Land use and land cover Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025, Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology

Rivers and streams possess many characteristics that result from features of their surrounding landscape, e.g. from climate conditions, superficial lithology, soil profile, topography, vegetation cover, and human activities as well. In this study, we determined the impact of superficial geology and catchment land use, as the key landscape drivers affecting the physico-chemical and biological conditions in stream ecosystems, on the structure and values of selected ecological metrics relating to stonefly assemblages. In order to achieve this goal, we sampled 10 mid-sized submountain Carpathian streams flowing through two different geological bedrocks and draining the catchment areas with different dominant land use. As a consequence, these differences, we analyzed together 16 physico-chemical and biological parameters of stream environment. Our results demonstrate that 4 environmental parameter (particulate organic matter, transported inorganic matter, phosphorus and silicon ions), reflecting difference in superficial geology and landuse of the catchment area, played a significant role in the structuring of stonefly assemblages. We also found that catchment land use had an impact on values of the SAS and Saprobic indices as well as on the proportion of Leuctridae/Nemouridae and Brachyptera species in stonefly assemblages. The difference in catchment geology were reflected in values of total species richness and in the proportion of Leuctridae/Nemouridae and Brachyptera species as well.

2025, Biologia

From the family Athericidae, only three species (Atherix ibis, Ibisia marginata, Atrichops crassipes) are widespread in Central and Western Europe. Although predatory larvae of these species are an important component of many benthic communities, little is known about their distribution and ecological preferences. Aiming to fill these gaps, the distribution and ecological preferences of these species were studied in three ecoregions of central Europe (Central highlands, The Carpathians, Hungarian lowlands). We found that A. ibis was present in the most streams in all of the studied ecoregions. I marginata clearly preferred the streams of the Carpathians ecoregion, whilst A. crassipes was more frequent in the Central highlands and Hungarian lowlands and it occasionally inhabited streams in the Carpathian ecoregion. The occurrence of the species was explained by the physicochemical parameters of water (explained variability = 18.6%), site characteristics (3.8%), as well as catchment characteristics (3.3%). Four environmental variables (temperature, conductivity, percentage of agricultural land, catchment area) from three defined groups represented significant gradients, which explained species distribution in running waters of Central Europe. For the Central European streams, a correction of the saprobic index of the species was made, and the altitudinal, temperature, current and pH preferences for each species were also calculated. These values can be used for completion of the Bfreshwaterecology. info^database, which includes several biological and ecological traits of most European benthic species.

2025, Limnologica

We studied the nymphal biology (life cycle, secondary production and feeding) of some Plecoptera species in a calcareous spring stream with almost constant temperature through the year (7-8 • C) at Prosiek valley (Chočské Vrchy Mts., West Carpathians, Slovakia). We found complicate life cycle consisting of two cohorts for Leuctra prima with growth rate positively correlated to photoperiod length. Isoperla sudetica showed an univoltine life cycle. The annual secondary production of the stonefly community was reaching 4304 mg DW m -2 . It was mainly related to the abundance of three dominant species -I. sudetica, L. prima and Protonemura intricata -and to the permanence of their nymphs in the water through the whole year. We suppose that the stable thermal regime is a factor which could allow high production and biomass values, irrespective of seasons. Nymphs of I. sudetica passed from gatherer-collector to predator and nymphs of L. armata passed from gatherer-collector to shredder during their development.

2025, Biologia

The effects of land use on black fly assemblages were investigated in submontane rivers (the Ľubochnianka River, the Revúca River, upper Váh River catchment) in the Carpathians. We recorded 11 black fly species in the Ľubochnianka River and 10 species in the Revúca River. Land use differs between the catchments; the Ľubochnianka is a primarily forested catchment, and the Revúca is markedly deforested catchment. Fifteen environmental variables were analysed. Based on the results provided by CANOCO, phosphorus level and stream slope are the most important variables and have significant influences on the variability of black fly assemblages. In spring, Prosimulium rufipes occurred along the entire lengths of the streams. The black fly assemblage of the Revúca River differs from the assemblage of the Ľubochnianka River mainly by its higher abundances of Simulium variegatum and Simulium ornatum, by the presence of Simulium carthusiense, and by the absence of Prosimulium hirtipes.

2025

DEVELOPING A GIS AND HYDROLOGICAL MODELING APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE WEST BANK – PALESTINE Walid W. Sabbah Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Doctor of Philosophy This research deals with setting up a GIS and hydrological modeling based approach for sustainable water resources management in the West Bank of Palestine. This water sustainability approach took into consideration the water balance, the social, the economic, the demographic, the environmental, and the institutional components in order to enhance and promote the sustainable development in Palestine, both on the short and long runs. To evaluate the water balance component, a methodology was introduced to create the Water Sustainability Map (WSM). Since the groundwater is currently the only accessible water source by the Palestinians, the WSM is represented by the Aquifer Sustainable Yield (ASY) which is equivalent to the annual renewable recharge of the various aquifer format...

2025, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

2025, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

Accelerated soil erosion, high sediment yields, floods and debris flow are serious problems in many areas of Iran, and in particular in the Golestan dam watershed, which is the area that was investigated in this study. Accurate land use and land cover (LULC) maps can be effective tools to help soil erosion control efforts. The principal objective of this research was to propose a new protocol for LULC classification for large areas based on readily available ancillary information and analysis of three single date Landsat ETM+ images, and to demonstrate that successful mapping depends on more than just analysis of reflectance values. In this research, it was found that incorporating climatic and topographic conditions helped delineate what was otherwise overlapping information. This study determined that a late summer Landsat ETM+ image yields the best results with an overall accuracy of 95%, while a spring image yields the poorest accuracy (82%). A summer image yields an intermediate accuracy of 92%. In future studies where funding is limited to obtaining one image, late summer images would be most suitable for LULC mapping. The analysis as presented in this paper could also be done with satellite images taken at different times of the season. It may be, particularly for other climatic zones, that there is a better time of season for image acquisition that would present more information.

2025, Monitoring Urban Growth and Land Use Land Cover Dynamics Using GIS and Remote Sensing: Case study of Assela Town, East Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

In the last decades, Assela town has experienced drastic changes in its vast geographical expansion, and also by internal transformations. Subsequently, understanding and evaluating the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban growth and land use and land cover (LULC) shifts, and it is important to bring forth the right strategies and processes to track urban development in decision-making. The goal of this analysis was therefore to examine LULC changes that have taken place bewtween 1995 to 2021, forecast the long-term urban development in Assela town using geospatial techniques. For this study a three time series data Landsat 5 for 1995, Landsat 7 for 2008, and Landsat 8 for 2021 satellite images were used to extract LULC types. Four LULC classes were extracted using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) supervised classification approach for image classification. Agricultural land, paved surfaces, vegetation, and water bodies were the LULC classes. Maximum likelihood supervised classification of satellite imageries was applied for Image classification. The area in terms of LULC can be divided into following four classes: Paved surface, agriculture land, and vegetation and water bodies. 1 Hailemariam Zewdie has held his B.A degree in geography and environmental management from Debub University in 2006, and M.A degree in population and socioeconomic development planning from Adama Science and Technology University. He has served as a lecturer in Arsi university and published the following articles: "Opportunities and Challenges of African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) on Ethiopia Foreign Trade

2025

Forest fires are typically triggered by natural factors or human negligence and accidents, spreading across vast areas and causing extensive damage to vegetation, wildlife, and ecosystems. Machine learning algorithms have recently become important tools for their efficiency in generating high-quality wildfire susceptibility maps in the literature. Despite their success in achieving promising thematic accuracies, they are typically criticized for their black box structure and their limited ability to interpret the resulting susceptibility maps. This study aims to address these limitations by exploring the inherent characteristics of geospatial covariates controlling the wildfire phenomena with local and global underlying factors of wildfire phenomena with the application of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). For this purpose, three ensemble machine learning algorithms, including random forest, XGBoost, and NGBoost, were initially inputted with 11 conditioning factors to produce wildfire susceptibility maps. The internal mechanisms of these models were then interpreted using global and local XAI techniques. The results showed that the NGBoost had the highest predictive performance with an overall accuracy of 81.42%, and outperformed the other algorithms by approximately 5% to 8%. The global explainability analysis with the SHAP technique revealed that topographical parameters, such as elevation and valley depth, were the most influential factors in wildfire susceptibility. On the other hand, local analyses conducted with the LIME technique for three randomly selected instances highlighted the significant influence of parameters such as elevation, wind speed, and valley depth on individual wildfire cases.

2025, Comptes rendus de l'Académie bulgare des Sciences

This study investigates land use dynamics in the South-Central Planning Region (SCPR) of Bulgaria between 2000 and 2018, a period marked by economic transition and land restitution following the shift from a centrally planned economy. Utilizing CORINE Land Cover data from the European Environment Agency, the research quantifies land use changes across various categories at six-year intervals. The analysis reveals significant transformations, particularly within forest ecosystems where declining mature forests (broadleaved and coniferous) coincide with increasing transitional woodland-shrub areas, suggesting deforestation and subsequent regeneration. Agricultural systems exhibit complex dynamics, with pasture decline contrasted by vineyard expansion and fluctuating arable land. Urban and infrastructure development shows steady expansion of industrial/commercial units and mineral extraction sites. These findings highlight the complex interplay of human activities and natural processes reshaping the SCPR landscape, providing valuable insights for sustainable landscape planning and management in the region, addressing a critical knowledge gap in understanding post-1989 land use transformation in Bulgaria.

2025, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

2025, Ambiente & Sociedade

Impactos das mudanças de uso e cobertura da terra em fitofisionomias da Mata Atlântica Resumo: Avaliamos a paisagem das regiões Norte e Noroeste fluminense determinando as mudanças na cobertura florestal por fitofisionomia, utilizando a coleção 6 do MapBiomas (1985-2020). Trabalhamos no ambiente R e no QGIS. Entre as fitofisionomias, as Florestas de Terras Baixas apresentaram maior perda de área até 1985 (93%), tornando-se altamente fragmentadas e isoladas na paisagem. Entre 1985 e 2020, houve redução nas perdas de cobertura florestal. Entretanto, este resultado é fruto do balanço dos ganhos de vegetação secundária que mascaram as perdas de vegetação madura, com prejuízos para biodiversidade. O principal promotor da perda de vegetação foi a agropecuária e atualmente menos de 8% da vegetação está protegida. A procrastinação na criação de Unidade Conservação e restauração das Áreas de Proteção Permanente trará consequências sérias e negativas para a conservação da vegetação nas regiões Norte e Noroeste fluminense.

2025, Science of The Total Environment

The use of Land use and Land cover (LULC) data is gradually becoming more widely spread in studies relating the environment to human health. However, little research has acknowledged the compositional nature of these data. The goal of the present study is to explore, for the first time, the independent effect of eight LULC categories (agricultural land, bare land, coniferous forest, broad-leaved forest, sclerophyll forest, grassland and shrubs, urban areas, and waterbodies) on three selected common health conditions: type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), asthma and anxiety, using a compositional methodological approach and leveraging observational health data of Catalonia (Spain) at area level. We fixed the risk exposure scenario using three covariates (socioeconomic status, age group, and sex). Then, we assessed the independent effect of the eight LULC categories on each health condition. Our results show that each LULC category has a distinctive effect on the three health conditions and that the three covariates clearly modify this effect.

2025, Academia

Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model coupled with GIS and remote sensing methods is utilized in this research to quantify soil loss in the Nyabugogo Lower Catchment. The catchment, which forms part of Rwanda's Nile Basin, suffers from severe soil erosion caused by mining, deforestation, steep slopes, and uncontrolled agriculture. The study generates erosion hazard maps using rainfall, land features, topography, cover, and conservation use. The findings indicate that the Muyanza, Yanze, and Mpazi Channel sub-catchments have the highest number of high-risk areas with high density, where improper land management increases the risk of flooding and sedimentation. With an average annual soil loss projected at 39.8 t/ha/yr, action needs to be taken urgently. As recommendation we can make environmental resilience in order to reduce soil erosion, the study suggests implementing soil conservation practices like terracing, agroforestry, and sustainable mining practices. In order to ensure that land and water resources in the area are managed sustainably, effective watershed management practices coupled with community assistance and policy enforcement are required.

2025, Revista Brasileira de Cartografia

A interferência antrópica no ambiente ocorre de forma muito dinâmica e para acompanhá-la é preciso dispor de tecnologias eficientes, dentre as quais se destaca o sensoriamento remoto. Neste sentido, o presente estudo teve como propósito avaliar a dinâmica do uso e cobertura da terra na bacia hidrográfica de contribuição para o reservatório de Barra Bonita com aproximadamente 19.164,43 km2, situada no interior do Estado de São Paulo, mais especificamente, entre as coordenadas geográficas 21° 54' 20'' e 23° 57' 26'' Sul e 46° 39' 27'' e 48° 34' 52'' Oeste. Para tal foram utilizadas imagens dos sensores TM - Landsat 5 e ETM+ - Landsat7 referentes Ã 1990 e 2002, respectivamente. Estas imagens foram processadas utilizando o Spring 3.6 e aplicando uma classificação supervisionada. O classificador utilizado foi do tipo por regiões, sendo o método denominado Bhattacharya Distance com um limiar de aceitação de 90%. Desta forma foram obtidos os...

2025, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

Pokhara (ca. 850 m a.s.l.), Nepal's second-largest city, lies at the foot of the Higher Himalayas and has more than tripled its population in the past 3 decades. Construction materials are in high demand in rapidly expanding built-up areas, and several informal settlements cater to unregulated sand and gravel mining in the Pokhara Valley's main river, the Seti Khola. This river is fed by the Sabche glacier below Annapurna III (7555 m a.s.l.), some 35 km upstream of the city, and traverses one of the steepest topographic gradients in the Himalayas. In May 2012 a sudden flood caused > 70 fatalities and intense damage along this river and rekindled concerns about flood risk management. We estimate the flow dynamics and inundation depths of flood scenarios using the hydrodynamic model HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System). We simulate the potential impacts of peak discharges from 1000 to 10 000 m 3 s -1 on land cover based on high-resolution Maxar satellite imagery and OpenStreetMap data (buildings and road network). We also trace the dynamics of two informal settlements near Kaseri and Yamdi with high potential flood impact from RapidEye, PlanetScope, and Google Earth imagery of the past 2 decades. Our hydrodynamic simulations highlight several sites of potential hydraulic ponding that would largely affect these informal settlements and sites of sand and gravel mining. These built-up areas grew between 3-and 20-fold, thus likely raising local flood exposure well beyond changes in flood hazard. Besides these drastic local changes, about 1 % of Pokhara's built-up urban area and essential rural road network is in the highest-hazard zones highlighted by our flood simulations. Our results stress the need to adapt early-warning strategies for locally differing hydrological and geomorphic conditions in this rapidly growing urban watershed.

2025, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

Drylands are very susceptible to the effects of climate change due to water stress. One possible climate change adaptation measure is the construction of lakes to increase water availability for drinking and irrigation (food production) and decrease fire risk. These lakes can also increase local biodiversity and human well-being. However, other non-target services such as carbon (C) storage, water purification, and sediment retention might also change. Our main aim was to evaluate the trade-offs on non-targeted ecosystem services due to lakes construction in drylands. This was done using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) modeling tools, comparing a Mediterranean area located in southwest (SW) Europe, with and without artificial lakes. Results showed that the construction of artificial lakes caused an increase of 9.4% in C storage. However, the consequent increase in agricultural area decreased water purification and sediment retention services. This could diminish the life span of the lakes changing the initial beneficial cost-benefit analysis on lakes as adaptation measures to climate change. As a global measure for mitigation and adaptation to climate change strategy, we consider lake construction in drylands to be positive since it can store C in sediments and reduces the vulnerability to water scarcity. However, as a general recommendation and when built to support or increase agriculture in semi-arid landscapes, we consider that lakes should be complemented with additional measures to reduce soil erosion and nutrient leaching such as (i) locate agricultural areas outside the lakes water basin, (ii) afforestation surrounding the lakes, and (iii) adopt the best local agriculture practices to prevent and control soil erosion and nutrient leaching.

2025

Abstract—Water is the most precious and valuable natural resource in the Middle East in general and in Gaza Strip in particular. It is vital for socio-economic growth and sustainability of the environment. Gaza Strip is in critical situation that requires immediate and concerted efforts to improve the water situation in the term of quality and quantity. Demand greatly exceeds water supply. In addition water quality is very poor and the aquifer is being over pumped. Very limited water supplied for domestic use is potable. About 70 % of the total pumped water is used for agricultural purposes. For sound planning, it is very essential to have accurate figures for current water consumptions. These figures are only accurate for municipal and industrial consumption as the related water sources are well monitored. Accurate figure for agricultural consumption does not exist. Currently, there are over 4,000 agricultural water wells of which 70 % are considered illegal. In addition to that, m...

2025, Geology, Ecology, and Landscapes

Soil erosion is a serious problem arising from agricultural intensification and other anthropogenic activities which can cause deterioration of soil fertility and productivity. This study aims to estimate total amounts of soil loss using the RUSLE and NDVI models and identify major areas of concern for management interventions through site specific in the Coka watershed, Southern Ethiopia. The RUSLE model required the integration of thematic factors such as rainfall, length and steepness of the slope, land-use and land-cover, soil erodibility, and control practices. These factors were calculated using remote sensing data and GIS. The results indicated that total area coverage from study of watershed under the degree of severity of erosion and priority was <5(very low), 5-10 (low), 10-18 (moderate), 18-50 (high), 50-100 (very high) and >100 t ha-1 yr-1 (severe). Soil loss rates ranged between 2.33 in bare land and 237.16 t ha-1 yr-1 in forest. Based on the findings, erosion risk having estimated soil loss (≥ 18 t ha-1 yr-1) which is above tolerable range for the country containing 73% (2723 ha) from the total area coverage of watershed. Thus, appropriate soil and water conservation practices should be adopted to restore degraded lands and environment by giving attention for erosion hotspot areas.

2025, Journal of Applied Sciences

2025, Applied Geography

Rate and amount of carbon (C) storage in peatlands play a vital role in global biogeochemical cycles despite their globally small spatial extent. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from drained peatlands is a function of drainage intensity and extent of peatlands, peat thickness, land use and land cover (LULC) type to which peatlands are converted, and management practices. Historical LULC change-detection of Yenicaga peatlands and wet flats yielded an estimated conservative decrease in C pool from 2.43 AE 0.15 million metric tons (Mt) in 1944 to 0.65 AE 0.04 Mt in 2009 due mostly to drainage by agricultural and afforestation activities. Drainage-induced C emission rate was estimated to range from 12.5 to 32.5 t C ha À1 yr À1 . Our extrapolation of the C emission rate to the entire peatland area of 240 km 2 in Turkey resulted in CO 2 emissions of 0.30e0.78 Mt in 2009, equivalent to 0.01%e0.02% of the global LULC-related CO 2 emissions of 3230 Mt in 2009.

2025

This research considers both analytical and descriptive procedures to describe and evaluate the current urban environmental condition in Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate in order to introduce an integrated approach of urban environmental planning and management based on a set of evaluation criteria that have been formulated in order to set a basis for the sustainable urban development in the target year of the study; 2020. The main issue emerging in this research is that population counts and urbanization level are increasing excessively in Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, mainly Ramallah and Al-Bireh cities, which led to high population densities and urbanization rates that cant cope with the existing infrastructure utilities in the two cities where the population density was almost about 1800 person/km 2 . In this research it has been projected that the population in the governorate will exceed 500,000 inhabitants by the year 2020 and it was estimated that the required built-up area in the target year is about 158 km 2 . So far, GIS analysis based on subjectively selected factors has been performed and revealed that there are about 297 km 2 of suitable land for sustainable urban development in Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate. Hence, it was stated that there is no meaning for concentrating people and services in Ramallah and Al-Bireh cities and it was suggested to go towards the sub-centers where population and services can be distributed.

2025, Revista Ciência …

Resumo -O sensor ECH 2 O (Decagon Devices, Inc.) é uma sonda de capacitância de baixo custo e de fácil adaptação a sistemas automáticos de aquisição de dados. No entanto, para que possa produzir resultados satisfatórios, o próprio fabricante recomenda sua calibração para solos com características distintas de composição textural e salinidade. O presente estudo teve como objetivo calibrar o sensor dielétrico ECH 2 O, modelo EC-10, para dois tipos de solos com diferentes composições texturais (Neossolo Quartzarênico e Cambissolo). Avaliou-se a resposta do sensor à variação decrescente da umidade do solo, medida através da determinação da massa de um volume conhecido de solo em uma balança eletrônica. Os resultados mostraram que, quando devidamente calibrado, o sensor ECH 2 O pode ser utilizado satisfatoriamente na determinação da umidade do solo. Para o Neossolo Quartzarênico o sensor ECH 2 O apresentou uma resposta linear à variação de umidade do solo, representada pela equação Θ = 0,0009x-0,2778, em que Θ é a umidade do solo em m 3 m -3 e x é o potencial elétrico do sensor ECH 2 O em mV, com r 2 = 0,9899. Para o Cambissolo a equação de calibração do sensor foi: Θ = 8,2890 x 10 -6 x 2 -0,0106 x + 3,5291, com r 2 = 0,9475.

2025

Grassland grazing, driven human activities, represents a prevalent form of land use conversion. While numerous studies have examined the impact of such conversions on soil carbon cycling, they primarily focus on the content and storage of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, research on the turnover dynamics of SOC and the underlying mechanisms triggered by land use conversions remains relatively scarce. In this study, radiocarbon ( 14 C) tracing technology was applied to investigate the effects of grassland grazing on SOC turnover in the Saihanba area of Hebei province, China. The results revealed that the turnover time of SOC in pasture grassland was shortened by approximately 250 years compared to meadow grassland, suggesting that grazing diminishes the ability of topsoil to stabilize SOC. Furthermore, our findings indicate that grazing leads to a decrease in soil CO 2 flux by 0.50 g C m -2 y -1 under aggregates larger than 250 μm and those between 63 and 250 μm. Conversely, the CO 2 flux under aggregates, specifically those between 2 and 63 μm and less than 2 μm, increased by 0.96 g C m -2 y -1 . This shift suggests a significant increase in the contribution of older SOC pools to the overall soil CO 2 flux. Our study provides novel insights into SOC cycling in the context of grassland grazing, highlighting the importance of understanding SOC turnover dynamics for effective land management.

2025, International journal of engineering research and technology

Advances in remote sensing science, and in our ability to analyze spatial & temporal changes in our landscape, hold great promise for putting to rest any questions of the relevancy of remote sensing to local land use decisions. Identification of LU/LC change as the modern time approaches is trending towards the urbanization of the regional surroundings of already established units. An approach to identify and quantify the fields of change caused due to this urbanization activity through Remote sensing techniques is being done in this study.

2025, Ocean & Coastal Management

Introducing fuzzy set theory to evaluate risk of misclassification of land cover maps to land mapping applications: testing on coastal watersheds. Ocean and Coastal Management. Supplementary methods.

2025

Southeast Asia (e.g. Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia), Japan, and North and South Korea, 17 countries in total, have a population of 846 million people, which is about 9% of the world’s population; it is predicted to increase to 1 billion by 2050. This population expansion will coincide with a reduction in arable land due to an increase in urban and industrial development, increasing precipitation variability, and sea level rise. Additionally, these 17 countries are leading exporters of rice, sugar, shrimp, cassava, oil palm, pulses & beans, cocoa & coffee, tropical fruit, and spices. To help address the future food demand, in support of the Global Food Security-Support Analysis Data (GFSAD) project, this study mapped a wall to wall 30-m cropland product for the nominal year 2015 at 30-m resolution using 10 band cloud free composites derived from, Landsat-7&8 data from 2013-2016. The study adopted random forest (RF) machine learning algorithm and generated croplands versus non...

2025, International Journal of Remote Sensing

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2025, Landscape Research Record

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan regions in the world. Around 18 km away from Dhaka, Purbachal satellite city was planned in 1995 to solve the ever-increasing need for housing. Purbachal is the largest planned township in Bangladesh, with an area of over 25 square kilometers. Historically a low-lying wetland, Purbachal has gone through a rapid transformation in past decades. This study investigates the transformation of wetland areas in Purbachal New Town using Supervised Classification for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) Change and Water Flow and Watershed Analysis. The study Investigates whether the new developments in the Purbachal New Town followed a natural topography or was drastically modified from its natural conditions. The result shows wetlands around the new town have been filled in to create new developable land. As a result, the existing water flow patterns drastically altered, making the satellite city susceptible to flooding. By combining geospatial modeling with impact simulation, the study demonstrated a feedback process that facilitates the development of sustainable design strategies. The study's outcomes will guide the formulation of an alternative city planning process aided by Geodesign tools and the establishment of a systematic urban planning approach for this region guided by the natural land transformation analysis to create cities where people will be able to live in harmony with nature.

2025

Global Field Sizes provide the research community with valuable information to tackle the challenge of food security, in particular, of smallholder farmers, who often make up the most vulnerable parts of a population, living in poverty. To fill the gaps of missing information, especially for countries that have a limited food supply and lack a well-developed agricultural monitoring system, in June 2017, the IIASA Geo-Wiki team () ran the Global Field Size campaign, encouraging citizen scientists to classify field sizes on satellite images. The campaign was aimed at developing a global field sizes dataset to create an improved global cropland field sizes map for agricultural monitoring and food security assessments. During the campaign, the crowd was asked to identify whether there were fields in a certain location, and determine the relevant field sizes via visual interpretation of very high-resolution Google and Bing imagery. A "field" was defined as an agricultural area that included annual or perennial croplands, fallow, shifting cultivation, pastures or hayfields. Within one month, 130 participants completed 390,000 tasks -that is, they classified the field sizes in 130,000 locations around the globe. This study presents a new freely available global field sizes dataset as the result of the campaign and a global map of dominant field sizes. These data could be used as input for agricultural management in ecosystem models. The field sizes dataset can also help to determine what types of satellite data are needed for agricultural monitoring in different parts of the world, with areas dominated by small field sizes requiring satellite imagery of increased precision.

2025

In recent years there has been a rapid diffusion in open access Earth Observation (EO) data available at global scales to help scientists address planetary challenges including climate change, food security and disaster management. For example, since 2016 the European Space Agency (ESA), via its Sentinel-2 satellites, has been providing frequent (5 day repeat cycle) and fine-grained (10 meter resolution) optical imagery for open and public use. As such, the EO community is faced with the need to design methods for transforming this abundance of EO data into well-validated environmental monitoring products. To help facilitate the training and validation of these products (i.e. land cover, land use), several crowd-driven tools that engage stakeholders (within and outside the scientific community) in various tasks, including satellite image interpretation, and online interactive mapping, have been developed. This paper will highlight the new results and potential of a series of such to...

2025

The Australian landscape, as in many countries, has undergone a significant change. The extent of native forests in Australia has steadily decreased over time since European settlement. The establishment of towns and cities, mining and a range of other factors have all reduced forest cover, however it is land clearing for agriculture that has been the most significant process by far. Along with the southern uplands of the Otways, the Central Highlands, and East Gippsland, the Strzelecki Ranges are recognised as one of the four major Victorian areas of cool temperate rainforest. Cool temperate rainforests, although now very restricted in their distribution, are of major historical and ecological significance. They are the remanets of the oldest extant vegetation formation in Australia and are categorised as an endangered Ecological Vegetation Class within Victoria. Areas bordering cool temperate rainforest in the Eastern Strzeleckis are a mosaic of different land use histories formatted by both natural and human disturbances. Different land use patterns have different influences on imbedded remnant patches of cool temperate rainforest mainly through edge effects. This study aims to model the long term land use and land cover changes (from 1939 to 2004) and their impacts on cool temperate rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges by integrating remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS). The reconstructed history of land use and land cover is mainly based on historical aerial photography with the support of Vicmap Elevation, Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs) map. The general trend of land use and land cover change, including rainforest in study areas was analysed.

2025

In recent years, Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, has experienced droughts and floods, resulting in substantial infrastructural damage and loss of life. This study used geospatial and hydrological modeling to analyze the domestically produced water potential of the province's most water-scarce Pishin Lora Basin (PLB). The basin's hydrological characteristics were retrieved from the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Landsat-8 images, and the Food Agriculture Organization's (FAO) soil databases. Rainfall data from the Quetta and Kalat stations were collected for the years 1990 to 2021 and used to simulate runoff in HEC-HMS software. Peak discharges for the wet and dry years were 5102.2 and 1095.8 cumecs, respectively, with annual runoff volumes of 5.82 and 1.25 billion cubic meters (BCM). The water potential during wet years can address water shortage issues if managed well and it will also help to develop appropriate strategic options during dry years to minimize the drought impacts in the region through watershed management. This study has further identified micro-watersheds of the constructed small/check dams for their annual runoff potential. Runoff volumes in wet years often exceeded their dam'azs holding capacities. That implied that small dams and other development schemes are not designed to incorporate seasonal variations. This notion was further confirmed when flood water topped over these dams during high runoff periods of the recent 2022 rainfalls. This study emphasizes proper planning of water resource development schemes. It highlights the repercussions of inadequately planned interventions. If the safety and sustainability of these structures throughout their design lives are to be warranted, they must be evaluated scientifically and modified accordingly.

2025, Appendix 5 in: Crete and the Southern Aegean Islands: effects of changing climate on the environment. Contract number: EV4C-0073-UK. Edited by A.T.Grove, Jennifer Moody & Oliver Rackham

Co-authored with B. J. Devereux, T. R. Mayo and S. N. Gomez. The paper constitutes a separate appendix to the main report. Accurate land cover classifications derived from repeat coverage satellite imagery offer environmental... more

2025

The growth of world population has been of serious concern in the last few decades. Of particular worry is how earth's resources will match the concentration of human populations especially in developing countries. Associated with these are issues of urban ization, global warming and climate change which are also expected to have more impacts on poor peoples and places in

2025

Given that availability of renewable water resources in the Middle East is limited, conflicted, and decreasing, non conventional water resources including desalination of brackish and sea water, use or reuse of marginal water quality sources, rainfall-runoff water harvesting, virtual and physical water transfer and others are gaining an increasing importance, attention, and dependence in alleviating water scarcity in the region. To include non-conventional water sources in a sustainable manner, many efforts need to be made to achieve on one side more efficient and sustainable water supply and on the other side food security, public health, economic and social development, and water environment protection. The implementation of such solutions requires vision, political will and facilitation of successful policy and reform implementation as well as technical, technological, economic, environmental and social considerations This paper is to discuss and analyzes the cumulative influence...

2025

Rising atmospheric temperatures and unpredictable precipitation patterns are unmistakable indications of climate change, particularly affecting the foothills of the Nepal Himalayas. Pokhara City, a rapidly expanding urban center with a population of 500 thousand residents and a substantial influx of tourists, is situated close to the Greater Himalayas, making both locals and visitors highly vulnerable to environmental threats. This study examined Pokhara City's susceptibility to risks associated with climate change. It was found that there has been a noticeable increase in daily intense rainfall with totals exceeding 150 mm, over the last two decades. Furthermore, it has increased the risk of landslides, flash floods and sinkholes which are all brought on by rainfall and ultimately reduce community resilience. Growing urbanization and marginalized communities moving to high-risk areas have made people more susceptible to hazards. The lack of the application of disaster risk reduction policies and inadequate funding could further obstruct the process of effective disaster governance, which signifies the importance of taking comprehensive and proactive action. Therefore, having sustainable urban planning is crucial to solving these issues, along with increasing community awareness. In the context of growing environmental threats, these actions may eventually protect lives and livelihoods in the Pokhara Valley.

2025, Theoretical and Applied Climatology

2025, Change detection due to ISPAAD Programme using geospatial techniques: A case study of Dinogeng Agricultural Extension Area of Kgatleng District, Botswana

Dinogeng Agricultural Extension Area (DAEA), located in the south eastern part of Botswana has witnessed tremendous land use changes due to the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD). For over a decade, crop cultivation has been relatively small both in size and population. But today, Dinogeng is one of the fastest growing agricultural areas. Therefore, it is paramount to detect the nature and magnitude of land use changes for planning purpose. Remotely Sensed data from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 were utilized for the purpose of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change detection. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) were used to produce LULC maps for 2006 and 2020 for assessing the severity of land degradation. In a 14-year span (2006-2020), LULC of DAEA changed markedly. Cultivated land and bare areas increased by 19.4 and 18.3 % whereas shrub land and forest areas decreased by 36.9 and 0.7 %, respectively. Supervised classification algorithms and stratified random sampling design were adopted for the accuracy assessment. The classification process produced good results with overall accuracies of 93% and 94% for the 2006 and 2020 maps, respectively. The findings could be useful to guide the development of functional land use plan for DAEA.

2025, Revista Brasileira de Cartografia

Resumo: Este artigo aborda o estado da arte do sensoriamento remoto por radar e foi elaborado para fazer parte da edição especial de comemoração dos 50 anos desta revista. Neste estudo, é apresentada uma breve introdução sobre os fundamentos do sensoriamento remoto por radar, com destaque para os parâmetros mais importantes de imageamento e da superfície terrestre envolvidos no processo de obtenção de imagens de radar. Ênfase é dada para o comprimento de onda, polarização das ondas eletromagnéticas e geometria de obtenção de imagens (parâmetros de imageamento) e para a umidade de solos e da vegetação, rugosidade do terreno e estrutura da vegetação (parâmetros da superfície terrestre). Em seguida, são apresentados os principais sensores orbitais de radar de abertura sintética que estão atualmente em operação e os principais processamentos digitais de imagens de radar, destacando-se a conversão dos valores digitais para coeficientes de retroespalhamento, os filtros espaciais para redução do ruído speckle, as técnicas de decomposição de imagens e o processamento InSAR. Finalmente, é apresentada uma breve discussão sobre algumas aplicações potenciais, com especial atenção para o monitoramento de derrame de óleo em plataformas continentais, estimativa de biomassa aérea, monitoramento de desmatamento em coberturas florestais tropicais, detecção de áreas de plantio de arroz irrigado e estimativa de umidade de solos. Palavras-chave: SAR. Sensoriamento remoto. Retroespalhamento. Satélites de recursos terrestres.

2025, Revista Brasileira de Cartografia

Este artigo aborda o estado da arte do sensoriamento remoto por radar e foi elaborado para fazer parte da edição especial de comemoração dos 50 anos desta revista. Neste estudo, é apresentada uma breve introdução sobre os fundamentos do sensoriamento remoto por radar, com destaque para os parâmetros mais importantes de imageamento e da superfície terrestre envolvidos no processo de obtenção de imagens de radar. Ênfase é dada para o comprimento de onda, polarização das ondas eletromagnéticas e geometria de obtenção de imagens (parâmetros de imageamento) e para a umidade de solos e da vegetação, rugosidade do terreno e estrutura da vegetação (parâmetros da superfície terrestre). Em seguida, são apresentados os principais sensores orbitais de radar de abertura sintética que estão atualmente em operação e os principais processamentos digitais de imagens de radar, destacando-se a conversão dos valores digitais para coeficientes de retroespalhamento, os filtros espaciais para redução do r...

2025, Remote Sensing of Environment

Many studies have assessed the process of forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon using remote sensing approaches to estimate the extent and impact by selective logging and forest fires on tropical rain forest. However, only a few have estimated the combined impacts of those anthropogenic activities. We conducted a detailed analysis of selective logging and forest fire impacts on natural forests in the southern Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso, one of the key logging centers in the country. To achieve this goal a 13-year series of annual Landsat images (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) was used to test different remote sensing techniques for measuring the extent of selective logging and forest fires, and to estimate their impact and interaction with other land use types occurring in the study region. Forest canopy regeneration following these disturbances was also assessed. Field measurements and visual observations were conducted to validate remote sensing techniques. Our results indicated that the Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index aerosol free (MSAVI af ) is a reliable estimator of fractional coverage under both clear sky and under smoky conditions in this study region. During the period of analysis, selective logging was responsible for disturbing the largest proportion (31%) of natural forest in the study area, immediately followed by deforestation (29%). Altogether, forest disturbances by selective logging and forest fires affected approximately 40% of the study site area. Once disturbed by selective logging activities, forests became more susceptible to fire in the study site. However, our results showed that fires may also occur in undisturbed forests. This indicates that there are further factors that may increase forest fire susceptibility in the study area. Those factors need to be better understood. Although selective logging affected the largest amount of natural forest in the study period, 35% and 28% of the observed losses of forest canopy cover were due to forest fire and selective logging combined and to forest fire only, respectively. Moreover, forest areas degraded by selective logging and forest fire is an addition to outright deforestation estimates and has yet to be accounted for by land use and land cover change assessments in tropical regions. Assuming that this observed trend of land use and land cover conversion continues, we predict that there will be no undisturbed forests remaining by 2011 in this study site. Finally, we estimated that 70% of the total forest area disturbed by logging and fire had sufficiently recovered to become undetectable using satellite data in 2004.

2025, Journal of Land Use Science

This paper is concerned with data and classifications that confuse the concepts of land cover and land use. This conceptual confusion is problematic for data integration and has resulted in calls for the separation of land use and land cover from the global land monitoring community . Text mining is used to unravel the different concepts embedded in land cover and land use semantics and applied to legal definitions of forest cover and use. Whilst the results show the distinct biological dimension to land cover descriptions and the socio-economic character of land use, they reveal the deep degree of semantic confusion embedded in land cover and land use descriptions. The implications for this lack of internal semantic accuracy and consistency in land resource inventories are discussed and the case made for separating the concepts of land cover from land use.

2025, Journal of Land Use Science

2025, مجلة جامعة النجاح للأبحاث العلوم الطبية والصحية

Background: Cancer is the third leading cause of deaths in the West Bank and Gaza accounting for about 10% of total deaths. Despite its importance, little research has been devoted to characterization of incidence rates and geographic variations. This study compared the incidence rates and some risk factors of cancer among governorates of Northern West Bank and among types of locality (urban, rural, and refugee camps) for the period 2005-2008. Methods: Crude and age-adjusted incidence rates were calculated using cancer data obtained from the registry files of three hospitals in Northern West Bank. Negative binomial regression analysis was performed to compare incidence rate ratios (IRR) among governorates and types of locality while adjusting for age-group, sex and year of diagnosis. Fisher's exact test was employed to test relationships among cross tabulated variables and test homogeneity of proportions. The lowest overall incidence rate was found in the governorate of Jenin (age-adjusted rate of 45.0 cases per 100,000 over the 4-yr period). With Jenin taken as a reference, the governorate of Nablus had the highest IRR (3.30) with age-adjusted incidence of 148.1 cases per 100,000. Refugee camps had higher overall incidence rate than urban and rural areas (age adjusted rates of 169.0, 103.2, and 79.3 cases per 100,000 for refugee camps, urban, and rural areas, respectively). Geographical differences were found in the distribution of patients with regard to types of environmental pollution, dietary factors, smoking, alcohol consumption, types of stress, and chronic diseases but not in dietary habits and family history. In Northern West Bank, large differences were found among areas of residence (governorates and locality types) in incidence of cancer. Geographical differences in risk factors were also found which could explain part of the geographic differences observed in incidence rates.

2025

1 The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK 2 Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Japan 3 Faculty of Education, Social Studies, Education, Hirosaki University, Japan 4 Regional Cultural Studies, Hirosaki University, Japan 5 ERMC Geotech Services P. Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal 6 Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Udayapur district, Nepal 7 Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention, Lalitpur, Nepal