Anthropogenic Land Use and Land Cover Changes—A Review on Its Environmental Consequences and Climate Change

Projected Impact of Increased Global Warming on Heat Stress and Exposed Population Over Africa

“…This heat stress behavior observed during the dry season could be explained by the increasing practice of irrigation activity over some economically advanced countries of this subregion. Indeed, the increase in irrigation activity on cropland could compensate for the increase in thermal gradients caused by land conversion, as irrigation provides an alternative source of soil moisture, and thus lowers surface temperature through evaporation (Halder et al, 2015;Prijith et al, 2021;Roy et al, 2022). The results found here are consistent with the studies of Asefi-Najafabady et al (2018) and Jagarnath et al (2020), where in their study areas (CEAF and SEAF, respectively) have shown a trend toward not only a lengthening of the periods of high heat felt by population, but also an intensification of their magnitude.…”

“…This trend toward higher heat conditions over these subregions of the continent is probably induced by the projected increase in temperature which would occurs as the result of anthropogenic land use and land cover modification. In fact, the increasing demand for cropland could leads to a decrease in vegetation cover and consequently to a decrease in evapotranspiration, moisture convergence and surface roughness (Halder et al., 2015; Roy et al., 2022) which contribute to the modulation of heat stress. Furthermore, the results showed that compared to the northern part of the continent, the projected seasonality of heat stress has moderate values over southern Africa (SWAF and SEAF), with low heat categories experienced especially during the dry season (June‐September) even under the RCP8.5 scenario.…”

Hydrogeochemical Mechanism Associated with Land Use Land Cover Indices Using Geospatial, Remote Sensing Techniques, and Health Risks Model

“…However, more than four billion people live in urban areas, and it is estimated that more than two-thirds of the world's population will reside in urban areas by 2050. Land use land cover (LULC) models combine natural and social aspects of human activity in time and place [19,20]. Human activities have profoundly influenced ecosystem processes, biodiversity, hydrology, and climate in recent years, and urbanization in some locations may impact land use and soil physical and chemical qualities [21][22][23][24].…”

Anthropogenic Land Use and Land Cover Change as Potential Drivers of Sediment Sources in the Upper Crocodile River, North West Province, South Africa

“…Land use and land cover change (LULCC) contribute to land fragmentation, amplified by increased human settlement through the alteration of the natural landscape [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. This already dire situation is further exacerbated by changes in land use patterns, such as the conversion of grassland to paddies, woodland to cropland and bare land to built-up areas, which inevitably accelerate surface water pollution and hydrological connectivity, leading to sediment delivery in the river systems [ 11 , 12 ].…”

“…According to Aneseyee et al [ 13 ], LULCC are major causal drivers of soil loss in upland watersheds, indicating the transformative interaction between land use changes and land degradation. Different studies [ 9 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ] have investigated the association between LULCC, soil erosion and river contamination. However, the analysis of LULCC as causal drivers of land degradation alone cannot quantitatively distinguish the relative contributions of each type of sediment source to the overall sediment load being delivered into rivers.…”