Estimation of Cultivated Land Quality Based on Soil Hyperspectral Data

Efficient monitoring of cultivated land quality (CLQ) plays a significant role in cultivated land protection. Soil spectral data can reflect the state of cultivated land. However, most studies have used crop spectral information to estimate CLQ, and there is little research on using soil spectral data for this purpose. In this study, soil hyperspectral data were utilized for the first time to evaluate CLQ. We obtained the optimal spectral variables from dry soil spectral data using a gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) algorithm combined with the variance inflation factor (VIF). Two estimation algorithms (partial least-squares regression (PLSR) and back-propagation neural network (BPNN)) with 10-fold cross-validation were employed to develop the relationship model between the optimal spectral variables and CLQ. The optimal algorithms were determined by the degree of fit (determination coefficient, R2). In order to estimate CLQ at the regional scale, HuanJing-1A Hyperspectral Imager (HJ-1A HSI) data were transformed into dry soil spectral data using the linkage model of original soil spectral reflectance to dry soil spectral reflectance. This study was conducted in the Guangdong Province, China and the Conghua district within the same province. The results showed the following: (1) the optimal spectral variables selected from the dry soil spectral variables were 478 nm, 502 nm, 614 nm, 872 nm, 966 nm, 1007 nm, and 1796 nm. (2) The BPNN was the optimal model, with an R2(C) of 0.71 and a normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of 12.20%. (3) The results showed the R2 of the regional-scale CLQ estimation based on the proposed method was 0.05 higher, and the NRMSE was 0.92% lower than that of the CLQ map obtained using the traditional method. Additionally, the NRMSE of the regional-scale CLQ estimation base on dry soil spectral variables from HJ-1A HSI data was 2.00% lower than that of the model base on the original HJ-1A HSI data.

Problematika Perlindungan Lahan Pertanian Berkelanjutan Pasca Undang-Undang Cipta Kerja

Provisions of Law no. 41 of 2009 concerning the Protection of Sustainable Food Agricultural Land (UU PLP2B) is basically intended to classify a certain area of land that is allowed for appropriate food agriculture activities. This research is to examine the problems of sustainable agricultural land protection after the Job Creation Act and find a solution. The research method is a normative research method with a statute approach and uses content analysis. The findings of this study are changes in agricultural land protection regulations that can cause significant shrinkage of agricultural land and threaten farmer groups for investment. The abolition of the obligation to provide replacement land for affected farmers is not profitable for the farmer, because he will lose his agricultural land. The solution is that the government in determining the location of development projects must avoid the use of fertile/productive agricultural land.

Forest Transition and Metropolitan Transformations in Developed Countries: Interpreting Apparent and Latent Dynamics with Local Regression Models

Metropolitan fringes in Southern Europe preserve, under different territorial contexts, natural habitats, relict woodlands, and mixed agro-forest systems acting as a sink of biodiversity and ecosystem services in ecologically vulnerable landscapes. Clarifying territorial and socioeconomic processes that underlie land-use change in metropolitan regions is relevant for forest conservation policies. At the same time, long-term dynamics of fringe forests in the northern Mediterranean basin have been demonstrated to be rather mixed, with deforestation up to the 1950s and a subsequent recovery more evident in recent decades. The present study makes use of Forest Transition Theory (FTT) to examine spatial processes of forest loss and expansion in metropolitan Rome, Central Italy, through local regressions elaborating two diachronic land-use maps that span more than 80 years (1936–2018) representative of different socioeconomic and ecological conditions. Our study evaluates the turnaround from net forest area loss to net forest area gain, considering together the predictions of the FTT and those of the City Life Cycle (CLC) theory that provides a classical description of the functioning of metropolitan cycles. The empirical findings of our study document a moderate increase in forest cover depending on the forestation of previously abandoned cropland as a consequence of tighter levels of land protection. Natural and human-driven expansion of small and isolated forest nuclei along fringe land was demonstrated to fuel a polycentric expansion of woodlands. The results of a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) reveal the importance of metropolitan growth in long-term forest expansion. Forest–urban dynamics reflect together settlement sprawl and increased forest disturbance. The contemporary expansion of fringe residential settlements and peri-urban forests into relict agricultural landscapes claims for a renewed land management that may reconnect town planning, reducing the intrinsic risks associated with fringe woodlands (e.g., wildfires) with environmental policies preserving the ecological functionality of diversified agro-forest systems.

Amazonia Beyond Borders: Indigenous Land Protection for an Indigenous Group in Voluntary Isolation

This article looks at the land protection efforts by the Manxineru, whose lands are affected by numerous actors: state agencies, enterprises and transnational mega-extraction projects. We draw especially from the experiences, activities, and articulation of the Manxineru in protection of the land for the Yine Hosha Hajene (Mascho-Piro), their kin living in voluntary isolation, who circulate more in the Manxineru’s demarcated territory in the Brazilian-Peruvian border area. The article presents Manxineru’s key land protection practices that have been strengthening the social networks of different actors as a go-between with other Indigenous group and authorities of the dominant society, as well as managing better their own forest resource use, gathering economies, and hunting practices for healthy relations of human-environment assemblage. Indigenous knowledge and perspectives for the protection of ancestral land, beyond the borders of the state-set Indigenous reserves and protected areas, have become crucial in creating new governance models. By these methods, the Manxineru have managed to cope with differing economic interests and values in living that oppose and ignore their human-environment relationality and interactions. Yet, as we will point out, the mosaic of different Indigenous areas and conservation still need the implementation of state protective activities by a variety of governmental actors.

Visualizing clustering characteristics of multidimensional arable land quality indexes at the county level in mainland China

The evaluation of the arable land ecosystem services capacity and arable land use intensity is important for recognizing regional key factors that impact the change of arable land attributes. A chronic lack of cooperation persists between these two fields of study, which makes providing sufficient information to support developing arable land use management and control policies difficult. In this study, the clustering characteristics of four arable land quality indexes have been assessed using the K-means algorithm to indicate the regional coordination between arable land resource protection and arable land use. The clustering results have been visualized using circular cartogram. This study can contribute to the identification of key regional challenges in China's arable land use and help to build the framework of other countries’ arable land protection policies.

Integrated Land Use Change Related Carbon Source/Sink Examination in Jiangsu Province

Carbon emission (CE) threatens global climate change severely, leading to the continuous strengthening of the greenhouse effect. Land use changes can greatly affect the ecosystem carbon budget and anthropogenic CE. Based on the land use grids, net ecosystem productivity (NEP), energy consumption-related CE, this study employed various methods to investigate the impact of land use change on carbon balance. The results showed 10.03% of total land use area has land use type changed between 2000 and 2015. Built-up land occupied cropland was the main land use transfer type. The period with the most intense land use changes was 2005–2010, which was constant with the process of China’s urbanization. NEP presented an overall increasing trend excluding built-up land and water areas. Temporally, CE showed an increasing trend in 2000–2015, especially in the industry sector. Spatially, areas with the high energy-related CE were mainly distributed in the south, which has a relatively high economic level. The land use intensity values of cities in Jiangsu all presented an overall increasing trend, which is related to the economic development and local endowment. Cities with higher land use intensity were usually accompanied with high CE, suppressing NEP growth. From 2000 to 2015, soil carbon storage reduced by 0.15 × 108 t, vegetation carbon storage reduced by 0.04 × 108 t, and CE reached 17.42 × 108 t. Total CE caused by land use change reached 15.46 × 108 t. The findings can make references for the low-carbon development from ecological land protection, strengthen land management, and optimize urban planning.

Evolutionary Game and Numerical Simulation of Cultivated Land Protection Policies Implementation in China

The effective implementation of cultivated land protection policies (CLPP) has important practical significance for improving China’s food security and ecological security. The central government, local governments, and farmers have mutually restricted and influencing interest relations. At the same time, the codes of behavior of multistakeholders also affect the implementation of CLPP in the social system. Therefore, this article discusses the behavioral tendencies and game relationships of relevant stakeholders in the implementation of CLPP from the perspective of evolutionary games and portrays a cognitive decision-making process closer to reality. Finally, numerical simulation reveals the key variables that affect the stability strategy. Results show the following: (1) As the main body of system supply, the central government should reconstruct the political achievement evaluation system and improve the status of the effective implementation of cultivated protection policies in the political achievement evaluation of local governments. (2) The central government should increase incentives for local governments to implement CLPP and increase penalties for violations to improve the effectiveness of policy implementation. (3) To optimize the actual implementation of CLPP, increasing awareness of farmers’ rights protection, reducing rights protection costs of farmers, and increasing the constraints on the flexible implementation of CLPP are necessary.

Constitutional protection of land in the Slovak Republic

The significant amendment of the Slovak constitution deals with the protection of the land which it newly characterises as a non-renewable natural resource and provides additional legal protection of it. The article analyses the importance of this amendment from multiple perspectives with emphasis on legislative changes it has brought. The main topics of the article are the need for more effective legislation in the area of land protection and also the long-standing need to carry out land consolidations in the Slovak Republic.

The role of social influence in New Zealand rural landowners' land use decisions

<p>New Zealand’s native bush has been substantially reduced in extent by human actions. Valuable native bush fragments remain on private land. Protection of these fragments is required on multi-generational timescales appropriate to their succession periods. Social influence has been shown to predict human behaviour in a variety of behavioural domains and research settings. Social norms possess a self-reinforcing characteristic that may lead to the diffusion and embedding of behaviour and attitude change in society also on a multi-generational time-scale. The role of social influence in New Zealand landowners’ decisions with respect to native trees on their land is examined for two populations. One population is a shared interest group (the ‘Farm Forestry Association’); the other is the general population of rural landowners. Data is gathered using questionnaires based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Weak social influence is shown to be present for participants’ intentions to increase or decrease native tree cover on their land. The strength of social influence is moderated by the frequency of social interaction. Contrary to the research hypothesis, the two groups do not differ in the norms they perceive nor the strength of social influence experienced. Suggestions are made for developing and applying the research methods in a small group setting.</p>