Land suitability, water balance and agricultural technology as a Geographic-Technological Index to support regional planning and economic studies

Fontes, Maurício Paulo Ferreira; Fontes, Rosa; Carneiro, Patrício Aureliano Silva

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2008.08.010

Cited by 31 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Inequalities in income and natural resource distribution among the states of Brazil are so prominent that they cannot be ignored as potentially important factors driving foreign investments [19,20]. As a consequence, the most relevant scale to understand land-grabbing dynamics in Brazil is the subnational scale, while analysis at the national scale refers to a highly heterogeneous socio-ecological and economic system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of Land-Grabbing on the Ecological Balance of Brazil

et al. 2018

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Abstract:In the global free-market, natural resource scarcity and opportunities for preserving the local environment are fostering international purchasing of large extensions of land, mainly for agricultural use. These land transactions often involve land cover change (i.e., through deforestation) or a shift from extensive or traditional to intensive agricultural practices. In Brazil, the land appropriation by foreign investors (i.e., the so-called "land-grabbing") is affecting natural capital availability for local communities to a different extent in the very different territorial entities. At the same time, Brazilian investors are purchasing land in other countries. Ecological footprint accounting is one appropriate lens that can be employed to visualize the aggregated effect of natural capital appropriation and use. The aim of this paper is to provide a first estimate on the effect of land-grabbing on the ecological balance of Brazil through calculating the biocapacity embodied in purchased lands in the different states of Brazil. The results show that Brazil is losing between 9 to 9.3 million global hectares (on a gross basis, or a net total of 7.7 to 8.6 million of global hectares) of its biocapacity due to land-grabbing, when considering respectively a "cropland to cropland" (i.e., no land-cover change) and a "total deforestation" scenario. This represents a minimum estimate, highlighting the need for further land-grabbing data collection at the subnational scale. This analysis can be replicated for other countries of the world, adjusting their ecological balance by considering the biocapacity embodied in international transactions of land.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of Land-Grabbing on the Ecological Balance of Brazil

et al. 2018

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“…Although quantitative methods for land evaluation have also been developed (e.g. Janssen et al, 1990;Van Lanen et al, 1992;Nogu es et al, 2000;De La Rosa & Van Diepen, 2002;Zhang et al, 2004), qualitative methods are still widely used (Recatal a & Zinck, 2008;Fontes et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the FAO traditional land evaluation methods, A case study: Iranian Land Classification method

Bodaghabadi

Martínez‐Casasnovas

Khakili³

et al. 2015

Soil Use and Management

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Land evaluation is a critical step in land-use planning. Although many methods have been developed since the formulation of the FAO framework for land evaluation, several of the more traditional approaches still remain in widespread use but have not been adequately evaluated. Contrary to more recent land evaluation systems, which need considerable data, these systems only require basic soil and landscape information to provide a general view of land suitability for major types of land use. As the FAO initially presented its qualitative framework for land-use planning, based on two previous methods developed in Iran and Brazil, in this study we assessed the reliability and accuracy of a traditional land evaluation method used in Iran, called land classification for irrigation (LCI), comparing its results with several qualitative and quantitative methods and actual yield values. The results showed that, although simpler than more recently developed methods, LCI provided reliable land suitability classes and also showed good relationships both with other methods analysed and with actual yields. Comparisons between qualitative and quantitative methods produced similar results for common crops (a barley-alfalfa-wheat-fallow rotation). However, these methods performed differently for opportunist crops (such as alfalfa) that are more dependent on income and market conditions than on land characteristics. In this work, we also suggest that using the FAO method to indicate LCI subclasses could help users or managers to recognize limitations for land-use planning.

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“…This has resulted in increasing land transformation, predominantly from farm land to commercial/constructed land (Sullivan and Lovell, 2006;Thapa and Murayama, 2008). There has been a lot of research in the field of land-use assessment in order to determine the optimal distribution of land use/cover (Fontes et al, 2009). However, land suitability evaluation characteristics vary between regions, and to be practical, they must not become overly complicated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%