**Meet the editor**

Dr. Abiud Lucas Kaswamila is a land use planner cum environmentalist. He obtained his undergraduate Degree at the University of Dar es Salaam. He finished his Master's Degree in the Netherlands and his PhD in the UK. For 30 years he has worked as an Agricultural Extension Officer, Agricultural Researcher and a Don. Between 1978 and 1990 he worked as Serengeti District

Land Use Planner (Mara Region) and later as Kagera Region Land Use Planner. From 1991 to 2000 he worked as a Senior Research Officer at Mlingano Agricultural Research Institute, Tanga. In 2000, Dr. Kaswamila joined the College of African Wildlife Management – Mweka as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Research and Consultancy before joining the University of Dodoma in 2008. Dr. Kaswamila has vast experience in protected areas bio-network land use planning, community conservation and conflict management and has published widely in areas of agriculture, poverty and livelihood and in community conservation. Currently Dr. Kaswamila is the head of the department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Dodoma.

Contents

**Preface IX** 

Chapter 1 **Fuzzy Image Processing,** 

Stoian Ioan and Vlaicu Aurel

Chapter 2 **Upstream Landscape Dynamics of** 

**Part 1 Application of Models, Remote Sensing and GIS in Natural Resource Management 1** 

**Analysis and Visualization Methods for** 

**US National Parks with Implications for** 

**Part 2 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation 83** 

William B. Monahan and John E. Gross

Chapter 3 **Sustainable Management of Large Scale** 

**for Gediz Basin, Turkey 51**  Murat Kilic and Suer Anac

Chapter 4 **Sustainable Use of Natural Resources of Dryland Regions in Controlling of** 

**Part 3 Natural Resources Management and Poverty Alleviation 103** 

Esmail Karamidehkordi

Chapter 5 **Sustainable Natural Resource Management,** 

**a Global Challenge of This Century 105** 

Peter F. Ffolliott

Gordan Mihaela, Dancea Ovidiu, Cislariu Mihaela,

**Water Quality and Watershed Management 27** 

**Irrigation Systems: A Decision Support Model** 

**Environmental Degradation and Desertification 85** 

**Hydro-Dams and Hydro-Sites Surveillance and Monitoring 3** 

### Contents

### **Preface XI**


	- **Part 2 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation 83**
	- **Part 3 Natural Resources Management and Poverty Alleviation 103**

### Preface

Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest Neolithic resource users made their decisions on resource use by selecting the best areas for different uses. Resource management strategies have been influenced to varying extents by the nature of the land ever since (Mango, 1996). Conscious land use planning, now worldwide considered to be a panacea of resource use conflicts and a way of increasing productivity, originated during the Greek empire when philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle encouraged reasoning, logic, invention and scientific ways of solving problems.

On the other hand, past and present efforts on land resources management seem to be inadequate as land degradation, climate change, and demographic pressure continue unabated and land productivity continues to decline at an alarming rate, which is symptomatic of our failure to mitigate the problems. We now channel more than 40% of terrestrial net primary productivity, which is sustenance of all animals and decomposers, to our own needs (Vitousek *et al.*, 1986). Forty-five percent is under cropland and permanent pasture, 36% of Africa, 30% of North America, 35% of South America, 47% of Europe, 25% of former Soviet Union (Woodroffe *et al*., 2005).

The current rate of land resources degradation worldwide is sending a shockwave through mankind. Statistics show that soil erosion and other factors are leading to an irreversible loss of land productivity on more than six million hectares of fertile land a year - about 24% of the inhabited land (Lal, 1993). The values of individual continents range from 12% in North America, 19% in Ocenia, 26% in Europe, 27% in Africa and 31% in Asia (Lal, 1993). Regardless of the methods used for the assessment, it is clear that it is a worldwide problem requiring attention. For example, the Sub-Saharan Africa imports about 10 million tons (60% of demand) of rice annually at a cost of around US \$ 6 billion, which is the largest continent's import bill after petroleum (Ngailo & Kaswamila, 2011). In other words, the need for natural resources conservation is as great today as it ever was. Entering the 22nd Century, the challenges to scientists, conservationists, politicians, planners, and decision-makers are to make the world a safe place to live in, today and tomorrow, for the benefit of the present and future generations. Our children and grandchildren should not ask us: why didn't you take action to safeguard our planet?

#### XII Preface

This book is about finding the best way to manage challenges emanating from accelerating natural resource use. The contributors in this book have vast expertise and experience in natural resources management. All the chapters suggest that sustainable natural resources management can only be achieved through use of system thinking to help us think and learn collectively how to manage complexities and challenges. It provides an integrated approach which finally creates an enabling environment for stakeholders to adopt and benefit from; and adoption of resilience thinking as a paradigm for systematic natural resource management planning process that offers hope of transformational change in the management of socio-ecological systems. It is also evident that technology use such as GIS and remote sensing and modelling have great roles in natural resources management.

### **Abiud Kaswamila**

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies The University of Dodoma, Dodoma Tanzania
