Potential Contribution of Public Primary Schools in Attaining Ten Percent Tree Cover in Kenya

Purpose: This paper demonstrates the influence of school land-use practices on tree population in public primary schools in Kisumu County. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was employed and systematic random sampling used to select 124 schools (20% of 615). Primary data came from self-administered questionnaires to school heads and harmonized using focus group discussions with teachers and pupils. Further, key informant interviews, observation, photography and desk studies were also used. Results: From the study, the average land size of a public primary school is 3.26Ha with approximately 23.7% unused spaces. 32.26% of the schools do not have a documented land use plan hence rely on sheer instincts and ad hoc decisions of the administration or Board of Management (BoM) for space allocation to any land cover. There is a significantly positive correlation between school land-use practices (r2=0.843) and tree population. Out of the common land use practices identified; forestry (p=2e-16), tree nursery (p=2e-16) and kitchen gardening (p=0.017) had a significant positive influence on the total tree population in schools. The findings show that land use practices positively influence tree population in public primary schools. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study demonstrates that school administration should take advantage of the unused spaces to provide adequate room for establishment of woodlots and gardens to facilitate the achievement of the 10% forest cover. Key Words: Land cover, Land use practices, Public Primary schools, school land size, tree population

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Land Use Increases the Correlation between Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon Stocks in the Global Tropics

Land ◽

10.3390/land10111217 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 1217

Author(s):

Manan Bhan ◽

Simone Gingrich ◽

Sarah Matej ◽

Steffen Fritz ◽

Karl-Heinz Erb

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Land Management ◽

Empirical Relationship ◽

Carbon Stocks ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Ecosystem Structure ◽

Biomass Carbon ◽

Potential Vegetation

Tree cover (TC) and biomass carbon stocks (CS) are key parameters for characterizing vegetation and are indispensable for assessing the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the global climate system. Land use, through land cover change and land management, affects both parameters. In this study, we quantify the empirical relationship between TC and CS and demonstrate the impacts of land use by combining spatially explicit estimates of TC and CS in actual and potential vegetation (i.e., in the hypothetical absence of land use) across the global tropics (~23.4° N to 23.4° S). We find that land use strongly alters both TC and CS, with stronger effects on CS than on TC across tropical biomes, especially in tropical moist forests. In comparison to the TC-CS correlation observed in the potential vegetation (biome-level R based on tropical ecozones = 0.56–0.90), land use strongly increases this correlation (biome-level R based on tropical ecozones = 0.87–0.94) in the actual vegetation. Increased correlations are not only the effects of land cover change. We additionally identify land management impacts in closed forests, which cause CS reductions. Our large-scale assessment of the TC-CS relationship can inform upcoming remote sensing efforts to map ecosystem structure in high spatio-temporal detail and highlights the need for an explicit focus on land management impacts in the tropics.

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Rapid expansion of human impact on natural land in South America since 1985

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.abg1620 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (14) ◽

pp. eabg1620

Author(s):

Viviana Zalles ◽

Matthew C. Hansen ◽

Peter V. Potapov ◽

Diana Parker ◽

Stephen V. Stehman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

South America ◽

Land Cover ◽

Human Impact ◽

Land Surface ◽

Rapid Expansion ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Land Uses ◽

Natural Ecosystems ◽

Natural Land

Across South America, the expansion of commodity land uses has underpinned substantial economic development at the expense of natural land cover and associated ecosystem services. Here, we show that such human impact on the continent’s land surface, specifically land use conversion and natural land cover modification, expanded by 268 million hectares (Mha), or 60%, from 1985 to 2018. By 2018, 713 Mha, or 40%, of the South American landmass was impacted by human activity. Since 1985, the area of natural tree cover decreased by 16%, and pasture, cropland, and plantation land uses increased by 23, 160, and 288%, respectively. A substantial area of disturbed natural land cover, totaling 55 Mha, had no discernable land use, representing land that is degraded in terms of ecosystem function but not economically productive. These results illustrate the extent of ongoing human appropriation of natural ecosystems in South America, which intensifies threats to ecosystem-scale functions.

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RECENT LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGE DYNAMICS IN THE GRAN CHACO AMERICANO

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-3-w12-2020-369-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol XLII-3/W12-2020 ◽

pp. 369-372

Author(s):

S. Banchero ◽

D. de Abelleyra ◽

S. R. Veron ◽

M. J. Mosciaro ◽

F. Arévalos ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Visual Interpretation ◽

Herbaceous Vegetation ◽

Territorial Planning ◽

Gran Chaco ◽

Environmental Interactions

Abstract. Land transformation is one of the most significant human changes on the Earth’s surface processes. Therefore, land use land cover time series are a key input for environmental monitoring, natural resources management, territorial planning enforcement at national scale. We here capitalize from the MapBiomas initiative to characterize land use land cover (LULC) change in the Gran Chaco between 2010 and 2017. Specifically we sought to a) quantify annual changes in the main LULC classes; b) identify the main LULC transitions and c) relate these transitions to current land use policies. Within the MapBiomas project, Landsat based annual maps depicting natural woody vegetation, natural herbaceous vegetation, dispersed natural vegetation, cropland, pastures, bare areas and water. We used Random Forest machine learning algorithms trained by samples produced by visual interpretation of high resolution images. Annual overall accuracy ranged from 0,73 to 0,74. Our results showed that, between 2010 and 2017, agriculture and pasture lands increased ca. 3.7 Mha while natural forestry decreased by 2.3 Mha. Transitions from forests to agriculture accounted for 1.14% of the overall deforestation while 86% was associated to pastures and natural herbaceous vegetation. In Argentina, forest loss occurred primarily (39%) on areas non considered by the territorial planning Law, followed by medium (33%), high (19%) and low (9%) conservation priority classes. These results illustrate the potential contribution of remote sensing to characterize complex human environmental interactions occurring over extended areas and timeframes.

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Landscape analysis and land use evolution in the hydrographic basin of Barra Seca river, ES

Ciência e Natura ◽

10.5902/2179460x30413 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 50

Author(s):

Letícia Guarnier ◽

Fabricia Benda de Oliveira ◽

Vicente Sombra da Fonseca ◽

Carlos Henrique Rodrigues de Oliveira

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

River Basin ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Supervised Classification ◽

Evolutionary Dynamics ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Time Interval ◽

Hydrographic Basin ◽

Dense Tree

Multitemporal analysis for monitoring land cover and use is an important tool for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of a region, assisting the knowledge on the environmental reality. This study aimed at mapping the land cover classes of the Barra Seca River basin, in northern Espírito Santo, obtained using the Bhattacharya algorithm supervised classification in 1985, 1996, 2006 and 2016. The land use and occupation map allowed characterizing quantitatively the areas identified in the basin map in 10 classes as follows water bodies, agriculture and grasses, dense tree cover, sparse tree cover, exposed soil, wetlands, urban areas, rocky outcrops, shade, and clouds. The landscape maps were obtained using the Patch Analyst extension. In the studied time interval, the land use and occupation in the basin changed little, with areas dominated mostly by agriculture and grasslands, followed by forests while the basin vegetation area also remained mostly unchanged. However, the quantitative analysis using landscape metrics indicates an increasing fragmentation and edge effect in the Barra Seca River basin.

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Detection Of Change In Land Cover In Jabalpur District From 1991-2021 Using Remote Sensing

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1159229/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shubham Lakhera ◽

Dal Chand Rahi

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ground Truth ◽

Google Earth ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Positive Sign ◽

Landsat 8 ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Natural Streams

Abstract Land use/ land cover is an important component in understanding the interactions of human activities with the environment and thus it is necessary to monitor and detect the changes to maintain a sustainable environment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the changes in land use and land cover of Jabalpur district in the last 4 decades from 1991 to 2021 classifying majorly in Forest (Medium to Dense), Trees, Waterbody, Settlements & Agricultural fields. The study was carried out through the Remote Sensing and GIS approach using High-resolution Imagery from Google Earth, and LANDSAT 8, 7, 5 imagery of 2021, 2011, 2001, 1991 respectively. The land use/land cover classification was performed based on the Supervised Classification approach available in ArcGIS. GIS software is used to prepare the thematic maps and ground truth observations were also performed to check the accuracy of the classification. The present study has brought out that the Tree cover has been decreased from 12.97–5.40% during 1991-2021 showing a considerable decrease in Forest area as well. The settlement area increased from 4.26% in 1991 to 12.46% in 2021. The areas under natural streams, have shown no significant change and can be considered as a positive sign for sustainable development.

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Three Millennia of Vegetation, Land-Use and Climate Change in SE Sicily

Forests ◽

10.3390/f13010102 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 102

Author(s):

Fabrizio Michelangeli ◽

Federico Di Di Rita ◽

Alessandra Celant ◽

Nadine Tisnérat-Laborde ◽

Fabrizio Lirer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Forest Recovery ◽

Ice Age ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Primary Role ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

South Central ◽

Land Use Practices

This study presents the first Late Holocene marine pollen record (core ND2) from SE Sicily. It encompasses the last 3000 years and is one of the most detailed records of the south-central Mediterranean region in terms of time resolution. The combined approach of marine palynology and historical ecology, supported by independent palaeoclimate proxies, provides an integrated regional reconstruction of past vegetational dynamics in relation to rapid climatic fluctuations, historical socio-economic processes, and past land-use practices, offering new insights into the vegetation history of SE Sicily. Short-term variations of sparse tree cover in persistently open landscapes reflect rapid hydroclimatic changes and historical land-use practices. Four main phases of forest reduction are found in relation to the 2.8 ka BP event, including the Late Antique Little Ice Age, the Medieval Climate Anomaly, and the Little Ice Age, respectively. Forest recovery is recorded during the Hellenistic and Roman Republican Periods, the Early Middle Ages, and the last century. Agricultural and silvicultural practices, as well as stock-breeding activities, had a primary role in shaping the current vegetational landscape of SE Sicily.

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Fire hazard modulation by long-term dynamics in land cover and dominant forest type in eastern and central Europe

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (5) ◽

pp. 1213-1230 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Angelica Feurdean ◽

Boris Vannière ◽

Walter Finsinger ◽

Dan Warren ◽

Simon C. Connor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Biomass Burning ◽

Forest Type ◽

Fire Hazard ◽

Fire Regimes ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Tree Cover ◽

The Past

Abstract. Wildfire occurrence is influenced by climate, vegetation and human activities. A key challenge for understanding the risk of fires is quantifying the mediating effect of vegetation on fire regimes. Here, we explore the relative importance of Holocene land cover, land use, dominant functional forest type, and climate dynamics on biomass burning in temperate and boreo-nemoral regions of central and eastern Europe over the past 12 kyr. We used an extensive data set of Holocene pollen and sedimentary charcoal records, in combination with climate simulations and statistical modelling. Biomass burning was highest during the early Holocene and lowest during the mid-Holocene in all three ecoregions (Atlantic, continental and boreo-nemoral) but was more spatially variable over the past 3–4 kyr. Although climate explained a significant variance in biomass burning during the early Holocene, tree cover was consistently the highest predictor of past biomass burning over the past 8 kyr. In temperate forests, biomass burning was high at ∼45 % tree cover and decreased to a minimum at between 60 % and 70 % tree cover. In needleleaf-dominated forests, biomass burning was highest at ∼ 60 %–65 % tree cover and steeply declined at >65 % tree cover. Biomass burning also increased when arable lands and grasslands reached ∼ 15 %–20 %, although this relationship was variable depending on land use practice via ignition sources, fuel type and quantities. Higher tree cover reduced the amount of solar radiation reaching the forest floor and could provide moister, more wind-protected microclimates underneath canopies, thereby decreasing fuel flammability. Tree cover at which biomass burning increased appears to be driven by warmer and drier summer conditions during the early Holocene and by increasing human influence on land cover during the late Holocene. We suggest that long-term fire hazard may be effectively reduced through land cover management, given that land cover has controlled fire regimes under the dynamic climates of the Holocene.

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