From agriculture to nature – a study of drivers of land use change in a peri-urban landscape

In this article, we investigate drivers behind land use changes in a peri-urban landscape. The research focuses on the motives and factors behind landowners’ decision-making in relation to land use changes, with the objective of improving our knowledge of the dynamics of land use change processes on farmland. An actor-centred conceptual framework is developed on the basis of the concept of lenses of decision-making. Data on farm and farmer characteristics were collected through a survey conducted in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark, a peri-urban landscape with a high level of landscape dynamics. A logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the relationship between nine purposively selected farm and farmer characteristics and the landscape activities of 93 landowners in the municipality. The results indicate that small farms, farms without livestock and landowners with a basic level of education are less likely to engage in landscape activities. A cluster analysis was used to analyse patterns of motives associated with land use changes. The results correspond with the intrinsic interests and family considerations suggested in the lenses of the decision-making framework, and in addition shows that the desire to improve the qualities of the property was the dominant motive.     

Do protected areas networks ensure the supply of ecosystem services? Spatial patterns of two nature reserve systems in semi-arid Spain

Protected areas are essential for conserving biodiversity, and these lands have traditionally been set aside for this purpose alone. However, the increasing global demand for agricultural and forestry commodities creates conflict and tradeoffs between dedicating land for conservation versus food production. Efforts to set aside new lands for biodiversity conservation are compromised by the globally rising demand, creating trade-offs between lands dedicated to conservation versus food production. Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems. Recent studies suggest that protected areas provide social and economic benefits that can be used to build political support and raise funds for conservation. We analyzed the capability of current protected area networks in the semi-arid region of Spain to provide intermediate regulating services (habitat preservation for threatened species, climate regulation, erosion control and water flow maintenance) to support the final provisioning service of cultivated crops to support local communities. We found that existing networks of protected lands supply considerable quantities of ecosystem services, in particular carbon stocks and groundwater recharge. Our results demonstrate that the integration of systematic analyses of ecosystem services gaps in protected area planning could contribute substantially to safeguarding ecosystem services and biodiversity jointly. However, our study also reveals substantial differences in intermediate ecosystem services supplied by different of protected areas networks, with category VI areas (Natura-2000 sites) generally showing the highest potential for ecosystem services supply. This demonstrates the important role of Natura-2000 sites for preserving regulating services in the European semi-arid region.     

Dynamic changes of habitats in China’s typical national nature reserves on spatial and temporal scales

Until 2015, China had established 2740 nature reserves with a total area of 1.47 million km², covering 14.8% of China’s terrestrial land surface. Based on remote sensing inversion, ecological model simulation and spatial analysis methods, we analyzed the spatial and temporal variations of fractional vegetation coverage (FVC), net primary production (NPP), and human disturbance (HD) in habitats of typical national nature reserves (NNRs) during the first 15 years of the 21st century from 2000 to 2015. And then the three indicators were compared between different NNR types and varied climate zones. The results showed that (1) the average 5-year FVC of NNRs increased from 36.3% to 37.1%, and it improved in all types of NNRs to some extent. The annual average FVC increased by 0.11%, 0.84%, 0.21%, 0.09%, 0.11% and 0.08% in NNRs of forest ecosystem, plain meadow, inland wetland, desert ecosystem, wild animal and wild plant, respectively. (2) The NPP annually increased by 2.06 g·m^-2, 1.23 g·m^-2, 0.28 g·m^-2 and 0.4 g·m^-2 in NNRs of plain meadow, inland wetland, desert ecosystem and wild animal, respectively. However, it decreased by 3.45 g·m^-2 and 2.35 g·m^-2 in NNRs of forest ecosystem and wild plant respectively. (3) In the past 15 years, besides the slight decreases in the NNRs located at the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the south subtropical zone, HD enhanced in most of NNRs, especially HD in the warm temperate humid zone increased from 4.7% to 5.35%.     

Repositioning zoogeography within the nature–culture borderlands: An animal geography of reptiles in southern Ghana

Few studies examine the impact of large reptile presence on local livelihoods in West Africa. This article investigates how land users share habituated and resource areas with pythons, cobras and monitor lizards in southern Ghana. An innovative animal geography approach is used, evaluating both reptiles and people as individually active subjects, this being combined with a positivist zoogeographical and landscape analysis. Cobras, pythons and monitor lizards significantly affected local livelihood decision-making. Reptiles, especially cobras and monitors also adapted to human behaviour by foraging in settled and farmed areas, despite significant losses of dense vegetation habitat over the study period. This study of reptiles as active adapters adds new insights to reptilian zoogeography and conservation policy.     

Bargaining for nature: treating the environment in China’s urban planning practice

ABSTRACT

In much of the contemporary academic inquiry and political discourse on Chinese cities, urban entrepreneurialism and environmentalism often appear to be analyzed disjointedly and unreflectively. They are portrayed as two conflicting interests. Commentators also view urban planners as a homogenous group of professionals and/or state agents being forced to give up environmental goals to pursue economic value of space. Using the case of Tianjin Eco-City planning, this article interrogates the bargaining process between the “ecological value” and “commodity narrative”. It offers three major arguments. First, even though the discourse of environmental sustainability has been used to legitimize economic transformation, ecological demands are creating new pressures on entrepreneurial urban governance. Second, rather than treating Chinese planners as a fully constituted, internally coherent, organizationally-fixed, and operationally-consistent group, they should be viewed as hybrid, and diverse entities that represent divergent and sometimes contentious state interests. Third, planners, though still under tremendous pressure from landed interests, can become active players to positively influence urban transformation toward more environmental care.     

Wondering about …. Geography—Its nature and its relevance?

In the context of the current review of New Zealand's National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), the paper reflects on the nature and relevance of geography in education, life and work. The context of school geography programmes is critically examined, and a checklist of points for further consideration and action is presented.     

Human’s digital footprints on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Variations during festivals and impacts on nature reserves

Mobile internet and wireless communication technologies have produced unprecedented location-aware data. Such big geospatial data can be used as a proxy measure of the ‘digital footprints' left by us on the planet and provide a valuable opportunity to understand the dynamic and short-term human disturbance on the nature at fine scales. This study investigated the spatiotemporal variations of human's digital footprints on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using smartphone-users-generated Tencent's location request data. The results showed that human's digital footprints cover less than 5% of Qinghai and Tibet, exhibiting either a U-shaped or an N-shaped temporal change pattern during the major festivals. Spatial changes of the digital footprints manifested a transition process from dispersion to concentration in Xining and Lhasa. Human disturbance assessment of seven large nature reserves on the plateau showed that the Qinghai Lake is the most disturbed one as shown by 14.6% of its area is stained with human digital footprints and the areal average of footprint intensity is 1.59, and the disturbance was significantly escalated during the National Day holiday. By contrast, the Qangtang and Hoh Xil are the least affected nature reserves with the two indices less than 1% and 0.1, respectively.     

A Review of “Hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico”

Books reviewed:

Bassin, Mark, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840 – 1865

Shortridge, James R., Our Town on the Plains: J. J. Pennell's Photographs of Junction City, Kansas, 1893 – 1922

Jakle, John A. and Sculle, Keith A., Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age

Boeschenstein, Walter, Historic American Towns along the Atlantic Coast

McKee, Jesse O., Ethnicity in Contemporary America: A Geographical Appraisal

Luciuk, Lubomyr Y., Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Ottawa, and the Migration of Memory

Hausladen, Gary, Places for Dead Bodies

Phillips, Richard, Watt, Diane and Shuttleton, David, De-Centering Sexualities: Politics and Representations beyond the Metropolis

Goldin, Liliana R., Identities on the Move, Transnational Processes in North America and the Caribbean Basin

McDonald, David A., On Borders: Perspectives on International Migration in Southern Africa

Fox, Roddy and Rowntree, Kate, The Geography of South Africa in a Changing World

Takeuchi, Keiichi, Modern Japanese Geography: An Intellectual History

Amery, Hussein A., and Wolf, Aaron T., Water in the Middle East: A Geography of Peace

Karl, Thomas R., Nicholls, Neville and Ghazi, Anver, Weather and Climate Extremes: Changes, Variations, and a Perspective from the Insurance Industry

Pittman, Blair, Texas Caves     

Soil-geographical characteristics of the western part of the democratic People’s Republic of Korea

The specific character of soil cover in the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is revealed, and the soil interpretation schemes in the key areas are compiled. It is established that the main soil resource for agriculture within the region’s low and middle mountains is provided by areas of weakly developed brown forest soils in the lower parts of slopes as well as by alluvial soils along the valleys of large and medium-sized rivers. Specifically, brown forest soils of slopes are used largely in dry farming and forestry, while soils along river valleys are utilized in rice cultivation. Soils of terraced slopes and rice fields have been transformed anthropogenically to the greatest extent.