Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC); also known as land change) is a general term for the human modification of Earth's terrestrial surface. Though humans have been modifying land to obtain food and other essentials for thousands of years, current rates, extents and intensities of LULCC are far greater than ever in history, driving unprecedented changes in ecosystems and environmental processes at local, regional and global scales. These changes encompass the greatest environmental concerns of human populations today, including climate change, biodiversity loss and the pollution of water, soils and air. Monitoring and mediating the negative consequences of LULCC while sustaining the production of essential resources has therefore become a major priority of researchers and policymakers around the world.

Land cover refers to the physical and biological cover over the surface of land, including water, vegetation, bare soil, and/or artificial structures. Land use is a more complicated term. Natural scientists define land use in terms of syndromes of human activities such as agriculture, forestry and building construction that alter land surface processes including biogeochemistry, hydrology and biodiversity. Social scientists and land managers define land use more broadly to include the social and economic purposes and contexts for and within which lands are managed (or left unmanaged), such as subsistence versus commercial agriculture, rented vs. owned, or private vs. public land. While land cover may be observed directly in the field or by remote sensing, observations of land use and its changes generally require the integration of natural and social scientific methods (expert knowledge, interviews with land managers) to determine which human activities are occurring in different parts of the landscape, even when land cover appears to be the same. For example, areas covered by woody vegetation may represent an undisturbed natural shrubland, a forest preserve recovering from a fire (use = conservation), regrowth following tree harvest (forestry), a plantation of immature rubber trees (plantation agriculture), swidden agriculture plots that are in between periods of clearing for annual crop production, or an irrigated tea plantation. As a result, scientific investigation of the causes and consequences of LULCC requires an interdisciplinary approach integrating both natural and social scientific methods, which has emerged as the new discipline of land-change science.

Changes in land use and land cover date to prehistory and are the direct and indirect consequence of human actions to secure essential resources. This may first have occurred with the burning of areas to enhance the availability of wild game and accelerated dramatically with the birth of agriculture, resulting in the extensive clearing (deforestation) and management of Earths terrestrial surface that continues today. More recently, industrialization has encouraged the concentration of human populations within urban areas (urbanization) and the depopulation of rural areas, accompanied by the intensification of agriculture in the most productive lands and the abandonment of marginal lands. All of these causes and their consequences are observable simultaneously around the world today.

Biodiversity is often reduced dramatically by LULCC. When land is transformed from a primary forest to a farm, the loss of forest species within deforested areas is immediate and complete. Even when unaccompanied by apparent changes in land cover, similar effects are observed whenever relatively undisturbed lands are transformed to more intensive uses, including livestock grazing, selective tree harvest and even fire prevention. The habitat suitability of forests and other ecosystems surrounding those under intensive use are also impacted by the fragmenting of existing habitat into smaller pieces (habitat fragmentation), which exposes forest edges to external influences and decreases core habitat area. Smaller habitat areas generally support fewer species (island biogeography), and for species requiring undisturbed core habitat, fragmentation can cause local and even general extinction. Research also demonstrates that species invasions by non-native plants, animals and diseases may occur more readily in areas exposed by LULCC, especially in proximity to human settlements.

LULCC plays a major role in climate change at global, regional and local scales. At global scale, LULCC is responsible for releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, thereby driving global warming. LULCC can increase the release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by disturbance of terrestrial soils and vegetation, and the major driver of this change is deforestation, especially when followed by agriculture, which causes the further release of soil carbon in response to disturbance by tillage. Changes in land use and land cover are also behind major changes in terrestrial emissions of other greenhouse gases, especially methane (altered surface hydrology: wetland drainage and rice paddies; cattle grazing), and nitrous oxide (agriculture: input of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers; irrigation; cultivation of nitrogen fixing plants; biomass combustion).

Though LULCC certainly plays a critical role in greenhouse gas emissions, the complexity and dynamic interplay of land use processes favoring net accumulation versus net release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases makes it a poorly constrained component of our global budgets for these gases; an active area of current research. A further source of uncertainty in estimating the climate changes caused by LULCC is the release of sulfur dioxide and particulates by biomass combustion associated with agriculture, land clearing and human settlements. These emissions are believed to cause regional and global cooling by the reflection of sunlight from particulates and aerosols, and by their effects on cloud cover.

Land cover changes that alter the reflection of sunlight from land surfaces (albedo) are another major driver of global climate change. The precise contribution of this effect to global climate change remains a controversial but growing concern. The impact of albedo changes on regional and local climates is also an active area of research, especially changes in climate in response to changes in cover by dense vegetation and built structures. These changes alter surface heat balance not only by changing surface albedo, but also by altering evaporative heat transfer caused by evapotranspiration from vegetation (highest in closed canopy forest), and by changes in surface roughness, which alter heat transfer between the relatively stagnant layer of air at Earths surface (the boundary layer) and the troposphere. An example of this is the warmer temperatures observed within urban areas versus rural areas, known as the urban heat island effect.

Changes in land use and land cover are important drivers of water, soil and air pollution. Perhaps the oldest of these is land clearing for agriculture and the harvest of trees and other biomass. Vegetation removal leaves soils vulnerable to massive increases in soil erosion by wind and water, especially on steep terrain, and when accompanied by fire, also releases pollutants to the atmosphere. This not only degrades soil fertility over time, reducing the suitability of land for future agricultural use, but also releases huge quantities of phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediments to streams and other aquatic ecosystems, causing a variety of negative impacts (increased sedimentation, turbidity, eutrophication and coastal hypoxia). Mining can produce even greater impacts, including pollution by toxic metals exposed in the process. Modern agricultural practices, which include intensive inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers and the concentration of livestock and their manures within small areas, have substantially increased the pollution of surface water by runoff and erosion and the pollution of groundwater by leaching of excess nitrogen (as nitrate). Other agricultural chemicals, including herbicides and pesticides are also released to ground and surface waters by agriculture, and in some cases remain as contaminants in the soil. The burning of vegetation biomass to clear agricultural fields (crop residues, weeds) remains a potent contributor to regional air pollution wherever it occurs, and has now been banned in many areas.

Other environmental impacts of LULCC include the destruction of stratospheric ozone by nitrous oxide release from agricultural land and altered regional and local hydrology (dam construction, wetland drainage, irrigation projects, increased impervious surfaces in urban areas). Perhaps the most important issue for most of Earths human population is the long-term threat to future production of food and other essentials by the transformation of productive land to nonproductive uses, such as the conversion of agricultural land to residential use and the degradation of rangeland by overgrazing.

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Land-use and land-cover change - Encyclopedia of Earth

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TWI Columnist Lisa Haderlein

Change is hard. And, every change is for better or worse, depending upon your perspective. Change is particularly hard when it happens quickly. Im sorry, but telling me its easier if you just rip the bandage off quickly doesnt lessen the pain.

I have no doubt the 400 acres of trees and shrubs bulldozed and left burning in giant brush piles certainly looked worse to the hundreds of neighbors on the north side of Woodstock.

To the landowners, the end result of the land-clearing looked better after getting rid of the over-grown, unkempt nursery stock and opening the land up for row-crop farming. I have no doubt the phrase were making progress was used during the operation.

Thats right, 400 acres of nursery stock were bulldozed and burned north of Woodstock in recent weeks. Thousands of trees are gone forever. Some were quite mature decades old. The nursery had become a wildlife area in a way, with many birds and other critters finding homes there over the years. Now there is just open, bare ground.

The land will be farmed. Well, technically, the nursery was always a farm, so the land will still be farmed its just that a perennial crop of trees and shrubs that were harvested over the years based on the publics desire for landscape material is being replaced with an annual crop that will likely rotate between corn and soybeans.

Nothing to see here was more-or-less the official response from the county officials I contacted. It is farmland, and state law gives farmers a lot of latitude in managing their land. The owners have all their permits. They are following all the proper regulations. There is no law that says a farmer has to tell anyone about his plans to change crops.

The city of Woodstock had no notice either. The land is in the countys jurisdiction, and the affected neighbors live in the city.

The neighbors knew the nursery was private land. Some even remember when the nursery actively managed the trees and shrubs before the housing crash. They just never imagined that new owners could bulldoze thousands of trees and shrubs and burn them in giant piles, day and night, without telling the neighbors.

Read more:
Burning Acres of Trees North of Woodstck? There Must be a Better Way

1/50 scale Land clearing and road building dio
Hey i figured its time to upload a video. Sorry its been a while. I have a sennabogen dragline on order, so in about a month ill have a nice dragline.

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1/50 scale Land clearing and road building dio - Video

WESTERN Australian farmers are trying to repeal a controversial environmental law that they argue is destroying the value of thousands of properties.

Farmer and former state Liberal member Murray Nixon told a state parliamentary committee on Wednesday that many farmers were unaware that they were legally prevented from grazing livestock on designated sensitive areas given the classification system was snuck into legislation without adequate consultation.

"It snuck through without any debate at all," Mr Nixon said.

"You all know nobody reads the government gazette. At least it could have gone to the rural press."

The legislation was introduced in 2005 by the then Labor state government to protect wetlands in farming regions. The designated "environmentally sensitive areas" were compiled through aerial photography.

However, few out of the 3000 to 4000 affected property owners either knew their land was now subject to the new clearing restrictions or that the act of grazing was considered to be clearing under the terms of the legislation.

The legislation went largely unnoticed until Manjimup farmer Peter Swift was charged in 2009 with illegally clearing parts of his land. He won the court proceedings, but he says the deterioration in his health suffered during the intense litigation and subsequent work difficulties has meant he is now facing foreclosure.

"I've worked over 30 years on my little piece of Australia," Mr Swift said.

"I've done nothing wrong and now the bank is holding a Colt 45 to my head. I'm telling you nobody is coming through my front gate."

The Department of Environment Regulation has defended the consultation process by arguing that 17 associations and industry bodies, including at least two farming groups, were consulted prior to the 2005 legislative change.

Continued here:
WA farmers buck land laws

Pitkin County commissioners unanimously approved six agriculture leases for the Glassier Open Space property on Wednesday, clearing the way for local operators to tend to the land, graze cattle, and grow hay, flowers and fruit trees.

The leases will be for five to 10 years in duration, allowing the operators more time to grow their respective businesses and cultivate relationships with adjacent lessees.

Among concerns by the commissioners were bear-proofing for the fruit trees; ensuring that the produce is sold locally; the location of potential horse trailer parking; and noxious weed mitigation.

Paul Holsinger, county open space and trails land officer, said theyve been talking with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and that substantial fencing was planned for the fruit trees.

He added that the goal of the operators was to offer produce locally, and a requirement of the leases was that all operators must be located within 45 miles of the property.

Holsinger said that weed mitigation is being addressed sheep have been utilized on one parcel to eat the unwanted plants in the past.

Holsinger deferred to Gary Tennenbaum, OST assistant director, on horse trailer parking.

Tennenbaum said that options were being looked at near the historic Glassier House, as well as down the road on property owned by the Carricarte Family.

The reality is that we can come up with a solution, he said. Once we get the lessees on board, we can set up a site visit in late April, and really go out there and say, what is going to work and whats not?

Change of heart for OST board

More here:
PitCo commissioners approve Glassier leases

CARYVILLE The Caryville Town Council gathered for an emergency meeting last week that was called to impose an immediate cease to excavation of land controlled by the town.

A premature decision by Council Chairman Henry Chambers created a problem with multiple layers when he hired a timber company on the towns behalf without the councils backing in a manner that did not follow proper legal protocol.

The Sunshine Law has been broken, said Councilwoman Nora Curry.

Floridas Sunshine Law exists to ensure open government and that all dealings stay transparent among boards, commissions and other governing bodies in state and local agencies. A chain of events that left the council at odds began to align last month, when Chambers requested a quote from Sapps Land & Excavation on what the company would pay the town for merchantable wood.

On Feb. 5, Chambers met with company Vice President Jeremy Sapp to convey the towns need to have tree debris removed after another logging company partially cleared parcels of land. Sapp proposed a figure, and Chambers said he would run the information by the council in the next meeting, set for Feb 10.

During that meeting, officials discussed hiring a company to chip and haul away the debris, with Chambers sharing hed looked into some options and had a company in mind that would pay the town $50 per ton. No motions were made to put the project up for bid or to hire a specific company.

Then on Feb. 25, Chambers signed a general timber sales agreement, giving timber rights to Sapps Land & Excavating Inc. on 316 acres of land. The company moved in heavy equipment the following day and had cleared away about 25 acres when Councilman Timothy Hanes learned the work was already in progress.

Hundred-year-old oaks are being cut out there, Hanes said. Our grandkids are not going to see them.

Hanes biggest concern was some of the towns more historical and environmentally beneficial trees were being cut when the councils prior discussion clearly specified that no more trees would come down.

His second point of contention was with decimal placement in the pay rate on the contract. Instead of $50 a ton, as Chambers had mentioned, the chairman signed an agreement for the timber company to compensate the town at a rate of 50 cents per ton.

Read more from the original source:
Caryville caught up in tree squabble

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Brush Mowing | Land Clearing | BMC Corp | Billerica, MA

March 4, 2015, 4 a.m.

A CROPPA Creek farmer, and the son of an accused murderer, has appeared in a Sydney court to answer allegations of unlawful clearing.

A CROPPA Creek farmer, and the son of an accused murderer, has appeared in a Sydney court to answer allegations of unlawful clearing.

Grant Wesley Turnbulls family is at the epicentre of land clearing disputes with the Office of Environment and Heritage after his father, Ian Robert Turnbull, allegedly gunned down and murdered an environmental compliance officer near the village last July.

Grant Turnbull is also being examined over alleged breaches of the Native Vegetation Act, following several investigations by the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH).

A hearing, set down for four days, commenced in the Land and Environment Court in Sydney yesterday morning, after the OEH instigated a court challenge in September last year to halt immediate works on certain areas of Colorado, his family farm north of Moree.

The OEH submitted affidavits as part of its case, including aerial photography which a natural resources officer claimed appeared to show approximately 221 hectares of tree cover had been cleared between January, 2013, and May, 2014.

A further allegation centres on an area totalling 286 hectares which is alleged to have been cleared between May and August last year.

In September, Justice Rachel Pepper granted the temporary interlocutory order, sought by the OEH, restraining Mr Turnbull from clearing, or causing or permitting the clearing of native vegetation on the land, because the OEH was acting in the public interest and any rehabilitation of the land which could have been illegally cleared was a fundamental matter of public importance.

The hearing into the allegations of unlawful clearing was originally scheduled to be heard in December but was vacated after Mr Turnbull said he was unavailable to brief solicitors in preparation for the case because of the busy crop harvest time as well as the unavailability of an expert witness.

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Farmer faces court over land clearing

Colombia and Marxist FARC rebels reached a deal Saturday to clear the country of land mines as part of ongoing peace talks.

Both sides said they would ask a group called Norwegian People's Aid to coordinate the operation.

Humberto de la Calle, a former Colombian vice president and the government's lead negotiator, said Saturday, "Our main objective in these conversations is to put an end to the conflict and avoid future victims in our country. And that's why the demining proposal is a first but giant step toward peace."

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has ranked Colombia as one of the world's most dangerous countries for hidden explosives.

Talks between Colombia and the rebels have been proceeding in Havana for more than two years. Negotiators have begun to make progress on such matters as political participation for the rebels, land reform and drugs.

FARC's guerilla war against the Colombian government has killed 220,000 people since 1964.

Originally posted here:
Colombia, FARC Reach Deal on Clearing Land Mines

Tonight, Global TV reported that crews working for Canadian Pacific Railwaywill be back on the Arbutus corridor in the Marpole area on Tuesday (February 10), much to the consternation of those living in the area.

The work will reportedly begin along the track near West 70th Avenue.

Shortly before last November's civic election, Canadian Pacific Railway promised not to bulldoze any more community gardens until December.

Last month, B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson rejected the City of Vancouver's application for an injunction to stopCP Rail fromresuming its work.

Hinkson concluded that the railway had legal authorityover its 8.82-kilometre strip of land along Vancouver's West Side.

The corridor, which is mostly 66feet wide,runs fromWest 1stAvenue and Fir Street south to Milton Street, accordingto Hinkson's ruling, ad covers 17 hectares.

In recent years many Vancouver residents and groups have created community gardens along the property.

Hinkson noted that one of the oldest, which isbetween West 49th and West 54th avenues, was created during the Second World War.

"Other individuals have used parts of the Corridor as a foot and bicyle path," he stated. "Others have used the Corridor as a place to park their cars."

The City of Vancouver argued in court that the railway had effectively abandoned the corridor, which would mean that it no longer fell under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

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Canadian Pacific Railway plans to resume clearing land along Arbutus corridor