scholarly journals Determining Land Management Zones Using Pedo-Geomorphological Factors in Potential Degraded Regions to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Keshavarzi ◽  
Vinod Kumar ◽  
Eduardo Leonel Bottega ◽  
Jesús Rodrigo-Comino

The proper delineation of site-specific management zones is very important in the agricultural land management of potentially degraded areas. There is a necessity for the development of prospective tools in management plans to correctly understand the land degradation processes. In order to accomplish this, we present a pedo-geomorphological approach using soil texture, land elevation and flow vector aspects to distinguish different management zones and to discretize soil micronutrients. To achieve this goal, we conducted the study in the Neyshabur plain, Northeast Iran. For data collection, grid sampling (500 × 500 m) was used with 70 specific points. Soil samples were collected in triplicates from various sites as composite samples (0–30 cm) to analyse clay, Zn, Mn, Cu and Fe. Using the altitude information (obtained with GPS at each sampling point), flow vectors were also modelled for all selected points. Based on the values of altitude, flow vectors and clay, management zones were delimited using geographic information systems. The best data organization was obtained from the combination of clay + elevation + flow vector attributes, generating two different management zones. In this circumstance, the lowest fuzzy performance index (FPI) and modified partition entropy (MPE) values were generated. It can be observed that the management zone 1 (MZ1) is located in the areas with a lower elevation and higher content of clay. On the other hand, the MZ2 was characterized by areas with a higher elevation and lower clay content. This study concluded that the design of management zones, using pedo-geomorphological information could reduce the time and cost of sampling necessary to assess potentially degraded areas of land.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Tesfaye Samuel Saguye

Land degradation is increasing in severity and extent in many parts of the world. Success in arresting land degradation entails an improved understanding of its causes, process, indicators and impacts. Various scientific methodologies have been employed to assess land degradation globally. However, the use of local community knowledge in elucidating the causes, process, indicators and effects of land degradation has seen little application by scientists and policy makers. Land degradation may be a physical process, but its underlying causes are firmly rooted in the socio-economic, political and cultural environment in which land users operate. Analyzing the root causes and effects of land degradation from local community knowledge, perception and adapting strategies perspective will provide information that is essential for designing and promoting sustainable land management practices. The main objective of this study was to analyze the perceptions of farmers’ on the impact of land degradation hazard on agricultural land productivity decline associated with soil erosion and fertility loss. The study used a multistage sampling procedure to select sample respondent households. The sample size of the study was 120 household heads and 226 farm plots managed by these farmers. The primary data of the study were collected by using semi-structured Interview, focus group discussions and field observation. Both descriptive statistics and econometric techniques were used for data analysis. Descriptive results show that 57percent of the respondents were perceived the severity and its consequence on agricultural land productivity. The following indicators of soil erosion and fertility loss were generally perceived and observed by farmers’ in the study area: gullies formations, soil accumulation around clumps of vegetation, soil deposits on gentle slopes, exposed roots, muddy water, sedimentation in streams and rivers, change in vegetation species, increased runoff, and reduced rooting depth. The direct human activities which were perceived to be causing land degradation in the study area include: deforestation and clearing of vegetation, overgrazing, steep slope cultivation and continuous cropping. The farmers’ possibility of perceiving the impact of land degradation hazard on agricultural land productivity was primarily determined by institutional, psychological, demographic and by bio-physical factors. Farmers who perceive their land as deteriorating and producing less than desired, tend to adopt improved land management practices. On the other hand, farmers who perceive their land to be fertile tend to have low adoption of conservation practices. In order to overcome this land degradation and its consequent effects, the study recommended a need for the government to enforce effective policies to control and prevent land degradation and these policies should be community inclusive /participatory founded up on indigenous and age-honored knowledge and tradition of farmers' natural resource management as well as introduced scientific practices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Samoilă Grigoraș Claudia ◽  
Ioniță Ion ◽  
Niacșu Lilian ◽  
Grigoraș Georgel ◽  
Blebea-Apostu Ana Maria

Abstract Land degradation has been recognized as an important environmental threat in the Moldavian Plateau of eastern Romania. This study was designed to estimate the magnitude of land degradation and to review land management in a small catchment in the Central Moldavian Plateau. Several methods were deployed to estimate soil erosion losses, gully distribution, landslide inventory and reservoir sedimentation rates. Results obtained in the study area of 7,766 ha, of which 31% is arable and 32% native forest, show that the mean value of soil losses by water erosion on agricultural land is 19.0 t ha−1y−1. By adding the woodland contribution, this value significantly decreases to 12.8 t ha−1y−1. Then, a large proportion of land (58%) is covered by landslides. Most of them are shallow and dormant (stable), and the active ones form only ~2% of the total landslide area. Siltation rates determined using 137Cs reflect the impact of land management on deposition patterns in reservoirs. Proper conservation measures were applied over a 20-year time-span from 1970-1990. Since 1991 the contour farming system collapsed and returned to the traditional ‘up-and-down slope’ farming system on very small plots.


1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1356) ◽  
pp. 891-899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward B. Barbier

The following paper investigates the economic determinants of land degradation in developing countries. The main trends examined are rural household's decisions to degrade as opposed to conserve land resources, and the expansion of frontier agricultural activity that contributes to forest and marginal land conversion. These two phenomena appear often to be linked. In many developing areas, a poor rural household's decision whether to undertake long–term investment in improving existing agricultural land must be weighed against the decision to abandon this land and migrate to environmentally fragile areas. Economic factors play a critical role in determining these relationships. Poverty, imperfect capital markets and insecure land tenure may reinforce the tendency towards short–term time horizons in production decisions, and may bias land use decisions against long–term land management strategies. In periods of commodity booms and land speculation, wealthier households generally take advantage of their superior political and market power to ensure initial access to better quality resources, in order to capture a larger share of the resource rents. Poorer households are confined either to marginal environmental areas where resource rents are limited, or only have access to resources once they are degraded and rents dissipated. Overall trends in land degradation and deforestation are examined, followed by an overview of rural household's resource management decisions with respect to land management, frontier agricultural expansion, and migration from existing agricultural land to frontiers. Finally, the discussion focuses on the scope for policy improvements to reduce economic constraints to effective land management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Cassan Kimani

Purpose: The better management of land resources is essential for sustainability and for improving the quality of life of people living in the city and the peri urban areas who are mostly farmers With major changes being agricultural land use giving way to residential land use in the peri urban area, access to agricultural land is drastically reduced causing food insecurity problems in the region. The general objective of the study was to establish the access the impact of human population on land degradation. Methodology: The paper used a desk study review methodology where relevant empirical literature was reviewed to identify main themes and to extract knowledge gaps. Findings: The study found out that increase in human population has resulted to more land-use and land cover changes are likely to take place as more land is converted over time, forest to agricultural land, and agricultural land to built-up land, which threatens the existence of agricultural land and water sources in the future. Recommendations: The study recommends that there is the need for stakeholder participation and institutionalize stakeholders’ participations in land use planning process and urban planning. It is only when the public and land owners are well informed about land management issues that a positive change of attitude, adherence to laws on land use among others can be achieved. The county government and the national governments should come up with policies to outlaw arbitrary sale of land especially in areas where the main form of land use is agriculture to enhance the effectiveness of zoning regulations. It is important that the management of land be made the first priority in the study area and the nation as a whole. The various land sector agencies and institutions responsible for land management should enforce the existing laws on land management


Conservation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-181
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ismail Hossain ◽  
Shinya Numata

In protected areas (PAs) in Bangladesh, as policies shift from net deforestation, conservation initiatives and various management plans have been implemented to reduce deforestation and include public participation at multiple levels. However, the interactive effect of land-related policies on deforestation in PAs is poorly understood. In this study, land-use change analysis using geographic information system data was performed to investigate how policies affected land use and land cover change in Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary (RKWS), particularly the National Forest Policy (1979~), National Land Policy (2001~), and Agricultural Land Policy (1999~), using a series of Landsat images captured at different times. Our analyses showed that the total forest area increased in the 1994–2005 period when a plantation program was implemented, and also that many forest areas were replaced with noncommercial agricultural land areas in the 2005–2013 and 2013–2018 periods, when land zoning and co-management programs were implemented under different land-related policies. Commercial and non-commercial agricultural land expansions were the main drivers of deforestation, suggesting that several programs under the different land-related policies could have had synergetic effects on deforestation even in PAs. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering the undesirable effects of land-related policies in Pas, and the need to support the community for forest conservation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7007
Author(s):  
Habtamu Nebere ◽  
Degefa Tolossa ◽  
Amare Bantider

In Ethiopia, the practice of land management started three decades ago in order to address the problem of land degradation and to further boost agricultural production. However, the impact of land management practices in curbing land degradation problems and improving the productivity of the agricultural sector is insignificant. Various empirical works have previously identified the determinants of the adoption rate of land management practices. However, the sustainability of land management practices after adoption, and the various factors that control the sustainability of implemented land management practices, are not well addressed. This study analyzed the factors affecting the sustainability of land management practices after implementation in Mecha Woreda, northwestern Ethiopia. The study used 378 sample respondents, selected by a systematic random sampling technique. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the quantitative data, while the qualitative data were qualitatively and concurrently analyzed with the quantitative data. The sustained supply of fodder from the implemented land management practices, as well as improved cattle breed, increases the sustainability of the implemented land management practices. While lack of agreement in the community, lack of enforcing community bylaws, open cattle grazing, lack of benefits of implemented land management practices, acting as barrier for farming practices, poor participation of household heads during planning and decision-making processes, as well as the lack of short-term benefits, reduce the sustainability of the implemented land management practices. Thus, it is better to allow for the full participation of household heads in planning and decision-making processes to bring practical and visible results in land management practices. In addition, recognizing short-term benefits to compensate the land lost in constructing land management structures must be the strategy in land management practices. Finally, reducing the number of cattle and practicing stall feeding is helpful both for the sustainability of land management practices and the productivity of cattle. In line with this, fast-growing fodder grass species have to be introduced for household heads to grow on land management structures and communal grazing fields for stall feeding.


Author(s):  
Hildegarde Vandenhove

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the foodchain and the possibility of continued restricted future land use. This paper summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the radionuclides transfer in the food chain and to facilitate the return of potentially affected soils to agricultural practices in areas impacted by a nuclear accident.


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Kaganova ◽  
Abdirasul Akmatov ◽  
Charles Undeland

The Urban Institute (UI) worked with five cities in post‐Soviet Kyrgyzstan to apply better management practices through the development of Strategic Land Management Plans. Kyrgyzstan transferred property to local governments, but municipal land management had remained poor owing to a proliferation of responsible agencies, lack of rule of law, corruption, and passiveness on the part of local governments. UI worked with local governments to make an inventory of municipal land, publicize the results, and develop a strategy that articulated principles for land management and an implementation plan. This led to several improvements including proper registration of parcels and proactive policies to lease and sell land through open competition. It also established a model for determining public policy that countered corruption and public deliberation of costs and benefits in the use of local assets. Donor involvement to promote good land legislation, the property registration system, and decentralization was also critical to success. Santrauka Urbanistikos institutas bendradarbiavo su penkiais posovietinės Kirgizijos miestais, kad, plėtodamas strateginės žemėtvarkos planus, įvestų geresnę vadybos praktiką. Kirgizijoje nuosavybė perduota vietos valdžiai, tačiau žemėtvarkos būklė savivaldybėse išliko vargana dėl atsakingų tarnybų gausos, įstatymų trūkumo, korupcijos ir vietos valdžios pasyvumo. Urbanistikos institutas bendradarbiavo su vietos valdžia, siekdamas inventorizuoti savivaldybių žemę, paskelbti rezultatus ir sukurti strategiją, pabrėžiančią žemėtvarkos principus ir įgyvendinimo planą. Tai leido kai ką patobulinti, įskaitant deramą sklypų registravimą ir aktyvią žemės nuomos bei pardavimo per atvirus konkursus politiką. Be to, sudarytas modelis, nustatantis viešąją politiką, kovojančią su korupcija, ir viešus sąnaudų ir naudos svarstymus naudojant vietinį turtą. Prie gerų žemės įstatymų, nuosavybės registravimo sistemos ir decentralizacijos sėkmingo propagavimo daug prisidėjo ir rėmėjai.


2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomaso Ceccarelli ◽  
Sofia Bajocco ◽  
Luca Salvati ◽  
Luigi Perini

2021 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
Vüqar İmanəli oğlu Cəfərov ◽  
◽  
Rəşad Mais oğlu Qubatov ◽  

Fundamental reforms are being carried out in many spheres of the national economy in our republic. In particular, the development of the agricultural sector in the liberated territories is one of the main goals today. It is very important to reorganize the agrarian sector on the basis of the adopted laws, to use lands efficiently, and to organize agricultural land management in a modern form. The article studied the agrochemical properties of meadow-gray soils in the territory of Aghdam region and determined that the 0-100 cm layer of soils is poorly supplied with common and active forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium elements. Key words: Mil-Garabagh, Ağdam district, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, meadow-gray soils, cadastre, fertility


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