scholarly journals Land use changes in the last half century and their impact on water retention in the Šumava mountains and foothills (Czech Republic)

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Václav Bystřický ◽  
Jana Moravcová ◽  
Jakub Polenský ◽  
Jiří Pečenka

Abstract Changes in land use and runoff characteristics in Otava river basin and its two subcatchment (Volšovka and Vydra) were examined. The goal was to find out how water retention have responded to changes in landscape management in Šumava mountains and foothills since the year 1970. There were two basic levels of changing land use - (a) conversion of arable land with varying intensity at different management of intensive and extensive grassland, (b) deforestation of large areas of indigenous mostly spruce monocultures and their transfer to the shrub and herbaceous vegetation covering the surface with a discontinuous vegetation. Water retention in Šumava mountains is locally reduced due to vulnerability of monoculture spruce forests by natural disasters (windstorms), diseases and pests. A positive effect of current agricultural management in the Šumava foothills on the reduction of direct runoff during intense rainfall was confirmed.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Karel Poprach ◽  
Libor Opluštil ◽  
František Krause ◽  
Ivo Machar

Abstract The Little Owl is currently endangered bird species of agricultural lowland areas in Central Europe. Nesting sites of the Little Owl are often old trees as well as buildings and quarries with suitable nesting cavities. The Little Owl has severely declined in a major part of Europe during the past decades. Information on habitat requirements of the Little Owl and data related to land-use changes at nest sites (covering both the breeding and foraging habitats) are needed for conservation programmes aimed at this bird species. Land-use changes in farmland rank among frequently discussed negative factors causing the population decline of the Little Owl. The aim of this study is to analyse land-use changes at nest sites of the Little Owl in the South-Moravian region (Czech Republic) between the years 1976/1977 and 2014. In both studied periods (1976/1977 and 2014), the most important land-use type within 500 m from the nest sites of the Little Owl was arable land (66.94 % – 62.25 %), followed by built-up areas (19.97 % –22.41 %), while the other land-use types made up less than 5 %. The proportion of the particular land-use type did not change significantly between the years 1976/1977 and 2014. The most important change in comparison with the period 1976/1977 was the decrease in the area of arable land by 4.69 % and that of orchards and gardens by 1.99 %, while the surface of built-up areas increased slightly by 2.45 % and that of meadows and pastures by 1.5 %. The analysis shows that at the known nest sites of the Little Owl in the South-Moravian region (Czech Republic), there were no significant changes in the proportion of the particular land-use types within 500 m from the nests between the years 1976/1977 and 2014. Based on these results, we can conclude that in comparison with the availability of nest sites, which seems to be the important limiting factor for the occurrence and population density of the Little Owl, land-use changes in study area were not very important factor influencing decline of the Little Owl.


Geografie ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-176
Author(s):  
Vít Voženílek ◽  
Jaromír Demek

It is generally accepted that land use changes influence fluvial regime, especially generation of surface runoff, water discharge in water courses, and soil erosion. The disturbances in fluvial systems of old cultural landscapes caused by land use changes bring many difficulties in landscape management (floods, accelerated soil erosion, silting of river beds, etc.). The land use structure in the Trkmanka River catchment in the Czech Republic consisted until 1953 of fragmented plots (small patches of land, ribbons) and later has been changed into large fields with agricultural monocultures. The catchment is known for the highest values of soil erosion in the Czech Republic. Testing of common soil erosion models showed that they are not fitted for the catchment. A new model of soil erodibility is proposed in this paper.


2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47
Author(s):  
Marko Langovic ◽  
Slavoljub Dragicevic ◽  
Ivan Novkovic ◽  
Nenad Zivkovic ◽  
Radislav Tosic ◽  
...  

Riverbank erosion and lateral channel migration are important geomorphological processes which cause various landscape, socio-economic, and environmental consequences. Although those processes are present on the territory of Serbia, there is no available data about the soil loss caused by riverbank erosion for the entire country. In this study, the spatial and temporal dynamics of the riverbank erosion for the largest internal rivers in Serbia (Velika Morava, Zapadna Morava, Juzna Morava, Pek, Mlava, Veliki Timok, Kolubara) was assessed using remote sensing and GIS. The aim of this paper is to determine the total and average soil loss over large-scale periods (1923-2020), comparing data from the available sources (aerial photographs, satellite images, and different scale paper maps). Results indicated that lateral migration caused significant problems through land loss (approximately 2,561 ha), especially arable land, and land use changes in river basins, but also economic loss due to the reduction of agricultural production. Total and average soil loss was calculated for five most representative meanders on all studied rivers, and on the basis of the obtained values, certain regularities about further development and dynamics of riverbank movement are presented. A better understanding of river channel migration in this area will be of a great importance for practical issues such as predicting channel migration rates for river engineering and planning purposes, soil and water management and land use changes, environment protection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Saleha Jamal ◽  
Md Ashif Ali

Wetlands are often called as biological “supermarket” and “kidneys of the landscape” due to their multiple functions, including water purification, water storage, processing of carbon and other nutrients, stabilization of shorelines and support of aquatic lives. Unfortunately, although being dynamic and productive ecosystem, these wetlands have been affected by human induced land use changes. India is losing wetlands at the rate of 2 to 3 per cent each year due to over-population, direct deforestation, urban encroachment, over fishing, irrigation and agriculture etc (Prasher, 2018). The present study tries to investigate the nature and degree of land use/land cover transformation, their causes and resultant effects on Chatra Wetland. To fulfil the purpose of the study, GIS and remote sensing techniques have been employed. Satellite imageries have been used from United States Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager for the year 2003 and 2018. Cloud free imageries of 2003 and 2018 have been downloaded from USGS (https://glovis.usgs.gov/) for the month of March and April respectively. Image processing, supervised classificationhas been done in ArcGis 10.5 and ERDAS IMAGINE 14. The study reveals that the settlement hasincreased by about 90.43 per cent in the last 15 years around the Chatra wetland within the bufferzone of 2 Sq km. Similarly agriculture, vegetation, water body, swamp and wasteland witnessed asignificant decrease by 5.94 per cent, 57.69 per cent, 26.64 per cent 4.52 per cent and 55.27 per centrespectively from 2003 to 2018.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Jedlička ◽  
Marek Havlíček ◽  
Ivo Dostál ◽  
Jiří Huzlík ◽  
Hana Skokanová

Abstract The paper assesses the development of land use and a road network from 1836 to 2016 in the Hodonín region (Czech Republic). The aim of the article is to verify relationship between the road construction and land use changes in their vicinity. The intensity of land use change processes between adjacent periods was calculated at various distances from roads. ESRI’s geographic information systems and geostatistics were used. This helped in assessing significance of impact of road vicinity on land use changes. The time interval of periods for comparison varied between 25 and 80 years due to availability of historical sources. In each period about 20% of the region was affected by land use changes. After the roads were built, there was an increase in the intensity of land use changes in their vicinity. It has been proofed that presence of a road can be considered one of the driving forces of long-term land use changes in this region. This so-called technological driving force impacted mainly urbanisation and other anthropogenic processes, agricultural intensification and grassing. Its significance is gradually increasing due to urbanisation, industrialisation, motorization and the rising mobility. Our results from the Hodonín region indicate that urbanisation and other anthropogenic processes have the closest relationship with the distance from major roads.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Sema Yılmaz Genç ◽  
Arian Behradfar ◽  
Rui Alexandre Castanho ◽  
Derviş Kırıkkaleli ◽  
José Manuel Naranjo Gómez ◽  
...  

Human activities have been changing the Earth's cover at an unparalleled scale. In this regard, and cover mapping is a decisive advantage for several kinds of research. Also, the outcomes from these investigations could be applied to plan a sustainable regional governance policy. This article studied land-use changes in the Turkish Territories in 1990, 2000, 2012, and 2018 using the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) data. The results showed a significant and gradual land-use change from agricultural to mostly artificial surfaces. The majority of land-use changes are related to industrial and commercial units and construction sites. The most degraded agricultural land uses are non-irrigated arable land and pastures, while there is an increasing trend in permanently irrigated land. This study's outcome can be considered a surveying baseline for the comparative analysis of similar works for different land-use change trends in Europe or worldwide. Landuse change studies are reliable tools to evaluate the human activities and footprint of proposed strategies and policies in a territory. This article also enables us to understand that Turkey's decisive actors should design development policies to encourage industrial investments and agricultural ventures in Turkey and adapt the land-use/land cover strategies to mitigate agricultural land fragmentation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madleina Gerecke ◽  
Oskar Hagen ◽  
Janine Bolliger ◽  
Anna M. Hersperger ◽  
Felix Kienast ◽  
...  

Abstract Landscapes have been changing at an increasing pace over the past century, with countless consequences for humans and their surrounding environments. Information on past and future land use change and the resulting alteration of landscape service provisioning are valuable inputs for policy making and planning. Land use transitions in Switzerland (2009–2081) were simulated using statistical models informed by past land use changes as well as environmental and socio-economic data (1979–2009). By combining land use types with additional contextual landscape information, eight landscape services, based on both (semi-)natural and artificial landscapes, were quantified and investigated on how they would evolve under projected land use changes. Investigation of land use transitions showed region-dependent trends of urban expansion, loss of agricultural area, and forest regrowth. Landscapes cannot accommodate all services simultaneously, and this study sheds light on some competing landscape services, in particular (i) housing at the expense of agriculture and (ii) vanishing recreation opportunities around cities as city limits, and thus housing and job provisioning, expand. Model projections made it possible to pinpoint potential trade-offs between landscape services in a spatially explicit manner, thereby providing information on service provision losses and supporting planning. While future changes are presented as extrapolations of the patterns quantified in the past, policy changes might cause deviation from the projections presented here. A major challenge is to produce socio-economic and policy scenarios to inform projections that will differ from current landscape management. Given that urban sprawl is affecting many land surfaces globally, the approach used here could be generalized to other countries in similar situations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Loredana Copăcean ◽  
Ionut Zisu ◽  
Valentina Mazăre ◽  
Luminiţa Cojocariu

The soil, regarded as a natural resource, but also as a determinant element of the living standards of rural communities, manly agricultural, may be influenced, directly and indirectly, by the modality of land organizing and use. Starting from this consideration, through this study, the spatial and temporal evolution of land use is being pursued, particularly that of forest areas and wooded grasslands. The goal is to notice the changes that have occurred over a 30-year period and the manner how these changes are reflected on the soil features. The researches presented in this paper have been taking place in the north-eastern hilly area of Timiş County, that area having entirely a rural character. For realizing this study satellite images, topographical and cadastral maps, from different time periods, national and international databases, data from specialty literature were used. To all these we should add direct observations in the field, topographic surveys and information collected from local authorities. The processing of cartographic materials and data and scientific information has been realized with Geographical Information Systems specific applications. The obtained result has been expressed in the form of thematic maps, in graphic form or as statistical analysis. At the level of the analyzed area, the obvious changes in the land use, registered over time, are caused by a number of factors, such as: the organization form, from communist to capitalist policies, leaving agricultural land as fallow ground, reduction in livestock, changing land use etc. All these changes have caused the extension of the wooded grasslands, reduction of arable land, installing inferior forest vegetation in qualitative and quantitative terms etc. As a result, the soil, one of the most important natural resources, is degraded qualitatively, underexploited, and on the other hand, its role as a direct and indirect food producer for local communities is significantly reduced.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaogui Lei ◽  
Paul Wagner ◽  
Nicola Fohrer

<p>Understanding the impacts of land use changes (LUCC) on the dynamics of water quantity and quality is necessary to identify suitable mitigation measures that are needed for sustainable watershed management. Lowland catchments are characterized by a strong interaction of streamflow and near-surface groundwater that intensifies the risk of nutrient pollution. In this study, a hydrologic model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool, SWAT) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) were used to quantify the impacts of different land use types on the variations in actual evapotranspiration (ET), surface runoff (SQ), base flow (BF), and water yield (WYLD) as well as on sediment (SED), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN). To this end, the model was calibrated and validated with daily streamflow data (30 years) and daily sediment and nutrient data from measurement campaigns (3 years in total). Three model runs over thirty years were performed using the different land use maps of 1987, 2010, and 2019, respectively. Land use changes between those years were used to explain the modelled changes in water quantity and quality on the subbasin scale applying PLSR. SWAT achieved a good performance for streamflow (calibration: NSE=0.8, PBIAS=5.5%; validation: NSE=0.78, PBIAS=5.1%) and for TN (calibration: NSE=0.65, PBIAS= -11.3%; validation: NSE=0.87, PBIAS=2.7%) and an acceptable performance for sediment and TP (calibration: NSE=0.49-0.53, PBIAS=25.8% -29.7%; validation: 0.51-0.7, PBIAS= -23.9% - -8.7%) in Stör catchment. The variations in ET, SQ, BF, WYLD, SED, TP, and TN could be explained to an extent of 67%-88% by changes in the area, shape, dominance, and aggregation of individual land use types. They were largely correlated with the major LUCC in the study area i.e. a decrease of arable land, and a respective increase of pasture and settlement. The change in the percentage of arable land affected the dynamics of SED, TP, TN and BF, indicated by a Variable Influence on Projection (VIP) > 1.2 and largest absolute regression coefficients (RCs: 0.45-0.72 for SED, TP, TN; -0.84 for BF). The change in pasture area affected ET, SED, TP, and TN, as indicated by VIPs >1.  The change in settlement percentage had VIP up to 1.62 for SQ and was positively and significantly influenced it (RC: 1.28). PLSR helped to identify the key contributions from individual land use changes on water quantity and quality dynamics. These provide a quantitative basis for targeting most influential land use changes to mitigate impacts on water quality in the future.</p>


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