Land Use Legacies and the Future of Southern Appalachia

Crop potential yields in cropland are the essential reflection of the utilization of cropland resources. The changes of the quantity, quality, and spatial distribution of cropland will directly affect the crop potential yields, so it is very crucial to simulate future cropland distribution and predict crop potential yields to ensure the future food security. In the present study, the Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov model was employed to simulate land-use changes in Northeast China during 2015–2050. Then, the Global Agro-ecological Zones (GAEZ) model was used to predict maize potential yields in Northeast China in 2050, and the spatio-temporal changes of maize potential yields during 2015–2050 were explored. The results were the following. (1) The woodland and grassland decreased by 5.13 million ha and 1.74 million ha respectively in Northeast China from 2015 to 2050, which were mainly converted into unused land. Most of the dryland was converted to paddy field and built-up land. (2) In 2050, the total maize potential production and average potential yield in Northeast China were 218.09 million tonnes and 6880.59 kg/ha. Thirteen prefecture-level cities had maize potential production of more than 7 million tonnes, and 11 cities had maize potential yields of more than 8000 kg/ha. (3) During 2015–2050, the total maize potential production and average yield decreased by around 23 million tonnes and 700 kg/ha in Northeast China, respectively. (4) The maize potential production increased in 15 cities located in the plain areas over the 35 years. The potential yields increased in only nine cities, which were mainly located in the Sanjiang Plain and the southeastern regions. The results highlight the importance of coping with the future land-use changes actively, maintaining the balance of farmland occupation and compensation, improving the cropland quality, and ensuring food security in Northeast China.

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Using Participatory Spatial Tools to Unravel Community Perceptions of Land-Use Dynamics in a Mine-Expanding Landscape in Ghana

Environmental Management ◽

10.1007/s00267-021-01494-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jane J. Aggrey ◽

Mirjam A. F. Ros-Tonen ◽

Kwabena O. Asubonteng

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Adverse Effects ◽

Large Scale ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Small Scale ◽

Eastern Region ◽

Food Crop ◽

Mosaic Landscape ◽

Rural Landscapes ◽

The Future

AbstractArtisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in sub-Saharan Africa creates considerable dynamics in rural landscapes. Many studies addressed the adverse effects of mining, but few studies use participatory spatial tools to assess the effects on land use. Hence, this paper takes an actor perspective to analyze how communities in a mixed farming-mining area in Ghana’s Eastern Region perceive the spatial dynamics of ASM and its effects on land for farming and food production from past (1986) to present (2018) and toward the future (2035). Participatory maps show how participants visualize the transformation of food-crop areas into small- and large-scale mining, tree crops, and settlement in all the communities between 1986 and 2018 and foresee these trends to continue in the future (2035). Participants also observe how a mosaic landscape shifts toward a segregated landscape, with simultaneous fragmentation of their farming land due to ASM. Further segregation is expected in the future, with attribution to the expansion of settlements being an unexpected outcome. Although participants expect adverse effects on the future availability of food-crop land, no firm conclusions can be drawn about the anticipated effect on food availability. The paper argues that, if responsibly applied and used to reveal community perspectives and concerns about landscape dynamics, participatory mapping can help raise awareness of the need for collective action and contribute to more inclusive landscape governance. These findings contribute to debates on the operationalization of integrated and inclusive landscape approaches and governance, particularly in areas with pervasive impacts of ASM.

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Persistent land-use legacies increase small-scale diversity and strengthen vegetation–soil relationships on an unmanaged heathland

Basic and Applied Ecology ◽

10.1016/j.baae.2018.10.004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 15-24

Author(s):

Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas ◽

Kris Verheyen ◽

An De Schrijver ◽

Jonas Morsing ◽

Inger Kappel Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Small Scale ◽

Land Use Legacies

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Recent developments in regional transit for Greater Vancouver

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering ◽

10.1139/l78-038 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 334-339

Author(s):

Brian E. Sullivan

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

High Rate ◽

Low Density ◽

Transit System ◽

Shopping Centres ◽

The Future ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Trunk Routes ◽

The City ◽

Capital Intensive

The transit system serving Greater Vancouver has high ridership and a high rate of growth. Using as a base the well-designed, well-patronized trolleybus grid in the City of Vancouver, an inter-connected suburban bus network has been created, with radial, cross-radial, and local routes meeting on a timed connection basis at suburban shopping centres and other foci. Planners' thoughts for the future include greater emphasis on the micro and macro aspects of land use and relations to transit; the use of capital intensive modes for heavy trunk routes; and the use of various forms of para-transit for low-density and certain feeder applications.

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Bewirtschaftung von tropischen Sekundärwäldern

Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie ◽

10.1515/zfw.2002.0005 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Stand Structure ◽

Secondary Forest ◽

Secondary Forests ◽

Tropical Asia ◽

Land Use Systems ◽

The Future ◽

The Tropics ◽

Primary Forests

AbstractManagement of secondary tropical forests: a new perspective for sustainable use of forests in Asia. The decline of primary forests in the tropics is leading to a reassessment of the role secondary forests might play within the context of tropical forest management. Recent research has shown that secondary forests in the tropics can be both rich in species and complex in terms of stand structure. There is, moreover, a growing recognition of the importance of secondary forests for traditional subsistence economies in the tropics and of their economic potential for land use systems in the future. Management of secondary forests in Asia as an alternative to the extraction of timber from primary forests but also as one among other options to intensify traditional land use systems has a potential for the future especially because of the existence of vast tracts of valuable secondary forest cover, and because of the store of traditional knowledge that can still be found in tropical Asia.

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Current and Future Land Use Characters of a National Central City in Eco-Fragile Region—A Case Study in Xi’an City Based on FLUS Model

Land ◽

10.3390/land10030286 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 286

Author(s):

Dingrao Feng ◽

Wenkai Bao ◽

Meichen Fu ◽

Min Zhang ◽

Yiyu Sun

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Urban Development ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Land Use Patterns ◽

Use Patterns ◽

Pattern Change ◽

Land Use Dynamics ◽

The Future ◽

Xi’An City

Land use change plays a key role in terrestrial systems and drives the process of ecological pattern change. It is important to investigate the process of land use change, predict land use patterns, and reveal the characteristics of land use dynamics. In this study, we adopted the Markov model and future land use (FLUS) model to predict the future land use conditions in Xi’an city. Furthermore, we investigated the characteristics of land use change from a novel perspective, i.e., via establishment of a complex network model. This model captured the characteristics of the land use system during different periods. The results indicated that urban expansion and cropland loss played an important role in land use pattern change. The future gravity center of urban development moved along the opposite direction to that from 2000 to 2015 in Xi’an city. Although the rate of urban expansion declined in the future, urban expansion remained the primary driver of land use change. The primary urban development directions were east-southeast (ENE), north-northeast (NNE) and west-southwest (WSW) from 1990 to 2000, 2000 to 2015, and 2015 to 2030, respectively. In fact, cropland played a vital role in land use dynamics regarding all land use types, and the stability of the land use system decreased in the future. Our study provides future land use patterns and a novel perspective to better understand land use change.

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Accumulation patterns of soil organic matter in forests as a legacy of historical charcoal burning

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5161 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Schneider ◽

Alexander Bonhage ◽

Florian Hirsch ◽

Alexandra Raab ◽

Thomas Raab

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Organic Matter ◽

Soil Organic Matter ◽

Large Scale ◽

Soil Surface ◽

Landscape Scale ◽

Legacy Effects ◽

Charcoal Production ◽

Study Region ◽

Land Use Legacies

<p>Human land use and occupation often lead to a high heterogeneity of soil stratigraphy and properties in landscapes within small, clearly delimited areas. Legacy effects of past land use also are also abundant in recent forest areas. Although such land use legacies can occur on considerable fractions of the soil surface, they are hardly considered in soil mapping and inventories. The heterogenous spatial distribution of land use legacy soils challenges the quantification of their impacts on the landscape scale. Relict charcoal hearths (RCH) are a widespread example for the long-lasting effect of historical land use on soil landscapes in forests of many European countries and also northeastern USA. Soils on RCH clearly differ from surrounding forest soils in their stratigraphy and properties, and are most prominently characterized by a technogenic substrate layer with high contents of charcoal. The properties of RCH soils have recently been studied for several regions, but their relevance on the landscape scale has hardly been quantified.</p><p>We analyse and discuss the distribution and ecological relevance of land use legacy soils across scales for RCH in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, with a focus on soil organic matter (SOM) stocks. Our analysis is based on a large-scale mapping of RCH from digital elevation models (DEM), combined with modelled SOM stocks in RCH soils.&#160;The distribution of RCH soils in the study region shows heterogeneity at different scales. The large-scale variation is related to the concentration of charcoal production to specific forest areas and the small-scale accumulation pattern is related to the irregular distribution of single RCH within the charcoal production fields. Considerable fractions of the surface area are covered by RCH soils in the major charcoal production areas within the study region. The results also show that RCH can significantly contribute to the soil organic matter stocks of forests, even for areas where they cover only a small fraction of the soil surface. The study highlights that considering land use legacy effects can be relevant for the results of soil mapping and inventories; and that prospecting and mapping land use legacies from DEM can contribute to improving such approaches.</p>

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