Land Use Planning in the OECS using the Automated Land Evaluation System (ALES)

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Land Use Planning in the OECS using the Automated
Land Evaluation System (ALES)

• By
• L.M. Fletcher-Paul
• Integrated Natural Resources Management Officer,
  FAO, SLAC

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Outline

• Information needs for land use planning and
  current challenges in meeting these needs
• The development of ALES and its capacity as a
  multi-dimensional, multi-use system
• Perspectives on making progress with improved
  methods to measure sustainable land use

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Land use planning - definition

• Land use planning should be a decision-making
  process that facilitates the allocation of land
  to the uses that provide the greatest sustainable
  benefits (Agenda 21. Paragraph 10.5).
• It is the systematic assessment of physical,
  social and economic factors in such a way as to
  encourage and assist land users in selecting
  options that increase their productivity, are
  sustainable and meet the needs of the society.

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INFORMATION NEEDSBio-physical factors

• Soil and Physiography
• Land Cover/ Land Use
• Topography
• Administrative
• Hydrology

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INFORMATION NEEDS Bio-physical factors

• Infrastructure
• Elevation
• Protected Areas and Forest Reserves
• Climate
• Land parcel

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INFORMATION NEEDSSocio-economic factors

• Objectives
• Resources
• Constraints
• Land tenure systems
• Registration
• Land rights

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INFORMATION NEEDSSocio-economic factors

• Land markets
• Forms of incentive and taxation
• Assessment of the fairness and adequacy of these
  incentives for sustainable development
• Aspiration and felt needs of the different groups
  of land users
• Costs of inputs
• Current sale prices for outputs

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INFORMATION NEEDSSocio-economic factors

• Expected increase in local populations
• Trends of inward and outward migration (permanent
  or seasonal)
• Off-farm or off-region labour income
• Level of capacity building
• Extension services
• Credit availability for farmers activities and
  other local enterprises
• Rural health conditions, including occurrence of
  vector-borne diseases and pests

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGESClimatic databases

• All countries have a network of meteorological
  stations, to observe and document climate and
  weather conditions.
• In areas of difficult access, these stations may
  be wide apart with a limited number of recording
  years
• Time gaps in recording
• Incompleteness in the range of attributes needed.

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGESSoil and terrain

• Classification criteria and naming of soils
  differ among countries, making correlations
  between classifications and countries difficult
• No link between soil and terrain conditions and
  the overall landscape-ecological framework (a
  prerequisite for a holistic approach to land use
  planning)

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGESWater resources databases

• Analysis of data from meteorological stations
• Repeated measurements of stream flows
• Assessment of ground water reserves through
  borehole analysis
• Amount and types of actual uses being made of the
  water resources.
• Some countries may not have the equipment or
  resources to take these measurements on an
  on-going basis.
• Cost of taking some of these measurements may be
  expensive.

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGESLand cover and biodiversity
databases

• Geo-referenced information on floral and faunal
  diversity is scarce
• Areas of known or inferred archeological value or
  reflecting typical past land use systems need to
  be mapped

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGESLand uses, crop and
production systems

• Land use information is usually consolidated at
  district level rather than being fully
  georeferenced.
• Lack of practical, simple and widely accepted
  method of describing land uses and production
  systems is a serious constraint
• Each land use type should be assessed on its
  inherent sustainability, on the basis of a set of
  sustainable indicators

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGESLand uses, crop and
production systems

• Basic information on the environmental
  requirements of new cultivars and non-traditional
  crops is not widely available or may not be
  available for the conditions in some SIDS.
• Existing databases are limited with respect to
  coverage and classes
• Little management information included in maps

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Economy of inputs and outputs is liable to strong
  variability
• Biophysical databases may have a useable lifetime
  of 20 - 30 years
• Economic and social databases will normally have
  to be revised every 5 - 10 years.
• Limitation in data availability and data quality
  at all scales, especially those that require
  substantial ground truthing
• Lack of common data exchange formats and
  protocols
• Inadequate communication means between computer
  systems, data suppliers and users.

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ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Data dispersed among many agencies
• Maintenance and updating
• Need for building awareness of the utility of the
  LRIS

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The development of ALES and its capacity as a
multi-dimensional, multi-use system
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Background

• Regional TCP Project - Assistance in the
  Development of Land Use Planning and Agricultural
  Production Zoning in the OECS
• Executed in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica,
  Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St.
  Vincent and the Grenadines from January 2001 to
  January 2003.

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Background (Continued)Objectives of the
Regional Project

• To assist the Governments of the OECS Member
  States in the evaluation of their land resource
  base in specific areas in each country, with a
  view to developing policy options and programmes
  for the rationalisation of land use, the zoning
  of production and utilization of idle lands.
• To assist the Governments in reviewing existing
  land use policies and to develop modified or new
  policy options that will facilitate the
  acceleration of the regional diversification
  programme.
• To strengthen planning and management of land
  resources through improved systems of land
  evaluation in the OECS member states.

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Background

• As part of Objective 1, all countries were
  provided with computer hardware and software to
  establish a Land Resources Information System
  (LRIS) in the MOAs.
• In Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia, ALES was
  introduced to conduct the land evaluations.

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What is ALES?
Automated Land Evaluation System is a computer
program that allows land evaluators to build
expert systems to evaluate land according to the
method presented in the FAO Framework on Land
Evaluation
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Components of ALES

• A framework for a knowledge base describing
  proposed land uses in both physical and economic
  terms
• A framework for a database describing the land
  areas to be evaluated
• An inference mechanism to relate these two,
  thereby computing the physical suitability of a
  set of map units for a set of proposed land uses

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Components of ALES (Contd)

• An explanation facility that allows model
  builders to understand and fine tune their models
• A consultation mode that allows a casual user to
  query the system about one land use at a time
• A report generator (on-screen, to a printer or to
  a disk file)
• An import/export module that allows data to be
  exchanged within external databases, geographical
  information systems and spreadsheets.

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Framework for decision-making
LAND EVALUATION
SOCIO-ECONOMIC EVALUATION
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Land Resources Database
Economic Database
Social factors
Land Use Database
1. Costs of inputs 2. Sale prices
1. Objectives 2. Resources 3. Constraints
1. Soil 2. Climate 3. Other factors
1. Crop requirements 2. Production systems
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Identify land management units
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For each land management unit identify
i) possible crop(s) or products ii) possible
production systems iii) yield levels for
each iv) input/output ratio v) risk factor vi)
environmental impact
LAND USE OPTIONS
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Carry out multiple goal optimization exercise to
maximise achievement of desired objectives
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Select best land use
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How ALES works

• A two-stage approach
• Physical land evaluation is first conducted
  matching soils, climate and land use with crop
  requirements (this eliminates land units which
  are not physically suitable.
• Socio-economic evaluation conducted next to
  derive the suitability of the land unit for
  specific land utilization types e.g rain fed
  agriculture with low inputs or commercial
  agriculture with high inputs, etc.

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More about ALES

• ALES is highly interactive
• ALES has a dBase interface
• It does not display maps
• ALES is not a GIS programme, but it can be linked
  with GIS systems such as ARC/INFO and IDRISI
• It can analyze geographical land characteristics
  if map units are appropriately defined.

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Suitability of Under-utilised Land St. Lucia
Crop Crop Suitability Area Covered (Ha) of Total
Dasheen S2 90 0.75
Papaya S3e/r 10 0.08
Ginger S4 16 1.13
Golden Apple S2 lt1

• S2 Suitable S3 Moderately Suitable S4
  Marginal
• e erosion risk r poor rooting conditions

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Perspectives on making progress with improved
methods to measure sustainable land use
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SUGGESTIONS FOR BASIC PRINCIPLES TO BE CONSIDERED

• Information needs should drive data collection
  (only collect data if they will be used)
• Build on existing systems
• Awareness among users of utility of the system
• Institutional strengthening and capacity building
• Networking and information sharing
• Development of common data exchange formats and
  protocols

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SUGGESTIONS FOR BASIC PRINCIPLES TO BE CONSIDERED

• Common land classification system should be
  established to allow comparisons among countries
• Update soil and land use information
• Research to develop methodologies and validate
  models so that they are more relevant to the
  region
• Development of metadatabases and skills bank