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Land
Special Issues
Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets
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Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 January 2024) | Viewed by 18586

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Claudia Chang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
ISAW, New York University, New York, NY, USA
Interests: ethnograph; archaeology; anthropology; archaeological theory; environmental archaeology; cultural ecology
Dr. David Kramar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
International Water Institute, Fargo, ND 58102, USA
Interests: GIS applications in agriculture and natural resources; precision agriculture; machine learning and AI; spatial and geostatistical analysis; UAS applications in precision agriculture and natural resource management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite archaeologists, geographers, cultural heritage specialists, and others to contribute to a Special Issue on Modelling Land Use Change using Historical and Archaeological Datasets to be published in Land (IF 3.9, ISSN 2073-445X). Our main objective is to investigate long-term diachronic changes across landscapes where ancient and historical populations have practiced farming, herding, and foraging. Human–environment interactions, documented through archaeological or historical datasets, may include survey inventories, GIS datasets, satellite imagery, remote sensing, and the use of historical archives.

The aim of this Special Issue is to invite researchers across diverse geographic regions to examine landscape palimpsests. The wide applications of digitized maps, GIS, and the spatial modeling of long-term land use are particularly enhanced through the use of archaeological and historical data.

This Special Issue also seeks to present innovative methods for modeling diachronic change over time in deserts, mountains, river deltas, alluvial fans, and along coastlines. In modeling long-term changes in land-use, it may be possible to establish parameters for infrastructure development, sustainable farming and herding, and cultural heritage projects. The diverse uses of these data should inform others in land-use studies to include archaeological and historical datasets.

This is consistent with the aims and scope of the journal Land in dealing with land use, landscape archaeology/history, as well as land-related aspects of data processing and deep learning.

Suggested themes and article types for submissions include, but not limited to:

  • Innovative methods for land use change modeling;
  • Spatial modeling of long-term land use;
  • Historical datasets;
  • Land use change;
  • Landscape archaeology.

Prof. Dr. Claudia Chang
Dr. David Kramar
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

  • historical datasets
  • land use change
  • landscape archaeology
  • deep learning
  • geographic information systems

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (7 papers)

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28 pages, 66615 KiB  
Article
An Anthropogenically Created Landscape as a Habitat for the European Ground Squirrel Population Using the Example of the Muránska Planina National Park in the Western Carpathians (Slovakia)
by Bohuslava Gregorová, Pavel Hronček and Peter Urban
Land 2023, 12(11), 2070; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12112070 - 17 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1617
Abstract
The main goal of the study, based on historical-geographical research, was to reconstruct the history of an anthropogenically created cultural landscape on the southern edge of the Muránska Planina National Park in the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) as a potential European ground squirrel habitat. [...] Read more.
The main goal of the study, based on historical-geographical research, was to reconstruct the history of an anthropogenically created cultural landscape on the southern edge of the Muránska Planina National Park in the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) as a potential European ground squirrel habitat. Humans began to change the original forest landscape in the second half of the 13th century in connection with the construction of Muráň castle, which became the economic center of the study area. The first written mention of the existence of Muráň castle (castro Muran) dates to 1271. The original deciduous forests were gradually removed and transformed into agricultural land. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, we can almost certainly assume the existence of an agricultural landscape in the territory called Biele Vody (part of the study area) on the right side of the Muránsky Potok valley in such spatial dimensions as it is at present. The landscape created in this way provided suitable ecological conditions for the successful survival of the European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus). The analysis and reconstruction of the origins and development of the agricultural landscape were carried out based on detailed archival and terrain research. Map outputs are also the result of the reconstructions. Whether the European ground squirrel was already present in the locality before its conservation translocation (773 individuals were released at the site in 2000–2007) is discussed in detail in this paper. The current ground squirrel colony is dependent on feeding, mainly sunflowers (since 2011), on active management and maintenance of the landscape provided by a herd of donkeys (March–December) and sheep (May–July). The ground squirrel locality Biele Vody is currently a center of ecotourism and ecological education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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23 pages, 3961 KiB  
Article
Multiresource Pastoralism, Dynamic Foodways, and Ancient Statecraft in Mongolia
by William Honeychurch, Chunag Amartuvshin, Joshua Wright, Christina Carolus and Michelle Hrivnyak
Land 2023, 12(9), 1715; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12091715 - 2 Sep 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2884
Abstract
Pastoral nomadic regional confederations, states, and empires have assumed a prominent place in the histories of the Eurasian steppe zone; however, anthropological theory devoted to understanding these political systems is still debated and relatively inchoate. A major question concerns the techniques of political [...] Read more.
Pastoral nomadic regional confederations, states, and empires have assumed a prominent place in the histories of the Eurasian steppe zone; however, anthropological theory devoted to understanding these political systems is still debated and relatively inchoate. A major question concerns the techniques of political integration that might have brought together dispersed mobile herders under the aegis of these complex, large-scale steppe polities. The first such polity in East Asia, the Xiongnu state (c. 250 BC–150 AD) of Mongolia, has been characterized as a polity built by mobile herders, but in fact the steppe populations of this period followed quite diverse lifeways. Most notably, the establishment of more permanent settlements for craft and agricultural production has complicated the typical narrative of the pastoral nomadic eastern steppe. This study considers ways to conceptualize these interesting variations in lifeway during the Xiongnu period and raises the question of how they might have promoted a novel Xiongnu political order. We analyze transformations within the Egiin Gol valley of northern Mongolia to better understand the organizational, productive, and settlement dynamics and present the first regional landscape perspective on the local transformations incurred by the creation of a Xiongnu agricultural hub. To understand these radical changes with respect to the long-term pastoral nomadic and hunting-gathering traditions of the valley’s inhabitants, Salzman’s flexibility-based model of multiresource pastoralism is of great use. Egiin Gol valley transformations indeed attest to a scale of political economy far beyond the bounds of this local area and suggest an innovative role for indigenous farming in Eurasian steppe polity building. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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30 pages, 51010 KiB  
Article
Montane Ecoclines in Ancient Central Asia: A Preliminary Study of Agropastoral Economies in Juuku, Kyrgyzstan
by Claudia Chang, Sergei S. Ivanov, Robert N. Spengler III, Basira Mir-Makhamad and Perry A. Tourtellotte
Land 2023, 12(7), 1406; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071406 - 13 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2381
Abstract
In this paper, we use preliminary archaeological data spanning the Iron Age through Medieval periods (ca. 800 BCE to 1200 CE) in the Juuku Valley in Kyrgyzstan on the south side of Lake Issyk-Kul to model land use across vertical mountain zones. We [...] Read more.
In this paper, we use preliminary archaeological data spanning the Iron Age through Medieval periods (ca. 800 BCE to 1200 CE) in the Juuku Valley in Kyrgyzstan on the south side of Lake Issyk-Kul to model land use across vertical mountain zones. We have (1) established a radiometric chronology; (2) conducted test excavations of an Iron Age settlement at 2100 m asl and a Turkic period burial at 1934 m asl; (3) undertaken preliminary archaeobotanical research; and (4) performed pedestrian surveys. Archaeobotanical remains of wheat (Triticum aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), broomcorn millet (Panicum milaceum), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), and legumes were recovered in very small quantities from both sites. We compare these preliminary archaeobotanical results with previously published data from Talgar Iron Age settlements on the north side of the Tian Shan Mountain range in Kazakhstan. A small assemblage of faunal remains found at the Turkic period kurgan and from a profile at the upland Iron Age settlement demonstrates the practice of herding sheep/goats, cattle, and horses in the Juuku Valley. The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that pastoral transhumance and agropastoralism were interchangeable economic strategies used by peoples in the Iron Age through Medieval periods in mountain-river valleys between 600 m to 2100 m asl. These economic strategies combined the pasturing of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses with the cultivation of cereals in a system that was adapted to different vegetational zones along a vertical gradient. This paper is based on preliminary research using survey data and test excavations and initiates a long-term research study of four millennia of settlements that appear to have ranged from pastoral transhumance and combined mountain agriculture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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21 pages, 8286 KiB  
Article
Modeling on Urban Land Use Characteristics and Urban System of the Traditional Chinese Era (1930s) Based on the Historical Military Topographic Map
by Zhiwei Wan and Hongqi Wu
Land 2023, 12(1), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12010244 - 12 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2194
Abstract
The quantitative urban system structure in historical periods and the long time-scale urban land area grid dataset with spatial attributes are important for land use and land cover change (LUCC) research. In this study, we aimed to measure the area of county level [...] Read more.
The quantitative urban system structure in historical periods and the long time-scale urban land area grid dataset with spatial attributes are important for land use and land cover change (LUCC) research. In this study, we aimed to measure the area of county level and above cities in mainland China in the 1930s, also known as the traditional Chinese era (TCE), using a geographic information system (GIS) model and 1:50,000 military topographic maps. Furthermore, we aimed to identify the structure and characteristics of the urban system in the TCE according to the administrative area division using methods such as the rank size law. The results of this study revealed that 1265 county level and above cities existed in the TCE, including 25 provincial level or above cities, 179 prefectural level cities, and 1061 county level cities. The total land area of all of the cities was 1396.48 km2, with a mean value of 1.1 km2 and a standard deviation of 2.37 km2. The rank-size analysis indicated that the urban system in TCE was characterized by large cities with insignificant development (q = 0.829 < 1, R2 = 0.905). The results of the Lorenz curve and Moran analyses showed that the spatial distribution of the urban systems in China during the traditional period exhibited nonuniform agglomeration. Large-scale military topographic maps of historical periods have proven to be a good source for land use reconstruction. The 1° × 1° grid urban land area dataset constructed based on a GIS model in the TCE is important for future research on historical LUCC and can provide basic data for climate change models, urban economic history, and other disciplines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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23 pages, 4027 KiB  
Article
Monitoring Long-Term Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Expansion Using Multisource Remote Sensing Images and Historical Maps: A Case Study of Hangzhou, China
by Huan Lu, Ruiyang Wang, Rong Ye and Jinzhao Fan
Land 2023, 12(1), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12010144 - 1 Jan 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2897
Abstract
The spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion have attracted worldwide attention and have been generalized into several prevalent hypotheses, such as the diffusion–coalescence hypothesis and the three-growth-type hypothesis. Although many studies have examined the applicability of these hypotheses, long-term research and evidence are still [...] Read more.
The spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion have attracted worldwide attention and have been generalized into several prevalent hypotheses, such as the diffusion–coalescence hypothesis and the three-growth-type hypothesis. Although many studies have examined the applicability of these hypotheses, long-term research and evidence are still lacking. This study incorporated a compiled dataset of multisource remote sensing images and historical maps covering nine snapshots of the urban built-up area from 1914 to 2018 to monitor the urban expansion process in Hangzhou, China. A fractal analysis of the area–radius relationship was employed for areal demarcation to explore the heterogenous patterns across different intra-city spatial extents. The results show that (1) Hangzhou has experienced a turbulent period of primitive urbanization in the pre-reform era and a consecutive period of market-oriented urbanization after the economic reform; (2) the urban expansion pattern characterized by landscape metrics demonstrates the existence of multiple alternations between diffusion and coalescence phases with peculiarities across different intra-city spatial extents; (3) the analysis of urban growth types documents a consistent predominance of edge-expansion with wax and wane between infilling and leapfrogging; and (4) institutional reform, industrial development, and administrative division adjustment are the main drivers of urban expansion in Hangzhou. Our findings suggest that effective planning policies need to be raised to curb urban sprawl. Differentiated planning strategies should be proposed to accommodate unique conditions in different urban subregions. The integrated-analysis approach based on multisource remote sensing images and historical maps establishes a feasible pathway for long-term urban research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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24 pages, 9755 KiB  
Article
Agricultural Land Abandonment in Bulgaria: A Long-Term Remote Sensing Perspective, 1950–1980
by Mustafa Erdem Kabadayı, Paria Ettehadi Osgouei and Elif Sertel
Land 2022, 11(10), 1855; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101855 - 20 Oct 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3102
Abstract
Agricultural land abandonment is a globally significant threat to the sustenance of economic, ecological, and social balance. Although the driving forces behind it can be multifold and versatile, rural depopulation and urbanization are significant contributors to agricultural land abandonment. In our chosen case [...] Read more.
Agricultural land abandonment is a globally significant threat to the sustenance of economic, ecological, and social balance. Although the driving forces behind it can be multifold and versatile, rural depopulation and urbanization are significant contributors to agricultural land abandonment. In our chosen case study, focusing on two locations, Ruen and Stamboliyski, within the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria, we use aerial photographs and satellite imagery dating from the 1950s until 1980, in connection with official population census data, to assess the magnitude of agricultural abandonment for the first time from a remote sensing perspective. We use multi-modal data obtained from historical aerial and satellite images to accurately identify Land Use Land Cover changes. We suggest using the rubber sheeting method for the geometric correction of multi-modal data obtained from aerial photos and Key Hole missions. Our approach helps with precise sub-pixel alignment of related datasets. We implemented an iterative object-based classification approach to accurately map LULC distribution and quantify spatio-temporal changes from historical panchromatic images, which could be applied to similar images of different geographical regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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10 pages, 3704 KiB  
Case Report
Detecting the Bronze Age Sites by Using CORONA Satellite Photography and UAV Photogrammetry: A Case Study from the Middle of Yangtze River, China
by Qiushi Zou
Land 2023, 12(3), 685; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12030685 - 15 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2110
Abstract
The CORONA satellite image preserves the landscape from half a century ago, and has played a great role in landscape archaeology in many regions of the world. In recent years, with the rapid development of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Photogrammetry technology, Archaeologists can [...] Read more.
The CORONA satellite image preserves the landscape from half a century ago, and has played a great role in landscape archaeology in many regions of the world. In recent years, with the rapid development of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Photogrammetry technology, Archaeologists can easily obtain the digital surface model (DSM)and Digital Ortho Map (DOM) of a site in the fieldwork. In the archaeological survey of bronze age sites in the middle of the Yangtze River project, we combined the UAV photogrammetry results with CORONA satellite photography, which can help us extract the surface landscape feature of the sites. This strategy has shown significant advantages in reconstructing the settlement layout, detecting the unknown linear features (such as walls, moats and canals) of sites and comparing the landscape between different sites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Land Use Change Using Historical and Archaeological Datasets)
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