Framework for understanding land usecover situations
- 1. An Assignment on Framework for understanding land-use/cover situations Course Title: Natural Resources Management Course Code: DS 3103 SUBMITTED TO: Md. Ashikuzzaman Lecturer Development Studies Discipline Khulna University SUBMITTED BY: Md. Ayatullah Khan Student ID: 152119 3rd Year; 1st Term Development Studies Discipline Khulna University Date of Submission: October 17, 2017
- 2. Discussion on Framework for understanding land-use/cover situations Land cover is the biophysical state of the earth’s surface and immediate subsurface. In other words, land cover is meant the physical, chemical, or biological categorization of the terrestrial surface, such as- grassland, forest, or concrete. On the other hand land use refers to the human purposes that are associated with that cover, such as- raising cattle, recreation, or urban living. The framework for understanding land-use/cover situations shows an example of an arrow model. It illustrates land cover changes as a system that must be seen as involving the interaction of humanity and the environment or as a socio-ecological system. It makes clear that there is a strong need to consider both social and biophysical factors. The framework shows the central role of land managers and emphasizes the importance of feedback. The land managers mainly focused on three important factors, such as- society, economy and environment. It shows that everything is connected and influenced by each other. All the arrows are double headed or involve feedback. The final output of the framework is shown as land cover.
- 3. Land use relates with land cover in various ways and affects it with various implications. A single land use may correspond fairly well to a single land cover. On the other hand, a single class of cover may support multiple uses (forest used for combinations of timbering, hunting/gathering, fuel wood collection, recreation, wildlife preserve, watershed and soil protection), and a single system of use may involve the maintenance of several distinct covers (as certain farming systems combine cultivate land). The model represents the basic circumstances, processes and progression of land-cover changes and provides a breakdown of the drivers determining land cover into social, direct and biophysical sources. In this model, land-cover stands in a systematic relationship to land use and the causes of its utilization. The bio-physical drivers include the different characteristics and processes of the natural environment, for example- weather and climate variations, landform, geomorphic processes, volcanic eruptions, plant succession, soil types and processes, drainage patterns and availability of natural resources. The socio-economic drivers comprise with the demographic, social, economic, political and institutional factors It is the processes which include population and population change, industrial structure and change, technology and technological change, the market, various public sector bodies and the related policies and rules, values, community organization and norms, property regime. The relationship between bio-physical and socio- economic drivers and other components of the land use-cover system are sketched in the framework for understanding land-use/cover situations. It describes that the bio-physical drivers usually do not cause land use change directly. Mostly, they are the causes of land-cover change which may influence the land use decisions of land owners/managers (e.g. no farming on marginal lands). The role of biophysical drivers in affecting land cover change is intermediated by socio-economic drivers, mainly through influencing the response of land owners/managers land-cover change. Land use changes may result in land cover changes which may feedback on land use decisions. The impacts of land use change are broadly categorized into environmental and socio-economic aspects. The environmental and the socio-economic impacts are closely interrelated to each other which then feedback to potentially causing successive rounds of land use change. The impacts of land use change are usually distinguished according to the spatial level where they manifest themselves into global, regional and local impacts. The terms global, regional and local do not have a precise physical meaning in studies of land use change which is especially regards as the regional and local levels. Land use-cover change impacts are the basic to another class of environmental changes which can be regarded as global in reach. Societal driving forces determine which needs have to be satisfied the various land-uses. The manipulation applies either to the change or the retention of the existing land cover. The ecologic consequences of the use of land covers impact the original driving forces by their effect on the environment. The changes in land cover can also reproduce themselves at other places which affects the local physical systems.
- 4. Technological factors condition land-use decisions by influencing the profits accruing to land managers. The availability of new technologies can be applied to land affect significantly the productivity of labor and capital employed. The rate of adoption of available technologies by land managers influences the potential for land use changes of some kind. In a broader sense, knowledge resources that land managers possess or are able to obtain (e.g., technical assistance) largely affect land-use decisions. Although land managers may make direct decisions on biophysical and socio-economic factors operating on higher, aggregate, spatial and organizational levels, it exert a significant influence on both local land-use change and the patterns of changes observed on regional and higher levels. References: Turner, B. L., Meyer, W. B., & Skole, D. L. (1995). Global land-use/land-cover change: towards an integrated study. Ambio. Stockholm. Allen Press on behalf of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Briassoulis, H. (2009). Factors influencing land-use and land-cover change. Land cover, land use and the global change, encyclopaedia of life support systems (EOLSS), 1, 126-146. Lambin, E. F., & Geist, H. J. (Eds.). (2008). Land-use and land-cover change: local processes and global impacts. Springer Science & Business Media. Alexa L., Brillinger M., & Steffen P. (2014). Global Land-Use Analysis - Ecologic Institute. Institute for Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry & Federal Environmental Agency.