Use of Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Historical Imagery for Claims of Sedimentation of Lakes and Streams

The consequences of erosion and subsequent sedimentation of lakes and streams are many and widespread. The natural process of erosion can be accelerated by land cover changes with an increase in areas of impervious surfaces. Sediment is continually being transported along all streams in nature and can come from anywhere in the watershed. Lakes slow the rate of velocity of the water and allow the entrained sediment to settle and accumulate. When sediment impacts water impoundments, legal actions may result. Even with evidence of specific sediment release, the forensic analysis may not be an open-and-shut case. The author presents a method to investigate the validity of a legal claim of a sediment-impacted lake at the outfall of a mixed rural/urban watershed. By combining land use change, soils, elevation and precipitation data, a maximum possible annual sediment loss was approximately 154 tonne per hectare (15.4 kg/m²). Lacking evidence of specific historic events of erosion and subsequent sedimentation, this method provides an equitable means of determining compensatory damages. Using aerial and satellite imagery provided historical evidence of land cover change and examples of significant erosion in the watershed and not named in the lawsuit. The focus of the litigation started with the property adjoining the effected lake. The analysis provides a method to investigate erosion and subsequent sedimentation claims at a watershed-scale.     

Parks versus PES: Evaluating direct and incentive-based land conservation in Mexico

Protected areas (PAs) and payments for ecosystem services (PES) are the top two mechanisms available for countries to achieve international REDD agreements, yet there are few empirical comparisons of their effects. We estimate the impacts of PAs and PES on forest conservation, poverty reduction, and population change at the locality level in Mexico in the 2000s. Both policies conserved forest, generating an approximately 20–25% reduction in expected forest cover loss. PES created statistically significant but small poverty alleviation while PAs had overall neutral impacts on livelihoods. Estimates by individual policy type for the same level of deforestation risk indicate that biosphere reserves and PES balanced conservation and livelihood goals better than strict protected areas or mixed-use areas. This suggests that both direct and incentive-based instruments can be effective, and that policies combining sustainable financing, flexible zoning, and recognition of local economic goals are more likely to achieve conservation without harming livelihoods.     

Effectiveness of conservation easements in agricultural regions

Conservation easements are a standard technique for preventing habitat loss, particularly in agricultural regions with extensive cropland cultivation, yet little is known about their effectiveness. I developed a spatial econometric approach to propensity‐score matching and used the approach to estimate the amount of habitat loss prevented by a grassland conservation easement program of the U.S. federal government. I used a spatial autoregressive probit model to predict tract enrollment in the easement program as of 2001 based on tract agricultural suitability, habitat quality, and spatial interactions among neighboring tracts. Using the predicted values from the model, I matched enrolled tracts with similar unenrolled tracts to form a treatment group and a control group. To measure the program's impact on subsequent grassland loss, I estimated cropland cultivation rates for both groups in 2014 with a second spatial probit model. Between 2001 and 2014, approximately 14.9% of control tracts were cultivated and 0.3% of treated tracts were cultivated. Therefore, approximately 14.6% of the protected land would have been cultivated in the absence of the program. My results demonstrate that conservation easements can significantly reduce habitat loss in agricultural regions; however, the enrollment of tracts with low cropland suitability may constrain the amount of habitat loss they prevent. My results also show that spatial econometric models can improve the validity of control groups and thereby strengthen causal inferences about program effectiveness in situations when spatial interactions influence conservation decisions.     

基于内容分析法的土地利用总体规划目标偏好研究

土地利用总体规划需要统筹区域发展多元目标以增强对区域发展的指导力和约束性,因此全面了解我国土地利用总体规划的政策目标偏好,能为优化规划技术方法和改革规划管理体制提供政策参考。鉴于此,本文在分析我国土地利用总体规划多元目标及其关系的基础上,采用内容分析法基于全国土地利用总体规划纲要进行词频挖掘构建目标偏好测量维度及体系,进而对两轮省级土地利用总体规划文本进行目标偏好的定量测度,结果表明:(1)土地利用总体规划是多目标规划,通过内容分析法可以构建由经济、社会、生态三大目标构成的目标偏好测量体系;(2)从目标偏好排序来看,三大目标中社会目标始终是两轮土地利用总体规划的首要偏好目标,生态目标是土地利用总体规划的次要偏好目标,经济目标排在最后;同时相比上轮规划,本轮规划耕地保护子目标次序提前,土地整治子目标次序推后;(3)从目标偏好程度来看,社会目标的首位偏好程度有所下降,但其中耕地保护子目标的首位偏好度明显上升;生态目标和经济目标的首位偏好程度基本不变,总体而言本轮规划三大目标偏好程度的差异缩小。研究结果说明,我国土地利用总体规划始终坚持以耕地保护为核心的社会目标偏好,符合其是国土资源管理部门主导的部门规划的定位;虽然土地利用总体规划对经济、社会、生态三大目标的偏好程度差异缩小,但其若要在空间规划体系中发挥更大的作用,还需要通过优化规划技术和改革规划管理体制进一步均衡经济、社会、生态目标,以承担起统领全区域空间发展的要求。     

基于改进粒子群算法和元胞自动机的城市扩张模拟——以南京为例

为合理利用多智能体算法解决城市扩张动态模拟问题,基于地理学理论和社会学规律对粒子群算法进行有针对性的改进,提出分段式粒子群算法(SPSO),并结合元胞自动机模拟复杂时空过程的能力,构建出适用于城市扩张模拟的地理元胞自动机SPSO-CA。在SPSO-CA中我们利用多时像的土地利用数据、交通路网数据和地形数据,挖掘出1995~2000年南京城市扩张的土地转换规则。再由此规则实现1995~2008年的南京市城市扩张过程的动态模拟。最后对比SPSO-CA、PSOCA及NULL模型结果得:SPSO-CA总精度86.3%,Kappa系数为0.792,Moran’s I为0.078,PSO-CA总精度83.6%,Kappa系数为0.755,Moran’s I为0.054,NULL模型总精度81.9%,Kappa系数为0.741,真实的Moran’s I为0.072。这表明无论是总精度还是空间一致性,SPSO-CA都优于PSO-CA和NULL模型,即用SPSO-CA模拟城市扩张是可行的。     

长三角快速城市化地区土地利用变化对生态系统服务价值的影响——以嘉兴市为例

基于浙江省嘉兴市1979~2012年的土地利用数据,评估了各种土地利用类型的生态系统服务价值,分析了30多年来嘉兴市土地生态系统服务价值的动态变化及其对土地利用变化和景观格局变化的响应。结果表明:(1)1979~2012年,嘉兴市建设用地面积变化最大,增加了136.6%,相应的耕地面积减少了15.5%。(2)1979~2012年,嘉兴市景观破碎度指数从0.6531上升到0.8762,随着城市化进程的加剧,耕地景观破碎度指数不断增加、聚集度指数减小。(3)1979~2012年,嘉兴市的总生态系统服务价值减少了14.7%,2000~2012年嘉兴市总的生态系统服务价值减少尤为显著,生态系统各单项服务价值整体也呈现下降趋势,耕地为嘉兴市提供的生态系统服务占嘉兴市总生态系统服务的70%以上。(4)运用相关分析方法对嘉兴市土地利用类型和景观格局对土地生态系统服务价值的影响分析表明,耕地和水域与生态服务价值呈正相关,而建设用地和未利用地与生态服务价值呈负相关;景观多样性指数(SHDI)和耕地破碎度指数与生态系统服务总价值呈显著负相关关系。     

Decline of traditional rice farming constrains the recovery of the endangered Asian crested ibis (Nipponia nippon)

Traditional agriculture benefits a rich diversity of plants and animals. The winter-flooded rice fields in the Qinling Mountains, China, are the last refuge for the endangered Asian crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), and intensive efforts have been made to protect this anthropogenic habitat. Analyses of multi-temporal satellite data indicate that winter-flooded rice fields have been continuously reduced across the current range of crested ibis during the past two decades. The rate of loss of these fields in the core-protected areas has unexpectedly increased to a higher level than that in non-protected areas in the past decade. The best fit (R² = 0.87) numerical response model of the crested ibis population shows that a reduction of winter-flooded rice fields decreases population growth and predicts that the population growth will be constrained by the decline of traditional winter-flooded rice fields in the coming decades. Our findings suggest that the decline of traditional rice farming is likely to continue to pose a threat to the long-term survival and recovery of the crested ibis population in China.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0649-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Accounting for monogastric livestock as a driver in global land use and cover change assessments

Land systems are described based on various characteristics, including land cover composition and agricultural production. However, it is uncertain to what extent livestock, particularly monogastric livestock, determines land systems. We included monogastrics in a land system classification, and statistically analyzed the land cover composition and agricultural production of otherwise similar land systems with and without monogastric livestock. The results indicate that land systems with monogastrics are statistically different from their counterparts in the classification without monogastrics in terms of grassland area and crop yields, but are less different in terms of tree area, crop area, and ruminant livestock production. We then used a land systems map that includes monogastrics in the classification and a similar map that does not include monogastrics to project future changes in a novel manner that integrates livestock as a determinant of land systems. The results show that including monogastrics in otherwise similar projections yields less cropland intensification and more cropland expansion in several world regions, including Northern Africa and the Middle East. Other regions, such as Europe and Australia, were characterized by less decrease or more increase in tree area in the application with monogastrics, mainly due to the occurrence of open forests with monogastrics. This study prompts a call for improved characterization of land systems for land use and cover change (LUCC) assessments in order to better represent LUCC driven by monogastric livestock.     

Relationship between cultivated land use functions and land rental behavior of rural households: empirical evidence from different dominant functional regions in central China

This paper analyzes the relationship between the cultivated land use functions and the land rental decisions of rural households in three Dominant Functional Zones of Hubei, China. The results indicate that 41.10% of the rural households in the study areas participated in the land rental market. The land rental market in the Key Development Zone has both a higher participation rate and land rent; the Agricultural Production Zone has a higher participation rate but a lower land rent; and the land rental market in the Key Ecological Zone is underdeveloped. The difference in regional function and economic level leads to a significant difference in the spatial variation of the cultivated land use multifunction. Overall, the cultivated land function of rural households has a significant impact on their land transfer behavior. The higher the Functions of Economic Contribution, Food Production, and Pension & Employment, the more willing the rural households are to rent in the land, while the higher the Function of Inheritance and Retainment of the cultivated land use, the more likely the peasants are to retain their cultivated land resources. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient is significantly higher in the Key Development Zone than in the Key Ecological Zone.     

Solar energy for electricity and fuels

Solar energy conversion into electricity by photovoltaic modules is now a mature technology. We discuss the need for materials and device developments using conventional silicon and other materials, pointing to the need to use scalable materials and to reduce the energy payback time. Storage of solar energy can be achieved using the energy of light to produce a fuel. We discuss how this can be achieved in a direct process mimicking the photosynthetic processes, using synthetic organic, inorganic, or hybrid materials for light collection and catalysis. We also briefly discuss challenges and needs for large-scale implementation of direct solar fuel technologies.