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Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2019) | Viewed by 35738

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Prof. Dr. Yung-Chieh Wang

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Guest Editor

Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 402, Taiwan
Interests: soil physics; soil erosion; sediment transport; land degradation; watershed environmental assessment;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Li-Chi Chiang

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Disaster Prevention Engineering, National United University, Miaoli 36003, Taiwan
Interests: integrated watershed management; non-point source pollution; environmental modeling and analysis; field observations; land use change simulation; ecosystem service evaluation; ecohydrology; GIS application on environmental research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the world population on the rise, society demands more resources. As a result, natural resources are overused, environmental quality is degraded, soil physical property is damaged, and soil fertility has declined. We are facing the growing problem of food scarcity and security. Increased population has not only led to more food consumption, but also reducing agricultural production by clearing of agricultural or forest land for human settlement. Deforestation has changed climatic patterns, leading more natural disasters. Increased human activities have degraded the lands and negatively impacted on agricultural productions. The goal of this Special Issue is to decipher the inter-correlations among disaster risks under extreme weather events, cropping suitability of environment, and environmental footprints of crops, as well as the collective impacts on land and ecosystems, and to formulate land management guidelines for securing food production and promoting sustainable agriculture development. These inter-correlations can be highlighted with publications of new research findings on the following topics:

Analytical advances in measurements of environmental footprint.
Theoretical considerations examining effects and solutions to food scarcity and security.
Identifying the inter-correlations among disasters, food production, land management, and environmental sustainability.
Novel models in measuring the inter-correlations at different spatio-temporal scales.
Systematic management for food security, production, and sustainable agriculture.

This Special Issue includes the above topics, but is not limited to, any research related to how we can understand the causes of food scarcity and develop solutions for reaching sustainable agriculture. Our goal is to identify the inter-correlations among the soil erosion and disaster risks, cropping suitability of environment, and environmental footprints of crops, and to provide essential clues for land use management securing food production and agriculture sustainability under the pressure of global population booming and climate change impacts.

Dr. Yung-Chieh Wang
Dr. Li-Chi Chiang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

food security
food scarcity
environmental footprint
land use management
sustainable agriculture
disaster prevention
soil erosion
ecosystem services
cropping suitability

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 14595 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial-Temporal Pattern of Human-Induced Land Degradation in Northern China in the Past 3 Decades—RESTREND Approach

by Wenyi Zhuge, Yaojie Yue and Yanrui Shang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(13), 2258; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132258 - 26 Jun 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3180

Abstract

Land degradation is one of the world’s most serious environmental issues. Human activities play an important role in it. Therefore, human-induced land degradation monitoring is of crucial scientific significance in revealing the evolution of land degradation and guiding its governance. Based on the residual trend (RESTREND) approach and using Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) 3g and monthly precipitation as data sources, a quantitative evaluation is conducted on the conditions of human-induced land degradation during 1982–2012 in northern China. The results indicate that (1) the “optimal cumulative precipitation-NDVImax” regression model constructed herein can improve the capability of recognizing human-induced land degradation of arid and semiarid areas in the RESTREND approach. Moreover, long time-series NDVI and precipitation data may reduce the uncertainty of quantifying human-induced land degradation. (2) In the past 3 decades, northern China has experienced three stages of human-induced land degradation, i.e., rapid development, overall reversal with local development, and continuous reversion. Human-induced land degradation in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China has shown a rapid restoration trend since the 1990s. (3) It is believed that the dominant factor of land degradation has a significant spatial-temporal scale effect and spatial heterogeneity. Therefore, concrete issues should be specifically analyzed to improve our understanding of land degradation development and reversal, the spatial-temporal pattern and the driving forces of land degradation in the past 3 decades in northern China. Climate change may be the main driving force of land degradation. However, the influence of human activities on the development and reversal of land degradation in small areas and in a short time is more remarkable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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24 pages, 6056 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Variation of Sediment Export from Multiple Taiwan Watersheds

by Li-Chi Chiang, Yung-Chieh Wang and Ci-Jyun Liao

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(9), 1610; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091610 - 08 May 2019

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3313

Abstract

Soil erosion and landslide triggered by heavy rainfall are serious problems that have threatened water resources in Taiwan watersheds. This study investigated the relationship among streamflow, sediment load, sediment concentration and typhoon characteristics (path and rainfall amount) during 2000–2017 for nine gauging stations in five basins (Tamshui River basin, Zhuoshui River basin, Zengwen River basin, Gaoping River basin, and Hualien River basin) representing the diverse geomorphologic conditions in Taiwan. The results showed that streamflow and sediment load were positively correlated, and the correlation was improved when the sediment load data were grouped by sediment concentration. Among these basins, the Zhuoshui River basin has the highest unit-discharge sediment load and unit-area sediment load. The soil in the upstream was more erodible than the downstream soil during the normal discharge conditions, indicating its unique geological characteristics and how typhoons magnified sediment export. The spatiotemporal variation in sediment loads from different watersheds was further categorized by typhoons of different paths. Although typhoon path types matter, the Zhuoshui and Hualien River basin were usually impacted by typhoons of any path type. The results indicated that sediment concentration, the watershed soil characteristics, and typhoons paths were the key factors for sediment loads. This study can be useful for developing strategies of soil and water conservation implementation for sustainable watershed management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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11 pages, 1807 KiB

Open AccessArticle

¹³⁷Cs-Based Variation of Soil Erosion in Vertical Zones of a Small Catchment in Southwestern China

by Jiacun Chen, Zhonglin Shi, Anbang Wen, Dongchun Yan and Taili Chen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(8), 1371; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081371 - 16 Apr 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2504

Abstract

The study of the variability of soil erosion in mountainous areas provides the basis for soil and water conservation work and forest ecological construction in a targeted way. In this study, Liangshan Town catchment, a typical catchment in the Hengduan Mountains region, southwest China, was selected to investigate the variation of soil erosion in different vertical zones using the ¹³⁷Cs tracing technique. The mean ¹³⁷Cs reference inventories varied between 573.51 and 705.54 Bq/m², with the elevation increasing from 1600 to 2600 m. The rates of soil erosion exhibited a significant variation. Under the same land cover condition, the average annual soil erosion modulus of high-elevation forest (elevation > 2200 m) was 400.3 t/(km²·a). However, the average annual soil erosion modulus of a low-elevation sparse forest (elevation < 1600 m) was as high as 1756 t/(km²·a). The average annual soil erosion modulus of the sloping farmland, mainly distributed at elevations of 1600–2200 m, was estimated to be 2771 t/(km²·a). These results indicate that effective soil management measures need to be implemented on the cultivated sloping land in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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18 pages, 5757 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Maize Potential Yield and Yield Gaps in Northeast China from 1990 to 2015

by Luoman Pu, Shuwen Zhang, Jiuchun Yang, Liping Chang and Shuting Bai

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(7), 1211; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071211 - 04 Apr 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2894

Abstract

Maize yield has undergone obvious spatial and temporal changes in recent decades in Northeast China. Understanding how maize potential yield has changed over the past few decades and how large the gaps between potential and actual maize yields are is essential for increasing maize yield to meet increased food demand in Northeast China. In this study, the spatial and temporal dynamics of maize potential yield in Northeast China from 1990 to 2015 were simulated using the Global Agro-ecological Zones (GAEZ) model at the pixel level firstly. Then, the yield gaps between actual and potential yields were analyzed at city scale. The results were the following. (1) The maize potential yield decreased by about 500 kg/ha and the potential production remained at around 260 million tonnes during 1990–2000. From 2000 to 2015, the maize potential yield and production increased by approximately 1000 kg/ha and 80 million tonnes, respectively. (2) The maize potential yield decreased in most regions of Northeast China in the first decade, such as the center area (CA), south area (SA), southwest area (SWA), and small regions in northeast area (NEA), due to lower temperature and insufficient rainfall. The maize potential yield increased elsewhere. (3) The maize potential yield increased by more than 1000 kg/ha in the center area (CA) in the latter 15 years, which may be because of the climate warming and sufficient precipitation. The maize potential yield decreased elsewhere and Harbin in the center area (CA). (4) In 40 cities of Northeast China, the rates of actual yield to potential yield in 17 cities were higher than 80%. The actual yields only attained 50–80% of the potential yields in 20 cities. The gaps between actual and potential yields in Hegang and Dandong were very large, which need to be shrunk urgently. The results highlight the importance of coping with climate change actively, arranging crop structure reasonably, improving farmland use efficiency and ensuring food security in Northeast China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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17 pages, 2794 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ecosystem Spatial Changes and Driving Forces in the Bohai Coastal Zone

by Min Cheng, Binbin Huang, Lingqiao Kong and Zhiyun Ouyang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(4), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040536 - 13 Feb 2019

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2925

Abstract

Landscape change is an important aspect of coastal ecological conservation and has an essential influence on the sustainable development of the coastal economy. With remoting-sensing (RS) images between 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, using geographic information system (GIS) technologies, we examined ecosystem spatial changes in the Bohai coastal zone. Results showed that wetlands, mainly constituted by reservoirs/ponds, were the dominant landscape types. The urban ecosystem has the largest area increment and the fastest growth rate from 2000 to 2015. The quantification of landscape metrics revealed that spatial patterns have changed significantly, and the change direction of these ecosystems had moved toward increased heterogeneity and fragmentation. In addition, natural and socio-economic data were used to analyze the major driving forces triggering ecosystem spatial changes through redundancy analysis (RDA). The results revealed that the output of aquatic products (AQ) and population (Pop) were the main factors related to wetland ecosystem change. Pop and gross domestic product per capita (GDPpc) were closely related to the urban ecosystem change. Annual mean temperature (ATm), crop acreage (CA), and grain yield (GY) had positive correlations with the agriculture ecosystem changes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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11 pages, 2306 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Urban Metabolic Analysis of a Food-Water-Energy System for Sustainable Resources Management

by Ming-Che Hu, Chihhao Fan, Tailin Huang, Chi-Fang Wang and Yu-Hui Chen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(1), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16010090 - 30 Dec 2018

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5076

Abstract

Urban metabolism analyzes the supply and consumption of nutrition, material, energy, and other resources within cities. Food, water, and energy are critical resources for the human society and have complicated cooperative/competitive influences on each other. The management of interactive resources is essential for supply chain analysis. This research analyzes the food-water-energy system of urban metabolism for sustainable resources management. A system dynamics model is established to investigate the urban metabolism of food, water, and energy resources. This study conducts a case study of Shihmen Reservoir system, hydropower generation, paddy rice irrigation of Taoyuan and Shihmen Irrigation Associations, and water consumption in Taoyuan, New Taipei, and Hsinchu cities. The interactive influence of the food-water-energy nexus is quantified in this study; the uncertainty analysis of food, water, and energy nexus is presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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13 pages, 3328 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Analysis of the Spectral Response to Soil Salinity of Saline-Sodic Soils under Different Surface Conditions

by Jianhua Ren, Kai Zhao, Xiangwen Wu, Xingming Zheng and Xiaojie Li

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2721; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122721 - 03 Dec 2018

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2932

Abstract

Desiccation cracking is a very common surface soil phenomenon of saline-sodic land. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of salt content on the spectral reflectance of soil with and without desiccation cracks. To achieve our objective, a cracking test was performed using 17 soil samples. Following the tests, crack parameters were extracted, and correlation analysis was then performed between crack parameters and four soil properties: Na⁺, salinity (total concentration of ions), pH, and electric conductivity (EC). In order to select the optimum spectral measurement method and develop prediction models, spectral response to different soil properties were compared between the cracked soil samples and the comparative soil samples composed of the 2 mm particle size fraction processed by traditional methods. The results indicate that soil salinity dominated cracking propagation with a positive correlation. Since area and volume scattering are closer to what occurs in the field, a greater spectral response to soil properties was found for cracked soil samples relative to the comparative soil samples in the near-infrared and shortwave-infrared regions. The R² of optimal linear prediction models based on the cracked soil samples were 0.74, 0.67, 0.58, and 0.67 for Na⁺, salinity, pH, and EC, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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11 pages, 1960 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Urbanization, Land Use Behavior and Land Quality in Rural China: An Analysis Based on Pressure-Response-Impact Framework and SEM Approach

by Hongbin Liu and Yuepeng Zhou

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2621; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122621 - 22 Nov 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3732

Abstract

During the last 40 years, China has undergone rapid urbanization which has resulted in land degradation and a decrease in land. Cultivated land protection has thus become one of the most active and important aspects of land science. This study presents a pressure-response-impact (PRI) framework which may reveal the inter-correlations among households’ land-use behavior and cultivated land quality change in the process of rapid urbanization in China. The structural equation model (SEM) has been applied using a household survey dataset collected in 2015 in Sujiatun district, Shenyang city, Liaoning province. The results show that: (1) there is a complex causal relationship between the latent variables urbanization, household land-use behavior and cultivated land quality (i.e., urbanization → land-use behavior → land quality), which supports our PRI conceptual framework; (2) the changes of external social-economic context stemming from urbanization are the major cause of land-use behavior variance; (3) land quality is mostly affected by farmers’ land-use behavior including land-use pattern, land-use degree and land-input intensity, in particular the growing of cash crops (GCC, associated with land use pattern) and capital input per unit of farmland (LII, associated with land input intensity). These findings are of some theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, they add to the current literature by identifying the roles of sociological factors and farmers’ land-use behavior in the process of land quality protection using a PRI framework. Practically, measures should be taken to reasonably set the prices of agricultural products, promote the development of the land rental market and increase the comparative revenue of agricultural production, so as to stimulate incentives to farming and land quality protection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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28 pages, 8268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Farmland Change on Soybean Production Potential in Recent 40 Years: A Case Study in Western Jilin, China

by Luoman Pu, Shuwen Zhang, Fei Li, Ranghu Wang, Jiuchun Yang and Liping Chang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(7), 1522; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071522 - 18 Jul 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3891

Abstract

During the last 40 years, the quantity and spatial patterns of farmland in Western Jilin have changed dramatically, which has had a great impact on soybean production potential. This study used one of the most advanced crop production potential models, the Global Agro-Ecological Zones model, to calculate the soybean production potential in Western Jilin based on meteorological, topography, soil and land use data, and analyzed the impact of farmland change on soybean production potential during 1975–2013. The main conclusions were the following: first, the total soybean production potential in Western Jilin in 2013 was 8.92 million tonnes, and the average soybean production potential was 1612 kg/ha. The production potential of eastern area was higher than the other areas of Western Jilin. Second, farmland change led to a growth of 3.30 million tonnes in soybean production potential between 1975 and 2000, and a decrease of 1.03 million tonnes between 2000 and 2013. Third, taking account of two situations of farmland change, the conversion between dryland and other categories, and the change of irrigation percentage led to the total soybean production potential in Western Jilin increased by 2.31 and only 0.28 million tonnes respectively between 1975 and 2000, and increased by 0.12 and 0.29 million tonnes respectively between 2000 and 2013. In general, the increase of soybean potential production was mainly due to grassland and woodland reclamation. The results of this study would be a good guideline for protecting safe baseline of farmland, managing land resources, and ensuring continuity and stability of soybean supply and food security. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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17 pages, 2557 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Distribution of Shrubland and Grassland Soil Erodibility on the Loess Plateau

by Xiao Zhang, Wenwu Zhao, Lixin Wang, Yuanxin Liu, Qiang Feng, Xuening Fang and Yue Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(6), 1193; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061193 - 07 Jun 2018

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4665

Abstract

Soil erosion is one of the most severe problems facing environments and has increased throughout the 20th century. Soil erodibility (K-factor) is one of the important indicators of land degradation, and many models have been used to estimate K values. Although soil erodibility has been estimated, the comparison of different models and their usage at a regional scale and, in particular, for different land use types, need more research. Four of the most widely distributed land use types were selected to analyze, including introduced and natural grassland, as well as introduced and natural shrubland. Soil particle size, soil organic matter and other relevant soil properties were measured to estimate soil erodibility in the Loess Plateau. The results show that: (1) the erosion productivity impact calculator (EPIC) model and SHIRAZI model are both suitable for the Loess Plateau, while the SHIRAZI model has the advantage of fewer parameters; (2) introduced grassland has better ability to protect both the 0–5 cm soils and 5–20 cm soils, while the differences between introduced and natural shrubland are not obvious at a catchment scale; (3) the K values of introduced grassland, natural grassland, introduced shrubland and natural shrubland in the 0–5 cm layer vary from 0.008 to 0.037, 0.031 to 0.046, 0.012 to 0.041 and 0.008 to 0.045 (t·hm²·h/(MJ·mm·hm²)), while the values vary from 0.009 to 0.039, 0.032 to 0.046, 0.012 to 0.042 and 0.008 to 0.048 (t·hm²·h/(MJ·mm·hm²)) in the 5–20 cm layer. The areas with a mean multiyear precipitation of 370–440 mm are the most important places for vegetation restoration construction management at a regional scale. A comprehensive balance between water conservation and soil conservation is needed and important when selecting the species used to vegetation restoration. This study provides suggestions for ecological restoration and provides a case study for the estimate of soil erodibility in arid and semiarid areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land management accounting inter-correlations among soil erosion risk, cropping suitability and environmental footprint)

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