Effects of changes in agricultural land-use on landscape structure and arable weed vegetation over the last 50 years

The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico, is the semiarid region with the richest biodiversity of North America and was recently recognized as a UNESCO's World Heritage site. Original agricultural practices remain to this day in agroforestry systems (AFS), which are expressions of high biocultural diversity. However, local people and researchers perceive a progressive decline both in natural ecosystems and AFS. To assess changes in location and extent of agricultural land use, we carried out a visual interpretation of very-high resolution imagery and field work, through which we identified AFS and conventional agricultural systems (CAS) from 1995 to 2003 and 2012. We analyzed five communities, representative of three main ecological and agricultural zones of the region. We assessed agricultural land use changes in relation to conspicuous landscape features (relief, rivers, roads, and human settlements). We found that natural ecosystems cover more than 85% of the territory in each community, and AFS represent 51% of all agricultural land. Establishment and permanence of agricultural lands were strongly influenced by gentle slopes and the existence of roads. Contrary to what we expected, we recorded agricultural areas being abandoned, thus favoring the regeneration of natural ecosystems, as well as a 9% increase of AFS over CAS. Agriculture is concentrated near human settlements. Most of the studied territories are meant to preserve natural ecosystems, and traditional AFS practices are being recovered for biocultural conservation.

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

Land ◽

10.3390/land10040364 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 364

Author(s):

Sahar Shahpari ◽

Janelle Allison ◽

Matthew Tom Harrison ◽

Roger Stanley

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Commodity Prices ◽

Global Scale ◽

Agricultural Land Use ◽

Climate Type ◽

Crop Selection ◽

Regional Impacts ◽

Farmer Decision Making

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

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How land transfer affects agricultural land use efficiency: Evidence from China’s agricultural sector

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105300 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 103 ◽

pp. 105300 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rilong Fei ◽

Ziyi Lin ◽

Joseph Chunga

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Agricultural Sector ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Agricultural Land Use ◽

Land Use Efficiency ◽

Land Transfer ◽

Use Efficiency

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Changes in Coastal Agricultural Land Use in Response to Climate Change: An Assessment Using Satellite Remote Sensing and Household Survey Data in Tien Hai District, Thai Binh Province, Vietnam

Land ◽

10.3390/land10060627 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 627

Author(s):

Duong H. Nong ◽

An T. Ngo ◽

Hoa P. T. Nguyen ◽

Thuy T. Nguyen ◽

Lan T. Nguyen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Household Survey ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Agricultural Land Use ◽

Landsat 8 ◽

Land Uses

We analyzed the agricultural land-use changes in the coastal areas of Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province, in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020, using Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 data. We used the object-oriented classification method with the maximum likelihood algorithm to classify six types of land uses. The series of land-use maps we produced had an overall accuracy of more than 80%. We then conducted a spatial analysis of the 5-year land-use change using ArcGIS software. In addition, we surveyed 150 farm households using a structured questionnaire regarding the impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity and land uses, as well as farmers’ adaptation and responses. The results showed that from 2005 to 2020, cropland decreased, while aquaculture land and forest land increased. We observed that the most remarkable decreases were in the area of rice (485.58 ha), the area of perennial crops (109.7 ha), and the area of non-agricultural land (747.35 ha). The area of land used for aquaculture and forest increased by 566.88 ha and 772.60 ha, respectively. We found that the manifestations of climate change, such as extreme weather events, saltwater intrusion, drought, and floods, have had a profound impact on agricultural production and land uses in the district, especially for annual crops and aquaculture. The results provide useful information for state authorities to design land-management strategies and solutions that are economic and effective in adapting to climate change.

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