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Land Use in Advancing Agriculture PDF

404 Pages·1975·14.8 MB·English
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Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences 1 Co-ordinating Editor: B. Varon, Bet-Dagan Editors: G. W. Thomas, Lexington B.R. Sabey, Fort Collins Y. Vaadia, Bet-Dagan L. D. Van Vleck, Ithaca A.PA.Vink Land Use in Advancing Agriculture With 94 Figures and 115 Tables Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York 1975 Dr. A. P. A. VINK, Professor of Physical Geography and Soil Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ISBN-13: 978-3-642-66051-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-66049-8 001: 10.1007/978-3-642-66049-8 This work is subject to copyright. AIl rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machine or similar means, and storage in data banks. Under § 54 of the German Copyright Law where copies are made for other than private use, a fee is payable to the publisher, the amount of the fee to be determined by agreement with the publisher. © by Springer-Verlag, Berlin· Heidelberg 1975. Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1975 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data. Vink, A. P. A. Land use in advancing agriculture. (Advanced series in agricultural sciences; v. 1). Bibliography: p. . Includes index. I. Land. 2. Agriculture-Economic aspects. I. Title. II. Series. HDlll.V56 333.7'6 74-31006. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Typesetting, Printing and Binding: Brlihlsche Universitiitsdruckerei GieBen. Foreword The Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences is designed to ftll a long-felt need for advanced educational and technological books in the agricultural sciences. These texts, intended primarily for students of agriculture, should also provide up-to-date technical background reading for the many agricultural workers in extension services, educational systems, or international bodies. The editors of Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences will select key subjects relating to the agricultural environment, agricultural physics and chemistry, soil science, plant sciences, animal sciences, food technology, and agricultural engineering for a critical and synthetic appraisal. An initial theoretical presentation will be used by authors of individual volumes in the series to develop a technical approach-including examples and practical solutions- to each subject. In addressing the advanced undergraduate and early graduate student of agriculture, selected authors will present the latest information, leavened with the lessons learned from their own experience, on precise and well-defined topics. Such books that widen the horizons of the student of agriculture can serve, too, as useful reference sources for the young specialist in the early years of his career. Many specialists who are involved in teaching agricultural science are isolated from universities and research institutions. This series will bring them up-to-date scientific information, thus keeping them in touch with progress. The basic objective of Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences is to effect a structural integration of the theoretic and technical approaches to agriculture. The books will be particularly helpful to extension specialists who have an ever-present need for the latest information in the day-to-day solving of practical problems. The increasing involvement of agricultural sciences in projects in developing countries has created a demand for clear, current texts on specific problems. The texts to be published in this new series, written by specialists from different countries, should provide this profession with the appropriate tools for insuring the effectiveness of schemes for agricultural development all over the world. The normal activities of the editors of Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences center around teaching and research, not publishing. It was our awareness of the scarcity of advanced texts that led us to accept Springer-Verlag's invitation to enter this field and to devote time to writing. We hope our endeavors will be met by the understanding of our colleagues-both scientists and teachers-and we hope that they will cooperate with us by using Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences in the way we envisage, so making a useful contribution to agriculture. The Editors Preface The Netherlands school of soil scientists has always had particular interest in the relationship between land use and land resources. Nearly thirty years ago the late Professor C. H. EDELMAN wrote a book in Dutch on Socio-Economic Soil Science. In 1963 the present author published Aspects de Pedologie Appliquee (A la Baconniere, Neuchatel, Switzerland). Our knowledge of the resources aspects of land use has since then grown continuously, thanks in particular to the work ofthe Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ofthe United Nations in Rome. This knowledge crystallized in the FA 0 Expert Consultation on Land Evaluation, held at Wageningen in 1972. Latterly, the ecological aspects of land use and land resources have received increasing attention. This interest was much stimulated by the activities of the Division for Natural Resources Research of UNESCO, Paris, who sponsored the International Symposium on Integrated Surveys and Environmental Management in Developing Countries, held at the lTC/UNESCO Centre, Enschede, in 1972. The request to the author to write the present book, made by Dr. BRUNO YA RON on behalf of editors and publishers, therefore came at a propitious moment. There are still many problems to be solved in the relationship between land use and land resources, but at least we have reached a stage at which a coherent text can be written. I am very grateful for this opportunity, which has enabled me to make use of nearly thirty years' experience in this field of study, experience obtained in various parts of the world. Agriculture is continuously advancing toward economic and social goals in accordance with the demands of human society. To this end, old and new technologies are being applied to the various kinds of land resources. A careful study of the kinds of land use and of the various resources involves a variety of methods of research and evaluation. Land management provides the means for maintaining a sound ecological balance together with optimal fulfillment of human demands. For a successful outcome, land use and land management have to be well adapted to the land resources and to the ecological conditions. Land improvement provides a further means of adapting land resources to human demand. It is impossible to acknowledge in a personal manner the contributions made to this work by the many people with whom I had contact during this period. In a general manner I thank here most sincerely the farmers of the Netherlands, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Cameroun, Ruanda, Tunisia, Iraq, Switzerland and Italy, from whom I probably learned more than from anybody else. I also thank my colleagues from these countries as well as from F AO and UNESCO and from Belgium, Iran, Egypt, Portugal, Scotland, England, Ireland, France, the German VIII Preface Democratic Republic, the German Federal Republic, Israel, and the United States. A special word of thanks goes to my former colleagues at the Netherlands Soil Survey Institute and at the Agricultural University, Wageningen, as well as at the International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences (lTC), Enschede. My present cooperation with staff and students of the Laboratory for Physical Geography and Soil Science of the University of Amsterdam, has considerably increased my insight into the subject and was therefore indispensable for the writing of this book. Finally, I would like to mention by name a few persons who deserve my special thanks: the late Professor C. H. EDELMAN (Wageningen Agricultural University), Professor W. SCHERMERHORN (lTC), Dr. D. L. BRAMAO and Dr. R. DUDAL (FAO), Professor V. KOVDA (Moscow University), and Monsieur M. BATISSE (UNESCO). Special thanks go also to all those who permitted me to use illustrative material from their publications. Without the help and encouragement I received from the publisher and editors as well as from the administrative and secretarial staff of our laboratory, the attempt to write this book would probably not have succeeded. Without the work of our drawing office, the production of the figures would have constituted a major problem. I thank them all most sincerely. Amsterdam, January 1975 A. P. A. VINK Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1 1.2 Anthropological, Historical, and Institutional Aspects of Land Use 3 1.3 Resources-Aspects of Land Use 7 1.4 Present and Potential Land Use ............... 15 Chapter 2: Land Use Surveys 2.1 Principles of Land Use Surveys 17 2.2 Various Kinds of Land Use Surveys 18 2.3 Modern Survey Techniques 26 Chapter 3: Land Utilization Types 3.1 General ............. . 35 3.2 Agricultural Land Utilization Types 44 3.3 Typology of Agricultural Land Utilization 53 3.4 Non-Agricultural Land Utilization Types 58 Chapter 4: Land Resources 4.1 General Introduction 66 4.2 Climate, Geology, Relief 70 4.2.1 Climate ...... . 70 4.2.2 Geology and Relief 84 4.3 Soil and Water Resources 91 4.3.1 Soils . . . . . . . . 91 4.3.2 Water Conditions · 110 4.4 Other Land Resources 122 4.4.1 Artifactial Resources 122 4.4.2 Vegetation Resources 128 Chapter 5: Landscape Ecology and Land Conditions 5.1 General ...... . 131 5.2 Landscape Ecology 133 5.3 Land Resources Surveys 136 5.4 Land Use Requirements 145 5.4.1 Cultural Ecosystems as Dynamic Complexes · 145 5.4.2 Crop Requirements ......... . · 146 x Contents 5.4.3 Land Management Requirements ...... . · 152 5.4.4 Crop Responses to Management: Land Productivity · 155 5.4.5 Land Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . · 168 5.4.6 Requirements of Non-Agricultural Land Utilization Types · 177 5.5 Land Conditions · 196 5.5.1 Land Qualities · 196 5.5.2 Land Limitations .209 5.5.3 Land Improvement .211 5.5.4 Irrigation . . . . .220 Chapter 6: Land Evaluation 6.1 General .............. . .234 6.2 Actual Land Suitability and Soil Suitability .238 6.3 Potential Land Suitability .254 6.4 Land Evaluation Classifications .280 6.5 Land Evaluation Procedures .295 6.5.1 General ........ . .295 6.5.2 Land Resources Interpretation .298 6.5.3 The Intersector Approach · 318 Chapter 7: Development of Land Use in Advancing Agriculture 7.1 General ................ . .327 7.2 Land Use Improvement and Land Improvement · 332 7.3 New Land Utilization Types ..... · 353 7.4 Economic and Ecological Considerations · 358 References . .370 Subject Index · 383 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Definitions Land use is any kind of permanent or cyclic human intervention to satisfy human needs, either material or spiritual or both, from the complex of natural and artifactial resources which together are called "land". In this sense, true nomads with no fixed habitat do not practice land use; they do not systematically apply their energies to any specific tract of land, and they themselves are a natural part of an ecosystem, as are other living organisms. Land carries ecosystems; land use is the application of human controls, in a relatively systematic manner, to the key elements within any ecosystem, in order to derive benefit from it. Man, although an inherent part of the ecosystem in which he lives, places himself to some extent outside the system and tries to manipulate it. He may do this in a very intensive manner, as is seen in the paddy cultures of Asia or in the horticultural cultures of Western Europe, or in a very extensive manner, e.g. the semi-nomadic peoples of Mrica. Hunting which is practiced as systematic game-cropping on specific areas of land falls into the category of land use. Although it is often the most extensive (low input) form of land use, it fulfills the essential qualification that man system- atically applies his technological know-how to derive the required benefits. The same holds true for wildlife conservation, carried out systematically either for purposes of recreation or because man perceives that he cannot exist without obtaining a sufficiently steady state in his cultural ecosystems. Land, being the carrier of those ecosystems which provide the most benefits to mankind, is the over-all natural resource. A resource is there to be used, and use takes place in specific areas and at specific localities. Although land may be viewed from a broad, holistic concept in natural science, its use always involves specific surface areas; land is therefore a truly geographical concept. The land as we see it today is in many areas the result of a combination of both its natural genesis and the human influences which have been brought to bear on it in the past and of those which are still active in the present. The human influences may be the result of positive human action, such as the construction of polders with dikes and pumping stations; it may also be the result of human negligence or lack of knowledge and foresight, as is seen in many severely eroded areas of the world and in areas covered by human, mainly industrial, refuse. Land is a dynamic concept; it carries ecosystems, but is itself also a part of these ecosystems. One of its main components, the soil, is itself a complex ecosys- tem containing animals and plants of different sizes and activities. Natural proc- esses occurring in the land derive energy from the sun as well as from mineral and biological sources. Relief, which is one source of energy, i.e., the energy provided 2 Chapter 1: Introduction by differences in height, is a specific attribute of the land surface. Land, although tending towards a steady state, is therefore never truly stable. The land, viewed as landscape, as observed today by both visual and other methods of perception, may achieve near stability from certain points of view, but this stability is the result of complex interactions of a multitude of phenomena and processes. We try to use this for our own ends and hope to induce those kinds of near-stability which will benefit us most on a long-term basis (CHORLEY and KENNEDY, 1971). The best definition of land therefore is one which involves the geographical aspects of "a tract ofland" and reads: "A tract ofland is defined geographically as a specific area of the earth's surface; its characteristics embrace all reasonably stable, or predictably cyclic attributes of the biosphere vertically above and below this area including those of the atmosphere, the soil and underlying rocks, the topography, the water, the plant and animal populations and the results of past and present human activity, to the extent that these attributes exert a significant influence on present and future uses ofthe land by man." (Adapted from BRINK- MAN and SMYTH, 1973, and CHRISTIAN and STEWART in REY et aI., 1968.) This definition obviously includes all land resources, both natural and man- made, of a clearly permanent or cyclic nature. Vegetation and animal popula- tions, both natural and man-induced, are definitely included. Permanent artificial structures such as dikes, canals, metalled roads or stable terraces are also consi- dered a part of the land. Several institutional factors, however, are not included. Thus, a distinction must here be made. The concept of land as a natural resource does not include the institutional aspects; scientists adhering mainly to this con- ceptual approach prefer to include institutional aspects with the land utilization type. Land as a "tract", i.e. as a geographically defined specific area, does include the permanent or cyclic institutional attributes. Thus, the general field pattern and the system of ownership of a particular tract of land are attributes of the land itself, because they are relatively permanent. Whether a particular individual is at a certain moment the owner of a tract, which may be a subdivision of the above- mentioned one, is not an attribute of the land, because in many social systems ownership may be changed by a simple deed. National and administrative bound- aries, also relatively permanent, are attributes of the land as well. In some cases they may even have a marked influence on the resources of the land, as in water- districts of the Netherlands, boundaries have determined throughout the centu- ries all matters pertaining to drainage. In land development planning as well as in environmental management, these attributes often are highly significant: they offer both resources and limitations which may have to be adapted by rural reconstruction, in order to use the land to its best advantage. The concept of "land use" is often considered a relatively stable subject, re- lated mainly to the use to which the land in a certain region at a certain time is put. One might infer this, for example, from the World Land Use surveys made under the aegis of the International Geographic Union and under the guidance of the late Sir Dudley Stamp, although the latter certainly did not mean this to be concluded from his work. Land use is the result of a continuous field of tension created between available resources and human needs and acted upon by human efforts. Some resources--climate and relief-are not readily responsive to human intervention and therefore induce a tendency towards stability. Other resources

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