30 Years of Land Cover Change in Connecticut, USA: A Case Study of Long-Term Research, Dissemination of Results, and Their Use in Land Use Planning and Natural Resource Conservation

Remotely sensed land cover data can be a tremendous resource to land use decision makers, yet there is often a disconnect between the worlds of remote sensing and local government. The Connecticut’s Changing Landscape project is focused on bridging this gap. The project analyzes changes to the state’s landscape using Landsat-derived 30-m land cover and cross-correlation analysis. It includes seven dates spanning 30 years, from 1985 to 2015. During this period an additional 4.7 percent of the state was converted to development-related land covers, with corresponding losses to forest and agricultural land. New development was for the most part in attenuated patterns rather than concentrated near existing developed areas. Additional land cover analyses were conducted of agricultural areas, riparian corridors, core forest, and watershed imperviousness, to more closely examine issues of sustainability. Particular care is taken to make research findings accessible, understandable, and usable for the public through traditional outreach methods, and increasingly through internet mapping technology. As a result, the project has become a widely used resource informing the work of state, regional and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and researchers. A more concerted effort to integrate research and outreach is needed to ensure that land cover research has an impact on issues of land use and sustainability.

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A national extent map of cropland and grassland for Switzerland based on Sentinel-2 data

10.5194/essd-2021-60 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Robert Pazúr ◽

Nica Huber ◽

Dominique Weber ◽

Christian Ginzler ◽

Bronwyn Price

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Google Earth ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Training Data ◽

Growing Seasons ◽

Google Earth Engine ◽

Sentinel 2

Abstract. Agricultural landscapes support multiple functions and are of great importance for biodiversity. Heterogeneous agricultural mosaics of cropland and grassland commonly result from variable land use practices and ecosystem service demands. Switzerland’s agricultural land use is considerably spatially heterogeneous due to strong variability in conditions, especially topography and climate, thus presenting challenges to automated agricultural mapping. Nation-wide knowledge of the location of cropland and grassland is necessary for effective conservation and land use planning. We mapped the distribution of cropland and grassland across Switzerland. We used several indices largely derived from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery captured over multiple growing seasons, and parcel-based training data derived from landholder reporting. The mapping was conducted within Google Earth Engine using a random forest classifier. The resulting map has high accuracy in lowlands as well as in mountainous areas. The map will act as a base agricultural land cover dataset for researchers and practitioners working in agricultural areas of Switzerland and interested in land cover and landscape structure. The map as well as the training data and calculation algorithms (using Google Earth Engine) are freely available for download on the Envidat platform (doi: 10.16904/envidat.205).

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Land Use Land Cover Changes and its Implication on the conservation of Re-introduced Kihansi Spay Toads (Nectophrynoides asperginis) in Kihansi Gorge-Tanzania

10.21203/rs.3.rs-961588/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Atuhombye Sigala ◽

Kelvin Ngongolo ◽

Naza Mmbaga

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Landsat Imagery ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Potential Habitat ◽

Baseline Information ◽

Global Threat

Abstract Background Land use land cover change (LULCC) is a global threat to biodiversity conservation. Endemic species such as Kihansi spray toads (KST) are prone to extinction due to LULCC. This study assessed the LULCC of the Kihansi catchment (KC), a potential habitat for the KST and adjacent areas. Remote sensing (RS), geographical information system (GIS) and 156 questionnaires administered to three surrounding villages namely: Mgugwe, Udagaji and Ukami were used to assess the LULCC forms in the study area. Landsat imagery and ground truthing, were used to classify and monitor LULCC for 25 years from 1995 to 2020. Results Settlements and agricultural land increased by 26.23% and 3.7% respectively. On the other hand, forested land decreased by a rate of 10-20% per year. Across respondents a significant increase (p = 0.041) of the population was reported which contributed to settlement expansion. LULC of KC and adjacent areas were observed to change over the years that anticipate threatening the reintroduced KST and its habitat. Conclusions This study provides baseline information for land use planning in KC and adjacent areas that consider the sustainable conservation of re-introduced KST while improving the livelihood of the adjacent local communities.

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Retrospective Analysis of Land Use Land Cover Dynamics Using GIS and Remote sensing in Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Journal of Landscape Ecology ◽

10.2478/jlecol-2018-0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 31-52

Author(s):

Mammo Siraj ◽

Kebin Zhang ◽

Kidane Moges

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Local Community ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Forest Resources ◽

Forest Land ◽

Fuel Wood ◽

Planning And Management ◽

Central Highlands

Abstract Assessing and quantifying the current forest resources status underpins sustainable forest resources planning and management. To this end, this study was conducted to analyze the dynamics of land use cover change (LUCC) and explore their drivers at the central highlands of Dry Afromontane Chilimo-Gaji forest for the study period (1973-2015) under consideration. The result of the study indicated that landscape trends have occurred in Chilimo-Gaji forest over the last 43 years and five classes of LUCC namely shrub land, rural settlement, bare land and road, forest land and agricultural land were identified. The most commonly reported drivers of deforestation in the study area were expansion of agricultural land, rural settlements, population growth, insecurity of the tenure and rights over the land, timber production and fuel wood collection. Surprisingly, the increasing demand for agricultural land and human settlement for increasing human population underpinned by expansion of agricultural activities led to the clearing of forest land in the study area. The study reveals that the forest land cover type has lost 922.14 hectares (26.96 %) which were changed into other land cover types such as agriculture and settlement for the study period under consideration with an annually rate of 21.45 ha. However, deforestation rates showed declining trend between the time periods 2008-2015 as a result of introduction of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) schemes (1996) which involve the local community in management and sharing of the benefit obtained from the management. In order to promote sustainable forest resources management in the study area in the years to come, integrated land use planning and management and addressing key drivers of deforestation were recommended.

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Spatial-Temporal Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Urban Areas Using Remote Sensing Images and GIS Analysis: The Case Study of Opole, Poland

Geosciences ◽

10.3390/geosciences11080312 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 312

Author(s):

Barbara Wiatkowska ◽

Janusz Słodczyk ◽

Aleksandra Stokowska

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Satellite Imagery ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Landsat 8 ◽

Rate Of Increase ◽

Management Procedures

Urban expansion is a dynamic and complex phenomenon, often involving adverse changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This paper uses satellite imagery from Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, Sentinel-2 MSI, and GIS technology to analyse LULC changes in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The research was carried out in Opole, the capital of the Opole Agglomeration (south-western Poland). Maps produced from supervised spectral classification of remote sensing data revealed that in 20 years, built-up areas have increased about 40%, mainly at the expense of agricultural land. Detection of changes in the spatial pattern of LULC showed that the highest average rate of increase in built-up areas occurred in the zone 3–6 km (11.7%) and above 6 km (10.4%) from the centre of Opole. The analysis of the increase of built-up land in relation to the decreasing population (SDG 11.3.1) has confirmed the ongoing process of demographic suburbanisation. The paper shows that satellite imagery and GIS can be a valuable tool for local authorities and planners to monitor the scale of urbanisation processes for the purpose of adapting space management procedures to the changing environment.

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An Integrated Economic, Environmental and Social Approach to Agricultural Land-Use Planning

Land ◽

10.3390/land10040364 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 364

Author(s):

Sahar Shahpari ◽

Janelle Allison ◽

Matthew Tom Harrison ◽

Roger Stanley

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Commodity Prices ◽

Global Scale ◽

Agricultural Land Use ◽

Climate Type ◽

Crop Selection ◽

Regional Impacts ◽

Farmer Decision Making

Agricultural land-use change is a dynamic process that varies as a function of social, economic and environmental factors spanning from the local to the global scale. The cumulative regional impacts of these factors on land use adoption decisions by farmers are neither well accounted for nor reflected in agricultural land use planning. We present an innovative spatially explicit agent-based modelling approach (Crop GIS-ABM) that accounts for factors involved in farmer decision making on new irrigation adoption to enable land-use predictions and exploration. The model was designed using a participatory approach, capturing stakeholder insights in a conceptual model of farmer decisions. We demonstrate a case study of the factors influencing the uptake of new irrigation infrastructure and land use in Tasmania, Australia. The model demonstrates how irrigated land-use expansion promotes the diffusion of alternative crops in the region, as well as how coupled social, biophysical and environmental conditions play an important role in crop selection. Our study shows that agricultural land use reflected the evolution of multiple simultaneous interacting biophysical and socio-economic drivers, including soil and climate type, crop and commodity prices, and the accumulated effects of interactive decisions of farmers.

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Spatial Distribution and Evaluation of Arsenic and Zinc Content in the Soil of a Karst Landscape

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126976 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6976

Author(s):

Dimitrios E. Alexakis ◽

George D. Bathrellos ◽

Hariklia D. Skilodimou ◽

Dimitra E. Gamvroula

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Spatial Distribution ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Urban Soil ◽

Agricultural Soil ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Land Evaluation ◽

Agricultural Activity ◽

North West ◽

Total Study Area

Karst features such as polje are highly vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic pollution. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the soil quality in the Ioannina polje (north-west Greece) concerning arsenic (As) and zinc (Zn), and delineate their origin as well as compare the As and Zn content in soil with criteria recorded in the literature. For this purpose, the geomorphological settings, the land use, and the soil physicochemical properties were mapped and evaluated, including soil texture and concentrations of aqua-regia extractable As and Zn. The concentration of elements was spatially correlated with the land use and the geology of the study area, while screening values were applied to assess land suitability. The results reveal that 72% of the total study area has a very gentle slope. This relief favors urban and agricultural activity. Thus, the urban and agricultural land used cover 92% of the total area. The spatial distribution for As and Zn in the soil of the study area is located on very gentle slopes and is strongly correlated with the geological parent materials and human-induced contamination sources. Arsenic and Zn can be considered enriched in the soil of the area studied. The median topsoil contents (in mg kg−1) for As (agricultural soil 16.0; urban soil 17.8) and Zn (agricultural soil 92.0; urban soil 95.0) are higher compared to the corresponding median values of European topsoils. Land evaluation suitability concerning criteria given from the literature is discussed. The proposed work may be helpful in the project of land use planning and the protection of the natural environment.

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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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Key Challenges for Land Use Planning and Its Environmental Assessments in the Abuja City-Region, Nigeria

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050443 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 443

Author(s):

Evidence Chinedu Enoguanbhor ◽

Florian Gollnow ◽

Blake Byron Walker ◽

Jonas Ostergaard Nielsen ◽

Tobia Lakes

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Environmental Assessment ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Environmental Assessments ◽

City Regions ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Land Cover Maps

Land use planning as strategic instruments to guide urban dynamics faces particular challenges in the Global South, including Sub-Saharan Africa, where urgent interventions are required to improve urban and environmental sustainability. This study investigated and identified key challenges of land use planning and its environmental assessments to improve the urban and environmental sustainability of city-regions. In doing so, we combined expert interviews and questionnaires with spatial analyses of urban and regional land use plans, as well as current and future urban land cover maps derived from Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing. By overlaying and contrasting land use plans and land cover maps, we investigated spatial inconsistencies between urban and regional plans and the associated urban land dynamics and used expert surveys to identify the causes of such inconsistencies. We furthermore identified and interrogated key challenges facing land use planning, including its environmental assessment procedures, and explored means for overcoming these barriers to rapid, yet environmentally sound urban growth. The results illuminated multiple inconsistencies (e.g., spatial conflicts) between urban and regional plans, most prominently stemming from conflicts in administrative boundaries and a lack of interdepartmental coordination. Key findings identified a lack of Strategic Environmental Assessment and inadequate implementation of land use plans caused by e.g., insufficient funding, lack of political will, political interference, corruption as challenges facing land use planning strategies for urban and environmental sustainability. The baseline information provided in this study is crucial to improve strategic planning and urban/environmental sustainability of city-regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and across the Global South, where land use planning faces similar challenges to address haphazard urban expansion patterns.

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How Can We Represent Seasonal Land Use Dynamics in SWAT and SWAT+ Models for African Cultivated Catchments?

Water ◽

10.3390/w12061541 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1541

Author(s):

Albert Nkwasa ◽

Celray James Chawanda ◽

Anna Msigwa ◽

Hans C. Komakech ◽

Boud Verbeiren ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Swat Model ◽

Agricultural Practices ◽

Area Index ◽

Land Use Dynamics ◽

Cropping Seasons ◽

Decision Tables ◽

Land Cover Maps

In SWAT and SWAT+ models, the variations in hydrological processes are represented by Hydrological Response Units (HRUs). In the default models, agricultural land cover is represented by a single growing cycle. However, agricultural land use, especially in African cultivated catchments, typically consists of several cropping seasons, following dry and wet seasonal patterns, and are hence incorrectly represented in SWAT and SWAT+ default models. In this paper, we propose a procedure to incorporate agricultural seasonal land-use dynamics by (1) mapping land-use trajectories instead of static land-cover maps and (2) linking these trajectories to agricultural management settings. This approach was tested in SWAT and SWAT+ models of Usa catchment in Tanzania that is intensively cultivated by implementing dominant dynamic trajectories. Our results were evaluated with remote-sensing observations for Leaf Area Index (LAI), which showed that a single growing cycle did not well represent vegetation dynamics. A better agreement was obtained after implementing seasonal land-use dynamics for cultivated HRUs. It was concluded that the representation of seasonal land-use dynamics through trajectory implementation can lead to improved temporal patterns of LAI in default models. The SWAT+ model had higher flexibility in representing agricultural practices, using decision tables, and by being able to represent mixed cropping cultivations.

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