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Web-Based Smart Agriculture System
Published in Gautam Kumar, Dinesh Kumar Saini, Nguyen Ha Huy Cuong, Cyber Defense Mechanisms, 2020
Rachna Jain, Meenu Gupta, Shivam Singh
To achieve a sustainable agricultural movement and reduced impact of global warming and pollution-related problems in the present era, some of the ancient farming techniques used around the world are discussed as follows [13]: Chinampa Wetland FarmingChinampa is an ancient farming technique used by American communities. It is also called floating gardens and used for wetland farming. It is performed in the area where many lakes and wetlands are present. This technique is built using a network of canals and narrow fields, whereas the organic-rich canal muck is used to maintain properly [14]. The land is constructed from the wetland by making alternating layers of lake mud and thick mats of decaying vegetation, due to which it gives high yield per unit of land.Mixed CroppingMixed cropping is a form of agriculture for planting. In this method, multiple crops are planted simultaneously on the same land, which is known as inter-cropping (or co-cultivation) [15]. Engrafting multiple crops at one place saves the space, but maybe they are not suitable to each other in terms of ripening. Mixed cropping and rotational cropping are carried out as ancient techniques. Unlike mono-cultural systems, where only a single crop is planted and grown at one time, inter-cropping or mixed cropping provides a number of benefits such as natural resistance to crop diseases, droughts, and infestations. The three sisters is an example of classic mixed cropping where squash, maize, and beans are grown together in the same land. All seeds are planted together, where squash acts as a weed appetite suppressant and maize a support for beans.Slash and Burn AgricultureIt is a method of shifting agriculture where natural vegetation is cut down and burnt to clear the land for agriculture, and when the plot becomes unproductive, the farmer uses a new fresh land and performs this activity again [16]. This process is repeated by slashing and burning the tropical forest. The farmers usually keep a particular land themselves for only two successive years. And after two years, the soil in that land loses its fertility. They have to stride several miles for new land because they have to farm hilly areas as the lower area of land is used up and they progress up by meeting the another farmers requirement.
Assessment of the regional source contributions to PM2.5 mass concentration in Beijing
Published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, 2018
The emissions inventory used was as follows: The anthropogenic emissions of primary aerosols and their precursors were obtained from the latest version (base year: 2012) of the MIX Asian Emissions Inventory developed for MICS-ASIA III (Model Inter-Comparison Study for Asia, phase III) (Lei et al. 2011; Lu, Zhang, and Streets 2011). This is a monthly based inventory, with a spatial resolution of 0.25° × 0.25° and, involves eight types of pollutants: carbon monoxide, NOx, SO2, volatile organic compounds, black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), PM2.5, and PM10 (coarse particulate matter). Additionally, the NOx and ammonia from agriculture and NOx emissions from aircraft and lightning were provided by REAS (Regional Emissions Inventory in Asia; http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frsgc/research/d4/emission.htm) and the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (Olivier et al. 1994), respectively. The Global Fire Emissions Database, Version 3 (van der Werf et al. 2010), was used for the biomass-burning emissions from forest wildfires, savanna burning, and slash-and-burn agriculture.
Remote sensing of land use/cover changes in South and Southeast Asian Countries
Published in International Journal of Digital Earth, 2019
Krishna Vadrevu, Andreas Heinimann, Garik Gutman, Chris Justice
Land-Use/Cover Changes (LU/CC) are occurring rapidly in South/Southeast Asian (S/SEA) countries, generally associated with population growth, economic development and competing demands for land. In the region, the most common LU/CC changes include urban expansion, agricultural land loss, land abandonment, deforestation, logging, reforestation, agricultural expansion, etc. Specific to South Asia, forest cover has been increasing in countries like India, Nepal, and Bhutan due to sustainable afforestation measures; whereas, large-scale deforestation in Southeast Asian countries is continuing, for example, due to oil palm plantation expansion driven by the international market demand in Malaysia and Indonesia. Small-scale deforestation in most of the Southeast Asian countries is due to slash-and-burn agriculture by indigenous people, driven by poverty and population growth. Logging activities are common in Myanmar and Cambodia. In terms of urbanization, South and Southeast Asian countries contain 23 megacities, each with more than 10 million people. Megacities in these countries started as urban clusters which grow rapidly, merging into conurbations. Rapid urbanization is driving agricultural land loss, and agricultural intensification has been increasing due to less availability of land for growing food crops as, for example, in India, Vietnam, and Thailand. The drivers of LU/CC vary widely in the region and include such factors as land tenure, local economic development, government policies, inappropriate land management, land speculation, improved road networks, etc. Also, variability in the weather, climate, and socioeconomic factors drive LU/CC resulting in disruptions of biogeochemical cycles, radiation and surface energy balance.
Assessment of VIIRS 375 m active fire using tropical peatland combustion algorithm applied to Landsat-8 over Indonesia’s peatlands
Published in International Journal of Digital Earth, 2020
Parwati Sofan, David Bruce, Wilfrid Schroeder, Eriita Jones, Jackie Marsden
In Indonesia vast areas of peatlands have degraded due to agricultural and plantation expansions, logging, and forest/land fires. The practice of agricultural and plantation expansion in peatlands are mostly undertaken through slash and burn activities (Bowen et al. 2000; Cochrane 2003; Dennis et al. 2005; Field, van Der Werf, and Shen 2009; Miettinen, Shi, and Liew 2011; Miettinen et al. 2012; Rieley and Page 2016; Siegert et al. 2001). Fires have been used for land clearance and farming preparation by smallholder farmers for many years and have resulted in small area burn scars. Plantation companies have also used fire for larger-scale land clearance (Dennis et al. 2005; Miettinen, Shi, and Liew 2011). Wildfires occur during dry conditions when the ground water level and vegetation moisture content have decreased in summer (July-September), but are in general rare (Takahashi et al. 2002). They can be accidently started when the fires from slash and burn activities have spread out of control and result in irregular burnt area shapes in the peatlands (Bowen et al. 2000; Dennis et al. 2005; Miettinen and Liew 2009; Miettinen, Shi, and Liew 2011). The 2015 forest and peatland fires resulted in public health impacts with unhealthy air quality conditions which led to mortalities in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia (Koplitz et al. 2016; Crippa et al. 2016). The economic cost of these fires in Indonesia was at least USD 16.1 billion and fires released 1.75 Gt of Carbon into the atmosphere (World-Bank 2016); for comparison, this is approximately 5 times the amount of CO2 released from Australia’s devastating 2019–2020 bushfires (Folley 2020 and Freedman 2020). In 2019, the economic loss from forest and peatland fires in Indonesia was USD 5.0 billion (World-Bank 2019). Although the land burning activities have been banned by the Indonesian government (law No.32/2009), fire is, and still will be, used for land clearance and farming preparation, due to the economic profit for farmers driven by the continuing market demand for the goods produced from plantations (Purnomo et al. 2017).