Optimal land use management for soil erosion control by using an interval-parameter fuzzy two-stage stochastic...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Water Resource Management
• Agricultural Engineering

Background:

• Soil erosion is a significant environmental and public health issue, leading to land degradation.
• Effective land use management in watersheds can mitigate soil erosion and enhance benefits.
• Existing land use planning often fails due to unaddressed uncertainties in soil erosion control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an optimization framework for land use planning that incorporates uncertainties.
• To generate optimal land use strategies for soil erosion control and economic benefit maximization.
• To provide a tool for decision-makers to guide land use changes effectively.

Main Methods:

• Application of an interval-parameter fuzzy two-stage stochastic programming approach.
• Development of an inexact optimization framework to handle system uncertainties (intervals, fuzzy sets, probability distributions).
• Demonstration through a case study in the Xiangxi River watershed, China.

Main Results:

• Optimal land use allocation strategies were generated for a 15-year planning horizon.
• A maximum net economic benefit within the interval [1.197, 6.311] × 10^9 $ was achieved.
• Soil erosion was significantly reduced and maintained at tolerable levels across the watershed.

Conclusions:

• The developed model effectively integrates soil erosion control policies with uncertainty management.
• The approach provides a robust tool for optimizing land use allocation and guiding land use transitions.
• It supports informed decision-making for sustainable land use management in vulnerable regions.