Determining prone areas to gully erosion and the impact of land use change on it by using multiple-criteria decision-making algorithm in arid and semi-arid regions

Gullies occur in semi-arid regions characterized by rainfall variability and seasonality, increased overland flow, affecting ecological fragility of an area. In most gully prone areas, extent of land affected by gullies is increasing. Thus, predicting susceptibility to gully erosion in semi-arid environment is an important step towards effectively rehabilitating and prevention against gully erosion. Proneness to gully occurrence was assessed against; Land cover/land use, slope, soil characteristics, rainfall variability and elevation, and modelled using geographical information system (GIS)-based bivariate statistical approach. Objectives of the study were; a) to assess influence of geomorphological factors on gully erosion, b) analyze and develop gully erosion susceptibility map, c) verify gully susceptibility images using error matrix of class labels in classified map against ground truth reference data. Total of 66 gullied areas (width and depth ≥ ranging 0.5), were mapped using 15m resolution Landsat images for 2018 and field surveys to estimate susceptibility to gully erosion by Global Mapper software in GIS. The images were verified using 120 pixels of known 15 gully presence or absence to produce an error matrix based on comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes. Influence of conditioning factors to gully erosion showed a significant positive relationship between gully susceptibility and gully conditioning factors with consistency value; CR =0.097; value< 0.1, indicating, individual conditioning factors had an importance in influencing gully erosion. Slope (43%) and soil lithotype (25%), most influenced gully susceptibility, while land cover/land use (12%) and rainfall (12%) had least impact. Verification results showed satisfactory agreement between susceptibility map and field data on gullied areas at approximately 76.2%, an error of positive value of 4% and a negative value of 7%. Thus, production of susceptibility map by bivariate statistical method represents a useful tool for ending long and short-term gully emergencies by planning conservation of semi-arid regions.

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Spatial based compromise programming for multiple criteria decision making in land use planning

Environmental Modeling & Assessment ◽

10.1007/s10666-006-9059-1 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 171-184 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Sumbangan Baja ◽

David M. Chapman ◽

Deirdre Dragovich

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Land Use ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Multiple Criteria Decision Making ◽

Multiple Criteria ◽

Compromise Programming

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Mapping and Characterization of Phenological Changes over Various Farming Systems in an Arid and Semi-Arid Region Using Multitemporal Moderate Spatial Resolution Data

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13040578 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 578

Author(s):

Youssef Lebrini ◽

Abdelghani Boudhar ◽

Ahmed Laamrani ◽

Abdelaziz Htitiou ◽

Hayat Lionboui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Land Use ◽

Time Series ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Phenological Changes ◽

Phenological Metrics ◽

Semi Arid ◽

Resolution Data

Changing land use patterns is of great importance in environmental studies and critical for land use management decision making over farming systems in arid and semi-arid regions. Unfortunately, ground data scarcity or inadequacy in many regions can cause large uncertainties in the characterization of phenological changes in arid and semi-arid regions, which can hamper tailored decision making towards best agricultural management practices. Alternatively, state-of-the-art methods for phenological metrics’ extraction and long time-series analysis techniques of multispectral remote sensing imagery provide a viable solution. In this context, this study aims to characterize the changes over farming systems through trend analysis. To this end, four farming systems (fallow, rainfed, irrigated annual, and irrigated perennial) in arid areas of Morocco were studied based on four phenological metrics (PhM) (i.e., great integral, start, end, and length of the season). These were derived from large Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time-series using both a machine learning algorithm and a pixel-based change analysis method. Results showed that during the last twenty-year period (i.e., 2000–2019), a significant dynamism of the plant cover was linked to the behavior of farmers who tend to cultivate intensively and to invest in high-income crops. More specifically, a relevant variability in fallow and rainfed areas, closely linked to the weather conditions, was found. In addition, significant lag trends of the start (−6 days) and end (+3 days) were found, which indicate that the length of the season was related to the spatiotemporal variability of rainfall. This study has also highlighted the potential of multitemporal moderate spatial resolution data to accurately monitor agriculture and better manage land resources. In the meantime, for operationally implementing the use of such work in the field, we believe that it is essential consider the perceptions, opinions, and mutual benefits of farmers and stakeholders to improve strategies and synergies whilst ensuring food, welfare, and sustainability.

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Identification of areas exposed to land use conflict with the use of multiple-criteria decision-making methods

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104225 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 89 ◽

pp. 104225 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Iwona Cieślak

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Land Use ◽

Multiple Criteria Decision Making ◽

Multiple Criteria ◽

Land Use Conflict

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Assessment of the Water, Environmental, Economic and Social Vulnerability of a Watershed to the Potential Effects of Climate Change and Land Use Change

Water ◽

10.3390/w12061682 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1682

Author(s):

Ismael Orozco ◽

Adrián Martínez ◽

Víctor Ortega

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Environmental Economic ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Climate Models ◽

Global Climate Models ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Distributed Hydrological Model ◽

Semi Arid

In semi-arid regions, where hydrological resources are very vulnerable and where there are water shortages in many regions of the world, it is of great importance to assess the vulnerability that a system is facing or will face to the potential impacts of climatic changes and changes on the use of land. For that reason, this research focuses on evaluating the global vulnerability of a hydrological basin, taking into consideration these changes. Being different from the existing methodologies that assess the vulnerability, our methodology interconnects through a new interface a distributed hydrological model, global climate models, climate change scenarios, land use change scenarios and the largest number of system variables calculated with information from official sources. Another important point of our methodology is that it quantifies the global vulnerability of the system, taking into consideration hydrological, environmental, economic and social vulnerabilities. The results obtained show that the proposed methodology may provide a new approach to analyze vulnerability in semi-arid regions. Moreover, it made it possible to diagnose and establish that the greatest current and future vulnerabilities of the system are the result of activities in agricultural areas and urban centers.

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