A novel GIS-based approach to assess beekeeping suitability of Mediterranean lands

Abstract

Honeybees are critically important for the environment and to the economy. However, there are in substantial decline worldwide, leading to serious threat to the stability and yield of food crops. Beekeeping is of pivotal importance, combining the wide economical aspect of honey production and the important ecological services provided by honeybees. In this scenario, the prompt identification of beekeeping areas is strategic, since it maximised productivity and lowered the risks of colony losses. Fuzzy logic is an ideal approach for problem-solving tasks, as it is specifically designed to manage problems with a high degree of uncertainty. This research tested a novel GIS-based approach to assess beekeeping suitability of lands located in Calabria (Southern Italy), without relying to Analytic Hierarchy Process - Multiple Criteria Decision Making (AHP-MCDM), thus avoiding the constraints due to the technique and decision makers' influences. Furthermore, the data used here were completely retrieved from open access sources, highlighting that our approach is characterized by low costs and can be easily reproduced for a wide arrays of geographical contexts. Notably, the results obtained by our experiments were validated by the actual beekeeping reality. Besides beekeeping, the use of this system could not only be applied in beekeeping land suitability evaluations, but may be successfully extended to other types of land suitability evaluations.

Assessment of Land - Use Change Effects on Future Beekeeping Suitability Via CA-Markov Prediction Model

“…Moreover, this study has vital importance in the determination of honey bee conservation areas for protecting natural resources by considering future trends in beekeeping activities and land-cover changes. Recent studies on beekeeping suitability (Maris et al, 2008;Estaque and Murayama, 2010;Amiri and Shariff, 2012;Abou-Shaara et al, 2013;Camargo et al, 2014;Zoccali et al, 2017) included only suitability analysis via Geographical Information Systems and MCDA techniques by considering criteria related to beekeeping activities. However, future suitability prediction is as important as recent suitability analysis due to the rapid changes in land cover discussed in this study.…”

“…The Muğla province boundaries are given in Fig. 1 Camargo et al, (2014);Femandez et al, (2016) and Zoccali et al, (2017) used elevation, slope, aspect, distance to water, distance to roads, pollen-nectar resources and flora criteria to generate beekeeping suitability maps. In this study, elevation, slope, aspect, distance to roads, railways, water surfaces and power lines, land-use and natural hazards criteria were used to generate the beekeeping suitability map.…”

Geographical Information System for Beekeeping Development

“…Suitable areas for apiaries at Montesinho Natural Park (Portugal) were identified using a GIS multicriteria approach (Fernandez, Roque, & Anjos, 2016). Suitable areas for beekeeping were recommended based on RS, GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Sukabumi regency (Triantomo, Widiatmaka, & Fuah, 2016), and the land suitability for beekeeping in Calabria (Southern Italy) was assessed using GIS and AHP (Zoccali et al, 2017). Details about GIS and MCE can be found in Eastman (1999) and about AHP in Saaty (1990 and2008).…”

Freeze-drying duration influences the amino acid and rutin content in honeybee-collected chestnut pollen

“…Beekeeping leads to the production of important foods for human consumption (Buratti et al, 2007, Benelli et al, 2014, Canale et al, 2014a, Canale et al, 2014b, El-Aidy et al, 2015, Khan et al, 2018, Meo et al, 2017, Zoccali et al, 2017). In particular, honeybee-collected pollen is gaining attention as functional food, due to antiproliferative, antiallergic, antibiotic, antidiarrheic and antioxidant activities (Graikou et al, 2011, Marghitas et al, 2009, Medeiros et al, 2008).…”