RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 1, July 2008

Want to know what conditions to expect over the next stage of RAGBRAI? How hilly will it be, what towns and parks are between here and there, or what services are coming up in the next town?

RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 2, July 2008

On today’s ride we continue riding across the Southern Iowa Drift Plain. This landform region covers over 40% of the state and comprises most of southern Iowa. Over the last several million years Iowa was subjected to at least seven glacial advances. The last of these older advances occurred approximately 500,000 years ago. Since then the landscape has been subjected to stream erosion and from12,500-24,000 years ago was mantled with a thick blanket of loess before being further eroded.

RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 3, July 2008

Although during much of its geologic history Iowa was part of an interior sea, today what we see on the land surface has been heavily influenced by recent glaciation. Everything from Iowa soils, rivers, lakes, and hills has been influenced by glaciation. Most of Iowa’s bedrock is hidden beneath a thick mantle of deposits from the Cenozoic (i.e., new life) Era, spanning the last 65 million years. Geologists have divided the Cenozoic Era into two periods. These are the Tertiary (1.8-65 million years ago) and Quaternary Periods (recent to 1.8 million years ago). Most geologic records in Iowa are from the Quaternary period, and include glacial till and loess.

RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 4, July 2008

Today’s ride departs Ames and heads towards Nevada. The Ames area is one of the classic areas to view elongated hummocks. These landforms are discontinous, lower relief curvilinear ridges which are east-west trending features. At one time geologists thought these hummocks formed at the base of the glacier due to glacial movement. It is now understood that these features may have developed within the glacier, in a large crevasse field that formed behind the ice (Bemis Moraine) margin as the ice stagnated and melted.

RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 5, July 2008

Today, after you descend into the valley of the Iowa River north of Marengo, the route turns east on county road F15 and approaches the historic Amana Society. Settled in the late 1850s by German immigrants of the Community of True Inspiration, the new arrivals utilized the local timber and stone resources to construct their buildings. During these early years several stone quarries were opened in the hills along the north wall of the Iowa River valley near East, Middle, and West Amana. Riders will pass close to one of these old quarries 0.7 miles west of West Amana. The stone taken from these quarries is beautiful quartz-rich sandstone that is cemented by light brown to orange tinged iron oxide. This stone was used in the construction of many buildings in Amana.

RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 6, July 2008

Today you will be biking over the Iowa and Cedar rivers, two major rivers hit by the Iowa flood of 2008. Three miles northeast of North Liberty you’ll cross the Iowa River. The river crested on June 15, 2008 at a record 31.53 ft., three feet higher than the previous record during the flood of 1993. The flooding river caused extensive damage to the University of Iowa (see cover photo of Iowa Memorial Union taken by Univ. Relations, Univ. of Iowa), Coralville, and numerous smaller towns. The flooding of the Cedar River, which RAGBRAI will cross at Sutliff, caused even greater damage. At Cedar Rapids, the 2008 flood crest of 31.12 ft. was over 11 ft. higher than the previous record set in 1851! This massive amount of water inundated downtown Cedar Rapids, Palo, and Columbus Junction and caused massive damage to buildings and infrastructure. When crossing the Cedar River at Sutliff, be sure to look to your right to see the remains of the Historic Sutliff Bridge, one of the many casualties of the Iowa flood of 2008.

RAGBRAI Learn about the Land; Day 7, July 2008

Iowa’s land was mapped long before it was declared a state. Since Lewis and Clark published their journey across the North American west in 1814, many different uses for maps have been found. Today there are maps of Iowa’s roads, waterways, landscape features, geology, and land use. One of the more recent mapping efforts has involved using a technology called LiDAR. This technology creates a topographic map of Iowa’s elevation that is accurate to within eight inches, ten times higher resolution than in previous elevation maps.

Organic Newsletter, January 2, 2008

A newsletter produced by Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship about the changes of organic farming and raising livestock in Iowa.

Organic Newsletter, April 1, 2008

A newsletter produced by Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship about the changes of organic farming and raising livestock in Iowa.

Improving rainwater-use in Cabo Verde drylands by reducing runoff

Dryland agriculture in Cabo Verde copes with steep slopes, inadequate practices, irregular intense rain, recurrent droughts, high runoff rates, severe soil erosion and declining fertility, leading to the inefficient use of rainwater. Maize and beans occupy N80% of the arable land in low-input, low-yielding subsistence farming. Three collaborative field trialswere conducted in different agroecological zones to evaluate the effects ofwater-conservation techniques (mulching of crop residue, a soil surfactant and pigeon-pea hedges) combinedwith organic amendments (compost and animal or green manure) on runoff and soil loss. During the 2011 and 2012 rainy seasons, three treatments and one control (traditional practice) were applied to 44- and 24-m2 field plots. A local maize variety and two types of beanswere planted. Runoff and suspended sedimentswere collected and quantified after each daily erosive rainfall. Runoff occurred for rainfalls≥50mm(slope b10%, loamy Kastanozem),≥60mm(slope≤23%, silt–clay–loam Regosol) and≥40mm(slope≤37%, sandy loam Cambisol). Runoffwas significantly reduced only with themulch treatment on the slope N10% and in the treatment of surfactant with organic amendment on the slope b10%. Soil loss reached 16.6, 5.1, 6.6 and 0.4 Mg ha−1 on the Regosol (≤23% slope) for the control, surfactant, pigeon-pea and mulch/pigeon-pea (with organic amendment) treatments, respectively; 3.2, 0.9, 1.3 and 0.1 Mg ha−1 on the Cambisol (≤37% slope) and b0. 2Mg ha−1 for all treatments and control on the Kastanozem(b10% slope). Erosion was highly positively correlated with runoff. Mulch with pigeon-pea combinedwith an organic amendment significantly reduced runoff and erosion fromagricultural fields on steep slopes, contributing to improved use of rainwater at the plot level. Sustainable land management techniques, such as mulching with pigeon-pea hedges and an organic amendment, should be advocated and promoted for the semiarid hillsides of Cabo Verde prone to erosion to increase rainwater-use and to prevent further soil degradation.

Appraising and selecting strategies to combat and mitigate desertification based on stakeholder knowledge and globalbest practices in Cape Verde Archipelago

Cape Verde is considered part of Sahelian Africa, where drought and desertification are common occurrences. The main activity of the rural population is rain-fed agriculture, which over time has been increasingly challenged by high temporal and spatial rainfall variability, lack of inputs, limited land area, fragmentation of land, steep slopes, pests, lack of mechanization and loss of top soil by water erosion. Human activities, largely through poor farming practices and deforestation (Gomez, 1989) have accelerated natural erosion processes, shifting the balance between soil erosion and soil formation (Norton, 1987). According to previous studies, vegetation cover is one of the most important factors in controlling soil loss (Cyr et al., 1995; Hupy, 2004; Zhang et al., 2004; Zhou et al., 2006). For this reason, reforestation is a touchstone of the Cape Verdean policy to combat desertification. After Independence in 1975, the Cape Verde government had pressing and closely entangled environmental and socio-economic issues to address, as long-term desertification had resulted in a lack of soil cover, severe soil erosion and a scarcity of water resources and fuel wood. Across the archipelago, desertification was resulting from a variety of processes including poor farming practices, soil erosion by water and wind, soil and water salinity in coastal areas due to over pumping and seawater intrusion, drought and unplanned urbanization (DGA-MAAP, 2004). All these issues directly affected socio-economic vulnerability in rural areas, where about 70% of people depended directly or indirectly on agriculture in 1975. By becoming part of the Inter- State Committee for the Fight against Drought in the Sahel in 1975, the government of Cape Verde gained structured support to address these issues more efficiently. Presentday policies and strategies were defined on the basis of rational use of resources and human efforts and were incorporated into three subsequent national plans: the National Action Plan for Development (NDP) (1982–1986), the NDP (1986–1990) and the NDP (1991–1995) (Carvalho

Making land-use fit to planning goals. Weaknesses and opportunities within the Swiss land management regime

In Switzerland, the issue of land consumption has made it to the front of the political agenda in recent years. Studies conducted on a national level have concluded that there is an excess of land zoned for construction (ARE, 2008), which is seen as contributing to urban sprawl. This situation is looked upon as a failure of the Federal Law on Spatial Planning (LAT, 1979) and there is a political push to change it in order to reinforce zoning regulations. In this article, we look on the issue from a different angle. While there may be large quantities of land zoned for construction, in many urban areas land actually available for development is scarce. Building on the idea that planning's efficiency is linked to its capacity of influencing actual land-use, we focus on how this situation can be dealt with within the current Swiss institutional context.

Draft environmental report on Cape Verde

Faced with recurrent drought and famine during five centuries of human occupation, the small and densely populated Cape Verde Islands have a history of severe environmental problems. The arid climate and steep, rocky terrain provide scant resources for traditional subsistance farming under the best conditions, and in years of low rainfall the failure of rainfed crops causes massive food shortages. Agricultural use of steep slopes where rainfall is highest has led to soil erosion, as has removal of the island's vegetation for fuel and livestock. Pressure on the vegetation is particularly severe in dry years. International aid can provide relief from famine, and the introduction of modern agricultural and conservation techniques can improve the land and increase yield, but it is unlikely that Cape Verde can ever be entirely self -sufficient in food. Ultimately, the solution of Cape Verde's economic and environmental problems will probably require the development of productive urban jobs so the population can shift away from the intensive and destructive use of land for subsistance farming. In the meantime, the people of Cape Verde can best be served by instituting fundamental measures to conserve and restore the land so that it can be used to its fullest potential. The primary environmental problems in Cape Verde today are: 1. Soil degradation. Encouraged by brief but heavy rains and steep slopes, soil erosion is made worse by lack of vegetation. Soils are also low in organic matter due to the practice of completely removing crop plants and natural vegetation for food, fuel or livestock feed. 2. Water shortage. Brief and erratic rainfall in combination with rapid runoff makes surface water scarce and difficult to use. Groundwater supplies can be better developed but capabilities are poorly known and the complex nature of the geological substrate makes estimation difficult. Water is the critical limiting factor to the agricultural capability of the islands. 3. Fuel shortage. Demand for fuel is intense and has resulted in the virtual elimination of native vegetation. Fuelwood supplies are becoming more and more scarce and costly. Development of managed fuelwood plantations and alternate energy sources is required. 4. Inappropriate land use. Much of the land now used for raising crops or livestock is too steep or too arid for these purposes, causing erosion and destruction of vegetation. Improving yield in more appropriate areas and encouraging less damaging uses of the remaining marginal lands can help to alleviate this problem.

The choice of titling system in land

This paper analyzes the choice of the socially optimal titling systemassuming rational individual choices about recording, assurance andregistration decisions. It focuses on the enforcement of propertyrights on land under private titling and the two existing publictitling systems, recording and registration. When the reduction in theexpected costs of eviction compensates the higher cost of initialregistration, it is more efficient to introduce a registration systemrather than a recording system. The development of private "titleassurance" improves the standing of recording as compared toregistration. This improvement depends, however, on the efficiency ofthe assurance technology and, also, on corrective taxation that isneeded to align individual optimization, which disregards the transferelement in eviction, with social objectives.