Driving Factors for Forest Fire Occurrence in Durango State of Mexico:A Geospatial Perspective

Forest fire is one of the major causes of forest loss and therefore one of the main constraints for sustainable forest management worldwide.Identifying the driving factors and understanding the contribution of each factor are essential for the management of forest fire occurrence.The objective of this study is to identify variables that are spatially related to the occurrence and incidence of the forest fire in the State of Durango,Mexico.For this purpose,data from forest fire records for a five-year period were analyzed.The spatial correlations between forest fire occurrence and intensity of land use,susceptibility of vegetation,temperature,precipitation and slope were tested by Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR) method,under an Ordinary Least Square estimator.Results show that the spatial pattern of the forest fire in the study area is closely correlated with the intensity of land use,and land use change is one of the main explanatory variables.In addition,vegetation type and precipitation are also the main driving factors.The fitting model indicates obvious link between the variables.Forest fire was found to be the consequence of a particular combination of the environmental factors,and when these factors coexist with human activities,there is high probability of forest fire occurrence.Mandatory regulation of human activities is a key strategy for forest fire prevention.

Land Use Changes in Northeast China Driven by Human Activities and Climatic Variation

Human-induced land use/cover change (LUCC) forms an important component of global environmental change. Therefore, it is important to study land use/cover and its change at local, regional and global scales. In this paper we conducted the study of land use change in Northeast China, one of the most important agricultural zones of the nation. From 1986 to 2000, according to the study results obtained from Landsat images, widespread changes in land use/cover took place in the study area. Grassland, marsh, water body and woodland decreased by 9864, 3973, 1367 and 10,052km2, respectively. By comparison, paddy field, dry farmland, and built-up land expanded by 7339, 17193 and 700km2, respectively. Those changes bore an interactive relationship with the environment, especially climate change. On the one hand, climate warming created a potential environment for grassland and marsh to be changed to farmland as more crops could thrive in the warmer climate, and for dry farmland to paddy field. On the other hand, the changed surface cover modified the local climate. Those changes, in turn, have adversely influenced the local environment by accelerating land degradation. In terms of socio-economic driving forces, population augment, regional economic development, and national and provincial policies were confirmed as main driving factors for land use change.

Sandy Desertification Status and its Driving Mechanism in North Tibet Plateau

As the main body of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, North Tibet Plateau is one of three major sandy desertification regions in China and also a representative sandy desertification zone of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Accordingly, it is an important region for the study of recent sandy desertification processes and formation mechanism. From such aspects as desertified land types, areas and distributions etc., this paper analyses in detail the sandy desertification status on North Tibet Plateau, and qualitatively and quantitatively deals with the main factors that affect recent sandy desertification processes and the driving mechanism. Research results show that North Tibet Plateau is an important sandy desertification region in China characterized with large desertified land areas, diversified types, high severity, extensive distributions and serious damages. Sandy desertification occurrence and development resulted from combined effects of natural factors, anthropogenic factors, natural processes and man-made processes, of which climatic change is the main driving force.

Human Activity and Soil Fertility-Nutrients Depletion of Arable Soils in China

The reserve of soil nutrients is limited. In case of irrational use of land, nutrients would be depleted sooner. Before the 1950s the low grain production in China was maintained only by expanding the cultivated area and by recycling of nutrients in agriculture. Calculation of nutrients balance showed that in the year of 1949 there were great deficits of N, P and K elements in agriculture of China. It revealed that there would have really been danger of soil nutrients exhaustion if such a situation had continued. Things have changed since the beginning of 1950s. The nutrients balance in agriculture has been getting better and better. In the year 1987 N and P balance got rid of their great deficits. But for K the deficit grew even larger. This resulted in a rapid expansion of soil area deficient in K in China since the mid 1970s. In spite of the fact that the P balance in the arable land of the whole country was positive, the field which did not receive P fertilizer had become deficient in P. So the area deficient in P also increased. It is stressed that great attention should be paid to the depletion of soil nutrients, especially K in the northern part of China where the soil is relatively rich in K. Of course, soil sulfur and microelements should be considered next.

Public Perception on the Success of Reforestation in a Degraded Land

Reforestation is an activity that involves planting or man-made trees regeneration and other plants in the state forest areas and in other areas based on land-use plan designated as forest. The purpose of this study was to determine the public perception of the difficulty of successful reforestation activities in the Lake Toba catchment area. The data were taken from primary and secondary data. Primary data were information collected by reforestation activities in the villages, secondary data were collected in the study site general conditions existing at the village government agencies, of which sampling method was done by purposive sampling, i.e., sampling deliberately chosen. The results showed a lack of socialization in the extension of government reforestation activities, uncontrolled forest fires, lack of maintenance of seed that has been planted, and the type of plant is less suitable.

台湾农村再生计划推动制度之建构

台湾推动农村再生计划的总目标为建立富丽新农村。制度的建立主要包含农村的生活、生产、生态以及社会福利、教育文化与地政营建等六大方面,制度机制之建构主要分为三个层级。当局层级为"行政院农委会"拟定政策方针与确立相关法源依据;县市层级为"院辖市"、县(市)政府拟定农村再生总体计划与农村再生执行计划;地方层级为农村小区拟定农村再生计划与农村再生实质建设计划,以推动小区活化与再生。农村再生推动机制的落实,主要通过农村小区赋权、地方政府的在地动员,以及当局的政策资源投入等三个不同层级的治理与合作来推动再生机制。其中土地的活化制度主要分为土地活化政策、再生发展区计划及其土地使用管理、整合型农地整备等三种制度,目的为活化整合农村小区及周边土地,及调整土地使用编定之管制,透过规划使农村具备整合性的机能,使农村可提升其生活质量。

Progress on quantitative assessment of the impacts of climate change and human activities on cropland change

It is important to study the contributions of climate change and human activities to cropland changes in the fields of both climate change and land use change. Relationships between cropland changes and driving forces were qualitatively studied in most of the previous researches. However, the quantitative assessments of the contributions of climate change and human activities to cropland changes are needed to be explored for a better understanding of the dynamics of land use changes. We systematically reviewed the methods of identifying the contributions of climate change and human activities to cropland changes at quantitative aspects, including model analysis, mathematical statistical method, framework analysis, index assessment and difference comparison. Progress of the previous researches on quantitative evaluation of the contributions was introduced. Then we discussed four defects in the assessment of the contributions of climate change and human activities. For example, the methods were lack of comprehensiveness, and the data need to be more accurate and abundant. In addition, the scale was single and the explanations were biased. Moreover, we concluded a clue about quantitative approach to assess the contributions from synthetically aspect to specific driving forces. Finally, the solutions of the future researches on data, scale and explanation were proposed.