scholarly journals Inhabiting the World’s Largest Tropical Delta: Understanding Human-Environment Relationship from a Century-Long Archaeological Quest in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
Rifat Ur Rahman ◽  
Abu B. Siddiq

Due to the exceptionally rich tropical resource, the Lower Ganges-Brahmaputra basins have attracted people of diverse ethnic and geographical backgrounds for millennia. So far 524 protected sites in present Bangladesh indicate the busy human occupation in the world’s largest delta at least from 5th century BCE. Although systematic archaeology began in the 1870s there is still a paucity of knowledge about past human land use and livelihood strategies across this area, which is especially prone to floods, cyclones, and river migrations. Here we attempt a systematic survey of human-environment interactions in ancient deltaic Bangladesh. Revisiting the fragmentary information from archaeological records and epigraphic references produced through over a century-long archaeological legacy, this study is the first attempt at a synthesis of the changing relationships between ancient people and their environment elements including land, water bodies, flora and fauna.

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1478) ◽  
pp. 209-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark B Bush ◽  
Miles R Silman ◽  
Mauro B de Toledo ◽  
Claudia Listopad ◽  
William D Gosling ◽  
...  

While large-scale pre-Columbian human occupation and ecological disturbance have been demonstrated close to major Amazonian waterways, less is known of sites in terra firme settings. Palaeoecological analyses of two lake districts in central and western Amazonia reveal long histories of occupation and land use. At both locations, human activity was centred on one of the lakes, while the others were either lightly used or unused. These analyses indicate that the scale of human impacts in these terra firme settings is localized and probably strongly influenced by the presence of a permanent open-water body. Evidence is found of forest clearance and cultivation of maize and manioc. These data are directly relevant to the resilience of Amazonian conservation, as they do not support the contention that all of Amazonia is a ‘built landscape’ and therefore a product of past human land use.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
Afrital Rezki, S.Pd., M.Si ◽  
Erna Juita ◽  
Dasrizal Dasrizal ◽  
Arie Zella Putra Ulni

Perkembangan penggunaan tanah bergerak horisontal secara spasial ke arah wilayah yang mudah diusahakan. Penggunaan tanah juga bergerak secara vertikal dalam rangka menaikkan mutunya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pola penggunaan lahan, bagaimana manajemen penggunaan lahan di satu wilayah berdasarkan batas Nagari. Metode yang digunakan adalah analsisis spasial dengan interpretasi citra penginderaan jauh, survey lapangan, dan analisis deskriptif. Pertumbuhan pemukiman Nagari Sungai Sariak Kecamatan VII Koto Kabupaten Padang Pariaman mengakibatkan pemanfaatan ruang menjadi tumpang tindih. Diperlukan cara-cara pengelolaan dan managemen penggunaan tanah dalam rangka pembangunan berkelanjutan yang menaikkan taraf hidup masyarakat dan tidak menimbulkan kerugian lingkungan.Terdapat 9 jenis penggunaan lahan yang ada di Nagari Sungai Sariak. Penggunaan lahan tersebut adalah Primary Forest, Secondary Forest, Paddy Field, Settlement, Mixed Plantations, Crop Fields, Water Bodies, Bushes, dan Plantations. Penggunaan lahan yang paling luas di Nagari Sungai Sariak adalah jenis penggunaan lahan Primary Forest, sebesar 48% dari total luas wilayah Nagari Sungai Sariak. Pada tahun 2011 sampai tahun 2016, penggunaan lahan paling luas terjadi pada penggunaan lahan jenis Primary Forest yang kemudian menjadi Mixed Plantations. Land use Changes moved horizontally spatially towards areas that are easily cultivated. The land use also moves vertically in order to increase its quality. This study aims to analyze land use patterns, how land use management in one area is based on Nagari boundaries. The method used is spatial analysis with interpretation of remote sensing images, field surveys, and descriptive analysis. The growth of Nagari Sungai Sariak in Kecamatan VII Koto, Kabupaten Padang Pariaman resulted in overlapping use of space. Management methods are needed and management of land use in the framework of sustainable development that raises the standard of living of the community and does not cause environmental losses. There are 9 types of land use in the Nagari Sungai Sariak. The land uses are Primary Forest, Secondary Forest, Paddy Field, Settlement, Mixed Plantations, Crop Fields, Water Bodies, Bushes, and Plantations. The most extensive land use in Nagari Sungai Sariak is the type of Primary Forest land use, amounting to 48% of the total area of the Nagari Sungai Sariak. From 2011 to 2016, the most extensive land use occurred in Primary Forest land uses which later became Mixed Plantations.


Author(s):  
Qijiao Xie ◽  
Qi Sun

Aerosols significantly affect environmental conditions, air quality, and public health locally, regionally, and globally. Examining the impact of land use/land cover (LULC) on aerosol optical depth (AOD) helps to understand how human activities influence air quality and develop suitable solutions. The Landsat 8 image and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol products in summer in 2018 were used in LULC classification and AOD retrieval in this study. Spatial statistics and correlation analysis about the relationship between LULC and AOD were performed to examine the impact of LULC on AOD in summer in Wuhan, China. Results indicate that the AOD distribution expressed an obvious “basin effect” in urban development areas: higher AOD values concentrated in water bodies with lower terrain, which were surrounded by the high buildings or mountains with lower AOD values. The AOD values were negatively correlated with the vegetated areas while positively correlated to water bodies and construction lands. The impact of LULC on AOD varied with different contexts in all cases, showing a “context effect”. The regression correlations among the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), normalized difference water index (NDWI), and AOD in given landscape contexts were much stronger than those throughout the whole study area. These findings provide sound evidence for urban planning, land use management and air quality improvement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-311
Author(s):  
Jacques Pollini ◽  
John G. Galaty

This article examines strategies adopted by Maasai and other pastoralists in Kenya to adapt to climate change, population growth, land loss, decreasing livestock holdings and land degradation, aimed at achieving greater socio-economic resilience. Using case studies mostly from Narok County and reviewing the increasingly rich literature on pastoralism and conservation in East Africa, we show that pastoralists employ three main strategies to adapt their livelihood systems: intensification (changes in land use systems to increase productivity per hectare); extensification (through territorial expansion into unoccupied areas or territories of neighbouring communities in our cases); and diversification (the combination of pastoralism with other livelihood strategies, mainly farming, conservation, tourism, business and wage jobs, often through migration to small towns or urban centres). Maasai communities have been quick to adopt these strategies, individually or in combination, in order to overcome ecological and socio-economic stress and to pursue opportunities as they arise. Since these strategies are generally compatible with extensive pastoralism, this land use will continue to play a key role in sustaining the livelihoods of people living in semi-arid and arid rangelands. However, when intensification and diversification through the adoption of ranching and farming occur, the rangeland becomes fragmented, with severe impacts on wildlife. In such cases, incentives for sustaining conservation and wildlife tourism will need to increase to compensate land holders for foregoing these more intensive land uses, thus moving towards reconciliation of ecological sustainability and strengthened livelihoods. These findings are illuminated by Gunderson and Holling's (2002) panarchy model and its nested adaptive cycles, where resilience is achieved by providing for change through loosening and reorganising connections between elements in the system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1583-1594
Author(s):  
Deepti Joshi ◽  
Marco Carrera ◽  
Stephane Bélair ◽  
Sylvie Leroyer

Abstract There are numerous water features on the Canadian landscapes that are not monitored. Specifically, there are water bodies over the prairies and Canadian shield regions of North America that are ephemeral in nature and could have a significant influence on convective storm generation and local weather patterns through turbulent exchanges of sensible and latent heat between the land and the atmosphere. In this study a series of numerical experiments is performed with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model at 2.5-km grid spacing to examine the sensitivity of the atmospheric boundary layer and the resulting precipitation to the presence of open water bodies. Operationally, the land–water fraction in GEM is specified by means of static geophysical databases that do not change with time. Uncertainty is introduced in this study into this land–water fraction and the sensitivity of the resulting precipitation is quantified for a convective precipitation event occurring over the Canadian Prairies in the summer of 2014. The results indicate that with an increase in open water bodies, accumulated precipitation, peak precipitation amounts, and intensities decrease. Moreover, shifts are seen in times of peak for both precipitation amounts and intensities, in the order of increasing wetness. Additionally, with an increase in open water bodies, convective available potential energy decreases and convective inhibition increases, indicating suppression of forcing for convective precipitation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (36) ◽  
pp. 9575-9580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Sanderman ◽  
Tomislav Hengl ◽  
Gregory J. Fiske

Human appropriation of land for agriculture has greatly altered the terrestrial carbon balance, creating a large but uncertain carbon debt in soils. Estimating the size and spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) loss due to land use and land cover change has been difficult but is a critical step in understanding whether SOC sequestration can be an effective climate mitigation strategy. In this study, a machine learning-based model was fitted using a global compilation of SOC data and the History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE) land use data in combination with climatic, landform and lithology covariates. Model results compared favorably with a global compilation of paired plot studies. Projection of this model onto a world without agriculture indicated a global carbon debt due to agriculture of 133 Pg C for the top 2 m of soil, with the rate of loss increasing dramatically in the past 200 years. The HYDE classes “grazing” and “cropland” contributed nearly equally to the loss of SOC. There were higher percent SOC losses on cropland but since more than twice as much land is grazed, slightly higher total losses were found from grazing land. Important spatial patterns of SOC loss were found: Hotspots of SOC loss coincided with some major cropping regions as well as semiarid grazing regions, while other major agricultural zones showed small losses and even net gains in SOC. This analysis has demonstrated that there are identifiable regions which can be targeted for SOC restoration efforts.


Author(s):  
B. Varpe Shriniwas D. Payal Sandip

In the present study, an effort has been made to study in detail of Land Use/Land Cover Mapping for Sambar watershed by using Remote Sensing and GIS technique was carried out during the year of 2020-2021 in Parbhani district. In this research the Remote Sensing and Geographical Information system technique was used for identifying the land use/land cover classes with the help of ArcGIS 10.8 software. The Sambar watershed is located in 19º35ʹ78.78˝ N and 76º87ʹ88.44˝ E in the Parbhani district of Marathwada region in Maharashtra. It is covered a total area 97.01 km2. The land use/land cover map and its classes were identified by the Supervised Classification Method in ArcGIS 10.8 software by using the Landsat 8 satellite image. Total six classes are identified namely as Agricultural area, Forest area, Urban area, Barren land, Water bodies and Fallow land. The Agricultural lands are well distributed throughout the watershed area and it covers 4135 ha. (43 per cent). Forest occupies 502 ha area and sharing about 5 per cent of the total land use land cover of the study area. The Urban land occupies 390 ha. area (4 per cent) and there was a rapid expansion of settlement area. Barren land occupies 3392 ha. area (35 per cent). A water bodies occupy 630 ha. area (6 per cent) and the Fallow land occupies 650 ha (7 per cent) but well-developed dendritic drainage pattern and good water availability is in the Sambar watershed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Demián Hinojosa-Garro ◽  
Adriana M. Burgos Chan ◽  
Jaime Rendón-von Osten

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