Agriculture in Africa is not only exposed to climate change impacts but is also a source of greenhouse gases (GHGs). While GHG emissions in Africa are relatively minimal in global dimensions, agriculture in the continent constitutes a major source of GHG emissions.
Land use/land cover maps derived from remotely sensed imagery are often insufficient in quality for some quantitative application purposes due to a variety of reasons such as spectral confusion.
Context: The fundamental driving force of land use and land cover (LULC) change is related to spatial and temporal processes caused by human activities such as agricultural expansion and demographic change. Landscape metrics were used to analyze post-war changes in a rural mountain landscape, the protected area of Halgurd-Sakran National Park (HSNP) in north-east Iraq.
The food-biodiversity nexus is a concept that defines and characterizes the complex interactions between agricultural systems and biodiversity conservation. Here we use a social-ecological systems approach that combines fuzzy cognitive mapping and graph theoretic analyses to uncover system properties that determine food security and biodiversity outcomes at a landscape scale.
Quantitative reconstructions of past land use facilitate comparisons between livelihoods in space and time. However, comparison between different types of land use strategies is challenging as land use has a multitude of expressions and intensities.
Berenty Reserve, a fully protected gallery forest beside the Mandrare River is renowned for its lemurs, but the continuous canopy of the main forest is shrinking, fragmenting and degrading. The aim of this study, before any restoration can be considered, is to investigate why canopy-cover is declining and define the forest’s vegetation status and composition.
Peer review is an essential part in the publication process, ensuring that Land maintains high quality standards for its published papers. In 2017, a total of 88 papers were published in the journal.[...]
In arid regions, oases ecosystems are fragile and sensitive to climate change, and water is the major limiting factor for environmental and socio-economic developments. Understanding the drivers of land use/cover change (LUCC) in arid regions is important for the development of management strategies to improve or prevent environmental deterioration and loss of natural resources.
We live in an urbanizing world. Since 2008, more than half of humanity lives in cities, both large and small, and old and new.[...]
Climate data availability plays a key role in development processes of policies, services, and planning in the agricultural sector. However, data at the spatial or temporal resolution required is often lacking, or certain values are missing. In this work, we propose to use a Bayesian network approach to generate data for missing variables.
Organized transhumant pastoralism has contributed to shaping the cultural landscape of many countries. It has affected areas designated for grazing, temporary and permanent shelters, and towns.
This study uses a combination of remote sensing data, field interviews and observations, and landscape indices to examine the dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC), identify their driving forces, and analyze their effects on the landscape of Abaya-Chamo Basin (ACB) between 1985, 1995, and 2010.