Anthropogenic Threats to Degraded Forest Land in the Savannahs’ Region of Togo from 1984 to 2020, West Africa

This study focuses on the landscape dynamics of the savannahs’ region in the far north of Togo. Based on a literature review and satellite images analysis using GIS and remote sensing, the study aims to ascertain the effects of anthropogenic threats on the forest coverage of the Savannahs’ Region between 1984 to 2020. The objective is to clarify the dynamics of land use in the region from 1984 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2020. The findings indicate a significant decline in forest coverage within the region from 1984 to 2020, a trend attributed to land use patterns. Dry forests in the Savannah region are largely converted to farmlands, housing, dry savannahs or agroforestry parks, leading to a steady reduction in forest areas.

Regional differences of water conservation in Beijing’s forest ecosystem

The water conservation capacities of main forests in Beijing,China were estimated through the quantitative analysis.Various methods developed in published papers on forest hydrology were employed.The forests in Huairou,Yanqing,Miyun,Mentougou and Fangshan districts are the main contributors to water conservation（the cumulative ratio reaches 65%）,and the forests in Tongzhou,Chaoyang,Shunyi and Daxing districts have the highest water conservation capacity（3000 m3/ha）.Altitude and slope are the key factors to affect the water conservation capacity.The forests located in Plain Area,Hilly Area,Low Mountain,and Middle Mountain contributes 27%,28%,24% and 21% of the conserved water,respectively.The water conservation capacity of forests in Plain Area（2 948 m3/ha）,is superior to the forests in other regions.And the forests situated on Flat Slope,Moderate Slope and Gentle Slope constitute the largest proportion（nearly 93%） of water conservation,while the forests on Flat Slope has the highest water conservation capacity（2 797 m3/ha）,and the forest on Steep slope has the lowest water conservation capacity（948 m3/ha）.

The Regional Climate Effects of Replacing Farmland and Re-greening the Desertification Lands with Forest or Grass in West China

The West Development Policy being implemented in China causes significant land use and land cover (LULC) changes in West China, of which the two most important types of LULC change are replacing farmland and re-greening the desertification land with forest or grass. This paper modifies the prevailing regional climate model (RCM) by updating its lower boundary conditions with the up-to-date satellite database of the Global Land Cover Characteristics Database (GLCCD) created by the United States Geological Survey and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The modified RCM is used to simulate the possible regional climate changes due to the LULC variations. The preliminary results can be summarized as that the two main types of LULC variation, replacing farmland and greening the desertification lands with forest or grass in west China, will affect the regional climate mostly in northwest and north China, where the surface temperature will decrease and the precipitation will increase. The regional climate adjustments in South, Southwest China and on the Tibet Plateau are uncertain.

Causal effects of shelter forests and water factors on desertification control during 2000–2010 at the Horqin Sandy Land region, China

The Horqin Sandy Land（HSL）, the largest sandy land in the semi-arid agro-pastoral ecotone of Northeast China, has been subject to desertification during the past century. In response, and to control the desertification,government implemented the Three-North Shelter/Protective Forest Program, world＇s largest ecological reforestation/afforestation restoration program. The program began in1978 and will continue for 75 years until 2050. Understanding the dynamics of desertification and its driving forces is a precondition for controlling desertification.However, there is little evidence to directly link causal effects with desertification process（i.e., on the changing area of sandy land） because desertification is a complex process,that can be affected by vegetation（including vegetation cover and extent of shelter forests） and water factors such as precipitation, surface soil moisture, and evapotranspiration.The objectives of this study were to identify how influencing factors, especially shelter forests, affected desertification in HSL over a recent decade. We used Landsat TM imagery analysis and path analysis to identify the effects of spatiotemporal changes in water and vegetation parameters during2000–2010. Desertification was controlled during the study period, as indicated by a decrease in desert area at a rate of163.3 km2year-1and an increase in the area with reduced intensity or extent of desertification. Total vegetation cover in HSL increased by 10.6 % during the study period and this factor exerted the greatest direct and indirect effects on slowing desertification. The contribution of total vegetation cover to controlling desertification increased with the intensity of desertification. On slightly and extremely severe desertified areas, vegetation cover contributed 5 and 42 % of the desertification reduction, respectively. There were significant correlations between total vegetation cover and water conditions（i.e., evapotranspiration and precipitation）and the area of shelter forests（P ／ 0.0001）, in which water conditions and the existence of shelter forests contributed49.7 and 12.8 % to total vegetation cover, respectively. The area of shelter forests increased sharply due to program efforts, but only shrub forests had significant direct effects on reducing the area of desertification categorized as slightly desertified. The reason for the lack of direct effect of increased arbor forests（accounting for 95.3 % of the total increase in shelter forests） on reducing desertification might be that the selected arbor species were not suited to water conditions（low precipitation, high evapotranspiration） prevailing at HSL. The establishment of shelter forests aided control of desertification in the HSL region, but the effect was less than expected. Effective control of desertification in the HSL region or other similar sandy areas will require greater improvements in vegetation cover. In particular,shrub species should be selected for plantation with reference to their potential to survive and reproduce in the harsh climatic and weather conditions typical of desertified areas.

Assessing the vulnerability of a forest ecosystem to climate change and variability in the western Mediterranean sub-region of Turkey：future evaluation

This study evaluates the multifactorial spatial modelling used to assess vulnerability of the Du¨ zlerc？am？（Antalya） forest ecosystem to climate change.This was done to produce data,to develop tools to support decisionmaking and the management of vulnerable Mediterranean forest ecosystems affected by climate change,and to increase the ability of these forest ecosystems to adapt to global change.Based on regionally averaged future climate assessments and projected climate indicators,both the study site and the western Mediterranean sub-region of Turkey will probably become associated with a drier,hotter,more continental and more water-deficient climate.This analysis holds true for all future scenarios,with the exception of RCP4.5 for the period from 2015 to 2030.However,the present dry-sub humid climate dominating this sub-region and the study area shows a potential for change towards more dry climatology and for it to become semiarid between 2031 and 2050 according to the RCP8.5 high emission scenario.All the observed and estimated results and assessments summarized in this study show clearly that the densest forest ecosystem in the southern part of the study site,characterized by mainly Mediterranean coniferous and some mixed forest and maquis vegetation,will very likely be influenced by medium and high degrees of vulnerability to future environmental degradation,climate change and variability.

Land cover mapping of deciduous forest regions using ETM+ data: a case study of Azerbaijan Province, Iran

Up to date information about the existing land cover patterns and changes in land cover over time is one of the prime prerequisites for the preparation of an integrated development plan and economic development program of a region. By using ETM＋ image data from 2002, we provided a land cover map of deciduous forest regions in Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Initial qualitative evaluation of the data showed no significant radiometric errors. Image classification was carried out using a maximum likelihood-based supervised classification method. In the end, we determined five major land cover classes, i.e., grass lands, deciduous broad-leaf forest, cultivated land, river and land without vegetation cover. Accuracy, estimated by the use of criteria such as overall accuracy from a confusion matrix of classification was 86% with a 0.88 Kappa coefficient. Such high accuracy results demonstrate that the combined use of spectral and textural characteristics increased the number of classes in the field classification, also with excellent accuracy. The availability and use of time series of remote sensing data permit the detection and quantification of land cover changes and improve our understanding of the past and present status of forest ecosystems.

Rational Harvesting Policy and Sustainable Development of Community in Forest Regions

Forest ecosystem is one of the most important ecosystems in the world that human-beings rely on. Forest harvesting policy is one of the main criteria indicating how and how much the human beings open up and make use offorest. Whether the policy is reasonable or not has high relations with not only the increasing or decreasing of forest system,but also the development speed of human society. In this paper, the author analyzed the development of interaction between human society and forest ecosystem from ancient times to today. Then author stated that the rational harvesting policy should be the harvesting sequences of both harvesting density and harvesting time, which might result in the maximumcomprehensive benefit, including economical profit, social benefit and ecological benefit, of forest to human society. Atlast, according to the analysis of interaction bctween human-beings and her environment, the prediction analysis for humansociety development in forest regions in the future was prescnted using Entropy Growing Analysis.

Predicting equations of main factors affecting regional climate in the"Three-North" Protective Forest Area

The relationship between the change of forest resources and climatic factor in the, “Three-North” region of China were studied in this paper. The predicting equations of climatic factor (dependent variable) with regional independent variable (longitude, latitude and altitude) and stand independent variable (forest coverage rate), were developed by extensively using the linear and nonlinear regression methods. With these models, we can calculate the ecological benefit of Shelter-belt forest.

An Innovative Land Approach for Spatially Determining SDGs-Sustainably Governing German Spree Forest and Lusatia Region

In times of highest necessities for United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)and acknowledging planetary boundaries,the need for understanding general global goals and regional to local strategic governing structures has to be supported while combining assessment,monitoring,governance approaches,together with landscape planning,land use based approaches,land system and sustainability science.The initial research embeds an incrementally worked out theoretical framework followed by applied research parts.The case studies and field data in the German Lusatia Region and inner part Spree Forest Region inhabit intrinsic drivers of finding ways over bridging deficiencies of theoretical and applied adjusted objectives and in this small excerpt mainly about the scale and planning level,instrumental flexibility deficiencies while transmitting global transformation needs to the regional,local planning level and backward(counter-current principle).Innovative instrumental assessment structures were created with a new approach of spatially determining SDGs for accelerated Climate Smart Planning(CSP)and Integrated Drought and Water Management(IDWM).This research supports processes around acceleration and assessment of climate change-,crises-related and sustainable development options while enhancing interdisciplinary sustainability science for gaining more regional land resilience.

Development Plan for Under- forest Economy of Henan Province Based on Central Plains Economic Region

Firstly,this paper analyzed current situations,major practice and existing problems of under-forest economy in Henan Province.Then,it made an in-depth discussion of guiding thought,principle and objectives,construction task and safeguarding measures of the underforest economic development plan. Besides,it analyzed benefits of the under-forest economic development plan. By 2017,the area of underforest economic land will reach 1. 60 million hm2,create output value of 155. 2 billion yuan( accounting for more than 20% of forest output value),provide 3. 27 million jobs,and will greatly increase ecological carrying capacity of construction and development of the Central Plains Economic Region( CPER).

Evaluation of the Land Production Potential in the Context of Returning Farmland to Forest in Karst Region:A Case Study of Guizhou Province

In this paper, we take Guizhou Province (the heart of southwestern Karst region in China) as the research object. By establishing gray forecasting model and time series forecasting model, we conduct the accuracy test on the actual production capacity of land and the forecasted production capacity of land in 2007 and 2008, and then conduct comprehensive forecast of the land production potential in Guizhou Province in 2020. On this basis, considering the nutritional standards needed by three kinds of life type (dressing warmly and eating one's fill, well-off life, relatively affluent life), we evaluate the land production potential in Guizhou Province under the project of returning farmland to forest. Based on the evaluation results, we put forth the relevant recommendations for achieving sustainable land use in the context of returning farmland to forest in Guizhou Province.

Eco-environment Restoration and Regional Differentiation Characteristics Based on “Building Terrace and Returning Slope Farmland to Forests and Grass”

Based on the scientific and technological achievements in the past decade in the Loess Hilly-gully Region and the successful demonstration experience in Yan'an Yangou watershed, we summarize the characteristics of eco-environment restoration pattern based on "building terrace and returning slope farmland to forests and grass". According to the data on land use, slope farmland and the agricultural population in 1999, we calculate the area of new terrace that needs to be built, the area of garden plot that needs to be extended, vegetation restoration area and investment demand in counties (cities, districts). Establishing and using some indicators, such as basic farmland extension indicator, garden plot extension indicator, vegetation restoration index and investment demand density, we conduct type classification and analysis of regional differentiation characteristics in 55 counties (cities, districts). The results show that in the Loess Hilly-gully Region, 691 600 hm2 of new terrace needs to be built, 792 000 hm2 of economic forests and orchards need to be extended, 5 410 200 hm2 of vegetation needs to be restored, and the total investment demand is 15.82 billion yuan; in terms of geographical distribution, obviously there are two key areas for eco-environment restoration (one is located in the border area between northern Shaanxi and northwestern Shanxi, and the other is located in the eastern Gansu and southern Ningxia area); the classified regional guidance policies should be formulated as soon as possible, and the limited funds should be concentrated in the key areas.

Potential Analysis of Inefficient Garden Land and Residual Forest Land Remediation in Comprehensive Land Remediation of the Whole Region—A Case Study of Zhemu Town, Guilin City, China

The remediation of inefficient garden land and defective forest land is one of the important sources and types of supplementary cultivated land in the comprehensive land remediation of the whole region. The remediation and development of inefficient garden land and defective forest land will effectively alleviate the multiple pressures faced by cultivated land at present. Taking Zhemu Town, Guilin City, China as an example, on that basis of the data of the third national land survey, using analytic hierarchy process, this paper selects six evaluation factors, including water source, traffic, slope, field concentration, farmland infrastructure and villagers’ will, to study the remediation potential of inefficient garden land and defective forest land in Zhemu Town, and delimits four potential divisions, in order to provide the basis for the arrangement of land remediation projects in Zhemu Town. The results show that the northern, central and western regions of Zhemu Town have great remediation potential.

Mapping and Floristic Diversity of the Nakpadjouak Community Forest, Tami Canton, Togo (West Africa)

Since 2015, community forests have been promoted in Togo as an alternative to protect areas from degradation and as a means of contributing to forest landscape restoration. The study focuses on the Nakpadjouak Community Forest (NCF) in Tami (Togo, West Africa) which contributes to community forests sustainable management. It aims in (i) mapping forest ecosystems and analysing their dynamic and (ii) characterizing the floristic diversity of the NCF. The ecosystems were mapped and their dynamic was evaluated based on Google Earth images of 2014 and 2020. Floristic and forestry inventories were carried out using the transect technique in a sample of 20 plots of 50 m × 20 m. The NCF was made up mainly by wooded/shrub savannahs (95.37%) and croplands/fallow (4.63%) in 2014. These two land use types undergone changes over the 6 years prior to 2020. By 2020, the NCF had 3 land use types: wooded/shrub savannahs (77.59%), open forest/wooded savannahs (22.23%), and croplands/fallows (0.18%). A total of 89 plant species belonging to 70 genera and 28 families were recorded within the NCF. The dominant species are: Heteropogon contortus (L.) P.Beauv. and Combretum collinum Fresen. followed by Pteleopsissuberosa Engl. & Diels, Annona senegalensis Pers. The most common species are: Lannea acida A.Rich. s.l., A. senegalensis, Vitellaria paradoxa C.F.Gaertner subsp. paradoxa, C. collinum and Acacia dudgeonii Craib ex Holland. Due to its small area of just 40 hectares and its diverse plant life, this community forest of Savannahs Region is a significant biodiversity hotspot and warrants conservation efforts.

Strategies for Safe Land Use of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (Chongqing Section)——With the Restoration of Degraded Forest Landscapes as a Study Case

As a key for constructing ecologically safe scenery, forest landscape pattern in Chongqing Section of the Three Gorges has shown degradation, fragmentation and revision of varying degrees. To ensure normal and safe operation of the Three Gorges, and meet requirements of integrated development strategies for ecological and economic effects in Chongqing City on the ecological security of land use in Chongqing section of the Three Gorges, the following points should be attached more importance in making future strategies for an ecologically safe land use pattern with the restoration of degraded forest landscape as its starting point:a. Ecological effects and economic functions that can be supplied by forest landscape elements in different restoration patterns should be understood to obtain background effect of the ecological security pattern scenario of land use in the reservoir region; b. Relationship between restoration of degraded forest landscapes and serious ecological interference factors such as degradation background, artificial disturbance and engineering stress, should be simulated to figure out the influence of natural or artificial driving factors on landscape pattern, determine the future restoration mode for the degraded forest landscapes in the reservoir region, so as to facilitate the construction of great ecological-economic security pattern of the Three Gorges. The findings will provide scientific basis for the decision-making in building an ecologically safe land use pattern in the Three Gorges reservoir area (Chongqing), when using the degradation of forest landscape restoration as a carrier at present or in the future. Further, they will help realize the development goals of "Livable Chongqing, Expedite Chongqing, Forestry Chongqing, Safe Chongqing and Healthy Chongqing".

Modeling susceptibility to deforestation of remaining ecosystems in North Central Mexico with logistic regression

Determining underlying factors that foster deforestation and delineating forest areas by levels of susceptibility are of the main challenges when defining policies for forest management and planning at regional scale. The susceptibility to deforestation of remaining forest ecosystems （shrubland, temperate forest and rainforest） was conducted in the state of San Luis Potosi, located in north central Mexico. Spatial analysis techniques were used to detect the deforested areas in the study area during 1993-2007. Logistic regression was used to relate explana- tory variables （such as social, investment, forest production, biophysical and proximity factors） with susceptibility to deforestation to construct predictive models with two focuses： general and by biogeographical zone In all models, deforestation has positive correlation with distance to rainfed agriculture, and negative correlation with slope, distance to roads and distance to towns. Other variables were significant in some cases, but in others they had dual relationships, which varied in each biogeographi- cal zone. The results show that the remaining rainforest of Huasteca region is highly susceptible to deforestation. Both approaches show that more than 70% of the current rainforest area has high and very high levels of susceptibility to deforestation. The values represent a serious concern with global warming whether tree carbon is released to atmos- phere. However, after some considerations, encouraging forest environ- mental services appears to be the best alternative to achieve sustainableforest management.

Choice of Species in China's Plantation Forestry

This paper reviews the new developments in the choice of tree species for China’s plantation forestry in relation to forest regionalization and site classification. After a brief discussion on the fundamental principles of choosing species,it gives the statistical data of the species composition of established forest plantations and recommendation for suitable tree species for plantations in some important forestry regions. Results of studies in 3 different cases have been given to illustrate the research approach in choice of tree species in accordance with the planting sites.

Nitrous oxide emissions from different land use patterns in a typical karst region, Southwest China

Fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) from different land use patterns (matured forest, secondary forest, grassland and cropland) in a subtropical karst region of Guizhou Province, Southwest China, were measured for one year with a closed static chamber technique and by gas chromatography. The results showed that soil under different land uses was a source of atmospheric N2O. The cropland was a source with relatively high N2O as compared to forest and grassland, but no significant differences were observed. N2O emissions from soils varied with land use change and fertilizer application. There were two peaks of N2O flux occurred following the combination of two obvious precipitation and fertilizer events in the cultivated land. Converting from the matured forest to secondary forest tended to increase annual emissions of N2O (from 1.40 to 1.65 kg N ha -1 a -1 ), while changing land use from secondary forest to scattered grassland tended to decrease annual emissions of N2O slightly (from 1.65 to 1.45 kg N ha -1 a -1 ). Our range of cumulative annual N2O emission across different land uses (1.40-1.91 kg N ha -1 a -1 ) in a karst region is in general agreement with previously published data in a non-karst region. However, in the maize field, N2O emission factor (EF) was 0.34% for fertilizer application, which is about 71.2% lower than the IPCC default value. It is suggested that current IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) EF methodology could overestimate N2O emission from the karstic cropland. Anyway, the N2O emission from cropland in the karst region would contribute significantly to the global N2O budget, so reducing fertilization frequency during the crop growing season could lead to a decrease in N2O emission in the whole year.

Abiotic and biotic drivers of species diversity in understory layers of cold temperate coniferous forests in North China

Understory plants are important components of forest ecosystems and play a crucial role in regulating community structures,function realization,and community succession.However,little is known about how abiotic and biotic drivers affect the diversity of understory species in cold temperate coniferous forests in the semiarid climate region of North China.We hypothesized that(1)topographic factors are important environmental factors affecting the distribution and variation of understory strata,and(2)different understory strata respond differently to environmental factors;shrubs may be significantly affected by the overstory stratum,and herbs may be more affected by surface soil conditions.To test these hypotheses,we used the boosted regression tree method to analyze abiotic and biotic environmental factors that influence understory species diversity,using data from 280 subplots across 56 sites in cold temperate coniferous forests of North China.Elevation and slope aspect were the dominant and indirect abiotic drivers affecting understory species diversity,and individual tree size inequality(DBH variation)was the dominant biotic driver of understory species diversity;soil water content was the main edaphic factors affecting herb layers.Elevation,slope aspect,and DBH variation accounted for 36.4,14.5,and 12.1%,respectively,of shrub stratum diversity.Shrub diversity decreased with elevation within the range of altitude of this study,but increased with DBH variation;shrub diversity was highest on north-oriented slopes.The strongest factor affecting herb stratum species diversity was slope aspect,accounting for 25.9%of the diversity,followed by elevation(15.7%),slope(12.2%),and soil water content(10.3%).The highest herb diversity was found on southeast-oriented slopes and the lowest on northeast-oriented slopes;herb diversity decreased with elevation and soil water content,but increased with slope.The results of the study provide a reference for scientific management and biodiversity protection in cold temperate coniferous forests of North China.

基于机器学习的“一带一路”投资国别风险预测研究

“一带一路”倡议提出十年间,中国对沿线国家的投资规模持续扩大。然而,企业在抓住机遇,进行“一带一路”沿线国家投资的同时,也需要重点关注“一带一路”投资国别风险。本文从政治、经济、社会和对华关系4个维度构建“一带一路”投资国别风险预测指标体系;运用灰色关联分析计算样本国家的综合风险评价值;基于2012~2022年间“一带一路”沿线国家的数据,利用机器学习构建GA-BP神经网络、支持向量回归和随机森林3种预测模型;通过对比预测精度,确定最佳预测模型,利用2021年的指标数据,对2022年的投资国别风险进行预测。研究结果表明:(1)在“一带一路”投资国别风险的研究背景下,支持向量回归模型预测效果最优,证明机器学习模型能够有效应用于风险管理领域;(2)“一带一路”投资国别风险存在明显的地区差异,中东欧地区和东南亚地区投资国别风险普遍较低,而南亚地区投资国别风险普遍较高,但都存在特例。本文研究结果可为“走出去”企业在“一带一路”沿线国家的投资决策提供参考。