55,867 research outputs found

    REDD+ implementation in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Why land configuration and common-pool resources management matter

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    Community-based forest management under REDD + has been suggested as a promising mechanism to conserve forests and at the same time enhance living conditions of their inhabitants. In the buffer zone of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador, we analyzed the spatial and institutional configuration of Common Property Management Regimes (CPMRs) of two indigenous groups (Shuar, Kichwa) and a group of Colonist cooperatives in their historical development. We used the Ostrom (1990) principles to assess land configuration and institutional arrangements for decision-making in the use of shared resources and analyzed the implications for REDD + implementation. We found that CPMRs of the two studied indigenous groups are becoming increasingly similar to those of the Colonists as a result of agrarian reforms and legal frameworks for communal organization. The informal continuation of traditional forms of organization under (modern) formal structures and the overlap of de jure and de facto rights hinder efficient and transparent forest governance and REDD + implementation. Spatial and institutional homogenization of CPMRs of various ethnic groups and privatization of farms inside CPMRs causes further forest fragmentation and impedes conservation goals. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

    REDD+ and incentives: An analysis of income generation in forest-dependent communities of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador

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    Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is considered a promising strategy to slow down deforestation rates, promote sustainable forest use, and support rural livelihoods under the umbrella of climate change mitigation. However, so far there is only little field-based knowledge on how REDD+ can go along with subsistence-based production systems and livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. We addressed this research gap by analyzing the income generation of three widespread ethnic groups (Colonists, Shuar, Kichwa) in the buffer zone of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador to better understand their livelihoods and possible engagement in REDD+. We selected two communities of each ethnic group (close-to and far-from markets) and used household surveys to (a) calculate household incomes, (b) assess the degree of forest-dependency, and (c) discuss how REDD+ schemes can be designed along with traditional subsistence-based production systems. We found that the studied indigenous communities have a higher degree of forest-dependency and higher environmental income compared to Colonists. However, our assumption that close-to-market communities have a lower degree of forest dependency and higher cash income due to better market access and labor opportunities applies only to the Colonists and Shuar, but must be rejected for the Kichwas who gain income from timber sale. Despite these differences, all communities receive high off-farm revenues from unskilled labor provided by oil-companies and external aid. Therefore, dependency on agriculture and forestry is temporarily reduced. Under these circumstances, REDD+ provides only weak financial incentives so that the willingness to participate in REDD+ is low. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

    A Dynamic Subfilter-scale Stress Model for Large Eddy Simulations Based on Physical Flow Scales

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    We propose a new definition of the length scale in an eddy-viscosity model for large-eddy simulations (LES). This formulation extends and generalizes a previous proposal [Piomelli, Rouhi and Geurts, Proc. ETMM10, 2014], in which the LES length scale was expressed in terms of the integral length-scale of turbulence determined by the flow characteristics and explicitly decoupled from the simulation grid; this approach was named Integral Length-Scale Approximation (ILSA). As in the original ILSA, the model coefficient was determined by the user, and required to maintain a desired contribution of the unresolved, subfilter scales (SFS) to the global transport. We propose a local formulation (local ILSA) in which the model coefficient is local in space, allowing a precise control over SFS activity as a function of location. This new formulation preserves the properties of the global model; application to channel flow and backward-facing step verifies its features and accuracy

    Large-eddy simulation of a separated flow with a sub-filter scale model based on the integral length-scale

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    A new sub-filter scale model for large-eddy simulations, which uses a length-scale proportional to the integral scale of the turbulence instead of the grid resolution to parametrize the modelled stresses, will be assessed in the prediction of the flow of a boundary-layer over a rough surface, which includes separation and reattachment

    Near Wall PIV-Measurements on the Windward Slope of a Hill

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    The turbulent flow over periodic hills was measured near to the wall, using planar Particle-Image-Velocimetry (PIV) at high spatial resolution. Our focus is on the near wall turbulence structure on the windward slope of the hill. For large-eddy simulation (LES) we suspect that, if this was not predicted accurately, it affects the prediction of the velocity profiles over the hill crest which in turn will affect the recirculation length downstream of the hill. Regarding the time averaged velocities, we were able to resolve the linear viscous region of the boundary layer. The velocity distribution and also the Reynolds stress does not comply with the law of the wall as it is valid for a turbulent boundary layer at equilibrium

    Energy dissipation and flux laws for unsteady turbulence

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    Direct Numerical Simulations of spatially periodic unsteady turbulence show that the high Reynolds number scalings of the instantaneous energy dissipation rate and interscale energy flux at intermediate wavenumbers are qualitatively different from the well-known u(t)3/L(t)u'(t)^{3}/L(t) cornerstone scalings of equilibrium turbulence where u(t)u'(t) and L(t)L(t) are time-dependent rms velocity and integral length-scales. Instead, they both scale as U0L0u(t)2/L(t)2U_{0}L_{0}\:u'(t)^2/L(t)^2 where L0L_0 and U0U_0 are length and velocity scales characterizing initial/overall unsteady turbulence conditions

    Direct numerical simulation of turbulent Couette-Poiseuille flow with zero skin friction

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    The near-wall scaling of mean velocity U(y) is addressed for the case of zero skin friction on one wall of a fully turbulent channel flow. The present DNS results can be added to the evidence in support of the conjecture that U is proportional to √yw in the region just above the wall at which the mean shear dU/dy = 0

    Real-space Manifestations of Bottlenecks in Turbulence Spectra

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    An energy-spectrum bottleneck, a bump in the turbulence spectrum between the inertial and dissipation ranges, is shown to occur in the non-turbulent, one-dimensional, hyperviscous Burgers equation and found to be the Fourier-space signature of oscillations in the real-space velocity, which are explained by boundary-layer-expansion techniques. Pseudospectral simulations are used to show that such oscillations occur in velocity correlation functions in one- and three-dimensional hyperviscous hydrodynamical equations that display genuine turbulence
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