scholarly journals Assessment of land use and land cover changes from 1979 to 2017 and biodiversity & land management approach in Quirimbas National Park, Northern Mozambique, Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. e00447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serafino Afonso Rui Mucova ◽  
Walter Leal Filho ◽  
Ulisses Miranda Azeiteiro ◽  
Mário Jorge Pereira
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads Christensen ◽  
Jamal Jokar Arsanjani

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) presents a roadmap and a concerted platform of action towards achieving sustainable and inclusive development, leaving no one behind, while preventing environmental degradation and loss of natural resources. However, population growth, increased urbanisation, deforestation, and rapid economic development has decidedly modified the surface of the earth, resulting in dramatic land cover changes, which continue to cause significant degradation of environmental attributes. In order to reshape policies and management frameworks conforming to the objectives of the SDG’s, it is paramount to understand the driving mechanisms of land use changes and determine future patterns of change. This study aims to assess and quantify future land cover changes in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by simulating a future landscape for the SDG target year of 2030 in order to provide evidence to support data-driven decision-making processes conforming to the requirements of the SDG’s. The study follows six sequential steps: (a) creation of three land cover maps from 2010, 2015 and 2019 derived from satellite images; (b) land change analysis by cross-tabulation of land cover maps; (c) submodel creation and identification of explanatory variables and dataset creation for each variable; (d) calculation of transition potentials of major transitions within the case study area using machine learning algorithms; (e) change quantification and prediction using Markov chain analysis; and (f) prediction of a 2030 land cover. The model was successfully able to simulate future land cover and land use changes and the dynamics conclude that agricultural expansion and urban development is expected to significantly reduce Virunga’s forest and open land areas in the next 11 years. Accessibility in terms of landscape topography and proximity to existing human activities are concluded to be primary drivers of these changes. Drawing on these conclusions, the discussion provides recommendations and reflections on how the predicted future land cover changes can be used to support and underpin policy frameworks towards achieving the SDG’s and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.


Forestist ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-115
Author(s):  
Adesoji Akinwumi Adeyemi ◽  
◽  
Taofiq Maijindadi Ibrahim ◽  

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Fornace ◽  
Adriana V. Diaz ◽  
Jo Lines ◽  
Chris J. Drakeley

AbstractLand use and land cover changes, such as deforestation, agricultural expansion and urbanization, are one of the largest anthropogenic environmental changes globally. Recent initiatives to evaluate the feasibility of malaria eradication have highlighted impacts of landscape changes on malaria transmission and the potential of these changes to undermine malaria control and elimination efforts. Multisectoral approaches are needed to detect and minimize negative impacts of land use and land cover changes on malaria transmission while supporting development aiding malaria control, elimination and ultimately eradication. Pathways through which land use and land cover changes disrupt social and ecological systems to increase or decrease malaria risks are outlined, identifying priorities and opportunities for a global malaria eradication campaign. The impacts of land use and land cover changes on malaria transmission are complex and highly context-specific, with effects changing over time and space. Landscape changes are only one element of a complex development process with wider economic and social dimensions affecting human health and wellbeing. While deforestation and other landscape changes threaten to undermine malaria control efforts and have driven the emergence of zoonotic malaria, most of the malaria elimination successes have been underpinned by agricultural development and land management. Malaria eradication is not feasible without addressing these changing risks while, conversely, consideration of malaria impacts in land management decisions has the potential to significantly accelerate progress towards eradication. Multisectoral cooperation and approaches to linking malaria control and environmental science, such as conducting locally relevant ecological monitoring, integrating landscape data into malaria surveillance systems and designing environmental management strategies to reduce malaria burdens, are essential to achieve malaria eradication.


Author(s):  
Israel Petros Menbere ◽  

Conversion of natural habitat to other forms of land use is the main threat to protected areas and biodiversity globally. The continued trend of land use land cover change in protected areas resulted in loss of a large portion of biodiversity, overexploitation by humans, transformation of natural land to human settlement, etc. In Ethiopia, the causes for land use land cover change in many protected areas are farmland expansion, deforestation, unsustainable grazing and settlement expansion, and are leading to loss of biodiversity and negative impacts of ecosystem services. In addition, Ethiopia’s protected areas entertain escalating threats and land cover changes due to human population growth, competing claims from the surrounding communities, incompatible investment, lack of environmental law enforcement, absence of complete plan and timely update for protected areas, etc. These have affected protected areas in the country namely the Bale Mountains National Park, Chocke Mountains, Babile Elephant sanctuary, Abijata Shalla Lakes National Park, Awash National Park and others. The continued land use land cover changes are aggravating ecosystem, soil and water resources degradation in mountainous protected areas while they are leading to biodiversity destruction and loss of forest cover in lowland protected areas. In order to halt and reduce the impact of land cover change on biodiversity conservation, undertaking complete land use planning and continuous monitoring of protected areas was found to be important. Similarly, integrating protected areas into the surrounding landscapes and a broader framework of national plans, promoting income generation means for communities surrounding protected areas, promoting biodiversity conservation directly linked to poverty alleviation, involving local communities and stakeholders in land use planning and sustainable management of protected areas, enhancing sound management in vulnerable mountain protected areas and restoring abandoned lands located in and around protected areas are crucial in the proper land use planning and management of protected areas. In addition, enhancing awareness creation and promoting natural resource information of protected areas and enhancing scientific study on land use land cover change pattern of protected areas are vital to undertake effective land use planning and management of protected areas in Ethiopia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 5078
Author(s):  
Bichaye Tesfaye ◽  
Monica Lengoiboni ◽  
Jaap Zevenbergen ◽  
Belay Simane

Northern Ethiopia is characterised by fragile mountain eco-systems that are highly susceptible to land degradation, impacting food security and livelihoods. This study appraises Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULCC) and their determinants from 2000 to 2020 in Dessie Zuria and Kutaber Woredas. It explores the LULCC and the key anthropogenic drivers of the change over the past 20 years through a mix of satellite imagery and a survey of local understandings. Six land use types (agriculture, forest, area closure, grazing, settlement and bare land) were mapped from satellite imagery that was acquired from Landsat 7 for the years 2000, 2005, and 2010, and Landsat 8 and OLI multispectral imageries for the years 2015 and 2020 with a spectral resolution of 30-m obtained from USGS. The results showed that agricultural land increased from 29.68% in 2000 to 35.77% in 2020.Furthermore, settlement and grazing lands enlarged from 5.95% and 6.04%, respectively, to 8.31% and 6.35% during the same period, while bare land increased from 9.89% to 10.92% in 2020. On the contrary, forest and area closure decreased from 18.45% and 29.99% to 17.8% and 17.38%, respectively. Meanwhile, population growth, unrestricted grazing, losing a sense of ownership of protected area closures and forests, lack of cooperation, using the free labour mobilisation schemes for government-induced agendas, weak enforcement of laws and bylaws, and engaging farmers for extended days on the campaign were prominent determinants of the changes. This research has implications for development actors across land management and food security towards implementing sustainable land management in the area and beyond.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Atif Bokhari ◽  
Zafeer Saqib ◽  
Amjad Ali ◽  
Arif Mahmud ◽  
Nadia Akhtar ◽  
...  

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