Land Cover U3AOS1 Flashcards
Land Cover
the observed biophysical cover on the Earth’s surface. This definition includes what exists on land surfaces – the natural biophysical features of vegetation, water, ice and even bare rock and soil, together with the human activity such as agriculture and urban landscaping
Land Use
how people use areas of the land characteristics by the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce change or maintain it.
Land Cover Categories
- Cultivated & Managed
2.Natural and Semi-natural vegetation - Cultivated aquatic or regularly flooded areas
4.Natural and Semi-natural aquatic land cover or regularly flooded vegetated areas - Artificial surfaces and associated areas
6.Bare Areas - Artificial bodies, snow and ice
- Natural Water bodies, snow and Ice
Natural Processes leading to changes in land cover
- Climate change
- Geophysical changes
- Plant Succession
- Fires and pests
Future Impacts of Climate Change
- Temp rise of 0.6 C in the 20th century and may rise by another 0.9C by end of century
- May cause longer fire seasons, more severe storms longer or wetter drought periods
- Impact human ability to utilize the environment for land use.
- Desertification
- Climate refugees
Geophysical Changes
includes volcanic activity, earthquakes and landslides, tectonic plate movements slowly change the distribution of Earth’s land mass over millions of years averaging only a few cm per year.
Plant Succession
the directional non-seasonal cumulative change in the types of plant species that occupy a given area through time it involves the process of colonization, establishment and extinction which act on the participating plant species.
Fires and Pests
Fires started by lightning storms have had an impact on land cover as vegetated land cover has evolved before human occupation to accommodate the effects of the fire. Consequently, preventing large areas of trees growing and promoted the development of fire-dependent grasslands and openwoodlands.
The millions of species of insects and plant diseases influence land cover as they can heavily influence vegetation
Human Processes leading to changes in land cover
- Population Dynamics
- Technology
- Policies
Population Dynamics influence on land cover change
- Land surfaces have become areas of housing, production and recreation
- Land has been cleared of natural vegetation for cropping and grazing
- Rural to urban migration, 50-55% of ppl live in urban areas
- Space for migration found on the edge of existing urban areas
Technology - influence on land cover change
- Allows for rapid, large-scale change to land cover
- E.g. building of dams and water diversion schemes
- Technologies that can produce toxic or non-biodegradable substances can harm vegetation
- Machinery can clear large areas of forest
- Mineral deficient soils can be made suitable for cropping
- Hybrid or genetically modified plants can be developed to withstand hostile environments
Policies - influence on land cover change
- Policies of gov like econ policies influence prices for domestic and international goods, imports exports and wage and tax levels e.g. selective logging for commercial timber and clearance of forests for farming is often promoted by gov thru tax incentives b/c source of revenue, employment, and source of food production.
- h/w gov policies can also protect existing land cover e.g. national parks
- policies can restore land cover threatened by pests
Geospatial technologies
include any form of technology that refers to place, space and location. Specifically they are technologies that organize and collect data, by referencing the information collected to a point on the Earth’s surface
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
also known as the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a system of at least 24 satellites that circle the Earth, it can determine a user’s position in terms of latitude and longitude as well as altitude. This enables users to identify their exact location of the Earth via a smart phone or in car navigation.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
computer-based mapping software that collect, store and analyse previously unrelated information and display this information as easily-understood maps.
