Analyzing the agricultural transition in Mato Grosso, Brazil, using satellite-derived indices

The Amazonian state of Mato Grosso is the main production area for soybeans in Brazil and contains 31.3% of the national production as of 2009. The rapid evolution of the agricultural systems in this area shows that the region is experiencing a rapid agricultural transition. In this paper, we broke down this transition process into three steps: crop expansion, agricultural intensification and ecological intensification. We used remote sensing products to develop and compute satellite-derived indices describing the main agricultural dynamics during the cropping years from 2000-2001 to 2006-2007. Our results indicated that Mato Grosso is continuing to expand its agricultural sector, with a 43% increase in the net cropped area during the study period. Although this expansion mainly occurred in the cerrado ecoregion until the early 2000s, the forest ecoregion is experiencing expansion at this time. We observed that 65% of the crop expansion in Mato Grosso from 2000 to 2006 occurred in this ecoregion. However, we did not identify this crop expansion as the major driver of deforestation in Mato Grosso because only 12.6% of the cleared areas were directly converted into croplands. Agricultural intensification also evolved rapidly, as the proportion of the net cropped area cultivated with double cropping systems harvesting two successive commercial crops (i.e., soybean and corn or soybean and cotton) increased from 6% to 30% during the study period. Finally, we found that ecological intensification occurred because the region’s farmers planted a non-commercial crop (i.e., millet or sorghum) after the soybean harvest to prevent soil erosion, improve soil quality, break pest cycles, maintain soil moisture and set the conditions for high-quality no-tillage operations. In 2006-2007, 62% of the net cropped area was permanently covered by crops during the entire rainy season. This practice allowed the farmers to diversify their production, as shown by the positive evolution of the Area Diversity Index. Future scholars can use the method proposed in this paper to improve their understanding of the forces driving the agricultural dynamics in Mato Grosso.     

Progressive landscape fragmentation in relation to cash crop cultivation

Cash crop cultivation has been a critical driver of land use change in many countries around the world. However, few efforts have been made to quantify the relationships between cash crop expansion and the subsequent landscape pattern changes. This paper characterized the process of cash crop expansion across Tiaoxi watershed (China) from 1985 to 2009 using multi-sensor and multi-temporal remotely sensed imageries. Correlations were identified between indicators of cash crop expansion (total area and total production of cash crops) and a family of landscape fragmentation metrics (patch density, edge density, landscape division index, effective mesh size, splitting index, Shannon's diversity index, and aggregation index). Results showed that Tiaoxi watershed experienced profound cash crop expansion and progressive landscape fragmentation. The cash crops spread in accessible and productive areas at the expense of paddy and forests. Social drivers of cash crop expansion included population growth, labor structure changes and market incentives. Indicators of cash crop expansion presented linear relationships with landscape fragmentation metrics. These findings evidenced that cash crop cultivation would significantly fragment landscapes. Our study contributed to understanding on the enlarging cultivation of cash crops and the associated modifications of landscape patterns in subtropical regions.     

Erosion of Access Tracks in Kalamunda National Park,Western Australia: Causes and management implications

Construction of access tracks in national parks and other reserves in the south-west of Western Australia is an essential feature of park management. However, their construction was often carried out with little or no appreciation of soil and slope characteristics and potential erodibility, or the effect of slope and stream sedimentation on terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna. This paper reports on the findings of a study carried out in Kalamunda National Park, a small reserve in the Darling Ranges east of Perth. Tracks were surveyed and the extent of erosion and sedimentation measured. Erosion-indicating and erosion-influencing variables were measured. Track alignment angle (to the contour) and track gradient were the two site variables most significantly correlated with measures of erosion severity. The most important upslope (on-track) factor was track length, and the most important upslope (off-track) factor was the abundance of granite outcrops. Seasonal conditions were important, particularly in relation to soils with relatively high clay contents. When wet, these soils were more likely to suffer from surface drainage problems and increased runoff, associated with decreased cohesion. On the other hand, the more common sand-textured soils are generally more erodible when wet. Several management measures are recommended. These fall into three categories: those relating to track closure or realignment (to avoid the most erosion-susceptible sites); those relating to actual track design and maintenance, or site management; and those relating to modification of visitor behaviour .     

Drivers of forest change in Hoa Binh,Vietnam in the context of integration and globalization

This study identified spatial patterns of forest change in Hoa Binh, Vietnam, from 2005 to 2017 by integrating Landsat data and Geographic Information System (GIS) data. A Multiple Logistic Regression (MLR) model was adapted to analyse drivers of three types of forest change, including (i) deforestation and forest degradation, (ii) forest regrowth and (iii) plantation expansion. The results reveal that accessibility and local economic development were determinants of forest cover dynamics during the integration and globalization period and that increased population pressure and poverty were no longer the main factors in forest cover transition. Several key policies in this time period positively affected forest cover change, triggering private sector participation in developing the forest economy by including households and small and medium enterprises in particular. The findings of this study can provide learning points for the implementation of sustainable forest management policies in other Vietnamese provinces or in neighbouring countries. This research has provided an effective tool for visualizing human‐forest ecosystem interaction, and this tool can be applied to subsequent studies to determine causes of forest cover change at the provincial level in Vietnam.     

台吉乃尔盐湖景观格局变化遥感分析(1990~2015年)

以1990年、2005年、2015年台吉乃尔盐湖区Landsat遥感影像作为数据源,从景观学角度分析了台吉乃尔盐湖区近25年来景观格局的动态变化。借助遥感和地理信息技术提取各类景观的信息,然后选取景观斑块平均面积(MPS)、景观破碎度指数(FN)、香浓多样性指数(SHDI)进行计算分析,同时研究了不同景观类型的面积变化情况。结果表明:1)台吉乃尔盐湖区景观空间格局以荒漠景观为主要特征,自然景观所占的比重明显高于人为景观,人为景观所占比重呈增加趋势;2)1990～2005年间,干盐滩、盐湖、荒漠为湖区主要景观,景观面积变化与景观格局变化主要受控于气候因素的影响,总体上各类型景观的变化幅度较小,但景观多样性有提高;3)2005～2015年间,干盐滩、荒漠为湖区主要景观,盐湖大面积减少,景观面积变化与景观格局变化主要受控于人类活动的影响,景观多样性降低。     

Integrating multi-source remotely sensed datasets to examine the impact of tree height and pattern information on crimes in Milwaukee,Wisconsin

There have been a great number of debates about the impacts of trees on crimes: some researchers believed that trees are a crime facilitator because of the concealment provision for potential criminals, while others argued that they are a crime deterrent because of the increased surveillance possibility and the therapeutic effect on psychological fatigue. To better answer this question, this study incorporated detailed tree features by using multi-source remotely sensed data at a very high resolution into environmental criminology analysis across the entire City of Milwaukee. Trees were extracted from aerial photographs, and broken down into two categories based on their heights to consider the effects of tree height on view obstruction. By controlling for confounding socioeconomic variables, the relationship between crimes and a series of composition and configuration indicators of trees with different height were investigated by using global and local spatial regressions. Results from classic and spatial statistical techniques finds complicated relationship between crimes and trees, which can be summarized in two aspects. First, the mixed effects of trees can be observed among different crime types. Second, the trends of spatial nonstationarity of the composition and configuration of trees with different heights were observed across the entire study area. The study outcomes could provide reasonable implications for making appropriate policies for crime prevention through environmental design to strengthen neighborhoods and communities in a city.     

基于RS与GIS的干旱区绿洲景观格局变化研究——以金塔绿洲为例

景观生态学是宏观生态研究的一个新领域。景观格局变化研究,是目前景观生态学的研究热点。利用遥感的手段获取试验区1990和2000年景观格局的基础数据,并利用GIS做分析的工具,计算出6个指标值,采用格网化的方法,将研究区域的景观斑块转化成5m×5m的格网,进行空间分析,计算得出了景观斑块的转移矩阵,为景观格局在空间上的变化分析打下基础。分析显示:①多样性、均匀性、优势度3个指标数值上有很大的相关性,只需考虑多样性;②绿洲景观格局的变化与水资源的变化密切相关;③绿洲有沙漠化的威胁;④城镇居民点用地扩展迅速,主要在未利用土地上发展,金塔绿洲内城镇居民区有城市化的趋势;⑤城镇居民点破碎化指标值未能真正体现其景观特性,当不考虑少数几个大的斑块时,能够得到较为理想的结果。     

基于熵权法的南水北调西线工程区生态环境综合评价

在遥感和地理信息系统软件支持下,提取并分析了参与研究区生态环境质量综合评价的6个参评因子:海拔高程、土地覆盖类型、植被指数、植被净初级生产力、年均温度、年降水量诸自然环境因子的现状。通过熵权法确定6个参评因子的权重值,建立研究区自然生态环境质量综合指标评价模型,并利用该模型对南水北调西线一期工程区的自然环境进行定量分析。     

巴基斯坦红其拉甫国家公园种子植物区系分析

红其拉甫国家公园(国家自然保护区)位于巴基斯坦北部地区,喀喇昆仑山南坡,介于36°04′～37°05′N和74°38′～75°45′E之间,海拔3 200～6 000 m之间,平均海拔4 000 m,总面积约2 270 km2,建于1975年.通过实地考察和查阅相关文献资料,对分布于该地区的植物从区系组成、区系性质的角...     

Assessment of land degradation in Mediterranean forests and grazing lands using a landscape unit approach and the normalized difference vegetation index

Land managers need sound, evidence-based information about land degradation patterns and about the effectiveness of their management responses. Obtaining such information is particularly difficult in Mediterranean grazing lands and forests, where a long history of anthropogenic pressure, high topographical and climatic variability, and frequent disturbances combine to create a highly diverse and unstable environment.Our study aimed at designing a methodology to provide land managers in three data-scarce drylands in Spain, Greece, and Cyprus with spatially explicit, up-to-date information on the state of their land, the pressures driving land degradation, and the effectiveness of their management efforts using remotely sensed NDVI data. To translate NDVI values into a land degradation assessment, we analysed the variance of the annual average NDVI within different landscape units, which we identified based on land cover, aspect, and slope steepness parameters. After calibrating and validating the land degradation mapping methodology using field observations, we related the obtained land degradation patterns with spatial information about grazing and wildfire, as well as controlled grazing and afforestation practices.Our methodology proved useful to assess land degradation and management measures in dry, semi-natural ecosystems. It also provided insights into the role of landscape in modulating land degradation. Results indicate that grazing is a significant cause of land degradation even in partially abandoned areas; repeated fires have a negative impact; slope steepness increases the land's sensitivity to grazing; north- and east-facing slopes are less sensitive to fire in the long term than south- and west-facing slopes; and the effectiveness of responses to land degradation is substantially affected by land cover and topography.The methodology presented can be used to overcome the lack of spatially explicit information on the state of the land in drylands of the Mediterranean and beyond, or as a basis for more in-depth studies to plan restoration interventions.     

国家海洋公园的概念、特征及建设意义

基于国内外相关文献资料的梳理与回顾,对国家公园与国家海洋公园的概念、特征及内涵等进行了比较与归纳,在此基础之上进一步提出国家海洋公园的概念及特征,并通过生态建设、环境保护、旅游价值、科学研究、科普教育、国家主权等几个方面多角度阐述了我国建设国家海洋公园的意义。     

Frontiers of urbanization: Identifying and explaining urbanization hot spots in the south of Mexico City using human and remote sensing

This article applies a multi-method approach to develop a better measurement of urbanization dynamics using remote and human sensing based on a GIS platform. The results demonstrate the benefits of bringing human and remote sensing sources together in a framework of hot spot analysis for a megacity such as Mexico City. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that human and remote sensing work well together in detecting the expansion of illegal urban settlements. Looking at the driving factors of illegal settlements, the existence of strong association between the expansion of illegal urban settlements and socioeconomic factors such as unemployment, provides some answers and reveals new questions. Illegal urban growth often leads to the loss of ecological areas in the urban frontiers, especially in areas where the urbanization potential is high. As a consequence, there are conflicts with legal settlers who dislike the illegal expansion. This approach can be extended to and replicated in new urbanizing areas, in particular in Africa and Asia.     

Yanama budyari gumada: reframing the urban to care as Darug Country in western Sydney

ABSTRACT

In non-urban places of Australia, caring-as-Country frames natural resource management (NRM) as a practice of reciprocal, more-than-human care-giving (S. Suchet-Pearson, S. Wright, K. Lloyd, and L. Burarrwanga. 2013. ‘Caring as Country: towards and ontology of co-becoming in natural resource management.’ Asia Pacific Viewpoint 54 (2): 185–197). Caring-as-Country is an idea that encapsulates the entangled, reciprocal relationships that people have with, and as part of, agentic more-than-human worlds. In more urbanised places, however, practices of caring-as-Country are often unrecognised, undervalued and undocumented. In this paper we make explicit practices of caring, healing and rejuvenation at Yellomundee Regional Park, Darug Country in western Sydney. Our discussion of care, entanglement and reciprocity at Yellomundee focuses on two specific activities that embody caring-as-Country: the return of cultural burns and sustained presence on Country in the form of Darug-led culture camps. The Darug principle of yanama budyari gumada, to ‘walk with good spirit’, embodies and invites new ways of thinking and practising intercultural caring-as-Country in heavily colonised, urban places like Yellomundee. As we document the practices arising from this invitation, we consider its far-reaching implications for NRM and planning, and we expand on the importance of geographies of care for unceded urban places.     

Landscape Analysis of the Forest-Tundra Ecotone in Rocky Mountain National Park,Colorado*

Landscapes in the ecotone between forest and tundra contain a mosaic of patches of trees, meadows, lakes, disturbed areas, and other features. The structure of this mosaic affects species habitat and potential ecotone response to global change. However, the alpine forest-tundra ecotone may be insensitive to climatic change if it is a climatic relict or is frequently disturbed. We used GIS and multivariate statistics to (1) analyze landscape structure in transects across the ecotone in Rocky Mountain National Park, (2) identify the major variants of forest-tundra ecotone, and (3) identify the influence of the environment and natural disturbances on variation in the landscape structure of the ecotone. There are six major types of ecotone varying in the amount of natural disturbances, permanent features (e.g., lakes), closed forest, patch forest, and krummholz. Variation is primarily related to slope, elevation, aspect, and geology associated with the morphology of the mountains and the disturbances they produce. The ecotone is not strongly structured by natural disturbances; thus, it may be more strongly controlled by and sensitive to climatic change than in areas where disturbance is more prevalent. Monitoring of potential ecotone response to global change is feasible, if tailored to the types of ecotone and their expected response.     

Temporal change in the landscape erosion pattern in the Yellow River Basin,China

Using Landsat TM data from 1995 and 2000, changes in the landscape erosion pattern of the Yellow River Basin, China were analysed. The aim was to improve our understanding of soil‐erosion change so that sustainable land use could be established. First, a soil‐erosion intensity index model was developed to study soil‐erosion intensity change in the study area. Over the 5 years, the areas of weak erosion, moderate erosion, severe erosion, and very severe erosion all increased. The area of weak erosion increased dramatically by 7.94×10⁵ ha, and areas of slight erosion and acute erosion decreased by 1.93×10⁶ ha and 4.50×10⁴ ha, respectively. The results show that while the intensity of soil erosion has gradually been decreasing as a whole, in some regions the soil erosion is becoming more severe. Based on landscape indices, the pattern of changes in soil erosion over the past 5 years was analysed. The changes in landscape pattern of soil erosion resulted from human activities. Analysis showed that human impact increases fragmentation, having three major effects on landscape pattern, reduction in patch area, variations in patch shape, and changes in spatial pattern. In the study area, population growth, farming, governmental policy and forest degradation are the major factors causing soil erosion change over a 5‐year period.     

遥感与地理信息系统技术在长江下游江岸稳定性评价中的应用

应用多时相遥感动态分析方法对长江南京以下河段近四十多年来江岸变迁进行调查,并建成江岸变迁图形数据库。对多期航道水深测量资料进行动态分析,建成航道水深数据库。应用地理信息系统技术,研究河床时空演变规律,结合沿江地质地貌,护岸工程等消息,对长江下游江岸稳定性进行评价。     

我国地质公园地质科技旅游开发研究——美国科罗拉多大峡谷国家公园科技旅游开发之借鉴

概述了我国地质公园地质科技旅游发展概况,以美国科罗拉多大峡谷国家公园科技旅游开发、管理和保护措施等为借鉴,探讨我国地质公园地质科技旅游的开发模式、开发战略与技术方法,并提出了生态科普与地质科技旅游并重模式、地质科技旅游为主生态科普等其他形式为辅的混合模式、生态科普为主地质科技旅游等为辅的混合模式共3种开发模式,重点突出地质公园科技旅游中地理信息系统的应用,探索地质景观三维动态重建技术的开发,以推动我国地质公园科技旅游向更高科技层次发展。     

论国家公园的公益性、国家主导性和科学性

国家公园作为一种严格保护并合理利用自然文化资源的可持续发展理念和举措而在全球得到普遍认可和蓬勃发展。国际上的国家公园因为国情不同而有多种体制模式,但是国家公园的根本特性是共同一致、必须维护的。公益性、国家主导性和科学性这三大特性是国家公园的根本特性,其中公益性是国家公园设立的根本目的,它包括了为公众利益而设、对公众低廉收费、使公众受到教育、让公众积极参与等方面,而国家主导性和科学性则是践行公益性的两大保障,前者要求国家确立、国家管理、国家立法、国家维护和爱国主义教育,后者则要求建立科学的国家公园体系、科学的规划、科学的分区和科学的经营利用等。中国国家公园的建立,面临着国情特殊、现行保护地多头管理、保护利用压力大等问题,应该利用风景名胜区等保护地开展试点,制定统一的中国国家公园标准,采用准入制度,并逐步探索统一的管理体系和法规体系,最终建立统筹管理的、中国特色的国家公园制度。     

Infiltration rate of soil around drinking troughs in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Soil particle size distribution and infiltration of water into the soil were measured in transects radiating from drinking troughs in the Kruger National Park. Soil particle size distribution remained relatively constant along the transects, making it unlikely that any gradients in the infiltration rate were the result of variation in the soil particle size distribution. Concentration of large herbivores around the troughs was indeed causing a negative impact on the infiltration rate of the soils, with implications for the rate of soil loss and the soil moisture regime.     

张掖国家湿地公园越冬水鸟的警戒距离分析

2019年11月9日—2020年1月20日在甘肃省张掖国家湿地公园4个湖域采取目标动物取样法,观察并记录了不同湖域越冬水鸟的警戒行为和游客人数,分析了水鸟对人为干扰响应的个体差异及其影响因素。本研究共调查到水鸟15种,隶属于5目5科11属。结果表明:不同湖域越冬水鸟的种类和数量呈极显著差异(P<0.01),其中鸳鸯湖和润泽湖的水鸟种类和数量较多(P<0.01),人工湖和如意湖的水鸟种类和数量较少(P<0.01);水鸟的反应距离、耐受距离在不同水域间呈极显著差异(P<0.01),惊飞距离在不同水域间无显著差异(P>0.05)。游客人数与水鸟警戒距离呈显著负相关(P<0.05),但与耐受距离和惊飞距离无显著相关性(P>0.05)。单因素方差分析结果表明,不同水鸟的反应距离、耐受距离和惊飞距离均存在极显著的种间差异性(P<0.01),其中渔鸥的反应距离最大,小??的反应距离最小(P<0.05);绿头鸭的耐受距离最大,凤头??的耐受距离最小(P<0.05);苍鹭的惊飞距离最大,绿头鸭的惊飞距离最小(P<0.05)。相关性分析结果表明,惊飞距离与水鸟的体长呈极显著正相关(P<0.05),与耐受距离无显著相关性(P>0.05)。