Effect of land-use/land-cover change on the future of rainfed agriculture in the Jenin Governorate, Palestine

Abstract

Land cover has been changed by humans throughout history. At the global level, population growth and socioeconomic development have a significant impact on land resources. Recently, scholars added climate change as one of the major factors affecting land-cover transformation. In the West Bank of Palestine, the situation is more complicated, where geopolitical constraints due to the Israeli occupation and lack of control over land resources. In the West Bank, fertile land represents 16%, 87% of the cultivated land is rainfed, 11% is pastureland and 2% is irrigated. This paper focuses on the problems of agricultural land shrinkage by time and tries to reveal the major factors behind this change. The study area is Jenin, a major agricultural area in the West Bank, Palestine. Statistical data, aerial photos and related attribute data were analyzed by using GIS software. The study showed that urban growth is the major threat on agricultural lands.

Transdisciplinary Research and Development Cooperation: Insights from the First Phase of the Palestinian-Dutch Academic Cooperation Programme on Water

“…The central approach to the dissemination and application of research results in all projects was the publication of the project deliverables and their presentation at workshops or the PADUCO conferences as outlined above. Scientific articles related to research projects were almost exclusively published in a special issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues that focused on water issues in Palestine [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. The progress of the research projects was also presented at two PADUCO Conferences-the first one in Ramallah, Palestine, in February 2015 and the second one in The Hague, The Netherlands, in October 2015.…”