Advancing Land Change Modeling

Advancing Land Change Modeling PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309288363
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how land is used by people (land use) and in the vegetation, rock, buildings, and other physical material that cover the Earth's surface (land cover) can be described and future land change can be projected using land-change models (LCMs). LCMs are a key means for understanding how humans are reshaping the Earth's surface in the past and present, for forecasting future landscape conditions, and for developing policies to manage our use of resources and the environment at scales ranging from an individual parcel of land in a city to vast expanses of forests around the world. Advancing Land Change Modeling: Opportunities and Research Requirements describes various LCM approaches, suggests guidance for their appropriate application, and makes recommendations to improve the integration of observation strategies into the models. This report provides a summary and evaluation of several modeling approaches, and their theoretical and empirical underpinnings, relative to complex land-change dynamics and processes, and identifies several opportunities for further advancing the science, data, and cyberinfrastructure involved in the LCM enterprise. Because of the numerous models available, the report focuses on describing the categories of approaches used along with selected examples, rather than providing a review of specific models. Additionally, because all modeling approaches have relative strengths and weaknesses, the report compares these relative to different purposes. Advancing Land Change Modeling's recommendations for assessment of future data and research needs will enable model outputs to better assist the science, policy, and decisionsupport communities.

Advancing Land Change Modeling

Advancing Land Change Modeling PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309288363
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how land is used by people (land use) and in the vegetation, rock, buildings, and other physical material that cover the Earth's surface (land cover) can be described and future land change can be projected using land-change models (LCMs). LCMs are a key means for understanding how humans are reshaping the Earth's surface in the past and present, for forecasting future landscape conditions, and for developing policies to manage our use of resources and the environment at scales ranging from an individual parcel of land in a city to vast expanses of forests around the world. Advancing Land Change Modeling: Opportunities and Research Requirements describes various LCM approaches, suggests guidance for their appropriate application, and makes recommendations to improve the integration of observation strategies into the models. This report provides a summary and evaluation of several modeling approaches, and their theoretical and empirical underpinnings, relative to complex land-change dynamics and processes, and identifies several opportunities for further advancing the science, data, and cyberinfrastructure involved in the LCM enterprise. Because of the numerous models available, the report focuses on describing the categories of approaches used along with selected examples, rather than providing a review of specific models. Additionally, because all modeling approaches have relative strengths and weaknesses, the report compares these relative to different purposes. Advancing Land Change Modeling's recommendations for assessment of future data and research needs will enable model outputs to better assist the science, policy, and decisionsupport communities.

Systems Research for Optimizing Future Land Use in South and Southeast Asia

Systems Research for Optimizing Future Land Use in South and Southeast Asia PDF Author: Reimund P. Roetter
Publisher: Int. Rice Res. Inst.
ISBN: 9712201430
Category : Land use
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description


Making World Development Work

Making World Development Work PDF Author: Grégoire Leclerc
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826337337
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description
"The authors reexamine world development - usually the province of economists - as professionals trained in the natural sciences. They show how we have and might use tested scientific and technical procedures and concepts, as well as science itself, to achieve much better results than what has been characteristic of the past. Leclerc and Hall contend that to scholars with a scientific background, the process of development, and the economic logic behind it, often look almost surrealistic. The basic question at the foundation of this review is this: Why should something so important as world development, something capable of absorbing such vast sums of money and of human goodwill, something that impacts the people and the environment so much, continue to be organized and planned using economic techniques and theories that are both unconfirmed experimentally and proven to have led to development failures?"--BOOK JACKET.

Characterizing and Understanding Rainfed Environments

Characterizing and Understanding Rainfed Environments PDF Author: T. P. Tuong
Publisher: Int. Rice Res. Inst.
ISBN: 971220152X
Category : Rainfed lowland rice
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
Overview; Tools and methodologies for biophysical characterization; Biophysical characterization and mapping; Characterizing biotic stresses; Socioeconomic characterization; Integrating biophysical and socioeconomic characterization.

Economic Policy and Sustainable Land Use

Economic Policy and Sustainable Land Use PDF Author: Nico Heerink
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642575587
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Since the 1980s many developing countries have implemented macro-economic policy reforms to curb inflation, reduce fiscal deficits and control foreign debt. The policy instruments used, such as exchange rate adjustment, budget cuts, trade policy reforms, public expenditure reviews and privatisation, have different and sometimes opposite consequences for agricultural land use. During the same period awareness was growing that deteriorating soil quality could become a limiting factor to increase or even sustain agricultural production. As a result, food availability and even accessibility for large population groups in developing countries may be jeopardised in the near future. Recently, quantitative models have made useful contributions to understanding the impact of economic policy reforms on the sustainability of land use. They provide a consistent analytical framework to deal with complex issues such as the direct and indirect effects of economic, agricultural, environmental and population policies, the role of market imperfections in transmitting economic policy signals, and the interactions between soil quality, agricultural production and household economic decision making. Different types of models can be distinguished: bio economic models, focussing on the link between farm household decisions and the agricultural resource base, household and village models, examining the impact of the socio-economic environment on farm household decisions, and more aggregate models, analysing interactions between sectors and their implications for sustainable land use.

Land Use Analysis and Planning for Sustainable Food Security

Land Use Analysis and Planning for Sustainable Food Security PDF Author: P. K. Aggarwal
Publisher: IRRI
ISBN: 9712201686
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description


Linking People, Place, and Policy

Linking People, Place, and Policy PDF Author: Stephen J. Walsh
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461509858
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Linking People, Place, and Policy: A GIScience Approach describes a breadth of research associated with the study of human-environment interactions, with particular emphasis on land use and land cover dynamics. This book examines the social, biophysical, and geographical drivers of land use and land cover patterns and their dynamics, which are interpreted within a policy-relevant context. Concepts, tools, and techniques within Geographic Information Science serve as the unifying methodological framework in which landscapes in Thailand, Ecuador, Kenya, Cambodia, China, Brazil, Nepal, and the United States are examined through analyses conducted using quantitative, qualitative, and image-based techniques. Linking People, Place, and Policy: A GIScience Approach addresses a need for a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of GIScience for research and study within the context of human-environment interactions. The human dimensions research community, land use and land cover change programs, and human and landscape ecology communities, among others, are collectively viewing the landscape within a spatially-explicit perspective, where people are viewed as agents of landscape change that shape and are shaped by the landscape, and where landscape form and function are assessed within a space-time context. This book articulates some of these challenges and opportunities.

Tradeoffs Or Synergies?

Tradeoffs Or Synergies? PDF Author: David R. Lee
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 9780851997117
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
The need to increase food production, enhance economic growth and reduce poverty in an environmentally sustainable context is an issue of growing importance. This book addresses the linkages and tradeoffs involved in solving such key challenges.

Multicriteria Analysis for Land-Use Management

Multicriteria Analysis for Land-Use Management PDF Author: E. Beinat
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401590583
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The idea of this book started at approximately 33.000 feet, somewhere above the Alps. On our way to a workshop in Venice we had the opportunity of appreciating the different types of landscapes and the complex patchwork of urban areas, agriculture, forests, rivers and lakes that can be seen from an aircraft. The complexity of this puzzle, and the complex task of managing its evolution, became the topic of conversation for the rest of the flight. It also became the topic of this book. Land-use management and multicriteria analysis offer countless opportunities for mutual reinforcement. These two fields have developed largely independently, but a trend towards the exploration of their synergies is now emerging. This is clear from the recent literature on land-use management, spatial analysis and spatial planning, which increasingly includes references to multicriteria methodologies and decision analysis. At the same time, a growing share of multicriteria applications now focus on environmental and land-use issues. This book includes contributions from authors coming from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. All together they highlight current issues in multicriteria analysis and land-use management from theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives.

Environmental Futures

Environmental Futures PDF Author: J. Alcamo
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080932983
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
As scientists and policymakers try to come to grips with problems such as climate change and risks to biodiversity, they turn more and more frequently to the method of scenario analysis to better understand the future of these problems. Over the last few years scenario analysis has become one of the key tools for bridging environmental science and policy. This is the first book to sum up the current practice of environmental scenario analysis and to propose directions for improving its quality and effectiveness. Chapters are written by an international group of distinguished scenario experts and provide an excellent starting basis for first-time scenario practitioners, as well as a collection of new ideas on improving scenario practice for experienced scenario analysts.* Comprehensive coverage and overview on environmental scenario analysis from a team of international experts* First book to address key contemporary issues involved with environmental scenario analysis* Gives guidelines for best practicesBenefits:* Excellent starting base for first-time scenario practitioners* Helps the reader to interpret scenarios and to place them into the correct context