Monitoring land use and plant cover on an Integrated Agroecological Production System through GIS

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study in detail the land use and plant cover of an Integrated Agroecological Production System (IAPS) from 2003 through 2005. Four quarterly updating visits were performed on the 26 land units of the System from January 2003 to December 2005. Cartographic documents and QuickBird satellite images were also used to generate the final index maps for agrodiversity, fallow intensity and green manure use intensity. A high diversity of crops was observed. In some land units up to 40 plant species were recorded. However, this diversity was not uniformly distributed throughout the terrain. A high intensity of land use, mostly with annuals was also observed in a large part of the area. In most cases, fallow periods were up to 3 months in 3 years. Since annual crops demand intense tillage, minimum or no tillage practices are recommended for those areas to improve soil conservation. The use of legumes was less frequent on the land units used for annual crops. They were not uniformly distributed throughout the terrain. The results of this research are useful not only for those who are interested in the system itself, but also to validate the hypothesis that through GIS it is possible to summarize complex agroecological information into a visually friendly format, allowing easy interpretation of systemic analyses.