HISTORICAL AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES: MAPPING SEASONAL CONDITIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Abstract. The current research aims at exploring the relationships between historical agricultural landscapes and sustainable tourism, by combining the potential of aerial and ground observation methods, that are able to detect the seasonal landscape changes. These phenomena are strongly interlaced with the annual cycle of plants, which have many implications for ecological processes, agriculture, health, tourism, regional/urban planning and economy. In many countries, similar phenomena as the timing of spring-blooming or the timing of autumn coloring foliage are of great visual value and can be of touristic interest, so to enhance the overall attractiveness of a territory. The research analyzes the case study of the historical agricultural landscape, localized in the in-between territories Turin and Milan, which is characterized by large portions of paddy-rice fields, which assume different aesthetical configurations over the year. This landscape, made up of an articulated system of waterways that support large portions of rice cultivation, protected natural areas, historical farmhouses, urban settlements, is the result of a long process of interaction between natural elements and human activities. Remote sensing and ground observations can play an important role in a high-accuracy mapping of the seasonal conditions of this kind of landscape. The flooding of paddy-rice fields determines a high scenic value of large portions of the rural landscape, that can be detected through remote sensing. The specificity of rice cultivation is that plants grow on flooded soils. Such a temporary condition of the landscape can become an unexpected tourist destination. From the methodological point of view, the research combines the potential of time series of satellite high-resolution imagery, for computing vegetation indexes (i.e. NDVI, NDWI etc.), and ground observations, through GIS mapping tools. This interpretation tools are useful to trace a network of slow scenic routes that allow perceiving such temporary landscape conditions and that support a territorial strategy aiming at a sustainable development of these fragile territories.

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Parametric Definition of Slow Tourism Itineraries for Experiencing Seasonal Landscapes. Application of Sentinel-2 Imagery to the Rural Paddy-Rice Landscape in Northern Italy

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132313155 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (23) ◽

pp. 13155

Author(s):

Alessandro Scandiffio

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Paddy Rice ◽

Rice Fields ◽

Landscape Changes ◽

Tourist Destinations ◽

Tourism Sector ◽

Major Interest ◽

Local Roads ◽

Definition Of ◽

Sentinel 2

Slow tourism is a growing phenomenon in Italy; it is assuming a key role in the definition of new strategies for sustainable tourism for the enhancement of landscape and cultural heritage, but also as a driver for the revitalization of marginalized and inner areas of the country. In this framework, the aesthetical phenomena related to seasonal landscape changes (e.g., autumn coloring foliage, spring blooming, controlled paddy-rice fields flooding) that occur in specific environments are emerging as new tourist destinations and are of major interest for the experiential tourism sector. This research shows a GIS-based method to draw up parametric slow tourism itineraries, which are defined according to seasonal landscape changes, by exploiting the high frequency of Sentinel-2 data acquisition. The algorithm defines parametric itineraries within the network of existing local roads by detecting the current landscape conditions through NDVI. The algorithm has been tested in the study area, within the historical agricultural landscape of paddy-rice fields in between Turin and Milan, where high scenic conditions related to the flooding occur over the spring season. This tool can support a range of end users’ decisions for the creation of a widespread tourist destination offer year-round, with the aim to promote more sustainable and balanced use of the places and reduce overpressures in the most frequented places.

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The Flooding Effect from Rice Cultivation Technique on Infiltration and Water Balance

Forum Geografi ◽

10.23917/forgeo.v27i1.5080 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Lilik Slamet Supriatin ◽

Adi Basukriadi ◽

M. Hasroel Thayeb ◽

Tri Edi Budi Soesilo

Keyword(s):

Growth Period ◽

Paddy Rice ◽

Rice Fields ◽

Rice Cultivation ◽

Paddy Fields ◽

Survey Method ◽

Cropping Pattern ◽

Cultivation Technique ◽

Long Time ◽

Surrounding Areas

Flood events are often inundated rice fields and can cause flooding to surrounding areas (the lower reaches of the river) should not be underestimated (just blame the rainfall factor alone), but should be seen also internal factors of the techniques of rice cultivation in paddy fields. The purpose of research/study was to analyze the effect of flooding on the cultivation of paddy rice to infiltration and provide alternative solutions cultivation techniques to reduce flooding. The research method in this study is a survey method with the quantitative approach. Techniques flooding in paddy rice cultivation, especially irrigated cropping pattern rice 3 times a year have resulted in the formation of plow layer tread that is waterproof (hardpan). Waterproof coating that forms on the floor of paddy (rice surface) cannot infiltrate rainwater so that if there is a high-intensity rainfall in the rainy season, rice cannot hold the rain water will overflow and cause flooding to the area around the rice fields. Techniques inundation in lowland rice cultivation resulted in flooded paddy rice growth period in a rather long time (over 2 months), so that the aggregate soil is loose and prone to erosion and landslide potential. Anticipation of floods caused by wetland can be done by making the high rice fields higher than the height of the floodwaters that ever happened to the rice field and lowering the height of standing water in the paddy fields.

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Bat-fruit networks structure resist habitat modification but species roles change in the most transformed habitats

10.1101/554246 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

John Harold Castaño ◽

Jaime Andrés Carranza-Quiceno ◽

Jairo Pérez-Torres

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Rural Landscape ◽

Habitat Modification ◽

Natural Environments ◽

Forest Fragments ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Network Characteristics ◽

Landscape Modification ◽

Species Roles ◽

Networks Structure

AbstractSpecies do not function as isolated entities, rather they are organized in complex networks of interactions. These networks develop the ecological processes that provide ecosystem services for human societies. Understanding the causes and consequences of changes in ecological networks due to landscape modification would allow us to understand the consequences of ecological processes. However, there is still theoretical controversy and few empirical data on the effects of network characteristics on the loss of natural environments. We investigate how bat–fruit networks respond to three landscapes representing the gradient of modification from pre-montane forest to a heterogeneous agricultural landscape in the Colombian Andes (continuous forests, forest fragments, and crops). We found that forest contained smaller bat–fruit networks than forest fragments and crops. Modified landscapes had similar ecological network structures to forest (nestedness and modularity), but crops contained less specialized networks compared to forests and fragments and the species role in these habitats change. The networks in the rural coffee landscape maintain their structure in the different transformation scenarios, indicating that seed dispersal services are maintained even in the most transformed scenarios. This could be related to the high heterogeneity present in this rural landscape. Although the number of species does not decrease due to transformations, species change their roles in the most transformed habitats. This result sheds light on the way that biodiversity responds to anthropogenic transformations, showing higher stability than theoretically predicted.

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Mapping Paddy Rice Planting Area in Northeastern China Using Spatiotemporal Data Fusion and Phenology-Based Method

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11141699 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (14) ◽

pp. 1699 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Qi Yin ◽

Maolin Liu ◽

Junyi Cheng ◽

Yinghai Ke ◽

Xiuwan Chen

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Time Series ◽

Paddy Rice ◽

Northeastern China ◽

Rice Fields ◽

Fusion Algorithm ◽

Landsat Images ◽

Modis Data ◽

Temporal Sampling ◽

New Strategy

Accurate paddy rice mapping with fine spatial detail is significant for ensuring food security and maintaining sustainable environmental development. In northeastern China, rice is planted in fragmented and patchy fields and its production has reached over 10% of the total amount of rice production in China, which has brought the increasing need for updated paddy rice maps in the region. Existing methods for mapping paddy rice are often based on remote sensing techniques by using optical images. However, it is difficult to obtain high quality time series remote sensing data due to the frequent cloud cover in rice planting area and low temporal sampling frequency of satellite imagery. Therefore, paddy rice maps are often developed using few Landsat or time series MODIS images, which has limited the accuracy of paddy rice mapping. To overcome these limitations, we presented a new strategy by integrating a spatiotemporal fusion algorithm and phenology-based algorithm to map paddy rice fields. First, we applied the spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (STARFM) to fuse the Landsat and MODIS data and obtain multi-temporal Landsat-like images. From the fused Landsat-like images and the original Landsat images, we derived time series vegetation indices (VIs) with high temporal and high spatial resolution. Then, the phenology-based algorithm, considering the unique physical features of paddy rice during the flooding and transplanting phases/open-canopy period, was used to map paddy rice fields. In order to prove the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, we compared our results with those from other three classification strategies: (1) phenology-based classification based on original Landsat images only, (2) phenology-based classification based on original MODIS images only and (3) random forest (RF) classification based on both Landsat and Landsat-like images. The validation experiments indicate that our fusion-and phenology-based strategy could improve the overall accuracy of classification by 6.07% (from 92.12% to 98.19%) compared to using Landsat data only, and 8.96% (from 89.23% to 98.19%) compared to using MODIS data, and 4.66% (from93.53% to 98.19%) compared to using the RF algorithm. The results show that our new strategy, by integrating the spatiotemporal fusion algorithm and phenology-based algorithm, can provide an effective and robust approach to map paddy rice fields in regions with limited available images, as well as the areas with patchy and fragmented fields.

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Collation of indigenous and local knowledge as evidence base for herpetofauna conservation outside protected areas: Case study from an agricultural landscape in Eastern India

10.1101/2021.05.26.445747 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Deyatima Ghosh ◽

Parthiba Basu

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Agricultural Intensification ◽

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Control Agent ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Rural Landscape ◽

Biological Pest Control ◽

Farming Community ◽

The Impact

Systematic appraisal of community knowledge as evidence for biodiversity conservation has been widely recognized. For conserving the rich biodiversity in the rural landscape outside the protected areas, it is important to document the knowledge and perception of the farming community. Although such appraisal is available for different taxa, no such systematic study is available for herpetofauna- one of the most vulnerable faunal groups. Our study attempts to document the impact of agricultural intensification on herpetofauna in an agricultural landscape through knowledge and perception appraisal of the farming community. A semi-structured questionnaire survey and validation was conducted in areas of low, medium, and high agricultural intensification. In all areas, farmers indicated an overall decrease in herpetofauna abundance. Farmers at the mid and high agricultural intensification zones reported a more significant decrease in herpetofauna sightings specifically for amphibians and snakes compared to those under low intensification regions. Farmers at low intensification areas recognized significantly more herpetofauna. Farmers attributed five major threats to herpetofauna and ranked pesticide as the most significant reason, especially those in higher intensification. The majority were aware of the importance of herpetofauna as a biological pest control agent. The level of education or farming experience did not seem to have any influence on the farmers knowledge. Our findings integrated with other quantitative studies will facilitate future community-driven conservation in the studied agricultural landscapes.

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Applicability of Dry Direct-seeding Rice Cultivation using Plowing and Compaction Based on Soil Conditions of Paddy Rice Fields

Japanese Journal of Farm Work Research ◽

10.4035/jsfwr.52.63 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 63-75

Author(s):

Hideaki Kanmuri ◽

Hiroyuki Sekiya ◽

Ryuji Otani

Keyword(s):

Paddy Rice ◽

Rice Fields ◽

Rice Cultivation ◽

Direct Seeding ◽

Soil Conditions

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Emergence of Weeds in Paddy Rice Fields

Journal of Weed Science and Technology ◽

10.3719/weed.20.109 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 109-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mitsuyoshi SUZUKI ◽

Takahisa SUTO

Keyword(s):

Paddy Rice ◽

Rice Fields

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The Relict Ecosystem of Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea in an Agricultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future Scenarios

Land ◽

10.3390/land10010001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Antonio J. Mendoza-Fernández ◽

Fabián Martínez-Hernández ◽

Esteban Salmerón-Sánchez ◽

Francisco J. Pérez-García ◽

Blas Teruel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Communities ◽

Ecological Niche ◽

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Eastern Coast ◽

Ecological Value ◽

Distribution Models ◽

European Continent ◽

Major Interest ◽

Maytenus Senegalensis

Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea is a shrub belonging to the Celastraceae family, whose only European populations are distributed discontinuously along the south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, forming plant communities with great ecological value, unique in Europe. As it is an endangered species that makes up plant communities with great palaeoecological significance, the development of species distribution models is of major interest under different climatic scenarios, past, present and future, based on the fact that the climate could play a relevant role in the distribution of this species, as well as in the conformation of the communities in which it is integrated. Palaeoecological models were generated for the Maximum Interglacial, Last Maximum Glacial and Middle Holocene periods. The results obtained showed that the widest distribution of this species, and the maximum suitability of its habitat, occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum, when the temperatures of the peninsular southeast were not as contrasting as those of the rest of the European continent and were favored by higher rainfall. Under these conditions, large territories could act as shelters during the glacial period, a hypothesis reflected in the model’s results for this period, which exhibit a further expansion of M. europaea’s ecological niche. The future projection of models in around 2070, for four Representative Concentration Pathways according to the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, showed that the most favorable areas for this species would be Campo de Dalías (southern portion of Almería province) as it presents the bioclimatic characteristics of greater adjustment to M. europaea’s ecological niche model. Currently, some of the largest specimens of the species survive in the agricultural landscapes in the southern Spain. These areas are almost totally destroyed and heavily altered by intensive agriculture greenhouses, also causing a severe fragmentation of the habitat, which implies a prospective extinction scenario in the near future.

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Predation on Drosophila suzukii within Hedges in the Agricultural Landscape

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects12040305 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 305

Author(s):

Alexandra Siffert ◽

Fabian Cahenzli ◽

Patrik Kehrli ◽

Claudia Daniel ◽

Virginie Dekumbis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Landscape ◽

Vital Role ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Gut Content ◽

Drosophila Suzukii ◽

Natural Habitats ◽

Host Fruit ◽

Molecular Gut Content Analysis ◽

Wild Fruits ◽

Diverse Community

The invasive Drosophila suzukii feeds and reproduces on various cultivated and wild fruits and moves between agricultural and semi-natural habitats. Hedges in agricultural landscapes play a vital role in the population development of D. suzukii, but also harbor a diverse community of natural enemies. We investigated predation by repeatedly exposing cohorts of D. suzukii pupae between June and October in dry and humid hedges at five different locations in Switzerland. We sampled predator communities and analyzed their gut content for the presence of D. suzukii DNA based on the COI marker. On average, 44% of the exposed pupae were predated. Predation was higher in dry than humid hedges, but did not differ significantly between pupae exposed on the ground or on branches and among sampling periods. Earwigs, spiders, and ants were the dominant predators. Predator communities did not vary significantly between hedge types or sampling periods. DNA of D. suzukii was detected in 3.4% of the earwigs, 1.8% of the spiders, and in one predatory bug (1.6%). While the molecular gut content analysis detected only a small proportion of predators that had fed on D. suzukii, overall predation seemed sufficient to reduce D. suzukii populations, in particular in hedges that provide few host fruit resources.

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