1,720,995 research outputs found
Mid- and late Holocene fluvial dynamics in the tropical Guapi-Macacu catchment, Southeast Brazil: The role of climate change and human impact
No full textDeeply incised middle to late Holocene fluvial sediments of several streams in the tropical Guapi-Macacu River catchment in the state of Rio de Janeiro were investigated with stratigraphical, sedimentological and geochronological methods. These investigations revealed multiple changes of the fluvial dynamics during the Holocene, triggered by a millennial climate change and the post-colonial increase of land use. Reduced fluvial dynamics and geomorphic stability prevailed in this region during the relatively dry mid-Holocene from 6.6 until 4.7 cal ka BP. This phase of stability was followed by a period of geomorphic activity as indicated by increased fluvial dynamics from this date. This overall environmental change corresponds well with the onset of quasi-modern humid climate conditions in southeastern Brazil during the mid- to late Holocene transition. A new period of activity has taken place since 0.29 cal ka BP, in relation with the start of European colonization and increased land use pressure. Large areas of Atlantic Forests were converted into agricultural and pasture land, causing strong soil erosion and destabilized slopes. The results of these investigations improve the existing Holocene landscape evolution model and highlight that under the given specific climatic and environmental conditions, even a closed forest cover does not necessarily result in geomorphic stability. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
REDD+ implementation in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Why land configuration and common-pool resources management matter
No full textCommunity-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
No full textReducing 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
Defining new pathways for ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda
No full textThis chapter seeks to articulate future directions in the field of Eco-DRR/CCA, in the context of the new post-2015 sustainable development agenda. It synthesises the experiences featured in this book and highlights the key challenges and opportunities in advancing Eco-DRR/CCA approaches. Four main themes are discussed: demonstrating the economic evidence of Eco-DRR/CCA; decision-making tools for Eco-DRR/CCA; innovative institutional arrangements and policies for mainstreaming Eco-DRR/CCA; and research gaps. The major global policy agreements in 2015 are examined for their relevance in promoting Eco-DRR/CCA implementation in countries. Finally, the authors reflect on a new agenda for Eco-DRR/CCA and outline some of the key elements required to significantly advance and scale-up Eco-DRR/CCA implementation globally
Developments and opportunities for ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation
No full textIn the past few years, many advances in terms of research, implementation and policies have taken place around the world with respect to understanding, capturing and facilitating the uptake of ecosystem-based approaches for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA). We highlight some of these advances here, particularly for coastal (various hazards), riverine (floods), and mountain (landslides) environments. We also highlight that many international agreements reached in 2015 can facilitate the uptake of these approaches whereas ecosystem-based solutions can facilitate the achievement of many goals and targets related to DRR, CCA, and/or sustainable development enclosed in these agreements. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the rest of the book
Applying Disaster Risk Governance in Dynamic Environments : Case study Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil
Full text linkBetween 1980 and 2015, around 1.6 billion people were killed in meteorological, geophysical, hydrological or climatological disasters. Future annual losses are estimated to reach US4 billion in the built environment alone. The number of relevant natural loss events worldwide has more than doubled in the last 30 years, causing loss of lives, damage to infrastructure, and a negative impact on the economy. Governmental and non-governmental institutions have started to invest in disaster risk reduction, some of them in line with international frameworks like the Hyogo framework for action (2005–2015), or the Sendai framework (2015–2030). Given the great climatic changes challenging society, together with socio-political changes, disaster risk reduction seems an evident priority for governance, yet this seems to be a subject that is not often mentioned on governmental agendas. While the literature has tended to focus on the substance of disaster risk reduction, little research is available on learning about the design, application, and operationalization of disaster risk governance. Most of the case studies in the literature are in countries of the global north, where systems are well established, information is abundant, and communication networks are strong. Regions with dynamic environments, where socio-political and economic systems are constantly changing and information is not accessible, may require a new approach and specific cases to support changes, adjustments, and additions to existing concepts of disaster risk governance.
But how are existing concepts of disaster risk governance translated into potential and applied ways of dealing with dynamic environments in the context of disaster risk reduction? With the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) definition of disaster risk and the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) framework for risk governance, this study evaluates disaster risk governance with an interdisciplinary approach in a specific case. The core of the case study is Rio de Janeiro State, one of the most dynamic states in Brazil in terms of population and economic growth affected by floods, droughts, and landslides. Through 391 quantitative questionnaires, 26 semi-structured qualitative interviews, 11 focus groups and 3 workshops, plus secondary data and participant observation, it reveals the institutional arrangement of the state, the perception of the population living in the risk areas of Nova Friburgo – one of the most affected municipalities in 2011 – the participatory mechanisms implemented by institutions involved, and the relationship of communication and power between public power and civil society.
The main factors for disaster risk governance according to peer-reviewed literature are explored and prioritized through a quantitative literature review method. These factors added to secondary data and an integrated participatory methodology are the base for the field research in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Local population perceptions in the risk areas of Nova Friburgo municipality and their main influences are revealed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and regression on the survey results. Participation is determined in institutional processes through interviews and by applying Fung’s triangle of participation. The solid outcomes of participatory mapping at different levels are measured and compared to explore applied and potential ways of dealing with disaster risk reduction. Governance, communication, and power connections are finally analyzed through three workshops and all the previously described processes.
In disaster risk governance, public power and civil society have different interests and a complete win-win situation is very unlikely. Decision-making in risk governance processes has to deal with trade-offs that need to be understood and considered by all stakeholders. Factors like lack of trust, miscommunication, and negative perception are especially difficult to address and may not be eliminated completely but can be considerably diminished. State institutions working for disaster risk in a mostly top-down, centralized system that does not enforce participation creates polarization, mistrust, and only few communication and meeting points between the civil society and public power. Abrupt changes to the top-down system do not affect the organized civil society at the same velocity. While consequences of changes are immediate in respect of public power (budget cuts, structural changes, and positions shifting), civil society will only shift in the long term at a slower pace. Even with future changes in the government strongly influencing these processes in other directions, networks should grow stronger and remain dynamic.
The feeling of neglect in these trade-offs in the population living in risk areas requires an understanding of the complexity and the actors involved in order that they feel acknowledged. Clear communication of how the decisions are made, added to an opportunity to take part in those decisions should be a key component and a starting point for better risk governance, followed by continuity of those processes to improve perception and trust. Enabling societies to benefit from constant change while avoiding the negative consequences of the associated risks, as the IGRC affirms, requires cohesion of the different stakeholders. Implementing examples, such as the one presented in the case study, on a bigger scale will require significant effort, time, and resource investment. This specific case can also be used to improve appraisal, communication, and management in surrounding areas and similar cases in peri-urban areas with rapid growth and high dynamism. With greater and stronger changes forecast, continuity (a key factor of all governance processes) is, and will remain, a real challenge in Brazil, requiring physical and temporary space on the agendas of all stakeholders
The use of Pau-Brasil (Caesalpinia echinata Lam.) for making violin bows : a social-ecological system's analysis linking environment and art
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Erfassung und Bewertung von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen im Nationalpark Asinara (Sardinien) – basierend auf bodengeographischen Untersuchungen und dem Aufbau eines Bodeninformationssystems.
No full textSoils are the basis of life for humans and other organisms. Despite this fact, this non-renewable resource is being destroyed worldwide, whereby humans degrade this basis of life more and more. The concept of Ecosystem Services is intended to help contain the worldwide destruction of ecosystems by recording and evaluating the services provided by nature and their loss, and thus making them visible to decision-makers. The environmental medium soil, in which different spheres of the ecosystem overlap and various interactions and processes take place, offers essential contributions to Ecosystem Services. In many studies, however, these various contributions are only insufficiently considered, so that the manifold services of soils remain hidden.
In this study, the contributions of soils to Ecosystem Services are shown exemplarily for the Asinara National Park (Sardinia). For this purpose, a transferable evaluation scheme for provisioning, regulating and cultural Soil-Ecosystem Services is designed, based on field-survey data and physicochemical laboratory analytics. An economic evaluation of the services is not intended. Using soil-geographic models and a digital soil mapping approach, a soil information system is developed, on the basis of which the evaluation scheme is implemented. In the factorial approach, the clearly relief-dependent soil distribution is mapped by a high-resolution digital relief analysis. Results of vegetation ecology are included in order to implement a digital land cover classification using remote sensing techniques. In addition, an analysis of historical land use is carried out in order to map the anthropogenic soil changes recorded in the area and to visualize cultural Soil-Ecosystem Services. The spatio-temporal changes in the use of Soil-Ecosystem Services on the Mediterranean National Park Island is examined. With the acquired soil information a high-resolution contribution to the management of the protected area is provided, which can be used for the planning of management and ecological restoration measures as well as for the execution of habitat analyses.
In order to promote the transfer of Soil-Ecosystem Services in planning and decision-making processes and to ensure a non-anthropocentric perspective, a piggyback approach is proposed in which a soil function assessment forms the basis for the designation of Soil-Ecosystem Services. Using a broad interdisciplinary approach, the case study documents the complete process of a highresolution evaluation of all categories of Soil-Ecosystem Services based on primary data collection for the Mediterranean landscape on a regional scale. The results illustrate the significant potential of digital mapping approaches, but also underline the need for a minimum of field survey, especially for the assessment of the cultural services of soils.Böden sind die Lebensgrundlage des Menschen und anderer Organismen. Ungeachtet dessen findet weltweit eine Zerstörung dieser nicht erneuerbaren Ressource statt, wodurch der Mensch diese Lebensgrundlage immer weiter degradiert. Das Konzept der Ecosystem Services (Ökosystemleistungen) soll dazu beitragen, die weltweite Zerstörung von Ökosystemen einzudämmen, indem die Leistungen der Natur sowie deren Verlust erfasst, bewertet und damit auch für Entscheidungsträger/innen sichtbar werden. Das Umweltmedium Boden, in dem sich unterschiedliche Sphären des Ökosystems überschneiden und vielfältige Wechselwirkungen und Prozesse stattfinden, bietet essenzielle Beiträge zu vielen Ökosystemleistungen. In vielen Studien werden diese Beiträge jedoch nur unzureichend betrachtet, sodass die vielfältigen Leistungen der Böden im Verborgenen bleiben.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird beispielhaft für den Nationalpark Asinara (Sardinien) aufgezeigt, wie die Beiträge der Böden zu Ökosystemleistungen erfasst, bewertet und damit in ihrer Bedeutung sichtbar gemacht werden können. Hierzu wird ein übertragbares, auf feldbodenkundlichen Aufnahmen und physikochemischen Laboruntersuchungen aufbauendes Bewertungsschema für bereitstellende, regulierende und kulturelle Boden-Ökosystemleistungen entworfen. Eine Monetarisierung der Leistungen wird nicht angestrebt. Mit bodengeographischen Modellen und Methoden der digitalen Bodenkartierung wird ein Bodeninformationssystem aufgebaut, auf dessen Grundlage das Bewertungsschema für das Untersuchungsgebiet umgesetzt wird. In der faktorenbasierten Vorgehensweise wird die deutlich reliefabhängige Bodenverbreitung durch eine hochauflösende digitale Reliefanalyse abgebildet. Vegetationsökologische Ergebnisse werden einbezogen, um mit Fernerkundungsmethoden eine digitale Landbedeckungskartierung umzusetzen. Zudem wird eine Analyse der historischen Landnutzung vorgenommen, um die im Gelände erfasste anthropogene Veränderung der Böden flächenhaft abzubilden und kulturelle Boden-Ökosystemleistungen zu visualisieren. Es erfolgt eine Betrachtung der raumzeitlichen Veränderungen der Inanspruchnahme von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen auf der mediterranen Nationalparkinsel. Mit den Bodeninformationen wird ein hochauflösender Beitrag zum Management des Schutzgebietes bereitgestellt, welcher zur Planung von Management- und Renaturierungsmaßnahmen sowie zur Durchführung von Habitatanalysen herangezogen werden kann. Zur Förderung des Transfers von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen in Planungs- und Entscheidungsprozesse und zur Sicherung einer nicht-anthropozentrischen Perspektive wird ein Huckepackverfahren vorgeschlagen, in welchem eine Bodenfunktionsbewertung die Grundlage für die Ausweisung von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen bildet. Mit einem breiten interdisziplinären Ansatz dokumentiert das Fallbeispiel für die mediterrane Landschaft ausgehend von Primärdatenerhebungen erstmals den vollständigen Erarbeitungsprozess einer hochauflösenden Bewertung aller Kategorien von Boden-Ökosystemleistungen im regionalen Maßstab. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen das erhebliche Potenzial der digitalen Kartierungsverfahren, unterstreichen aber auch die Notwendigkeit eines Mindestmaßes an Geländeuntersuchungen, insbesondere zur Erfassung der kulturellen Leistungen von Böden
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