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Land
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Water in Land System Science
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Water in Land System Science

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 April 2024) | Viewed by 8598

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jacqueline M. Vadjunec

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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4073, USA
Interests: human dimensions of global environmental change; common property theory; resource management; cultural and political ecology; mixed and participatory research methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Todd Fagin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory / Oklahoma Biological Survey, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
Interests: landscape ecology; biogeography; land use/land cover change; historical vegetation reconstructions; small unmanned aerial systems; drought; grasslands; species distribution modeling; participatory research; GIS; spatial databases
Dr. Thomas Lavanchy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Interests: human-environment interactions; hydrology; sustainability; water security; environmental justice; West African Sahel
Dr. Kate Zeigler

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Zeigler Geologic Consulting, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA
Interests: geohydrology; groundwater resource management; agricultural land use strategies; groundwater sustainability
Dr. Bruce Hoagland

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability and Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
Interests: vegetation classification and mapping; analysis of plant species distributions; reconstruction of historical vegetation, and floristic surveys

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

While ground and surface water are an integral part of land systems, stronger integrations of land and water dynamics are needed for the development of a more robust Land System Science (LSS). Water access and use directly impacts land managers and their livelihoods, especially agriculturalists. At the same time, water use has profound impacts on local biodiversity and riparian vegetation, including the health of watersheds and the proliferation of invasive and nuisance species. These dynamics, in turn, further impact land managers. In this Special Issue, we argue that a deeper integration of land and water dynamics is needed in LSS.

We are interested in contributions that intimately link LSS studies to biophysical processes directly related to water (i.e., geohydrology, biodiversity studies, restoration ecology, etc.), while also interested in the social science aspects of changing water resources, use, and/or policy. We ask authors to engage with water in tangible, material, and/or ecological ways. Contributions to the Special Issue can be through either empirical research or conceptual/theoretical works, examining any key processes, including but not limited to:

  • Land-use/land-cover change, especially agricultural production and adaptation;
  • Considerations for ground and surface water in LSS;
  • Water and biodiversity dynamics, such as invasives, riparian vegetation, etc.;
  • Livelihood vulnerability and resilience surrounding water use, rights, policies, and access;
  • Considerations for incorporating hydrogeology into LSS approaches;
  • Inequality and/or difference in water resources such as gender, race, class, and ethnicity;
  • Water and land networks and telecouplings;
  • Rural to urban, transboundary, and multiscalar linkages and challenges.

Contributions at the intersection of land system science and hydrogeology are especially welcome. However, we are also interested in contributions from other human–environment fields that are at the forefront of the water–land–people nexus. Regional and scalar diversity in contributions is also highly desired.

Proposed titles and abstracts (250 words) should be submitted by 23 April 2021 to the guest editor, [email protected] for feedback and consideration of possible inclusion in the Special Issue.

Please note: To more fully develop the ideas behind the Special Issue, selected and invited manuscripts will first go through internal review, before going through external review. We therefore expect a slower turnaround than the normal Land timeframe, with an expectation that the entire Special Issue would be finished by spring 2022, although articles will be published on a rolling basis as accepted.

Dr. Jacqueline M. Vadjunec
Dr. Todd Fagin
Dr. Thomas Lavanchy
Dr. Kate Zeigler
Dr. Bruce Hoagland
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience
  • Biodiversity
  • Ground and surface water
  • Hydrogeology
  • Land system science
  • Livelihoods
  • Networks and telecouplings
  • Scale
  • Water access, use, and policy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

31 pages, 7534 KiB  
Article
Lessons from the Archives: Understanding Historical Agricultural Change in the Southern Great Plains
by Georgina Belem Carrasco Galvan, Jacqueline M. Vadjunec and Todd D. Fagin
Land 2024, 13(2), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13020196 - 06 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1550
Abstract
In the US, agriculture rapidly expanded beginning in the 1850s, influenced by homesteader policies and new technologies. With increased production also came widespread land-use/land-cover change. We analyze historical agricultural policies and associated land and water use trajectories with a focus on the Southern [...] Read more.
In the US, agriculture rapidly expanded beginning in the 1850s, influenced by homesteader policies and new technologies. With increased production also came widespread land-use/land-cover change. We analyze historical agricultural policies and associated land and water use trajectories with a focus on the Southern Great Plains (SGPs). Rapid changes in agriculture and reoccurring drought led to the infamous Dust Bowl, triggering new agricultural and land management policies, with lasting impacts on the landscape. To understand historical agricultural change, we use mixed methods, including archival literature and historical agricultural census data (1910 to 2017) from three counties in a tri-state (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado) area of the SGPs. Our archival policy and agricultural census analysis illustrates 110 years of agricultural change, showing that agricultural policies and technological advances play an integral role in the development of agroecological systems, especially the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP). Further, while communities began with distinct agricultural practices, agricultural policy development resulted in increasing uniformity in crop and livestock practices. The results suggest that there are sustainability lessons to be learned by looking to the land and water trajectories and accompanying unintended consequences of the past. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water in Land System Science)
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19 pages, 2674 KiB  
Article
Living by the Symbolic River: Landscape Effects of Post-Industrial Water Narratives of the Susquehanna River
by Ben Marsh
Land 2023, 12(2), 264; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020264 - 17 Jan 2023
Viewed by 3769
Abstract
This paper examines ways in which human values toward surface water, especially large rivers, are relevant to land-use decisions in the watersheds. The study’s focus is the symbolic riverscape constructed by residents local to the Susquehanna River at the confluence of its branches [...] Read more.
This paper examines ways in which human values toward surface water, especially large rivers, are relevant to land-use decisions in the watersheds. The study’s focus is the symbolic riverscape constructed by residents local to the Susquehanna River at the confluence of its branches in central Pennsylvania. The main analytical tool is the cultural landscape, a conceptualization of the ways in which alteration of the physical world is the product of human value systems. The paper traces the symbolic weights apparent in discourses about the Susquehanna River with regard to environmental use and abuse in the watershed, through qualitative analysis of public expressions of meaning and valuation. The conclusions emphasize an evolution of the meaning of the river toward a central role as an integral and intricate part of the human experience on the landscape, rather than its earlier role as one functional part of the economic system. Land-use actions consonant with that new value are now favored. This work is offered to suggest that land system science, which is highly effective in understanding altered natural systems and their consequences, can benefit from a fuller engagement with more-intimate human aspects of landscape such as symbols, meaning, and narrative. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water in Land System Science)
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15 pages, 1640 KiB  
Article
Response of Surface Runoff and Sediment to the Conversion of a Marginal Grassland to a Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) Bioenergy Feedstock System
by Chris B. Zou, Lixia H. Lambert, Josh Everett and Rodney E. Will
Land 2022, 11(4), 540; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11040540 - 07 Apr 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1671
Abstract
The land systems between the humid and arid zones around the globe are critical to agricultural production and are characterized by a strong integration of the land use and water dynamics. In the southern Great Plains (SGP) of the United States, lakes and [...] Read more.
The land systems between the humid and arid zones around the globe are critical to agricultural production and are characterized by a strong integration of the land use and water dynamics. In the southern Great Plains (SGP) of the United States, lakes and farm ponds are essential components in the land systems, and they provide unique habitats for wildlife, and critical water resources for irrigation and municipal water supplies. The conversion of the marginal grasslands to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) biofuel feedstock for energy production has been proposed in the region. However, we have limited experimental data to assess the impact of this potential land-use change on the surface runoff, which is the primary water source for surface impoundments. Here, we report the results from a paired experimental watershed study that compared the runoff and sediment responses that were related to the conversion of prairie to a low-input biomass production system. The results show no significant change in the relationship between the event-based runoff and the precipitation. There was a substantial increase in the sediment yield (328%) during the conversion phase that was associated with the switchgrass establishment (i.e., the site preparation, herbicide application, and switchgrass planting). Once the switchgrass was established, the sediment yield was 21% lower than the nonconverted watershed. Our site-specific observations suggest that switchgrass biofuel production systems will have a minimum impact on the existing land and water systems. It may potentially serve as an environmentally friendly and economically viable alternative land use for slowing woody encroachment on marginal lands in the SGP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water in Land System Science)
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