Land use and land cover (LULC) change has been one of the most immense and perceptible transformations of the earth’s surface. Evaluating LULC change at varied spatial scales is imperative in wide ...range of perspectives such as environmental conservation, resource management, land use planning, and sustainable development. This work aims to examine the land use and land cover changes in the Kashmir valley between the time periods from 1992–2001–2015 using a set of compatible moderate resolution Landsat satellite imageries. Supervised approach with maximum likelihood classifier was adopted for the classification and generation of LULC maps for the selected time periods. Results reveal that there have been substantial changes in the land use and cover during the chosen time periods. In general, three land use and land cover change patterns were observed in the study area: (1) consistent increase of the area under marshy, built-up, barren, plantation, and shrubs; (2) continuous decrease in agriculture and water; (3) decrease (1992–2001) and increase (2001–2015) in forest and pasture classes. In terms of the area under each LULC category, most significant changes have been observed in agriculture (−), plantation (+), built-up (+), and water (−); however, with reference to percent change within each class, the maximum variability was recorded in built-up (198.45%), plantation (87.98%), pasture (− 71%), water (− 48%) and agriculture (− 28.85%). The massive land transformation is largely driven by anthropogenic actions and has been mostly adverse in nature, giving rise to multiple environmental issues in the ecologically sensitive Kashmir valley.
Ecosystems services (ES) assessment is a significant scientific topic recognized for its potential to address sustainability issues. However, there is an absence of science-policy frameworks in land ...use planning that lead to the ES science being used in policy. China's Ecological Redline Policy (ERP) is one of the first national policies utilizing multiple ES, but there is no standardized approach for working across the science-policy interface. We propose a transdisciplinary framework to determine ecological redline areas (ERAs) in Shanghai using: ES, biodiversity and ecologically fragile hotspots, landscape structure, and stakeholder opinions. We determine the five criteria to identify ERAs for Shanghai using multi-temporal, high resolution images (0.5 m) and biophysical models. We examine ERP effectiveness by comparing land use scenarios for 2040. Compared to alternative land uses, ES increase significantly under the ERP. The inclusion of ES in spatial planning led stakeholders to increase terrestrial habitat protection by 174% in Shanghai. Our analysis suggests that strategic planning for ES could reduce tradeoffs between environmental quality and development.
Human appropriation analysis allows interrelating ecological and socioeconomic dimensions to be applied during the development of management strategies for increasing the sustainability of land uses. ...However, the design of such management strategies requires data reflecting site-specific conditions at sub-national levels. In this study, we assessed the dynamics of human appropriation using an exergy-based net primary production (HANPPEX) indicator. The results depicted positive (5–10 MJex/m2.y) HANPPEX changes for cropland areas in both regions. The harvested biomass and land-use changes were identified as responsible for high HANPPEX, which varied significantly between land cover types. In particular, cropland and urban/industrial yielded the highest HANPPEX compared to other land cover types. Accordingly, the land cover transition toward urban and agriculture land uses increased the HANPPEX for Ñuble and Biobío. The main HANPP differences found between regions were related to their socioeconomic characteristics as well as to the heterogeneity of land-use types, biomass structure, and regional biomass demand. Our findings provide insights on the magnitude and direction of NPP changes associated with human appropriation at the regional level, allowing a more detailed understanding of the efficiency with which humans utilize terrestrial natural resources.
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•Strategies for better land use sustainability need regional human appropriation data.•We used the exergy-based net primary production (HANPPEX) indicator for HA dynamics.•Urban and croplands had high HANPPEX upon spatial analysis of two Chilean regions.•Regional differences were from socioeconomic, land-use type, and biomass features.•Understanding regional HA-related NPP profiles may optimize natural resource use.
•Spatial mismatches between ecosystem services supply and demand increase over time due to urban sprawl and population growth.•Maps of supply-demand mismatches provide insights for land-use planning ...beyond administrative boundaries.•High-resolution quantitative methods of ecosystem services mapping facilitate multiscale land-use planning.
Global trends in land-use changes, including urbanization and abandonment of rural areas, have important repercussions for the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we assessed and mapped the supply and demand of three ES (water provision, climate regulation, and outdoor recreation) along an urban-rural gradient in the Madrid region (Spain) from 1990 to 2012. We mapped ES supply, based on land use/land cover (LULC) data, using InVEST models and complementary methods, and ES demand, using population density and demand indicators. Then, we explored spatial supply-demand mismatches at a municipality spatial scale. Despite an increase in ES supply in some areas, a general increase in ES demand led to increasing dependence by the Madrid metropolitan area on outlying areas. We found that the number of municipalities that exhibited mismatches between the supply and demand in ES increased throughout the study period, due mainly to urban sprawl. Our results suggest the need for comprehensive land-use planning at the regional scale, taking into account that many ES flows reach beyond municipality boundaries. Finally, we discuss the utility of analyzing spatial mismatches in the supply and demand of ES for land-use planning and decision-making.
Pathways to coastal retreat Haasnoot, Marjolijn; Lawrence, Judy; Magnan, Alexandre K.
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
06/2021, Volume:
372, Issue:
6548
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The shrinking solution space for adaptation calls for long-term dynamic planning starting now
There is an urgent need to take coastal retreat more seriously as an option for adapting to sea level ...rise (SLR) and as a strategy capable of providing positive outcomes, if planned ahead. Early signs of such thinking are emerging. We demonstrate how exploring pathways to managed retreat adds value in the context of irreversible long-term SLR. Retreat is typically framed and understood as a single action, largely used after events rather than preemptively, and considered as a last resort. However, implementing managed retreat constitutes a multidecadal sequence of actions (i.e., across pathways) including community engagement, vulnerability assessment, land use planning, active retreat, compensation, and repurposing. This Policy Forum advances practical knowledge on what pathways to coastal retreat may look like and how they can pave the way for flexible and positive transformational adaptation, if started now.
Urban land teleconnections and sustainability Seto, Karen C; Reenberg, Anette; Boone, Christopher G ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
05/2012, Volume:
109, Issue:
20
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This paper introduces urban land teleconnections as a conceptual framework that explicitly links land changes to underlying urbanization dynamics. We illustrate how three key themes that are ...currently addressed separately in the urban sustainability and land change literatures can lead to incorrect conclusions and misleading results when they are not examined jointly: the traditional system of land classification that is based on discrete categories and reinforces the false idea of a rural–urban dichotomy; the spatial quantification of land change that is based on place-based relationships, ignoring the connections between distant places, especially between urban functions and rural land uses; and the implicit assumptions about path dependency and sequential land changes that underlie current conceptualizations of land transitions. We then examine several environmental "grand challenges" and discuss how urban land teleconnections could help research communities frame scientific inquiries. Finally, we point to existing analytical approaches that can be used to advance development and application of the concept.
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Land use projections are crucial for climate models to forecast the impacts of land use changes on the Earth’s system. However, the spatial resolution of existing global land use ...projections (e.g., 0.25°×0.25° in the Land-Use Harmonization (LUH2) datasets) is still too coarse to drive regional climate models and assess mitigation effectiveness at regional and local scales. To generate a high-resolution land use product with the newest integrated scenarios of the shared socioeconomic pathways and the representative concentration pathways (SSPs-RCPs) for various regional climate studies in China, here we first conduct land use simulations with a newly developed Future Land Uses Simulation (FLUS) model based on the trajectories of land use demands extracted from the LUH2 datasets. On this basis, a new set of land use projections under the plant functional type (PFT) classification, with a temporal resolution of 5 years and a spatial resolution of 5 km, in eight SSP-RCP scenarios from 2015 to 2100 in China is produced. The results show that differences in land use dynamics under different SSP-RCP scenarios are jointly affected by global assumptions and national policies. Furthermore, with improved spatial resolution, the data produced in this study can sufficiently describe the details of land use distribution and better capture the spatial heterogeneity of different land use types at the regional scale. We highlight that these new land use projections at the PFT level have a strong potential for reducing uncertainty in the simulation of regional climate models with finer spatial resolutions.
Two oxen ahead Halstead, Paul; Halstead, Paul
2014., 2014, 2014-01-22, 2014-01-23
eBook
This revealing study shows how careful analysis of recent farming practices, and related cultural traditions, in communities around the Mediterranean can enhance our understanding of prehistoric and ...Greco-Roman societies. * Includes a wealth of original interview material and data from field observation * Provides original approaches to understanding past farming practices and their social contexts * Offers a revealing comparative perspective on Mediterranean societies' agronomy * Identifies a number of previously unrecorded climate-related contrasts in farming practices, which have important socio-economic significance * Explores annual tasks, such as tillage and harvest; inter-annual land management techniques, such as rotation; and intergenerational issues, including capital accumulation
Background
Land use is the major driver of the current biodiversity crisis. However, its impact is not yet adequately reflected in biodiversity scenarios. In particular, effects of land‐use intensity ...are often neglected although natural limits to land conversion will likely enforce further land‐use intensification in the future.
Aims and innovation
We argue that integration of land‐use intensity into biodiversity models should ideally be based on a proper conceptualization of the land‐use intensity phenomenon. We, therefore, present terminological distinctions and a conceptual framework developed in land system science. The framework distinguishes three dimensions of land‐use intensity: input intensity, output intensity, and alterations of system properties. We discuss nonlinearities and intricacies of the relationships among these dimensions as well as their direct and indirect relationships to biodiversity. In an explorative literature assessment we demonstrate that the multi‐dimensional nature of land‐use intensity appears insufficiently reflected in biodiversity research. Finally, we discuss issues of data availability that limit integration of land‐use intensity into spatially and temporally explicit biodiversity modelling.
Conclusion
Research on the relationship between land use and biodiversity would profit from a more systematic and comprehensive consideration of land‐use intensity. While there is no standard recipe for combining indicators of land‐use intensity in biodiversity studies the input–output–system distinction is a useful conceptual basis for study designs. More generally, better integration of biodiversity and land system science would foster understanding and predicting the consequences of land‐use intensification on biodiversity.
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