scholarly journals Vegetation and Land-Use Change in Northern Europe during Late Antiquity: A Regional-Scale Pollen-Based Reconstruction

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Northern Europe

scholarly journals Vegetation and Land-Use Change in Northern Europe During Late Antiquity: A Regional-Scale Pollen-Based Reconstruction

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Jessie Woodbridge ◽  
Neil Roberts ◽  
Ralph Fyfe
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Fossil Pollen ◽  
North Central ◽  
North West

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of land cover and land use change in northern Europe, particularly during Late Antiquity (ca. 3rd–8th c. AD) based on fossil pollen preserved in sediments. We have transformed fossil pollen datasets from 462 sites into eight major land-cover classes using the pseudobiomisation method (PBM). Through using pollen-vegetation evidence, we show that north-central Europe, lying outside the Roman frontier (the so-called ‘Barbaricum’ region), remained predominantly forested until Medieval times, with the main clearance phase only starting from ca. AD 750. This stands in contrast to north-west Europe, both inside (France/England) and outside (Scotland/Ireland) the Roman imperial frontier; here a majority of forested land was already cleared prior to antiquity. The implications of this are that Roman expansion into the periphery of the empire largely took over existing intensive agrarian regions in the case of ‘Gaul’ (France) and ‘Britannia’ (England and Wales). Pre-existing land-use systems and levels of landscape openness may have played a role in directing the expansion of the Roman empire northwards into Gaul and Britannia, rather than eastwards into Germania. After the period of Roman occupation, partial reforestation is evident in some areas.

Climate and land use change impacts on water resources in Sardinia (Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Ruggiu ◽  
Salvatore Urru ◽  
Roberto Deidda ◽  
Francesco Viola
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Potential Evapotranspiration ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Annual Runoff ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Land Use Scenarios ◽  
Near Future

<p>The assessment of climate change and land use modifications effects on hydrological cycle is challenging. We propose an approach based on Budyko theory to investigate the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic drivers on water resources availability. As an example of application, the proposed approach is implemented in the island of Sardinia (Italy), which is affected by important processes of both climate and land use modifications. In details, the proposed methodology assumes the Fu’s equation to describe the mechanisms of water partitioning at regional scale and uses the probability distributions of annual runoff (Q) in a closed form. The latter is parametrized by considering simple long-term climatic info (namely first orders statistics of annual rainfall and potential evapotranspiration) and land use properties of basins.</p><p>In order to investigate the possible near future water availability of Sardinia, several climate and land use scenarios have been considered, referring to 2006-2050 and 2051-2100 periods. Climate scenarios have been generated considering fourteen bias corrected outputs of climatic models from EUROCORDEX’s project (RCP 8.5), while three land use scenarios have been created following the last century tendencies.</p><p>Results show that the distribution of annual runoff in Sardinia could be significantly affected by both climate and land use change. The near future distribution of Q generally displayed a decrease in mean and variance compared to the baseline.   </p><p>The reduction of  Q is more critical moving from 2006-2050 to 2051-2100 period, according with climatic trends, namely due to the reduction of annual rainfall and the increase of potential evapotranspiration. The effect of LU change on Q distribution is weaker than the climatic one, but not negligible.</p>

scholarly journals Effect of Land Use and Climate Change on Runoff in the Dongjiang Basin of South China

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhu He ◽  
Kairong Lin ◽  
Xiaohong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Moderate Increase ◽  
Great Decrease ◽  
Runoff Change ◽  
Social And Economic Development

Variability and availability of water resources under changing environment in a regional scale have been hot topics in recent years, due to the vulnerability of water resources associated with social and economic development. In this paper, four subbasins in the Dongjiang basin with a significant land use change were selected as case study. Runoffs of the four subbasins were simulated using the SCS monthly model to identify the quantitative impacts of land use and climate change. The results showed that (1), in the Dongjiang basin, temperature increased significantly, evaporation and sunlight decreased strongly, while precipitation showed a nonsignificant increase; (2) since the 1980s, land uses in the Dongjiang basin have experienced a significant change with a prominent increase in urban areas, a moderate increase in farmlands, and a great decrease in forest areas; (3) the SCS monthly model performed well in the four subbasins giving that the more significant land use change in each subbasin, the more runoff change correspondingly; (4) overall, runoff change was contributed half and half by climate change and human activities, respectively, in all the subbasins, in which about 20%~30% change was contributed by land use change.

An insight on drivers of land use change at regional scale

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing-an Shao ◽  
Chao-fu Wei ◽  
De-ti Xie
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Regional Scale

scholarly journals Integrating Biophysical and Sociocultural Methods for Identifying the Relationships between Ecosystem Services and Land Use Change: Insights from an Oasis Area

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hejie Wei ◽  
Weiguo Fan ◽  
Nachuan Lu ◽  
Zihan Xu ◽  
Huiming Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
Oasis Area

Identifying the relationships between ecosystem services (ESs) and land use change is crucial for ES management and sustainable regional development. The Manas region in China has witnessed dramatic reclamation activities in its desert areas that resulted in ecological problems. The changes in eight ESs, including crop production (CP), livestock production (LP), soil conservation (SC), water yield (WY), sand fixation (SF), carbon sequestration (CS), habitat quality (HQ), and nature landscape recreation (NLR), were investigated by using biophysical and questionnaire methods. At the regional scale, provisioning services (i.e., CP and LP) showed some performance improvements, whereas most of the regulating services (i.e., WY, CS, and HQ) along with NLR showed a performance decline. Five ES bundles—Upper Mountain, Foothill, Oasis, Oasis–Desert Transition, and Desert bundle—were identified at the township scale via k-means clustering. From 2000 to 2015, the Oasis bundle sprawled as a result of oasisization, whereas the Oasis–Desert Transition and Foothill bundles decreased. We performed a questionnaire survey and a statistical analysis to identify the causes behind the performance improvement/decline of these ESs and found that the land use changes in the Manas region had a significant impact on these services. More than 50% of the survey respondents identified land use changes as the primary driver of the changes in some ESs (i.e., CP, CS, HQ, and NLR). In the correlation and partial correlation analyses, oasisization was significantly and positively correlated with CP but was negatively correlated with WY, CS, HQ, and NLR. We enhanced the reliability of our conclusions by integrating biophysical and sociocultural methods into our investigation of ES and land use change. In view of the huge losses in regulating and cultural services, the Manas region should limit its desert reclamation activities to control the expansion of its oasis and to improve the quality of its cropland. Our results can help formulate effective ES management and land use decisions in the Manas region or similar areas.

The consequences of land use change on nutrient exports: a regional scale assessment in south-west Victoria, Australia

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ierodiaconou ◽  
Laurie Laurenson ◽  
Marc Leblanc ◽  
Frank Stagnitti ◽  
Gordon Duff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
South West ◽  
Scale Assessment

scholarly journals Land-Use Change Related to Topography and Societal Drivers in High-Mountains – A Case Study in the Upper Watershed of the Tergi (Kazbegi Region), Greater Caucasus

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Theissen ◽  
Annette Otte ◽  
Rainer Waldhardt
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Development Trends ◽  
Greater Caucasus

Abstract High mountain ecosystems, with strong topographic and climatic gradients, are fragile and particularly sensitive to changes in land use. The abandonment of historic cultural landscapes has often led to changes in the pattern of land cover and thus, to a shift in the functions of high mountain landscapes, like fresh water supply, productivity or erosion control. In order to understand the effects of land-use change on the land-cover pattern at the local and regional scale, we analyzed and classified the mountainous landscape structure in the Kazbegi region in Georgia, located in the Central Greater Caucasus. For 13 settlements, we determined the land cover as present in 1987 and 2015, and quantified the changes over time to detect land-cover development trends for each settlement. Using a cluster analysis, the study area was analyzed regarding to topography (altitude, aspect, slope) and distance to settlements at the regional scale to gain six groups with separating conditions. Furthermore, each settlement was classified according to topography and land-cover change to obtain site-specific, comparative development trends. Our results show that this Caucasian high-mountain landscape is characterized by open grassland (67%) used as pasture and hay meadow, and natural birch forests (7%) in patches in the upper half of the subalpine belt. Within the settlements but also in their surroundings, field vegetables are cultivated in home gardens (1%). Land-cover change during the observation period mainly affected the cultural grassland with hay meadow abandonment. Moreover, shrubbery and forest expanded considerably on abandoned pastures. We further detected a strong relationship to topography that considerably varied between settlements resulting in specific trends in land-use change. Hay-making and arable land cultivation are focused today on sun-exposed and gentle slopes near the settlements. Shrub encroachment and reforestations were localized on farther distances and mostly on north-exposed slopes. Besides providing basic information about the historic and current land-use and land-cover patterns, our results quantify the landscape change during almost 30 years. A spatio-temporal analysis revealed an understanding of how land-use decisions influence the landscape pattern. In the context of societal development, regional socioeconomic processes, like shifts in the agricultural structure and population outmigration, seem to be societal drivers of changes. Our findings reveal linkages and interrelationships between natural, human-induced environmental and socioeconomic processes within high-mountain socio-ecological systems. Moreover, we suggest that sustainable land-use strategies for spatial development on sub-regional level, especially in marginal high-mountain regions, should consider topography and its influence on land-use change.

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