Agricultural Land Suitability of Production Space in the Taihang Mountains,China

The contradiction between the shortage of land for agriculture due to rapid expansion of industrialization and urbanization and increasing population pressure is projected to impose great threats to future food security.Agricultural land suitability evaluation is an effective approach to improve the utilization of land resources for crop production and thus enhance the capacity of food provision.In this study, we evaluated the land suitability for agriculture of the production space in the Taihang Mountains by three steps: establishing indicator system, determining weights for indicators, and constructing a fuzzy matter-element model to assess the grades of suitability.Results showed that the land suitability had a significant linear correlation with potential crop yields, indicating our evaluation was effective to predict crop production.The spatial pattern of land suitability for crop production demonstrated that land with higher suitability was generally located in piedmont plains and basins, while land with lower suitability was mostly situated in mountainous areas.The area of highly, moderately, marginally suitable and unsuitable land for agriculture was 32.13%, 28.58%, 37.49% and 1.80% of the production space, respectively.However, the correlation degree analysis indicated that the requirements of these four suitability grades were currently not satisfied but could be potentially fulfilled.In terms of indicator weights, soil properties were much more important than topography and location conditions to influence the grades of suitability.Among all indicators, slope, soil organic matter, soil texture and soil depth were the most influential factors, so slope farming prevention and organic fertilization were most likely to improve land suitability for agriculture.Compared the outputs of our land suitability evaluation model with the distribution of the existing croplands, we found that about 66.52% of marginally suitable and 54.55% of unsuitable land for agriculture were currently used for croplands.Therefore, de-farming policy should be implemented in areas of these two suitability grades.In contrast, cropland expansion was encouraged in the land that was highly or moderately suitable for agriculture.Our evaluation of agricultural land suitability is beneficial for future land use planning and decision-making in the Taihang Mountains.     

城市土地利用优化配置分析应用——以济南市为例

对城市土地资源进行优化配置,提高城市土地利用的集约程度,是当前城市土地利用研究领域中的热点问题。本文以济南市为研究区,通过构建系统动力学模型对济南市土地利用的数量结构进行预测,在此基础上,利用ArcGIS软件的二次开发语言编写程序,实现了济南市土地利用的空间优化配置,为济南市城市内部土地资源的合理开发与利用,提供决策参考。     

基于可持续性视角的建设用地适宜性评价及其应用

建设用地适宜性是土地资源利用与管理决策的依据。本文基于土地利用可持续性界定建设用地适宜性内涵,从灾害风险、地形地貌、生态环境和区位条件4个维度,构建了较规范的适宜性指标体系;针对已有评价方法的不足,构建了整合极值法、条件函数法、线性加权综合的“多要素分布式算法——情景矩阵”评估框架;进而基于适宜性识别冲突空间,以空间冲突面积占总建设用地面积的比重作为空间冲突强度来刻画区域建设空间布局的合理性与可持续性。本文以新疆玛纳斯县为例开展研究,结果表明玛纳斯县适宜建设空间（达230 km²以上）约占全县总面积的26%;最适宜和比较适宜性建设用地主要分布于中部及中北部乡镇及农（团）场驻地附近,基本适宜建设区主要分布在比较适宜建设空间的外围及中南部山前平原地带;该县冲突空间达4.21 km²,占建成区面积的22.74‰;冲突空间主要分布在河流沿岸和中部城镇化发展区;南部、北部的生态脆弱区及中部工业化发展区的乡镇空间冲突强度也较高。研究表明,本文提出的建设用地适宜性评估框架与方法逼近客观现实,简单易行,能弥补以往评价方法的不足;适宜性在空间冲突分析与可持续性土地利用管理中具有较好的应用价值。     

新疆土地耕作适宜性的多自然地理要素评价方法

新疆维吾尔族自治区地处中国西北边陲,研究该区宜耕土地资源的空间分布,对促进其土地资源合理开发,确保国家耕地安全和粮食安全具有重大现实意义。本文基于多源自然地理要素,对新疆土地资源的耕作适宜性进行GIS多级评价。首先,选取地形、气候、土壤和生态4要素共10个宜耕因子,采用综合指数法与极限条件法相结合的评价方法,构建了新疆宜耕土地资源评价模型;然后,将模型结果与基于地貌数据获得的宜耕区域叠加对比,确定对模型结果的分级标准,得到新疆宜耕土地资源的数量、质量及空间分布格局;最后,利用2000、2005和2013年3期土地利用数据,验证了模型的合理性和科学性,同时,通过统计分析找出模型中需进一步完善之处。     

菏泽市挖掘节约用地潜力的探索

菏泽市国土资源局在学习科学发展观过程中,在挖掘土地潜力上下功夫,寻求突破口,通过向节约投资要效益、向低效用地要效益、向标准厂房要效益、向调整结构要效益、向集约用地要效益、向压缩用地面积要效益、向闲置土地要效益、向废弃未利用土地要效益、向旧村改造要效益九条措施破解了土地制约瓶颈,缓解了用地矛盾,确保了全市经济又好又快发展。     

基于GIS的沙漠化土地面积遥感分析监测

本文利用2000年的TM数据,经过图像增强、合成、几何精纠正、镶嵌和分割,以1∶10万地形图分幅标准,在微机Windows的ARC/INFO软件平台上,人机交互解译,最终获得2000年全国各省的沙漠、沙地和沙漠化土地面积。土地覆盖类型采用二级分类系统,第一级分为6大类:耕地、林地、草地、水域、建设用地和未利用土地。TM解译结果表明,于2000年,新疆维吾尔自治区、内蒙古自治区、青海省和甘肃省的沙漠、沙地和沙漠化土地面积分别为:79361263hm²、58570586hm²、18917225hm²和12340694hm²。面对中国局部生态环境得到改善但整体上土地荒漠化面积每年都在扩大的现实,利用遥感手段快速准确地监测国土荒漠化面积,对政府决策整治防护有重要意义。     

Effect of agricultural land use changes on soil nutrient use efficiency in an agricultural area,Beijing, China

Agricultural land use and management practices may affect soil properties,which play a critical role in sustaining crop production.Since the late 1970s,several new agricultural land use types had been introduced in the rural areas of China.The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of these land use changes on the soil properties,nu-trient absorption rate,and nutrient use economic efficiency ratio in an agricultural area of Beijing.Specifically,the cropland,the orchard and the vegetable field were examined.Results of this study suggest that land use and farming management practices significantly affect the content of soil organic carbon (SOC),total nitrogen (TN),total phos-phorus (TP),and available phosphorus in the surface layer of 0-25 cm (p<0.05) in the Yanqing Basin,northwestern Beijing.Soil nutrients in each agricultural land use type decrease rapidly with the increasing soil depth.Orchard and vegetable field tend to have higher soil nutrients than the cropland does.However,the soil nutrient-absorption rate (NAR) of the orchard and vegetable field is lower than that of the cropland,even though orchard and vegetable field may provide much higher economic benefit.While increasing SOC,TN,and TP in the orchard and vegetable field by intensive farming may be a valuable option to improve soil quality,potential increase in the risk of nutrient loss,or agricultural non-point source pollution can be a tradeoff if the intensive practices are not managed appropriately.     

水稻种植环境综合适宜性评价方法研究

开展特定区域水稻种植产业布局是科学制定区域农业种植产业规划的重要内容,而水稻种植适宜性评价是水稻种植产业布局的前提。本文以中国好粮油示范县——福建省浦城县为研究区,基于层次分析模型构建土壤条件、立地条件、灌排条件、气候条件和机械耕作条件5大类共21个指标的水稻种植适宜性评价体系,利用地学模型、回归模型和空间插值等方法计算、模拟评价指标空间分布数据,形成5 m×5 m分辨率的评价指标栅格数据集,基于经验指数法建立适宜度指数模型,开展精细尺度下的水稻种植环境综合适宜性评价。利用实测样点水稻产量与水稻种植环境综合适宜度指数进行分析,发现二者呈显著正相关,验证了本研究评价工作的正确性和可行性。最后利用K-means属性聚类法识别研究区水稻种植多维环境适宜性的空间模式。结果表明：① 研究区水稻种植高度适宜、较适宜、中度适宜耕地面积占全县耕地面积的84.4%,次适宜耕地仅占15.6%,耕地整体适宜性较高;② Ⅰ类集聚区水稻种植综合适宜性和各类指标适宜性均较高;Ⅱ类集聚区水稻种植综合适宜性较高,但灌排条件适宜性很低;Ⅲ类集聚区水稻种植综合适宜性较高,但立地、土壤条件适宜性较低;Ⅳ类集聚区水稻种植综合适宜性较低,灌排条件适宜性最低。本研究可为水稻种植适宜性评价提供方法借鉴,并为浦城县更合理科学地开展农业种植规划提供依据。     

Spatial-temporal pattern and population driving force of land use change in Liupan Mountains region, southern Ningxia, China

The Liupan Mountains is located in the southern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China, which forms an important dividing line between landforms and bio-geographic regions. The populated part of the Liupan Mountains region has suffered tremendous ecological damages over time due to population pressure, excessive demand and inappropriate use of agricultural land resources. In this paper, datasets of land use between 1990 and 2000 were obtained from Landsat TM imagery, and then spatial models were used to characterize landscape conditions. Also, the relationship between the population density and land use/cover change （LUCC） was analyzed. Results indicate that cropland, forestland, and urban areas have increased by 44,186ha, 9001ha and 1550ha, respectively while the grassland area has appreciably decreased by 54,025ha in the study period. The decrease in grassland was most notable. Of the grassland lost, 49.4% was converted into cropland. The largest annual land conversion rate in the study area was less than 2%. These changes are attributed to industrial and agricultural development and population growth. To improve the eco-economic conditions in the study region, population control, urbanization and development of an ecological friendly agriculture were suggested.     

Assessing suitability of rural settlements using an improved technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution

Land suitability assessment is a prerequisite phase in land use planning; it guides toward optimal land use by providing information on the opportunities and constraints involved in the use of a given land area. A geographic information system-based procedure, known as rural settlement suitability evaluation (RSSE) using an improved technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), was adopted to determine the most suitable area for constructing rural settlements in different geographical locations. Given the distribution and independence of rural settlements, a distinctive evaluation criteria system that differed from that of urban suitability was established by considering the level of rural infrastructure services as well as living and working conditions. The unpredictable mutual interference among evaluation factors has been found in practical works. An improved TOPSIS using Mahalanobis distance was applied to solve the unpredictable correlation among the criteria in a suitability evaluation. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses obtained via Monte Carlo simulation were performed to examine the robustness of the model. Daye, a resource-based city with rapid economic development, unsatisfied rural development, and geological environmental problems caused by mining, was used as a case study. Results indicate the following findings: 1) The RSSE model using the improved TOPSIS can assess the suitability of rural settlements, and the suitability maps generated using the improved TOPSIS have higher information density than those generated using traditional TOPSIS. The robustness of the model is improved, and the uncertainty is reduced in the suitability results. 2) Highly suitable land is mainly distributed in the northeast of the study area, and the majority of which is cultivated land, thereby leading to tremendous pressure on the loss of cultivated land. 3) Lastly, 12.54% of the constructive expansion permitted zone and 8.36% of the constructive expansion conditionally permitted zone are situated in an unsuitable area, which indicates that the general planning of Daye lacks the necessary verification of suitability evaluation. Guidance is provided on the development strategy of rural settlement patches to support decision making in general land use planning.     

退耕还林对牡丹江区域生态环境脆弱性的影响研究

从脆弱生态系统的特征入手,选取景观分离度、分维数倒数、破碎度3个反映景观稳定性及抗干扰能力的景观格局指数,并结合土壤侵蚀强度构成区域生态环境脆弱性的敏感因子,针对研究区地形,以景观生态适宜度作为生态系统自我恢复能力的表征,构建了牡丹江区域生态环境脆弱度评价模型。评价结果表明:（1）退耕还林前后景观类型脆弱度均表现为旱田>建设用地>水田>林地>未利用土地>水域>沼泽>草地;（2）研究区生态脆弱度表现为以脆弱度高值区为中心呈环状向四周递减的趋势,脆弱度高值区面积比重由退耕前的21.57%减小到退耕后的17.11%,脆弱度低值区面积比重由退耕前的63.14%增加到退耕后的67.66%;（3）生态脆弱度高值区域主要分布在200~400m的海拔高度,0~8°的坡度范围内,且退耕后面积比例呈下降趋势,而低值区域则分布在>300m海拔高度的各个坡度范围内,且退耕后面积比例呈上升态势。研究结果符合研究区实际状况。概言之,退耕还林缓和了研究区生态脆弱度状况,促进了生态环境质量向良好方向发展。     

农业土地利用遥感信息提取的研究进展与展望

农业用地占到全球土地面积近一半,农业土地利用（包括耕地及作物分布、种植制度、土地管理等）变化直接影响到粮食安全、水安全、生态安全和气候变化。遥感已经成为土地利用信息获取的重要手段,近年来中分辨率遥感卫星如Landsat、Sentinel以及中国高分卫星等的免费开放为国内外农业土地利用信息提取提供了前所未有的机遇,取得了一系列重要研究进展。本文从耕地分布、作物类型识别、农业种植制度以及农业土地管理4个角度分析了土地利用信息提取的最新研究进展。结果发现：① 耕地分布产品已经由过去的粗分辨率提升到10~30 m,耕地现状数据较为丰富,但挖掘遥感数据实现耕地变化历史回溯的能力有待加强;② 作物分类方面多采用地面调查数据和卫星遥感（Landsat和Sentinel-2为主）相结合的方式进行,在北美和欧洲得到了业务化运行,但对作物种植面积早期监测的能力有待加强;③ 基于遥感的农业种植制度信息获取（如撂荒）研究多集中在东欧等地区,在中国由于经济和政策因素导致的撂荒、轮作、休耕等现象也十分普遍,但具有针对性的遥感监测研究目前还相对缺乏;④ 农业土地管理措施信息提取方面,区域灌溉面积产品取得了重要进展,但数据的可靠性和准确性仍有待提高。在此基础上,我们结合遥感大数据、深度学习算法、云计算平台的发展对未来农业土地利用信息提取研究进行了展望：① 融合多源数据形成更高维度空间、光谱和时间信息的遥感大数据,提升特征提取和数据挖掘能力;② 机器学习和深度学习算法等智能化方法与基于地理学和物候信息的专家知识方法的耦合;③ 遥感云计算和大数据挖掘等前沿遥感和计算技术的应用。     

Change of Cultivated Land and Its Implications on Food Security in China

1 Introduction FAO defined food security not only in terms of access to and availability of food, but also in terms of resources distribution to produce food and the purchasing power on food where it is not produced (Shi et al., 1996; Ning, 2004). Obviously, to guarantee everyone adequate food is the primary aim and most important content of food security (Xie et al., 1999). Thus, to increase food supply is a precondition for food security by domestic food production and international food t…     

Agricultural opportunity costs assessment based on planting suitability: a case study in a mountain county in southwest China

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) has become an increasingly popular means of ecosystem conservation. Opportunity cost is an important factor to increase the investment efficiency of PES projects. However, the distribution of opportunity cost is usually unclear in mountainous regions due to the obvious environment changes. In this study, we developed a framework to assess the distribution of agricultural opportunity costs in mountainous regions and applied this method to Baoxing County, a typical mountainous county in Sichuan Province of southwest China. Planting suitability of 17 crops was assessed based on agricultural statistics and natural conditions data within a GIS environment. Agricultural opportunity cost was quantified with a weighted summation of farmers’ willingness to cultivate and each crop’s opportunity cost. Finally, specific agricultural opportunity cost was obtained according to the spatial areas of the protection programs and land use status. The results showed that agricultural opportunity costs of PES in Baoxing County were estimated to be more than $30 million, with a mean of 400.85 $/ha. Agricultural opportunity costs in mountainous regions displayed some obvious spatial variation and areas with lower agricultural opportunity costs could be selected as priority areas for PES. Our findings revealed that the planting suitability evaluation can make agricultural opportunity costs mapping more reasonable. It will be helpful for the PES programs implementation in mountainous regions.     

Land use suitability analysis for town development planning in Nanjing hilly areas: A case study of Tangshan new town,China

Land use suitability analysis plays an important role in sustainable land use and solving environmental problems caused by rapid urban development.A land use suitability mapping approach for town development planning in hilly areas was constructed based on two multi-criteria evaluation methods:Weighted Linear Combination(WLC)and Ordered Weighted Averaging(OWA),to comparatively evaluate and map land use suitability of Tangshan new town in Nanjing,China.Fourteen evaluation factors related to topographic,environmental,socio-economics and historical sites data were used as suitability criteria.The analytic hierarchy process(AHP)method and GIS techniques were integrated into the evaluation models to create the land use suitability map for town development planning.The results of WLC approach showed that 11.4%of the total area is highly suitable while the 48.6%is unsuitable.The results of WLC and OWA approach showed the distribution of degree of land use suitability is almost the same.The areas located at the southern and eastern flat regions are highly suitable for land use,whereas the areas close to the mountain forests,steep slopes,waters,and hot springs,have lower suitability for land use.Sensitivity analysis indicated that the suitability results of the two proposed methods are robust.Indirect validation was achieved by mutual comparison of suitability maps derived from the WLC and OWA methods.It demonstrated that the overall agreement is 90.81%and kappa coefficient is 0.81,indicating that both methods provide very similar spatial suitability distributions.By overlaying the resultant map with the previous master plan map of Tangshan new town,the overlay map once again indicated a satisfactory ecological fit between the two maps.At last,several recommendations are proposed aiming at improving the long-term town development plan for Tangshan new town.     

基于地学知识的大尺度土地利用/土地覆盖精细化分类方法研究

人类活动对生态环境具有显著影响,大尺度土地利用/覆盖变化（Land Use/Cover Change,LUCC）作为人类活动最直接的表征,能够很好地反映这一过程,因此进行精确而迅速的大尺度土地利用/覆盖分类与提取方法研究尤为关键。全球覆盖产品GlobCover（2005/2006）数据已经具有良好的空间精度和数据准确度,但仍然存在一些分类误差。为提高地表覆被分类精度,本文以GlobCover（2005/2006）的巴西数据为例,以2005年Landsat TM/ETM影像为主要信息源,结合相应地学知识与辅助数据,利用人机交互逐栅格修改方法得到2005年土地利用数据产品。结果表明：通过对GlobCover数据和本次成果数据进行精度评价与对比分析,GlobCover数据巴西地区的总体精度为67.17%,Kappa系数为0.58,改进后产品总体精度为93.39%,Kappa系数为0.91。此外,改进后数据显示巴西常绿阔叶林面积最大,面积比例达45.67%;农地/自然植被镶嵌面积次之,比例为19.19%;封闭灌丛面积最小,比例为12.34%。农地/自然植被镶嵌和灌丛与草地2种地类的修改比例最大,其中混合像元地类比例减少3.54%,灌丛与草地比例增加3.81%。综上,改进方法可以有效地提高土地利用/覆盖分类的效率和精度,为后续大尺度LUCC产品的制作和以LUCC产品为基础的相关研究提供参考。     

Land use regionalization of rural settlements in China

This paper compartmentalizes regional land use of rural settlements in China by employing a hierarchical clustering method.The statistic data are sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics of China(NBSC) and the data of land use change from the Ministry of Land and Resources of China(MLRC).The population of rural settlement decreases from the southeast to the northwest of China and the density of rural settlement decreases from the east to the west of China.Land-use scale of rural settlement,the proportion of one-storey houses and the average household area decrease from the north to the south of China.The ratio of area of cultivated land to rural settlement is high in the northeast and southwest of China but low in the southeast of China.The land use regionalization of rural settlement can be divided into four regions,namely:the northern region of China,Qinghai-Tibet,Yunnan-Guizhou,and the middle and eastern region of China.The northern region of China and the middle and eastern region of China can be further divided into nine sub-regions:Xinjiang,Northeast China,Ningxia and Inner Mongolia,North China,the south of the Changjiang(Yantze) River and Sichuan Basin,Jiangsu-Shanghai,South China,the Loess Plateau,and Guangxi.In consideration of the significant regional differences,it is proposed that different policies should be implemented regarding the utilization and management of rural settlements.     

藤县土地资源适宜性评价研究

通过对影响作物生长的主导因素及其权重的分析，应用ＧＩＳ技术，以空间数据库为基础，给每个因子赋以不同的分值和权重，对藤县土地资源进行了适宜性评价，对评价结果进行了分析，并提出了可持续利用对策     

Paradigm and ecological implication of changing agricultural land-use: A case study from Govind Wildlife Sanctuary, Central Himalaya, India

The paper scrutinizes that the changes in any sub-system(i.e.agriculture,livestock and forest) have direct impact on biophysical and social processes in village ecosystem of the central Himalayan region.In view of this,we studied the changes in spatial patterns of agricultural land use and dependency of agroecosystem on forest and animal husbandry over a period of two decades.Based on data analysis it was found that the cultivation of some traditional crops has either been abandoned in the area or declined by 25%-85% due to introduction of cash crops viz.,potato,kidney bean and apple farming with acreage increased up to 51%-72% in the last three decades.Livestock population of different categories has declined drastically by 17%-75%,and has resulted shortage of farmyard manure,deterioration of soil quality and fertility which leads to un-sustainability of agriculture system.The changes in agrobiodiversity have led to the dramatic increase in soil loss and runoff from the croplands together with the increase pressure on forests.The economic evaluation of each crop showed higher monetary benefit from cash crops as compared to traditional crops.Among all the evaluated crops,the monetary output/input ratio was found highest(3.04) for kidney bean and lowest(1.26) for paddy.Changes in land use and management have improved household income but at the cost of forest degradation,less productive animal husbandry and loss of agrodiversity in the region.Therefore,there is an urgent need to bring desirable changes in agricultural policy,research,land use and efficient management of the resources for maintaining sustainability in agro and Himalayan forest ecosystem.     

STUDY ON THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF LAND-USE CHANGE AND ANALYSES OF DRIVING FORCES IN NORTHEASTERN CHINA DURING 1990-2000

Land-use change is an important aspect of global environment change. It is, in a sense, the direct result of human activities influencing our physical environment. Supported by the dynamic serving system of national resources, including both the environment database and GIS technology, this paper analyzed the land-use change in northeastern China in the past ten years (1990–2000). It divides northeastern China into five land-use zones based on the dynamic degree (DD) of land-use: woodland/grassland — arable land conversion zone, dry land — paddy field conversion zone, urban expansion zone, interlocked zone of farming and pasturing, and reclamation and abandoned zone. In the past ten years, land-use change of northeastern China can be generalized as follows: increase of cropland area was obvious, paddy field and dry land increased by 74.9 and 276.0 thousand ha respectively; urban area expanded rapidly, area of town and rural residence increased by 76.8 thousand ha; area of forest and grassland decreased sharply with the amount of 1399.0 and 1521.3 thousand ha respectively; area of water body and unused land increased by 148.4 and 513.9 thousand ha respectively. Besides a comprehensive analysis of the spatial patterns of land use, this paper also discusses the driving forces in each land-use dynamic zones. The study shows that some key biophysical factors affect conspicuously the conversion of different land-use types. In this paper, the relationships between land-use conversion and DEM, accumulated temperature (⩾10°C) and precipitation were analysed and represented. We conclude that the land-use changes in northeast China resulted from the change of macro social and economic factors and local physical elements. Rapid population growth and management changes, in some sense, can explain the shaping of woodland/grassland — cropland conversion zone. The conversion from dry land to paddy field in the dry land — paddy field conversion zone, apart from the physical elements change promoting the expansion of paddy field, results from two reasons: one is that the implementation of market-economy in China has given farmers the right to decide what they plant and how they plant their crops, the other factor is originated partially from the change of dietary habit with the social and economic development. The conversion from paddy field to dry land is caused prmarily by the shortfall of irrigation water, which in turn is caused by poor water allocation management by local governments. The shaping of the reclamation and abandoned zone is partially due to the lack of environment protection consciousness among pioneer settlers. The reason for the conversion from grassland to cropland is the relatively higher profits of farming than that of pasturing in the interlocked zone of farming and pasturing. In northeastern China, the rapid expansion of built-up areas results from two factors: the first is its small number of towns; the second comes from the huge potential for expansion of existing towns and cities. It is noticeable that urban expansion in the northeastern China is characterized by gentle topographic relief and low population density. Physiognomy, transportation and economy exert great influences on the urban expansion. Foundation item: Under the auspices of Knowledge Innovation program Key Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX-2-308). Biography: LIU Ji-yuan (1947 - ), male, a native of Shanghai Municipality, professor, Director General of Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests include environment and resources, remote sensing and geography.