Analyzing Macro-Level Ecological Change and Micro-Level Farmer Behavior in Manas River Basin, China

Environmental degradation is closely related to unreasonable land use behaviors by farmers. In this study, participatory rural assessment (PRA) is used to conduct a detailed survey of farmers and plots and to collect relevant natural and social statistics. The accuracy of remote sensing data is verified by comparative analysis, and the change in status of various land use types in each research period is reflected by the change in the dynamic degree and change in range. We examine how farmers’ attitudes and behaviors affect environmental degradation, using a sample of 403 farmers in China’s Manas River Basin. Due to age, education, income and other differences, farmers’ land use behaviors, as well as their attitude toward and feelings about environmental degradation, vary greatly. We found that most farmers considered the environment to be very important to their lives and crop production, but nearly 21% did not know the causes of environmental degradation and nearly 8% did not consider the environmental impacts of their crop production activities. A new model for oasis expansion—land integration—is presented here. This model can increase the area of cultivated land, reduce cultivated land fragmentation, save irrigation water, improve the field microclimate and form a good ecological cycle. Through land transfer, ecological compensation and ecological protection incentives, the government should guide farmers’ land use behaviors toward cooperation with the river basin’s ecological protection and land use planning.

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Analysis and prediction of LUCC change in Huang-Huai-Hai river basin

Open Geosciences ◽

10.1515/geo-2020-0112 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 1406-1420

Author(s):

Jianwei Wang ◽

Kun Wang ◽

Tianling Qin ◽

Hanjiang Nie ◽

Zhenyu Lv ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

River Basin ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Climate Model ◽

Dynamic Change ◽

Cultivated Land ◽

Emission Scenarios ◽

Future Change ◽

Land Use Types ◽

Downstream Area

AbstractLand use/cover change plays an important role in human development and environmental health and stability. Markov chain and a future land use simulation model were used to predict future change and simulate the spatial distribution of land use in the Huang-Huai-Hai river basin. The results show that cultivated land and grassland are the main land-use types in the basin, accounting for about 40% and 30%, respectively. The area of cultivated land decreased and artificial surfaces increased from 1980 to 2010. The degree of dynamic change of land use after the 1990s was greater than that before the 1990s. There is a high probability of exchange among cultivate land, forest and grassland. The area of forest decreased before 2000 and increased after 2000. Under the three emission scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5) of IPSL-CM5A-LR climate model, the area of cultivated land will decrease and that of grassland will increase in the upstream area while it will decrease in the downstream area. The above methods and rules will be of great help to future land use planning.

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Land-Use and Land-Cover (LULC) Change Detection in Wami River Basin, Tanzania

Land ◽

10.3390/land8090136 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (9) ◽

pp. 136 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sekela Twisa ◽

Manfred F. Buchroithner

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Population Growth ◽

Change Detection ◽

River Basin ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Management Practice ◽

Cultivated Land ◽

Lulc Change ◽

Lulc Changes

Anthropogenic activities have substantially changed natural landscapes, especially in regions which are extremely affected by population growth and climate change such as East African countries. Understanding the patterns of land-use and land-cover (LULC) change is important for efficient environmental management, including effective water management practice. Using remote sensing techniques and geographic information systems (GIS), this study focused on changes in LULC patterns of the upstream and downstream Wami River Basin over 16 years. Multitemporal satellite imagery of the Landsat series was used to map LULC changes and was divided into three stages (2000–2006, 2006–2011, and 2011–2016). The results for the change-detection analysis and the change matrix table from 2000 to 2016 show the extent of LULC changes occurring in different LULC classes, while most of the grassland, bushland, and woodland were intensively changed to cultivated land both upstream and downstream. These changes indicate that the increase of cultivated land was the result of population growth, especially downstream, while the primary socioeconomic activity remains agriculture both upstream and downstream. In general, net gain and net loss were observed downstream, which indicate that it was more affected compared to upstream. Hence, proper management of the basin, including land use planning, is required to avoid resources-use conflict between upstream and downstream users.

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A Comparison of Approaches to Regional Land-Use Capability Analysis for Agricultural Land-Planning

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050458 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 458

Author(s):

Tara A. Ippolito ◽

Jeffrey E. Herrick ◽

Ekwe L. Dossa ◽

Maman Garba ◽

Mamadou Ouattara ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Crop Production ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Agricultural Activity ◽

Field Samples ◽

Agricultural Potential ◽

Fertility Data ◽

Using Data

Smallholder agriculture is a major source of income and food for developing nations. With more frequent drought and increasing scarcity of arable land, more accurate land-use planning tools are needed to allocate land resources to support regional agricultural activity. To address this need, we created Land Capability Classification (LCC) system maps using data from two digital soil maps, which were compared with measurements from 1305 field sites in the Dosso region of Niger. Based on these, we developed 250 m gridded maps of LCC values across the region. Across the region, land is severely limited for agricultural use because of low available water-holding capacity (AWC) that limits dry season agricultural potential, especially without irrigation, and requires more frequent irrigation where supplemental water is available. If the AWC limitation is removed in the LCC algorithm (i.e., simulating the use of sufficient irrigation or a much higher and more evenly distributed rainfall), the dominant limitations become less severe and more spatially varied. Finally, we used additional soil fertility data from the field samples to illustrate the value of collecting contemporary data for dynamic soil properties that are critical for crop production, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.

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Emergy Analysis and Ecological Spillover as Tools to Quantify Ecological Compensation in Xuchang City, Qingyi River Basin, China

Water ◽

10.3390/w13040414 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 414

Author(s):

Huiqin Li ◽

Cuimei Lv ◽

Minhua Ling ◽

Changkuan Gu ◽

Yang Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Effective Means ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Emergy Analysis ◽

Ecological Compensation ◽

Freshwater Resources ◽

Ecological Protection ◽

Complex Relationships

As an effective means to coordinate cost–benefit allocation of ecological protection between upstream and downstream cities, ecological compensation is often used to improve collaborative basin-wide freshwater resources management. Yet, due to the complex relationships between upstream and downstream ecosystem services, calculating eco-compensation is not an easy task. We used ecological spillover (the amount of local ecosystem services not used in the region and thus flows to downstream areas) and emergy analysis to determine the amount of eco-compensation that the city of Xuchang should pay to the upstream city of Xinzheng (Qingyi River Basin, China) from 2010 to 2014. Eco-compensation was determined by deducting the emergy of the local, self-supplied ecosystem services of Xuchang City, calculated using an ecological-water-footprint-based analysis, from the emergy of the total ecosystem services used in Xuchang, and monetized accordingly. The results showed that the self-supplied ecosystem services decreased from 2010 to 2014 and, thus, Xuchang relied more on the ecological spillover services flowing from Xinzheng. As a result, eco-compensation increased from 990 million Chinese Yuan (¥) in 2010 to ¥509 billion in 2014, mostly due to increased demands for water purification and reduced precipitation around Xuchang. This method can be further enhanced by introducing larger datasets and can be replicated elsewhere to accurately determine ecological compensation, ensuring basin-wide collaboration towards the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

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Study on the Urban Fringe Based on the Expansion–Shrinking Dynamic Pattern

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13105718 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 5718

Author(s):

Changqing Sui ◽

Wei Lu

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Urban Fringe ◽

Spatial Form ◽

Architectural Form ◽

Ecological Protection

The urban fringe, as a part of an urban spatial form, plays a considerably major role in urban expansion and shrinking. After decades of rapid development, Chinese cities have advanced from a simple expansion stage to an expansion–shrinking-coexistence stage. In urban shrinking and expansion, the urban fringe shows different characteristics and requirements for specific aspects such as urban planning, land use, urban landscape, ecological protection, and architectural form, thereby forming expanding and shrinking urban fringes. A comprehensive study of expanding and shrinking urban fringes and their patterns is theoretically significant for urban planning, land use, planning management, and ecological civilisation construction.

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Modeling Land Use Changes and their Impacts on Non-Point Source Pollution in a Southeast China Coastal Watershed

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph15081593 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (8) ◽

pp. 1593 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Xin Zhang ◽

Lin Zhou ◽

Yuqi Liu

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Point Source ◽

River Basin ◽

Landscape Metrics ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Cultivated Land ◽

Point Source Pollution ◽

Coastal Watershed ◽

Non Point Source Pollution

Changes in landscape patterns in a river basin play a crucial role in the change on load of non-point source pollution. The spatial distribution of various land use types affects the transmission of non-point source pollutants on the basis of source-sink theory in landscape ecology. Jiulong River basin in southeast of China was selected as the study area in this paper. Aiming to analyze the correlation between changing landscape patterns and load of non-point source pollution in this area, traditional landscape metrics and the improved location-weighted landscape contrast index based on the minimum hydrological response unit (HRULCI) were applied in this study, in combination with remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technique. The results of the landscape metrics showed the enhanced fragmentation extent and the decreasing polymerization degree of the overall landscape in the watershed. High values of HRULCI were concentrated in cultivated land, while low HRULCI values mostly appeared in forestland, indicating that cultivated land substantially enhanced non-point source pollution, while forestland inhibited the pollution process.

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Land Use Evaluation over the Jema Watershed, in the Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Northwestern Highlands of Ethiopia

Land ◽

10.3390/land8030050 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 50 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mintesinot Taye ◽

Belay Simane ◽

Benjamin F. Zaitchik ◽

Yihenew G. Selassie ◽

Shimelis Setegn

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

River Basin ◽

Soil Texture ◽

Arable Land ◽

Nile River ◽

Cultivated Land ◽

Land Capability ◽

Annual Crop ◽

Crop Land ◽

Blue Nile River Basin

Generating land capability class guidelines at a watershed scale has become a priority in sustainable agricultural land use. This study analyzed the area of cultivated land use situated on the non-arable land-capability class in the Jema watershed in the Upper Blue Nile River Basin. Soil surveys, meteorological ground observations, a digital elevation model (DEM) at 30 m, Meteosat at 10 km × 10 km and Landsat at 30 m were used to generate the sample soil texture class, average annual total rainfall (ATRF in mm), terrain, slope (%), elevation (m a.s.l) and land-use land cover (%). The land capability class was analyzed by considering raster layers of terrain, the average ATRF and soil texture. Geo-statistics was employed to fit a surface of soil texture and average ATRF estimates. An overlay technique was used to compute the proportion of cultivated land placed on non-arable land. As per the results of the terrain analysis, the elevation (m a.s.l) of the watershed is in the range of 1895 to 3518 m. The slope was found to be in the range of 0 to 45%. The amount of estimated rainfall ranged from 1640 to 131 mm with value declined from the lower to the higher elevation. Clay loam, clay and heavy clay were found to be the major soil texture classes. Four land capability classes, i.e., II, III, IV (arable) and V (non-arable), were identified with proportions of 28.56%, 45.74%, 22.16% and 3.54%, respectively. Seven land-use land covers were identified, i.e., annual crop land, grazing land, bush land, bare land, settlement land, forestland and water bodies, with proportions of 42.1, 35.9, 8.90, 8.3, 2.6, 2.1, and 0.2, respectively. Around 1707.7 ha of land in the watershed is categorized under non-arable land that cannot be used for annual crop cultivation at any level of intensity. Around 437 ha (3.5%) of land was cultivated on non-arable land. To conclude, the observed unsustainable crop land use could maximize soil loss in upstream regions and siltation and flooding downstream. The annual crop land use that was observed on non-arable land needs to be replaced with perennial crops, pasture and/or forest land uses.

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