Search results for: land acquisition

Authors: Sabitha Rahim

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In the context of teaching vocabulary of English as Foreign Language (EFL), the confluence of memory and retention is one of the most significant factors in students' language acquisition. The progress of students engaged in foreign language acquisition is often stymied by vocabulary attrition, which leads to learners' lack of confidence and motivation. However, among other factors, little research has investigated the importance of neuroplasticity in Foreign Language acquisition and how underused neural pathways lead to the loss of plasticity, thereby affecting the learners’ vocabulary retention and motivation. This research explored the effect of enhancing vocabulary acquisition of EFL students in the Foundation Year at King Abdulaziz University through various methods and neuroplasticity exercises that reinforced their attention, motivation, and engagement. It analyzed the results to determine if stimulating the brain of EFL learners by various physical and mental activities led to the improvement in short and long term memory in vocabulary retention. The main data collection methods were student surveys, assessment records of teachers, student achievement test results, and students' follow-up interviews. A key implication of this research is for the institutions to consider having multiple varieties of student activities promoting brain plasticity within the classrooms as an effective tool for foreign language acquisition. Building awareness among the faculty and adapting the curriculum to include activities that promote brain plasticity ensures an enhanced learning environment and effective language acquisition in EFL classrooms.

Keywords: language acquisition, neural paths, neuroplasticity, vocabulary attrition

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Authors: Mekdes Lulu

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This study assessed the soil organic C (SOC) and soil nutrients in smallholding home garden, woodlot, grazing land, and cropland at two soil depths and two sites in Wolaita Zone, southern Ethiopia. The results showed that soil properties were significantly influenced by land use. The home garden had significantly higher (p < 0.05) SOC and soil nutrients when compared to the cropland. When the home garden was compared to the woodlot and grazing land uses, it had significantly higher (p < 0.05) values except in SOC, total N (TN), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and exchangeable Ca. Cropland, in comparison with grazing land and woodlot, had a non-significant difference except TN. The SOC stock (0–40 cm) in the home garden, woodlot, grazing land and cropland was 79.5, 68.0, 65.0, and 58.1 Mg ha–1, respectively. Home garden significantly differed (p <0.05) in SOC only from cropland, and this was attributed not only to the relatively higher organic input in the home garden but also to the little organic matter input and frequently tillage of the cropland. The similar SOC among the home garden, woodlot and grazing lands may imply that the balance between inputs and outputs could be nearly similar for the land uses. Soil TN and CEC had a nearly similar pattern of difference as in SOC among the land uses because of their close relationship with SOC. In general, the land use influence on soil nutrients can be in the order: home garden > wood land » grazing land » cropland, with home garden showing the least difference from the woodlot and the greatest from the cropland. In the agroecosystem, in general, the influence of smallholding home garden on SOC and soil nutrient was marginally different from Eucalyptus woodlot and grazing lands but evidently different from cropland.

Keywords: cropland, grazing land, home garden, soc stock, soil nutrients, woodlot

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Authors: Oluwagbenga O. Isaac Orimoogunje, Omolola Helen Oshosanya

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The study examined land management in a typical watershed in southwestern Nigeria with a view to ascertaining its impact on land suitability analysis for rice cultivation and production. The study applied the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), weighted overlay analysis (WOA), multi-criteria decision-making techniques, and suitability map calculations within a Geographic Information System environment. Five main criteria were used, and these include climate, topography, soil fertility, macronutrients, and micronutrients. A consistency ratio (CR) of 0.067 was obtained for rice cultivation. The results showed that 95% of the land area is suitable for rice cultivation, with pH units ranging between 4.6 and 6.0, organic matter of 1.4–2.5 g kg-1 and base saturation of more than 80%. The study concluded that the Ofiki watershed is a potential site for large-scale rice cultivation in a sustainable capacity.

Keywords: land management, land characteristics, land suitability, rice production, watershed

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Authors: Yang, Min-chih, Shih-Jen Feng, Bo-Tsang Li

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The concept of “Brownfield” has been developed for nearly 35 years since it was put forward in 《Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, CERCLA》of USA in 1980 for solving the problem of soil contamination of those old industrial lands, and later, many countries have put forward relevant policies and researches continuously. But the related concept in Taiwan, a country has developed its industry for 60 years, is still in its infancy. This leads to the slow development of Brownfield related research and policy in Taiwan. When it comes to build the foundation of Brownfield development, we have to depend on the related experience and research of other countries. They are four aspects about Brownfield: 1. Contaminated Land; 2. Derelict Land; 3. Vacant Land; 4. Previously Development Land. This study will focus on and deeply investigate the Vacant land and contaminated land.

Keywords: brownfield, industrial land, redevelopment, assessment index

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Authors: Roni Susman, Thomas Weith

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This article explores how institutional setting, mainly from institutionalism, could clearly explain the understanding of land use conflict analysis in coastal areas and has been used in current practices. Institutional setting appears as a guideline that is committed by the stakeholders who are involved directly or indirectly in land management process. This paper is aimed to identify the setting of institutional and to measure how the conflicts occur, how the actors act and influence the process, how is the condition to apply the appropriate framework for adequate solution of land use conflict in coastal area in order to enhance better decisions. To reflect the current practice and use of theories a qualitative review of 150 scientific peer-reviewed papers regarding the issue of land use conflicts in coastal areas as well as institutional process is included. The selection of peer-reviewed papers is obtained through a structured literature survey of the recently published database in a way to investigate the variances of institutional between theory and practices specifically in the case of coastal land management.

Keywords: coastal areas, institutional settings, land use conflict, land governance, actors’ constellation, analytical framework

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Authors: Inuwa Danladi Bawa

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One of the challenges of African states in the development of education in the past and the present is the problem of literacy. Literacy in the first language is seen as a strong base for the development of second language; they are mostly the language of education. Language development is an offshoot of language planning; so the need to develop literacy in both first and second language affects language education and predicts the extent of achievement of the entire education sector. The need to balance literacy acquisition in first language for good conditioning the acquisition of second language is paramount. Likely constraints that includes; non-standardization, underdeveloped and undeveloped first languages are among many. Solutions to some of these include the development of materials and use of the stages and levels of literacy acquisition. This is with believed that a child writes well in second language if he has literacy in the first language.

Keywords: first language, second language, literacy, english language, linguistics

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Authors: Naruemon Phongaksorn

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The biofuel consumption has increased significantly over the decade resulting in the increasing request on agricultural land for biofuel feedstocks. However, the biofuel feedstocks are already stressed of having low productivity owing to inappropriate agricultural practices without considering suitability of crop land. This research evaluates the land suitability using GIS-integrated Analytic Hierarchy Processing (AHP) of biofuel crops: cassava, at Chachoengsao province, in Thailand. AHP method that has been widely accepted for land use planning. The objective of this study is compared between AHP method and the most limiting group of land characteristics method (classical approach). The reliable results of the land evaluation were tested against the crop performance assessed by the field investigation in 2015. In addition to the socio-economic land suitability, the expected availability of raw materials for biofuel production to meet the local biofuel demand, are also estimated. The results showed that the AHP could classify and map the physical land suitability with 10% higher overall accuracy than the classical approach. The Chachoengsao province showed high and moderate socio-economic land suitability for cassava. Conditions in the Chachoengsao province were also favorable for cassava plantation, as the expected raw material needed to support ethanol production matched that of ethanol plant capacity of this province. The GIS integrated AHP for biofuel crops land suitability evaluation appears to be a practical way of sustainably meeting biofuel production demand.

Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Processing (AHP), Cassava, Geographic Information Systems, Land suitability

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Authors: A. J. Netshipale, M. L. Mashiloane, S. J. Oosting, I. J. M. De Boer, E. N. Raidimi

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Three tier land reform programme (land restitution, land redistribution and land tenure reform) had been implemented for the past two decades in South Africa with an aim of redressing the unjust land ownership patterns of the past. Land restitution and redistribution seeked to make land available for beneficiaries’ ownership based on policy guidelines. Attention given to the two sub-programmes was mostly land reform focused with the quantity of land that exchanged ownership being used as a measure of success with disregard for how the land is used by the beneficiaries for their livelihoods. In few cases that the land use assessment was done for the two sub-programmes it was assessed on a case basis or few selected cases. The current study intended to shed light on a broader scope. This study investigated the extent to which land reform farms were used and contribution made by farms to the livelihoods of active beneficiaries. Seventy six farms that represented restitution (16 farms) and redistribution (60) programmes were selected for land use investigation. Land use data were collected from farm representatives by means of semi-structured questionnaire. A stratified sample of 87 households (38 for restitution and 49 for redistribution) were selected for livelihood investigations. Data on income generating activities and passive income sources were collected from household heads using semi-structured questionnaire. Additional data were collected through focus group discussions and from stakeholders through key-informants interviews. Livestock production used more land per farm on average (45%) in relation to the amount of average total land used per farm of 77% under land redistribution programme. Land restitution transformed crop farms into mixed farming and unused farms to be under use while land redistribution converted conservation land into agricultural land and also unused farms to be used. Livestock production contributed on average 25% to the livelihoods of 48% of the households whereas crop production contributed 31% on average to the livelihoods of 67% of the households. Government grants had the highest contribution of 54% on average and contributed to most households (72%). Agriculture was the sole source of livelihoods to only three per cent of the households. Most households (40%) had a mix of three livelihoods sources as their livelihood strategy. It could be concluded that the use of reformed land would be mainly influenced by the agro-ecological conditions of the area and agriculture could not be the main source of livelihoods for households that benefited from land reform. Land reform policies which accommodate diverse livelihoods activities could contribute to sustainable livelihoods.

Keywords: active beneficiaries, households, land reform, land use, livelihoods

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Authors: Gilbert Makanda, Roelf Sypkens

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A mathematical model for knowledge acquisition in teaching and learning is proposed. In this study we adopt the mathematical model that is normally used for disease modelling into teaching and learning. We derive mathematical conditions which facilitate knowledge acquisition. This study compares the effects of dropping out of the course at early stages with later stages of learning. The study also investigates effect of individual interaction and learning from other sources to facilitate learning. The study fits actual data to a general mathematical model using Matlab ODE45 and lsqnonlin to obtain a unique mathematical model that can be used to predict knowledge acquisition. The data used in this study was obtained from the tutorial test results for mathematics 2 students from the Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa in the department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The study confirms already known results that increasing dropout rates and forgetting taught concepts reduce the population of knowledgeable students. Increasing teaching contacts and access to other learning materials facilitate knowledge acquisition. The effect of increasing dropout rates is more enhanced in the later stages of learning than earlier stages. The study opens up a new direction in further investigations in teaching and learning using differential equations.

Keywords: differential equations, knowledge acquisition, least squares nonlinear, dynamical systems

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Authors: Lei Zhang

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The carbon cycle greatly influences global change, and the land cover changes contribute to the status and rate of the carbon budget in ecosystems. This paper proposes a land cover classification system for mapping land cover, the national ecological environment assessment, and estimating carbon storage in ecosystems. The classification system consists of basic land cover classes at levels Ⅰ and Ⅱ and auxiliary features at level III. The basic 38 classes characterizing land cover features are derived from 19 criteria referring to composition, structure, pattern, phenology, etc. The basic classes reflect the status of carbon storage in ecosystems. The auxiliary classes at level III complement the attributes of higher levels by 9 criteria. The 5 environmental criteria of temperature, moisture, landform, aspect and slope mainly reflect the potential and intensity of carbon storage in ecosystems. The disturbance of vegetation succession caused by land use type influences the vegetation carbon budget. The other 3 vegetation cover criteria, growth period, and species characteristics further refine the vegetation types. The hierarchical structure of the land cover map (the classes of levels Ⅰ and Ⅱ) is independent of the products of level III, which is helpful for land cover product management and applications. The classification system has been adopted in the Chinese national land cover database for the carbon budget in ecosystems at a 30 m scale.

Keywords: classification system, land cover, ecosystem, carbon storage, object based

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Authors: Ishiyaku Abdulkadir, Satish Kumar J

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Land Productivity is a measure of the greenness of above-ground biomass in health and potential gain and is not related to agricultural productivity. Monitoring land productivity dynamics is essential to identify, especially when and where the trend is characterized degraded for mitigation measures. This research aims to monitor the land productivity trend of Gombe State between 2001 and 2015. QGIS was used to compute NDVI from AVHRR/MODIS datasets in a cloud-based method. The result appears that land area with improving productivity account for 773sq.km with 4.31%, stable productivity traced to 4,195.6 sq.km with 23.40%, stable but stressed productivity represent 18.7sq.km account for 0.10%, early sign of decline productivity occupied 5203.1sq.km with 29%, declining productivity account for 7019.7sq.km, represent 39.2%, water bodies occupied 718.7sq.km traced to 4% of the state’s area.

Keywords: above-ground biomass, dynamics, land productivity, man-environment relationship

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Authors: Fatima Muhammad Shitu

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This study seeks to investigate the effect of the keyword strategy on lexico–semantic acquisition, recognition, retention and comprehension in an ESL context. The aim of the study is to determine whether the keyword strategy can be used to enhance acquisition. As a quasi- experimental research, the objectives of the study include: To determine the extent to which the scores obtained by the subjects, who were trained on the use of the keyword strategy for acquisition, differ at the pre-tests and the post–tests and also to find out the relationship in the scores obtained at these tests levels. The sample for the study consists of 300 hundred undergraduate ESL Students in the Federal College of Education, Kano. The seventy-five lexical items for acquisition belong to the lexical field category known as register, and they include Medical, Agriculture and Photography registers (MAP). These were divided in the ratio twenty-five (25) lexical items in each lexical field. The testing technique was used to collect the data while the descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. For the purpose of testing, the two kinds of tests administered at each test level include the WARRT (Word Acquisition, Recognition, and Retention Test) and the CCPT (Cloze Comprehension Passage Test). The results of the study revealed that there are significant differences in the scores obtained between the pre-tests, and the post–tests and there are no correlations in the scores obtained as well. This implies that the keyword strategy has effectively enhanced the acquisition of the lexical items studied.

Keywords: keyword, lexical, semantics, strategy

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Authors: Thanutch Sukwimolseree, Preeyaphorn Kosa

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Many problems are occurred in watershed due to human activity and economic development. The purpose is to determine the effects of the land use change on surface runoff using land use map on 1980, 2001 and 2008 and daily weather data during January 1, 1979 to September 30, 2010 applied to SWAT. The results can be presented that the polynomial equation is suitable to display that relationship. These equations for land use in 1980, 2001 and 2008 are consisted of y = -0.0076x5 + 0.1914x4–1.6386x3 + 6.6324x2–8.736x + 7.8023(R2 = 0.9255), y = -0.0298x5 + 0.8794x4 - 9.8056x3 + 51.99x2 - 117.04x + 96.797; (R2 = 0.9186) and y = -0.0277x5 + 0.8132x4 - 8.9598x3 + 46.498x2–101.83x +81.108 (R2 = 0.9006), respectively. Moreover, if the agricultural area is the largest area, it is a sensitive parameter to concern surface runoff.

Keywords: land use, runoff, SWAT, upper Mun River basin

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Authors: Isa Muhammad Zumo, Musa Lawan

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This study analyzes the land use/land cover changes in Damaturu metropolis from 1986 to 2005. LandSat TM Images of 1986, 1999, and 2005 were used. Built-up lands, agric lands, water body and other lands were created as themes within ILWIS 3.4 software. The images were displayed in False Colour Composite (FCC) for a better visualization and identification of the themes created. Training sample sets were collected based on the ground truth data during field the checks. Statistical data were then extracted from the classified sample set. Area in hectares for each theme was calculated for each year and the result for each land use/land cover types for each study year was compared. From the result, it was found out that built-up areas have a considerable increase from 37.71 hectares in 1986 to 1062.72 hectares in 2005. It has an annual increase rate of approximately 0.34%. The results also reveal that there is a decrease of 5829.66 hectares of other lands (vacant lands) from 1986 to 2005.

Keywords: land use, changes, analysis, environmental pollution

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Authors: Yusuf Jundi Sado

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Changes in land use are mostly credited to human actions that result in negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functions. This study aims to analyze the dynamics of land use and land cover changes for sustainable natural resources planning and management. Chilalo-Galama Mountain Range, Ethiopia. This study used Thematic Mapper 05 (TM) for 1986, 2001 and Landsat 8 (OLI) data 2017. Additionally, data from the Central Statistics Agency on human population growth were analyzed. Semi-Automatic classification plugin (SCP) in QGIS 3.2.3 software was used for image classification. Global positioning system, field observations and focus group discussions were used for ground verification. Land Use Land Cover (LU/LC) change analysis was using maximum likelihood supervised classification and changes were calculated for the 1986–2001 and the 2001–2017 and 1986-2017 periods. The results show that agricultural land increased from 27.85% (1986) to 44.43% and 51.32% in 2001 and 2017, respectively with the overall accuracies of 92% (1986), 90.36% (2001), and 88% (2017). On the other hand, forests decreased from 8.51% (1986) to 7.64 (2001) and 4.46% (2017), and grassland decreased from 37.47% (1986) to 15.22%, and 15.01% in 2001 and 2017, respectively. It indicates for the years 1986–2017 the largest area cover gain of agricultural land was obtained from grassland. The matrix also shows that shrubland gained land from agricultural land, afro-alpine, and forest land. Population dynamics is found to be one of the major driving forces for the LU/LU changes in the study area.

Keywords: Landsat, LU/LC change, Semi-Automatic classification plugin, population dynamics, Ethiopia

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Authors: Shiliang Wu, Huanxin Zhang

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Mercury has been well-known for its negative effects on wildlife, public health as well as the ecosystem. Once emitted into atmosphere, mercury can be transformed into different forms or enter the ecosystem through dry deposition or wet deposition. Some fraction of the mercury will be reemitted back into the atmosphere and be subject to the same cycle. In addition, the relatively long lifetime of elemental mercury in the atmosphere enables it to be transported long distances from source regions to receptor regions. Global change such as climate change and land use/land cover change impose significant challenges for mercury pollution control besides the efforts to regulate mercury anthropogenic emissions. In this study, we use a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) to examine the potential impacts from changes in climate and land use/land cover on the global budget of mercury as well as its atmospheric transport, chemical transformation, and deposition. We carry out a suite of sensitivity model simulations to separate the impacts on atmospheric mercury associated with changes in climate and land use/land cover. Both climate change and land use/land cover change are found to have significant impacts on global mercury budget but through different pathways. Land use/land cover change primarily increase mercury dry deposition in northern mid-latitudes over continental regions and central Africa. Climate change enhances the mobilization of mercury from soil and ocean reservoir to the atmosphere. Also, dry deposition is enhanced over most continental areas while a change in future precipitation dominates the change in mercury wet deposition. We find that 2000-2050 climate change could increase the global atmospheric burden of mercury by 5% and mercury deposition by up to 40% in some regions. Changes in land use and land cover also increase mercury deposition over some continental regions, by up to 40%. The change in the lifetime of atmospheric mercury has important implications for long-range transport of mercury. Our case study shows that changes in climate and land use and cover could significantly affect the source-receptor relationships for mercury.

Keywords: mercury, toxic pollutant, atmospheric transport, deposition, climate change

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Authors: S. Ngcinela, A. Mushunje, A. Taruvinga, C. S. Mutengwa, T. S. Masehela

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There is high demand and competing needs when it comes to land use practices. Several factors contribute to this trend, for example, the ever-increasing human population, the need to produce more food than before, and the expansion of industrial and agricultural areas. This paper, focused on the cultivation patterns, land use change over time, of maize and soybean (i.e. both genetically modified and non-genetically modified) in two South African provinces to establish their land cover changes over time. From a global context, genetically modified crops have been advocated by some to be saving land – due to more yield over small cultivation area(s); while other argue and even criticise their cultivation as they take up more land, replace other crops or are the expense of natural (pristine) vegetation. The study quantified and mapped land used for the cultivation of maize and soybean from 2006 to 2017 in Free State and North West provinces, using ArcGIS. The results show both provinces to have minimal expansion or change in cultivation area for both maize and soybean between 2006 and 2017. The results further indicate that both maize and soybean cultivation areas in these provinces, did not expand beyond the current agricultural areas (space), and did not encroach onto new land areas. This suggests that both maize and soybean, do not currently pose a threat to the surrounding landscape and are not in direct coemption with other neighboring land use practices.

Keywords: agriculture, crops, cultivation, genetically modified, land use, maize, soybean

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Authors: Lianzhong Zhang, Chao Huang

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Sea-land segmentation is a basic step in many tasks such as sea surface monitoring and ship detection. The existing sea-land segmentation algorithms have poor segmentation accuracy, and the parameter adjustments are cumbersome and difficult to meet actual needs. Also, the current sea-land segmentation adopts traditional deep learning models that use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). At present, the transformer architecture has achieved great success in the field of natural images, but its application in the field of radar images is less studied. Therefore, this paper proposes a sea-land segmentation method based on the transformer architecture to strengthen edge supervision. It uses a self-attention mechanism with a gating strategy to better learn relative position bias. Meanwhile, an additional edge supervision branch is introduced. The decoder stage allows the feature information of the two branches to interact, thereby improving the edge precision of the sea-land segmentation. Based on the Gaofen-3 satellite image dataset, the experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively improve the accuracy of sea-land segmentation, especially the accuracy of sea-land edges. The mean IoU (Intersection over Union), edge precision, overall precision, and F1 scores respectively reach 96.36%, 84.54%, 99.74%, and 98.05%, which are superior to those of the mainstream segmentation models and have high practical application values.

Keywords: SAR, sea-land segmentation, deep learning, transformer

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Authors: Yudo Prasetyo, Hana Sugiastu Firdaus, Diyanah Diyanah

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The phenomenon of the lack of clean water supply in several big cities in Indonesia is a major problem in the development of urban areas. Moreover, in the city of Semarang, the population density and growth of physical development is very high. Continuous and large amounts of underground water (aquifer) exposure can result in a drastically aquifer supply declining in year by year. Especially, the intensity of aquifer use in the fulfilment of household needs and industrial activities. This is worsening by the land subsidence phenomenon in some areas in the Semarang city. Therefore, special research is needed to know the spatial correlation of the impact of decreasing aquifer capacity on the land subsidence phenomenon. This is necessary to give approve that the occurrence of land subsidence can be caused by loss of balance of pressure on below the land surface. One method to observe the correlation pattern between the two phenomena is the application of remote sensing technology based on radar and optical satellites. Implementation of Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DINSAR) or Small Baseline Area Subset (SBAS) method in SENTINEL-1A satellite image acquisition in 2014-2017 period will give a proper pattern of land subsidence. These results will be spatially correlated with the aquifer-declining pattern in the same time period. Utilization of survey results to 8 monitoring wells with depth in above 100 m to observe the multi-temporal pattern of aquifer change capacity. In addition, the pattern of aquifer capacity will be validated with 2 underground water cavity maps from observation of ministries of energy and natural resources (ESDM) in Semarang city. Spatial correlation studies will be conducted on the pattern of land subsidence and aquifer capacity using overlapping and statistical methods. The results of this correlation will show how big the correlation of decrease in underground water capacity in influencing the distribution and intensity of land subsidence in Semarang city. In addition, the results of this study will also be analyzed based on geological aspects related to hydrogeological parameters, soil types, aquifer species and geological structures. The results of this study will be a correlation map of the aquifer capacity on the decrease in the face of the land in the city of Semarang within the period 2014-2017. So hopefully the results can help the authorities in spatial planning and the city of Semarang in the future.

Keywords: aquifer, differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DINSAR), land subsidence, small baseline area subset (SBAS)

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Authors: Naser Ahmadi Sani, Karim Solaimani, Lida Razaghnia, Jalal Zandi

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In recent decades, rapid and incorrect changes in land-use have been associated with consequences such as natural resources degradation and environmental pollution. Detecting changes in land-use is one of the tools for natural resource management and assessment of changes in ecosystems. The target of this research is studying the land-use changes in Haraz basin with an area of 677000 hectares in a 15 years period (1996 to 2011) using LANDSAT data. Therefore, the quality of the images was first evaluated. Various enhancement methods for creating synthetic bonds were used in the analysis. Separate training sites were selected for each image. Then the images of each period were classified in 9 classes using supervised classification method and the maximum likelihood algorithm. Finally, the changes were extracted in GIS environment. The results showed that these changes are an alarm for the HARAZ basin status in future. The reason is that 27% of the area has been changed, which is related to changing the range lands to bare land and dry farming and also changing the dense forest to sparse forest, horticulture, farming land and residential area.

Keywords: Haraz basin, change detection, land-use, satellite data

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Authors: Mpaphi Major

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Soil erosion is becoming an important aspect of land degradation. Therefore it is of great consideration to note any factor that may escalate the rate of soil erosion in our arable land. There exist 3 main driving forces in soil erosion which are rainfall, wind and land use of which in this project only rainfall and land use will be looked at. With the increase in world population at an alarming rate, the demand for food production is expected to increase which will in turn lead to more land being converted from forests to agricultural use of which very few of it are now fertile. In our country Botswana, the rate of crop production is decreasing due to the wearing away of the fertile top soil and poor arable land management. As a result, some studies on the rate of soil loss and farm management practices should be conducted so that best soil and water conservation practices should be employed and hence reduce the risk of soil loss and increase the rate of crop production and yield. The Soil loss estimation model for Southern Africa (SLEMSA) will be used to estimate the rate of soil loss in some selected arable farms within the Palapye watershed and some field observations will be made to determine the management practices used and their impact on the arable land. Upon observations it have been found that many arable fields have been exposed to soil erosion, of which the affected parts are no longer suitable for any crop production unless the land areas are modified. Improper land practices such as ploughing along the slope and land cultivation practices were observed. As a result farmers need to be educated on best conservation practices that can be used to manage their arable land hence reduced risk of soil erosion and improved crop production.

Keywords: soil and water conservation, soil erosion, SLEMSA, land degradation

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Authors: Charles Kwaku Oppong

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This study examined the effects of the agricultural land grabbed for the Bui Dam project on the livelihoods assets of the affected people and its implication on food production. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through the use of focus group discussions, questionnaire administration, interview guide, and observations. It was found that the land grabbing incident in the study communities as a result of the Bui Dam construction has resulted in the improvements in the physical assets of the affected people. The findings also indicated that local food crop production and the quantity of fish catch have dwindled after the land grabs. Contrary to this, the local people’s access to the natural capital, particularly the local land for agricultural activities has been worsened. The study recommends alternative sustainable livelihood for the affected people by the local government.

Keywords: land grabbing, livelihood, asset, food production

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Authors: Olaje Monday Olaje

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Science and technology has been prove to be the back bone for economic development of any country, and for Nigeria, it has more critical role to play. This paper examines the importance of science and technology education for national development and self dependence for Nigerian citizens. A historical overview of the interconnectivity of science and technology and self dependence is heighted. The current situation and challenges facing science and technology education are also highlighted to bring out the theoretical importance of science and technology education for self dependence which actually has not been practically achieved. Recommendations are also made at the of the study so as to skill acquisition through science and technology for self dependence.

Keywords: acquisition, education, self-dependence, science, technology

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Authors: Yong Li

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Major cities in China has experienced a shift from production based on manufacturing industry to tertiary industry. How to make a better use of existing obsolete industrial land within urban cores has become a difficult problem for many policymakers. City governments regard old manufacturing industrial land as an important source of land to facilitate the development of the cities. Despite the announcement of policies in promoting that, a large portion of industrial land is still not properly redeveloped and most of them became obsolete. The study uses the project of Xinyi International Club as a case to examine the process of adaptive reuse of obsolete industrial space in Guangzhou, China. It attempts to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by identifying the key forces from both the government and the private sectors in influencing the process. The study found that market forces in transforming industrial space are exerting a strong impact on the existing land use planning system in Chinese cities. Pragmatic relaxation of the formal land use the regulatory framework and government supportive land-use intervention have also been crucial towards achieving successful implementation of the restructuring project and making it a showcase. This study questions whether these extraordinary measures, in particular, the use of temporary land use permit, are sustainable in facilitating the transformation of derelict industrial land, and in informing future industrial land-use restructuring policies. It concludes that, while the land use regulatory system in China is becoming increasingly dynamic and flexible, it remains ill-equipped in responding positively to the market, which is characterized by an increasing bargaining power of the private sector. A comprehensive appraisal of the overall impacts of these adaptive re-uses on society is wanting.

Keywords: China, land alteration, obsolete industrial properties, urban planning

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Authors: Nien-Ming Hong, Kuei-Fang Huang

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Climate change is an important issue in future, which seriously affects water resources for a long term planning and management. Flood assessment is highly related with climate and land use. Increasing rainfall and urbanization will induce the inundated area in future. For adapting the impacts of climate change, a land use planning is a good strategy for reducing flood damage. The study is to build a trade-off process with different land use types. The Ta-Liao watershed is the study area with three types of land uses that are build-up, farm and forest. The build-up area is concentrated in the downstream of the watershed. Different rainfall amounts are applied for assessing the land use in 1996, 2005 and 2013. The adapted strategies are based on retarding the development of urban and a trade-off process. When a land changes from farm area to built-up area in downstream, this study is to search for a farm area and change it to forest/grass area or building a retention area in the upstream. For assessing the effects of the strategy, the inundation area is simulated by the Flo-2D model with different rainfall conditions and land uses. The results show inundation maps of several cases with land use change planning. The results also show the trade-off strategies and retention areas can decrease the inundated area and divide the inundated area, which are better than retarding urban development. The land use change is usually non-reverse and the planning should be constructed before the climate change.

Keywords: climate change, land use change, flood risk assessment, land use planning

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Authors: Ibrahim Abubakar Mikugi

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Nigerian graduates could only be self-employed and marketable if they acquire relevant skills and knowledge for successful establishment in various occupation and gainful employment. Research has shown that entrepreneurship education will be successful through developing individual entrepreneurial attitudes, raising awareness of career options by integrating and inculcating a positive attitude in the mind of students through skill acquisition. This paper examined the student- led entrepreneurship education through skill acquisition with specific emphasis on analysis of David Kolb experiential learning cycle. This Model allows individual to review their experience through reflection and converting ideas into action by doing. The methodology used was theoretical approach through journal, internet and Textbooks. Challenges to entrepreneurship education through skill acquisition were outlined. The paper concludes that entrepreneurship education is recognised by both policy makers and academics; entrepreneurship is more than mere encouraging business start-ups. Recommendations were given which include the need for authorities to have a clear vision towards entrepreneurship education and skill acquisition. Authorities should also emphasise a periodic and appropriate evaluation of entrepreneurship and to also integrate into schools academic curriculum to encourage practical learning by doing.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, active learning, Cefe methodology

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Authors: Thanh Noi Phan, Martin Kappas, Jan Degener

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The currently launched Sentinel 2 (S2) satellite (June, 2015) bring a great potential and opportunities for land use/cover map applications, due to its fine spatial resolution multispectral as well as high temporal resolutions. So far, there are handful studies using S2 real data for land cover classification. Especially in northern Vietnam, to our best knowledge, there exist no studies using S2 data for land cover map application. The aim of this study is to provide the preliminary result of land cover classification using Sentinel -2 data with a rising state – of – art classifier, Random Forest. A case study with heterogeneous land use/cover in the eastern of Hanoi Capital – Vietnam was chosen for this study. All 10 spectral bands of 10 and 20 m pixel size of S2 images were used, the 10 m bands were resampled to 20 m. Among several classified algorithms, supervised Random Forest classifier (RF) was applied because it was reported as one of the most accuracy methods of satellite image classification. The results showed that the red-edge and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands play an important role in land cover classified results. A very high overall accuracy above 90% of classification results was achieved.

Keywords: classify algorithm, classification, land cover, random forest, sentinel 2, Vietnam

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Authors: Shiliang Wu, Huanxin Zhang, Aditya Kumar

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There have been increasing concerns on atmospheric mercury as a toxic and bioaccumulative pollutant in the global environment. Global change, including changes in climate change, land use, land cover and wildfires activities can all have significant impacts on atmospheric mercury. In this study, we use a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) to examine the potential impacts from global change on atmospheric mercury. All of these factors in the context of global change are found to have significant impacts on the long-term evolution of atmospheric mercury and can substantially alter the global source-receptor relationships for mercury. We also estimate the global Hg emissions from wildfires for present-day and the potential impacts from the 2000-2050 changes in climate, land use and land cover and Hg anthropogenic emissions by combining statistical analysis with global data on vegetation type and coverage as well as fire activities. Present global Hg wildfire emissions are estimated to be 612 Mg year-1. Africa is the dominant source region (43.8% of global emissions), followed by Eurasia (31%) and South America (16.6%). We find significant perturbations to wildfire emissions of Hg in the context of global change, driven by the projected changes in climate, land use and land cover and Hg anthropogenic emissions. 2000-2050 climate change could increase Hg emissions by 14% globally. Projected changes in land use by 2050 could decrease the global Hg emissions from wildfires by 13% mainly driven by a decline in African emissions due to significant agricultural land expansion. Future land cover changes could lead to significant increases in Hg emissions over some regions (+32% North America, +14% Africa, +13% Eurasia). Potential enrichment of terrestrial ecosystems in 2050 in response to changes in Hg anthropogenic emissions could increase Hg wildfire emissions both globally (+28%) and regionally. Our results indicate that the future evolution of climate, land use and land cover and Hg anthropogenic emissions are all important factors affecting Hg wildfire emissions in the coming decades.

Keywords: climate change, land use, land cover, wildfires

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Authors: Yen-Jong Chen, Jei-An Su

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Public use facilities provide the basic infrastructure supporting the needs of urban sustainable development. These facilities include roads (streets), parking areas, green spaces, public schools, and city parks. However, how to acquire land with the proper location and size still remains uncertain in a capitalist economy where land is largely privately owned, such as in cities in Taiwan. The issue concerning the proper acquisition of reserved land for local public facilities (RLPF) policies has been continuously debated by the Taiwanese government for more than 30 years. Lately, the government has been re-evaluating projects connected with existing RLPF policies from the viewpoints of the needs of local residents, including the living environments of older adults. This challenging task includes addressing the requests of official bureau administrators, citizens whose property rights and current use status are affected, and other stakeholders, along with the means of development. To simplify the decision to acquire or release public land, we selected only public facilities that are needed for living in the local community, including parks, green spaces, plaza squares, and land for kindergartens, schools, and local stadiums. This study categorized these spaces as the community’s “leisure public facilities” (LPF). By constructing an accessibility index of the services of such multi-function facilities, we computed and produced a GIS map of spatial buffer zones for each LPF. Through these procedures, the service needs provided by each LPF were clearly identified. We then used spatial buffer zone envelope mapping to evaluate these service areas. The results obtained can help decide which RLPF should be acquired or released so that community services can be maximized under a limited budget.

Keywords: urban public facilities, community demand, accessibility, spatial buffer zone, Taiwan

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Authors: Akachi Odoemene

Abstract:

Climate change and land grabbing are tightly interconnected in ways that are both diverse and complex. They have impacted each other in significant ways too. Both phenomena are not only a political reality, but have diverse dire implications, especially for food and livelihood security of vulnerable populations in developing economies. The critical nexus and interactions of climate change and land grabbing remain one of the challenges of sustainable development in modern times. The nuanced understanding of the nexus, importance and implications of climate change and land grabbing are the primary focus of this chapter. It begins with conceptual clarifications, particularly arguing that the absence of some important principles of engagement underline and define a land grab. It also analyses and notes a good number of contemporary land deals as 'one-sided', in which wealthy entities connive with local elites to exploit and disposes rural poor populations. The paper not only examines both global and local factors that drive land grabbing and, in some cases, their connections with the incidence of climate change, but also explores their crucial links with such sector as agriculture. It is argued and exhibited in the paper why certain societies are susceptible to the incidence of climate change and land grabbing, while the overall consequences of these phenomena on the affected societies are further interrogated. The paper concludes that the lack of political will by global political leaders to effectively combat and resolve critical issues associated with both climate change and land grabbing remains a daunting challenge. It notes that these phenomena – climate change and land grabbing – if not abated, will certainly become another set of global tragic episodes to be regretted in the future.

Keywords: climate change, land grabbing, global governance, developing economies

Procedia PDF Downloads 292