Cropland abandonment in the context of drought, economic restructuring, and migration in northeast Syria
Eklund, Lina LU ; Mohr, Berit and Dinc, Pinar LU
(2024)
In Environmental Research Letters
19(1).
- Abstract
- Farmland abandonment is often associated with biophysical, political, or socio-economic changes, like droughts, economic reforms, rural-urban migration, or armed conflicts. Syria has seen several such changes in the period between 2000-2011, however, few assessments of how these factors have interacted with land abandonment have been carried out. In this study we investigate land abandonment patterns in northeast Syria, using a land use classification based on satellite data to indicate agricultural drought impacts and land abandonment. We combine these data with information on land use and migration patterns collected through a unique fieldwork, including surveys and interviews with Syrian farmers who had migrated to Turkey. Our analysis... (More)
- Farmland abandonment is often associated with biophysical, political, or socio-economic changes, like droughts, economic reforms, rural-urban migration, or armed conflicts. Syria has seen several such changes in the period between 2000-2011, however, few assessments of how these factors have interacted with land abandonment have been carried out. In this study we investigate land abandonment patterns in northeast Syria, using a land use classification based on satellite data to indicate agricultural drought impacts and land abandonment. We combine these data with information on land use and migration patterns collected through a unique fieldwork, including surveys and interviews with Syrian farmers who had migrated to Turkey. Our analysis shows that drought coincided with a strong drop in cultivated croplands in 2008 and 2009. We also found a comparatively high cropland abandonment between 2001 and 2013, however no strong increases during or after drought years. Local insights indicate that migration took place during both normal years and drought years, and that most migrants had abandoned their lands after leaving Syria. We suggest that long-term mismanagement of water resources along with changes in the political economy, drove land abandonment in northeast Syria between 2001 and 2010. After 2011, armed conflict likely drove abandonment, but rates remained similar to the pre-conflict period. We discuss the potential of land abandonment as an indicator of rural migration in areas where migration data is sparse and conclude that more research is needed to understand the migration-land abandonment nexus, particularly in the Middle East. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8ff27ea5-7b3f-44d1-80ab-467570988948
- author
- Eklund, Lina
LU
; Mohr, Berit
and Dinc, Pinar
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-01-12
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Environmental Research Letters
- volume
- 19
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 014077
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85182596558
- ISSN
- 1748-9326
- DOI
- 10.1088/1748-9326/ad1723
- project
- Societal impacts of climate stress: An integrated assessment of drought, vulnerability, and conflict in Syria
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8ff27ea5-7b3f-44d1-80ab-467570988948
- date added to LUP
- 2024-01-16 10:41:27
- date last changed
- 2024-02-19 11:20:16
@article{8ff27ea5-7b3f-44d1-80ab-467570988948,
abstract = {{Farmland abandonment is often associated with biophysical, political, or socio-economic changes, like droughts, economic reforms, rural-urban migration, or armed conflicts. Syria has seen several such changes in the period between 2000-2011, however, few assessments of how these factors have interacted with land abandonment have been carried out. In this study we investigate land abandonment patterns in northeast Syria, using a land use classification based on satellite data to indicate agricultural drought impacts and land abandonment. We combine these data with information on land use and migration patterns collected through a unique fieldwork, including surveys and interviews with Syrian farmers who had migrated to Turkey. Our analysis shows that drought coincided with a strong drop in cultivated croplands in 2008 and 2009. We also found a comparatively high cropland abandonment between 2001 and 2013, however no strong increases during or after drought years. Local insights indicate that migration took place during both normal years and drought years, and that most migrants had abandoned their lands after leaving Syria. We suggest that long-term mismanagement of water resources along with changes in the political economy, drove land abandonment in northeast Syria between 2001 and 2010. After 2011, armed conflict likely drove abandonment, but rates remained similar to the pre-conflict period. We discuss the potential of land abandonment as an indicator of rural migration in areas where migration data is sparse and conclude that more research is needed to understand the migration-land abandonment nexus, particularly in the Middle East.}},
author = {{Eklund, Lina and Mohr, Berit and Dinc, Pinar}},
issn = {{1748-9326}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
title = {{Cropland abandonment in the context of drought, economic restructuring, and migration in northeast Syria}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1723}},
doi = {{10.1088/1748-9326/ad1723}},
volume = {{19}},
year = {{2024}},
}