Drivers of Long-Term Land-Use Pressure in the Merguellil Wadi, Tunisia, Using DPSIR Approach and Remote Sensing

Abstract

Increasing land use pressure is a primary force for degradation of agricultural areas. The drivers for these pressures are initiated by a series of interconnected processes. This study presents a novel methodology to analyze drivers of changing land use pressure and the effects on society and landscape. The focus was on characterizing these drivers and relate them to land use statistics obtained from geospatial data from the important semiarid Merguellil Wadi between 1976 and 2016. Cause-and-effect relationships between different drivers of land use change were analyzed using the DPSIR approach. Results show that during the 40-year period cultivated land increased and wetland areas decreased substantially. Drivers for change were pressure from economic development, cultivation practices, and hydro-agricultural techniques. This leads to stress on water and soil resulting in soil erosion, poverty increase, and rural exodus. We show that hydro-agricultural techniques adapted to the semiarid climate, allocation of land property rights, resource allocation, and improved marketing of agricultural products can help rural residents to diversify their economy, and thus better preserve the fragile semiarid landscape. Results of this study can be used to ensure sustainable management of water and soil resources in areas with similar climate and socio-economic conditions.

Revealing the Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Obstacles of Ecological Security in the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Region, China

“…It can effectively capture social, economic, human, and environmental factors and retrieve the relationship between multiple factors to comprehensively evaluate regional ecology and environment [14]. The DPSIR model fully reveals the causal relationship between the environment and human activities, providing a clear and simple framework for the research and evaluation of human activities and resource and environmental sustainability [35]. Based on the development characteristics of the XZQR, a clear index layer is constructed (Figure 3).…”

“…Factors affecting ecological security include economic, social, environmental, resource-related, and demographic factors, and each of them is interdependent and interrelated. The selection principle is mainly to consider the requirements of the DPSIR model, the current ecological environment of the study area, data availability, and previous relevant studies [24,[35][36][37]. Firstly, the common indexes of the DPSIR subsystem, which are widely recognized, relatively significant, and have local characteristics, are summarized.…”

Driving Force Analysis of Natural Wetland in Northeast Plain Based on SSA-XGBoost Model

“…The complement of road networks and typical land types (dryland, paddy field, woodland, grassland) can effectively compensate for the shortcomings of traditional driving factors [41]. They can be used not only to analyze past utilization patterns of natural wetlands but also to capture information on spatial and temporal changes of natural wetlands, which is very suitable for the quantitative evaluation of the contribution of multiple factors to wetland change [42]. Notably, the drivers of wetland change often exhibit significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity.…”

A Review of Ecosystem Services Based on Bibliometric Analysis: Progress, Challenges, and Future Directions

“…They regard ES as inexhaustible free public services. Human activities, such as agricultural and animal husbandry development, water resources development, engineering construction and environmental pollution [12][13][14], have been associated with several problems, such as wetland shrinkage, desertification, and water environment degradation. Overconsumption of ES leads to their gradual scarcity and degradation of their functions, which in turn affect human well-being in the long term [15,16].…”