Assessment of Land Cover Dynamics and Drivers of Urban Expansion Using Geospatial and Logistic Regression Approach in Wa Municipality, Ghana

The current trends of land use dynamics have revealed a significant transformation of settlement spaces. In the Wa Municipality of Ghana, the changes in land use and land cover are inspired by a plethora of driving forces. In this study, we assessed the geo-physical drivers of settlement expansion under land use dynamics in the Wa Municipality of Ghana. The study employed geospatial and remote sensing tools to map and analyse the spatio-temporal dynamics of the landscape, using Landsat satellite imageries: thematic mapper (TM), enhanced thematic mapper (ETM) and operational land imager (OLI) from 1990 to 2020. The study employed a binomial logistic regression model to statistically assess the geo-physical drivers of settlement expansion. Random forest (RF)–supervised classification based on spatio-temporal analyses generated relatively higher classification accuracies, with overall accuracy ranging from 89.33% to 93.3%. Urban expansion for the last three decades was prominent, as the period from 1990 to 2001 gained 11.44 km2 landmass of settlement, while there was 11.30 km2 gained from 2001 to 2010, and 29.44 km2 gained from 2010 to 2020. Out of the independent variables assessed, the distance to existing settlements, distance to river, and distance to primary, tertiary and unclassified roads were responsible for urban expansion.

Effects of Agricultural Use on Endangered Plant Taxa in Spain

Agriculture is one of the most widespread human activities and has the greatest impact on terrestrial ecosystems, as it transforms natural ecosystems into artificial landscapes using, in many cases, large amounts of pesticides as well as overexploiting natural resources. Therefore, for effective biodiversity conservation, it is necessary to include agricultural systems in conservation programs. In this work, the 50 plant taxa described for Spain as threatened by agricultural use were selected. These were divided according to the type of threat into those affected by crop extension, intensification, or abandonment. In addition, information was obtained concerning their conservation status, level of protection and functional traits (life form, pollination, and dispersal). Finally, the evolution of land use, in the areas near the populations of the selected species, was identified. The selected taxa belong to 21 families and present different life forms and modes of dispersal or pollination. Forty-six percent are endangered (EN) and most are included in legal protection lists. Nearly three-quarters are threatened by crop expansion and land use dynamics, reflecting an expansion of cultivated areas, which adds further pressure to these species. In addition to agricultural expansion, taxa are also at risk, due to important rates of agricultural land abandonment, and mention agricultural intensification. Nevertheless, conservation measures do exist to promote biodiversity in agricultural landscapes that may help to reverse the negative effect of land use dynamics on selected species, but few are specific to threatened flora. Therefore, if threatened plants are to be conserved in agricultural areas, it is necessary to promote a profound transformation of our socioecological systems. One of these transformative changes could come from the human-nature reconnection.

Estimating global land system impacts of timber plantations using MAgPIE 4.3.5

Out of 1150 Mha (million hectares) of forest designated primarily for production purposes in 2020, plantations accounted for 11 % (131 Mha) of this area and fulfilled more than 33 % of the global industrial roundwood demand. However, adding additional timber plantations to meet increasing timber demand intensifies competition for scarce land resources between different land uses such as food, feed, livestock and timber production. Despite the significance of plantations with respect to roundwood production, their importance in meeting the long-term timber demand and the implications of plantation expansion for overall land-use dynamics have not been studied in detail, in particular regarding the competition for land between agriculture and forestry in existing land-use models. This paper describes the extension of the modular, open-source land system Model of Agricultural Production and its Impact on the Environment (MAgPIE) using a detailed representation of forest land, timber production and timber demand dynamics. These extensions allow for a better understanding of the land-use dynamics (including competition for land) and the associated land-use change emissions of timber production. We show that the spatial cropland patterns differ when timber production is accounted for, indicating that timber plantations compete with cropland for the same scarce land resources. When plantations are established on cropland, it causes cropland expansion and deforestation elsewhere. Using the exogenous extrapolation of historical roundwood production from plantations, future timber demand and plantation rotation lengths, we model the future spatial expansion of forest plantations. As a result of increasing timber demand, we show a 177 % increase in plantation area by the end of the century (+171 Mha in 1995–2100). We also observe (in our model results) that the increasing demand for timber amplifies the scarcity of land, which is indicated by shifting agricultural land-use patterns and increasing yields from cropland compared with a case without forestry. Through the inclusion of new forest plantation and natural forest dynamics, our estimates of land-related CO2 emissions better match with observed data, in particular the gross land-use change emissions and carbon uptake (via regrowth), reflecting higher deforestation with the expansion of managed land and timber production as well as higher regrowth in natural forests and plantations.

Land-use Dynamics in Lupila Ward of Makete District in Southern Highlands of Tanzania

This article examines Land-Use (LU) dynamics in Lupila ward of Makete District in Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to track LU change in Lupila ward from 1984 to 2014. Geographical information system (GIS) was employed to track LU/Land-Cover (LU/LC) change from 1984 to 2014. The questionnaire, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), in-depth interview and field observations were used to supplement GIS. The data were collected from 87 respondents through questionnaire, FGDs and in-depth interview. Five LU/LC classes were identified, which are agriculture with scattered settlement, natural forests, woodlands, bushlands and grasslands. The identified LU/LC classes changed (increased and decreased) over time. Findings from respondents indicated that LU/LC change was mainly caused by the introduction of exotic tree species and decline in soil fertility. Based on the findings, the study recommends that it is imperative for the respective authority to introduce LU plan in each village so as to rescue resources like natural forests from being depleted.

Short Value Chains in Food Production: The Role of Spatial Proximity for Economic and Land Use Dynamics

Agricultural land demand tends to be in weak condition vis-à-vis settlement development, transport infrastructure and industry expansion. At the same time, the awareness and demand of consumers for regional food is constantly rising, in particular in urban regions. The resulting challenge is that high demand for regional food is concentrated at places where land for food production tends to be particularly under pressure. Against this background, our article reflects on the extent to which regional food supply chains support the status of agricultural demand in the competition for land. The main aim of our paper is to understand the role of proximity between the different stages of value creation, including cultivation, production (manual or industrial) and trade (retail, direct marketing). Our empirical study on the example of three products in Bavaria (Germany) shows that short distances within food value chains support the agricultural condition in land use dynamics (beer, sweet cherry, asparagus). The analyses are based on official and internal statistics as well as expert interviewing. This mixed-methods approach results in value-creation mappings and provides spatial differentiation of the economic process. Proximity between at least two stages of value creation plays an important role to explain the economic trends and land use dynamic. These findings are rooted in arguments of efficiency, tacit knowledge, networks, as well as product reputation. However, the role of proximity does not automatically play a role but has to be stabilized by strategic measures such as product innovation and marketing measures.