Indicators in the study sites

Table of Contents

1. Compilers and contributors
2. Introduction
3. Climate indicators
4. Water indicators
5. Soil indicators
6. Vegetation indicators
   1. Major land use
   2. Vegetation cover type
   3. Vegetation cover
   4. Deforested area
7. Water runoff indicators
8. Forest fires indicators
9. Agriculture indicators
10. Cultivation indicators
11. Animal husbandry indicators
12. Land management indicators
13. Land use indicators
14. Water use indicators
15. Tourism indicators
16. Human characteristics indicators
17. Institutional indicators
18. Conclusions
19. References

Major land use

The land use type can be separated into two categories: (a) major land use, and (b) vegetation cover type or land utilization type. The major land use is a broad category defining general land use types such as agriculture, pastures, forests, recreation areas, etc. The land utilization type is a more detailed subdivision of the previous category defining the specific land use type such as cereals, olive groves, pine forests, etc. Major land use has been defined by: (a) simple field observation, (b) interpretation of aerial photographs or remote sensing images. The following categories of major land have been distinguished in the DESIRE project: agriculture, pasture, shrubland, forest, mining area, recreation area, and urban area.

As Table 4 shows, major land use types have been identified in 1324 field sites, corresponding to 16 study sites. The prevailing major land use type described in the study field sites was agriculture, covering 50.2% of the total sites (Fig 34). Such land use has been found in all study field sites of Rendina Basin Basilicata-Italy, and Novij Saratov-Russia, and in some cases in all the other study sites. Pasture land was the next important major land use in covering 24.9% of the study field sites. Such land use has been identified in all study sites except for Rendina Basin Basilicata-Italy, Guadalentin Basin Murcia-Spain, Novij Saratov-Russia, Cointzio catchment-Mexico, Gois-Portugal, and Mação- Portugal. Field sites under forest have been found in 11.4% of the total sites corresponding mainly to the following study sites of Rendina Basin Basilicata-Italy, Cointzio catchment-Mexico, Boteti Area-Botswana, Santiago Island-Cape Verde, Mamora Sehoul-Morocco, Guadalentin Basin Murcia-Spain, Loess Plateau-China, Gois-Portugal, nd Eskisehir-Turkey. Shrubland and other land uses have been identified in 5.3% of the study field sites found mainly in Guadalentin Basin Murcia-Spain, Gois-Portugal, and Mação- Portugal-Portugal study sites. Other land uses corresponds to areas under specific regulations such as military installations, settlement place, etc.

Fig. 34. Distribution of major land uses identified in the various study field sites