scholarly journals Assessing the extent of land-use change around important bat-inhabited caves

BMC Zoology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariëtte Pretorius ◽  
Wanda Markotter ◽  
Mark Keith
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Threat Status ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Urban Settlements

Abstract Background Modification and destruction of natural habitats are bringing previously unencountered animal populations into contact with humans, with bats considered important zoonotic transmission vectors. Caves and cave-dwelling bats are under-represented in conservation plans. In South Africa, at least two cavernicolous species are of interest as potential zoonotic hosts: the Natal long-fingered bat Miniopterus natalensis and the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus. Little information is available about the anthropogenic pressures these species face around important roost sites. Both bats are numerous and widespread throughout the country; land-use changes and urban expansions are a rising concern for both conservation and increased bat-human contact. Results Our study addressed this shortfall by determining the extent of land-cover change around 47 roosts between 2014 and 2018 using existing land cover datasets. We determined the land-cover composition around important roost sites (including maternity, hibernacula and co-roosts), distances to urban settlements and assessed the current protection levels of roost localities. We detected an overall 4% decrease in natural woody vegetation (trees) within 5 km buffer zones of all roost sites, with a 10% decrease detected at co-roost sites alone. Agricultural land cover increased the most near roost sites, followed by plantations and urban land-cover. Overall, roosts were located 4.15 ± 0.91 km from urban settlements in 2018, the distances decreasing as urban areas expand. According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute Ecosystem Threat Status assessment, 72% of roosts fall outside of well-protected ecosystems. Conclusions The current lack of regulatory protection of cavernicolous bats and their roosts, increasing anthropogenic expansions and proximity to human settlements raises concerns about increased human-bat contact. Furthermore, uncontrolled roost visitation and vandalism are increasing, contributing to bat health risks and population declines, though the extent of roosts affected is yet to be quantified. In an era where pandemics are predicted to become more frequent and severe due to land-use change, our research is an urgent call for the formal protection of bat-inhabited caves to safeguard both bats and humans.

scholarly journals Monitoring and Projecting Land Use/Land Cover Changes of Eleven Large Deltaic Areas in Greece from 1945 Onwards

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1241
Author(s):  
Anastasia Krina ◽  
Fotios Xystrakis ◽  
Kostas Karantininis ◽  
Nikos Koutsias
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Composition And Structure ◽  
Economic Developments

Wetlands are areas of high biodiversity and provide many ecosystem services of high value. However, they are under constant threat from intense anthropogenic pressures, mainly agriculture intensification, urbanization, pollution, and climate change. The temporal and spatial patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) changes within eleven large wetlands in Greece were analyzed based on thematic maps generated from aerial orthophotos taken in 1945, 1975, and 2007. Socio-economic developments and the consequent need for more arable land and utilization of water resources are among the factors that mainly determine their evolution. In 2007, LULC classes related to wetland vegetation were reduced to one third as compared to 1945 and they were mainly replaced with croplands and urban infrastructures. Each of the different sub-periods that was considered (1945–1975 and 1975–2007) was distinguished by characteristic patterns of change. Agricultural land increased up to 42% from 1945 to 1975 and became the dominant LULC class in all deltaic areas but Evros. A considerable stability was observed for the period 1975–2007 for all LULC classed but it is remarkable the extent of urban areas that doubled. There is a tendency of landscape simplification and homogenization among the deltaic areas and the output of Markov chain analysis indicates that future composition of deltaic landscapes will be similar to the current one if the main driving forces remain constant. Changes in LULC composition and structure are also combined with coastal erosion in all deltaic areas. This is attributed to the modification of sedimentary deposits due to dam construction. The results summarize the change trajectories of the major deltaic areas in Greece from 1945 to 2007 thus offering a great outlook of changes that allows managers to understand how policies and socio-economic requirements affect the deltaic ecosystems and what decisions should be made to protect and enhance them.

scholarly journals Spatial-Temporal Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Urban Areas Using Remote Sensing Images and GIS Analysis: The Case Study of Opole, Poland

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Barbara Wiatkowska ◽  
Janusz Słodczyk ◽  
Aleksandra Stokowska
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Management Procedures

Urban expansion is a dynamic and complex phenomenon, often involving adverse changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This paper uses satellite imagery from Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, Sentinel-2 MSI, and GIS technology to analyse LULC changes in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The research was carried out in Opole, the capital of the Opole Agglomeration (south-western Poland). Maps produced from supervised spectral classification of remote sensing data revealed that in 20 years, built-up areas have increased about 40%, mainly at the expense of agricultural land. Detection of changes in the spatial pattern of LULC showed that the highest average rate of increase in built-up areas occurred in the zone 3–6 km (11.7%) and above 6 km (10.4%) from the centre of Opole. The analysis of the increase of built-up land in relation to the decreasing population (SDG 11.3.1) has confirmed the ongoing process of demographic suburbanisation. The paper shows that satellite imagery and GIS can be a valuable tool for local authorities and planners to monitor the scale of urbanisation processes for the purpose of adapting space management procedures to the changing environment.

Ecosystem Valuation of Agricultural Land Use Change

2022 ◽  
pp. 90-126
Author(s):  
Dimple Behal
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Agricultural Ecosystem ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Rapid Pace

With the rapid pace of urbanization, land-use change is essential for economic and social progress; however, it does not come without costs. With such rapid urbanization, there comes pressure on the land and its resources, like that of food and timber production with a significant impact on the livelihood of millions of people. With the loss of agricultural land due to developmental activities, future agriculture would be very intensive. Therefore, it is likely with the existing pattern of allocating land uses for future development that we may lose the ecosystem services and highly productive agricultural lands. The value of these ecosystem services to agriculture is enormous and often underappreciated. The study focuses on identifying underlying causes of the land-use change, ecosystem services affected due to land-use change in peri-urban areas of Chandigarh using spatial mapping of affected ecosystem services and suggesting proposals for promoting agricultural ecosystem values using economically-informed policy instruments.

scholarly journals Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Urban Areas Using Remote Sensing: Case of Blantyre City

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jane Ferah Gondwe ◽  
Sun Li ◽  
Rodger Millar Munthali
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Landsat 7 ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann

Blantyre City has experienced a wide range of changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This study used Remote Sensing (RS) to detect and quantify LULC changes that occurred in the city throughout a twenty-year study period, using Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) images from 1999 and 2010 and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images from 2019. A supervised classification method using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was used to classify and map LULC types. The kappa coefficient and the overall accuracy were used to ascertain the classification accuracy. Using the classified images, a postclassification comparison approach was used to detect LULC changes between 1999 and 2019. The study revealed that built-up land and agricultural land increased in their respective areas by 28.54 km2 (194.81%) and 35.80 km2 (27.16%) with corresponding annual change rates of 1.43 km·year−1 and 1.79 km·year−1. The area of bare land, forest land, herbaceous land, and waterbody, respectively, decreased by 0.05%, 90.52%, 71.67%, and 6.90%. The LULC changes in the study area were attributed to urbanization, population growth, social-economic growth, and climate change. The findings of this study provide information on the changes in LULC and driving factors, which Blantyre City authorities can utilize to develop sustainable development plans.

scholarly journals MONITORING URBAN LAND COVER/LAND USE CHANGE IN ALGIERS CITY USING LANDSAT IMAGES (1987–2016)

2017 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W7 ◽  
pp. 1083-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Bouchachi ◽  
Y. Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Urban Land Cover ◽  
The Impact

Monitoring the Urban Land Cover/Land Use change detection is important as one of the main driving forces of environmental change because Urbanization is the biggest changes in form of Land, resulting in a decrease in cultivated areas. Using remote sensing ability to solve land resources problems. The purpose of this research is to map the urban areas at different times to monitor and predict possible urban changes, were studied the annual growth urban land during the last 29 years in Algiers City. Improving the productiveness of long-term training in land mapping, were have developed an approach by the following steps: 1) pre-processing for improvement of image characteristics; 2) extract training sample candidates based on the developed methods; and 3) Derive maps and analyzed of Algiers City on an annual basis from 1987 to 2016 using a Supervised Classifier Support Vector Machine (SVMs). Our result shows that the strategy of urban land followed in the region of Algiers City, developed areas mostly were extended to East, West, and South of Central Regions. The urban growth rate is linked with National Office of Statistics data. Future studies are required to understand the impact of urban rapid lands on social, economy and environmental sustainability, it will also close the gap in data of urbanism available, especially on the lack of reliable data, environmental and urban planning for each municipality in Algiers, develop experimental models to predict future land changes with statistically significant confidence.

scholarly journals SPATIAL SIMULATION BASED ON GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) AND CELLULAR AUTOMATA (CA) FOR LAND USE CHANGE MODELING IN SINGARAJA CITY AND ITS SURROUNDING AREA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nyoman Arto Suprapto
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Spatial Simulation ◽  
Land Use Change Modeling ◽  
The City

Singaraja is the second largest city after Denpasar in Bali. The magnitude of the potential of the region both trade and services, agriculture and tourism in Buleleng Regency has given a very broad impact not only on the economy but also the use of land. Economic development in the city of Singaraja cause some effects such as population growth, an increasing number of facilities (social, economic, health, and others), as well as changes in land use.Changes in land use have a serious impact on the environment in the city of Singaraja. The development of urban areas of Singaraja has given the excesses of increasing the land conversion. Suburb dominated by wetland agriculture has now turned into buildings to meet the needs of shelter, trade and services as well as urban utilities. This study was conducted by mean to determine how changes in land use from agricultural land into build up land during twelve years (period of 2002 - 2014) and the prediction of land use within the next 12 years (period of 2020 and 2026). Prediction of land use changes will be done using spatial simulation method which is integrating Cellular Automata (CA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which analyzed based on land requirement, the driving variable of land use changes (population and road) and the inhabiting variable of land use change (slope steepness and rivers).Keywords : Land Use Change, Land Use Change Modeling, Celullar Automata, GIS

scholarly journals Pressions Anthropiques Et Dynamique D’occupation Des Terres Dans Le Terroir De Ziguéna, Zone Cotonnière Du Mali

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Abdou Ballo ◽  
Souleymane Sidi Traoré ◽  
Baba Coulibaly ◽  
Cheick Hamalla Diakité ◽  
Moriké Diawara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Natural Vegetation ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Visual Interpretation ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Comparison Of The Results

In Ziguéna terroir, the combined effects of drought and anthropogenic actions led to the widespread degradation of vegetation cover and of land. This work aimed at characterizing the dynamics of land use and land cover in relation to anthropogenic pressures in Ziguéna terroir. The methodology consisted in identifying and characterizing land use and land cover classes. Landsat images for the years 1986 and 2013 and population data for the years 1987, 1998 and 2009 were used. Visual interpretation of the images and post-classification comparison of the results were used to generate land use and land cover classes and calculate their rate of change. The results reveal that the natural vegetation has lost 55% of its original coverage (1514.3 ha) between 1987 and 2013. During the same period, the agricultural area increased by 47% (1608 ha). The projection of land use and land cover classes predicted an increase of agricultural land of about 34.60% by year 2030 compared to its coverage of year 2013 (+1191.03 ha) at the expense of natural vegetation which will lose about 40.63% of its coverage (-1121.70 ha). The dynamics of agricultural land is strongly linked to population growth rates with a correlation coefficient r equal to 0.99. This confirms a strong anthropogenic influence on land use and land cover dynamics. The results show the usefulness of remote sensing for mapping land use and land cover. Nevertheless it would be interesting to take into account the socioeconomic aspects for proper understanding of the dynamics.

Land use and cover change (LUCC) and migration in Sukoharjo, Indonesia

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anang Pra Yogi ◽  
Bhimo Rizky Samudro ◽  
Albertus Maqnus Soesilo ◽  
Yogi Pasca Pratama
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Population Group ◽  
School Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Land Use And Cover

Purpose This study aims to provide descriptive analysis on urbanization pattern in Sukoharjo Regency and also its correlation to land use and cover change (LUCC) issue. This becomes more relevant because the authors find that there are few studies conducted regarding the topic. Consider again the importance role of Sukoharjo Regency as an area that provides supporting food supply, LUCC particularly in agriculture land became even more crucial. Design/methodology/approach This study uses literature reviews and descriptive analysis. Data for this study are obtained from previous studies and statistical data from Central Statistical Bureau. Findings Sukoharjo Regency proved as an interesting migration destination for some group of population. The population group particularly come from Surakarta city (growth core) as a form of urban sprawl or urban expansion. Migrant population live in Sukoharjo Regency are mostly a population group with a productive age range and generally with high-school or vocational school level. Moreover, their main reason to migrate is the availability of job opportunities. Regarding LUCC, migrant populations that come to Sukoharjo Regency apparently have property with ownership certification. Housing area development, particularly concentrated in the district, was located close to the borderline Surakarta city. Originality/value This research contributes to the analysis of land use change trends in peri-urban areas caused by migration. The results of this study can be used for further policy making to overcome the dilemma of land use change, especially those that occur on agricultural land.

scholarly journals A Spatiotemporal Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of Arshaly District, Kazakhstan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onggarbek Alipbeki ◽  
Chaimgul Alipbekova ◽  
Arnold Sterenharz ◽  
Zhanat Toleubekova ◽  
Meirzhan Aliyev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Multispectral Images ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
The Republic

In this study, the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) were evaluated in the peri-urban area of the Arshaly district, which borders the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Landsat multispectral images were used to study the changes in LULC. The analysis of LULC dynamics was carried out using supervised classification with a multi-temporal interval (1998, 2008, and 2018). During the study period, noticeable changes occurred in LULC. There was an increase in the area of arable land and forests and a reduction in the pastures. There was a sharp increase in the built-up area; that is, there was an intensification of land use through an increase in the share of arable land as well as the transformation of agricultural land for development. However, in general, the influence of urban sprawl in this peri-urban area has so far been accompanied by only a slight focus on its sustainable development.

scholarly journals Climatic Impacts of Land-Use Change due to Crop Yield Increases and a Universal Carbon Tax from a Scenario Model*

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1413-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Davies-Barnard ◽  
P. J. Valdes ◽  
J. S. Singarayer ◽  
C. D. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Carbon Pricing ◽  
Yield Increase

Abstract Future land cover will have a significant impact on climate and is strongly influenced by the extent of agricultural land use. Differing assumptions of crop yield increase and carbon pricing mitigation strategies affect projected expansion of agricultural land in future scenarios. In the representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), the carbon effects of these land cover changes are included, although the biogeophysical effects are not. The afforestation in RCP4.5 has important biogeophysical impacts on climate, in addition to the land carbon changes, which are directly related to the assumption of crop yield increase and the universal carbon tax. To investigate the biogeophysical climatic impact of combinations of agricultural crop yield increases and carbon pricing mitigation, five scenarios of land-use change based on RCP4.5 are used as inputs to an earth system model [Hadley Centre Global Environment Model, version 2–Earth System (HadGEM2-ES)]. In the scenario with the greatest increase in agricultural land (as a result of no increase in crop yield and no climate mitigation) there is a significant −0.49 K worldwide cooling by 2100 compared to a control scenario with no land-use change. Regional cooling is up to −2.2 K annually in northeastern Asia. Including carbon feedbacks from the land-use change gives a small global cooling of −0.067 K. This work shows that there are significant impacts from biogeophysical land-use changes caused by assumptions of crop yield and carbon mitigation, which mean that land carbon is not the whole story. It also elucidates the potential conflict between cooling from biogeophysical climate effects of land-use change and wider environmental aims.

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