Search results for "Land-use change"
showing 10 items of 51 documents
The importance of terracing in the traditional cultural landscapes: the case study of Sicily (Italy)
2012
The landscapes formed by agricultural terraces are the natural result of the encounter between the characteristics of an environment and the creative force and genius of man, the slow evolution of this relationship between nature and culture, a collective project that balanced the need for producing with the resources available and the native character of the environment. These cultural processes produced a great variety of landscapes. However, they are not supported or confirmed by common inventories allowing to identify and classify the typical Main Traditional Landscape (MTL) within which very important is the role carried out by terraces and related man-made structures, both for natural…
Assessment of site-specific drivers of farmland abandonment in mosaic-type landscapes: A case study in Vidzeme, Latvia
2018
Abstract Farmland abandonment, which causes changes in rural life and farming practices, can be observed throughout Europe. Over the last decades natural afforestation has decreased the area of farmland used for agricultural production, thereby leading to landscape homogenization and polarization. This process is explicitly evident in mosaic type landscapes consisting of highly complex land cover patterns, soil composition and topography. The aim of the study was to determine the site-specific driving forces of farmland abandonment at landscape scale in relation to agro-ecological and geographic factors, in a post-Soviet country in Eastern Europe. An extensive field survey approach with sta…
Describing urban soils through a faceted system ensures more informed decision-making
2016
Urban areas are increasing worldwide at a dramatic rate and their soils definitely deserve more attention than they have received in the past. In urban environments, soils potentially provide the same ecosystem services as in rural and wild environments, although in some cases they are depleted of their basic functions, such as when they lose their productive and filtering capacities because of sealing, and become mere supports for infrastructures. In other cases, soils of urban areas acquire new functions that are unique to these environments. Current soil classifications fail to effectively account for the complexity of urban soils and the information that is required for their management…
The role of traditional Erica arborea L. management practices in maintaining northeastern Sicily’s cultural landscape
2007
The tree heath (Erica arborea L.), a small evergreen tree found in the Mediterranean region and parts of Eastern and Central Africa, produces lignotubers that are highly valued for making smoking pipes. The Peloritani Mountains of northeastern Sicily are historically one of the most important areas in Italy for the production of these high quality lignotubers, known as briar root wood. In the past, tree heath shrublands were also an important source of charcoal. Erica arborea utilisation has declined dramatically during the past century, mostly due to the decreasing demand for smoking pipes, as well as the increasing frequency of wildfires and large-scale afforestation activities in this re…
Cambios en los usos del suelo y producción de escorrentía en ramblas mediterráneas: Carraixet y Poyo (1956-1998)
2007
Ana.Camarasa@uv.es Juan.Mateu@uv.es Este trabajo analiza el efecto de los cambios recientes en los usos del suelo en la génesis de escorrentía en ramblas mediterráneas utilizando un SIG. Para el cálculo de la producción de escorrentía se ha utilizado el método desarrollado por el S.C.S. modificado por Témez (1978) que combina los mapas de pendientes, usos del suelo y grupo hidrológico del suelo. Se ha aplicado una adaptación del método propuesta por Camarasa et al. (2006) basado en la interpretación hidrogeomorfológica de la cuenca para la estimación del grupo hidrológico de suelo. Los resultados muestran una variabilidad espacial y temporal importante en la dinámica de producción de escorr…
Geobotanical approach to detect land-use change of a Mediterranean landscape: a case study in Central-Western Sicily
2018
A landscape is a palimpsest of the interactions between human activities and ecological dynamics. In an interdisciplinary perspective of dialogue between the ‘Two Cultures’ (Natural Sciences and Humanities), a study of a rural area has been carried out through a reading of plant ecosystems as signs of human impact. The purpose of this paper—as part of the project ‘Harvesting Memories’: Ecology and landscape archaeology of Castro/Giardinallo Valley and Mt. Barrau district (Corleone, Palermo, Sicily)—is to analyse the formative-processes of a Sicilian rural landscape and its changes in the last century. A key element in the reconstruction of the formation of the present landscape is the serie…
Is land-use change a cause of loss of pedodiversity? The case of the Mazzarrone study area, Sicily
2011
Anthropogenic soils created ex novo by land-us e change in large scale farming are, from a pedogenetic point of view, catastrophic events that bring the soils to time zero and change the natural pattern of the soilscape, remarkably, in some cases. The qu antitative aspects of pedodiversity of a soilsc ape in South-East Sicily, where some types of soils, in recent decades, have suffered a consistent reduction due to the transformations by large scale farming, are considered. The evolution of pedodiversity over a 53-year period (1955 to 2008 ) is examined using a dedicated statistical method and a space – time model based on Markov analysis and cellular autom ata in order to predict the evolu…
KAJIAN PENANGGULANGAN KERUSAKAN LAHAN AKIBAT PERUBAHAN PENGGUNAAN LAHAN DENGAN PENDEKATAN MODEL HIDROLOGI PADA DAS PAMI
2018
<em>Changes in land use in watershed will affect peak discharge and degradation land. It is becoming an indicator of better or worse use of land in watershed area. This study aims to analysis land use change, to predict peak flows based on changes in land use and land use change scenarios in the Pami watershed. This study uses a number of primary data and secondary data. Primary data were obtained from observations of the condition of the land and soil sampling, which is then analyzed in the laboratory. Secondary data were obtained from literature and related agencies such as geographical map and thematic maps including land map, administrative area maps, land use maps in 1996-2015 an…
Hydrological consequences of natural rubber plantations in Southeast Asia
2020
Since the turn of the century, rubber plantations have been expanding their footprint across Southeast Asia in response to an increasing global demand for rubber products. Between 2000 and 2014, the area cultivated with rubber more than doubled. It is not clear how this major change in the agricultural landscape of Southeast Asia, the main area of rubber production in the world, is affecting land‐use patterns and water resources in the region. Here we use maps of rubber plantations and other croplands in conjunction with a hydrological model and remote sensing analyses to assess land‐use patterns and water resources affected by natural rubber plantations. Results show water requirements of …
Potential implications of climate change and urbanization on watershed hydrology
2017
Abstract This paper proposes a modeling framework able to analyze the alterations in watershed hydrology induced by two recurrent drivers for hydrological changes: climate change and urbanization. The procedure is based on the coupling of a stochastic weather generator with a land use change model for the generation of some hypothetical scenarios. The generated scenarios are successively used to force a physically-based and spatial distributed hydrological model to reconstruct the basin response under different conditions. Several potential climate alterations are simulated by imposing negative and positive variations in the mean annual precipitation and a simultaneous temperature increase.…