between June and September 2016. In the rainfed field, soybean ET was 332 ± 82 mm (2015-2016) and 423 ± 99 mm (2016-2017) for 824 mm and 1124 mm of precipitation, respectively. In the irrigated field, soybean ET was 271 ± 38 mm (2015) and 404 ± 60 mm (2016-2017) with supplemental irrigation added in 2015. Our results illustrate how supplemental irrigation can favour early soybean planting while transferring additional water vapour to the atmosphere at levels similar to natural vegetation. We conclude by discussing our results in the context of future land and water trade-offs for agricultural intensification in Brazil's "arc-of-deforestation".

  9. Conserving the birds of Uganda's banana-coffee arc: land sparing and land sharing compared.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark F Hulme

    Full Text Available Reconciling the aims of feeding an ever more demanding human population and conserving biodiversity is a difficult challenge. Here, we explore potential solutions by assessing whether land sparing (farming for high yield, potentially enabling the protection of non-farmland habitat, land sharing (lower yielding farming with more biodiversity within farmland or a mixed strategy would result in better bird conservation outcomes for a specified level of agricultural production. We surveyed forest and farmland study areas in southern Uganda, measuring the population density of 256 bird species and agricultural yield: food energy and gross income. Parametric non-linear functions relating density to yield were fitted. Species were identified as "winners" (total population size always at least as great with agriculture present as without it or "losers" (total population sometimes or always reduced with agriculture present for a range of targets for total agricultural production. For each target we determined whether each species would be predicted to have a higher total population with land sparing, land sharing or with any intermediate level of sparing at an intermediate yield. We found that most species were expected to have their highest total populations with land sparing, particularly loser species and species with small global range sizes. Hence, more species would benefit from high-yield farming if used as part of a strategy to reduce forest loss than from low-yield farming and land sharing, as has been found in Ghana and India in a previous study. We caution against advocacy for high-yield farming alone as a means to deliver land sparing if it is done without strong protection for natural habitats, other ecosystem services and social welfare. Instead, we suggest that conservationists explore how conservation and agricultural policies can be better integrated to deliver land sparing by, for example, combining land-use planning and agronomic

  10. LAND USE/LAND COVER CHANGES IN SEMI-ARID MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE IN SOUTHERN INDIA: A GEOINFORMATICS BASED MARKOV CHAIN APPROACH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. A. Rahaman

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays land use/ land cover in mountain landscape is in critical condition; it leads to high risky and uncertain environments. These areas are facing multiple stresses including degradation of land resources; vagaries of climate and depletion of water resources continuously affect land use practices and livelihoods. To understand the Land use/Land cover (Lu/Lc changes in a semi-arid mountain landscape, Kallar watershed of Bhavani basin, in southern India has been chosen. Most of the hilly part in the study area covers with forest, plantation, orchards and vegetables and which are highly affected by severe soil erosion, landslide, frequent rainfall failures and associated drought. The foothill regions are mainly utilized for agriculture practices; due to water scarcity and meagre income, the productive agriculture lands are converted into settlement plots and wasteland. Hence, land use/land cover change deduction; a stochastic processed based method is indispensable for future prediction. For identification of land use/land cover, and vegetation changes, Landsat TM, ETM (1995, 2005 and IRS P6- LISS IV (2015 images were used. Through CAMarkov chain analysis, Lu/Lc changes in past three decades (1995, 2005, and 2015 were identified and projected for (2020 and 2025; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI were used to find the vegetation changes. The result shows that, maximum changes occur in the plantation and slight changes found in forest cover in the hilly terrain. In foothill areas, agriculture lands were decreased while wastelands and settlement plots were increased. The outcome of the results helps to farmer and policy makers to draw optimal lands use planning and better management strategies for sustainable development of natural resources.

  11. Land Use/land Cover Changes in Semi-Arid Mountain Landscape in Southern India: a Geoinformatics Based Markov Chain Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahaman, S. A.; Aruchamy, S.; Balasubramani, K.; Jegankumar, R.

    2017-05-01

    Nowadays land use/ land cover in mountain landscape is in critical condition; it leads to high risky and uncertain environments. These areas are facing multiple stresses including degradation of land resources; vagaries of climate and depletion of water resources continuously affect land use practices and livelihoods. To understand the Land use/Land cover (Lu/Lc) changes in a semi-arid mountain landscape, Kallar watershed of Bhavani basin, in southern India has been chosen. Most of the hilly part in the study area covers with forest, plantation, orchards and vegetables and which are highly affected by severe soil erosion, landslide, frequent rainfall failures and associated drought. The foothill regions are mainly utilized for agriculture practices; due to water scarcity and meagre income, the productive agriculture lands are converted into settlement plots and wasteland. Hence, land use/land cover change deduction; a stochastic processed based method is indispensable for future prediction. For identification of land use/land cover, and vegetation changes, Landsat TM, ETM (1995, 2005) and IRS P6- LISS IV (2015) images were used. Through CAMarkov chain analysis, Lu/Lc changes in past three decades (1995, 2005, and 2015) were identified and projected for (2020 and 2025); Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used to find the vegetation changes. The result shows that, maximum changes occur in the plantation and slight changes found in forest cover in the hilly terrain. In foothill areas, agriculture lands were decreased while wastelands and settlement plots were increased. The outcome of the results helps to farmer and policy makers to draw optimal lands use planning and better management strategies for sustainable development of natural resources.

  12. Agricultural sustainability in the semi-arid Near East

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Hole

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture began in the eastern Mediterranean Levantine Corridor about 11000 years ago toward the end of the Younger Dryas when aridity had diminished wild food resources. During the subsequent Climatic Optimum, agricultural villages spread rapidly but subsequent climatic changes on centennial to millennial scales resulted in striking oscillations in settlement, especially in marginal areas. Natural climate change thus alternately enhanced and diminished the agricultural potential of the land. Growing populations and more intensive land us, both for agriculture and livestock, have led to changes in the structure of vegetation, hydrology, and land quality. Over the millennia, political and economic interventions, warfare and incursions by nomadic herding tribes all impacted sustainability of agriculture and the ability of the land to supports its populations. In much of the region today, agricultural land use is not sustainable given existing technology and national priorities. The Near Eastern case is instructive because of the quality of information, the length of the record, and the pace of modern change.

  13. Environmental impacts of alternative agricultural uses of poorly drained farm land in Ireland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Pooja; Humphreys, James; Holden, Nicholas M

    2018-05-07

    Abolition of the milk quota in the European Union and favourable market conditions have stimulated the expansion of the dairy sector in Ireland, causing more milk to be produced from poorly drained land. This work evaluated the environmental impacts of alternative agricultural uses for poorly drained farm land in Ireland using life cycle assessment (LCA). The avoided burden of the displaced product was used to calculate the net environmental consequences in the context of regional or global markets. The impact categories evaluated were climate change, eutrophication and acidification, all expressed per hectare of land for the alternative land uses, which were pasture-based milk, suckler beef and lowland sheep production and coniferous forestry. Beef had the lowest net climate change impact with global marginal and average product substitution while sheep had the lowest net climate change impact with European displaced product. For net eutrophication and acidification, dairy had the lowest impacts with European and global average displaced product. With global marginal displaced product, forestry had the lowest net eutrophication impact and sheep had the lowest net acidification impact. From an Irish perspective, forestry would generate the lowest environmental impacts and would also increase soil carbon stock, but this was not the best land use option from global perspective. Overall it can be concluded that a pasture based dairy or sheep system would have the greatest net global impact reduction (i.e. greatest global benefit) as land use options for farms with poorly drained soils. Prioritizing climate change, suckler beef system would perhaps be more favourable. It is clear that the choice of the displaced regional or global co-product from the market has a great influence on the results and there is a need to consider more detailed consumption modelling to better understand the substitution process. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Using the Landsat Archive to Estimate and Map Changes in Agriculture, Forests, and other Land Cover Types in East Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Healey, S. P.; Oduor, P.; Cohen, W. B.; Yang, Z.; Ouko, E.; Gorelick, N.; Wilson, S.

    2017-12-01

    Every country's land is distributed among different cover types, such as: agriculture; forests; rangeland; urban areas; and barren lands. Changes in the distribution of these classes can inform us about many things, including: population pressure; effectiveness of preservation efforts; desertification; and stability of the food supply. Good assessment of these changes can also support wise planning, use, and preservation of natural resources. We are using the Landsat archive in two ways to provide needed information about land cover change since the year 2000 in seven East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia). First, we are working with local experts to interpret historical land cover change from historical imagery at a probabilistic sample of 2000 locations in each country. This will provide a statistical estimate of land cover change since 2000. Second, we will use the same data to calibrate and validate annual land cover maps for each country. Because spatial context can be critical to development planning through the identification of hot spots, these maps will be a useful complement to the statistical, country-level estimates of change. The Landsat platform is an ideal tool for mapping land cover change because it combines a mix of appropriate spatial and spectral resolution with unparalleled length of service (Landsat 1 launched in 1972). Pilot tests have shown that time series analysis accessing the entire Landsat archive (i.e., many images per year) improves classification accuracy and stability. It is anticipated that this project will meet the civil needs of both governmental and non-governmental users across a range of disciplines.

  15. WORLD EXPERIENCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LAND USE AND PROTECTIONTAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE REQUIREMENTS OF ECOLOGICAL SAFETY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    l. Sviridova

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Studied global trends of public administration land use and protection. In particular, zemleohoronni measures in the developed world are implemented through rural development policy, based on the conduct of the common agricultural policy, the creation of funds to support farmers, provide technical assistance, development of national programs and future development plans. For the European Union development policy documents on the development of land areas for 5-10 years - the overall trend. Land management activities are conducted in foreign countries on the basis of approved design documentation for land management different direction. Found that the use of land and resource potential in the world is subject to the requirements of environmental safety. Agrarian relations in these countries are based on incentive levers, with direct execution of the rules of use and protection of land. By 2020, the strategy of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union provides funding for joint agricultural market, direct subsidies to farmers and stimulate agricultural development. Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union for its activities fully demonstrates the ability of European economies to maintain the same level of development. State administration of environmental impact on the economic interests of the tenure or land use in countries with market economies include: tax exemptions (to make environmentally oriented activities, soft loans (available on interest rates for environmental investments, subsidies (for the implementation of environmental programs and subsidies (for growing products without pesticides entities. It is proved that the system of economic instruments in environmental policy Ukraine needs to improve, because it is poorly developed. Experience in other countries shows that as we strengthen land management tools (instruments for land administration, and its supporting tools to succeed in the system of rational land use

  16. Land quality indicators for sustainable land management proposed method for yield gap and soil nutrient balance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bindraban, P.S.; Stoorvogel, J.J.; Jansen, D.M.; Vlaming, J.; Groot, J.J.R.

    2000-01-01

    The required increase in agricultural production to meet future food demand will further increase pressure on land resources. Integrative indicators of the current status of the agricultural production capacity of land and their change over time are needed for promoting land management practices to

  17. Effect of Climate and Agricultural Land Use Changes on UK Feed Barley Production and Food Security to the 2050s

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David O. Yawson

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Currently, the UK has a high self-sufficiency rate in barley production. This paper assessed the effects of projected climate and land use changes on feed barley production and, consequently, on meat supply in the UK from the 2030s to the 2050s. Total barley production under projected land use and climate changes ranged from 4.6 million tons in the 2030s to 9.0 million tons in the 2050s. From these, the projected feed barley supply ranged from approximately 2.3 to 4.6 million tons from the 2030s to the 2050s, respectively. The results indicate that while UK spring barley production will thrive under, and benefit from climate change, total land area allocated to barley production will ultimately determine self-sufficiency. Without expansion in the area of land and/or further significant increases in yields, the UK may face large deficits in domestic feed barley production and, for that matter, meat supply in the future. Hence, agricultural and food security policy needs to consider, principally, the effect of agricultural land use change on key crops, such as barley. Even though the UK can import feed barley or meat to address the deficits observed in this study, the question that needs to be addressed is where all that import will come from.

  18. Biodiversity and Land uses at a regional scale: Is agriculture the biggest threat for reptile assemblages?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribeiro, Raquel; Santos, Xavier; Sillero, Neftali; Carretero, Miguel A.; Llorente, Gustavo A.

    2009-03-01

    The human exploitation of land resources (land use) has been considered the major factor responsible for changes in biodiversity within terrestrial ecosystems given that it affects directly the distribution of the fauna. Reptiles are known to be particularly sensitive to habitat change due to their ecological constraints. Here, the impact of land use on reptile diversity was analysed, choosing Catalonia (NE Iberia) as a case study. This region provides a suitable scenario for such a biogeographical study since it harbours: 1) a rich reptile fauna; 2) a highly diverse environment showing strong variation in those variables usually shaping reptile distributions; and 3) good species distribution data. Potential species richness was calculated, using ecological modelling techniques (Ecological Niche Factor Analysis - ENFA). The subtraction of the observed from the potential species richness was the dependent variable in a backwards multiple linear regression, using land use variables. Agriculture was the land use with the strongest relation with the non-fulfilment of the potential species richness, indicating a trend towards a deficit of biodiversity. Deciduous forest was the only land use negatively related with the subtracted species richness. Results indicate a clear relationship between land use and biodiversity at a mesoscale. This finding represents an important baseline for conservation guidelines within the habitat change framework because it has been achieved at the same spatial scale of chorological studies and management policies.

  19. Population pressure and agricultural productivity in Bangladesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaudhury, R H

    1983-01-01

    The relationship between population pressure or density and agricultural productivity is examined by analyzing the changes in the land-man ratio and the changes in the level of land yield in the 17 districts of Bangladesh from 1961-64 and 1974-77. The earlier years were pre-Green Revolution, whereas in the later years new technology had been introduced in some parts of the country. Net sown area, value of total agricultural output, and number of male agricultural workers were the main variables. For the country as a whole, agricultural output grew by 1.2%/year during 1961-64 to 1974-77, while the number of male agricultural workers grew at 1.5%/year. The major source of agricultural growth during the 1960s was found to be increased land-yield associated with a higher ratio of labor to land. The findings imply that a more intensified pattern of land use, resulting in both higher yield and higher labor input/unit of land, is the main source of growth of output and employment in agriculture. There is very little scope for extending the arable area in Bangladesh; increased production must come from multiple cropping, especially through expansion of irrigation and drainage, and from increases in per acre yields, principly through adoption of high yield variants, which explained 87% of the variation in output per acre during the 1970s. Regional variation in output was also associated with variation in cropping intensity and proportion of land given to high yield variants. There is considerable room for modernizing agricultural technology in Bangladesh: in 1975-76 less than 9% of total crop land was irrigated and only 12% of total acreage was under high yield variants. The adoption of new food-grain technology and increased use of high yield variants in Bangladesh's predominantly subsistence-based agriculture would require far-reaching institutional and organizational changes and more capital. Without effective population control, expansion of area under high yield

  20. Land associations in Slovakia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Bandlerová

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The land fragmentation is one of the serious problems in Slovakia which is given by the historical development of the land law. In the past, landowners tried to solve this problem by creation of various forms of land associations oriented to the common cultivation of agricultural land and forest land. Nowadays, the Slovak lawmaker decided to regulate the institute of land associations by the law. Land associations in Slovakia are legal entities conducting agricultural business on agricultural land, forest land or in water areas; moreover, they can provide also other business activities according to particular legal regulations. Land associations conduct business on real estate property or, more commonly, properties, which are usually owned by many co-owners, because the individual cultivation of small part of land plots would not be effective. However, the law is a subject of legal amendments more often than necessary in order to ensure the legal certainty. This paper introduces this recondite legal entity, its activities, its internal government and the ownership rights of its members. A pre-emption right that has a special legal regulation different from the general legal regulations of the pre-emption rights in the Civil Code is one of the special issues.

  1. Lands directorate publications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1981-01-01

    The directorate has a lead role in providing advice to the federal government on land use policy in Canada. The Canada Land Inventory (CLI) Program has produced significant amounts of data pertaining to the capability of Canadian lands to support agriculture, forestry, recreation, wildlife and sport fish. A list of CLI reports is presented in this publication. In addition, and capability maps have been compiled for agricultural, forestry, recreation and wildlife and are listed and described in this publication. (KRM)

  2. U.S.-State Agricultural Data. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 501.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Womack, Letricia M.; And Others

    This report presents agricultural information for each of the 50 states and the United States. Data are provided on population, land use, agricultural production, farm income, value of assets on farms, and selected characteristics of farms, such as size, tenure, and farm organization. Primary data sources are the 1982 Census of Agriculture and the…

  3. Agricultural peatland restoration: effects of land-use change on greenhouse gas (CO2 and CH4) fluxes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knox, Sara Helen; Sturtevant, Cove; Matthes, Jaclyn Hatala; Koteen, Laurie; Verfaillie, Joseph; Baldocchi, Dennis

    2015-02-01

    Agricultural drainage of organic soils has resulted in vast soil subsidence and contributed to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California was drained over a century ago for agriculture and human settlement and has since experienced subsidence rates that are among the highest in the world. It is recognized that drained agriculture in the Delta is unsustainable in the long-term, and to help reverse subsidence and capture carbon (C) there is an interest in restoring drained agricultural land-use types to flooded conditions. However, flooding may increase methane (CH4) emissions. We conducted a full year of simultaneous eddy covariance measurements at two conventional drained agricultural peatlands (a pasture and a corn field) and three flooded land-use types (a rice paddy and two restored wetlands) to assess the impact of drained to flooded land-use change on CO2 and CH4 fluxes in the Delta. We found that the drained sites were net C and greenhouse gas (GHG) sources, releasing up to 341 g C m(-2) yr(-1) as CO2 and 11.4 g C m(-2) yr(-1) as CH4. Conversely, the restored wetlands were net sinks of atmospheric CO2, sequestering up to 397 g C m(-2) yr(-1). However, they were large sources of CH4, with emissions ranging from 39 to 53 g C m(-2) yr(-1). In terms of the full GHG budget, the restored wetlands could be either GHG sources or sinks. Although the rice paddy was a small atmospheric CO2 sink, when considering harvest and CH4 emissions, it acted as both a C and GHG source. Annual photosynthesis was similar between sites, but flooding at the restored sites inhibited ecosystem respiration, making them net CO2 sinks. This study suggests that converting drained agricultural peat soils to flooded land-use types can help reduce or reverse soil subsidence and reduce GHG emissions. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. The Gender and Equity Implications of Land-Related Investments on Labour and Income-Generating Opportunities. A Case Study of Agricultural Investments in Lao PDR

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    E. Daley (Elizabeth); M Osorio (Martha); C.M.Y. Park (Clara)

    2013-01-01

    markdownabstract__Abstract__ Concerns about the potential gender and equity implications of land-related investments on labour and income-generating opportunities and access, use and control of land come in the context of the current global policy interest in supporting agricultural investment

  5. Agricultural Finance Statistics, 1960-83

    OpenAIRE

    Amols, George; Kaiser, Wilson

    1984-01-01

    This bulletin presents farm financial statistics, including outstanding farm 4ebt by State and lender and average interest rates for agricultural loans charged by selected lenders for 1960-83. Farm debt includes both real estate and nonrea1 estate debt. Lenders include Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), Federal land banks, production credit associations, Federal intermediate credit banks, commercial banks, life insurance companies, Farmers Home Administration, and individuals and others.

  6. A Descriptive and Economic Analysis of Agricultural Teacher Education Programs in Land-Grant Universities of the North-Central Region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trede, Larry D.; Crawford, Harold R.

    1981-01-01

    Presents a study which assessed the inputs and outputs of the agricultural programs of land-grant universities in the North-Central region. It was found that programs in this region are fairly homogeneous, particularly at the undergraduate level. (CT)

  7. Exploring Agricultural Drainage's Influence on Wetland and ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    Artificial agricultural drainage (i.e. surface ditches or subsurface tile) is an important agricultural management tool. Artificial drainage allows for timely fieldwork and adequate root aeration, resulting in greater crop yields for farmers. This practice is widespread throughout many regions of the United States and the network of artificial drainage is especially extensive in flat, poorly-drained regions like the glaciated Midwest. While beneficial for crop yields, agricultural drains often empty into streams within the natural drainage system. The increased network connectivity may lead to greater contributing area for watersheds, altered hydrology and increased conveyance of pollutants into natural water bodies. While studies and models at broader scales have implicated artificial drainage as an important driver of hydrological shifts and eutrophication, the actual spatial extent of artificial drainage is poorly known. Consequently, metrics of wetland and watershed connectivity within agricultural regions often fail to explicitly include artificial drainage. We use recent agricultural census data, soil drainage data, and land cover data to create estimates of potential agricultural drainage across the United States. We estimate that agricultural drainage in the US is greater than 31 million hectares and is concentrated in the upper Midwest Corn Belt, covering greater than 50% of available land for 114 counties. Estimated drainage values for numerous countie

  8. Economic Feasibility of Irrigated Agricultural Land Use Buffers to Reduce Groundwater Nitrate in Rural Drinking Water Sources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Megan M. Mayzelle

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural irrigation leachate is often the largest source for aquifer recharge in semi-arid groundwater basins, but contamination from fertilizers and other agro-chemicals may degrade the quality of groundwater. Affected communities are frequently economically disadvantaged, and water supply alternatives may be too costly. This study aimed to demonstrate that, when addressing these issues, environmental sustainability and market profitability are not incompatible. We investigated the viability of two low impact crops, alfalfa and vineyards, and new recharge basins as an alternative land use in recharge buffer zones around affected communities using an integrated hydrologic, socio-geographic, and economic analysis. In the southern Central Valley, California, study area, alfalfa and vineyards currently constitute 30% of all buffer zone cropland. Economic analyses of alternative land use scenarios indicate a wide range of revenue outcomes. Sector output gains and potential cost saving through land use conversion and resulting flood control result in gains of at least $2.3 billion, as compared to costs of $0.3 to $0.7 billion for treatment options over a 20 year period. Buffer zones would maintain the economic integrity of the region and concur with prevailing policy options. Thus, managed agricultural recharge buffer zones are a potentially attractive option for communities facing financial constraint and needing to diversify their portfolio of policy and infrastructure approaches to meet drinking water quality objectives.

  9. Homogenizing and diversifying effects of intensive agricultural land-use on plant species beta diversity in Central Europe - A call to adapt our conservation measures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buhk, Constanze; Alt, Martin; Steinbauer, Manuel

    2016-01-01

    understood due to a lack of systematic case studies: The specific impacts by agriculture in contrast to other land-use creating open habitat are not studied as such landscapes hardly exist in temperate regions. Applying systematic grids, we compared the plant species distribution at the landscape scale....... This was probably the result of species nestedness due to fragmentation. The natural process of increasing dissimilarity with distance (distance-decay) was suppressed by intense agricultural land-use, generalist and long-distance dispersers gained importance, while rare species lost continuity. There are two...

  10. Relationship Study on Land Use Spatial Distribution Structure and Energy-Related Carbon Emission Intensity in Different Land Use Types of Guangdong, China, 1996–2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi Huang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study attempts to discuss the relationship between land use spatial distribution structure and energy-related carbon emission intensity in Guangdong during 1996–2008. We quantized the spatial distribution structure of five land use types including agricultural land, industrial land, residential and commercial land, traffic land, and other land through applying spatial Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient. Then the corresponding energy-related carbon emissions in each type of land were calculated in the study period. Through building the reasonable regression models, we found that the concentration degree of industrial land is negatively correlated with carbon emission intensity in the long term, whereas the concentration degree is positively correlated with carbon emission intensity in agricultural land, residential and commercial land, traffic land, and other land. The results also indicate that land use spatial distribution structure affects carbon emission intensity more intensively than energy efficiency and production efficiency do. These conclusions provide valuable reference to develop comprehensive policies for energy conservation and carbon emission reduction in a new perspective.

  11. Alterations in soil microbial community composition and biomass following agricultural land use change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qian; Wu, Junjun; Yang, Fan; Lei, Yao; Zhang, Quanfa; Cheng, Xiaoli

    2016-11-04

    The effect of agricultural land use change on soil microbial community composition and biomass remains a widely debated topic. Here, we investigated soil microbial community composition and biomass [e.g., bacteria (B), fungi (F), Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Actinomycete (ACT)] using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis, and basal microbial respiration in afforested, cropland and adjacent uncultivated soils in central China. We also investigated soil organic carbon and nitrogen (SOC and SON), labile carbon and nitrogen (LC and LN), recalcitrant carbon and nitrogen (RC and RN), pH, moisture, and temperature. Afforestation averaged higher microbial PLFA biomass compared with cropland and uncultivated soils with higher values in top soils than deep soils. The microbial PLFA biomass was strongly correlated with SON and LC. Higher SOC, SON, LC, LN, moisture and lower pH in afforested soils could be explained approximately 87.3% of total variation of higher total PLFAs. Afforestation also enhanced the F: B ratios compared with cropland. The basal microbial respiration was higher while the basal microbial respiration on a per-unit-PLFA basis was lower in afforested land than adjacent cropland and uncultivated land, suggesting afforestation may increase soil C utilization efficiency and decrease respiration loss in afforested soils.

  12. Agricultural irrigated land-use inventory for Polk County, Florida, 2016

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marella, Richard L.; Berry, Darbi; Dixon, Joann F.

    2017-08-16

    An accurate inventory of irrigated crop acreage is not available at the level of resolution needed to better estimate agricultural water use or to project future water demands in many Florida counties. A detailed digital map and summary of irrigated acreage was developed for Polk County, Florida, during the 2016 growing season. This cooperative project between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Agricultural Water Policy of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is part of an effort to improve estimates of water use and projections of future demands across all counties in the State. The irrigated areas were delineated by using land-use data provided by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, along with information obtained from the South and Southwest Florida Water Management Districts consumptive water-use permits. Delineations were field verified between April and December 2016. Attribute data such as crop type, primary water source, and type of irrigation system were assigned to the irrigated areas.The results of this inventory and field verification indicate that during the 2016 growing seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter), an estimated 88,652 acres were irrigated within Polk County. Of the total field-verified crops, 83,995 acres were in citrus; 2,893 acres were in other non-citrus fruit crops (blueberries, grapes, peaches, and strawberries); 621 acres were in row crops (primarily beans and watermelons); 1,117 acres were in nursery (container and tree farms) and sod production; and 26 acres were in field crops including hay and pasture. Of the total inventoried irrigated acreage within Polk County, 98 percent (86,566 acres) was in the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and the remaining 2 percent (2,086 acres) was in the South Florida Water Management District.About 85,788 acres (96.8 percent of the acreage inventoried) were irrigated by a microirrigation system, including drip, bubblers, and

  13. Global and regional drivers of land-use emissions 1961-2013

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, S. J.; Burney, J. A.; Pongratz, J.; Hansis, E.

    2017-12-01

    Historically, human land use, including conversion of natural landscapes, has disrupted ecosystems worldwide, degraded global biodiversity, and added tremendous quantities of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere1-5. Yet, in contrast to fossil fuel emissions, trends and drivers of land use and related GHG emissions are usually assessed only for specific regions, processes, or products. Here, we present a comprehensive, country-level inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use and land-use change from 1961-2013, decompose the demographic, economic and technical drivers of these emissions, and assess the sensitivity of results to different units of measurement and accounting assumptions. Globally, annual land use emissions (CO2-eq) have decreased between 1961 and 2013 (-32% in our central case), reflecting a balance between steady increases in agricultural production per capita (+42%) and equally persistent declines in the land required per unit of agricultural production (-65%), and emissions per area of land used (-41%). A few regions, processes, and products account for the majority of land use emissions: Latin America, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa represent 55% of net cumulative emissions 1961-2013, conversion to cropland and pasture and enteric fermentation represent 103%, and cereal, dairy and beef products together represent 83%. Our results suggest that the emissions intensity of agricultural production is a particularly important indicator of agriculture's climate impact, where targeted reductions could substantially reduce that impact.

  14. Estimating the Effects of Conversion of Agricultural Land to Urban Land on Deep Percolation of Irrigation Water in the Grand Valley, Western Colorado

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayo, John W.

    2008-01-01

    The conversion of agricultural land to urban residential land is associated with rapid population growth in the Grand Valley of western Colorado. Information regarding the effects of this land-use conversion on deep percolation, irrigation-water application, and associated salt loading to the Colorado River is needed to support water-resource planning and conservation efforts. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) assessed deep percolation and estimated salt loading derived from irrigated agricultural lands in the Grand Valley in a 1985 to 2002 monitoring and evaluation study (NRCS M&E). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Colorado River Salinity Control Forum and the Mesa Conservation District, quantified the current (2005-2006) deep percolation and irrigation-water application characteristics of 1/4-acre residential lots and 5-acre estates, urban parks, and urban orchard grass fields in the Grand Valley, and compared the results to NRCS M&E results from alfalfa-crop sites. In addition, pond seepage from three irrigation-water holding ponds was estimated. Salt loading was estimated for the urban study results and the NRCS M&E results by using standard salt-loading factors. A daily soil-moisture balance calculation technique was used at all urban study irrigated sites. Deep percolation was defined as any water infiltrating below the top 12 inches of soil. Deep percolation occurred when the soil-moisture balance in the first 12 inches of soil exceeded the field capacity for the soil type at each site. Results were reported separately for urban study bluegrass-only sites and for all-vegetation type (bluegrass, native plants, and orchard grass) sites. Deep percolation and irrigation-water application also were estimated for a complete irrigation season at three subdivisions by using mean site data from each subdivision. It was estimated that for the three subdivisions, 37 percent of the developed acreage was irrigated (the balance

  15. [Landscape planning approaches for biodiversity conservation in agriculture].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yun-hui; Li, Liang-tao; Yu, Zhen-rong

    2008-11-01

    Biodiversity conservation in agriculture not only relates to the sustainable development of agriculture, but also is an essential part of species conservation. In recent years, the landscape planning approach for biodiversity was highlighted instead of species-focused approach. In this paper, the landscape factors affecting the biodiversity in agriculture were reviewed, and the possible landscape approaches at three different scales for more efficient conservation of biodiversity in agro-landscape were suggested, including: (1) the increase of the proportion of natural or semi-natural habitats in agriculture, diversification of land use or crop pattern, and protection or construction of corridor at landscape level; (2) the establishment of non-cropping elements such as field margin at between-field level; and (3) the application of reasonable crop density, crop distribution pattern and rotation, and intercrop etc. at within-field level. It was suggested that the relevant policies for natural conservation, land use planning, and ecological compensation should be made to apply the landscape approaches for biodiversity conservation at larger scale.

  16. Assessment of the intrinsic vulnerability of agricultural land to water and nitrogen losses: case studies in Italy and Greece

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aschonitis, V. G.; Mastrocicco, M.; Colombani, N.; Salemi, E.; Castaldelli, G.

    2014-09-01

    LOS indices (abbr. of Losses) can be used for the assessment of the intrinsic vulnerability of agricultural land to water and nitrogen losses through percolation and runoff. The indices were applied on the lowland region of Ferrara Province (FP) in Italy and the upland region of Sarigkiol Basin (SB) in Greece. The most vulnerable zones in FP were the coastal areas consisting of high permeability sandy dunes and the areas close to riverbanks and palaeochannels, and in SB were the areas characterized by high slopes and high permeability soils at high altitude and areas belonging to the upper part of the alluvial plain close to the boundaries between agricultural land and mountainous regions. The application of LOS indices highlighted the specific features of both lowland and upland regions that contribute to water and nitrogen losses and showed their ability for use as tools in designing environmental management plans.

  17. Monitoring-based analysis of agriculture in Iraq

    OpenAIRE

    Tokareva, Olga Sergeevna; Pasko, Olga Anatolievna; Alshaibi, A.; Mochalov, M.

    2016-01-01

    The paper deals with change in area and structure of Iraq agricultural lands. It revealed the main reasons for the change: crisis (war, sanctions, etc.); economic (swamp and lake drainage, melioration, etc.); weather condition. Land-use intensification as a reason for reduction of agricultural land areas was not proved. The area of cultivated lands proved to correlate significantly with the level of precipitation, wheat productivity -with the average temperature in Iraq.

  18. Assessment on the rates and potentials of soil organic carbon sequestration in agricultural lands in Japan using a process-based model and spatially explicit land-use change inventories - Part 1: Historical trend and validation based on nation-wide soil monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yagasaki, Y.; Shirato, Y.

    2014-08-01

    In order to estimate a country-scale soil organic carbon (SOC) stock change in agricultural lands in Japan, while taking into account the effect of land-use changes, climate, different agricultural activities and the nature of soils, a spatially explicit model simulation system was developed using Rothamsted Carbon Model (RothC) with an integration of spatial and temporal inventories. Simulation was run from 1970 to 2008 with historical inventories. Simulated SOC stock was compared with observations in a nation-wide stationary monitoring program conducted during 1979-1998. Historical land-use change, characterized by a large decline in the area of paddy fields as well as a small but continuous decline in the area of orchards, occurred along with a relatively large increase in upland crop fields, unmanaged grasslands, and settlements (i.e. conversion of agricultural fields due to urbanization or abandoning). Results of the simulation on SOC stock change under varying land-use change indicated that land-use conversion from agricultural fields to settlements or other lands, as well as that from paddy fields to croplands have likely been an increasing source of CO2 emission, due to the reduction of organic carbon input to soils and the enhancement of SOC decomposition through transition of soil environment from anaerobic to aerobic conditions. The area-weighted mean concentrations of the simulated SOC stocks calculated for major soil groups under paddy fields and upland crop fields were comparable to those observed in the monitoring. Whereas in orchards, the simulated SOC stocks were underestimated. As the results of simulation indicated that SOC stock change under managed grasslands and settlements has been likely a major sink and source of CO2 emission at country-scale, respectively, validation of SOC stock change under these land-use types, which could not have been accomplished due to limited availability or a lack of measurement, remains a forthcoming challenge.

  19. Mapping Land Management Regimes in Western Ukraine Using Optical and SAR Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Stefanski

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The global demand for agricultural products is surging due to population growth, more meat-based diets, and the increasing role of bioenergy. Three strategies can increase agricultural production: (1 expanding agriculture into natural ecosystems; (2 intensifying existing farmland; or (3 recultivating abandoned farmland. Because agricultural expansion entails substantial environmental trade-offs, intensification and recultivation are currently gaining increasing attention. Assessing where these strategies may be pursued, however, requires improved spatial information on land use intensity, including where farmland is active and fallow. We developed a framework to integrate optical and radar data in order to advance the mapping of three farmland management regimes: (1 large-scale, mechanized agriculture; (2 small-scale, subsistence agriculture; and (3 fallow or abandoned farmland. We applied this framework to our study area in western Ukraine, a region characterized by marked spatial heterogeneity in management intensity due to the legacies from Soviet land management, the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the recent integration of this region into world markets. We mapped land management regimes using a hierarchical, object-based framework. Image segmentation for delineating objects was performed by using the Superpixel Contour algorithm. We then applied Random Forest classification to map land management regimes and validated our map using randomly sampled in-situ data, obtained during an extensive field campaign. Our results showed that farmland management regimes were mapped reliably, resulting in a final map with an overall accuracy of 83.4%. Comparing our land management regimes map with a soil map revealed that most fallow land occurred on soils marginally suited for agriculture, but some areas within our study region contained considerable potential for recultivation. Overall, our study highlights the potential for an improved

  20. Past and future impacts of land use and climate change on agricultural ecosystem services in the Czech Republic

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Lorencová, E.; Frélichová, J.; Nelson, E.; Vačkář, David

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 33, JUL (2013), s. 183-194 ISSN 0264-8377 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) ED1.1.00/02.0073 Institutional support: RVO:67179843 Keywords : climate change * scenarios * land use change * ecosystem services * agriculture * assessment Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour Impact factor: 3.134, year: 2013

  1. Global achievements in sustainable land management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Motavalli

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Identification and development of sustainable land management is urgently required because of widespread resource degradation from poor land use practices. In addition, the world will need to increase food production to meet the nutritional needs of a growing global population without major environmental degradation. Ongoing climate change and its impacts on the environment is an additional factor to consider in identifying and developing sustainable land use practices. The objectives of this paper are to: (1 provide a background to the need for sustainable land management, (2 identify some of its major components, and (3 discuss some examples of sustainable land management systems that are being practiced around the world. Some common components of this type of management are: (1 understanding the ecology of land management, (2 maintenance or enhancement of land productivity, (3 maintenance of soil quality, (4 increased diversity for higher stability and resilience, (5 provision of economic and ecosystem service benefits for communities, and (6 social acceptability. Several examples of sustainable land management systems are discussed to illustrate the wide range of systems that have been developed around the world including agroforestry, conservation agriculture, and precision agricultural systems. Improved technology, allowing for geater environmental measurement and for improved access and sharing of information, provides opportunities to identify and develop more sustainable land management practices and systems for the future.

  2. Rural Districts between Urbanization and Land Abandonment: Undermining Long-Term Changes in Mediterranean Landscapes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilaria Zambon

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The present study investigates changes in the rural landscapes of a Mediterranean country (Greece over a long time period (1970–2015 encompassing economic expansions and recessions. Using a spatial distribution of 5 basic agricultural land-use classes (arable land, garden crop, vineyards, tree crop and fallow land derived from official statistics at 6 years (1970, 1979, 1988, 1997, 2006, 2015, a quantitative analysis based on correlation and multivariate techniques was carried out to identify recent changes in the Greek agricultural landscape at prefectural level during different economic waves. Empirical results evidenced both intuitive and counter-intuitive landscape transformations, including: (i a progressive, spatially-homogeneous reduction of cropland; (ii a (more or less rapid decrease in the surface of high-input crops, including arable land, horticulture and vineyards; (iii a parallel increase in the surface of tree crops, especially olive; (iv a spatially-heterogeneous decrease of fallow land concentrated in metropolitan and tourism districts, especially in the last decade; and, finally, (v increasingly diversified landscapes in rural, accessible areas close to the sea coast. Based on a correlation analysis with background socioeconomic indicators, our findings reflect the multiple impacts of urbanization and land abandonment on the composition and diversity of rural landscapes. Changes in agricultural land-use were moulded by multiple drivers depending on latent transformations in rural systems and inherent conflicts with expanding urban regions. Together with market conditions and the Common Agricultural Policy subsidy regime, social contexts and the economic cycle are important when identifying long-term changes in agricultural landscapes, especially in transitional socio-ecological systems.

  3. Nest-site selection and success of mottled ducks on agricultural lands in southwest Louisiana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durham, R.S.; Afton, A.D.

    2003-01-01

    Listing of the mottled duck (Anas fulvigula maculosa) as a priority species in the Gulf Coast Joint Venture of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, coupled with recent declines of rice (Oryza sativa) acreage, led us to investigate the nesting ecology of this species on agricultural lands in southwest Louisiana. We examined nest-site selection at macro- and microhabitat levels, nest success, causes of nest failures, and habitat features influencing nest success. We found that female mottled ducks preferred to nest in permanent pastures with knolls (53% of nests) and idle fields (22% of nests). Vegetation height was greater at nests than at random points within the same macrohabitat patch. Successful nests were associated with greater numbers of plant species, located farther from water, and associated with higher vegetation density values than were unsuccessful nests. We determined that mammalian predators caused most nest failures (77% of 52 unsuccessful nests). Our results suggest that nest success of mottled ducks on agricultural lands in southwest Louisiana could be improved by 1) locating large permanent pastures and idle fields near rice fields and other available wetlands, 2) managing plant communities in these upland areas to favor dense stands of perennial bunch grasses, tall composites, dewberry (Rubus trivialis), and other native grasses and forbs, and 3) managing cattle-stocking rates and the duration and timing of grazing to promote tall, dense stands of these plant taxa during the nesting season (March-June).

  4. Growth and Yield of 15-Year Plantations of Pine, Spruce and Birch in Agricultural Land

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daugaviete Mudrite

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The growth data and the potential returns from 15-year-old plantations of pine Pinus sylvestris L. (6 trial sites, spruce Picea abies Karst L. (9 trial sites and silver birch Betula pendula Roth (13 trial sites, established in abandoned agricultural lands in a variety of soil types (sod calcareous, anthrosols, podzolic, podzols, gley, podzolic gley, alluvial, using the planting density 2,500 and 3,300 and also 5,000 trees/ha are analysed.

  5. Temporal Changes of Land Use Capability Classification Depending on the Urban Development: Case Study of Trabzon Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colak, H. E.; Memisoglu, T.

    2017-11-01

    Achieving high efficiency by taking advantage of agricultural land at a high level allows the continued vitality of the soil and also contributes to the country's economy. The land with the most fertilizer from agricultural land is generally the first class agricultural land (I.) followed by second (II.) and third class (III.) agricultural lands. It is accepted that all these lands are considered to be protected and various restrictions have been introduced to these lands. Soil conservation, use and development of balanced is possible to be defined in detail by exploiting the developing science and technology possibilities, determination well-defined properties and the implementation of policies by making the necessary plans. For this reason, Trabzon province is selected as the pilot region land use capability of agricultural land classes (especially urban-rural area and plateau) ongoing changes in the past years until today are examined depending on the land use first, second and third class. In this context, satellite images for 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2017 and land use data including the non-agricultural use of the province of Trabzon has been discussed and the temporal changes of agricultural areas depending on land use capability have been examined using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In all the productive areas of Trabzon Province, the increase in urban-rural development has been examined in detail because of especially the creation of planned areas and the occurrence of construction needs. This study is a small-scale case study and the results are examined and analyzed using GIS.

  6. TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES USE IN RUSSIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. M. Korotchenya

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Technical efficiency of agricultural resources use in Russia is assessed. As methodology for calculations the author used Data envelopment analysis (DEA which is the nonparametric method based on linear programming. The essence of the DEA method consists in an efficiency evaluation of homogeneous units of decision making proceeding from creation on the basis of real data (amounts of resources and amounts of types of output of general border of production capabilities. CCR-I model was offerd as a specific kind of the DEA model. It is the radial DEA model with continual returns to scale and orientation to resources. The group of 54 countries included in a research consisted of the states of the CIS, BRIC, the EU, OECD. The time frames of calculation were established: 1992-2007 and 2008-2012 (owing to lack of uniform data for all time interval. Аmount of agricultural products was used as output. Agricultural lands, an economically active population in agriculture, farm machines and the equipment, a livestock, fertilizers were used in the form of resources. The main source of statistical data is FAOSTAT. From 54 countries under consideration Belgium, Greece, Israel, Malta and the Netherlands became leaders in technical efficiency of agricultural industry in 1992-2007. Inefficient use of agricultural resources, especially lands was established as a result of the conducted research in Russia. On average efficiency of use of agricultural lands in our country can be increased by 8 times, work - by 2-2.5 times, machines - by 2-3 times, a livestock and fertilizers - by 1.5-2 times. Good tendencies to growth of efficiency of agricultural production are notice in 2008-2012.

  7. Detecting agricultural to urban land use change from multi-temporal MSS digital data. [Salt Lake County, Utah

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ridd, M. K.; Merola, J. A.; Jaynes, R. A.

    1983-01-01

    Conversion of agricultural land to a variety of urban uses is a major problem along the Wasatch Front, Utah. Although LANDSAT MSS data is a relatively coarse tool for discriminating categories of change in urban-size plots, its availability prompts a thorough test of its power to detect change. The procedures being applied to a test area in Salt Lake County, Utah, where the land conversion problem is acute are presented. The identity of land uses before and after conversion was determined and digital procedures for doing so were compared. Several algorithms were compared, utilizing both raw data and preprocessed data. Verification of results involved high quality color infrared photography and field observation. Two data sets were digitally registered, specific change categories internally identified in the software, results tabulated by computer, and change maps printed at 1:24,000 scale.

  8. Life Cycle Assessment of Sago Palm, Oil Palm, and Paddy Cultivated on Peat Land

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saptarining Wulan

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The continuously increasing population growth more than food agriculture growth on the existing land, has been encouraging to this research. The land use competition for agriculture and housing purposes have caused the land use change from forest to agriculture and housing. Within forested landscapes food production, commodity agriculture, biodiversity, resource extraction and other land uses are also competing for space. The forest land use change (deforestation is one of the climate change causes. The impact of climate change among others is the uncertain climate, such as the long drought period, flood, and the extreme temperature that cause decreasing in agriculture production. Therefore, at present, many people use the marginal land, such as peat land for agriculture cultivation to increase the food agriculture production and to achieve the domestic and export demand. Indonesia has a huge peat land and the fourth biggest in the world after Rusia, Canada, and America. The focus of this study is comparing the life cycle assessment of three agriculture commodities: sago palm, oil palm, and paddy cultivated on peat land. The purpose of this research is to contribute a recommendation of the most sustainable commodity from the aspect carbon dioxide (CO2 emission among three food agriculture commodities include oil palm and paddy that currently as excellent commodities, and sago palm, the neglected indigenous plant, which are cultivated on peat land. The method applied for this research to analyze the environmental aspect using life cycle assessment (LCA started from seedling, plantation, harvesting, transportation, and production process. The analysis result reveals that sago palm is the most environmental friendly. The lowest CO2 emission (ton/ha/year is sago palm (214.75 ± 23.49 kg CO2 eq, then paddy (322.03 ± 7.57 kg CO2 eq and the highest CO2 emission (ton/ha/year is oil palm (406.88 ± 97.09 kg CO2 eq.

  9. Life Cycle Assessment of Sago Palm, Oil Palm, and Paddy Cultivated on Peat Land

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saptarining Wulan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The continuously increasing population growth more than food agriculture growth on the existing land, has been encouraging to this research. The land use competition for agriculture and housing purposes have caused the land use change from forest to agriculture and housing. Within forested landscapes food production, commodity agriculture, biodiversity, resource extraction and other land uses are also competing for space. The forest land use change (deforestation is one of the climate change causes. The impact of climate change among others is the uncertain climate, such as the long drought period, flood, and the extreme temperature that cause decreasing in agriculture production. Therefore, at present, many people use the marginal land, such as peat land for agriculture cultivation to increase the food agriculture production and to achieve the domestic and export demand. Indonesia has a huge peat land and the fourth biggest in the world after Rusia, Canada, and America. The focus of this study is comparing the life cycle assessment of three agriculture commodities: sago palm, oil palm, and paddy cultivated on peat land. The purpose of this research is to contribute a recommendation of the most sustainable commodity from the aspect carbon dioxide (CO2 emission among three food agriculture commodities include oil palm and paddy that currently as excellent commodities, and sago palm, the neglected indigenous plant, which are cultivated on peat land. The method applied for this research to analyze the environmental aspect using life cycle assessment (LCA started from seedling, plantation, harvesting, transportation, and production process. The analysis result reveals that sago palm is the most environmental friendly. The lowest CO2 emission (ton/ha/year is sago palm (214.75 ± 23.49 kg CO2 eq, then paddy (322.03 ± 7.57 kg CO2 eq and the highest CO2 emission (ton/ha/year is oil palm (406.88 ± 97.09 kg CO2 eq.

  10. Flooding of property by runoff from agricultural land in northwestern Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boardman, John; Ligneau, Laurence; de Roo, Ad; Vandaele, Karel

    1994-08-01

    In the last twenty years there has been an increase in the incidence of flooding of property by runoff from agricultural land in many areas of northwestern Europe. These events take the form of inundations by soil-laden water associated with erision and the formation of ephemeral or talweg gullies developed in normally dry valley bottoms. Costs of such events may be considerable e.g. almost US$2M at Rottingdean, southern England, in 1987. These costs are largely borne by individual house occupants, insurance companies and local councils. The distribution of flooding is widespread but areas of high risk can be identified: the hilly area of central Belgium, parts of northern France, the South Downs in southern England and South-Limburg (the Netherlands). All these areas have silty, more or less loessial soils. Two types of flooding may be distinguished: winter flooding associated with wet soils and the cultivation of winter cereals, and summer flooding due to thunderstorm activity and runoff particularly from sugar beet, maize and potato crops. The distribution of these types of erosion varies in relation to the interaction between physical characteristics (soils and topography), climatic conditions and land use across the region. The reason for the recent increase in flooding events appears to be changes in land use, in the area of arable cropping, and the continued intensification of farming such as the use of chemical fertilizers, the decline in aggregate stability, the increase in the size of fields and compaction by farm vehicles. In some regions the risk of flooding has also increased because of expansion of urban areas in valley bottom locations. Communities have responded to the flooding hazard with emergency or protective measures usually involving engineered structures rather than land use change. The policy response to the increased risk of flooding has been very limited especially at the national and provincial level, the exception being plans developed

  11. Temporal change detection of land use/land cover using GIS and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Satellite images for the years 1972, 1989, 1999 and 2016 were used for LULC ... built-up areas, pastures and bare land, agricultural land and water bodies. For the accuracy of assessment classifications, matrix error and KAPPA ... Keywords: land use/land cover change; change detection; classification; remote sensing; GIS ...

  12. Xingu Project - Integrating Land Use Planning and Water Governance in Amazonia: Towards Improved Freshwater Security in the Agricultural Frontier of Mato Grosso.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krusche, A. V.; Ballester, M. V.; Neill, C.; Elsenbeer, H.; Johnson, M. S.; Coe, M. T.; Garavello, M.; Molina, S. G.; Empinotti, V.; Reichardt, F.; Deegan, L.; Harris, L.

    2014-12-01

    The main goal of this project is to identify how impacts from land conversion, cropland expansion and intensification of both crop and animal production interact to affect regional evapotranspiration, rainfall generation, river flooding, and water quality and stream habitats, allowing us to identify thresholds of change that will endanger agricultural production, livelihoods of non-agricultural settlers and the region's new urban population and infrastructure. We will survey the effects of this on (1) soybean farmers, (2) cattle ranchers, (3) small-scale farm families, (4) rural non-agriculturists, including fishers, and (5) urban residents and map their roles as stakeholders. We will also conduct current water use surveys among the different stakeholder groups, accompanied by questions on desired aspects for future freshwater security to identify targets for desirable outcomes of water governance strategies. These targets, together with the information on land use drivers, water quantity and quality and predicted scenarios for global changes will be incorporated into a fully integrated and interactive geospatially oriented socio-ecological model that can serve as framework for future water governance that enhances Freshwater Security in such systems. This is an international cooperation initiative lead by Brazil and with the participation of Canada, Germany and United States of America.

  13. Seasonal monitoring of soil erosion at regional scale: An application of the G2 model in Crete focusing on agricultural land uses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panagos, Panagos; Christos, Karydas; Cristiano, Ballabio; Ioannis, Gitas

    2014-04-01

    A new soil erosion model, namely G2, was applied in the island of Crete with a focus on agricultural land uses, including potential grazing lands. The G2 model was developed within the Geoland2 project as an agro-environmental service in the framework of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES, now Copernicus) initiative. The G2 model takes advantage of the empirical background of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and the Gavrilovic model, together with readily available time series of vegetation layers and 10-min rainfall intensity data to produce monthly time-step erosion risk maps at 300 m cell size. The innovations of the G2 model include the implementation of land-use influence parameters based on empirical data and the introduction of a corrective term in the estimation of the topographic influence factor. The mean annual erosion rate in Crete was found to be 8.123 t ha-1. The season from October to January (the rainy season in Crete) was found to be the most critical, accounting for 80% of the annual erosion in the island. Seasonal erosion figures proved to be crucial for the identification of erosion hotspots and of risky land uses. In Crete, high annual erosion figures were detected in natural grasslands and shrublands (14.023 t ha-1), mainly due to the intensification of livestock grazing during the past decades. The G2 model allows for the integrated spatio-temporal monitoring of soil erosion per land-use type based on moderate data input requirements and existing datasets.

  14. Using Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes to Monitor Landscape Scale Soil Water Content in Mixed Land Use Agricultural Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franz, Trenton E.; Wahbi, Ammar; Weltin, Georg; Heng, Lee; Dercon, Gerd; Vreugdenhi, Mariette; Oismueller, Markus; Strauss, Peter; Desilets, Darin

    2016-01-01

    With an ever-increasing demand for natural resources and the societal need to understand and predict natural disasters such as flood, soil water content (SWC) observations remain a critical variable to monitor in order to optimally allocate resources, establish early warning systems, and improve weather forecasts. However, routine agricultural production practices of soil cultivation, planting, and harvest make the operation and maintenance of direct contact point sensors for long-term monitoring a challenging task. In this work, we used Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probe (CRNP) to monitor landscape average SWC in a mixed agricultural land use system in northeast Austria since December 2013.

  15. LANDSAT-4 Science Characterization Early Results. Volume 4: Applications. [agriculture, soils land use, geology, hydrology, wetlands, water quality, biomass identification, and snow mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barker, J. L. (Editor)

    1985-01-01

    The excellent quality of TM data allows researchers to proceed directly with applications analyses, without spending a significant amount of time applying various corrections to the data. The early results derived of TM data are discussed for the following applications: agriculture, land cover/land use, soils, geology, hydrology, wetlands biomass, water quality, and snow.

  16. 76 FR 5397 - Bureau of Land Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-31

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service...; California AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior; and Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of public... Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (Forest Service) Santa Rosa...

  17. Natural resources in the Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tovar B, Diana Alejandra; Zorro Z, Ricardo

    2003-01-01

    The objective of this investigation is identification the relation between the naturals resources degradation, and the Colombian agriculture productive. It's means a way to quantification the influence of a bad utilization in the water and land resources in the agricultural sector, to guide the sector in to a sustainable development. This objective is to make by an empirical exercise where we built four econometrics models (ordinary minims square) based in the Colombia's history statistic of the variables: land erosion, river sedimentation, plaguicides, Insecticides, Fungicides y Herbicides, agriculture productivity and agriculture yield. The resolute of this exercise is that an increase in the erosion area also the river sedimentation gives a decrease in the agriculture productivity. The same situation happens when it use the consumption of the insecticides and the fungicides which in the long time shows an opposite relation with the yield and productivity. At last we have that the aperture of the ninety's, bring to good changes for the agricultural productivity. So that, it concludes that the rivers and lands degradation affect in the long time the agriculture yield and productivity. The best use in the naturals resources, can help to increase the agricultural development, because it can increase the yield while it maintain for the future the possibility curve of production when it conserve the resources

  18. Acquisition of the ownership of agricultural lands in Hungary, taking the EU's and other countries' law into consideration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Szilágyi János E.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The present article concentrates on the acquisition of ownership (and in some respects: use of agricultural and forestry lands, especially as to the cross-border aspects. One of the hypotheses of the article is that the above mentioned issue is a topical question almost all around the world. Nevertheless, the article focuses on a European aspect of the cross-border acquisition, namely the new land law rules of the EU's Member States having joined the European Union in 2004 and 2007. In 2014 and 2015, the European Commission had assessed the land law of these Member States (i.e. Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and initiated infringement procedures against these countries at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Besides the regulation of these new Member States of the EU, the present article deals with the legislation of other Member States as well as the provisions of non-EU states. The article gives substantial consideration to phenomena such as sovereignty, land-hunger or soil degradation which may exercise significant influence on the land law of a state.

  19. Options for including all lands in a future greenhouse gas accounting framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cowie, Annette L.; Kirschbaum, Miko U.F.; Ward, Murray

    2007-01-01

    The current framework through which greenhouse gas emissions and removals in the land use sector are accounted under the Kyoto Protocol has several problems. They include a complex structure, onerous monitoring and reporting requirements, and potential for omission of some important fluxes. One solution that may overcome some of these problems is to include all lands and associated processes within a country's jurisdiction, rather than restrict accounting to specific nominated land categories or activities. Ideally, the accounting approach should cover all significant biospheric sources and sinks, avoid biased or unbalanced accounting, avoid leakage and require no arbitrary adjustments to remedy unintended consequences. Furthermore, accounting should focus on the direct human-induced component of biospheric emissions/removals so that debits/credits can be allocated equitably and provide appropriate incentives to adopt land-use management options with beneficial outcomes for the atmosphere. This paper focuses on biospheric emissions and removals resulting from carbon stock changes. It considers four alternative accounting options that include all land areas: Gross-Net Accounting, Net-Net Accounting, Net Accounting with Negotiated Baselines and the Average Carbon Stocks approach. Each option is described, and assessed with respect to defined criteria for effectiveness. Gross-Net Accounting and Net-Net Accounting do not adequately distinguish the anthropogenic component of carbon-stock changes from indirect and natural effects, so large undeserved credits or debits could be created. Under Net Accounting with Negotiated Baselines, countries' projected emissions and removals during the commitment period would be taken into account in the negotiation of emissions targets. In the commitment period, countries would then gain credits/debits for biospheric removals/emissions. Difficulties with this approach would lie in reaching agreed baselines for emissions and removals

  20. Population, Rural Development, and Land Use Among Settler Households in an Agricultural Frontier in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Carr

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available Guatemala was among the world’s leaders in deforestation during the 1990s at a rate of 2% per annum. Much of Guatemala’s recent forest loss has occurred in the emerging agricultural frontiers of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR, the heart of the largest contiguous tropical forest in Central America—La Selva Maya. This paper presents data from 241 heads of households and 219 partners of household heads from a geographically stratified sample of eight (of 28 communities in the Sierra de Lacandón National Park (SLNP, the most ecologically biodiverse region in La Selva Maya and a core conservation zone of the MBR. Settler households are examined relative to a host of factors relating land use and land cover change. Specifically, demographic trends, political and socio-economic development, and ecological factors are described in this first detailed statistically-representative sample probing human population and environment interactions in an emerging agricultural frontier in Central America.

  1. New reclamation standards for oil and gas well sites and pipelines in the agricultural land reserve

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, P.

    1995-01-01

    Reclamation standards are a necessity because of increasing density of oil and gas developments, and the number of wells which may be abandoned over the next few years. All petroleum industry users of land are subject to the Agricultural Land Commission Act and require the approval of the Commission. The new General Order 293/95 was discussed, the purpose of which is to streamline existing regulations and to clarify reclamation standards. The new standards are similar to requirements currently in place in northwestern Alberta because landforms, soils, and land there are similar to those that exist in the Peace River region of B.C. Adopting similar requirements also has the added benefit of providing consistency for the industry between adjacent jurisdictions. In essence, the official view is that petroleum developments are temporary activities as long as the land is restored to its original or better condition, and the disruption to farm operations is minimal. Major provisions of General Order 293/95 were reviewed. It was noted that site contamination and the disposal of wastes were not addressed in the General Order. The reason for this is that these matters fall under the jurisdiction of other government agencies. 7 refs

  2. Quantifying Trade-Offs Among Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity, and Agricultural Returns in an Agriculturally Dominated Landscape Under Future Land‑Management Scenarios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emma C. Underwood

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available https://doi.org/10.15447/sfews.2017v15iss2art4Change in land use in agriculturally dominated areas is often assumed to provide positive benefits for land-owners and financial agricultural returns at the expense of biodiversity and other ecosystem services. For an agriculturally dominated area in the Central Valley of California we quantify the trade-offs among ecosystem services, biodiversity, and the financial returns from agricultural lands. We do this by evaluating three different landscape management scenarios projected to 2050 compared to the current baseline: habitat restoration, urbanization, and enhanced agriculture. The restoration scenario benefited carbon storage services and increased landscape suitability for birds, and also decreased ecosystem disservices (nitrous oxide emissions, nitrogen leaching, although there was a trade-off in slightly lower financial agricultural returns. Under the urbanization scenario, carbon storage, suitability for birds, and agricultural returns were negatively affected. A scenario which enhanced agriculture, tailored to the needs of a key species of conservation concern (Swainson’s Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, presented the most potential for trade-offs. This scenario benefitted carbon storage and increased landscape suitability for the Swainson's Hawk as well as 15 other focal bird species. However, this scenario increased ecosystem disservices. These spatially explicit results, generated at a scale relevant to land management decision-makers in the Central Valley, provide valuable insight into managing for multiple benefits in the landscape and an approach for assessing future land-management decisions.

  3. Assessment of environmental responses to land use/land cover ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    aghomotsegin

    2013-12-17

    Dec 17, 2013 ... 49.86% of the land cover has been converted to other land uses, ... management information system and policies that will ensure sustainable management of fragile ...... growth in agricultural output such as food and fiber.

  4. Sustainability of Smallholder Agriculture in Semi-Arid Areas under Land Set-aside Programs: A Case Study from China’s Loess Plateau

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qirui Li

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This article analyzes agricultural sustainability in the context of land degradation, rural poverty and social inequality, taking China’s Loess Hills as an example. The analysis attempts to understand the multi-dimensionality of sustainability at the farm level and its relationship with physical-socio-economic-infrastructural-technological framework conditions in the context of the land set-aside program viz. the Grain for Green Project (GGP. We developed composite indices of sustainability and its environmental, economic and social dimensions using a principal component analysis (PCA-based weighting scheme. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the estimated sustainability indicators and the variables representing framework conditions of knowledge, demographics, resource endowment and production techniques. The stated analysis was conducted on a dataset collected by means of household surveys in 2014 in valleys and flood plain areas in Yanhe Township. Findings reveal hidden correlations among the indicators of environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability. The ratio of land under the conservation program to actual farmland emerged as a key determinant of overall agricultural sustainability and its social dimension, which reaches the maximum when the ratio is around 0.56 and 0.64, respectively. The results also show that there is need to balance off-farm and on-farm income diversification as well as highlight the role of women in ensuring the sustainability of farming households. The core achievement of the article is the definition of the thresholds for the land set-aside program and the identification of major determinants of agricultural sustainability in the rural Chinese context in particular and in rural farming communities in general.

  5. Energy-conserving perennial agriculture for marginal land in southern Appalachia. Final technical report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Williams, G.

    1982-01-30

    USDA economists predict the end of surplus farm production in the US within this decade. More and more marginal land will be cropped to provide feed for the growing world population and to produce energy. Much of this potential cropland in Southern Appalachia is poorly suited to annual crops, such as corn. Perennial crops are much better suited to steep, rocky, and wet sites. Research was undertaken on the theoretical potentials of perennial species with high predicted yields of protein, carbohydrates, or oils. Several candidate staple perennial crops for marginal land in Southern Appalachia were identified, and estimates were made of their yields, energy input requirements, and general suitabilities. Cropping systems incorporating honeylocust, persimmon, mulberry, jujube, and beech were compared with corn cropping systems. It appears that these candidate staple perennials show distinct advantages for energy conservation and environmental preservation. Detailed economic analyses must await actual demonstration trials, but preliminary indications for ethanol conversion systems with honeylocust are encouraging. It is suggested that short-term loans to farmers undertaking this new type of agriculture would be appropriate to solve cash-flow problems.

  6. Evaluation of Skills Needed in College Education by Colleges of Agriculture Alumni from 1862 and 1890 Land Grant Universities in Alabama and Tennessee

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zekeri, Andrew A.; Baba, Pauline A.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine college skills Alumni from 1862 and 1890 Land-Grant universities in Alabama and Tennessee rated as essential to acquire in their college education. The data are from a survey of colleges of agriculture alumni who graduated from six land-grant universities in Alabama and Tennessee. IBM SPSS Statistical…

  7. Land lease contract and prior right of lessee to concluding the new land lease contract - case of Slovakia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Bandlerová

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Land lease is one of the few possible ways to use the agricultural land effectively. This is caused by problems in the proprietary and user relationships, therefore the agricultural land lease and its legal regulation is especially important for Slovakia. This paper deals with the selected legal arrangements related to the agricultural land lease in Slovakia with an objective to identify application problems faced by lessees and lessors of agricultural land. When regulating the agricultural land lease relationships, the Slovak law maker prefers dispositive legal norms. However, this method is rarely used in the application practice. Contracting parties often focus only on obligatory characters of the contract, relying on the legal text of dispositive provisions. The legal arrangement of the lessee’s prior right to sign the new lease contract attracts a particular attention. Current legal regulation of this lessee’s right seems to be unenforceable; on the other hand, it collides with the basic human rights. This provision needs to be either cancelled or adjusted so that it achieves the objective defined by the law maker and so that it is legally enforceable in compliance with superior legal norms.

  8. Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture Suitability to Achieve Food Security in an Arid Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amal Aldababseh

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This research aims at assessing land suitability for large-scale agriculture using multiple spatial datasets which include climate conditions, water potential, soil capabilities, topography and land management. The study case is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in the UAE. The aridity of climate in the region requires accounting for non-renewable sources like desalination and treated sewage effluent (TSE for an accurate and realistic assessment of irrigated agriculture suitability. All datasets were systematically aggregated using an analytical hierarchical process (AHP in a GIS model. A hierarchal structure is built and pairwise comparisons matrices are used to calculate weights of the criteria. All spatial processes were integrated to model land suitability and different types of crops are considered in the analysis. Results show that jojoba and sorghum show the best capabilities to survive under the current conditions, followed by date palm, fruits and forage. Vegetables and cereals proved to be the least preferable options. Introducing desalinated water and TSE enhanced land suitability for irrigated agriculture. These findings have positive implications for national planning, the decision-making process of land alteration for agricultural use and addressing sustainable land management and food security issues.

  9. Contributions of fallow lands in the Brazilian Amazon to CO2 balance, deforestation and the agrarian economy: Inequalities among competing land use trajectories

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco de Assis Costa

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Development of regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions is creating demands and new markets for land-based carbon sinks. Expectations of development of clean technologies and new sources of clean energy are affecting the supply side, creating opportunities for remuneration for sustainable development of natural resources. This paper[1] presents a model developed to gain a realistic understanding of the heterogeneous roles of capoeira (fallow agricultural land in land use dynamics and CO2 balance in the Brazilian Amazon. The model estimates the areas and CO2 balance of different types of capoeira in association with different farming activities and also monitors carbon intensity over time in the context of technological trajectories (distinct farming systems. Modeling with agricultural census data compared six different, competing technological trajectories of capoeira for changes in major land use variables and impacts on CO2 balance from 1990 to 2011. Results revealed that: a technological trajectories contribute differently to net emissions of CO2, with livestock for meat enterprises being the highest net emitters and peasant agroforestry and plantation enterprises the lower emitters; b carbon intensity tends to diminish over time because of increased weight of trajectories with lower carbon intensity, in combination with reduced carbon intensity of trajectories with higher carbon intensity; and c for most trajectories, reuse of “old land” becomes increasingly more important for explaining the essence of agricultural dynamics, including CO2 balance, than is deforestation for opening up new agricultural land. These results draw attention to the role of capoeiras in modernization and intensification of the agricultural sector through renovation of deforested land. The model allows evaluation of deforestation and CO2 emissions as functions of the evolution of markets for agricultural products and of deforestation dynamics

  10. Rethinking Bioenergy from an Agricultural Perspective

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shortall, Orla

    The aim of this project is to explore the social and ethical dimensions of the agricultural production of perennial energy crop and crop residues for energy. Biomass – any living or recently living matter – is being promoted in industrialised countries as part of the transition from fossil fuels...... agriculture including the biorefinery strategy; multifunctional perennial energy crop production on environmentally marginal land; and ecologically integrated multipurpose biomass production through agroforestry production. There is also an argument which cuts across the paradigms and maintains...

  11. Agriculture pest and disease risk maps considering MSG satellite data and land surface temperature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marques da Silva, J. R.; Damásio, C. V.; Sousa, A. M. O.; Bugalho, L.; Pessanha, L.; Quaresma, P.

    2015-06-01

    Pest risk maps for agricultural use are usually constructed from data obtained from in-situ meteorological weather stations, which are relatively sparsely distributed and are often quite expensive to install and difficult to maintain. This leads to the creation of maps with relatively low spatial resolution, which are very much dependent on interpolation methodologies. Considering that agricultural applications typically require a more detailed scale analysis than has traditionally been available, remote sensing technology can offer better monitoring at increasing spatial and temporal resolutions, thereby, improving pest management results and reducing costs. This article uses ground temperature, or land surface temperature (LST), data distributed by EUMETSAT/LSASAF (with a spatial resolution of 3 × 3 km (nadir resolution) and a revisiting time of 15 min) to generate one of the most commonly used parameters in pest modeling and monitoring: "thermal integral over air temperature (accumulated degree-days)". The results show a clear association between the accumulated LST values over a threshold and the accumulated values computed from meteorological stations over the same threshold (specific to a particular tomato pest). The results are very promising and enable the production of risk maps for agricultural pests with a degree of spatial and temporal detail that is difficult to achieve using in-situ meteorological stations.

  12. Land degradation in Northern Nigeria: The impacts and implications ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Otoigiakih

    2013-04-27

    Apr 27, 2013 ... expansion and agricultural intensification have been suggested to be part of the causes of land degradation in. Africa (including Nigeria). The possible loss of natural vegetation cover due to changes in land use, influenced by man, could expose the soil surface and render it vulnerable to the elements of ...

  13. Climate Change and Agricultural Vulnerability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, G.; Shah, M.; Van Velthuizen, H.

    2002-08-01

    After the introduction Chapter 2 presents details of the ecological-economic analysis based on the FAO/IIASA agro-ecological zones (AEZ) approach for evaluation of biophysical limitations and agricultural production potentials, and IIASA's Basic Linked System (BLS) for analyzing the world's food economy and trade system. The BLS is a global general equilibrium model system for analyzing agricultural policies and food system prospects in an international setting. BLS views national agricultural systems as embedded in national economies, which interact with each other through trade at the international level. The combination of AEZ and BLS provides an integrated ecological-economic framework for the assessment of the impact of climate change. We consider climate scenarios based on experiments with four General Circulation Models (GCM), and we assess the four basic socioeconomic development pathways and emission scenarios as formulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Third Assessment Report. Chapter 3 presents the main AEZ results of the impact of climate change on agriculture. Results comprise environmental constraints to crop agriculture; climate variability and the variability of rain-fed cereal production; changes in potential agricultural land; changes in crop-production patterns; and the impact of climate change on cereal-production potential. Chapter 4 discusses the AEZ-BLS integrated ecological-economic analysis of climate change on the world food system. This includes quantification of scale and location of hunger, international agricultural trade, prices, production, land use, etc. It assesses trends in food production, trade, and consumption, and the impact on poverty and hunger of alternative development pathways and varying levels of climate change. Chapter 5 presents the main conclusions and policy implications of this study

  14. Land use and land management effects on soil organic carbon stock in Mediterranean agricultural areas (Southern Spain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parras-Alcántara, Luis; Lozano-García, Beatriz

    2014-05-01

    INTRODUCTION Soils play a key role in the carbon geochemical cycle. Agriculture contributes to carbon sequestration through photosynthesis and the incorporation of carbon into carbohydrates. Soil management is one of the best tools for climate change mitigation. Small increases or decreases in soil carbon content due to changes in land use or management practices, may result in a significant net exchange of carbon between the soil carbon pool and the atmosphere. In the last decades arable crops (AC) have been transformed into olive grove cultivations (OG) or vineyards (V) in Mediterranean areas. A field study was conducted to determine long-term effects of land use change (LUC) (AC by OG and V) on soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), C:N ratio and their stratification in Calcic-Chromic Luvisols (LVcc/cr) in Mediterranean conditions. MATERIAL AND METHODS An unirrigated farm in Montilla-Moriles (Córdoba, Spain) cultivated under conventional tillage (animal power with lightweight reversible plows and non-mineral fertilization or pesticides) was selected for study in 1965. In 1966, the farm was divided into three plots with three different uses (AC, OG and V). The preliminary analyses were realized in 1965 for AC (AC1), and the second analyses were realized in 2011 for AC (AC2 - winter crop rotation with annual wheat and barley, receiving mineral fertilization or pesticides), OG (annual passes with disk harrow and cultivator in the spring, followed by a tine harrow in the summer receiving mineral fertilization and weed control with residual herbicides), and V (with three or five chisel passes a year from early spring to early autumn with mineral fertilization or pesticides.). In all cases (AC1, AC2, OG and V) were collected soil entire profiles. Soil properties determined were: soil particle size, bulk density, SOC, TN, C:N ratio, stocks and SRs. The statistical significance of the differences in the variables between land use practices was tested using the

  15. A socio-hydrologic model of coupled water-agriculture dynamics with emphasis on farm size.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brugger, D. R.; Maneta, M. P.

    2015-12-01

    Agricultural land cover dynamics in the U.S. are dominated by two trends: 1) total agricultural land is decreasing and 2) average farm size is increasing. These trends have important implications for the future of water resources because 1) growing more food on less land is due in large part to increased groundwater withdrawal and 2) larger farms can better afford both more efficient irrigation and more groundwater access. However, these large-scale trends are due to individual farm operators responding to many factors including climate, economics, and policy. It is therefore difficult to incorporate the trends into watershed-scale hydrologic models. Traditional scenario-based approaches are valuable for many applications, but there is typically no feedback between the hydrologic model and the agricultural dynamics and so limited insight is gained into the how agriculture co-evolves with water resources. We present a socio-hydrologic model that couples simplified hydrologic and agricultural economic dynamics, accounting for many factors that depend on farm size such as irrigation efficiency and returns to scale. We introduce an "economic memory" (EM) state variable that is driven by agricultural revenue and affects whether farms are sold when land market values exceed expected returns from agriculture. The model uses a Generalized Mixture Model of Gaussians to approximate the distribution of farm sizes in a study area, effectively lumping farms into "small," "medium," and "large" groups that have independent parameterizations. We apply the model in a semi-arid watershed in the upper Columbia River Basin, calibrating to data on streamflow, total agricultural land cover, and farm size distribution. The model is used to investigate the sensitivity of the coupled system to various hydrologic and economic scenarios such as increasing market value of land, reduced surface water availability, and increased irrigation efficiency in small farms.

  16. QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND CONTROL OF OUTPUTS OF A NATIONWIDE AGRICULTURAL LAND COVER MAPPING PROGRAM USING LIDAR: PHIL-LIDAR 2 PARMAP EXPERIENCE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. M. Pagkalinawan

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The Agricultural Resources Extraction from LiDAR Surveys (PARMAP project component of the Nationwide Detailed Resources Assessment using LiDAR (Phil-LiDAR 2 Program aims to produce detailed agricultural maps using LiDAR. Agricultural land cover at crop level was classified through object based image analysis using Support Vector Machine as classifier and LiDAR derivatives from point cloud (2 points per sq.m. and orthophoto (0.5-meter resolution as inputs. An accuracy of at least 90 %, assessed using validation points from the field and through image interpretation, was required before proceeding to post-processing and map lay-out. Knowledge sharing and capacity development facilitated by the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD enabled partner universities across the Philippines to produce outputs for their assigned region. Considering output layers were generated by multiple teams working on different landscape complexities with some degree of data quality variability, quality checking is crucial to ensure accuracy standards were met. UPD PARMap devised a centralized and end-to-end scheme divided into four steps – land classification, GIS post-processing, schema application, and map lay-out. At each step, a block is reviewed and, subsequently, either approved or returned with documentation on required revisions. Turnaround time of review is at least one block (area ranging from 10 to 580 sq. km. per day. For coastal municipalities, an additional integration process to incorporate mapped coastal features was applied. Common problems observed during quality checking include misclassifications, gaps between features, incomplete attributes and missing map elements. Some issues are particular to specific blocks such as problematic LiDAR derivatives. UPD addressed these problems through discussion and mentoring visits to partner universities. As of March 2017, a total of 336 municipal agricultural maps have been turned-over to various

  17. Addressing concerns about the agricultural impacts of siting a nuclear waste repository in Texas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boryczka, M.; Darrough, B.

    1986-01-01

    Public concerns related to the siting of a nuclear repository have included the potential impacts to specific economic sectors. In Texas, local residents have expressed concern about how a repository will affect agriculture. Several major questions have arisen with respect to this issue including: 1) how will a repository's requirements for land and water affect agriculture, 2) how will a repository affect agricultural land values, and 3) how will actual or perceived contamination of locally grown products affect their marketability? This paper describes the concerns raised by local residents and discusses the approach to analyzing the concerns identified. An evaluation of agricultural impacts has been prepared for the Department of Energy's Enviromental Assessment (EA) documents. In addition, activities needed to further evaluate these impacts are planned for site characterization. Both the current analysis and planned activities are described

  18. Changing land use intensity in Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    van der Sluis, Theo; Pedroli, Bas; Kristensen, Søren Bech Pilgaard

    2016-01-01

    In recent decades the intensification of agricultural production in many European countries has been one of the key components of land-use change. The impact of agricultural intensification varies according to national and local contexts and a greater understanding of the drivers of intensification...... will help to mitigate against its negative impacts and harness potential benefits. This paper analyses changes in land use intensity in six case studies in Europe. A total of 437 landowners were interviewed and their responses were analysed in relation to changes in land use intensity and agricultural...... use intensity) versus those in the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece (decreasing). In the Mediterranean cases we observe a process where agriculture is becoming increasingly marginalised, at the same time as changes in function with regard to urbanisation and recreational land uses have taken place...

  19. Perspective of public law in rearrangement of profit sharing system agricultural land in Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamsil; Susilowati, IF; Wardhana, M.

    2018-01-01

    Review of the Shared Revenue Act for better regulatory system is an important issue as a more realistic and highly feasible agrarian reform policy. The rearrangement of agricultural land tenure systems is difficult to implement because it must be done simultaneously and thoroughly plus the support of large economic and political cost allocations; Instead, allowing the use of land in market mechanisms violating the principles of fairness on profit sharing. So it needs agrarian policies that are gradual and more realistic, such as revision of Act on profit sharing. In the previous research, the characteristics of the land sharing system in Indonesia are: (1) The Revenue Sharing Agreement is seen as a personal relationship subject to the private of law, not public rules; (2) found character of unequal Patron-client relationship between landowner and farmer; (3) Different revenue sharing systems and tend to position smallholders as weak and defeated. This study aims to discuss the State’s ‘interference’ in changing the profit sharing system by limiting individual freedom on the basis of a ‘new’ perspective of profit sharing as a relative legal relation. In the future, the profit-sharing system should be able to provide legal protection for farmers, as well as landowners.

  20. Effects of urban sprawl on agricultural land: a case study of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doygun, Hakan

    2009-11-01

    The main objective of this study is to quantify areal loss of olive groves due to urban sprawl of the city of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. Spatial changes were analysed by interpreting the digitized data derived from a black-white monoscopic aerial photograph taken in 1985, panchromatic IKONOS image of 2000 and two pan-sharpened Quickbird images of 2004 and 2006. Data obtained revealed that the area of olive groves decreased by 25% from 460.55 ha in 1985 to 344.46 in 2006, while the number of parcels increased from 170 to 445. Of the total areal loss, 60% was due to building constructions, with the rest being due to clear-cut for new residential gardens composed of exotic plants, new buildings, or new roads. Rapid population growth, increased land prices due to urban expansion, and abandonment of agricultural practices to construction of multi-storey buildings were the main causes of the process that transformed the olive groves into urbanized areas. Results pointed to an urgent need to (1) revise the national and municipal land management practices, (2) balance the gap between the short- and long-term economic benefits that urban and community development plans ignore, and (3) monitor land-use changes periodically by using high resolution satellite images.