12. Land use

Question 1

What is land cover?

Answer 1

• An indicator
• It shows the physical state of land surface
• Examples: vegation, human structures, other aspects such as physical environment such as soils and water

Question 2

What is land use?

Answer 2

Land use: the way in which, and the purposes for which, human employ (appropriate) land and its resources.

Question 3

Provide 2 examples of land cover

Answer 3

1. Forests
2. Grassland
3. Cropland
4. Wetland
5. Nonbiotic construction

Question 4

Provide 2 examples of land use

Answer 4

• Logging/forestry
• Ranching
• Agriculture
• Wildlife preservation
• City/town
• Mining
• Conservation

Question 5

What are biomes?

Answer 5

Biomes are a collection of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat.

Question 6

What indicator can we use to measure the human influence on the environment?

Answer 6

HANPP: the human appropriation of net primary production

Question 7

Name 2 drivers of agricultural abandonment.

Answer 7

1. Marginality
2. Urbanization (rural exodus)
3. Unprofitability
4. Low-productive systems

Question 8

What is the passive way to transition a barren land into a forest and what is an active way of doing so?

Answer 8

• Passive: regeneration
• Active: plantation; agroforest

Question 9

True or false: night time lights are a good correlator for population density.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Name 2 drivers of desertification

Answer 10

1. Fires
2. Agriculture
3. Logging
4. Climate change
5. Overirrigation

Question 11

Name 2 proximate causes of land cover change.

Answer 11

1. Logging and clearing
2. Shifting cultivation (or slash and burn)

Question 12

Name 2 underlying drivers (driving forces) of land cover change.

Answer 12

1. Demographic factors: population density
2. Economic factors: urbanization
3. Technological factors: agro-technical change
4. Policy and institutional factors: mismanagement
5. Cultural factors: values and beliefs

Question 13

What are the 3 ways of assessing impacts?

Answer 13

1. Literature review: summarizes broad topic, qualitative
2. Systemic review: answers a specific question
3. Meta-analysis: pulls data from studies to get a statistically result

Question 14

What is a trade-off?

Answer 14

• A win-lose situation where at least two components in a system compete with each other.
• Trade-offs are often unavoidable and lead to sustainability challenges.

Question 15

Name the 3 types of distant linkages.

Answer 15

1. Teleconnection: environmental interactions between natural systems over distances
2. Globalization: socioeconomic interactions between human systems over distances
3. Telecoupling: socioeconomic and environmental interactions between coupled human and natural systems over distances

Question 16

Name two reasons why croplands are traded extensively

Answer 16

1. Many regions are not self-sufficient
2. Many regions are export-oriented

Question 17

What the main conclusion from the value chain analysis shown by Pierre?

Answer 17

Only very few companies are responsible for the global transport of crops.

Question 18

What is the difference between Direct Land Use Change vs Indirect Land Use Change? Use an example.

Answer 18

When a lot of farmers switch to growing energy crops (DLUC), it will trigger a higher demand for food and increased deforestation elsewhere (Indirect Land Use Change).

Question 19

Indirect Land Use Change can trigger four different effects. What are they?

Answer 19

• Spillover effect: process by which land use changes in one place have impact on land use in another place
• Displacement: if spillover effect happens due to a trade-off between outcomes
• Leakage: if spillover was caused by intervention inland use (e.g. policy, new technology, etc.)
• Rebound effect: demand increases after efficiency gains