Natural Resources Management

1. An Assignment on
Framework for understanding land-use/cover situations
Course Title: Natural Resources Management
Course Code: DS 3103
SUBMITTED TO:
Md. Ashikuzzaman
Lecturer
Development Studies Discipline
Khulna University
SUBMITTED BY:
Md. Ayatullah Khan
Student ID: 152119
3rd
Year; 1st
Term
Development Studies Discipline
Khulna University
Date of Submission: October 17, 2017

2. Discussion on Framework for understanding land-use/cover situations
Land cover is the biophysical state of the earth’s surface and immediate subsurface. In other
words, land cover is meant the physical, chemical, or biological categorization of the terrestrial
surface, such as- grassland, forest, or concrete. On the other hand land use refers to the human
purposes that are associated with that cover, such as- raising cattle, recreation, or urban living.
The framework for understanding land-use/cover situations shows an example of an arrow
model. It illustrates land cover changes as a system that must be seen as involving the interaction
of humanity and the environment or as a socio-ecological system. It makes clear that there is a
strong need to consider both social and biophysical factors. The framework shows the central
role of land managers and emphasizes the importance of feedback. The land managers mainly
focused on three important factors, such as- society, economy and environment. It shows that
everything is connected and influenced by each other. All the arrows are double headed or
involve feedback. The final output of the framework is shown as land cover.

3. Land use relates with land cover in various ways and affects it with various implications. A
single land use may correspond fairly well to a single land cover. On the other hand, a single
class of cover may support multiple uses (forest used for combinations of timbering,
hunting/gathering, fuel wood collection, recreation, wildlife preserve, watershed and soil
protection), and a single system of use may involve the maintenance of several distinct covers (as
certain farming systems combine cultivate land). The model represents the basic circumstances,
processes and progression of land-cover changes and provides a breakdown of the drivers
determining land cover into social, direct and biophysical sources. In this model, land-cover
stands in a systematic relationship to land use and the causes of its utilization.
The bio-physical drivers include the different characteristics and processes of the natural
environment, for example- weather and climate variations, landform, geomorphic processes,
volcanic eruptions, plant succession, soil types and processes, drainage patterns and availability
of natural resources. The socio-economic drivers comprise with the demographic, social,
economic, political and institutional factors It is the processes which include population and
population change, industrial structure and change, technology and technological change, the
market, various public sector bodies and the related policies and rules, values, community
organization and norms, property regime. The relationship between bio-physical and socio-
economic drivers and other components of the land use-cover system are sketched in the
framework for understanding land-use/cover situations. It describes that the bio-physical drivers
usually do not cause land use change directly. Mostly, they are the causes of land-cover change
which may influence the land use decisions of land owners/managers (e.g. no farming on
marginal lands). The role of biophysical drivers in affecting land cover change is intermediated
by socio-economic drivers, mainly through influencing the response of land owners/managers
land-cover change. Land use changes may result in land cover changes which may feedback on
land use decisions.
The impacts of land use change are broadly categorized into environmental and socio-economic
aspects. The environmental and the socio-economic impacts are closely interrelated to each other
which then feedback to potentially causing successive rounds of land use change. The impacts of
land use change are usually distinguished according to the spatial level where they manifest
themselves into global, regional and local impacts. The terms global, regional and local do not
have a precise physical meaning in studies of land use change which is especially regards as the
regional and local levels. Land use-cover change impacts are the basic to another class of
environmental changes which can be regarded as global in reach.
Societal driving forces determine which needs have to be satisfied the various land-uses. The
manipulation applies either to the change or the retention of the existing land cover. The ecologic
consequences of the use of land covers impact the original driving forces by their effect on the
environment. The changes in land cover can also reproduce themselves at other places which
affects the local physical systems.

4. Technological factors condition land-use decisions by influencing the profits accruing to land
managers. The availability of new technologies can be applied to land affect significantly the
productivity of labor and capital employed. The rate of adoption of available technologies by
land managers influences the potential for land use changes of some kind. In a broader sense,
knowledge resources that land managers possess or are able to obtain (e.g., technical assistance)
largely affect land-use decisions.
Although land managers may make direct decisions on biophysical and socio-economic factors
operating on higher, aggregate, spatial and organizational levels, it exert a significant influence
on both local land-use change and the patterns of changes observed on regional and higher
levels.
References:
Turner, B. L., Meyer, W. B., & Skole, D. L. (1995). Global land-use/land-cover change:
towards an integrated study. Ambio. Stockholm. Allen Press on behalf of Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences.
Briassoulis, H. (2009). Factors influencing land-use and land-cover change. Land cover, land use
and the global change, encyclopaedia of life support systems (EOLSS), 1, 126-146.
Lambin, E. F., & Geist, H. J. (Eds.). (2008). Land-use and land-cover change: local processes
and global impacts. Springer Science & Business Media.
Alexa L., Brillinger M., & Steffen P. (2014). Global Land-Use Analysis - Ecologic Institute.
Institute for Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry & Federal Environmental Agency.