Sustainable Land Use Planning with G.I.S

Transcription

1 Sustainable Land Use Planning with G.I.S Mehran Niazi Deputy of Natural Environment and Biodiversity, Department of Environment, Tehran, Iran P.O.Box address: Abstract If we accept sustainable land use planning, it must be integrated according to ecological and socioeconomic aspects. The Environmental Unit has been prepared and applied basis of land evaluation approach in land use planning in Iran. The environmental units of land are picked out and demonstrated on a map, using ecological factors (geology, soils, plants, landforms, climates). The socio-economic factors (population density, capita income, cattle distribution, existing land use) have been overlaid by G.I.S on the environmental units to reach the integrated map and database. Consequently, land capability for each land unit is decided on comparing with existing descriptive models. Therefore, decision makers are encourage which has the ecology as its core, rather than economics. Introduction The elaborated methodology is one of the several techniques of integration and analysis of land evaluation process.

2 Land evaluation is considered as the assessment or prediction of land quality in terms of capability, productivity, degradation, hazards or management requirement, and is itself on essential middle phase in land use planning process (Stewart, 1968; Compagnon and Cocks, 1980; Naveh and Lieberman, 1984; Basinski, 1985; Westman, 1985; Makhdoum, 1987). Many scientists used and examined the techniques of data integration and analysis for land evaluation who initially applied hand-drawn methods, such as Hills, Lewis, McHarg (Roymond et al, 1967), Christian and Stewart (Stewart, 1968), and those who used computer programs like SYMAP (Howard T.Fisher 1963), GRID, IMGRID and ODESSEY (Sinton and Steinits 1969, Sinton 1977, Morehouse and Broethuysen 1981, Johnston 1998). Following methodologies for data integration create a new level of information that has been evolved during the years like as: The Gastalt method, the parametric system, the mathematical combination of factors, the identification of homogeneous regions and the combination of ecological related factors (Westman 1985; Makhdoum 1987).Whatever any of above-mentioned methodologies and the composite mapping units (Land form, Land system, Land type, Landscape unit, Land region, Unique mapping area, Eco-region) fit into three distinct approaches of land evaluation (Basinski, 1985). The approaches consist of: 1. Land analogues 2. Parametric approaches 3. System analysis The applied methodology is based on system analysis approaches. The composite mapping unit focuses on land ecology and socio-economic characteristics would guarantee sustainable development (Brundtland et, al, 1987). Methods and Materials The object of the methodology is composite mapping units which that include a set of unique integrated ecological (physical and biological) and socio-economic data. In this way, the evaluation of land potential for various land uses in the catchments area is made according to the capability of existing resources, which are objectively grouped in environmental units. Environmental units are depicted on maps by Arc/Info software and are linked by attribute tables. The process of the formation of environmental units is as follows: (1)Thematic maps (slope, aspect, altitude, soil, geology, erosion, hydrology, climate, vegetation, wildlife, and socio-economic) are digitized to Arc/Info software. (2)The maps of slope, altitude, and aspect are overlaid to create map of land form units in Arc/Info. (3)The map of land form units is combined with ecological maps (soil, erosion, geology, hydrology, climate, vegetation, and wildlife) to make environmental units (Fig.1). (4)Each environmental units is compared with existing descriptive models, prepared for present land uses, to reach land capability maps for agriculture development (Fig.2), tourism development, range management, rural development and conservation area.

3 (5)The socio-economic maps (population physiologic density, capita income, cattle distribution, existing land uses, and road network) are overlaid with environmental units Table(1). (6)For each environmental unit with regard to socio-economic aspects, one of determined land capability is selected Table(2). The G.I.S-aided methodology was applied for jang-e-sar watershed, with ha, That is located in the far north-west of Iran, adjacent to the border with the turkey. The above-mentioned region consists of the following ecological aspects: Ranges from 1940 to 3294m above sea level, about 70% of watershed has more than 39% slope, Geologically Basalt covers about 70% of the region and the most of the watershed classified as low erosion according to PSIAC method, we have confronted to insufficient soils in the most area of the region except river-bank. The annual precipitation is 390 mm and the mean temperature is C.The watershed is divided to 8 sub-catchments that their mean annual runoff is about MCM (Million Cubic Meter). Floristic studies show that 156 species live in the region and the most of them belong to Compositae family. Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems include habitats for 89 species of wildlife. The following matters of socio-economic factors shall see in the region: The population of the region is 1228 that 651 of them live in three villages and the others live as tribes. Most of the land uses consist of range land, dry farming, irrigated farming and residential areas. The population physiologic density, population to farm and range lands, is 9.4 person per km 2. The most sources of life belong to cattle and livestock activities. The watershed is projected to be managed under agro-tourism-pastoral system for farming, range management and tourism development. Results The result of data analysis, integration, and the resulting capability evaluation are shown in table 2. It should be noted that only parts of 773 environmental units, the actual table, are presented here. The designated areas for each land use are depicted on the map (Fig. 3)

4 Table 1: Environment Units 1 (Socio economic aspects) Env. Unit No. Area ( ha ) Perimeter ( m ) Existing Land use Cattle Distribution (N/ha) 2 Population Density Income ( Th. R) R < R I > R > >7500 main R > , 5-10 >7500 main 1. Only parts of actual table are presented 2. Number/hectare 3. Thousand Rials 4. Range Land 5. Irrigated Farming Road Table 2: Environmental Units 1 (Ecological Aspects and Final Decision) Env. Unit No. Slope (%) Aspect Altitude (m) Soil Erosion Geology Climate River Class 31 >60 Southern Low Moderate Pl-tc Humid I Con. Depth Southern Medium Low Ng-an Humid I Tou. Depth Plain Deep Low Q-al Mediterranean II,II Rur Eastern Semidepth Moderate Q-al Mediterranean I,II Tou Western Low depth Light Q-al Mediterranean I Tou. 1. Only parts of actual table are presented 2.Agriculture Capability 3. Range Capability 4.Tourism Capability 5. Conservation Areas Agr. 2 Cap. Ran. 3 Cap. Tou. 4 Cap. Con. 5 Area Rur. 6 Dev. Fin. 7 Dec.

5 6. Rural Development 7. Final Decision To be presented at the 10th international conference of the Greening of Industry Network

6 Scale 1:120,000 To be presented at the 10th international conference of the Greening of Industry Network

7 Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Class 7 Figure 2: Land Capability Map for Agriculture Development in Jang-e-sar Watershed

8 Extensive Tourism Range Land Conservation Area Intensive Tourism Agriculture Rural Development Figure 3: Final Selected Land Uses

9 Discussion Deciding on the use of land, or which land use should be practiced in a country like Iran, with a long history of human settlement and tradition, is not an easy task. The difficulty increase when the concept of sustainable development is also a factor to be considered, where socio-economic aspects rather than the ecological concepts, have had a prevailing role in land use practices. Over the years, land use operations, based solely on socio-economic conditions, have proved to be the main causes of recent environmental disasters in Iran. Annually 1.5 billion t of soil erosion, heavy flooding in recent years, desertification and deforestation of vast areas of land, and heavily polluted capital cities are just a few examples. As a result, a change of policy in land use planning has been projected (Bureau of Regional Planning 1985). It is hoped that the methodology, within the scope of the new strategy for land use planning will improve the situation. This is based on several factors: (1) The decision-makers are left with a set of alternative land uses, which are decided on the land ecological capability and socio-economic needs; (2) The environmental units, which act as the basis of land evaluation, are in fact a set of ecosystems. The variation of the boundaries of these ecosystems is the result of the differences in ecological parameters of the ecosystems. (3) Land capability is evaluated on the merit of ecological properties of each environmental unit. (4) Alternative land uses are narrowed down with respect to prevailing socioeconomic needs of ecosystems. Within this holistic-descriptive tendency, selected ecological and socio-economic properties do not depend on the nature of given project or land use practice, but rather on a framework related to the ecosystem concepts. This explains how the approach, which is categorize as an ecological one (Domon et al, 1989) could be more useful for sustainable development of our common future. The methodology has been implemented in Iran since The recent improvement and applied methodology with G.I.S facilities could have following benefits: (1) High accuracy and precious cause to avoid human-inducing errors (2) High speed of G.I.S-aided method comparing with hand-drown method causes to save economic. (3) Capability of transferring attributes tables to spreadsheet software like as Excel cause to the best database management. (4) High capability of up to date database and maps

10 This approach could also be used in other third world countries, which has a long tradition of land uses and lack of sufficient data in terms of ecological aspects like Iran. In this way the people could claim that the 1972 Stockholm conference resolutions (consideration of ecological and socio-economic approaches for land use planning) have been implemented. References Basinski,j,j., 1985 Land evaluation- some general considerations. In: j.j. Basinski and K.D.Cock (editors), Environmental Planning and Management. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Canbera, pp Brundtland, G.H.et al., 1987 Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 400 pp. Bureau of Regional Planning, 1985, the first phase of space/land use planning of Islamic Republic of Iran, Ministry of Plan and Budget, Tehran. Compagoni, P. and Cocks, K.D., Land classification, land use evaluation and land use planning. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Work Document 81/9, Canberra Domon, G., Gariepy, M. and Bouchard, A., Ecological cartography and land use planning: trends and perspectives. Geoforum, 20(1): Makhdoum, M.F., Introducing a method for data analysis and handeling in the process of land use planning. Iran. J. Natural Resources., 41: Naveh, Z. and Lieberman, A.S., Landscape Ecology. Theory and application. Springer, New York, 356 pp. Raymond, K., Furtado, J.G. and Harris, C.W., The approaches to environmental resource analysis. Conserv. Found. Washington, DC. Stewart, G.A.(Editor), Land Evaluation. MacMillan, Melbourne, 392 pp. Ternan, J.L., Williams, A.G. and Francis, C., Land capability classification in Grenada, West Indies, Mt. Res. Dev.,9(1): Westman, W.E., Ecology, Impact Assessment and Environmental Planning. Wiley, New York, 532 pp.