Historical paths to current unrest: Extending the temporal lens in analysing geographies of agrarian change and conflict

The proliferation of soybean monoculture and its expansion into previously marginal territories in Argentina have resulted in land conflicts and attacks on peasant communities that possess land without having secured tenure. However, the rapid and intensive modernisation and industrialisation of agriculture production has had differentiated effect on different territories in Argentina. This article posit that understanding these differences requires an extended temporal analysis. While social research tends to focus on the present or recent past, this paper joins calls for greater attention to historical context and processes when examining current social dynamics and geographies. Focusing on the province of Santiago del Estero in Northwest Argentina, this paper provides a particular temporal-thematic approach for conducting such a historical path analysis, which here focuses on the province’s changing agrarian structures and political shifts that resulted in a complex, irregular and subsequently unstable land tenure system.     

济南市土地利用动态变化分析

结合济南市土地利用现状,对济南市农用地内部结构、建设用地内部结构及未利用地内部结构变化进行了分析,得出这几类土地内部结构变化的驱动力主要为经济结构、人口增长和自然因素等,指出今后应注重经济、资源与环境的协调发展,合理利用好每一寸土地。     

Accuracy assessment of NLCD 2011 percent impervious cover for selected USA metropolitan areas

The emergence of high-resolution land cover data has created the opportunity to assess the accuracy of impervious cover (IC) provided by the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). We assessed the accuracy of the 900 m² NLCD2011 %IC for 18 metropolitan areas throughout the conterminous United States using reference data from 1 m² land cover data developed as part of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s EnviroAtlas project. Agreement was assessed from two perspectives: 1) sensitivity to the size of the assessment unit used for the comparison, and 2) utility of NLCD %IC to serve as a proxy for high-resolution IC. The former perspective was considered because statistical relationships can be sensitive to assessment unit size and shape, and the latter perspective was considered because high resolution (reference) %IC data are not available nationwide. The utility of NLCD %IC as a proxy for the high resolution data was assessed for seven lattice (square) cell sizes ranging from 1 ha to 200 ha using four EnviroAtlas IC indicators: 1) %IC per 100 ha (1 km²); 2) %IC by Census block group; 3) %IC within a 15 m (radius) of the riparian zone, and; 4) %IC within a 50 m (radius) of the riparian zone. Agreement was quantified as per assessment unit deviation (NLCD %IC – reference %IC) and summarized as Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) and Mean Deviation (MD) both within and across the 18 metropolitan areas. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression (y = reference %IC and x = NLCD %IC) was also used to evaluate the quality of the NLCD %IC data. MAD was ≤ 5% for six of the seven lattice cell sizes. MAD was also ≤ 5% for Census block groups > 100 ha and for both riparian units. These results suggest that uncertainty attributable to the measurement of %IC was no greater than the uncertainty related to the effect of IC on aquatic resources that have been derived from studies of aquatic condition (e.g., benthic fauna) over a range of %IC. Overall, agreement was variable from one metropolitan area to the next. Agreement improved as assessment unit size increased and declined as the level of urbanization (NLCD %IC) increased. NLCD %IC tended to underestimate reference %IC overall, but NLCD %IC was sometimes greater than reference %IC in urbanized settings.     

喀斯特与非喀斯特区土壤含水量与植物叶片δ13C关系的对比研究—— 以贵州清镇市王家寨小流域为例

通过测定贵州省清镇市王家寨小流域内不同背景区(喀斯特与非喀斯特)土壤的含水量以及16种植物叶片的δ13 C值,比较了不同背景区从退化生态到非退化生态过程中各样地之间,以及石漠化和土山样地不同坡位之间土壤含水量与植物叶片δ13 C值的相关关系。研究结果表明,不管是喀斯特背景区还是非喀斯特背景区从退化到非退化的过程中,随着土壤含水量的逐渐增大,植物叶片的δ13 C值与土壤含水量呈现显著的负相关关系,即土壤含水量越大,植物的水分利用效率就越低;而从不同坡位土壤含水量与植物叶片δ13 C值的相关关系分析表明,石漠化样地植物叶片δ13 C值并不随坡位土壤含水量的不同呈现出规律性的变化,而坡位自上而下土山样地植物叶片的δ13 C值则表现出随土壤含水量的增大而逐渐趋负。这些研究结果均反映了植物叶片的δ13 C值对不同生境土壤水分条件的适应机制,其中石漠化样地上的植物对土壤含水量变化的响应最迅速和最敏感。      

Modeling spatial and temporal change of soil erosion based on multi-temporal remotely sensed data

In order to monitor the pattern, distribution, and trend of land use/cover change (LUCC) and its impacts on soil erosion, it is highly appropriate to adopt Remote Sensing (RS) data and Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze, assess, simulate, and predict the spatial and temporal evolution dynamics. In this paper, multi-temporal Landsat TM/ETM+ remotely sensed data are used to generate land cover maps by image classification, and the Cellular Automata Markov (CA_Markov) model is employed to simulate the evolution and trend of landscape pattern change. Furthermore, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is used to evaluate the situation of soil erosion in the case study mining area. The trend of soil erosion is analyzed according to total/average amount of soil erosion, and the rainfall (R), cover management (C), and support practice (P) factors in RUSLE relevant to soil erosion are determined. The change trends of soil erosion and the relationship between land cover types and soil erosion amount are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the CA_Markov model is suitable to simulate and predict LUCC trends with good efficiency and accuracy, and RUSLE can calculate the total soil erosion effectively. In the study area, there was minimal erosion grade and this is expected to continue to decline in the next few years, according to our prediction results.     

Does prolonged illness contribute to adaptive land use practices among subsistence agricultural households in rural Mozambique?

The environmental effects of disease are broadly recognized but still not fully understood. The impact of health on economic development has been well-documented, as have how changes in land cover can contribute to poor health. However, little is known about how changes in health may impact land use and land cover. Fallowing has long been regarded as an advanced, sustainable land use decision employed by subsistence agriculturalists. In the presence of a prolonged illness, however, subsistence agriculturalists may also potentially use fallowing as a coping mechanism. In this paper we seek to understand the extent to which fallowing is used as a coping strategy by households facing a prolonged illness. If illness threatens a household's labor supply, it could affect their ability to cultivate all of their land and may impact food security and general economic well-being. Additionally, it may also impact the actual landscape, as previously agricultural land may revert to a transitional state or land abandonment. This study employs mixed methods to determine if unhealthy agricultural households use fallowing as a coping strategy, identifies whether or not unhealthy fallowing households are more vulnerable agriculturally and economically than their healthier fallowing counterparts, and examines whether there is a land cover effect that can be detected using Landsat TM/ETM + satellite imagery.     

王艳，廖明生，李德仁等.利用长时间序列相干目标获取地面沉降场.地球物理学报，2007

方法，相干目标分析是利用时间序列多景影像获取地表稳定反射体——高相干点目标的新方法.实验区选择上海市主城区约100 km2 区域，InSAR的实验数据采用覆盖1992～2000年间的25景ERS-1/2的单视复影像.在无先验沉降场模型的情况下，实验结果显示该实验区的地面沉降场在时间范围上跨越8年，平均观测时间采样率约为4个月，垂直形变精度优于5 mm，满足我国对城市地面沉降形变观测的要求.研究结果表明该方法可以用于今后大时间/空间尺度上的高精度地表形变观测.     

京津冀城市群水资源开发利用的时空特征与政策启示

京津冀城市群是中国在国际经济体系中具有最强竞争力的支撑平台之一,也是中国乃至全世界水安全保障难度最大的地区之一。本文主要以2000-2014年数据为基础,采用泰尔系数、变异系数、曲线分析和空间分级分类分析等方法,揭示了京津冀城市群水资源与用水变化的时空特征。结果显示：①绝大多数城市多年平均水资源总量显著减少,干旱化的长期趋势明显,而且北部、西部城市减少幅度更大;②京津冀城市群水资源极度短缺,空间不均衡性呈现先减小后增大的趋势,而且中部和南部城市水资源开发利用潜力更低,缺水更甚;③绝大多数城市用水总量零增长或缓慢负增长,用水结构以工农业用水比重下降为主要特征,各类用水的空间不均衡性保持相对稳定;④用水效率普遍快速提升,空间分布差异呈现先增大后减小的总体趋势。基于此,建议京津冀城市群实施“以水量城”的城镇化政策和“以水定产”的产业政策,完善水生态补偿政策,落实水资源管理红线政策,实现水资源约束下各城市间经济社会与生态环境的协同发展。