Yu, R, Evans, A and Malleson, N orcid.org/0000-0002-6977-0615 (2019) An agent-based model for assessing grazing strategies and institutional arrangements in Zeku, China. Agricultural Systems, 171. pp. 135-142. ISSN 0308-521X
Abstract
The assessment of grassland grazing strategies and institutional arrangements is essential for ensuring the sustainable development of grassland grazing systems. By employing per-pixel grazing information derived from remote sensing data, this paper presents an agent-based model of grassland grazing (ABMGG) for Zeku, China that was designed as a framework for assessing the effects of different combinations of grazing strategies and institutional arrangements on grassland status. By calibrating the parameter values of the ABMGG to the system status values under a policy that has already been implemented, the ABMGG can help us to understand grassland degradation in response to management interventions for each patch of land. In the Zeku implementation, it was found that although different grazing policy scenarios could not significantly improve or decrease the overall grassland leaf area index, a rotational group grazing scenario with a land market tenure system did produce a smaller number of severely degraded grass patches than other policy scenarios (except regional continuous grazing). This provides a new perspective on the consequences of grassland management practices where past research has concentrated more on overall grassland productivity. The ABMGG can extend the ability of policy assessment tools to a high resolution level with pixel-specific real-time remote sensing data, making the assessment results more accurate and representative.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Agricultural Systems. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy |
Keywords: | Grassland degradation; Grazing systems; Leaf area index; Global environmental change; Natural resources management |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Feb 2019 16:17 |
Last Modified: | 08 Aug 2020 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier Ltd. |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.agsy.2019.02.004 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:142469 |