A study on the spatial distribution of land use in the settlement Neguev

Abstract

The aim of the study was to clarify which factors influenced the spatial distribution of the land use in the Neguev settlement. Land use maps (1:10.000) for 6 sample areas in the Neguev settlement were produced, for the years 1989 and 1991. The soil map made by the Atlantic Zone Programme was enlarged to scale 1:10.000, for the sample areas. The main problems for the production of land use maps were: many crops were cultivated on very small plots, which made aerial photo-interpretation and mapping difficult or impossible, especially cacao was difficult to distinguish from forest, farmers were difficult to brace for interviews during field checks, for the land use maps of 1991 field sizes and locations were difficult to estimate. The reader has to keep in mind that the conclusions are based on the produced land use maps that are limited in their exactness by the above mentioned problems. Main conclusions were that only a small part of the total area was used for cultivation and that at the farm level no more than about 3 hectares were used for cultivation, irrespective of the percentage of "good" soil. On the sub-regional level there existed a crude relationship between soil type and land use. Infraestructure had only such an influence that forest and wasteland were found in the remotest parts of the farm. In the last two years silvo-pasture and pasture diminished in area by five percent, due to change into annuals and perennials. It was striking that palmheart increased its acreage with fifty percent in the last two years, all gained on cacao and (silvo-) pasture.