Geospatial Assessment of Climate Variability Impacts on Agricultural Systems and Carbon Sequestration under Regenerative Farming Practices: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Climate variability increasingly threatens agricultural productivity, soil health, and ecosystem stability, while agriculture simultaneously presents significant opportunities for climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. This study systematically reviews the existing literature on the geospatial assessment of climate variability impacts on agricultural systems and carbon sequestration under regenerative farming practices. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, scholarly articles published between 2000 and 2025 were collected from Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Google Scholar. Following screening and eligibility assessment, 61 peer-reviewed studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. The review examines the geographical distribution of studies, geospatial methodologies, climate and carbon indicators, and analytical frameworks applied in the literature. Findings reveal a strong dominance of remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and spatial modelling approaches, with approximately 62% of studies employing remote sensing techniques and 54% using GIS-based analysis. However, only a limited proportion integrated field-based validation, resulting in heavy dependence on indirect indicators such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC). The synthesis demonstrates that climate variability, particularly changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, significantly influences crop productivity, soil moisture, and carbon dynamics. Regenerative agricultural practices, including agroforestry, conservation tillage, cover cropping, and diversified crop rotations, generally contribute to increased carbon sequestration and improved soil resilience. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these practices remains highly context-specific and dependent on environmental conditions, spatial scale, temporal duration, and methodological approaches. The review identifies major structural gaps in the literature, including inadequate integration of climate, agriculture, and carbon dynamics; limited long-term and multiscalar studies; insufficient ground validation; methodological inconsistencies; and substantial geographical underrepresentation of climate-vulnerable regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. The study concludes that future research should prioritize integrated, multi-scale frameworks combining geospatial technologies, field-based measurements, and advanced modelling techniques to improve the reliability and applicability of climate–agriculture–carbon assessments under regenerative farming systems.