scholarly journals Gridded soil surface nitrogen surplus on grazing and agricultural land: Impact of land use maps

Author(s):  
Katrin Kaltenegger ◽  
Karlheinz Erb ◽  
Sarah Matej ◽  
Wilfried Winiwarter
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Haas ◽  
Heiko Lukas ◽  
Axel Bauer

Due to low groundwater recharge rates and intensive agricultural land use, elevated nitrate concentrations in groundwater are measured in Lower Franconia, Bavaria (Germany). Analysis of cultivation practice in this region showed that crops with high nitrogen-surplus were cultivated to a significant extent. By the example of a catchment area where drinking water is extracted, an approach for a change in agricultural land use was tested. Fields were classified according to soil quality and the type of sub-soil. Measures like conversion of arable land into grassland or changes in type of crop that is grown, were adjusted to the local (field) conditions. Thus nitrogen surplus could be reduced to half by the extensification of one third of the agricultural land. Due to the classification system, the measures are realised in the most cost-effective way as well.


2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1575-1591
Author(s):  
Hakan Büyükcangaz ◽  
Dean D. Steele ◽  
Sheldon R. Tuscherer ◽  
David G. Hopkins ◽  
Xinhua Jia

Abstract. A period of excess precipitation since 1993 in the Devils Lake basin in northeastern North Dakota has caused extensive flooding of agricultural land and has raised the question of whether irrigation of agricultural crops to increase evapotranspiration (ET) might be an effective way to remove water from the basin. The objectives of this study were to compare ET estimates derived from application of the Mapping ET at High Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) algorithm for North Dakota conditions (METRICND) under irrigated and rainfed conditions and to assess the potential for irrigation to increase crop ET as a flood mitigation strategy. Weather data, land use maps, and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery from 2006, 2007, and 2008 were used as inputs to the METRICND model. The ET for irrigated crops (ETIrrigated) was estimated at five test sites from the Devils Lake Basin Water Utilization Test Project (DLBWUTP). The ET for the predominantly rainfed study area (ETRainfed) was estimated using land use maps to identify locations of the same crops as were present on the test sites. The METRICND model was compared to ET values derived from an eddy covariance (EC) system for approximately two months in 2007 at an irrigated alfalfa test site in the DLBWUTP; the mean absolute error between METRICND and the EC system for the comparison period was 0.51 mm d-1. Linear regression of ET (in mm) for the test sites and the larger study area yielded ETIrrigated = 1.23 × ETRainfed + 4.77 with R2 = 0.96, and a t-statistic indicated that the slope was greater than 0 at p = 0.001, indicating the potential for increased ET under irrigation. However, addition of large volumes of irrigation water to the predominantly poorly drained soils in the basin will cause waterlogging and trafficability problems. Installation of subsurface drainage may help alleviate waterlogging, improve crop productivity, and increase ET, but subsurface drainage brings its own complications of disposal of the drained water, salinity of the drainage effluent, and possible sodicity problems on some soils. Keywords: Drainage, Evapotranspiration mapping, Irrigation, METRIC, Landsat 5, Remote sensing, Satellite imagery, SEBAL.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. (Henk) Kramer ◽  
C.A. (Sander) Mücher ◽  
G.W. (Gerard) Hazeu

In this paper we describe how historical land use information has been derived for the whole of Europe, using the World Atlas of Agriculture, scale 1: 2,500,000. This paper describes the process of converting the analog land-use maps to a digital European historical land-use database, the Historical Land Use Database 1960 (HISLU60). The processing techniques that are applied in this process are commonly used for the processing of satellite imagery. The paper maps were scanned and geo-referenced. Image filtering techniques were used to eliminate the cartographic elements like text and boundaries. Land-use classes were created from the colours in the maps using image classification techniques. As a last step, GIS filtering functions were used to eliminate remaining cartographic elements and small classification errors. The HISLU60 database contains six land-use classes; arable land, grassland, forest, non-agricultural land, inland water and urban. It is a raster dataset with a cell size of 250 meters. The HISLU60 database was validated by performing a statistical comparison with three reference datasets. The overall classification accuracy is around 50 percent. Despite its limitations, the HISLU60 database gives an overview of the pan-European land use around 1960.


Author(s):  
Him Lal Shrestha ◽  
Trishna Bhandari ◽  
Bhaskar Karky ◽  
Rajan Kotru

Crop productivity is directly dependent to soil fertility. High soil organic carbon (SOC) content in soil is vital as it leads to improved soil quality, increased productivity, and stable soil-aggregates. In addition, with the signing of the climate agreement, there is growing interest in carbon sequestration in landscapes. This paper looks at how SOC can be increased so that it not only contributes to reduction of CO2, but also translates to increased food production thereby enhancing food security. This synergy between mitigation and enhancing food security is even more relevant for mountain landscapes of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region where there remains huge potential to increase CO2 sequestration and simultaneously address food security in the chronic food deficit villages. Soil samples were collected from seven transects each in Bajhang and Mustang and from 4 land use types in each transect. Samples of soils were taken from two depths in each plot; 0-15 cm below the soil surface and 15-30 cm below the soil surface to compare the top soil and subsoil dynamics of the soil nutrients. The lab analysis was performed to assess the soil texture, soil color, soil acidity in 'power of hydrogen' (pH), macro-nutrients as soil fertility. Secondary data was used to analyze the level of food deficit in the villages. The result shows that most of the sample soils from Mustang were clay (82.1%) which is 46 samples out of 56. The pH value of soil from Bajhang ranged from 5.29 to 9.09. The pH value of soil ranged from 5.65 to 8.81 in Mustang. SOC contents of sampled soils from Bajhang ranged from 0.20% to 7.69% with mean amount of 2.47% ± 0.17. SOC contents of sampled soils from Mustang ranged from 0.51% to 8.56% with mean amount of 2.60% ± 0.25. By land use type, forest land had the highest carbon (C) content of 53.61 t ha-1 in Bajhang whereas in Mustang, agricultural land had the highest C content of 52.02 tons ha-1. Based on these data, we can say that there is potential for increasing SOC through improved soil health and crop production and soil. Sustainable soil management should be practiced for higher productivity. Livestock may also provide farmyard manure, which can be used to fertilize cultivated soils, which increases soil productivity. Increasing productivity would aid in increasing the access and availability of food in these mountain villages.


2013 ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Ngoc Luu Bich

Climate change (CC) and its impacts on the socio-economy and the development of communities has become an issue causing very special concern. The rise in global temperatures, in sea levels, extreme weather phenomena, and salinization have occurred more and more and have directly influenced the livelihoods of rural households in the Red River Delta – one of the two regions projected to suffer strongly from climate change in Vietnam. For farming households in this region, the major and traditional livelihoods are based on main production materials as agricultural land, or aquacultural water surface Changes in the land use of rural households in the Red River Delta during recent times was influenced strongly by the Renovation policy in agriculture as well as the process of industrialization and modernization in the country. Climate change over the past 5 years (2005-2011) has started influencing household land use with the concrete manifestations being the reduction of the area cultivated and the changing of the purpose of land use.


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