Modeling deforestation in Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, Lilongwe, Malawi: a multi-agent simulation approach

Munthali, Kondwani Godwin; Murayama, Yuji

doi:10.1007/s10708-014-9592-4

Cited by 20 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Mzimba North comprises nine Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) as follows: Bwengu, Emsizini, Engucwini, Euthini, Malidade, Mpherembe, Mbalachanda, Njuyu and Zombwe. An EPA is an agricultural administrative unit that implements central government agricultural policies through dissemination of good farming methods to farmers through extension services on a one-on-one visitation basis (Munthali, 2013). The EPAs in Mzimba North are further subdivided into 79 sections (Mzimba North District Agriculture Office, 2016).…”

Section: Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in developing countries

Phiri

Chipeta

Chawinga

2018

Information Development

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The purpose of the study was to investigate the information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in Mzimba North in Malawi. A mixed methods approach was adopted for the study and the Wilson’s Model of Information Behaviour (1996) guided the study. A questionnaire and focus group discussion guide were used to collect data from 202 rural smallholder farmers. The study found that the major information need of rural smallholder farmers was crop husbandry as revealed by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 149 (77.6). The study found that majority of rural smallholder farmers 180 (94.8%) were aware of information sources. The study also found that the predominant information sources consulted by rural smallholder farmers were personal experiences as indicated by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 185 (96%). The major challenge faced by rural smallholder farmers was lack of mobility as revealed by the majority of rural smallholder farmers 147 (76.6). The study recommends that the Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES) should empower the social structures such as families in rural settings with agricultural information.

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Section: Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in developing countries

Phiri

Chipeta

Chawinga

2018

Information Development

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“…Despite that several studies have been done on LULC changes in Malawi [13][14][15][16][17][18], comprehensive studies on urban LULC change in Malawi's cities remain scarce, as such, the understanding of urbanisation is primarily based on population figures only. This inadequacy of LULC change information constrains effective economic and environmental planning, resulting in uninformed policy decisions [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Urban Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Blantyre City, Southern Malawi (1994–2018)

2020

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Rapid and unplanned urban growth has adverse environmental and social consequences. This is prominent in sub-Saharan Africa where the urbanisation rate is high and characterised by the proliferation of informal settlements. It is, therefore, crucial that urban land use/land cover (LULC) changes be investigated in order to enhance effective planning and sustainable growth. In this paper, the spatial and temporal LULC changes in Blantyre city were studied using the integration of remotely sensed Landsat imageries of 1994, 2007 and 2018, and a geographic information system (GIS). The supervised classification method using the support vector machine algorithm was applied to generate the LULC maps. The study also analysed the transition matrices derived from the classified map to identify prominent processes of changes for planning prioritisation. The results showed that the built-up class, which included urban structures such as residential, industrial, commercial and public installations, increased in the 24-year study period. On the contrary, bare land, which included vacant lands, open spaces with little or no vegetation, hilly clear-cut areas and other fallow land, declined over the study period. This was also the case with the vegetation class (i.e., forests, parks, permanent tree-covered areas and shrubs). The post-classification results revealed that the LULC changes during the second period (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018) were faster compared to the first period (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). Furthermore, the results revealed that the increase in built-up areas systematically targeted the bare land and avoided the vegetated areas, and that the vegetated areas were systematically cleared to bare land during the study period . The findings of this study have revealed the pressure of human activities on the land and natural environment in Blantyre and provided the basis for sustainable urban planning and development in Blantyre city.

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“…Entities are not reduced to the system's parts: the whole is more than the sum of its parts because of the interactions between the parts; an emergent phenomenon can have properties that are decoupled from the properties of the part [12]. 'Emergence' is a phenomenon at one level that constitutes the units of interaction, or drivers of change, at a higher level [13]. A good example of emergent phenomena is traffic congestion, which results from the behaviour of and interactions between individual vehicle drivers, and their surroundings.…”

Section: Agent-based Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing Road Traffic Situation in Lilongwe: An Agent Based Modelling (ABM) Approach

Sibale

Munthali

2021

Adv. J. Grad. Res.

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A 15, 451 km road network forms the main mode of transport for Malawi with 26 % paved. With increasing number of vehicles and elongated travel times during rush hour the study analysed the traffic situation on the M1 road between Mchinji and Area 18 roundabouts in Lilongwe City using an agent-based model (ABM). The methodology used game theory’s traffic grip model to analyse traffic flow by controlling traffic variables such as lights, speed limits and the number of vehicles. Each intersection was treated as non-cooperative game where each agent tried to minimize its queue resulting into Q−Nash’s equilibrium as the solution. The ABM tested the empirical relationships of traffic flow parameters in terms of density, ﬂow, acceleration, deceleration, speed, time lost in traffic congestion and fuel consumption. The model was calibrated using traffic data collected through observing 1,312 vehicles sampled against 24,977. The observation results from the road junctions reveal that on average, a vehicle takes 20 mins 18 seconds, 37 minutes 6 seconds, 44 minutes 21 seconds and 58 minutes 53 seconds to exit Chitukuko, Bwandilo, Chilambula roads and Area 18 roundabout respectively upon entering the M1 at Mchinji roundabout. This data was then used to calibrate the business-as-usual model for the peak hour scenario for the road junctions. The model results show that a selected vehicle entering Chitukuko junction travels at an average speed of 22.60 km/hr, until it exits that junction. On average the selected motorists spend 2.52 l/km with a traffic density of 72 v/km. If dualized average speeds improved to 41.54 km/hr while the traffic density declined to 54.42 v/km, saving motorists MK 3,921,624.00 annually. The predictive model of the dual carriage informed that by 2021, commuters will spend MK 5,187,168 on fuel more than single-lane business as usual scenario of 2019.

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Modeling deforestation in Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, Lilongwe, Malawi: a multi-agent simulation approach

Cited by 20 publications

References 19 publications

Information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in developing countries

Information needs and barriers of rural smallholder farmers in developing countries

An Analysis of Urban Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Blantyre City, Southern Malawi (1994–2018)

Analysing Road Traffic Situation in Lilongwe: An Agent Based Modelling (ABM) Approach

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