Analysis of land change in the dryland agricultural landscapes of eastern Botswana

Akinyemi, Felicia O.; Mashame, Gofamodimo

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.010

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Overall, a faster LULC change was revealed during the 1995-2005 and 2005-2015 change periods compared to 1984-1995, with major increases noted for bare land and built-up areas while other LULC categories such as tree savanna and water bodies decreased significantly during these periods. Akinyemi and Mashame [74] also observed a similar scenario in the Palapye area (280 km north of Gaborone dam catchment). They noted faster change rates in the 2000-2014 change periods and attributed the fast change to the social and economic transformation of Palapye since the beginning of the 21st century.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

“…Bare land intensification was also noted between 1984 and 2015 in Raya, Northern Ethiopia [102]. This pattern can be attributed to the prolonged dry periods resulting from the major impact of rainfall variability as reported by Akinyemi and Mashame [74], Batisani and Yarnal [103], and Byakatonda [104], who observed a decrease in rainfall in Botswana since the early 1980s. In addition, fuel wood gathering, and goat grazing in combination with land clearing for crop cultivation have been noted to lead to an increase in bare lands [105].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…The bare land category was shown to be increasing significantly and was more significant around the Gaborone dam area and thus gained from water bodies. The gain has shown not to be permanent as during heavy rainy seasons, the bare lands change back to water bodies as also observed by Akinyemi and Mashame [74]. The Gaborone dam water levels dropped in the years 2004/2005 and in 2014/2015/2016.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Additionally, due to the interaction of both climate and human activities [74], which include drought, floods and livestock overstocking, the loss of the shrub land category led to an increase in bare land areal coverage during the study period. The study is in agreement with Akinyemi and Mashame [74], who concluded that climate change impact is the driver of land transition in semi-arid environments and that the highest amounts of bare lands recorded coincide with prolonged drought periods, which indicates climate impact.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LULC change studies in Botswana have focused on range degradation [34,35,73], rangeland quality in terms of the nature and diversity of vegetation cover [67], bush encroachment [66], LULC change with respect to a rainfall gradient [32] and LULC change with respect to dry land agriculture [74]. However, there is limited information with regards to LULC changes in Botswana's catchments, making water resource management efforts a daunting task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Gaborone Dam Catchment, Botswana, from 1984–2015 Using GIS and Remote Sensing

et al. 2019

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Land use land cover (LULC) change is one of the major driving forces of global environmental change in many developing countries. In this study, LULC changes were evaluated in the Gaborone dam catchment in Botswana between 1984 and 2015. The catchment is a major source of water supply to Gaborone city and its surrounding areas. The study employed Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) using Landsat imagery of 1984, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Image classification for each of these imageries was done through supervised classification using the Maximum Likelihood Classifier. Six major LULC categories, cropland, bare land, shrub land, built-up area, tree savanna and water bodies, were identified in the catchment. It was observed that shrub land and tree savanna were the major LULC categories between 1984 and 2005 while shrub land and cropland dominated the catchment area in 2015. The rates of change were generally faster in the 1995–2005 and 2005–2015 periods. For these periods, built-up areas increased by 59.8 km2 (108.3%) and 113.2 km2 (98.5%), respectively, while bare land increased by 50.3 km2 (161.1%) and 99.1 km2 (121.5%). However, in the overall period between 1984 and 2015, significant losses were observed for shrub land, 763 km2 (29.4%) and tree savanna, 674 km2 (71.3%). The results suggest the need to closely monitor LULC changes at a catchment scale to facilitate water resource management and to maintain a sustainable environment.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Gaborone Dam Catchment, Botswana, from 1984–2015 Using GIS and Remote Sensing

et al. 2019

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Assessing UN indicators of land degradation neutrality and proportion of degraded land for Botswana using remote sensing based national level metrics

2020

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Achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) has been proposed as a way to stem the loss of land resources globally. To date, LDN operationalization at the country level has remained a challenge both from a policy and science perspective. Using an approach incorporating cloud-based geospatial computing with machine learning, national level datasets of land cover, land productivity dynamics, and soil organic carbon stocks were developed. Using the example of Botswana, LDN and proportion of degraded land were assessed. Between 2000 and 2015, grassland lost approximately 17% of its original extent, the highest level of loss for any land category; land productivity decline was highest in artificial surface areas (11%), whereas 36% of croplands show early signs of decline. With the use of national metrics (NM), degraded areas were found to be 32.6% compared to 51.4% of the total land area when global default datasets (DD) were used.Estimates of degraded land computed with NM and DD were validated in Palapye, an agro-pastoral region in eastern Botswana, where Composite Land Degradation Index (CLDI) field-based data exists. Comparing land degradation (LD) in the three datasets (NM, DD, and CLDI), NM estimates were closest to the field data. The extra efforts put into developing national level data for LD assessment in this study is, thus, well-justified.Beyond demonstrating remote sensing viability for LD assessment, the study developed procedures for generating and validating national level datasets. Using these procedures, LD monitoring will be enhanced in Botswana and elsewhere since these remote sensing datasets can be updated using freely available satellite datasets.

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Quantifying responses of net primary productivity to agricultural expansion in drylands

et al. 2021

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There is a limited understanding of agricultural land dynamics across global drylands and the impacts of transitions between agricultural land and land cover on net primary productivity (NPP) changes. This study attempted to fill this gap by examining agricultural land changes and NPP responses in drylands. A data-driven assessment of effects on the NPP of individual agricultural land displacement was carried out using three methods: the mean difference method, a newly introduced ridgeregression method, and a proposed method based on actual change excluding climate impact. Increases in NPP were accompanied by agricultural land transitions from natural land cover and expected forests. The agricultural expansion mainly replaced sparse vegetation and grassland and increased the overall NPP of the dryland ecosystem. The mean difference method and ridge-regression method overestimated the NPP increase caused by agricultural land expansion. Land use change contributed more than 70% to NPP increase in the new agricultural area. However, land use change has less effect on total NPP in drylands than climate change. Monitoring agricultural land dynamics and distinguishing NPP changes caused by different agricultural land transitions is helpful for targeted management and sustainable development of agriculture in drylands.

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Analysis of land change in the dryland agricultural landscapes of eastern Botswana

Cited by 29 publications

References 42 publications

Evaluating Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Gaborone Dam Catchment, Botswana, from 1984–2015 Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Evaluating Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Gaborone Dam Catchment, Botswana, from 1984–2015 Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Assessing UN indicators of land degradation neutrality and proportion of degraded land for Botswana using remote sensing based national level metrics

Quantifying responses of net primary productivity to agricultural expansion in drylands

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