Ireland, as an island, has a long (<7000 km), crenellate, and cliffed coastline. More than 50% of its population (ca. 5.4 million in 1998) live within 15 km of the coastline. But most of these people ...are concentrated in a few major urban centres. Effectively, large areas of the coast have a low-density population. These factors mean that Ireland is seen as having an overall low vulnerability to the impacts of sea-level rise. Even so, about 30% of its coastal wetlands could be lost given a 1-m sea-level-rise scenario. People's valuation and awareness of the coastal environment in Ireland has been limited for much of the 20th century by factors of history and emigration. Many coastal areas have remained relatively undeveloped since the 18th and 19th centuries. In the late 20th century, an island-wide awakening to the resource potential of coastal and marine environments began to change this former neglect. In the Republic of Ireland, the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources was set up in 1988, and a separate Marine Institute was added in 1991. These developments established the coastal zone as an important element in future national strategic planning. This article examines the physical components of coastal vulnerability throughout Ireland under sea-level rise and climate change, coupled with the influences of people at the coast. These factors are placed in the context of the development of coastal zone management in Ireland and its links to reducing vulnerability.
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Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this study, we analyzed the temporal-spatial variations of the characteristics of land use change in central Asia over the past two decades. This was conducted using four indicators (change rate, ...equilibrium extent, dynamic index, and transfer direction) and a multi-scale correlation analysis method, which explained the impact of recent environmental transformations on land use changes. The results indicated that the integrated dynamic degree of land use increased by 2.2% from 1995 to 2015. The areas of cropland, water bodies, and artificial land increased, with rates of 1047 km2/a, 39 km2/a, and 129 km2/a, respectively. On the other hand, the areas of forest, grassland, and unused land decreased, with rates of 54 km2/a, 803 km2/a, and 359 km2/a, respectively. There were significant increases in cropland and water bodies from 1995 to 2005, while the amount of artificial land significantly increased from 2005 to 2015. The increased areas of cropland in Xinjiang were mainly converted from grassland and unused land from 1995 to 2015, while the artificial land increase was mainly a result of the conversion from cropland, grassland, and unused land. The area of cropland rapidly expanded in south Xinjiang, which has led to centroid position to move cropland in Xinjiang in a southwest direction. Economic development and the rapid growth of population size are the main factors responsible for the cropland increases in Xinjiang. Runoff variations have a key impact on cropland changes at the river basin scale, as seen in three typical river basins.
•The modifications of NCQs in response to rural social and economic changes in agricultural villages are explored.•NCQs built during the collectivist agriculture era (1970s) were traditional in ...style, but with reduced functions.•NCQs built in the agriculture intensification stage (1980 to mid-1990s) played important roles in agriculture production.•NCQs built in the cyclical migration period (mid-1990s to present) are characteristically modern and spacious.•The problems arising from past changes of NCQs and the solutions for tackling them are discussed.
In Chinese agricultural villages, housing provides multiple functions for rural households. With the transition of state policies and regional socio-economic development in China over the last 40 years, farmers have modified the layout and form of rural housing to adapt to the shifts in their livelihoods and lifestyles. Rural housing built by the remittances of migrant workers has produced negative externalities in densely populated agricultural regions, whilst in some villages, traditional housing has been demolished as part of settlement rationalization plans, with peasants relocated to apartment-style housing. These practices have been controversial and generated conflicts between peasants and local governments. Thus, rural housing has become a theoretical and practical problem in rural China that cannot be resolved with a “one-size-fits-all plan or policy”. Based on field surveys and interviews in three case villages, this paper examines how the form and layout of North China quadrangles (NCQs, or Huabei siheyuan), the four-sided folk housing built by people of the Han nationality in northern China, have been modified since the 1970s. We discuss the land use problems arising from the evolution of NCQs and options for solutions. We found that NCQs in agricultural villages have undergone several dramatic modifications: NCQs built during the collectivist agriculture era (1970s) were traditional in style but had reduced functions; NCQs built during the agriculture intensification era (1980s to mid-1990s) played an important role in agriculture production; and NCQs built in the cyclical migration era (mid-1990s to date) are typically modern and spacious. These modifications to the form of NCQs can be seen as adaptation and survival strategies of rural households in response to socio-economic transitions, their changing livelihoods, and changes in their needs over the course of their lives. Today, rural houses with varied qualities, abandoned houses, and empty plots of land coexist and intermingle together in rural settlements. To manage this chaotic situation, we suggest macro-level solutions with targeted measures to respect variations in farmers’ characteristics and interests and avoid impairing the diversity and adaptability of rural folk housing.
Animal husbandry of agropastoral communities in the mountainous region of Leh, Ladakh, has been transformed in response to socio-economic and geo-political changes. This study investigates the ...current state of agropastoralism in the Trans-Himalaya of Leh, Ladakh, focusing on two objectives: understanding grazing management practices and examining socio-environmental factors affecting traditional pastoral livelihoods. Through a mixed-methods approach, including interviews and focus group discussions, this study explores resource utilisation patterns and decision-making processes within local communities and institutions based on a comparative approach in three pastoral areas of Ladakh. The resource utilisation pattern differs from village to village as a response to meet seasonal fodder demands; accordingly, high-altitude pastures are assessed in winter and/or summer seasons. Key stresses to the perpetuation of traditional pastoral knowledge include livelihood diversification, increasing dependence upon exogenous food production system and diminishing significance of traditional livelihood practices with improved connectivity, higher education aspirations and development of tourism and military services. Broadly, changes could be perceived from the abandonment of regular seasonal migration to pasturelands, in livestock composition and size and the decreasing number of households practising animal herding. Apart from socio-economic and developmental pressures, pastoral practices are simultaneously threatened by wild predators as well as by global warming-induced occurrence of extreme climatic events and pest attacks. While pastoral practices are carried on by a limited number of households in the three detailed study sites, knowledge pertaining to resource management, pastureland system and grazing pattern is still intact considering the resource seasonality and range of social and environmental pressures the region experiences. Ladakh’s agropastoral practices, rooted in local ecological knowledge, face challenges from socio-economic changes, risking climate resilience, ecosystem degradation, cultural loss and food security for agropastoral communities and broader societal contexts. Thus, it becomes vital to safeguard these indigenous livelihood practices and to promote a participatory approach to enhance capacity building for the continuation of the practice, which could contribute to local economies in areas with similar socio-environmental settings.
In Mongolia's gold rush economy, money has become such an emphatically localized and contentious object that its cash value cannot be presumed. Drawing on Mongolian notions of "polluted money," I ...argue that, in this context, cash value is determined not only by a banknote's status as legal tender but also by local understandings of its materiality. Confronted with the intense pollution that attaches to gold miners' money, shopkeepers change the face value of the money and effectively set higher prices in a region with increasing numbers of dependent customers. Rather than challenging or subverting money's national indexicality, this redenomination of state currency reflects people's critical position within a troubled economy of pollution. This case demonstrates that currency, like any other object, is a social medium that is intimately tied to the physical and cosmological world.
The work reported here has examined the transformation of the Northern Ladoga region (a natural and historical region in the Russian-Finnish borderland) from ‘closed’ border area into a prospective ...tourist destination in the face of changes taking place in the 1990s. Three periods to the development of tourism in the region are identified, while the article goes on to explore general trends and features characterising the development of a tourist destination, with the focus on tourist infrastructure, the developing types of tourism and tourismoriented projects. Measures to further stimulate tourism as an economic activity of the region are suggested.
The author writes about political and socio-economic changes in Bijeljina from 1945 to 1953. After the Second World War, the area of Bijeljina was part of the Tuzla District. Since 1949, Bijeljina ...has been an integral part of the Tuzla region, and since 1952, it has been one of the 66 districts of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The area of Bijeljina consisted of the District of Bijeljina and the City of Bijeljina. After the Second World War, the new government faced many problems: lack of adequate communication between lower and higher authorities, organization and accommodation of counties, feeding the population, buying grain, sowing, repatriation of refugees, assistance to the disabled, health problems, education, etc. In the 1945 election campaign, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) prevented the participation of civic parties in various ways. The regime spied on its political and ideological opponents. Citizens were afraid that they would be arrested as "enemies of the people" and punished. Numerous opponents of the Popular Front were removed from the voter lists. The first elections in the socialist of Yugoslavia were held on November 11, 1945. In the elections, they voted for the list of the Popular Front and the box without the list ("blank box"). The list of the Popular Front, which also included "verified" members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, won convincingly. In the Bijeljina district, 27,018 voters were registered to vote. 25,188 or 93.23% of the total number of registered voters voted. Candidate of the People's Front for the Federal Assembly of the Yugoslavia from the Bijeljina District, dr. Vojislav Kecmanović received 24,419 votes (96.95%), while the box without a list won 769 votes (3.05%). The list of the Popular Front for the Assembly of Peoples of the Yugoslavia was also "convincing" in these elections. The list won 24,457 votes or 97.10% of the total number of voters who went to the polls, while the box without the list won 731 votes or 2.90%. In the total population of Bijeljina, women were more numerous than men and made up 52.24% of the population of the District and 52.29% of the population of the City. Women played an important role in the socio-economic, cultural and educational life of Bijeljina. Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and members of other nations lived together in the area of Bijeljina, and the number of inhabitants was continuously increasing. In 1948 there were 77,482 inhabitants and in 1953, 86,865 inhabitants which was an increase of 9,383 persons or 11.49%. Serbs made up the majority in Bijeljina County (80%) and Bosniaks in Grad (52%). He is in Bijeljina, in 1948, there were 51,031 persons or 65.86% of the population without education, 24,160 persons or 31.18% with completed primary school, and 1,649 persons or 2.13% of the population with lower secondary school. 565 persons or 0.73% had completed secondary school, and 73 persons or 0.09% of the population of Bijeljina had completed college and university. There were 32,522 women or 63.73% of the total number of persons without education and 18,509 men or 36.27% without education. In addition, the literacy of the population was at a very low level. As many as 22,139 or 37.76% of people over the age of nine were illiterate. In the area of Bijeljina, in the period 1945-1953. year, the number of primary schools increased from 34, 1946, to 53, 1953. In addition to primary schools, there were other schools: Teacher's, Gymnasium, Agricultural High School. With such a population structure in Bijeljina, the reconstruction and the first five-year plan were carried out very ambitiously. Significant economic changes were made in this period (1945-1953). These changes are visible in the field of crafts, trade, catering, agriculture.
The article deals with selected aspects of the economic structure and functions of the largest villages in Poland. The main aim of the study is to investigate the diversity and changes that can be ...observed to have happened since before the fall of Communism in Poland. Large villages with populations exceeding 5,000 inhabitants are located in the same part of the rural–urban continuum as small towns, including many poviat (1) seats. For this reason, they are an interesting comparative category of settlement units. The study was based on a source database from the end of the last century and on contemporary public data from the REGON database. The comparison is based not only on various data, but also uses various research methodologies.
Dawei Special Economic Zone (DSEZ) Project is one of the largest petrochemical industrial estates in South East Asia which aims to transform the country into a pivotal hub for regional connectivity ...and logistics. Socio-economic factors determine local lifestyles, including mobility pattern, and directly impact on rural sustainability. Changes in mobility may represent not only generating alternative opportunities associated with socio-economic development, but also the vulnerability of rural people which can be a significant challenge for social sustainability in a rural area. Consequently, mobility can be one of the powerful indexes to assess impacts resulted in socio-economic changes in a long-term. The objectives of this paper are to: convert conventional mobility data to spatiotemporal data and visualize them; and to assess the change of mobility in 2005, 2010 and 2015 with respect to social parameters such as sex and age. A total of 345 individual respondents were stratified-randomly selected for assessing one-day mobility. Conversion of conventional mobility data was conducted using online maps. Historical analysis of mobility data was conducted after performing mobility data validation. The result shows that different mobility was observed by sex and age group. Average increases of males’ mobile distance between 2005/2010 and 2010/2015 show 2.6 and 1.7 times increase, while that of females shows 1.6 and 2.6 times, respectively. Especially, working age females show a high increase in 2010/2015. The study concluded that mobility data obtained in different formats in different time periods can be integrated and visualized for long-term mobility assessment. This contributes to better understand how local people is responding to such socio-economic development. Mobility can be an important parameter and further provides significant perspectives to policy development for sustainable rural development.
Poland is one of the countries distinguished by a long and colorful past. Undergoing numerous turbulent socio-economic changes forced by the course of history, Poland is now one of the member states ...of the European Union. Experiencing low water quantity and high contamination levels in surface waters, Poland is following other EU countries in the effort to reach a “good” water status. Herein are presented impacts of changes in Polish history on water legislation, management, and research, as well as explanations for the perceptible split between engineering and scientific approaches to the aquatic issues. Drawbacks caused by unsatisfactory state research funding for the sciences and division of the water related contemporary scientific interests are also discussed.
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