Converting Brazil's pastures to cropland: An alternative way to meet sugarcane demand and to spare forestlands     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2015

Brazil seeks to rapidly increase its agricultural production to meet future demands, especially for sugarcane, which is an agricultural commodity and a biofuel source. In this paper, we explore how to achieve this increase without compromising existing forestlands. We propose that it is possible to substantially expand sugarcane production in Brazil while avoiding further environmental losses and the indirect land use changes often associated with them, such as deforestation. This task could be accomplished by converting existing pasturelands with agricultural potential into cropland. A great deal of pastureland exists in Brazil. Thus, we addressed the following questions in this study: (1) where are the most suitable pasturelands for sugarcane located geographically and (2) what potential do these pasturelands have for sugarcane production regarding their physical suitability and other significant factors, such as infrastructure availability and socioeconomic factors. We conducted a land suitability analysis using a spatial location model based on multicriteria decision-making and geographic information systems (GIS) to identify the cultivated pasturelands most suitable for conversion to sugarcane production in Brazil. “What if” scenarios were built to determine how changes in the subjectively derived weights of the priority criteria would modify the spatial distribution of the suitability classes relative to the MCDA model and demonstrate the robustness of the crop suitability assessment. The most suitable pastureland areas for conversion to sugarcane production were predominantly located in Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso and Pará. These zones have large contiguous areas of pasture with moderate and high agricultural potentials for sugarcane production. The total estimated area of cultivated pasturelands with moderate or high suitability for sugarcane production was 50 million hectares, which is much larger than the area currently used for sugarcane production in Brazil.  相似文献   

Linking pesticides and human health: A geographic information system (GIS) and Landsat remote sensing method to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2015

Accurate pesticide exposure estimation is integral to epidemiologic studies elucidating the role of pesticides in human health. Humans can be exposed to pesticides via residential proximity to agricultural pesticide applications (drift). We present an improved geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing method, the Landsat method, to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure through matching pesticide applications to crops classified from temporally concurrent Landsat satellite remote sensing images in California. The image classification method utilizes Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values in a combined maximum likelihood classification and per-field (using segments) approach. Pesticide exposure is estimated according to pesticide-treated crop fields intersecting 500 m buffers around geocoded locations (e.g., residences) in a GIS. Study results demonstrate that the Landsat method can improve GIS-based pesticide exposure estimation by matching more pesticide applications to crops (especially temporary crops) classified using temporally concurrent Landsat images compared to the standard method that relies on infrequently updated land use survey (LUS) crop data. The Landsat method can be used in epidemiologic studies to reconstruct past individual-level exposure to specific pesticides according to where individuals are located.  相似文献   

Crossing-over between land cover and land use: Exploring spatially varying relationships in two large US metropolitan areas     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2015

Difficulties in identifying actual uses of land space from remote sensing-based land cover products often result in lost opportunities to enhance the capacity of applied research on human settlements. In an attempt to address these difficulties, this study investigates how land cover and land use are interrelated with each other and what determines the relationship patterns by analyzing detailed land use and land cover data for two large US metropolitan areas – the five-county Los Angeles and six-county Chicago regions – where a broad spectrum of human settlements, ranging from urban cores to less-urbanized edges, coexist. The analysis shows that the land cover-land use relationship substantially varies not only across regions but across neighborhoods within each region. Through multivariate regression, it is also found that the intraregional variation is highly associated with the neighborhood's stage of urbanization, median housing age, and other development characteristics, suggesting that the relationship pattern can largely be shaped by the history and evolution of urban design/development.  相似文献   

Land use/land cover change detection and prediction in the north-western coastal desert of Egypt using Markov-CA     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2015

Detecting land-use change has become of concern to environmentalists, conservationists and land use planners due to its impact on natural ecosystems. We studied land use/land cover (LULC) changes in part of the northwestern desert of Egypt and used the Markov-CA integrated approach to predict future changes. We mapped the LULC distribution of the desert landscape for 1988, 1999, and 2011. Landsat Thematic Mapper 5 data and ancillary data were classified using the random forests approach. The technique produced LULC maps with an overall accuracy of more than 90%. Analysis of LULC classes from the three dates revealed that the study area was subjected to three different stages of modification, each dominated by different land uses. The use of a spatially explicit land use change modeling approach, such as Markov-CA approach, provides ways for projecting different future scenarios. Markov-CA was used to predict land use change in 2011 and project changes in 2023 by extrapolating current trends. The technique was successful in predicting LULC distribution in 2011 and the results were comparable to the actual LULC for 2011. The projected LULC for 2023 revealed more urbanization of the landscape with potential expansion in the croplands westward and northward, an increase in quarries, and growth in residential centers. The outcomes can help management activities directed toward protection of wildlife in the area. The study can also be used as a guide to other studies aiming at projecting changes in arid areas experiencing similar land use changes.  相似文献   

Monitoring land changes in an urban area using satellite imagery,GIS and landscape metrics     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2015

Monitoring land changes is an important activity in landscape planning and resource management. In this study, we analyze urban land changes in Atlanta metropolitan area through the combined use of satellite imagery, geographic information systems (GIS), and landscape metrics. The study site is a fast-growing large metropolis in the United States, which contains a mosaic of complex landscape types. Our method consisted of two major components: remote sensing-based land classification and GIS-based land change analysis. Specifically, we adopted a stratified image classification strategy combined with a GIS-based spatial reclassification procedure to map land classes from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes acquired in two different years. Then, we analyzed the spatial variation and expansion of urban land changes across the entire metropolitan area through post classification change detection and a variety of GIS-based operations. We further examined the size, pattern, and nature of land changes using landscape metrics to examine the size, pattern, and nature of land changes. This study has demonstrated the usefulness of integrating remote sensing with GIS and landscape metrics in land change analysis that allows the characterization of spatial patterns and helps reveal the underlying processes of urban land changes. Our results indicate a transition of urbanization patterns in the study site with a limited outward expansion despite the dominant suburbanization process.  相似文献   

Resilience as transformative capacity: Exploring the quadripartite cycle of structuration in a Mozambican resettlement programme     

《Geoforum》2015

The concept of resilience has emerged out of a complex literature that has sought to make sense of an increasingly interconnected world that appears ever more beset by crises. Resilience’s appeal is reflected by the burgeoning mass of literature that has appeared on the subject in the past five years. However, there is ongoing debate surrounding its usage, with some commentators claiming that the term is inherently too conservative a one to be usefully applied to situations of vulnerability in which more radical social change is required. This article extends existing efforts to formulate more transformative notions of resilience by reframing it as a double-edged outcome of the pre-reflective and critical ways in which actors draw upon their internal structures following the occurrence of a negative event, thus reproducing or changing the external structural context that gave rise to the event in the first place. By employing a structuration-inspired analysis to the study of small-scale farmer responses to a flood-induced resettlement programme in central Mozambique, the article presents a systematic approach to the examination of resilience in light of this reframing. The case study findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the facilitative, as well as constraining, nature of structures if vulnerable populations are to be assisted in their efforts to exert transformative capacity over the wider conditions that give rise to their difficulties.  相似文献   

近20年中国土地利用变化影响区域气候的数值模拟   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

陈海山  李兴  华文剑 《大气科学》2015,39(2):357-369

区域尺度土地利用/土地覆盖变化(LUCC)的气候效应以及土地覆盖数据的不确定性, 一直是LUCC研究不可忽视的关键问题。本研究基于最新的遥感资料, 采用新的区域气候模式RegCM4.0, 探讨了1990年至2010年中国LUCC对区域气候的影响。结果表明, 中国区域LUCC使得局地气温和日较差发生了显著改变, 而降水及低层环流场变化不显著;LUCC的影响存在季节性差异, 其中, 夏秋季响应程度较大且主要体现在边界层内。就LUCC对气候影响的机理各地区有所不同, 华北地区LUCC的气候效应主要受蒸散发作用主导, 而长江流域则由反照率与蒸散发共同作用。这些结果均说明, 较短时间尺度的LUCC气候效应主要体现在其局地范围, 且在不同的季节有所差异。  相似文献   

A New Scheme for Predicting Leaf Onset in Summer-Green Vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere          下载免费PDF全文

TIAN Dong-Xiao  ZENG Xiao-Dong 《大气和海洋科学快报》2015,8(5)

A modified thermal time model(MTM) was developed to reproduce the leaf onset for summer-green vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere. The model adopts the basic concept of a thermal time model(TM) in that leaf onset is primarily triggered by growing degree days(GDD). Based on global phenology data derived from satellite observations, a new parameterization for the critical model parameter Tb(i.e., baseline temperature for GDD calculation) has been introduced, and the spatial distribution of Tb was calculated. Simulations of leaf onset during 1982–2000 in the range 30–90°N showed a significant improvement of MTM over the standard TM model with constant Tb. The mean error and mean absolute error of the climatological simulation were 1.11 and 6.8 days, respectively, and 90% of the model error(5th and 95 th percentiles) was between-12.4 and 13.7 days.  相似文献   

利用地基多通道微波辐射计遥感反演华北持续性大雾天气温、湿度廓线的检验研究   总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5  

郭丽君  郭学良 《气象学报》2015,73(2):368-381

地基多通道微波辐射计可提供高时间分辨率的大气温、湿度和液态水含量廓线遥感探测数据,为大气层结及云雾形成和演变特征研究提供了重要手段,但对其观测数据的可靠性检验研究很少。本研究在对比晴空MonoRTM模拟亮温和微波辐射计观测亮温的基础上,利用华北地区2009—2013年11个雾天气过程的170个时次(其中30个为雾发生时次)的探空数据,检验了美国Radiometrics 35通道MP-3000A型微波辐射计(Microwave Radiometer Profiles,MWRP)探测的温度、水汽密度和相对湿度数据,并结合系留气艇和CloudSat云雷达等观测资料,检验了典型雾个例的MWRP反演的温、湿度廓线数据。与探空数据的比较表明,两者的温度(T)数据的相关系数超过0.98,水汽密度(ρ)的相关系数超过0.95,但相对湿度(RH)的相关系数只有0.67左右。总样本误差分析中MWRP反演的T比探空偏低约3℃,ρ的均方根误差(E)在1 g/m~3以内,RH在1—7 km高度偏大,总样本RH垂直平均E在18%左右,雾天时的RH垂直平均E在23%左右。与系留气艇观测数据比较表明,MWRP反演的T也偏低,但两种探测方式的T和RH在指示雾的发展演变过程中具有很好的一致性。CloudSat云雷达数据验证了MWRP反演显示中高层出现高RH区与云的存在有关。  相似文献   

Legacies of 19th century land use shape contemporary forest cover     

《Global Environmental Change》2015

Historic land use can exert strong land-use legacies, i.e., long-lasting effects on ecosystems, but the importance of land-use legacies, alongside other factors, for subsequent forest-cover change is unclear. If past land use affects rates of forest disturbance and afforestation then this may constrain land use planning and land management options, and legacies of current land management may constrain future land use. Our goal was to assess if and how much land-use legacies affect contemporary forest disturbance, and the abundance of different forest types in the Carpathian region in Eastern Europe (265,000 km², encompassing parts of Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Czech Republic). We modeled contemporary forest disturbance (based on satellite image analysis from 1985 to 2010) as a function of historic land use (based on digitized topographic maps from 1860 and 1960). Contemporary forest disturbance was strongly related to historic land use even when controlling for environmental, accessibility and socio-political variation. Across the Carpathian region, the odds of forest disturbance were about 50% higher in areas that were not forested in 1860 (new forests) compared to areas that were forested then (old forests). The forest disturbance in new forests was particularly high in Poland (88% higher odds), Slovakia (69%) and Romania (67%) and persisted across the entire range of environmental, accessibility and socio-political variation. Reasons for the observed legacy effects may include extensive plantations outside forest ranges, predominantly spruce, poplar, and black locust, which are prone to natural disturbances. Furthermore, as plantations reach harvestable age of about 70 years for pulp and 120 year for saw-timber production, these are likely to be clear-cut, producing the observed legacy effects. Across the Carpathians, forest types shifted towards less coniferous cover in 2010 compared to the 1860s and 1960s likely due to extensive historic conifer harvest, and to recent natural disturbance events and clear-cuts of forest plantations. Our results underscore the importance of land-use legacies, and show that past land uses can greatly affect subsequent forest disturbance for centuries. Given rapid land use changes worldwide, it is important to understand how past legacies affect current management and what the impact of current land management decisions may be for future land use.  相似文献