A geospatial model for the optimization grazing management in semi-arid rangeland of Iran     

Fazel Amiri  Abdul Rashid bin Mohamed Shariff  Taybeh Tabatabaie  Biswajeet Pradhan 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2014,7(3):1101-1114

Extensive livestock grazing even in unsuitable land has increasingly grown in most parts of semi-arid rangeland. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to identify suitable land for livestock grazing for optimum utilization while causing minimum impact to the environment. This paper adapted the schematic model based on the concepts presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of suitability analysis for optimal grazing management in semi-arid rangeland in Iran. Factors affecting extensive grazing were determined and incorporated into the model. Semi-arid rangeland with variable such as climate and other agents were examined for common types of animal grazing and the advantages and limitations were elicited. Many ecosystem components affect land suitability for livestock grazing but due to time and funding restrictions, the most important and feasible elements were investigated. Within the model parameters, three submodels including water accessibility source, forage production, and erosion sensitivity were considered. Suitable areas at four levels of suitability were determined using geographic information systems. This suitability modeling approach was adopted due to its simplicity and the minimal time required for transforming and analyzing datasets. The most important reducing factors in model suitability were found to be: (a) land use and vegetation cover (in relation to soil erosion sensitivity), (b) the amount of the available forage in comparison with the total production, and (c) the existence of less palatability plants among the pasture plant species (forage production suitability). The results of the study would be beneficial to rangeland managers in devising measures more wisely to cope with the limitations and enhance the health and productivity of the rangelands.  相似文献   

Monitoring rangeland ground cover vegetation using multitemporal MODIS data     

Hassan Yeganeh  Seyed jamale Khajedein  Fazel Amiri  Abdul Rashid B. Mohamed Shariff 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2014,7(1):287-298

The aim of the present research is to monitor changes in herbage production during the grazing season in the Semirom and Brojen regions, Iran, using multitemporal Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. At first, various preprocessing steps were applied to a topography map. The atmospheric and topographic corrections were applied using subtraction of the dark object method and the Lambert method. Image processing, including false-color composite, principal component analysis, and vegetation indices were employed to produce land use and pasture production maps. Vegetation sampling was carried out over a period of 4 months during June–September 2008, using a stratified random sampling method. Twenty random sampling points were selected, and herbage production was estimated and verified with the double-checking method. Four MODIS data sets were used in this study. The models for image processing and integrating ground data with satellite images were processed, and the resulting images were categorized into seven classes. Finally, the land covers were verified for accuracy. A postclassification analysis was carried out to verify the seven class change detections. The results confirmed that Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) maps had a close relationship with the field data. The indices produced with shortwave infrared bands had a close relationship with field data where the ground cover and yields were high. The R ² value observed was 0.85. The changes in the pasture vegetation were high during the growing season in more than 90 % of the pastures. During the growing season, most changes in the pastures belonged to class 5 and 2 in the NDVI and SAVI index maps, respectively.  相似文献   

Factors encouraging sustainability integration into institutions of higher education     

K. S. Chiong  Z. F. Mohamad  A. R. Abdul Aziz 《International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology》2017,14(4):911-922

In view of the mountainous evidence on destruction of environmental quality and societal well-being as a consequence of rapid economic development, sustainability has gained vast attention from the community and industrial players. Tertiary education is a platform through which sustainability can be inculcated within the society as it imparts knowledge and provides various trainings. There has been extensive research on factors that encourage sustainability integration into Institutions of Higher Education in the last decade. However, majority of the previous publications only discuss one or two factors exclusively and there is no literature that summarizes and discusses such factors in a collective manner. This paper provides an overview of the main factors that encourage sustainability integration into Institutions of Higher Education in the last decade. It aims at providing a one-stop reference for future researchers who need a reference on factors that encourage sustainability integration into Institutions of Higher Education, especially those who are interested in conducting a progressive research in this context. Accordingly, a review of relevant publications from year 2000 and above was conducted and it was found that there are generally eight main factors, which encourage sustainability integration into Institutions of Higher Education, which are: (1) integration into curricula; (2) suitable pedagogy; (3) campus management; (4) research; (5) opportunities provision; (6) availability of social capital; (7) awareness level; and (8) community outreach. There is no indicator on the impact level of these factors, and thus, it is suggested that relevant research can be conducted in future.  相似文献   

Analytic network process (ANP)-based spatial decision support system (SDSS) for sustainable tourism planning in Cameron Highlands,Malaysia     

Mansir Aminu  Abdul Nasir Matori  Khamaruzaman Wan Yusof  Amirhossein Malakahmad  Rosilawati Binti Zainol 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2017,10(13):286

Sustainable approach to tourism development is rarely addressed among authorities and participants. This research presents an approach based on an integrated use of analytic network process (ANP) and geographic information system (GIS) for sustainable tourism planning in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. ANP was utilized to evaluate the relative priorities for the sustainable tourism development of the highlands based on chosen criteria. ANP results were then transferred into GIS environment and attached to their respective criterion maps. Subsequently, GIS-based sustainable tourism map was generated, which defines the various types of tourism activities that are compatible with the highlands according to the sensitivity of the highland’s environment. The final output was validated using Cameron Highlands Local Plan.  相似文献