The use of land capability and land suitability classifications for planning purposes in Scotland

Author(s):  
J. S. Bibby

AbstractThe Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland (DAFS) have a responsibility to comment on all proposed changes of use in agricultural land in Scotland, whether this be to urban and industrial use or to forestry. The Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, through its Department of Soil Survey, has mapped the soils of Scotland, demonstrating in the process very clear links between the underlying solid and drift geology, and soil development and land use. Two series of interpretative maps have been produced, one at 1:250 000 of the entire country and one at 1:50 000 of the arable lands. These incorporate both climatic and site factors with soil type to provide a classification of agricultural potential. This work will be implemented in Scotland by DAFS as part of their planning-related functions in 1987. This paper describes the links between geology and soil maps, and the approaches taken in both land classification compilation and application. In conclusion, the basis for land suitability maps for specific purposes, now being actively developed to provide further guidance for assessing the impact of land use change in Scotland, is described.

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumbangan Baja ◽  
Samsu Arif ◽  
Risma Neswati

Agricultural land use planning should always be guided by a reliable tool to ensure effective decision making in the allocation of land use and activities. The primary aim of this study is to develop a user friendly system on a spatial basis for agricultural land suitability evaluation of four groups of agriculture commodities, including food crops, horticultural crops, perennial (plantation) crops, grazing, and tambak (fish ponds) to guide land use planning. The procedure used is as follows: (i) conducting soil survey based on generated land mapping units; (ii) developing soil database in GIS; and (iii) designing a user friendly system. The data bases of the study were derived from satellite imagery, digital topographic map, soil characteristics at reconnaissance scale, as well as climate data. Land suitability evaluation in this study uses the FAO method. The study produces a spatial based decision support tool called SUFIG-Wilkom that can give decision makers sets of information interactively for land use allocation purposes.This user friendly system is also amenable to various operations in a vector GIS, so that the system may accommodate possible additional assessment of other land use types.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Aditya Novandy Arotaa ◽  
Benu L.S. Olfie ◽  
Theodora M. Katiandagho

Tomohon development as an autonomous region led to the need for non-agricultural land is increasing from time to time. This condition causes the competition has taken place in land use. Feared an increased need for non-agricultural land will lead to land conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural. The transfer of land use will have an impact on agricultural production that will affect the agricultural sector GDP. This study aims to determine the relationship between the area of ​​agricultural land with a regional gross domestic product of agriculture in Tomohon. This study was conducted over four months starting in February 2015 to May 2015 in Tomohon. The data are used, in this study, is a secondary data obtained from the Office of National Statistics Agency (BPS) and the Department of Agriculture in To-mohon. Data presented tabularize and and analyzed using correlation analysis. The results showed that, in the last three years, agricultural land area in Tomohon shrinkage due to the need for non-agricultural land, especially residential construction increased. It is given Tomohon is a city that is building. Reduction of agricultural land in 2012 amounted to 1.77 percent by the year 2014 decreased by 0, 01 percent. Instead rate of growth of gross regional domestic product of the year 2012 increased by 6.54 percent to 6.92 percent in 2014. The study concluded that the impact of agricultural land being against the gross regional domestic product, caused by another factor, namely the constant price factors that influence regional gross do-mestic product of Tomohon. Thereforet, when the land area or size increased in 2005-2011 and decreased in the year 2012 - 2014 however regional gross domestic product still increased. The relationship between land area with a regional gross domestic product is being categorized correlated with the value of the correlation is 0.62.*er*


Author(s):  
Oksana Sakal

The article is devoted doctrinal issues of environmental and economic effectiveness of use land in conditions of infringement of institutional transformations. The modern approaches to the definition of content of ecological and economic effectiveness of land use are analyzed. It is established that the overwhelming majority of domestic researchers interpret this notion regarding the use of agricultural land or farm land. It is proved that such an approach is justified, taking into account the structure of the land fund of Ukraine. However, this reduces other goals of the land user and functions of the land. It is proposed to investigate the category of ecological and economic effectiveness of land use in accordance with the provisions of the ecological economics, social welfare theory, and concept of total economic value. Based on the classification of land functions, the criteria of selection material content and social form of ecological and economic effectiveness of land use are determined.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Tara A. Ippolito ◽  
Jeffrey E. Herrick ◽  
Ekwe L. Dossa ◽  
Maman Garba ◽  
Mamadou Ouattara ◽  
...  

Smallholder agriculture is a major source of income and food for developing nations. With more frequent drought and increasing scarcity of arable land, more accurate land-use planning tools are needed to allocate land resources to support regional agricultural activity. To address this need, we created Land Capability Classification (LCC) system maps using data from two digital soil maps, which were compared with measurements from 1305 field sites in the Dosso region of Niger. Based on these, we developed 250 m gridded maps of LCC values across the region. Across the region, land is severely limited for agricultural use because of low available water-holding capacity (AWC) that limits dry season agricultural potential, especially without irrigation, and requires more frequent irrigation where supplemental water is available. If the AWC limitation is removed in the LCC algorithm (i.e., simulating the use of sufficient irrigation or a much higher and more evenly distributed rainfall), the dominant limitations become less severe and more spatially varied. Finally, we used additional soil fertility data from the field samples to illustrate the value of collecting contemporary data for dynamic soil properties that are critical for crop production, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.


Author(s):  
Allison Neil

Soil properties are strongly influenced by the composition of the surrounding vegetation. We investigated soil properties of three ecosystems; a coniferous forest, a deciduous forest and an agricultural grassland, to determine the impact of land use change on soil properties. Disturbances such as deforestation followed by cultivation can severely alter soil properties, including losses of soil carbon. We collected nine 40 cm cores from three ecosystem types on the Roebuck Farm, north of Perth Village, Ontario, Canada. Dominant species in each ecosystem included hemlock and white pine in the coniferous forest; sugar maple, birch and beech in the deciduous forest; grasses, legumes and herbs in the grassland. Soil pH varied little between the three ecosystems and over depth. Soils under grassland vegetation had the highest bulk density, especially near the surface. The forest sites showed higher cation exchange capacity and soil moisture than the grassland; these differences largely resulted from higher organic matter levels in the surface forest soils. Vertical distribution of organic matter varied greatly amongst the three ecosystems. In the forest, more of the organic matter was located near the surface, while in the grassland organic matter concentrations varied little with depth. The results suggest that changes in land cover and land use alters litter inputs and nutrient cycling rates, modifying soil physical and chemical properties. Our results further suggest that conversion of forest into agricultural land in this area can lead to a decline in soil carbon storage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Liu ◽  
Lu Shi ◽  
Kevin Li

This paper develops a lexicographic optimization model to allocate agricultural and non-agricultural water footprints by using the land area as the influencing factor. An index known as the water-footprint-land density (WFLD) index is then put forward to assess the impact and equity of the resulting allocation scheme. Subsequently, the proposed model is applied to a case study allocating water resources for the 11 provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). The objective is to achieve equitable spatial allocation of water resources from a water footprint perspective. Based on the statistical data in 2013, this approach starts with a proper accounting for water footprints in the 11 YREB provinces. We then determined an optimal allocation of water footprints by using the proposed lexicographic optimization approach from a land area angle. Lastly, we analyzed how different types of land uses contribute to allocation equity and we discuss policy changes to implement the optimal allocation schemes in the YREB. Analytical results show that: (1) the optimized agricultural and non-agricultural water footprints decrease from the current levels for each province across the YREB, but this decrease shows a heterogeneous pattern; (2) the WFLD of 11 YREB provinces all decline after optimization with the largest decline in Shanghai and the smallest decline in Sichuan; and (3) the impact of agricultural land on the allocation of agricultural water footprints is mainly reflected in the land use structure of three land types including arable land, forest land, and grassland. The different land use structures in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions lead to the spatial heterogeneity of the optimized agricultural water footprints in the three YREB segments; (4) In addition to the non-agricultural land area, different regional industrial structures are the main reason for the spatial heterogeneity of the optimized non-agricultural water footprints. Our water-footprint-based optimal water resources allocation scheme helps alleviate the water resources shortage pressure and achieve coordinated and balanced development in the YREB.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Bhanu Priya Chouhan ◽  
Monika Kannan

The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. More than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. ‘Urbanization has the potential to usher in a new era of wellbeing, resource efficiency and economic growth. But due to increased population the pressure of demand also increases in urban areas’ (Drakakis-Smith, David, 1996). The loss of agricultural land to other land uses occasioned by urban growth is an issue of growing concern worldwide, particularly in the developing countries like India. This paper is an attempt to assess the impact of urbanization on land use and land cover patterns in Ajmer city. Recent trends indicate that the rural urban migration and religious significance of the place attracting thousands of tourists every year, have immensely contributed in the increasing population of city and is causing change in land use patterns. This accelerating urban sprawl has led to shrinking of the agricultural land and land holdings. Due to increased rate of urbanization, the agricultural areas have been transformed into residential and industrial areas (Retnaraj D,1994). There are several key factors which cause increase in population here such as Smart City Projects, potential for employment, higher education, more comfortable and quality housing, better health facilities, high living standard etc. Population pressure not only directly increases the demand for food, but also indirectly reduces its supply through building development, environmental degradation and marginalization of food production (Aldington T, 1997). Also, there are several issues which are associated with continuous increase in population i.e. land degradation, pollution, poverty, slums, unaffordable housing etc. Pollution, formulation of slums, transportation congestion, environmental hazards, land degradation and crime are some of the major impacts of urbanization on Ajmer city. This study involves mapping of land use patterns by analyzing data and satellite imagery taken at different time periods. The satellite images of year 2000 and 2017 are used. The change detection techniques are used with the help of Geographical Information System software like ERDAS and ArcGIS. The supervised classification of all the three satellite images is done by ERDAS software to demarcate and analyze land use change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Almobarak Falak ◽  
Lidia A. Mezhova

Central Chernozem is one of the largest agricultural regions in Russia. As a result of the long period of natural resources use the anthropogenic load on agricultural lands is increasing. The result of agricultural nature management is the increase of land degradation processes. Voronezh Region has a high agro-climatic potential, most of the territory is occupied by agricultural land, arable land prevails among them. Soil degradation is the most acute problem. There is a need to assess the impact of agricultural natural resources use on land resources of the region. Modular coefficients for assessment of geochemical impact of agriculture and animal husbandry on agricultural systems are proposed. The developed factor is a tool for identification of negative land use processes and environmental problems. The article deals with the issues of ecologically oriented, scientifically grounded strategy of agricultural nature management. Ecological approach to assessment of soil quality in the future will develop a strategy for balanced land use. The article has a scientific and practical character and is aimed at the development of methods of ecological assessment of soil quality. The proposed methodological approach identifies destructive processes in soils. For ecologically oriented strategy of development of regions it is important to define maximum allowable agricultural loads for preservation of sustainable environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Aziz Bahtiar Rifa’i ◽  
Fadjar Hari Mardiansjah

This study examines the impact of agricultural land use change into a petroleum mining area to farmers’ socioeconomic conditions around petroleum mining project area in Gayam District of Kabupaten Bojonegoro. The analyses used a mix method, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach is used to determine the impact of agricultural land use change on the social and economic aspects with the respondent farmers were supported with a scoring method to determine the condition of socioeconomic vulnerability of farmers, while the qualitative approach carried out through in-depth interviews to some informants who have been affected by the project. The results shows that the presence of the petroleum mining industry has not had a positive impact yet on the farmers’ socioeconomic conditions. By the 700 hectares of agricultural land conversion, the agricultural production capacity of the area tends to decrease, including by the decreasing of the productivity of some agricultural land in a radius of 500 m from the fenceof the mining area as they are affected by the fence’s spotlight. The farmers' income also tends to decrease because of the decreasing of their working hours as the big loss of agricultural land in the area. As a result, many farmers should work outside of the area to search replacement of the arable land. These situations lead to a moderate condition of social and economic vulnerability for the farmers, especially for those who still have sufficient assets to meet the needs of their economic. 


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