assessing rural resources and livelihood development strategies combining socioeconomic and spatial...

5th WCCA & 3rd FSD 1

Assessing rural resources and livelihood development strategies

combining socioeconomic and spatial methodologies

Krishna Bahadur KC

Center for Southeast Asia Studies

Kyoto University

Monday, April 10, 2023


Structure of the presentation

A view of the rural regional system in mountains of South and Southeast Asia

The need for integration of socioeconomic and spatial concepts and methodologies

The methodological discussion: concepts of integration

Potentials and limitations in applying the integrated concept with empirical examples



Spatial gradients of the rural region

Decreasing:income

food security

health care

education

Ownership right

environment problems

resource conservation

Change of structures in production and marketing

tradition and culturefamily ties

Increasing:

city villages bush forest

migration

increasing market distancedecreasing population density

-Natural resource distribution and changing land use in the area- spatial distribution of ethnic groups or farming families

-Associated man-made problems alongside the spatial gradients-Changing infrastructure with increasing distance from urban centers to remote areas



The need for integration of socioeconomic and spatial concepts and methodologies

The need for integration is manifold, but the following can be considered as the main reasons:

1. Remote sensing and GIS provide tools and are applied in the frame of concepts which improve data bases in natural sciences for rural development (traditionally not covered by socioeconomic concepts)

2. Socioeconomic (economics/agricultural economics) provide concepts strongly based on people’s views and cover a large area of behavioral and decision-making processes at family and regional levels (traditionally not covered by GIS concepts)

3. Combining both concepts would allow to improve not only the knowledge systems but also the analyses of past development and provide ample scope for improving future strategy testing with family and regional simulation models



The methodological discussionConcepts of integration



Methodological approachSpatial level Family level

Satellite Analogue physical Soil Farming system surveyimages maps data data Socioeconomic data

GPS position

Land use/change Soil loss Spatial Cost distance farm/family income Land quality indexes water availability food production

Linking, integrating and analysis

Image

analysis Interpolation

Modeling the current situation and measuring the impact of future strategies

Digitization, surfacing, lab test

(Spatial analysis & modeling)

Thematic layers



Some reflection from biophysical/spatial analysis



Examples of land and water resources developmentChange of land and water

resources Ing Watershed Thailand

Land use change in Galaudu Watershed Nepal


5th WCCA & 3rd FSD 9Monday, April 10, 2023


Mountain landscape and land degradation

Wire Mesh RepresentationUpper Nam Wa Watershed

ThailandData Source : Digital Elevation Model



Assessing the impact of land use changes on land degradation, Galaudu Nepal

(2000)



Assessing the strategic spatial water availabilities and their

impact to local economy



Simulated flow in the Upper Ing Watershed, Thailand at the watershed outlet, with actual precipitation and land

use data

20/09/11

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

Sep98

Mar99

Base Flow

River Flow

Sep99

Mar00

Sep00

Mar01

Sep01

Mar02

Sep02

Mar03

Sep03

Mar04

Sep06

Sep04

Mar05

Sep05

Mar06

Sep07

Mar07

Flo

w r

ate

(L/S

ec)



1. Optimising the location of new reservoir and cropping system

2. Measuring the impact of “land use change on spatial water availability and water system“

3. Measuring the impact of ‚climate change such as “more rain fall scenario“ on spatial water availabilities and water system

Application of spatial simulation models

Spatial water budget model developed for Upper Ing Watershed was used to simulate future development and measure the impact of future strategies such as:



Location of proposed dams at the simulated river network with land use

2005

Irrigated area

Zone 7

Zone 6

Zone 5

Zone 3

Zone 4

Zone 2

Zone1

Zone 8



Some reflection from socioeconomic analysis



Distribution and variation of family income in the Upper Ing Watershed Thailand



Farm income and irrigated land relations in the Upper Ing Watershed, Thailand

Farm income (Baht/household)

Irrigated area (Rai)

Household classification based on socioeconomic and spatial characteristics



Potentials and limitations in applying the integrated concept under practical

conditions

Cases from mountains of South and Southeast Asia



The relation between land use change and factors of regional development

Results of GIS analysis: land use change from 1990 to 2000

Integration of results of micro level family income analysis

altitudinal gradients

road distance

Distance to markets



Assessment of land management on farm income, Galaudu Watershed, Nepal



Assessment of road improvement on farm income, Galaudu watershed, Nepal



Impact of irrigation improvement on incomes, Ing watershed Thailand



ConclusionsIt has been proven that the integration of family survey

information and data from remote sensing & GIS can be used in a combined analysis and future impact assessment, to find out appropriate development strategies.

Empirical results demonstrate:Future problem solving strategies such as: development and improvement of road network, development and improvements of irrigation water and land and soil conservation strategies such as building terraces demonstrated the possibility of improving living standard and sustainable management of natural resources in the mounts of south and south east Asia.

Further research is needed to explore the full potentially of integrated spatial approach not only land and water resources but also on other resources of farming and rural regional setups.



Thank you very much for your attention


assessing rural resources and livelihood development strategies combining socioeconomic and spatial...

Education

spatial concepts

land use data

spatial water availability

examples of land

spatial gradients

spatial characteristics

impact of land use changes

socioeconomic analysis