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Renewable energy and agriculture
Published in Walter Amedzro St-Hilaire, Agribusiness Economics, 2022
As far as the brakes are concerned, bioenergy is not synonymous with sustainable energy. The sustainability of bioenergy depends, to a large extent, on how biomass is produced and used. Biomass production and use are not necessarily sustainable, for example, if they have such a negative impact on people, the environment or natural resources that they could compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Bioenergy is also accompanied by environmental and socio-economic risks for rural areas. For example, land-use change, intensified forest management or intensive cultivation of energy crops can lead to a decline in biodiversity, soil degradation, water stress or water pollution. The combustion of woody biomass can also lead to increased emissions of certain harmful air pollutants, and there are ongoing discussions on whether this type of biomass is actually carbon neutral. Several environmental and socio-economic risks related to the production and use of bioenergy have been identified in the past, and the risks related to the production and use of bioenergy have often been analysed in the Sustainability Impact Assessment of bioenergy.
Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LULCC)
Published in Yeqiao Wang, Landscape and Land Capacity, 2020
Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC), or more succinctly land change, is an integral component of global environmental change.[1] Land cover refers to the physical characteristics of Earth’s surface such as water, grass, trees, or concrete. Land use, on the other hand, refers to how the land is utilized by humans for various social and economic purposes. The same land cover may be used for different purposes. For example, a forest may be used for timber extraction or set aside as a protected area for conservation of wildlife. Land-use change refers to a change in the management of land by humans, which may or may not lead to land cover-change. LULCC is important for biogeochemical cycles such as nutrient cycling,[2,3] for biodiversity through its impacts on habitats,[4,5] and for climate by changing sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and land-surface properties.[6,7] LULCC also has important implications for the provision of ecosystem services on which both rural and urban societies depend.[8]
Land Change and Water Resource Vulnerability
Published in Yeqiao Wang, Fresh Water and Watersheds, 2020
Since the beginning of human civilization, mankind has been dependent on land and water for sustenance. Over the years, human activities have modified the natural environment to the extent that at present environmental sustainability is at danger. The term “land cover” refers to the biophysical cover of the land, and “land use” refers to the socioeconomic use of land. Land use and land cover change (LULCC), in general, means conversion of land to feed, provide shelter and other essentials to the growing human population (Defries and Eshleman 2004). Among different natural resources that are threatened by the direct and indirect impacts of LULCC, the vulnerability of fresh water resources is critical (Foley et al. 2005). Land change science has contributed significantly to the understanding of land use dynamics, yet the human use of land continues to be at the center of the most complicated and pressing problems faced by policy makers around the world today (Reid et al. 2006). The principal effects of land use change include consumption of fresh water, alteration in the amount of evaporation, groundwater infiltration, surface runoff, increasing sedimentation, and changes in the streamflow regime, which result in increased risk of flood or drought (Bullard 1966). In a nutshell, land use change affects both the quantity and the quality of fresh water.
Carbon-dioxide capture, storage and conversion techniques in different sectors – a case study
Published in International Journal of Coal Preparation and Utilization, 2023
Land-use changes accounted for 9% of human CO2 emissions in 2011 and emitted 3.3 billion tonnes (Quéré C et al. 2014). A land use change occurs when a natural area is transformed into a place where humans can live and work, such as farmland or a town. From 1850 to 2000, land use and land change accounted for 28–40% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions(Houghton 2010). The majority of these emissions are a result of deforestation. The most significant land use change in terms of greenhouse gas emissions is deforestation, which is defined as the systematic removal of all remaining forest cover. Many forests have been cut down or burned in order to make way for farms and pastures. Greenhouse gas emissions increase carbon dioxide levels in three different ways when forestland is deforested. Carbon is absorbed by trees. They use photosynthesis to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. To clear forests for farmland or pastures, trees are cut down and either burned or left to rot, which releases carbon dioxide into the air. Deforestation reduces the amount of CO2 that Earth’s trees can take from the atmosphere. A carbon sink is created when trees are cut down to make way for farmland, but crops that replace the trees are less effective than forests. Cutting down trees for lumber keeps the carbon locked in the wood, but forest carbon sinks are reduced because of the removal of trees. Deforestation also affects soil carbon storage. When wooded land is cleared, it causes soil disturbance and enhanced decomposition rates in transformed soils. This increases soil erosion and nutrient leaching, reducing the area’s potential to operate as a carbon sink.
Multi-scenario landscape ecological risk assessment based on Markov–FLUS composite model
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 2021
Quan Xu, Peng Guo, Mengting Jin, Jiafeng Qi
The selected land-use change drivers include topographic, meteorological, soil, and socio-economic factors. Topographic factors include elevation, slope, and aspect, extracted from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data; meteorological factors include temperature and precipitation; soil factors include soil types, and socio-economic factors include population distribution and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The above data were all resized to 1 km, and the projection method was uniformly transformed to Albers. This adjustment was to standardize the input parameters of the model without any other adverse effects. A detailed description of the data can be seen in Table 1.
Land use/land cover dynamics and perception of the local communities in Bita district, south western Ethiopia
Published in International Journal of River Basin Management, 2023
Fikire Belete, Melesse Maryo, Alemtshay Teka
Some decades ago, Bita district was known for its unharmed forest cover. But currently, it has been facing great anthropogenic impacts that placed the forest into a fragmented state. Dense forest areas were given to investors just ignoring the ecological significance of the forest ecosystem. The choice of economic growth over ecological sustainability has led to the exhaustion of natural resources particularly forests through forest degradation. Such activities were known to affect biodiversity (e.g. woody plant species, medicinal plant species, spices and wild animals) more seriously (Gessese, 2017; Sambou et al., 2015 & Tadesse et al., 2014). The reduction in forest cover also accelerated land degradation like soil erosion and loss of soil fertility which has resulted in food security problems as well as water scarcity in the area. The land-use change that happened mainly due to agricultural extensification and exploitation of forest products have resulted not only to the loss of habitat and biodiversity but also to the modification of natural landscape and ecosystem functions (Sambou et al., 2015). Studies on the rates, extents, patterns, causes and implications of LULC dynamics at the local level can help to design sound environmental policies and biodiversity management. Since there was no study related to LULC change in Bita district, the current study has aimed to examine the status of the impact of the emerging degradation of forest ecosystems and other LULC changes by employing scientific methods such as LULC dynamics through space and time. Therefore, this study has investigated patterns of LULC and examined the perception of the local communities towards the trend of LULCC over the last 45 years (1973–2018) in the study area.