scholarly journals The Role of Agricultural Land Use Pattern Dynamics on Elephant Habitat Depletion and Human-Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2818
Author(s):  
J. M. P. N. Anuradha ◽  
Miho Fujimura ◽  
Tsukasa Inaoka ◽  
Norio Sakai

The drastic depletion of elephant habitats in the dry zone of Sri Lanka has led to intense human-elephant conflict (HEC) in a region that is home to one of the celebrated agrarian settlements in Asia. Known as the tank villages, these settlements have a long history of human coexistence with elephants and other wild animals. However, the escalating incidence of human-elephant fatalities and crop losses to farmers indicates that the mode of interaction between the tank village inhabitants and the elephants has transformed from coexistence to conflict. Both population and agricultural land use pattern dynamics have contributed to agricultural expansion and loss of elephant habitat in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. However, our knowledge of how the agricultural land use pattern dynamics has contributed to the drastic depletion of elephant range in the dry zone is limited. This research attempted to gain insight into the role of agricultural land use dynamics on elephant habitat depletion and HEC in Sri Lanka through the study of Kuttikulama, a dry zone tank village. The data were collected through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and a cross sectional survey. The study revealed that agricultural land use patterns in traditional dry zone villages have changed in major ways over the last few decades. Such changes included the transition from a shifting-cultivation mode of farming to a fixed sequential mode of farming, the expansion of the per capita cropping area, and the disappearance of communality in agricultural land use patterns. The changes were found to have significantly contributed to a shift in human–elephant interactions from relatively harmonious ones to contentious ones. The study reveals the potential of traditional and alternative cropping and land use systems to minimize human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka.

1970 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Ali ◽  
MM Haque

Pangasius catfish, Pangasianodoan hypophthalmus farming has been evolved to a shape of commercial enterprise over the last two decades in north-central part of Bangladesh, particularly in Mymensingh area but there is a lack of quantitative and qualitative data on the impacts of it on land use pattern. This study was conducted using multiple methodological tools including participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools and mainly questionnaire based farm survey to assess the impacts of Pangasius farming on land use from February to September, 2009. The mean farm size (ha), water area (ha) and dyke area (ha) was 1.36±1.25, 1.06±1.31 and 0.30±0.27, respectively. The Pangasius productivity was significantly and positively correlated with water area and dyke area. Around 10.1% area of the study area was converted to Pangasius farm which was previously used as rice-field. Farmers expanded their farm area by taking leased lands which contributed to 56.47% of total farm area and the lease value of Pangasius pond was doubled compared to agriculture land. Around 48% area of dyke were used to produce agriculture crops and the production was 71.01% lower but profit margin was 76.58% higher than normal land. The discharging wastewater of Pangasius pond also increased rice productivity in adjacent agriculture farm by 10% and additionally reduced fertilizer and irrigation cost by 30% and 40%, respectively. Keyword: Pangasius aquaculture; impact on land use pattern; Bangladesh DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbau.v9i1.8759 JBAU 2011; 9(1): 169-178


Author(s):  
Weijie Yu ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Xuedong Hua ◽  
Xueyan Wei

With the rapid advance of urbanization, land-use intensity is increasing, and various land-use forms gather to form comprehensive land-use patterns. Traffic demand shows variability and complexity under comprehensive land-use patterns. Accurate analysis of traffic demand in urban transportation is the key to active traffic control and road guidance. Researchers have widely studied the relationship between traffic demand and land-use patterns, while land-use intensity is ignored when classifying land-use patterns, and the traffic demand distribution in each land-use pattern is not studied specifically. Taxi is a flexible public mode in urban areas, and taxi demand is an important component in analyzing traffic demand and identifying traffic hotspots in cities. This paper explores taxi demand distribution of comprehensive land-use patterns using online car-hailing data and points of interest (POI) in Chengdu, China. The demand-driven traffic analysis zones are developed by clustering origin–destination points of online car-hailing services. Using POI data, comprehensive land-use patterns are classified with land-use forms and land-use intensity. The K-shape algorithm is adopted to extract the typical taxi demand distribution in each comprehensive land-use pattern. Finally, two indicators, total taxi demand (TTD) and taxi demand difference (TDD), are computed and further analyzed. Results show that taxi demand distribution is still differential even under the same land-use pattern. Three land-use patterns whose average hourly taxi demand reaches about 300 vehicles per square kilometer have the largest TTD and most uneven TDD. The findings can support traffic management, land-use combination, and land-use adjustment to avoid concentrated taxi demand and mismatched TDD.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1831 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-149
Author(s):  
Amica Bose ◽  
Jon D. Fricker

A neighborhood land use pattern designed to accommodate the most frequently taken nonwork trips within an acceptable distance from home was developed. Instead of starting from a specified set of land uses and studying the travel characteristics, mixed land use patterns that fit the observed trip-making behavior of people were formulated. The result is called a reverse-engineered neighborhood, or REN. The REN was tested against a Euclidean development that had separated land uses. Results show a substantial reduction in nonwork trip lengths (in terms of both travel time and distance) in the REN compared with the Euclidean development. The efficiency of the REN is the result of having more trip destination choices available to residents at acceptable distances. The procedures in the analysis are described and demonstrated, the results of the analysis are presented, and directions for further study are suggested.


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