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The relationship of land tenure, land use and land cover changes in Lake Victoria basin
... The dual land ownership came about by the fact that the land that was given out had customary occupiers on the land who became tenants with usufruct rights while the chiefs and kings who were given land became landlords with full ownership rights. This system, characterized by the allocation of land to individuals or families under customary tenure, has shaped patterns of land ownership, land use, and socio-economic relations in Uganda, particularly in areas with a significant Baganda population (Katusiime, Schütt, & Mutai, 2023;Mabikke, 2016;Tabingwa, 2017). ...
... According to Katusiime et al. (2023), policy and reform recommendations for improving the Mailo land tenure system focus on strengthening legal protections, improving land administration, and promoting equitable access. Key measures include: Strengthening the enforcement of existing laws and closing legal loopholes to protect both landowners and tenants, modernizing land registration systems and increasing transparency to reduce fraud and enhance tenure security (Lwasa, 2010); conducting educational campaigns to inform landholders about their rights and available legal mechanisms; strengthening local dispute resolution mechanisms and ensuring they are accessible, fair, and efficient; implementing targeted interventions to ensure women's land rights are upheld and integrated into mainstream land policies (Nakayi, 2023;Katusiime et al., 2023). ...
... According to Katusiime et al. (2023), policy and reform recommendations for improving the Mailo land tenure system focus on strengthening legal protections, improving land administration, and promoting equitable access. Key measures include: Strengthening the enforcement of existing laws and closing legal loopholes to protect both landowners and tenants, modernizing land registration systems and increasing transparency to reduce fraud and enhance tenure security (Lwasa, 2010); conducting educational campaigns to inform landholders about their rights and available legal mechanisms; strengthening local dispute resolution mechanisms and ensuring they are accessible, fair, and efficient; implementing targeted interventions to ensure women's land rights are upheld and integrated into mainstream land policies (Nakayi, 2023;Katusiime et al., 2023). Acidri (2014) points out that even when Uganda has relatively good existing laws that provide rights to land more so for women as a vulnerable and marginalized group, actual ownership of land by women remains merely theoretical as the Mailo land tenure system is still rooted in cultural systems that are regulated along patrilineal lines. ...
... Sin embargo, sus funciones están siendo afectadas por el cambio en su uso y cobertura vegetal (CUCV) (Fikadu & Gamtesa, 2023, Gordillo & Castillo, 2017, Tezera et al. 2016. En Ecuador, así como en otros países, la respuesta hidrológica de las cuencas hidrográficas ha sido alterada por su mala gestión y por la pérdida de la cubierta vegetal, condición que afecta la capacidad del suelo para retener agua (Espinosa et al. 2011, Espinosa & Rivera 2016, Gordillo & Castillo 2017, Katusiime et al. 2023, Taiwo et al. 2023. En consecuencia, las inundaciones y la escasez de agua son evidentes en periodos de altas y bajas precipitaciones, respectivamente (Hinojosa, 2019). ...
... Diferentes actividades antrópicas como la deforestación juegan un papel fundamental en la problemática del CUCV (Devkota et al. 2023, Kafy et al. 2021, Katusiime et al. 2023, Taiwo et al. 2023, Tarrillo 2019, debido a que alteran de forma directa la capacidad de infiltración del suelo, incrementando procesos de escorrentía y erosión, entre otras condiciones (Da Cunha et al. 2014, Núñez et al. 2015, Thomas et al. 2022. Es necesario evaluar el CUCV para identificar el potencial incremento de la escorrentía superficial, factor crucial para determinar los cambios que pueden ocurrir sobre la disponibilidad de los recursos hídricos (Reddy et al. 2021). ...
The analysis of the hydrological response of watersheds has made the use of the Curve Number methodology relevant. However, the global application of this method has presented limitations mainly associated with the availability of land use and hydrology information for the study areas. The Global Curve Number map (GNC) is a tool that defines the value of the curve number of a region with a low spatial resolution (250 m) and its validation is necessary in the development of research related to water resource management in watersheds with limited information. The present study determined the representative curve number value in three micro-watersheds contributing to the Pisque River in North Ecuador. Curve number values proposed by the GNC for these micro-watersheds were compared with curve number values obtained for land use scenarios for the years 1986 and 2013, generated through the analysis of maps derived from satellite images. The geographic land use and vegetation cover was obtained through principal component analysis and validated using the confusion matrix method and the kappa index. The proposed land cover classification had a high accuracy (82 - 84 %) when compared with secondary reference information, which represents high reliability in the curve number maps generated for the study area. The models developed for the three micro-watersheds present greater detail and spatial resolution, maintaining an excellent fit with the CNG which is reflected in the goodness of fit statistics (NSE = 0.96 - 0.98, PBIAS = 13.06 - 19.03 and RMSE = 18.94 - 22.21).
... Therefore, analyzing the "source-sink" mechanism of MP pollution is urgently needed. However, existing studies focus on the macroscopic effects of land use types (e.g., agriculture and industrial areas) on MP pollution [32][33][34] , overlooking the differential impact of specific building uses (e.g., industrial plants and residential communities), resulting in reduced accuracy of pollution source analysis 35,36 . In addition, most studies use fixed buffer zone (e.g., 500 m) to analyze the impact of human activities 37 , ignoring the layered effects of building use on MP migration, such as the long-distance diffusion potential of industrial sources. ...
Rivers are major sources of marine microplastics. To investigate the influence of building use on river microplastic pollution, this study focused on the Chongqing section of the main stream of the Yangtze River. Surface water and sediment microplastic samples were collected and analyzed alongside building use data to explore the relationship between microplastic abundance and building use at different spatial scales. The results showed that: (1) The abundance of microplastics in surface water and sediment in the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River exhibited an inverse distribution pattern. In the upper reaches, the central urban area of Chongqing showed significantly higher microplastic levels in surface water (6,811 ± 3,101 n/m ³) compared to the lower reaches, confirming the direct input effect of high-intensity human activities. The accumulation of microplastics in sediment was greater in the northeastern section of Chongqing compared to the lower reaches (89.6 ± 69 vs. 45.4 ± 28 n/kg), indicating a hydrodynamic-driven sedimentation lag effect. (2) The influence of building use on microplastic abundance in surface water was significantly scale-dependent. Industrial buildings within a 2 km buffer zone explained up to 61.16% of the observed variance, suggesting cross-medium migration through atmospheric sedimentation and sewage pipe network. (3) Compared to land use types, building uses dominate the abundance distribution of microplastics in surface water at larger buffer radius (1–2 km), indicating that high-intensity human activities have a greater impact on spatial differentiation of microplastic pollution. It is recommended to implement hierarchical control measures along the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River. A 2-km ecological buffer zone is set up in industrial agglomeration areas to strictly supervise wastewater discharge from plastic products enterprises. Rainwater bioretention facilities are built within 1 km of densely populated areas to intercept microplastics from domestic sources, such as laundry fibers. This study explores the mechanism by which building use affects river microplastic pollution, providing valuable insights for microplastics control in large river basins worldwide.
... Land use system refers to an organic whole with a certain structure and function that is formed by the mutual influence of subsystems in a region, such as population, land resources, land environment, economy, society, and management regulation [26,27]. Therefore, the land use system is a comprehensive and extremely complex system. ...
China’s rural population flowing into highly urbanized areas has led to the spatial reconstruction of urban–rural land use. Exploring the laws and trends of urban–rural land use in highly urbanized areas is of great significance in promoting rural transformation. This paper takes the southern Jiangsu region as a research area and uses a system dynamics (SD) model to simulate the demand for different land types based on economic, social, policy, and environmental (ESPE) factors. Future land use simulation (FLUS) is used to simulate the spatial evolution trend of urban–rural land use based on point–axis elements. The results show that the agricultural production space is severely squeezed by the urban living space. Under the scenario of rapid expansion, the decrease in arable land quantity and the demand area for rural residential areas are the largest. Under the scenario of high-quality development, the decrease in arable land area and the demand for land in rural residential areas are lowest. Based on the spatial simulation, it is reported that the areas with more intense land use spatial reconstruction in the three scenarios are mainly concentrated in the region’s urban–rural border areas. The future evolution of urban–rural land is summarized into three models: (1) single-center-driving expansion, (2) patchy expansion near the city center, and (3) multi-center-driving expansion. This paper proposes targeted policy recommendations to provide a scientific reference for solving the conflict between urban and rural land use.
... Therefore, in the proposed classification, land ownership belonging to municipalities did not receive the full value of points (+2), but only +1. The magnitude of the scores is also adjusted by the legal regulations on land ownership in connection with environmental protection and water resources management of the catchment area (Katusiime et al., 2023). ...
Changes in land ownership, generally resulting in changes in land cover and progressive fragmentation of
catchments, often result in the inability to take pro-environmental measures. The aim of this paper is to assess the
impact of land ownership on the environmental status of small, but environmentally valuable lake catchments.
The study of environmental quality in terms of ownership and land cover was conducted in lake catchments
located in the central part of the West Polesie Transboundary Biosphere Reserve. In total, the ownership type was
determined for 5661 plots and the land cover type was determined for 2502 subdivisions. The quality of the
analysed elements of the study catchments was subjected to expert evaluation using a modified Stapel Scale and
was presented using two Qualitative Indexes proposed: Land Cover [Lc] and Land Ownership [Lo]. The obtained
values of Index Lc ranged from -0.18 to +1.97, and Index Lo from -1.87 to +2.00. Application of the Average
Land Quality Index [LQ], in turn, made it possible to randomise the environmental quality of the analysed
catchments, for which it was from -1.02 to +1.99 (areas of very good and very poor environmental quality,
respectively). The analyses indicated, for example, catchments that were significantly degraded because of a very
large number of private plots in their area - in the five analysed catchments, this ranged from 505 to 719 and
their average area was 0.19–1.10 ha. It is noteworthy that very unfavourable land ownership conditions and land
cover structure were found in the Poleski National Park catchments – the area with the highest protection status.
The proposed assessment system can be used for preliminary analysis of actual and potential threats to lake
catchments so as to indicate possible directions of conservation measures and their sensibility.
... The Relationship of Land tenure, Land use and Land cover Changes in the Lake Victoria Basin by Katusiime et al. (2023). This study found that land tenure plays a catalytic role against Uganda's other land use and cover drivers. ...
Opinion on Land Governance for Societal Development in and on the Global South, curated from an e-conference that brought together many diverse scholars and practitioners from across the global land community. These articles can become multi-inter-and cross-disciplinary reference material for in-class and on-field education and learning in land studies. Their knowledge base covers specific subjects on land use planning, urban development, land administration, land governance, land policy, rural development, land management, real estate, land tenure, property rights and gender and women concerns (to mention a few). All scholars within the land profession whether in the business, geography, sociology, area studies, anthropology, planning, engineering and the built environment disciplines-are encouraged to read, use and apply this knowledge base in their distinct roles in the land sector or land-related activities.
... According to a study conducted in China, the LULC data showed that between 1980 and 1996, cropland increased while grassland and water decreased. The biodiversity of the Lake Victoria basin in Eastern Africa is adversely affected by LULCC ( Katusiime et al. 2023 ). In the Shashogo district of southern Ethiopia, the cropland increased by 36.2% over 37 years between 197336.2% ...
Globally, land use and land cover change (LULCC) is recognized as posing a substantial environmental challenge with lasting and severe consequences. This study quantified LULCC within the Vea catchment area spanning 24 years, from 1998 to 2022. Landsat TM imagery from 1998, ETM + imagery from 2006, and Landsat 8 OLI imagery from 2014 to 2022 were used. A supervised classification algorithm was employed to classify the LULC classes. The findings reveal a notable transformation in the Vea catchment area from 1998 to 2022, primarily by converting grassland to cropland. Agricultural activities emerged as a significant contributor to the observed LULCC trend. Notably, cropland expanded from 10.9% to 51.98% between 1998 and 2022, while grassland and mixed vegetation/forest areas decreased from 54.8% to 18.14% and 31.7% to 22.73%, respectively. These results, it is argued, underscore the potential implications for achieving the targets set by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
... The analysis of land use and land cover change in the study area has revealed a concerning situation, with significant losses in the indigenous water body and savanna, as well as a decline in cropland. These changes are driven by several factors, including agricultural practices, climate change, invasive species, population growth, and poverty (Katusiime et al., 2023). Moreover, the area covered by water in the lake has been decreasing due to the invasion of water hyacinths, which quickly uptake water and contribute to the reduction of the water body. ...
Climate change-induced alteration of ecosystem conditions can enable the spread of invasive plant species through both range expansion and the creation of habitats and conditions suitable for newly introduced exotic species. This research tries to evaluate the effect of climate change on ‘Eichhornia crassipes’ intensification in Lake Tana Sub-Basin, North Western Ethiopia. Land use land cover change was analyzed using ArcGIS 10.8 and temperature and rainfall data were interpolated to evaluate the effect of climate change on water hyacinth infestation. The result of the study shows that the area covered by water was decreased, whereas the area covered by water hyacinth was increased by 9.3%. The highest decrease −82.41% in land cover was recorded for savanna forest land which was found in the surrounding area of the lake. A significant amount of water bodies was also converted to wetlands due to the invasion of water hyacinths. The result also shows that areas with high annual temperature readings result in a high rate of water hyacinth invasion. The study also suggests that areas that receive high rainfall were characterized by having a high invasion of water hyacinth. From the study, it is possible to conclude that climate change facilitates the invasion of water hyacinths in Lake Tana. Comprehensive management strategies need to be developed by the government, policymakers, and environmentalists especially considering the positive use of water hyacinth.
... A significant aspect of this influence is that the confirmation of agricultural land rights instills a profound sense of "reassurance" among farmers. This confirmation not only bolsters their confidence in land utilization but also alleviates concerns related to illegal land occupation or unauthorized transfers, as noted in the study by Katusiime J, Schütt B et al., 2023 [19]. By legally and efficiently securing their land rights through this confirmation process, farmers are shielded from the anxiety of losing their land or facing unwarranted transfers. ...
This study is based on micro-survey data on rural household transfers in China. This study uses a multiple linear regression model (to analyze the relationship between variables), an instrumental variable model (to solve potential endogenous problems), and an intermediary effect model to explore the impact of farmland rights confirmation and clan network on farmers’ investment in production and operation and the relationship between clan network confirmation of farmland rights and farmer household investment. The research shows that: (1) The confirmation of farmland rights in China substantially bolsters farmers’ investments in agricultural production and operation. It serves as a secure foundation for land property rights, elevating farmers’ confidence and significantly contributing to the growth of rural economies and the improvement of farmers’ income levels in the Chinese context. (2) In the Chinese context, the existence of clan networks exerts a discernible adverse influence on farmers’ investment decisions in agricultural production and operation. This is primarily attributable to the restricted flow of information within these networks, the enforcement of stringent social norms, and the prevalence of risk-averse attitudes. These factors collectively act as barriers, dampening farmers’ enthusiasm for investment and impeding effective decision-making. (3) Importantly, the confirmation of agricultural land rights in China serves as a counterbalance to the inhibitory effects of clan networks. It achieves this by mitigating information asymmetry and reducing cooperation risks. This proactive approach not only promotes but also facilitates farmers’ investments in agricultural production and operation within the Chinese context. Consequently, land rights confirmation emerges as a key driver of increased rural investments in China. This study conducts in-depth research on the impact of farmland ownership confirmation and clan networks on farmers’ investment behavior and the mechanism of action, which provides a useful reference for formulating relevant policies, such as increasing the authority of cultivated land, promoting the modernization of clan networks, cultivating modern management capabilities, etc.
... Land is a bridge between humans and natural ecosystems, and changes in land use can affect ecosystems such as the aquatic environment, leading to changes in the structure and function of these ecosystems (Luan and Liu, 2022;Katusiime et al., 2023). Human activities are the main source of MP production and therefore, land use changes will inevitably have an impact on MP pollution (Chen et al., 2021;Wei et al., 2022). ...
Microplastic (MP) pollution is an emerging environmental issue. While it is evident that human activities are the primary source of MP pollution, the relationship between land use and MP pollution in rivers requires further study. Using data from 26 MP monitoring sites in the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River, we analyzed MP data along with land use and construction data. We improved the model for the Land Use Intensity Composite Index (LUI) to obtain correlations between land use and MP pollution. We found: 1) The concentration of microplastics in surface water (MPsw) in the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River gradually declined from upstream (central urban section of Chongqing) to downstream (northeastern section of Chongqing). 2) From 2016 to 2020, MPsw in the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River decreased by about 7.5-fold. 3) MPsw in the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River was positively correlated with the amount of surrounding urban and garden land. When the buffer radius was 1 km, the correlation coefficient was 0.53 (p < 0.05). With increasing buffer radius, the correlation between land use and gradually weakened. 4) The LUI was also strongly correlated with MPsw. The correlation was strongest when the buffer radius was 1 km, with a correlation coefficient of 0.59 (p < 0.05). At all buffer scales, microplastics in sediments (MPss) was positively correlated with village land and arable land . Unlike MPsw, as the buffer radius increased, the strength of the correlations between land use types and MPss gradually increased. The LUI was strongly correlated with MPsw . As the buffer radius increases, the correlation between the two gradually weakens. These results provide information useful for remediation and reduction of MP in river systems.
A expansão das áreas urbanas e construções antrópicas, em parte devido ao rápido
crescimento populacional nas últimas décadas, levou a mudanças significativas em municipalidades do Brasil. A análise do uso e cobertura do solo tem sido utilizado em estudos com imagens de Sensoriamento Remoto (SR) para verificação da destinação dada à terra em diferentes áreas. Essa análise envolve a identificação e categorização de diferentes classes de uso e cobertura do solo e descreve a transição ou alteração de um tipo para outro. No presente trabalho, foi utilizado um método que permitiu verificar as mudanças ocorridas no Município de Vila Velha, Espírito Santo, no período de 2013 a 2020, totalizando um decurso temporal de sete anos. Para operacionalização da análise realizada, utilizaram-se imagens do satélite Landsat 8, sensor OLI, com 30 m de resolução espacial. Essas imagens foram submetidas a processamentos para obtenção do NDVI e a classificação supervisionada por meio do algoritmo de Máxima Verossimilhança (MaxVer) implementado no complemento SCP do QGIS. Imagens do satélite KOMPSAT 3/3A, com resolução espacial de 0,5 m, foram empregadas para posterior validação dos resultados obtidos, junto com ortoimagens de resolução espacial de 0,25 m do Projeto de Mapeamento do Espírito Santo, obtidas por levantamento aerofotogramétrico realizado nos anos de 2012 a 2015. No período analisado, verificou-se um aumento de áreas construídas, enquanto áreas ligadas à vegetação densa diminuíram em extensão total, o que permitiu inferir a continuidade do avanço das áreas urbanas sobre as áreas verdes.
Due to higher levels of urbanization and increasing impermeable hard land covers, green spaces are decreasing, resulting in stormwater loss as surface runoff instead of being absorbed by soil and reintroduced into the water cycle. This study investigates the effect of land use ratios and land cover materials resulting from settlement design on surface runoff volume. The study was conducted using various scenarios in 9 settlements with different land use ratios, including roofs, sidewalks, parking areas, roadways, and green areas in Istanbul, a city with a high urbanization rate. Thus, surface runoff volume in settlements depending on the land use ratios was evaluated. A total of 336 material combinations were developed using various material alternatives in addition to different land use ratios. Therefore, the effect of different land cover materials used in the settlements on surface runoff volume was also evaluated. Study requirements were taken into consideration when choosing the calculation method, and the Rational Method, often preferred for calculating surface runoff volumes in small urban basins, was chosen. According to the calculation results obtained from the settlements developed for this study, surface runoff volume can be reduced by 37.10 % by increasing only the green space ratio and by 67.65 % by using different material alternatives in the same settlement. Additionally, it was observed that each improvement made to reduce surface runoff in settlements resulted in a positive change.
CONTEXT
Assessment of land suitability for irrigation under changing climate holds paramount significance given the pronounced reliance on rainfed agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate land suitability for surface irrigation under changing climate in a tropical setting of Uganda, East Africa and explore implications for irrigation development as well as food security.
METHODS
The study used a GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation using the Analytical Hierarchy Process that considered seven factors: soil texture, slope, land use/land cover, soil drainage, distance to river, distance to road network and rainfall deficit. Each factor was rasterized, reclassified and standardized to a similar measuring scale, resulting in a numeric range; higher values indicating areas that are more suitable and lower values indicating areas that are less suitable for irrigation. Weighted factors were added using the weighted overlay approach in the ArcGIS environment to create the final irrigation suitability map. Suitability was further assessed under two scenarios; an increase in average temperature of 1.5 °C and 10% increase in annual rainfall for the period from 2041 to 2060 (scenario I) and an increase in average temperature of 4.3 °C and 20% increase in annual rainfall for the period from 2061 to 2080 (scenario II).
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Findings reveal that of the entire area of Uganda, 43.7% is currently constrained, 32.4% is moderately suitable, 23.1% is marginally suitable, only 0.9% is highly suitable, and only 0.02% is not suitable for surface irrigation. Highly suitable land is mostly found in the Lake Victoria Crescent whereas land not suitable for surface irrigation is mostly found in the Karamoja zone. Suitability of land for surface irrigation generally decreased with changing climate. Land not suitable for surface irrigation increased to 0.11% and 0.34%, and marginally suitable land increased to 28.4% and 35.8% of the total area, under scenarios I and II respectively. Whereas moderately suitable land decreased to 27.5% and 20.1%, and highly suitable land decreased to 0.29% and 0.046% of the total area, under scenarios I and II respectively. In both scenarios, suitable land for surface irrigation is highest in the South East L. Kyoga Flood Plain and lowest in the Western Mid-Altitude Farmland. The investigation underscores the dynamic nature of irrigation suitability of land, subject to various influencing factors with climate dynamics being a major factor.
SIGNIFICANCE
The findings emphasize the importance of adopting adaptive strategies and incorporating climate change considerations into irrigation decision-making processes for increased food production
LULC and climate change are the two most common manifestations of global environmental change. The objective of this study was to quantify past and future LULC and climate change impacts on environmental sustainability in the Vea catchment of Ghana. The past LULC change (1998–2022) was analyzed using ERDAS Imagine 15 upon the application of the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier algorithm. The CA-Markov was used to predict land-use changes in 2038 and 2054. Climate change was projected under SSP 4.5 and SSP 8.5 emission scenarios using the R software. The projections from an ensemble mean of SSPs in the near future (2023–2052) and far future (2071–2100) were compared to the reference period (1993–2022). The results show that, between 1998 and 2022, cropland increased from 10.9% to 51.98%, while grassland and forest areas decreased from 54.8–18.14% and 31.7–22.73%, respectively. The results of the predicted LULC change showed an increase in cropland from 181 km² in 2038 to 183 km² in 2054 at the expense of grassland and forest, which are expected to decrease from 51–50 km² and 73–71 km², respectively. The findings of climate change show the projected increases in average temperature range from 2.10 to 3.5 °C under SSP4.5 and from 2.7 to 4.15 °C under SSP8.5. Under the SSP4.5, annual average precipitation is anticipated to decrease by 12.34–13.1%, while the SSP8.5 projects a decrease of 12.6–13.6%. Results will help in the setting up of long-term environmental management strategies in the catchment as well as the development of appropriate adaptation methods to mitigate the ongoing impacts of LULC and climate change on environmental sustainability.
The change in land-use diversity is attributed to the anthropogenic factors sustaining life.
The surface water bodies and other crucial natural resources in the study area are being depleted
at an alarming rate. This study explored the implications of the changing land-use diversity on
surface water resources by using a random forest (RF) classifier machine-learning algorithm and
remote-sensing models in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Landsat datasets from 1993 to 2022 were
used and processed in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, using the RF classifier. The results
indicate nine land-use diversity classes having increased and decreased tendencies, with high F-score
values ranging from 72.3% to 100%. In GP, the spatial coverage of BL has shrunk by 100.4 km2 every
year over the past three decades. Similarly, BuA exhibits an annual decreasing rate of 42.4 km2 due
to the effect of dense vegetation coverage within the same land use type. Meanwhile, water bodies,
marine quarries, arable lands, grasslands, shrublands, dense forests, and wetlands were expanded
annually by 1.3, 2.3, 2.9, 5.6, 11.2, 29.6, and 89.5 km2, respectively. The surface water content level
of the study area has been poor throughout the study years. The MNDWI and NDWI values have
a stronger Pearson correlation at a radius of 5 km (r = 0.60, p = 0.000, n = 87,260) than at 10 and
15 km. This research is essential to improve current land-use planning and surface water management
techniques to reduce the environmental impacts of land-use change.
Keywords: land-use diversity; GEE; RF; RS; GIS; Gauteng Province; South Africa
This open access book presents a nuanced and accessible synthesis of the relationship between land tenure security and sustainable development. Contributing authors have collectively worked for decades on land tenure as connected with conservation and development across all major regions of the globe. The first section of this volume is intended as a standalone primer on land tenure security and its connections with sustainable development. The book then explores key thematic challenges that interact directly with land tenure security, followed by a section on strategies for addressing tenure insecurity. The book concludes with a section on new frontiers in research, policy, and action. An invaluable reference for researchers in the field and for practitioners looking for a comprehensive overview of this important topic.
Process-based ecosystem carbon cycle models typically incorporate vegetation growth, vegetation mortality, and soil respiration as well as the biotic and environmental drivers that influence these variables. However, few spatially explicit process models can efficiently incorporate the influence of land cover change and carbon lateral movement at regional scales or high spatial resolution. This study uses the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) to demonstrate the development of a fast ecosystem model that not only considers the basic carbon cycle but also incorporates the impact of land cover change, soil erosion, and soil deposition. As input to the LUCAS modeling framework, we used the integrated biosphere simulator (IBIS) to simulate a non-spatial reference carbon cycling scenario without considering land cover change for the Nisqually River watershed in the northwestern United States. We then used the Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) remotely sensed 30-m sequential land cover data to generate annual land change history for the Nisqually River area from 1985 to 2017 and used the Unit Stream Powered Erosion and Deposition model (USPED) to estimate annual soil carbon lateral movement. Finally, we combined the annual carbon outputs from IBIS, the land change history from LCMAP, and the soil erosion and deposition from USPED within the LUCAS simulation framework. Results showed that from 1985 to 2017, along with the dynamic land cover changes, total ecosystem biomass carbon increased from 11.4 to 18.6 TgC, mainly due to forest growth. Total ecosystem soil carbon declined from 31.7 to 29.7 TgC, but the overall loss in soil carbon was not uniform across land cover types. Forestland (forest sector) and grassland lost carbon, while wetland, developed land and agricultural land gained carbon. Forest, grassland, and developed land lost 0.0553 TgC during the study period (1.73 kgtons of C per year; 1 kgton = 0.001 Tg) from erosion, while wetland gained 0.0071 TgC (0.22 kgtons C per year) from deposition. Agricultural land was neutral in terms of soil erosion.
Quantifying the dynamics of land use change is critical in tackling global societal challenges such as food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Here we analyse the dynamics of global land use change at an unprecedented spatial resolution by combining multiple open data streams (remote sensing, reconstructions and statistics) to create the HIstoric Land Dynamics Assessment + (HILDA +). We estimate that land use change has affected almost a third (32%) of the global land area in just six decades (1960-2019) and, thus, is around four times greater in extent than previously estimated from long-term land change assessments. We also identify geographically diverging land use change processes, with afforestation and cropland abandonment in the Global North and deforestation and agricultural expansion in the South. Here, we show that observed phases of accelerating (~1960–2005) and decelerating (2006–2019) land use change can be explained by the effects of global trade on agricultural production.
The ecosystems and landscape patterns in Lake Victoria basin are increasingly being modified by changes in land use/land cover. Understanding dynamics of these changes is essential for appropriate planning. This study evaluated changes in landscape environment, of the lakeside counties of the Kenyan Lake Victoria basin, which have occurred over a forty-year period (1978-2018) and their potential impacts on the lake using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Landsat imageries of 1978, 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018 were analyzed for each county to develop land use and land cover maps and to detect and quantify changes using the Maximum Likelihood algorithm. Supervised classification was utilized. The study showed that the six land use/land cover classes, identified in the counties, have undergone drastic modifications in a span of four decades. Over the years, built-up areas steadily increased in all the counties, forested and vegetated areas steadily declined in all the counties, areas under water bodies remained relatively constant in all counties, while the rest of the land use and land cover types experienced periodic rise and falls in areal coverage. Generally, the major gains in coverage by the various land use and land cover types occurred between 2008 and 2018 while major losses occurred between 1978 and 1988. The study suggests that future regional conservation measures should take cognizance of the general ecological and socio-political processes in the entire Lake Victoria basin for integrated watershed conservation.
Given current land degradation trends, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN, SDG Target 15.3) by 2030 could be difficult to attain. Solutions to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation are not being implemented at sufficiently large scales, pointing to land governance as the main obstacle. In this paper, we review dynamics in agricultural land governance, and the potential this may have to enable land degradation or provide solutions towards LDN. The literature reveals agency shifts are taking place, where value chain actors are given increasing decision-making power in land governance. These agency shifts are manifested in two interrelated trends: First, through agricultural value chain coordination, such as contract farming, value chain actors increasingly influence land management decisions. Second, international large-scale land acquisitions and domestic larger-scale farms, both instances of intensified direct involvement of value chain with land management, are overtaking significant areas of land. These new arrangements are associated with agricultural expansion, and are additionally associated with unsustainable land management due to absent landowners, short-term interests, and high-intensity agriculture. However, we also find that value chain actors have both the tools and business cases to catalyze LDN solutions. We discuss how governments and other LDN brokers can motivate or push private actors to deploy private governance measures to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation. Successful implementation of LDN requires refocusing efforts to enable and, where necessary, constrain all actors with agency over land management, including value chain actors.
The water crisis can alternatively be called a governance crisis. Thus, the demand for good water governance to ensure effective water resources management and to attain specific water goals is growing. Many countries subscribe to the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach to achieve this goal. The Integrated Water Resources Management approach aims to ensure a process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources in a drainage basin to maximise economic and social welfare equitably without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. The design of the Integrated Water Resources Management approach, including its pillars and principles, aspires to good water governance and effective resource management. However, empirical studies examining this hypothesis and analysing the impact of the Integrated Water Resources Management approach on water resources governance are limited, especially in developing countries. Therefore, we characterised and compared the water resources governance aspects of two catchments in Uganda’s Lake Albert basin. One of the catchments was exposed to integrated water resources management projects, while the other had no exposure to integrated water resources management projects. Some of the factors that supported the comparability of the two sites included spatial proximity linking into a related hydrological and social-economic setup, common water needs and belonging to the same water administration zone. Comparing both areas led us to analyse whether there was a difference in water resources governance actions, as well as in the quality of water resources governance, under the same overall water management and administrative zone. The data were based on field surveys using questionnaires and information guides in both catchments. The results show that the performance of water resources governance is markedly better in the catchment with Integrated Water Resources Management practices than the base catchment unaffected by these practices. Key themes examined include water resources governance styles, water resources governance systems presence, functionality, the performance of good governance principles, and water resources management effectiveness. The findings contribute to the aspirations for the promotion of integrated water management approaches for improved water resources governance, and the concept that the effectiveness of water resources management measures depends on governance effectiveness. Water governance is significant, as it spells out the power, rights, decisions, and priorities relating to given water resources and communities.
This reviewe of Land Use Land Cover Change (LULCC) studies in Uganda indicate agriculture, forest, grassland, and woodland as the major land use and land cover types. Central Uganda is the most studied region (15%), followed by western (14), eastern (10), and northern Uganda (3). District scale studies were (48%), catchment (19%), forest (17%), national (10%), and park (7%). Landsat 30 m and remote sensing was most used (93%). Population is the leadingdrivers of LULCC. The impacts of LULCC are site specific and includes reduction of: tree cover and species composition; water quality and quantity; and soil quality. ARTICLE HISTORY
Land system science and affiliated research linked to sustainability require improved understanding and theorization of land and its change as a social-ecological system (SES). The absence of a general land-use theory, anchored in the social subsystem but with explicit links to the environmental subsystem, hampers this effort. Drawing on land-use explanations, meta-analyses, and associated frameworks, we advance a broad framework structure of eight elements ? aggregations of explanatory variables ? with links to the biophysical subsystem, for systematic comparisons of extant explanations. Tests and models can be employed to identify which set of variables and their configurations provide robust explanations of across land uses, identifying the potential for theory development. The framework and its application are applicable to both top-down and bottom-up explanatory approaches employed in the social sciences. Links to the environmental subsystem invite future exploration of SES explanations that reach across the different dimensions of global change and sustainability science.
The Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) is a significant resource for five states within East Africa, which faces major land use land cover changes that threaten ecosystem integrity and ecosystem services derived from the basin's resources. To assess land use land cover changes between 1985 and 2014, and subsequently determine the trends and drivers of these changes, we used a series of Landsat images and field data obtained from the LVB. Landsat image pre-processing and band combinations were done in ENVI 5.1. A supervised classification was applied on 118 Landsat scenes using the maximum likelihood classifier in ENVI 5.1. The overall accuracy of classified images was computed for the 2014 images using 124 reference data points collected through stratified random sampling. Computations of area under various land cover classes were calculated between the 1985 and 2014 images. We also correlated the area from natural vegetation classes to farmlands and settlements (urban areas) to explore relationships between land use land cover conversions among these classes. Based on our land cover classifications, we obtained overall accuracy of 71% and a moderate Kappa statistic of 0.56. Our results indicate that the LVB has undergone drastic changes in land use land cover, mainly driven by human activities that led to the conversion of forests, woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands to either farmlands or settlements. We conclude that information from this work is useful not only for basin-scale assessments and monitoring of land cover changes but also for targeting, prioritizing, and monitoring of small scale, community led efforts to restore degraded and fragmented areas in the basin. Such efforts could mitigate the loss of ecosystem services previously derived from large contiguous land covers which are no longer tenable to restore. We recommend adoption of a basin scale, operational, Earth observation-based, land use change monitoring framework. Such a framework can facilitate rapid and frequent assessments of gains and losses in specific land cover classes and thus focus strategic interventions in areas experiencing major losses, through mitigation and compensatory approaches.
Land cover is the physical material at the surface of the Earth. As the cause and result of global environmental change, land cover change (LCC) influences the global energy balance and biogeochemical cycles. Continuous and dynamic monitoring of global LC is urgently needed. Effective monitoring and comprehensive analysis of LCC at the global scale are rare. With the latest version of GLASS (Global Land Surface Satellite) CDRs (climate data records) from 1982 to 2015, we built the first record of 34-year-long annual dynamics of global land cover (GLASS-GLC) at 5 km resolution using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Compared to earlier global land cover (LC) products, GLASS-GLC is characterized by high consistency, more detail, and longer temporal coverage. The average overall accuracy for the 34 years each with seven classes, including cropland, forest, grassland, shrubland, tundra, barren land, and snow/ice, is 82.81 % based on 2431 test sample units. We implemented a systematic uncertainty analysis and carried out a comprehensive spatiotemporal pattern analysis. Significant changes at various scales were found, including barren land loss and cropland gain in the tropics, forest gain in the Northern Hemisphere, and grassland loss in Asia. A global quantitative analysis of human factors showed that the average human impact level in areas with significant LCC was about 25.49 %. The anthropogenic influence has a strong correlation with the noticeable vegetation gain, especially for forest. Based on GLASS-GLC, we can conduct long-term LCC analysis, improve our understanding of global environmental change, and mitigate its negative impact. GLASS-GLC will be further applied in Earth system modeling to facilitate research on global carbon and water cycling, vegetation dynamics, and climate change. The GLASS-GLC data set presented in this article is available at 10.1594/PANGAEA.913496 (Liu et al., 2020).
• Zoonotic pathogens and parasites that are transmitted from vertebrates to humans are a major public health risk with high associated global economic costs. The spread of these pathogens and risk of transmission accelerate with recent anthropogenic land‐use changes (LUC) such as deforestation, urbanisation, and agricultural intensification, factors that are expected to increase in the future due to human population expansion and increasing demand for resources.
• We systematically review the literature on anthropogenic LUC and zoonotic diseases, highlighting the most prominent mammalian reservoirs and pathogens, and identifying avenues for future research.
• The majority of studies were global reviews that did not focus on specific taxa. South America and Asia were the most‐studied regions, while the most‐studied LUC was urbanisation. Livestock were studied more within the context of agricultural intensification, carnivores with urbanisation and helminths, bats with deforestation and viruses, and primates with habitat fragmentation and protozoa.
• Research into specific animal reservoirs has improved our understanding of how the spread of zoonotic diseases is affected by LUC. The behaviour of hosts can be altered when their habitats are changed, impacting the pathogens they carry and the probability of disease spreading to humans. Understanding this has enabled the identification of factors that alter the risk of emergence (such as virulence, pathogen diversity, and ease of transmission). Yet, many pathogens and impacts of LUC other than urbanisation have been understudied.
• Predicting how zoonotic diseases emerge and spread in response to anthropogenic LUC requires more empirical and data synthesis studies that link host ecology and responses with pathogen ecology and disease spread. The link between anthropogenic impacts on the natural environment and the recent COVID‐19 pandemic highlights the urgent need to understand how anthropogenic LUC affects the risk of spillover to humans and spread of zoonotic diseases originating in mammals.
Land as an essential resource is becoming increasingly scarce due to population growth. In the case of the Kenyan coast, population pressure causes land cover changes in the Arabuko Sokoke Forest, which is an important habitat for endangered species. Forest and bushland have been changed to agricultural land in order to provide livelihood for the rural population who are highly dependent on small-scale farming. Unclear land rights and misbalanced access to land cause uncontrolled expansion and insecure livelihoods. Secure land rights are crucial to improve living conditions for the local smallholders. Socioeconomic and land tenure conditions were assessed in a study area close to Malindi in southeast Kenya to understand the human-induced changes in land cover. A combination between biophysical and socioeconomic methods was used to identify the relationship between land cover change, land tenure and other socioeconomic factors. Analyses in Geographic Information System (GIS) were chosen to examine in historical photographs and recent satellite imagery land cover changes between 1954 and 2017. This analysis was combined with quantitative questionnaires conducted on-site in 2017 and 2018 to identify factors influencing the land cover changes and especially to analyze the effects of land tenure on sustainable land use to reduce further land conversion. Moreover, this study statistically investigated the impact of land tenure issues on the tree population of the respective land plots using non-parametric tests as well as dependency analyses. We found significant relationships between the income of the interviewees and the tree population on land plots. It also appears that the fragmentation of land cover on a plot differs between respondents who have inherited their land and respondents who have purchased their land.
The coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla in the Atlántico Department (Colombia) is experiencing changes in human-environment interactions through infrastructure, residential, and tourism projects in a vulnerable landscape. In the hilly area, fragments of biodiverse tropical dry forest still exist in various states of conservation and degradation. To understand the interrelated social, economic, and ecological transformations in the area, we analyzed land use change on the local scale including the local community’s perception, because the local community is a key actor for sustainable land use. For the analysis of the interrelated social, economic, and ecological processes, we combined visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery, on-site field land use mapping, and a spatial statistical analysis of the distribution of land use classes with in-depth interviews and a participatory GIS workshop, thus benefitting from the complementary methodological strengths of these approaches. The case study is the rural community of El Morro, which exhibits the typical social, economic, and ecological changes of the coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla. The local community perceives a continuous loss of forest area, but observations from on-site field mapping cannot confirm this linear trend. We observed a gradual replacement of traditional land uses such as smallholder agriculture, charcoal production, and cattle breeding by services for tourism, gated community projects for urban dwellers, and infrastructure projects; these spatial developments have several characteristics of rural gentrification. We conclude that the drivers of environmental degradation have changed and the degradation increased. The development projects of external companies have been rejected by the local community and have induced environmental consciousness among community members. Thus, the local community has become an advocate for sustainable land use in the study area.
This paper is reporting on an investigation done to assess land cover dynamics in KRB(Kagera River Basin) (KRB) over a period of 21 years i.e.1990-2011 using Remote Sensing, Hydrology and GIS techniques as a basis for initiating policy interventions for sustainability of Lake Victoria water regime.The extent of land cover changes in the KRB have not been quantified with the view of assessing the extent of exploitation of the natural resources.The assessment is important firstly for identification of causative factors and secondly as a mechanism for formulating necessary policies and remedial measures to that effect.Specifically, Landsat 5, Landsat 7 and ETM+ (2000) satellite images were used.Eight Land Cover classes were identified namely, Forests, Woodland, Bushland, Cultivated Land, Swamps, Grassland, Bareland and Urban areas.Hydrographical data were used to assess changes in quantity of water flowing from the KRB into Lake Victoria and relating it with land cover changes in KRB at in the period of study. Spatial data processing, analysis and interpretation were carried out in ERDAS Imagine and ArcGIS software environments; while water quantity data and other non spatial data were processed and analyzed in Microsoft Excel application 2007. The study revealed a significant decline of vegetation cover and water quantity discharged from Kagera River to Lake Victoria over the study period. This contravenes the global efforts of ecological sustainability, which urge avoidance of depletion of natural resources for maintenance for ecological balance. These results are in early warning to the Management of Lake Victoria for its potential failure towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal on responsible consumption and protection of natural resources in proximity with Lake Victoria. The Management of Lake Victoria in collaboration with other relevant authorities should thus, take remedial measures to control further depletion of vegetation cover in KRB for sustainability of Lake Victoria and its ecosystem.
Developing policy that is both relevant and supported requires an understanding of stakeholders' account of the key challenges in society. Such insights allow policymakers to better align their policy and collaborate with stakeholders to successfully manage the challenges. To this end, the present study reports on a problem analysis conducted with Lake Victoria stakeholders. A thorough stakeholder mapping procedure was followed by semistructured interviews with businesses, NGOs, governmental organizations and communities. In these interviews, stakeholders discussed what they perceived to be the most pressing challenges in the region, as well as their causes and possible mitigation strategies. The analysis resulted in 12 key challenges raised by the stakeholders that cover socio‐economic, environmental, health and institutional issues. Stakeholder analysis revealed that the type of challenges discussed varied across countries and stakeholder institutions. Based on these analyses, the present study concludes that these diverse perceptions must be taken into consideration in future policy formulation and that a strong partnership between policymakers and stakeholders is crucial to mitigate these challenges.
The current study aims to investigate the agricultural investment differences among three kinds of land lease agreements and their effect on farmers’ decisions regarding sustainable growth in terms of soil conservation and wheat productivity, using cross-sectional data from rural households in Punjab, Pakistan. The “multivariate Tobit model” was used for the empirical analysis because it considers the possible substitution of investment choices and the tenancy status’ endogeneity. Compared to agricultural lands on lease contracts, landowners involved in agribusiness are more likely to invest in measures to improve soil and increase productivity. Moreover, the present study has also identified that the yield per hectare is much higher for landowners than sharecroppers, and thus, the Marshall’s assumption of low efficiency of tenants under sharecroppers is supported.
I investigate whether cultural differences explain why some European regions are more effective in mitigating soil erosion than others. Specifically, I consider environmental preferences and beliefs as well as time preferences. For causal identification, I use a control function approach. The estimates suggest that a 1 standard deviation increase in pro-environmental culture increases erosion mitigation by 2–9 percentage points. This has important implications for research and policy making, which I discuss.
Most of the land in sub-Saharan Africa is governed under various forms of customary tenure. Over the past three decades a quiet paradigm shift has been taking place transforming the way such landl is governed. Driven in part by adaptations to changing context but also accelerated by neo-liberal reforms, this shift has created a 'new' customary tenure in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reviews some of the evidence and analyses the ways in which this neo-liberalisation of customary tenure has been transforming relations of production and how land is governed in sub-Saharan Africa. It identifies how core neo-liberalisation processes such as privatisation of rights, commoditisation, deregulation ; re-regulation and flanking have led to a formal reconfiguration of the way people relate to land. It presents a characterisation of the 'new'-African customary tenure before sketching out evidence of outcomes associated with neo-liberalisation of customary tenure. The paper identifies five outcomes marking out the new customary tenure's legacy. These are: creating new class dynamics (those with registered rights and those without), altered institutional power relations (extending statutory governance), local rank order change (replacing the traditional 'big men' of rural Africa with 'new' big shots), miniaturisation of smallholder farming and the growth in medium scale farms, growing inequality and potential social differentiation .
Most literature on land tenure in sub-Saharan Africa has presented women as a homogenous group. This study uses evidence from Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe to show that women have differentiated problems, needs, and statuses in their quest for land access and tenure security. It illustrates how women-to-women differences influence women’s access to land. By investigating differentiations in women’s land tenure in the three countries, the study identifies multiple and somewhat interlinked ways in which differentiations exist in women’s land tenure. It achieved some key outcomes. The findings include a matrix of factors that differentiate women’s land access and tenure security, a visualisation of women’s differentiation in land tenure showing possible modes for actions, and an adaptable approach for operationalising women’s differentiation in land tenure policies (among others). Using these as evidence, it argues that women are a highly differentiated gender group, and the only thing homogenous in the three cases is that women are heterogeneous in their land tenure experiences. It concludes that an emphasis on how the differentiation among women allows for significant insight to emerge into how they experience tenure access differently is essential in improving the tenure security of women. Finally, it makes policy recommendations.
The Bonn Challenge, a voluntary global initiative launched in 2011, aims to bring up to 350 million hectares of degraded land into some level of restorative state by 2030. Pilot forest landscape restoration (FLR) efforts indicate that enhancing community and smallholder tenure rights is critical for achieving FLR's desired joint environmental and social well-being objectives. The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) is a decision support tool that has become widely used in national and subnational FLR planning. Although ROAM is structured so as to encourage inclusion of tenure rights and governance analyses, the extent to which ROAM reports actually incorporate tenure issues is undocumented. To address this gap, we report the results of an analysis of the currently publicly accessible ROAM reports from eight countries in Africa and Latin America. We found that the ROAM reports superficially covered tenure and governance considerations. We recommend design elements for a tenure diagnostic that should facilitate more robust tenure and land gov-ernance analyses-to complement ROAM and other FLR planning approaches. We suggest the adoption of a rights-enhanced FLR approach so as to capitalize on the motivating force that strong and secure tenure rights provide for landholders to engage in forest restoration design and practice. Although developed in the context of FLR, the proposed tenure diagnostic should have broad utility for other land use initiatives where tenure rights and security are at stake.
Sustainable land use systems planning and management requires a wider understanding of the spatial extent and detailed human-ecosystem interactions astride any landscape. This study assessed the extent of historical, current, and future land use systems in Uganda. The specific objectives were to (i) characterize and assess the extent of historical and current land use systems, and (ii) project future land use systems. The land use systems were defined and classified using spatially explicit land use/cover layers for the years 1990 and 2015, while the future prediction (for the year 2040) was determined using land use systems datasets for both years through a Markov chain model. This study reveals a total of 29 classes of land use systems that can be broadly categorized as follows: three of the land use systems are agricultural, five are under bushland, four under forest, five under grasslands, two under impediments, three under wetlands, five under woodland, one under open water and urban settlement respectively. The highest gains in the land amongst the land use systems were experienced in subsistence agricultural land and grasslands protected, while the highest losses were seen in grasslands unprotected and woodland/forest with low livestock densities. By 2040, subsistence agricultural land is likely to increase by about 1% while tropical high forest with livestock activities is expected to decrease by 0.2%, and woodland/forest unprotected by 0.07%. High demand for agricultural and settlement land are mainly responsible for land use systems patchiness. This study envisages more land degradation and disasters such as landslides, floods, droughts, and so forth to occur in the country, causing more deaths and loss of property, if the rate at which land use systems are expanding is not closely monitored and regulated in the near future.
Urban ecosystem services (ES) contribute to the compensation of negative effects caused by cities by means of, for example, reducing air pollution and providing cooling effects during the summer time. In this study, an approach is described that combines the regional biotope and land use data set, hemeroby and the accessibility of open space in order to assess the provision of urban ES. Hemeroby expresses the degree of naturalness of land use types and, therefore, provides a differentiated assessment of urban ES. Assessment of the local capacity to provide urban ES was conducted with a spatially explicit modeling approach in the city of Halle (Saale) in Germany. The following urban ES were assessed: (a) global climate regulation, (b) local climate regulation, (c) air pollution control, (d) water cycle regulation, (e) food production, (f) nature experience and (g) leisure activities. We identified areas with high and low capacity of ES in the urban context. For instance, the central parts of Halle had very low or no capacity to provide ES due to highly compact building styles and soil sealing. In contrast, peri-urban areas had particularly high capacities. The potential provision of regulating services was spatially limited due to the location of land use types that provide these services.
Statutory recognition of rural communities as collective owners of their lands is substantial, expanding, and an increasingly accepted element of property relations. The conventional meaning of property in land itself is changing, allowing for a greater diversity of attributes without impairing legal protection. General identified trends include: (1) declining attempts to deny that community lands are property on the grounds that they may not be sold or are owned collectively; (2) increased provision for communities to be registered owners to the same degree as individual and corporate persons; (3) a rise in number of laws catering specifically to the identification, registration and governance of community property; and (4) in laws that acknowledge that community property may exist whether or not it has been registered, and that registration formalizes rather than creates property in these cases. The research examined the laws of 100 countries to ascertain the status of lands which social communities, either traditionally or in more contemporary arrangements, deem to be their own. Sampling is broadly consistent with numbers of countries per region. The constitutions of all 100 countries were examined. The land laws of 61 countries were scrutinized. Secondary sources were used for 39 countries, mainly due to laws not being available in English. The main secondary source used was LandMark, whose data is publicly available at www.landmarkmap.org.
There is tenure insecurity around land ownerships and land rights in most developing countries. There are also many land-use planning projects being implemented in these countries. Often, land-use planning exists in these countries but is not formally linked with tenure security. This study argues that combining them by conducting land-use planning in a way that promotes tenure security presents a new approach. A central premise for the rationale of this intervention is that processes of land-use planning may inadvertently increase tenure security. By way of methodology, it evaluates land-use planning case studies from Africa, Asia and South America. It uses the three case study examples to build a case for making tenure security one of the major planned outcomes of a land-use planning process and provides a detailed framework for operationalising the concept. Its main contribution to the literature is that it introduces the concept of tenure responsive land-use planning.
The Murchison Bay catchment in the northern shoreline of Lake Victoria basin is a high valued ecosystem because of the numerous human-related activities it supports in Uganda. The catchment has undergone tremendous human-induced land use/cover changes, which have not been quantified. This study aimed at quantifying the land use/cover changes as well as the rate at which these changes occurred over the last three decades in the catchment. This was achieved using remote sensing techniques and Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyse and contextualize the changes. To that effect, images of Landsat satellites MSS, TM, ETM+ and OLI were interpreted using supervised image classification technique to determine the land use/land cover changes from 1984 to 2015. The obtained results indicated that the catchment has undergone huge land use and land cover transformations over the last three decades attributable to rapid population growth and urbanization. The prevailing changes in footprint between 1984 and 2015 were expansions of built–up land (20.58% to 49.59%) and open water bodies (not detected in 1984 to 1.74%), and decreases in the following sectors: agricultural lands (from 43.88% to 26.10%), forestland (from 23.78% to 17.49%), and wetlands (from 11.76% to 5.08%). The changes pose a threat to the environment and water quality of the Murchison Bay and consequently increases National Water and Sewerage Corporation water treatment costs. Therefore, there is the need to take critical and practical measures to regulate and police land use, water use rights and conserve the environment especially wetlands.
This study reviews the achievements, and also the shortcomings, of 12 watershed management projects technically supported by FAO over the past decade, with a view to learning from experience. Unlike sectoral development approaches, watershed management involves examining the interactions among various natural processes and land uses and managing land, water and the wider ecosystem of the watershed in an integrated way. Watershed management is best carried out as a stepwise multistakeholder process. The review identifies a sequence of steps that watershed management projects or programmes should ideally follow. The approach has demonstrated its effectiveness for responding to global challenges of water supply, land restoration, climate change adaptation, disaster risk management and fighting hunger. The study results suggest that future watershed management projects and programmes must be implemented over longer time frames, and they require sustained and coordinated investment from the public and private sectors. The review identifies the following areas for moving forward: institutional strengthening for improved watershed governance; watershed monitoring; capitalizing on increased data availability; knowledge sharing and learning; and strategic partnerships for joint action on the ground.
Human activity and related land use change are the primary cause of accelerated soil erosion, which has substantial implications for nutrient and carbon cycling, land productivity and in turn, worldwide socio-economic conditions. Here we present an unprecedentedly high resolution (250×250m) global potential soil erosion model, using a combination of remote sensing, GIS modelling and census data. We challenge the previous annual soil erosion reference values as our estimate, of 35.9 Pg yr−1 of soil eroded in 2012, is at least two times lower. Moreover, we estimate the spatial and temporal effects of land use change between 2001 and 2012 and the potential offset of the global application of conservation practices. Our findings indicate a potential overall increase in global soil erosion driven by cropland expansion. The greatest increases are predicted to occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. The least developed economies have been found to experience the highest estimates of soil erosion rates..
This paper analyzes whether national laws acknowledge indigenous peoples and other rural communities in 100 countries as owners of waters that arise within their lands. Results derive from information collected by LandMark to score the legal status of community land tenure. Findings are positive; half of all countries recognize communities as lawful possessors of water on their lands. Three quarters permit communities to manage the distribution and use of water on their lands. While 71 percent of countries declare water to be a public resource, this belies the substantial existence of privately owned water. In 29 percent of countries, private water is an identified legal category, and in many other countries obtainable rights to water are sufficiently substantial to imply lawful possession. Communities are beneficiaries mainly where customary rights are accorded status as property rights, or where ownership of public lands and water are devolved to rural collectives. However, opposite trends of nationalization and regulation of water suggest that while legal recognition of community land ownership may rise in the future, this will not necessarily include waters on the land. Irrespective of tenure, rural communities in 72 of 77 countries (93.5 percent) are legally assured access to water for domestic purposes. This is consistent with the rising definition of safe drinking water as a human right, although access does not necessarily come free of cost.
What is a case study and what is it good for? In this article, we argue for a new approach—the comparative case study approach—that attends simultaneously to macro, meso, and micro dimensions of case-based research. The approach engages two logics of comparison: first, the more common compare and contrast; and second, a " tracing across " sites or scales. As we explicate our approach, we also contrast it to traditional case study research. We contend that new approaches are necessitated by conceptual shifts in the social sciences, specifically in relation to culture, context, space, place, and comparison itself. We propose that comparative case studies should attend to three axes: horizontal, vertical, and transversal comparison. We conclude by arguing that this revision has the potential to strengthen and enhance case study research in Comparative and International Education, clarifying the unique contributions of qualitative research.
Insecure land tenure plagues many developing and tropical regions, often where conservation concerns are highest. Conservation organizations have long focused on protected areas as tenure interventions, but are now thinking more comprehensively about whether and how to incorporate other land tenure strategies into their work, and how to more soundly ground such interventions on evidence of both conservation and human benefits. Through a review of the literature on land tenure security as it relates to conservation practice, predominantly in the tropics, we aim to help conservation practitioners consider and incorporate more appropriate land tenure security interventions into conservation strategies. We present a framework that identifies three common ways in which land tenure security can impact human and conservation outcomes, and suggest practical ways to distill tenure and tenure security issues for a given location. We conclude with steps for considering tenure security issues in the context of conservation projects and identify areas for future research.
A growing body of research shows the importance of land use/cover change (LULCC) on modifying the Earth system. Land surface models are used to stimulate land–atmosphere dynamics at the macroscale, but model bias and uncertainty remain that need to be addressed before the importance of LULCC is fully realized. In this study, we propose a method of improving LULCC estimates for land surface modeling exercises. The method is driven by projectable socio-ecological geospatial predictors available seamlessly across sub-Saharan Africa and yielded continuous (annual) estimates of LULCC at 5 km × 5 km spatial resolution. The method was developed with 2252 sample area frames of 5 km × 5 km consisting of the proportion of several land cover types in Kenya over multiple years. Forty-three socio-ecological predictors were evaluated for model development. Machine learning was used for data reduction, and simple (functional) relationships defined by generalized additive models were constructed on a subset of the highest-ranked predictors (p≤10) to estimate LULCC. The predictors explained 62 and 65 % of the variance in the proportion of agriculture and natural vegetation, respectively, but were less successful at estimating more descriptive land cover types. In each case, population density on an annual basis was the highest-ranked predictor. The approach was compared to a commonly used remote sensing classification procedure, given the wide use of such techniques for macroscale LULCC detection, and outperformed it for each land cover type. The approach was used to demonstrate significant trends in expanding (declining) agricultural (natural vegetation) land cover in Kenya from 1983 to 2012, with the largest increases (declines) occurring in densely populated high agricultural production zones. Future work should address the improvement (development) of existing (new) geospatial predictors and issues of model scalability and transferability.
The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a versatile model presently used worldwide to evaluate water quality and hydrological concerns under varying land use and environmental conditions. In this study, SWAT was used to simulate streamflow and to estimate sediment yield and nutrients loss from the Murchison Bay catchment as a result of land use changes. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for streamflow for extended periods. The Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2) global sensitivity method within SWAT Calibration and Uncertainty Procedures (SWAT-CUP) was used to identify the most sensitive streamflow parameters. The model satisfactorily simulated stream discharge from the catchment. The model performance was determined with different statistical methods. The results showed a satisfactory model streamflow simulation performance. The results of runoff and average upland sediment yield estimated from the catchment showed that, both have increased over the period of study. The increasing rate of runoff can lead to severe and frequent flooding, lower water quality and reduce crop yield in the catchment. Therefore, comprehensive water management steps should be taken to reduce surface runoff in the catchment. This is the first time the SWAT model has been used in the Murchison Bay catchment. The results showed that, if all uncertainties are minimised, a well calibrated SWAT model can generate reasonable hydro-logic simulation results in relation to land use, which is useful to water and environmental resources managers and policy and decision makers.
This study assessed the current status of Awoja in Ngora district of Eastern Uganda. Remote sensing, household survey, In Pac S methodology and focus group discussions were used to acquire data from April to July, 2015. Landsat satellite imageries from 2007 and 2013 were acquired by USGS Earth Explorer to quantify land use/cover changes. Five land use/cover types were identified namely; (1) open water (2) wetland (3) tree cover (4) agriculture and (5) built up area. The findings indicate a fivefold increase in built up area by 154.27Km 2 and open water changed by 8.7 Km 2 and a reduction in wetland area by-1.0Km 2 tree cover by-48.07Km 2 and agriculture area by-11.4.0Km 2. The survey results indicated deforestation, wetland encroachment, poor attitude and over population as the main reasons for degradation. In Pac S methodology findings showed convergence in the perceived indicator of degraded watershed in terms of water and soil quality; vegetation type and species diversity among the lay people and technocrats. The focus group discussion findings indicated a negative trend in land use/cover change. There is need for a concerted effort to design an appropriate restoration strategy for Awoja.
We draw on empirical results from three case studies of property rights change across forest and fisheries ecosystems in central Vietnam to investigate the circumstances under which collective property rights may make sense. A generic property rights framework was used to examine the bundles of rights and associated rights holders in each case, and to assess these arrangements with regard to their contextual fit, legitimacy and enforceability. The cases illustrate the interactions between private and collective rights to lands and resources, and the trade-offs inherent with different mixes of rights.
IntroductionLong-term drought in the southern Great Plains increases the vulnerability of coupled human-environment systems at a variety of scales. Developing better understandings of the dynamics at regional scales will become increasingly important as long-established land-use regimes break down in the face of climate change, resource depletion, and evolving governance. To demonstrate differential vulnerability during drought periods, this study hypothesized that observed increases in woody vegetation in grasslands would vary across land-tenure regimes. We argue that differences in State Trust Land governance, in part, lead to differential land management practices that contribute to landscape change. Methods
The study area encompasses adjacent counties, Cimarron County in Oklahoma and Union County in New Mexico, with similar climate variability and agricultural economies. We analyzed National Land Cover Database (NLCD) land-cover maps from 1992 and 2011 to assess changes in landscape composition and structure between 1992 and 2011. ResultsDuring both years under consideration, each county in the study region, across various land-tenure regimes, was dominated by herbaceous vegetation. However, there were changes in both composition and structure across the whole study area, in particular losses of herbaceous vegetation and increases in woody vegetation. The greatest gains in woody vegetation occurred in State Trust Lands of Cimarron County. Overall, the data suggest a fragmentation of herbaceous vegetation and a coalescing of shrubland patches. Conclusions
Research about the influence of land tenure on land management decisions, specifically the role of State Trust Land leases in overgrazing, informs the broader context of drought management in the southern Great Plains. Recommendations include continued research to highlight the specific mechanisms of land-tenure governance that drive landscape change.
Land-titling programs, land and forest allocation programs, and projects on state-allocated land for development and investment in Laos have been key drivers of change in land tenure. These have triggered major shifts in land use rights, from customary, to temporary, and then to permanent land use rights. This article explores how government programs to grant land use rights to individual households have affected the way people have been able to acquire and secure land tenure. For our case study, we selected the village of Napo, the target of many land tenure changes in the past four decades. We collected data from district offices, group discussions with village organizations, and interviews with selected households. The study shows how land use rights shifted over time and reveals that households obtained most of their agricultural land and forestland through a claim process. Original households were mainly land claimers, while migrants were land buyers. The process of formalization and allocation of tenure triggered inequality among households. Attention is needed in future land governance and tenure reforms in order to safeguard the land use rights of local people in an equitable manner.
Context
Traditionally, studies of habitat fragmentation have focused on spatial isolation of habitats. Meanwhile, the role of fragmentation of land ownership and hence of parcelization of habitats remains, particularly in relation to management of semi-natural grasslands, not well understood.
Objective
We propose that, especially in a Danish context, fragmentation of land ownership leads to parcelization of semi-natural grassland habitats. This results in small parcel sizes, obstructing cost effective management in terms of grazing and mowing and consequently leads to encroachment of scrubs, threatening biodiversity.
Methods
We applied national, spatially explicit information about land ownership, management, semi-natural grasslands and vegetation height to examine the relationships between parcel size, management and the proportion of scrubs on semi-natural grasslands.
Results
Results from a regression analysis show that parcel size is significantly negatively related to proportion of scrubs; i.e. small parcels are associated with higher proportions of scrubs compared to large parcels. The results also show that the size of ownership parcels has a stronger explanatory power for the proportion of scrub compared to the size of habitat parcels, where ownership boundaries are not taken into account. Furthermore, parcels, with legal obligations for management, have significantly lower proportion of scrubs compared to parcels without management obligations.
Conclusions
Efforts for conservation of and improvement of biodiversity on semi-natural grassland should pay increasing attention towards the importance of fragmentation of land ownership and parcelization of habitats. Our results point at the need for cross-farm cooperation to secure continuous grassland management to prevent scrub encroachment.
People have an inherent tenacity to throng coastal regions in pursuit of better living conditions. As such the brisk dynamism of land use/land cover activities in a coastal region becomes obvious. The former keeps changing rapidly due to burgeoning population. A digital change detection analysis is performed with the help of Geographic Information System (GIS) on the Remote Sensing data spanning over last 20 years, complemented by in-situ data and ground truth information. This current research briefly endeavours to find out the nature of change happening in the major three coastal cities of Papua New Guinea (PNG), namely Alotau, capital of Milnebay province; Lae, capital of Morobe province and Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. Changes in land use and land cover that took place over 20 years have been recorded using Landsat 5 thematic mapper (TM) data of 1992 and Landsat 8 operational land imager (OLI) data. Land use and land cover maps of 1992, and 2013/14, and change detection matrix of 1992-2013/14 are derived. Results show an immensely sprawling urban landscape, evincing about five times growth during 1992 to 2014. At the same time “natural forests” dwindled by 444.96 hectares in Alotau, 6977.25 hectares in Lae and “mangrove” and “grass/shrub land” decreased by 127.78 and 4859.39 hectares respectively around Port Moresby. The above changes owe to ever increasing population pressure, land tenure shift, agriculture and industrial development.
Models in land change research are often chosen arbitrarily based on practical rather than theoretical considerations. More specifically, research on land change is often based on a research framework with three crucial elements - driving forces, actors, and land change - in an ad hoc and casespecific configuration. The lack of solid and widely applicable concepts about the conceptual link between these three elements can negatively affect individual research projects and hamper communication and generalizations beyond the individual project. We present four basic models for linking land change with driving forces and actors. These models are illustrated with examples from the research literature. Based on the main characteristics of the models and practical considerations, we propose guidelines for choosing among the four models for specific studies. More generally, we want to raise awareness that land change research is especially demanding with respect to conceptual backgrounds and that conceptual considerations will help improve the scientific quality of individual studies as well as their potential contribution towards generic theories of land change.
Patterns of soil properties in highland environments remain poorly understood and limited knowledge exists on soil quality with respect to land use systems and topographic configurations. In this study, patterns of 12 surface soil physicochemical properties were assessed over a period of three years with respect to land use systems and toposequence positions in the Rwizi catchment of the Lake Victoria Basin. Four land use systems constituting mulched banana, unmulched banana, grassland and tree plantation, and three toposequence positions stratified as footslope, midslope and summit were considered and three replications were applied resulting in a total of 36 sites for soil properties measurements over a three-year period. Topographic attributes (elevation, slope gradient, slope aspect, and location) were collected at each site and correlated with surface soil properties. With the exception of pH and Ca, surface soil physicochemical properties are revealed to be optimal in the catchment. Greater spatial variation was found with soil chemical properties (8–57%) compared to physical properties (7–19%). Land use system registered significant effects (p < 0.05) for all soil chemical properties, as well as bulk density. Toposequence position is shown to have significant (p < 0.05) effects on soil pH, Soil Organic Matter, available P, N and soil texture. The effect of toposequence position revealed better soil quality along the catenary sequence summit > footslope > midslope. Strong and significant regression coefficients (r² > 0.6, p < 0.05) for topographic attributes were found with soil pH, available P, K, Ca, Mg and sand. Overall, the land use system effect supersedes toposequence position in accounting for variations in surface soil physicochemical properties. Although environments of the Lake Victoria Basin are subject to intense agricultural activity and are usually assumed to be degraded, surface soil physicochemical properties in this part of the catchment reflect relatively healthy soil quality conditions.
The extant literature on the commons describes a large number of factors that could explain the drama of the commons or why some commons are managed well but others are not. However, little is known about the effects of land fragmentation on the governance of the commons. This question is important for developing countries, especially China where land holdings are highly fragmented with farmers having on average 4.127 plots of land. We employ ordered probit and step wise regression based on data from a survey of 3895 households from 284 villages in 17 provinces or regions in China. We find, consistent with theoretical expectation, that land fragmentation has a negative and significant effect on collective action and the governance of the commons. Farmers with more plots of land are more likely to free ride and less likely to contribute to collective action. Our findings have important implications for the governance of the commons specially in developing countries.
Significance
Emerging evidence shows that the boundaries of protected areas (PAs) and their level of protection regularly change, yet little is known regarding the underlying causes of these legal changes and their impacts on ecosystems. For PA degazettements (i.e., protection removals) in the state of Rondônia in the Brazilian Amazon we show that the PAs less effective in stemming deforestation are more likely to be degazetted. For those already deforested PAs degazettement had limited, if any, additional impact on deforestation. Consistent with the scientific literature recognizing that governance shapes conservation outcomes, governance that improves PA outcomes also improves their legal durability. Our evidence on such relationships suggests directions for research and the need for policymakers to reexamine conventional wisdom regarding PAs.
In this study, we quantified surface runoff and soil loss along a toposequence considering four land use systems and three topographic segment positions in Rwizi catchment, Lake Victoria Basin (LVB). The land use systems were grassland dominated by a local species known as "Omugugu" (Cyperus spp.), tree plantation of pine (Pinus sabiniana) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globus), mulched banana (Musa Paradisiaca), and unmulched banana, topographically located on the foot slope, midslope, and summit. Runoff and soil loss magnitude and trends under varied rainfall regimes were measured using closed runoff plots measuring 2 × 20 m (40 m2). A split plot experimental design was adopted for the study. In total, 36 runoff plots were installed considering the land use and topographic factors with three replications. Observed monthly rainfall values varied from 9.3 to 167 mm (75 ±54 mm). Annually, the registered rainfall depth was 680 mm. The annual rainfall depth was below the long-term annual mean for the area. Nearly all rainfall events with a depth greater than 10 mm contributed relatively heavy runoff, while rainfall events less than 10 mm in general caused minor surface runoff at the sites. Annual runoff within the catchment at the studied sites varied from 42 to 411 m³ha⁻¹ y⁻¹. The average observed cross-site annual runoff was 151 ± 95 m³ha⁻¹ y⁻¹. Results show that annual runoff was in the order of tree plantation unmulched banana sites yg; grassland = mulched banana. Soil losses were greatest (1.5 t ha-1 y⁻¹⁾ and lowest (0.8 t ha-1 y⁻¹) on unmulched banana and mulched banana sites, respectively. Annual soil loss showed an increase with topographic slope segment position. Average annual soil loss on the upper slope position facets (1.7 t ha⁻¹y⁻¹) were 2.4 folds higher than those observed on the footslope position facets (0.7 t ha⁻¹ y⁻¹), giving a percentage difference of 83%. We did not detect a statistical difference in runoff (p > 0.05) due to either land use system or toposequence position. However, statistical differences were observed in soil loss (p < 0.05) for land use system and toposequence position. While the observed annual soil loss magnitude is within the tolerable thresholds, a sustained maintenance of best land use practices.
Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is the result of complex human-environmental interactions. The high interdependencies in social-ecological systems make it difficult to identify the main drivers. However, knowledge of key drivers of LULCC, including indirect (underlying) drivers which cannot be easily determined by spatial or economic analyses, is essential for land use planning and especially important in developing countries. We used a mixed-method approach in order to detect drivers of LULCC in the Upper East Region of northern Ghana by different qualitative and quantitative methods which were compared in a confidence level analysis. Viewpoints from experts help to answer why the land use is changing, since many triggering effects, especially non-spatial and indirect drivers of LULCC, are not measurable by other methodological approaches. Geo-statistical or economic analyses add to validate the relevance of the expert-based results. First, we conducted in-depth interviews and developed a list of 34 direct and indirect drivers of LULCC. Subsequently, a group of experts was asked in a questionnaire to select the most important drivers by using a Likert scale. This information was complemented by remote sensing analysis. Finally, the driver analysis was compared to information from literature. Based on these analyses there is a very high confidence that population growth, especially in rural areas, is a major driver of LULCC. Further, current farming practice, bush fires, livestock, the road network and climate variability were the main direct drivers while the financial capital of farmers and customary norms regarding land tenure were listed as important indirect drivers with high confidence. Many of these driving forces, such as labour shortage and migration, are furthermore interdependent. Governmental laws, credits, the service by extension officers, conservational agriculture and foreign agricultural medium-scale investments are currently not driving land use changes. We conclude that the mixed-method approach improves the confidence of findings and the selection of most important drivers for modelling LULCC, especially in developing countries.
Common understanding of the causes of land-use and land-cover change is dominated by simplifications which, in turn, underlie many environment-development policies. This article tracks some of the major myths on driving forces of land-cover change and proposes alternative pathways of change that are better supported by case study evidence. Cases reviewed support the conclusion that neither population nor poverty alone constitute the sole and major underlying causes of land-cover change worldwide. Rather, peoples’ responses to economic opportunities, as mediated by institutional factors, drive land-cover changes. Opportunities and
We analyse historical land use/land cover changes beginning from 1996 to 2013 and apply an agent-based model to simulate potential agricultural land use change scenarios in Uganda. The model incorporates farmers’ decision-making processes into biophysical and socioeconomic factors and uses these to analyse the effect of farmers’ decisions on agricultural land use changes. Geographic information system tools are employed to build spatial relations between farmers and land cover systems. Satellite images are used to represent the initial land cover conditions and serve as observed land cover datasets to calibrate the simulated results. Significant agricultural and grassland cover and urban land uses are experienced in 72 and 36% of the regions, respectively, while wetland land uses increased significantly in 82% of the regions. On the other hand, 91% of the regions experience reductions in forest cover except for Teso region which reports gains of 62% in forest cover. Acholi is the only region (extreme outlier) that reports dramatic gains in wetlands of over 880%. The results of the simulation model are promising, and the model was successful at representing historical and future scenarios of agricultural land use patterns at a national level. © 2016 The African Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers