Spatial and resource potential of agricultural land use

Introduction. Issues related to increasing the sustainability of agricultural land in the Altai Krai are very relevant, modern and practically significant, since about 90 % of the territory is more or less subject to degradation processes. They reduce soil fertility and, as a result, the productivity of agricultural land, which is largely due to the landscape specificity of the territory. The solution to the problem is possible on the basis of adaptive landscape land management, which is the basis for organizing sustainable agricultural land use. When designing agricultural landscapes, on the one hand, we take into account and preserve the natural properties of the territory, and on the other hand, we limit the anthropogenic impact on it. By designing sustainable, capable of self-regulation and self-reproduction of agricultural landscapes, it is possible to optimize agricultural land use. The purpose of the study: to conduct an agro-ecological typology of agricultural lands (agro-landscapes) of the arid steppe of the Altai Krai to optimize the existing agricultural land use and increase its sustainability. Research methods. System analysis has become the main scientific method for analyzing the relationships and mutual influences within landscapes. When studying and comparing the physical and geographical characteristics of the territory, comparative geographical and ecological landscape methods were used using the cartographic method and GIS technologies. Research results. The allocation of agro-ecological groups of lands is based on the leading agro-ecological factors (moisture supply, erosion, waterlogging, periodic flooding, salinization, alkalinity), the degree of their manifestation and related limiting factors. As a zonal agro-ecological group, we identified upland lands, which occupy 22 % of the study area. Slope (or erosional) lands in the arid steppe occupy a significant proportion (59 % of the area) and are located on slopes with a steepness of up to 3°, in some places 5°. Taking into account the wide spatial development of deflation processes (44 % of the subzone area), the authors of the work singled out a special agroecological group of lands – deflationary lands in the composition of eroded lands. The deflationary lands were divided into three agro-ecological groups: weakly, medium and strongly deflated lands. Insignificant territories (less than 1% of the subzone area) are combined into a group of waterlogged lands, which differ in the degree of hydromorphism and have a common feature – ecological waterlogging, which makes it difficult or excludes the possibility of cultivating crops. The territories in the soil cover of which solonets occupy more than 10 % of the area are combined into a group of solonetz lands, which occupy slightly more than 4 % of the area of the zone. The group of solonetzic lands is divided into two parts – solonetzic-automorphic and solonetzic-hydromorphic. Also, a group of lands of the ravine-beam complex was identified, which are limited, since the depth of the dissection of the territory does not exceed 10 m, and the density is insignificant or weak (1-2,5 km and more than 2,5 km). In nine municipal districts that are part of the arid steppe, the identified types of land are found in different proportions. For the sustainable development of agricultural land use, its optimization is necessary, associated with a reduction in the area of agricultural land by 14,5 thousand hectares with fluctuations in districts from 0,7 (Suetsky district) to 2.3 thousand hectares (in Blagoveshchensky and Rubtsovsky districts) and an increase in the area of industrial land (by 12,4 thousand hectares) due to the allocation of protected zones along railways and roads, green protective zones around settlements, as well as shelterbelt forest belts. Conclusions 1. An agro-ecological typology of agricultural lands in the arid steppe of the Altai Krai was produced; 2. It has been established that the main limiting factors affecting the productivity of agricultural land are the degree of deflation, relief, the presence and density of hydrographic objects, the degree of waterlogging and salinity, which significantly affect landscapes under different management conditions; 3. For the municipal districts of the arid steppe, the change in the ratio of lands was calculated, taking into account limiting factors, as well as the stability of agricultural landscapes as a result of the transformation of the structure of sown areas, lands, and crop rotations; 4. The obtained research results can be used by regional and municipal authorities in long-term planning and management of land resources, their economic assessment, and collection of fiscal payments, as well as agricultural producers in the organization and optimization of agricultural landscapes.

The extent of anthropogenic land use in watersheds determines the amount of pollutants discharged to streams. This indirectly and directly affects stream water quality and biological health. Most studies have therefore focused on ways to reduce non-point pollution sources to streams from the surrounding land use in watersheds. However, the mechanistic pathways between land use and the deterioration of stream water quality and biological assemblages remain unclear. This study estimated a structural equation model (SEM) representing the impact of agricultural and urban land use on water quality and the benthic macroinvertebrate index (BMI) using IBM AMOS in the Nam-Han river systems, South Korea. The estimated SEM showed that the percent of urban and agricultural land in the watersheds significantly affected both the water quality and the BMI of the streams. Specifically, a higher percent of urban land use had directly increased the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total phosphorus (TP), and deteriorated the BMI of streams. Similarly, higher proportions of agricultural land use had also directly increased the BOD, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations, and lowered the BMI of streams. In addition, it was observed that the percent of urban and agricultural land use had indirectly deteriorated the BMI through increased BOD. However, we were not able to observe any significant indirect effect of the percent of urban and agricultural land use through increased nutrients including TN and TP. These results indicate that increased urban and agricultural land use in the watersheds had directly and indirectly affected the physicochemical characteristics and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in streams. Our findings emphasize the need to develop more elaborate environmental management and restoration strategies to improve the water quality and biological status of streams.

Because of the limited supply of land resource, it is unavoidable that farmland is being transferred to non-agricultural use in the course of economic development, but there is different basic nature between agricultural and nonagricultural land. It is well-known that recovery of land productivity may be difficult or impossible under improper conversion or application. In order to protect precious agricultural areas as well as the agricultural production environment, farmland resources should be balanced against the needs of all sectors in future, and land use should be comprehensively planned on the whole. Otherwise, the pollution problem will aggravate and agricultural productive environment will be destroyed.Accordingly, it is very important to use land resources reasonably, in order to meet the need for land of the whole nation's economic development, and to protect the precious farmland resources from irregularly scattering.Because of the scarcity of land resources, many countries strongly support the importance and protection of farmland though legislation. For example, in German ”Federal Territorial Order Law”, land suitable for agricultural production must not be considered for the use of other purposes except for very special need. Those farmland resources are well maintained and preserved in developed countries may be important experience worthy of learning for Taiwan.This paper intends to investigate rural land use planning and management in Taiwan from the aspects of land-use planning and control in Germany. Besides, the problems of agricultural land use in Taiwan will be expounded by current legal regulations so as to propose policy for sustainable development of land resources.

Integrated development in urban and rural areas has led to a new form of urban–rural interdependence, which promotes rural territorial functional evolution and land use changes. Rural land use transition, showing the synchronous development between cities and villages, is an important window through which to observe integrated development in urban and rural areas. We focus on uncovering the association between rural land use transition and urban–rural integration development (URID), put forward a dynamic relationship assumption between rural land use transformation and URID stages based on the transmission mechanism of urban–rural linkages, and undertake empirical analysis using the panel regression model with the data of county-level administrative units in Shandong Province, China. The results show that rural land use transition has maintained a close association with URID, and that the changes in cultivated land, forest land, and surface-water area are highly related to URID. There are different leading urban–rural linkages in rural areas around big-sized cities, mid-sized cities, and small-sized cities, which determine whether rural areas are in different URID stages of high, medium, or low levels. Further, rural areas can take different actions to promote URID at different stages through strengthening or introducing urban–rural linkages driven by economies of scale and deepening urbanization. This provides a reference for developing countries to formulate rural land use policies on achieving the goal of URID.

While urban land use planning receives much attention in land management in Bulgaria, agricultural land use planning has been significantly neglected. Today, more than ever, effective and efficient land use planning is needed to address the global and local challenges, such as protecting prime agricultural lands for food production, achieving sustainable productivity gains, improving water use efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, etc. The objective of the paper is to review the international experience in rural and agricultural land use planning and its theoretical foundations, to identify and analyze the gaps in Bulgarian legislation in this area, and to develop some scientific ideas for including agricultural land planning into Bulgarian Regulatory Framework and its further implementation in practice. The need for agricultural territory planning in Bulgaria is emphasized. Intra-zoning of agricultural land on a holistic basis is proposed as a useful planning method for balancing agricultural development with the environmental protection, while maintaining both land productivity and the quality of natural resources. Information from strategic planning documents and literature resources from the USA, Canada, Australia, European and other countries is presented and analyzed. Issues of building permits, land categorization systems and assessment of land suitability for growing agricultural crops are studied.

We analyse historical land use/land cover changes beginning from 1996 to 2013 and apply an agent-based model to simulate potential agricultural land use change scenarios in Uganda. The model incorporates farmers’ decision-making processes into biophysical and socioeconomic factors and uses these to analyse the effect of farmers’ decisions on agricultural land use changes. Geographic information system tools are employed to build spatial relations between farmers and land cover systems. Satellite images are used to represent the initial land cover conditions and serve as observed land cover datasets to calibrate the simulated results. Significant agricultural and grassland cover and urban land uses are experienced in 72 and 36% of the regions, respectively, while wetland land uses increased significantly in 82% of the regions. On the other hand, 91% of the regions experience reductions in forest cover except for Teso region which reports gains of 62% in forest cover. Acholi is the only region (extreme outlier) that reports dramatic gains in wetlands of over 880%. The results of the simulation model are promising, and the model was successful at representing historical and future scenarios of agricultural land use patterns at a national level.

The current state of arable land and land areas, which are a key factor in the system of agricultural production, requires forming special systematic approaches to organizing the monitoring of using land resources. Being an object of the government and economic regulation in the modern period, land for agricultural purposes involves using a set of tools for monitoring of land use providing the increase of efficiency of using the land resource, conservation and reproduction of soil fertility and environmental protection. The purpose of the study is to identify a complex system of assessing the use of agricultural land and substantiate the need for using digital analytical tools. The article studies the complexity of the problem of monitoring agricultural land. So, the author considers the set of quantitative and financial indicators participating in the formation of system of analyzing the use of land resources in agriculture on the example of the country as a whole, its separate subjects, in particular. The paper considers the main indicators characterizing efficiency of use of agricultural lands in the Rostov region, reveals their regional features. The conducted statistical and economic analysis allows to identify and justify the main factors affecting the profitability of agricultural land in specific regional conditions. The author substantiates the necessity of digitalization of the monitoring process of agricultural land.

Agricultural land use in Europe has changed considerably in the last decades. However, our understanding of agricultural land use changes, especially changes in land use intensity, is limited because the evidence is fragmented. This paper presents a systematic review of case study evidence on manifestations and underlying drivers for agricultural land use change in Europe. We analyzed 137 studies that together report on 76 cases of intensification and 143 cases of disintensification. Observed changes were manifested as expansion or contraction of agricultural land as well as in changes of land management intensity, landscape elements, agricultural land use activity, and specialization/diversification. Economic, technological, institutional and location factors were frequently identified as underlying drivers, while demographic drivers and sociocultural drivers were mentioned less often. In addition, we found that farmers were very important as moderators between underlying drivers and manifestations of agricultural land use change. Farmer decisions differed between different farmer types, and according to their characteristics and attitudes. We found major land use change trajectories in relation to globalization of agricultural markets, the transition from a rural to an urban society, and the shift to post-socialism in central and eastern Europe.

Since 2006, the interdisciplinary project “Leventina – Prehistoric Settlement Landscape”, funded by the Swiss National Foundation, is being conducted under the coordination of the Department of Pre- and Protohistory of the University of Zurich with researchers from further disciplines. The project investigates prehistoric settlement and economy in various altitudinal zones of the Alpine Ticino valley. One of the aims is to reconstruct the agricultural, pastoral and forestal land use in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and to evaluate the influencing factors on the spatial distribution of subsistence economy areas. A wide range of spatial and archaeological data as well as literature and field data describing properties in particular of the ancient economic plants was available for the purpose. Based on these data, a factor analysis and a subsequent prediction were conducted in order to evaluate the variables with a likely impact on agricultural land use at prehistoric times, and to detect potential agricultural land. Additionally, using predictive modeling, we aimed at extracting factors with impact on the spatial distribution of Bronze age settlement sites and generating a potential map of areas used for settlement. Furthermore, a cost path analysis was conducted to investigate different traffic routes across the main ridge of the Alps in terms of travel time.

This chapter examines the influence of agricultural land uses on the occurrence of landslides in the humid tropical environments of Kigezi highlands in South Western Uganda. Analysis of the agricultural land use practices is a prerequisite to understanding landscape fragility and community resilience to landslide hazards. An analysis of agricultural land use patterns was undertaken through interpretation of Sentinel 2A images for 2016. The imagery data was acquired from the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinels Scientific Data Hub. Field surveys and investigations were also carried out to establish and map the spatial distribution of landslide hazards. Six agricultural land use categories were identified, namely, annuals, perennials, grazing, fallow, wood lots and agroforestry. Considering the agricultural land use patterns, annual crops are the dominant agricultural land use type spanning 69% of the total area followed; by perennials (13%). Grazing land and fallows covered 11% and 5%, respectively. The study revealed that annual crop land is the most affected agricultural land use category. Out of the 65 landslide scars mapped, 31% occurred on annual crop areas. Wood lot areas experienced the least landslide occurrence (4%). A close spatial distribution of agricultural land use practices and landslide occurrence is discernible. It is recommended that a comprehensive tree planting campaign be carried out in areas prone to landslides since it was inferred that wood lots suffered least from landslides. It is also recommended that farmers be encouraged to restore and manage terrace bunds which could help to check on water velocity and consequently increase on slope stability.

In Soviet times, in the absence of land ownership rights and, consequently, the real estate market, the valuation of land plots was undeveloped, but there was a developed and actively applied mechanism for qualitative assessment. In addition, there was an economic assessment of land aimed at the suitability of agricultural plots for the production of various types of agricultural products. In modern Russia, such work has not been carried out, but now there is a need to assess land use from the perspective of hidden resources. The article describes the authorial methodology for assessing the investment and resource potential of agricultural land use. The investment and resource potential is formed by a cumulative construction of 5 private potentials, reflecting the ability of land use to generate income in comparison with surrounding land uses. Private potentials include soil potential, natural potential, location potential, production potential, and market potential. Soil potential is the resource potential of land use generated by soil varieties contained within land use boundaries. Natural potential is climate, terrain, and other natural factors. Location potential – factors that affect the logistics of a land-use-related business and form the cost part of it. The production potential consists of the demand on commodity markets for products that land use specializes in. Market potential – factors that form the value of land use in terms of the market under the influence of existing combinations of demand, supply, price situation, etc.

The domination of forestland and forest policies by agriculture is a major problem in the U.S. Historically, forestland presented a formidable obstacle that had to be overcome if farming was to take place. Thus, forestland was converted to agricultural land. Forestland was cleared and put into production of agricultural commodities. Therefore, it can be shown that there is a relationship between agricultural land use and forestland use. This relationship has shown forest use to be a weak competitor for agricultural land. This study traces out the historical interactions between agricultural and forestry policies. Trends in agricultural and forestry land use are identified and related to specific policies and/or institutional connections.

In today's conditions of European integration processes, the problem of the formation of agricultural land use in accordance with the strategy of sustainable development of Ukraine is of considerable interest to the study. In view of the imperfection of the functioning of the regulatory and legal framework and the instability of the political situation in the country, the problem of preservation of rational use and protection of agricultural land use becomes especially relevant. In our opinion, one of the factors contributing to the formation of sustainable agricultural land use is the agrochemical passport of the field, land, agrochemical certification. The purpose of this work is to conduct an analysis of the regulation of relations in the field of agrochemical certification in the formation of sustainable agricultural land use. The study used general scientific and special methods: analysis and synthesis, analogies and comparisons, generalizations, statistics, etc. The methodological basis of the study is an integrated approach, system-structural analysis and a dialectical method of scientific knowledge. The work substantiates that agrochemical certification of a particular site is an important tool in the formation of sustainable development of agricultural land use through the prism of interaction between the legal, technological, ecological and economic environment. The algorithm of agrochemical certification is improved, which gives a systematic representation of the process of certification. The proposed algorithm involves the structuring of nine stages of its implementation. Based on the research of the current state of agrochemical certification, its principles and tasks were generalized, as well as the functional possibilities of its carrying out, which can be taken into account when developing the Law of Ukraine "On state agrochemical certification of agricultural land".

Introduction. Activities in the field of organization of agricultural land use should be focused primarily on the preservation and reproduction of land, the most productive implementation of all production processes and ensuring environmentally sound use of agricultural landscapes. One of the effective ways to ensure the balanced use of agricultural land by agricultural formations is to optimize the location of crops in accordance with the indicators of agrochemical evaluation of soils, taking into account the economic feasibility of their cultivation. Methods. Research conducted by use of the dialectical method of knowledge of the economic laws and systematic approach to the study of economic phenomena and processes, monographic, induction and deduction - to form of balancing agricultural land use; economic and statistical - to identify the factors that led to changes in the quality of land; abstract-logical method - in the implementation of theoretical generalizations and formulation of conclusions. Results. The author substantiates the importance of optimizing the sown area of agricultural crops to ensure a balanced use of land. A study of soil quality indicators within individual land plots was conducted and their dynamics were analyzed. The impact of the structure of growing crops on the balance of humus in the soil is assessed and the main measures to improve it are substantiated. The main components in the system of improving the quality of land are identified and their importance is proved Discussion. The defining direction for further research is the formation of an institutional environment for the balanced use of agricultural land in order to improve the quality of soils. Keywords: agricultural production, balanced land use, agricultural land, optimization, structure of sown areas.

Agricultural land use is essential for prosperity and sustainability of a city. However, the performance of detecting agricultural land use based on vegetation parameters will be substantially reduced when the vegetation changed in type, quantity and condition. This study believed that soil moisture, a fundamental soil parameter, is able to detect agricultural land use. A method was proposed to evaluate city-scale agricultural land use detection capability based on three temporal statistics of soil moisture in both local and global perspectives. Using GF-1 images as a data source, an experiment in Wuhan city was performed to discuss the city-scale agricultural land use detection capability based on soil moisture. Soil moisture were inverted by the modified perpendicular drought index derived from GF-1 images. Under the visual and quantitative comparisons, it was found that the temporal mean of soil moisture performed much better than the temporal standard deviation of soil moisture and the temporal coefficient of variance of soil moisture. The overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of the temporal mean of soil moisture reach 91.7% and 0.81, respectively, demonstrating its great capability of detecting city-scale agricultural land use. A global analysis is implemented by regression analyses with true zonal agricultural statistics, showing a high global accuracy in agricultural land use detection.