Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LucFRes (Land-use change and the resilience of food production systems (LucFRes))
Período documentado: 2022-02-01 hasta 2024-01-31
1) The first paper under review mapped land use over 23 years and quantified the intensity of LULC change (i.e. annual rates) during two intervals (i.e. 2000 – 2013 and 2013 – 2022) across seven agroecological zones (AEZs). The intensity of LULC change accelerated during the study period in all AEZs (e.g. rainforest, mangrove), except in the semi-arid Sudan and Sahel savannah where speed was higher in 2000 – 2013 than in 2013 – 2022 due to grassland cultivation made possible by large irrigation schemes. The extent of human appropriated natural land cover in Nigeria in the last 23 years was estimated. The main change processes in Nigeria (2000 – 2022) are primarily related to the dominance of human activities as more natural cover was lost than was gained for nature during all time intervals due to cropland expansion and artificialisation, e.g. settlement development .
2) The second paper, currently under review, identifies important farming system classes for producing food in southwest Nigeria (SWN). Combining Sentinel-1 radar and optical Sentinel-2 time-series, a Remote Sensing and Machine Learning framework was developed to map multiple crops and intercropping during two growing cycles in smallholder mixed farming systems. Using deep transfer learning, we found monocropping positively related to field size in the Nigerian lower Guinea Savannah of SWN.
3) I developed content and co-taught a course in the MSc Geography programme at UBERN on Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management I am currently supervising two PhD and one MSc theses.
4) I participated in programs providing personalised coaching for the academic appointment process, which proved invaluable to my securing the Associate Professorship. These are 1) Coaching, Mentoring and Training Programme (COMET), University of Bern, 2) Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) programme at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
5) Information about LucFRes and the results were well disseminated in both scientific forums and to the public. Planned activities were embarked upon early in the project. The project flier was prepared and disseminated (online and printed), and two websites were published. Three seminars were organised at the Land System and Sustainable Land Management unit at UBERN. Five other seminars were held at universities in Germany, Sweden and Nigeria. I also presented results of the Remote Sensing-based land use change intensities and the extent of human appropriated natural land cover in Nigeria since the last 23 years at the International Association for Landscape Ecology conference in Nairobi (July 2023). Aspects relating to identifying and predicting multiple crop types in smallholder intercropping systems during multiple growing cycles were presented in September 2023 at the Tropentag in Berlin, Germany.
6) LucFRes linked up with EU-funded SUSTAINFORESTS (ERC grant) and AQUATIC (MSCA-EF) to organise exhibitions and presentations.
A novelty is harnessing the monthly NDVI time-series to visually identify spatio-temporal phenology stages to actively label different crop types. For example, temporal characteristics of farming activities from farmer interviews and farm visits – field clearing, crop emergence, crop peaking and senescence stages – helped identify and label different crop types, especially for the early and late planted maize classes, for which their growth stages in the early or late part of the growing season was most critical for identification. Mapped intercropping (i.e. mixed crop farming) and double growing cycles in smallholder farming systems. The best model for predicting crop types combined Sentinel-1 monthly and Sentinel-2 at bimonthly intervals. Detailed field size delineation was automated to assess how field size relates to cropping patterns in smallholder farming systems, and estimates were efficiently obtained with deep transfer learning. We found that monocropping was positively associated with field size in the Nigerian lower Guinea Savannah.