scholarly journals Saving Soil for Sustainable Land Use

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmelo Maria Torre ◽  
Pierluigi Morano ◽  
Francesco Tajani
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Urban Economics ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Land Policy ◽  
Environmental Preservation ◽  
The Impact

Our work is regarding the analysis of land use changes, in the light of “saving soil” against the expansion due to unearned plus value of land: The loss of natural and agricultural surface in front of the expanding urban environment is a critical aspect of unsustainability of urban development, especially in the way it was carried out in the past decades. The measure of the physical transition of land use and characters from a more natural condition of land surface to a new artificial one, joint with a parallel analysis of the increase of land value due to such change is nowadays a major land-policy tool. The interplay of urban economics regulation with planning, reveals new key issues in urban governance and environmental preservation. In this paper it will be shown some experiment about the impact assessment of soil take, related with the seek of valorization of property inside the planning process. Our paper reports as well about the experimental activity carried out inside the MITO Lab of the Polytechnic of Bari, where reports about property values and environmental values have been produced, specially looking at the reality of the Apulia, a southern Italian Region, that is rich of farmlands and coastlines, often invaded by constructions with a severe loss of nature, landscape and ecosystems services.

scholarly journals Effect of agricultural practices on terrestrial isopods: a review

ZooKeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 801 ◽  
pp. 63-96
Author(s):  
Catherine Souty-Grosset ◽  
Ariel Faberi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Soil Tillage ◽  
Chemical Pollution ◽  
Soil Biodiversity ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Terrestrial Isopods ◽  
The Impact

Terrestrial isopods (approximately 3700 known species in the world) are encountered in temperate and tropical regions, from the seashore to high altitudes and from floodplain forests to deserts. They are known to contribute to soil biodiversity. Environmental factors and anthropogenic actions, particularly land use changes such as primarily agricultural practices, and urbanization affect soil biodiversity and their functions. Human practices, such as soil tillage, pesticide application, chemical pollution, along with soil acidification adversely affect isopod abundance and diversity. It is thus important to recognise the vital contributions of soil biodiversity in support of environmental quality protection through maintaining soil functions and their significance to sustainable land use. This review will also deal with recent studies attempting to evaluate the impact of returning to an environmentally friendly agriculture by restoring refuge habitats such as grass strips, hedges, and woodlands for terrestrial isopods.

scholarly journals Empirical Modeling of Stream Nutrients for Countries without Robust Water Quality Monitoring Systems

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Ismael Díaz ◽  
Paula Levrini ◽  
Marcel Achkar ◽  
Carolina Crisci ◽  
Camila Fernández Nion ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Empirical Modeling ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Remarkable Feature ◽  
The Impact

Water quality models are useful tools to understand and mitigate eutrophication processes. However, gaining access to high-resolution data and fitting models to local conditions can interfere with their implementation. This paper analyzes whether it is possible to create a spatial model of nutrient water level at a local scale that is applicable in different geophysical and land-use conditions. The total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were modeled by integrating Geographical Information Systems, Remote Sensing, and Generalized Additive and Land-Use Changes Modeling. The research was based on two case studies, which included 204 drainage basins, with nutrient and limnological data collected during two seasons. The models performed well under local conditions, with small errors calculated from the independent samples. The recorded and predicted concentrations of nutrients indicated a significant risk of water eutrophication in both areas, showing the impact of agricultural intensification and population growth on water quality. The models are a contribution to the sustainable land-use planning process, which can help to prevent or promote land-use transformation and new practices in agricultural production and urban design. The ability to implement models using secondary information, which is easily collected at a low cost, is the most remarkable feature of this approach.

scholarly journals Effect of Land Use Changes on the Urban Surface Temperature in Umuahia Town, Southeast, Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-443
Author(s):  
F. Ike ◽  
I.C. Mbah ◽  
C.R. Otah ◽  
J. Babington ◽  
L. Chikwendu
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Urban Surface ◽  
Temperature Profiles ◽  
Bare Land ◽  
The Impact

The land surfaces of hot-humid tropical urban areas are exposed to significant levels of solar radiation. Increased heat gain adds to different land surface temperature profiles in cities, resulting in different thermal discomfort thresholds. Using multi-temporal (1986, 2001, and 2017) landsat data, this study examined the impact of land use change on urban temperature profiles in Umuahia, Nigeria. The findings revealed that over time, built-up regions grow in surface area and temperature at the expense of other land use. The transfer matrix, showed that approximately 59.88 percent of vegetation and 8.23 percent of bareland were respectively changed into built up during the course of 31 years. The highest annual mean temperature in built-up regions was 21.50°C in 1986, 22.20°C in 2001, and 26.01°C in 2017. Transect profiles across the landuses reveals that surface Temperature rises slowly around water/vegetation and quickly over built-up and bare land area. The study observed drastic changes in land cover with a corresponding increase in surface temperature for the period between 1986 and 2017 with consistent decrease in water bodies and bare land in the study area. Overall, the spatio-temporal distribution of surface temperature in densely built up areas was higher than the adjacent rural surroundings, which is evidence of Urban Heat Island. The impact of landuse change on urban surface temperature profiles could provide detailed data to planners and decision makers in evaluating thermal comfort levels and other risk considerations in the study area.

scholarly journals Land surface models significantly underestimate the impact of land-use changes on global evapotranspiration

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 124047
Author(s):  
Qilin Wang ◽  
Yingping Wang ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Shujing Qin ◽  
Quan Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Model Structure ◽  
Annual Plant ◽  
Land Surface Models ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Despite numerous assessments of the impact of land-use change (LUC) on terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET) that have been conducted using land surface models (LSMs), no attempts have been made to evaluate their performance in this regard globally. Errors in simulating LUC impacts on ET largely stem from LUC data interpretation (LI, i.e. mapping of gridded LUC data into annual plant function types) and model structure (MS, i.e. parameterization of land-surface processes). The objective of this study was to benchmark ET estimates from four LSMs using the Zhang-curve, a prototype of the Budyko framework that has been validated against global hydrological observations and used widely to quantify the impacts of LUC on ET. A framework was further proposed to quantify and attribute errors in estimated ET changes induced by LI or MS. Results showed that all LSMs underestimated ET changes by about 55%–78%, and 37%–48% of the error was attributable to LI, but only 11%–32% of the error was attributable to MS across the four LSMs. From a hydrological perspective, our analysis provided insights about the errors in estimated impacts of LUC on ET by LSMs. The results demonstrated that LUC data interpretation accounted for a larger fraction of errors than LSM structure. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the defining and development of consistent protocols for interpreting global LUC data for future assessments.

scholarly journals A Model-Based Tool for Assessing the Impact of Land Use Change Scenarios on Flood Risk in Small-Scale River Systems—Part 1: Pre-Processing of Scenario Based Flood Characteristics for the Current State of Land Use

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Frauke Kachholz ◽  
Jens Tränckner
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Small Rivers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Ungauged Catchments ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Impact

Land use changes influence the water balance and often increase surface runoff. The resulting impacts on river flow, water level, and flood should be identified beforehand in the phase of spatial planning. In two consecutive papers, we develop a model-based decision support system for quantifying the hydrological and stream hydraulic impacts of land use changes. Part 1 presents the semi-automatic set-up of physically based hydrological and hydraulic models on the basis of geodata analysis for the current state. Appropriate hydrological model parameters for ungauged catchments are derived by a transfer from a calibrated model. In the regarded lowland river basins, parameters of surface and groundwater inflow turned out to be particularly important. While the calibration delivers very good to good model results for flow (Evol =2.4%, R = 0.84, NSE = 0.84), the model performance is good to satisfactory (Evol = −9.6%, R = 0.88, NSE = 0.59) in a different river system parametrized with the transfer procedure. After transferring the concept to a larger area with various small rivers, the current state is analyzed by running simulations based on statistical rainfall scenarios. Results include watercourse section-specific capacities and excess volumes in case of flooding. The developed approach can relatively quickly generate physically reliable and spatially high-resolution results. Part 2 builds on the data generated in part 1 and presents the subsequent approach to assess hydrologic/hydrodynamic impacts of potential land use changes.

scholarly journals Rural-Spatial Restructuring Promoted by Land-Use Transitions: A Case Study of Zhulin Town in Central China

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Dong Han ◽  
Jiajun Qiao ◽  
Qiankun Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Central China ◽  
Rural Space ◽  
Spatial Restructuring ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
The Impact

Rural-spatial restructuring involves the spatial mapping of the current rural development process. The transformation of land-use morphologies, directly or indirectly, affects the practice of rural restructuring. Analyzing this process in terms of the dominant morphology and recessive morphology is helpful for better grasping the overall picture of rural-spatial restructuring. Accordingly, this paper took Zhulin Town in Central China as a case study area. We propose a method for studying rural-spatial restructuring based on changes in the dominant and recessive morphologies of land use. This process was realized by analyzing the distribution and functional suitability of ecological-production-living (EPL) spaces based on land-use types, data on land-use changes obtained over a 30-year observation period, and in-depth research. We found that examining rural-spatial restructuring by matching the distribution of EPL spaces with their functional suitability can help to avoid the misjudgment of the restructuring mode caused by the consideration of the distribution and structural changes in quantity, facilitating greater understanding of the process of rural-spatial restructuring. Although the distribution and quantitative structure of Zhulin’s EPL spaces have changed to differing degrees, ecological- and agricultural-production spaces still predominate, and their functional suitability has gradually increased. The spatial distribution and functional suitability of Zhulin are generally well matched, with 62.5% of the matched types being high-quality growth, and the positive effect of Zhulin’s spatial restructuring over the past 30 years has been significant. We found that combining changes in EPL spatial area and quantity as well as changes in functional suitability is helpful in better understanding the impact of the national macro-policy shift regarding rural development. Sustaining the positive spatial restructuring of rural space requires the timely adjustment of local actors in accordance with the needs of macroeconomic and social development, and a good rural-governance model is essential.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Influence of Land Use/Land Cover Change Dynamics on Surface Urban Heat Island: A Case Study of Abuja Metropolis, Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Auwalu Faisal Koko ◽  
Wu Yue ◽  
Ghali Abdullahi Abubakar ◽  
Akram Ahmed Noman Alabsi ◽  
Roknisadeh Hamed
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Urban Heat

Rapid urbanization in cities and urban centers has recently contributed to notable land use/land cover (LULC) changes, affecting both the climate and environment. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze changes in LULC and its spatiotemporal influence on the surface urban heat islands (UHI) in Abuja metropolis, Nigeria. To achieve this, we employed Multi-temporal Landsat data to monitor the study area’s LULC pattern and land surface temperature (LST) over the last 29 years. The study then analyzed the relationship between LULC, LST, and other vital spectral indices comprising NDVI and NDBI using correlation analysis. The results revealed a significant urban expansion with the transformation of 358.3 sq. km of natural surface into built-up areas. It further showed a considerable increase in the mean LST of Abuja metropolis from 30.65 °C in 1990 to 32.69 °C in 2019, with a notable increase of 2.53 °C between 2009 and 2019. The results also indicated an inverse relationship between LST and NDVI and a positive connection between LST and NDBI. This implies that urban expansion and vegetation decrease influences the development of surface UHI through increased LST. Therefore, the study’s findings will significantly help urban-planners and decision-makers implement sustainable land-use strategies and management for the city.

scholarly journals Impact of Land Use Change on Water Conservation: A Case Study of Zhangjiakou in Yongding River

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Tianshi Pan ◽  
Lijun Zuo ◽  
Zengxiang Zhang ◽  
Xiaoli Zhao ◽  
Feifei Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Hydrological Process ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Yongding River

The implementation of ecological projects can largely change regional land use patterns, in turn altering the local hydrological process. Articulating these changes and their effects on ecosystem services, such as water conservation, is critical to understanding the impacts of land use activities and in directing future land planning toward regional sustainable development. Taking Zhangjiakou City of the Yongding River as the study area—a region with implementation of various ecological projects—the impact of land use changes on various hydrological components and water conservation capacity from 2000 to 2015 was simulated based on a soil and water assessment tool model (SWAT). An empirical regression model based on partial least squares was established to explore the contribution of different land use changes on water conservation. With special focus on the forest having the most complex effects on the hydrological process, the impacts of forest type and age on the water conservation capacity are discussed on different scales. Results show that between 2000 and 2015, the area of forest, grassland and cultivated land decreased by 0.05%, 0.98% and 1.64%, respectively, which reduces the regional evapotranspiration (0.48%) and soil water content (0.72%). The increase in settlement area (42.23%) is the main reason for the increase in water yield (14.52%). Most land use covered by vegetation has strong water conservation capacity, and the water conservation capacity of the forest is particularly outstanding. Farmland and settlements tend to have a negative effect on water conservation. The water conservation capacity of forest at all scales decreased significantly with the growth of forest (p < 0.05), while the water conservation capacity of different tree species had no significant difference. For the study area, increasing the forest area will be an effective way to improve the water conservation function, planting evergreen conifers can rapidly improve the regional water conservation capacity, while planting deciduous conifers is of great benefit to long-term sustainable development.

scholarly journals Identification of sensitive indicators to assess the interrelationship between soil quality, management practices and human health

SOIL ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Zornoza ◽  
J. A. Acosta ◽  
F. Bastida ◽  
S. G. Domínguez ◽  
D. M. Toledo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Aggregate Stability ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Nutrient Content ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Soil Quality Index

Abstract. Soil quality (SQ) assessment has long been a challenging issue, since soils present high variability in properties and functions. This paper aims to increase the understanding of SQ through the review of SQ assessments in different scenarios providing evidence about the interrelationship between SQ, land use and human health. There is a general consensus that there is a need to develop methods to assess and monitor SQ for assuring sustainable land use with no prejudicial effects on human health. This review points out the importance of adopting indicators of different nature (physical, chemical and biological) to achieve a holistic image of SQ. Most authors use single indicators to assess SQ and its relationship with land uses – soil organic carbon and pH being the most used indicators. The use of nitrogen and nutrient content has resulted sensitive for agricultural and forest systems, together with physical properties such as texture, bulk density, available water and aggregate stability. These physical indicators have also been widely used to assess SQ after land use changes. The use of biological indicators is less generalized, with microbial biomass and enzyme activities being the most selected indicators. Although most authors assess SQ using independent indicators, it is preferable to combine some of them into models to create a soil quality index (SQI), since it provides integrated information about soil processes and functioning. The majority of revised articles used the same methodology to establish an SQI, based on scoring and weighting of different soil indicators, selected by means of multivariate analyses. The use of multiple linear regressions has been successfully used for forest land use. Urban soil quality has been poorly assessed, with a lack of adoption of SQIs. In addition, SQ assessments where human health indicators or exposure pathways are incorporated are practically inexistent. Thus, further efforts should be carried out to establish new methodologies to assess soil quality not only in terms of sustainability, productivity and ecosystem quality but also human health. Additionally, new challenges arise with the use and integration of stable isotopic, genomic, proteomic and spectroscopic data into SQIs.

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