The natural vegetation of the Liaodong Peninsula is not well preserved, because of the extent of cultivation and settlement.
Cultivation and settlement have therefore taken place in the middle flats and on the higher slopes, with many villages being located on the borderline between the flats and the plateau, thus avoiding both the flooding of the lower slopes and the increasing aridity of the higher terrain.
Overall, the rates of agreement between UA and PA in terms of cultivation and settlement areas were greatly increased in 2003 (Table 1).
Government policies including ban on the use of fire and expansion of cultivation and settlement programs in the rangelands were reported to be the main causes for LULC changes (Oba 1998; Coppock 1994; Homann et al. 2005; Angassa and Oba 2008b).
This established Birmingham as the primary commercial centre for the Birmingham Plateau at a time when the area's economy was expanding rapidly, with population growth nationally leading to the clearance, cultivation and settlement of previously marginal land.
The study reveals that coastal alluvium, wetlands and mixed cultivation with settlements were the major land-cover during earlier days.
Landscape metrics showed fragmentation of native vegetation followed by coalescence to contiguous patches of cultivation as settlements increased.
One of the ways is to advocate for community land trust that allows land-use zoning to provide areas for conservation, grazing, cultivation, and settlements.
Moreover, the earlier maps show that roads were fewer and most of the land was covered by mixed cultivation with settlements.
This trend was attributed to expansion of cultivation and settlements, which increased by 26 and 17%%, respectively, in sedentary and 17 and 12 %, respectively, in semi-nomadic during the period under study, due to land tenure changes.
