{"title":"Effect Of Land-Use Changes On Landscape Fragmentation: The Case Of Ramallah Area In Central Palestine","authors":"Mohammad Muhsen, A. Hammad, Mustapha Elhannani","doi":"10.24057/2071-9388-2022-136","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The urban sprawl of cities periphery is one of such changes that has led to drastic land-use changes, which resulted in landscape fragmentation. The objective of this study is to understand the process of landscape fragmentation because of urban expansion; identifying the most influential drivers that have changed the land-use. To achieve the objectives due to changes in land use, a study had conducted in Ramallah area of Palestine. The study utilized Fragstat software to quantify the landscape changes with regard to its pattern and structure through a number of indices, also using Geographic Information System tool to draw up different landscape parcels spatially with its characteristics. The spatial analysis carried out on the land-use change used the 1997 and 2017 aerial photos to quantify the landscape fragmentation, which included a variety of land-uses. Over 52% of the study area underwent noticeable urbanization process, resulting in appreciable landscape changes to the area, especially after 1993. The statistical analysis of the landscape fragmentation revealed significant changes in land-use during the period from 1997 to 2017; the green landscape has been fragmented at a large scale by increasing the number of landscape patches (from 71 to 148 patches). As a result, there was an obvious reduction in agricultural lands, such as olive groves and grassland. At the same time, the urban surface areas increased from 654 patches in 1997 to 2019 patches in 2017. These results indicate that the landscape has become more fragmented due to geopolitical and socio-economic drivers since mid-1995 after Oslo accord.","PeriodicalId":37517,"journal":{"name":"Geography, Environment, Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Geography, Environment, Sustainability","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.24057/2071-9388-2022-136","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Agricultural and Biological Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The urban sprawl of cities periphery is one of such changes that has led to drastic land-use changes, which resulted in landscape fragmentation. The objective of this study is to understand the process of landscape fragmentation because of urban expansion; identifying the most influential drivers that have changed the land-use. To achieve the objectives due to changes in land use, a study had conducted in Ramallah area of Palestine. The study utilized Fragstat software to quantify the landscape changes with regard to its pattern and structure through a number of indices, also using Geographic Information System tool to draw up different landscape parcels spatially with its characteristics. The spatial analysis carried out on the land-use change used the 1997 and 2017 aerial photos to quantify the landscape fragmentation, which included a variety of land-uses. Over 52% of the study area underwent noticeable urbanization process, resulting in appreciable landscape changes to the area, especially after 1993. The statistical analysis of the landscape fragmentation revealed significant changes in land-use during the period from 1997 to 2017; the green landscape has been fragmented at a large scale by increasing the number of landscape patches (from 71 to 148 patches). As a result, there was an obvious reduction in agricultural lands, such as olive groves and grassland. At the same time, the urban surface areas increased from 654 patches in 1997 to 2019 patches in 2017. These results indicate that the landscape has become more fragmented due to geopolitical and socio-economic drivers since mid-1995 after Oslo accord.
期刊介绍:
Journal “GEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY” is founded by the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University, The Russian Geographical Society and by the Institute of Geography of RAS. It is the official journal of Russian Geographical Society, and a fully open access journal. Journal “GEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY” publishes original, innovative, interdisciplinary and timely research letter articles and concise reviews on studies of the Earth and its environment scientific field. This goal covers a broad spectrum of scientific research areas (physical-, social-, economic-, cultural geography, environmental sciences and sustainable development) and also considers contemporary and widely used research methods, such as geoinformatics, cartography, remote sensing (including from space), geophysics, geochemistry, etc. “GEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY” is the only original English-language journal in the field of geography and environmental sciences published in Russia. It is supposed to be an outlet from the Russian-speaking countries to Europe and an inlet from Europe to the Russian-speaking countries regarding environmental and Earth sciences, geography and sustainability. The main sections of the journal are the theory of geography and ecology, the theory of sustainable development, use of natural resources, natural resources assessment, global and regional changes of environment and climate, social-economical geography, ecological regional planning, sustainable regional development, applied aspects of geography and ecology, geoinformatics and ecological cartography, ecological problems of oil and gas sector, nature conservations, health and environment, and education for sustainable development. Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse.