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"Land use management"
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Suitable site selection for pistachio (Pistacia vera) by using GIS and multi-criteria decision analyses (a case study in Turkey)
Efficient use of natural resources is only possible with rational management techniques. Land is one of the most important natural resources so it should be managed in accordance with its capabilities, properties and capacities for sustainable use. Land is, however, finite in extent. The combination of population growth and the growing need for land for non-agricultural purposes increases the pressure on competition for land. Therefore, land evaluation and land-use planning are becoming major issues for future use of it. The aim of this study is to determine suitable sites for pistachio (
Pistacia vera
) cultivation by using basic soil properties, climatic data, elevation conditions, geographical information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in the Gulf of Edremit region-NW Turkey. In this study, literature and expert opinions were used to determine the requirements for pistachio cultivation. In the study, land-use capability classes, soil depth, soil limiting factors (drainage and salinity), mean temperature and critical period mean minimum temperature data for April and May, elevation and aspect data were used. An analytical hierarchical process was used to assign weights to the land characteristics used in the study. All data were transferred to GIS for further analyses. With overlay analysis, suitable sites for pistachio cultivation were determined. Suitability classes were reclassified according to the FAO (A framework for land evaluation, vol 22. International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement, p 87, 1977) framework. As a result, it was determined that in the Gulf of Edremit region 27,898 ha area is highly suitable, 8409 ha land is moderately suitable, 12,172 ha land is marginally suitable and 247,623 ha is not suitable for pistachio cultivation. The proposed methodology enabled the selection of suitable sites for pistachio cultivation for the first time by using GIS and MCDA. Soil and land are the basic natural and almost non-renewable resources for agriculture and other uses. The management of natural resources is a prerequisite for economic development and protection of the environment. For conserving precious natural soil resources, countries must have set up national land policy. The physical plans and land suitability analyses such as proposed in this study can help the protection of the environment and to assist for future land-use policies.
Journal Article
Two oxen ahead : pre-mechanized farming in the Mediterranean
\"This revealing study shows how careful analysis of recent farming practices, and related cultural traditions, in communities around the Mediterranean can enhance our understanding of prehistoric and Greco-Roman societies. Includes a wealth of original interview material and data from field observation Provides original approaches to understanding past farming practices and their social contexts Offers a revealing comparative perspective on Mediterranean societies' agronomy Identifies a number of previously unrecorded climate-related contrasts in farming practices, which have important socio-economic significance Explores annual tasks, such as tillage and harvest; inter-annual land management techniques, such as rotation; and intergenerational issues, including capital accumulation \"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Effects of landscape structure and land-use intensity on similarity of plant and animal communities
Aim: Species richness in itself is not always sufficient to evaluate land management strategies for nature conservation. The exchange of species between local communities may be affected by landscape structure and land-use intensity. Thus, species turnover, and its inverse, community similarity, may be useful measures of landscape integrity from a diversity perspective. Location: A European transect from France to Estonia. Methods: We measured the similarity of plant, bird, wild bee, true bug, carabid beetle, hoverfly and spider communities sampled along gradients in landscape composition (e.g. total availability of semi-natural habitat), landscape configuration (e.g. fragmentation) and land-use intensity (e.g. pesticide loads). Results: Total availability of semi-natural habitats had little effect on community similarity, except for bird communities, which were more homogeneous in more natural landscapes. Bee communities, in contrast, were less similar in landscapes with higher percentages of semi-natural habitats. Increased landscape fragmentation decreased similarity of true bug communities, while plant communities showed a nonlinear, U-shaped response. More intense land use, specifically increased pesticide burden, led to a homogenization of bee, bug and spider communities within sites. In these cases, habitat fragmentation interacted with pesticide load. Hoverfly and carabid beetle community similarity was differentially affected by higher pesticide levels: for carabid beetles similarity decreased, while for hoverflies we observed a U-shaped relationship. Main conclusions: Our study demonstrates the effects of landscape composition, configuration and land-use intensity on the similarity of communities. It indicates reduced exchange of species between communities in landscapes dominated by agricultural activities. Taxonomic groups differed in their responses to environmental drivers and using but one group as an indicator for 'biodiversity' as such would thus not be advisable.
Journal Article
Suprarural : architectural atlas of rural protocols of the American Midwest and the Argentine Pampas
The Atlas of rural protocols in the American Midwest and the Argentine Pampas is structured along eight systems of organization: transport and infrastructure, land subdivision, agricultural production, water management, storage and maintenance, human habitation, animal management, land management. Each of these systems possesses a number of organizational types, material components, normative relationships, and spectra of performance, which become available through a manual of instructions for a Suprarural architectural environment. The research is based on a realistic-overriding ethics towards design that operates by abstracting and intensifying unexplored territorial phenomena.
Book
Understanding Relationships between Cultivated Land Pressure and Economic Development Level across Spatiotemporal Characteristics: Implications for Supporting Land-Use Management Decisions
Food security is crucial to world peace. Economic development has posed a great threat to the protection of cultivated land. Considering 20 cities in the lower Yellow River (AALYR) as the study area, this study explored the spatial evolution of cultivated land pressure (CLP) and economic development from 1998 to 2018, revealing the spatiotemporal coupling characteristics of the CLP index and economic development. The main results are as follows: we discerned that CLP and economic development have an obvious spatiotemporal consistency during 1998-2018. The CLP showed a spatial pattern of overall stability, as well as local changes. Most prefecture-level cities experienced decreased significantly in CLP and improvements in food security. Overall, there were regional differences in the coupling relationships between CLP and economic development in the study area. The explanatory power of the proportion of secondary and tertiary industries were significantly higher than other driving factors. Therefore, while developing the economy rapidly, we should also protect cultivated land resources and improve the coordination level between them, which is essential to guarantee food security and a steady economic development.
Journal Article
Can informality help create smart, sustainable cities? The vibrancy of self-organised informal settlements in Cape Town
The study critically evaluates the sustainability of informal settlements in terms of smart growth principles. There is an irony that informal settlements have more of the ideal attributes of smart development, including mixed-use development, high densities, compact affordable housing, modal accessibility, and dense local employment opportunities, than sprawling, low-density single-use developments in surrounding formal developments. Yet, despite their smart characteristics, these informalised settlements are not regarded as ideal spaces to live in due to their informal nature and thus are regarded as unsustainable modes of living. This study critically investigates these assumptions, analysing how informal mixed-use spaces are produced, organised, and regulated organised outside formal planning in a customary land use management system in Cape Town, South Africa, and whether this mode of urbanism is smart, i.e., sustainable. The research results indicate that customary self-regulation of informal settlements creates very liveable, polymorphic spaces in the marginalised townships despite the severe lack of resources. Its smart characteristics are not for aesthetic reasons but to make space functional and personal for the residents. However, the unregulated nature of this new mode of urbanism also limits the accumulation of wealth within the township, and it creates dangerous and unhealthy living conditions for residents in terms of litter, noise, flooding, fire risks, environmental degradation, and anti-social behaviour, especially in public areas not adequately regulated by customary regulatory bodies.
Journal Article
Common sense in environmental management : thinking through English land and water
\"Common Sense in Environmental Management examines common sense not in theory, but in practice. Jonathan Woolley argues that common sense as a concept is rooted in English experiences of landscape and land management and examines it ethnographically - unveiling common sense as key to understanding how British nature and public life are transforming in the present day. Common sense encourages English people to tacitly assume that the management of land and other resources should organically converge on a consensus that yields self-evident, practical results. Furthermore, the English then tend to assume that their own position reflects that consensus. Other stakeholders are not seen as having legitimate but distinct expertise and interests - but are rather viewed as being stupid and/or immoral, for ignoring self-evident, pragmatic truths. Compromise is therefore less likely, and land management practices become entrenched and resistant to innovation and improvement. Through a detailed ethnographic study of the Norfolk Broads, this book explores how environmental policy and land management in rural areas could be more effective if a truly common sense was restored in the way we manage our shared environment. Using academic and lay deployments of common sense as a route into the political economy of rural environments, this book will be of great interest to scholars and students of socio-cultural anthropology, sociology, human geography, cultural studies, social history and the environmental humanities\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Assessing Landscape Ecological Risk Induced by Land-Use/Cover Change in a County in China: A GIS- and Landscape-Metric-Based Approach
Landscape ecological risk assessment (LERA) evaluates different types of potential environmental impacts and their cumulative effects, thereby providing policy insights for sustainable regional land-use and ecosystem management. In a departure from existing literature that heavily relies on low-resolution land-use data for LERA at provincial or municipal scales, this study applies high-resolution land-use data to a relatively small research area (county). In addition, this study modifies the evaluation units of LERA from equal-sized grids to watersheds and refines the ecological vulnerability weight on the basis of finer-resolution data. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1) In 2011–2013, nearly 866 ha of land use in Xiapu County changed; moreover, the construction land, which was mainly concentrated in Songgang Street and Xinan Town, increased the most (340 ha). (2) Landscape ecological risk (LER) was roughly maintained, and areas of high ecological risk were mainly concentrated along the coast. (3) The spatial distribution of LER maintained a relatively aggregated pattern, with no trend toward more aggregated or more dispersed change. This study further discusses the relationship between local LER and land-use change and how to balance global and local LER in planning practices.
Journal Article