Global environmental change and sustainability science increasingly recognize the need to address the consequences of changes taking place in the structure and function of the biosphere. These ...changes raise questions such as: Who and what are vulnerable to the multiple environmental changes underway, and where? Research demonstrates that vulnerability is registered not by exposure to hazards (perturbations and stresses) alone but also resides in the sensitivity and resilience of the system experiencing such hazards. This recognition requires revisions and enlargements in the basic design of vulnerability assessments, including the capacity to treat coupled human-environment systems and those linkages within and without the systems that affect their vulnerability. A vulnerability framework for the assessment of coupled human-environment systems is presented.
► Human well-being depends on multiple ecosystem services, many of them being underpinned by biodiversity. ► Biodiversity continues to be lost at an unprecedented rate. ► Decision-makers and ...policy-makers require sound scientific foundation to secure the planet's biodiversity and ecosystem services, while contributing to human well-being and poverty eradication. ► The new DIVERSITAS vision is built around four main research challenges to help guide the global research community towards this foundation.
DIVERSITAS, the international programme on biodiversity science, is releasing a strategic vision presenting scientific challenges for the next decade of research on biodiversity and ecosystem services: “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Science for a Sustainable Planet”. This new vision is a response of the biodiversity and ecosystem services scientific community to the accelerating loss of the components of biodiversity, as well as to changes in the biodiversity science-policy landscape (establishment of a Biodiversity Observing Network—GEO BON, of an Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services—IPBES, of the new Future Earth initiative; and release of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020). This article presents the vision and its core scientific challenges.
This paper presents some initial modeling results from a large, interdisciplinary research project underway in the southern Yucatán peninsular region. The aims of the project are: to understand, ...through individual household survey work, the behavioral and structural dynamics that influence land managers’ decisions to deforest and intensify land use; model these dynamics and link their outcomes directly to satellite imagery; model from the imagery itself; and, determine the robustness of modeling to and from the satellite imagery. Two complementary datasets, one from household survey data on agricultural practices including information on socio-economic factors and the second from satellite imagery linked with aggregate government census data, are used in two econometric modeling approaches. Both models test hypotheses concerning deforestation during different time periods in the recent past in the region. The first uses the satellite data, other spatial environmental variables, and
aggregate socio-economic data (e.g., census data) in a discrete-choice (logit) model to estimate the probability that any particular
pixel in the landscape will be deforested, as a function of explanatory variables. The second model uses the survey data in a cross-sectional regression (OLS) model to ask questions about the
amount of deforestation associated with
each individual farmer and to explain these choices as a function of
individual socio-demographic, market, environmental, and geographic variables. In both cases, however, the choices of explanatory variables are informed by social science theory as to what are hypothesized to affect the deforestation decision (e.g., in a von Thünen model, accessibility is hypothesized to affect choice; in a Ricardian model, land quality; in a Chayanovian model, consumer–labor ratio). The models ask different questions using different data, but several broad comparisons seem useful. While most variables are statistically significant in the discrete choice model, none of the location variables are statistically significant in the continuous model. Therefore, while location affects the overall probability of deforestation, it does not appear to explain the total amount of deforestation on a given location by an individual.
We studied soil organic carbon (C) chemistry at the mountain birch forest‐tundra ecotone in three regions of the Fennoscandian mountain range with comparable vegetation cover but contrasting degrees ...of continentality and latitude. The aim of the study was to identify functional compound classes and their relationships to decomposition and spatial variation across the ecotone and latitudinal gradient. Solid‐state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (CPMAS 13C NMR) was used to identify seven functional groups of soil organic C: alkyls, N‐alkyls, O‐alkyls, acetals, aromatics, phenolics and carboxyls. N‐alkyls, O‐alkyls and acetals are generally considered labile substrates for a large number of saprotrophic fungi and bacteria, whilst phenolics and aromatics are mainly decomposed by lignolytic organisms and contribute to the formation of soil organic matter together with aliphatic alkyls and carboxyls. All soils contained a similar proportional distribution of functional groups, although relatively high amounts of N‐alkyls, O‐alkyls and acetals were present in comparison to earlier published studies, suggesting that large amounts of soil C were potentially vulnerable to microbial degradation. Soil organic matter composition was different at the most southerly site (Dovrefjell, Norway), compared with the two more northerly sites (Abisko, Sweden, and Joatka, Norway), with higher concentrations of aromatics and phenolics, as well as pronounced differences in alkyl concentrations between forest and tundra soils. Clear differences between mountain birch forest and tundra heath soil was noted, with generally higher concentrations of labile carbon present in tundra soils. We conclude that, although mesic soils around the forest‐tundra ecotone in Fennoscandia are a potential source of C to the atmosphere in a changing environment, the response is likely to vary between comparable ecosystems in relation to latitude and continentality as well as soil properties especially soil nitrogen content and pH.
This study seeks to determine the role of land architecture—the composition and configuration of land cover—as well as cadastral–demographic–economic factors on land surface temperature (LST) and the ...surface urban heat island effect of Phoenix, Arizona. It employs 1m National Agricultural Imagery Program data of land-cover with 120m Landsat-derived land surface temperature, decomposed to 30m, a new measure of configuration, the normalized moment of inertia, and U.S. Census data to address the question for two randomly selected samples comprising 523 and 545 residential neighborhoods (census blocks) in the city. The results indicate that, contrary to most other studies, land configuration has a stronger influence on LST than land composition. In addition, both land configuration and architecture combined with cadastral, demographic, and economic variables, capture a significant amount of explained variance in LST. The results indicate that attention to land architecture in the development of or reshaping of neighborhoods may ameliorate the summer extremes in LST.
•Land-cover composition and configuration of neighborhoods affects the urban heat island.•Land-cover configuration is as important as composition on land surface temperature.•Land architecture and socio-economic factors correlate strongly with land surface temperature.•Land architecture of neighborhoods offers a means to ameliorate the extremes urban heat islands.
•Landsystem science produced many empirical results but lacks progress in theory.•We review theories on causes of changes in land use extent and intensity.•We synthesize middle-range theories of ...systemic land system processes.•Theories of land-use spillovers (land sparing and rebound effects with intensification, leakage).•Theories of land-use transitions (structural non-linear changes, including forest transition).
Changes in land systems generate many sustainability challenges. Identifying more sustainable land-use alternatives requires solid theoretical foundations on the causes of land-use/cover changes. Land system science is a maturing field that has produced a wealth of methodological innovations and empirical observations on land-cover and land-use change, from patterns and processes to causes. We take stock of this knowledge by reviewing and synthesizing the theories that explain the causal mechanisms of land-use change, including systemic linkages between distant land-use changes, with a focus on agriculture and forestry processes. We first review theories explaining changes in land-use extent, such as agricultural expansion, deforestation, frontier development, and land abandonment, and changes in land-use intensity, such as agricultural intensification and disintensification. We then synthesize theories of higher-level land system change processes, focusing on: (i) land-use spillovers, including land sparing and rebound effects with intensification, leakage, indirect land-use change, and land-use displacement, and (ii) land-use transitions, defined as structural non-linear changes in land systems, including forest transitions. Theories focusing on the causes of land system changes span theoretically and epistemologically disparate knowledge domains and build from deductive, abductive, and inductive approaches. A grand, integrated theory of land system change remains elusive. Yet, we show that middle-range theories – defined here as contextual generalizations that describe chains of causal mechanisms explaining a well-bounded range of phenomena, as well as the conditions that trigger, enable, or prevent these causal chains –, provide a path towards generalized knowledge of land systems. This knowledge can support progress towards sustainable social-ecological systems.
The rapid growth of cities—along with the increasing connectedness of the world's social, economic, and political systems—has been hypothesized to generate a homogenization of urban form and ...associated environmental impacts. These hypotheses, however, have rarely been tested. Employing satellite imagery of 150 of the most populous cities in China, India, and the United States, we examine how the area and configuration of built-up land within cities has changed between 1995 and 2015 and assess impacts on the urban heat island effect. We find similar urban form trends across the three countries. The strongest evidence of homogenization is in the connectivity of urban form, while the shape of cities is linked to higher daytime surface urban heat island (SUHI) intensity. In the context of this and other research, we postulate that the identified urban form trends may lead to the homogenization of the biotic and abiotic environment of cities. Homogenization presents an opportunity for cities to learn from each other as they encounter similar ecological outcomes driven, in part, by their increasingly similar urban form.
•Populous cities in China, India, and the U.S. have similar trends in urban form.•Urban form exhibits a homogenizing trend for connectivity.•Increasing shape compactness and complexity are linked with increasing SUHI intensity.•If urban form homogenizes, cities can expect similar SUHI consequences.
•Divergent design intentions affect land system architecture (LSA).•Certain LSA changes had outsized roles in shaping site differences.•Overall, most design difference did not result in divergent ...environmental outcomes.•Results provide insight on crafting urban riparian redevelopment goals.
In the face of climate change and other environmental challenges, an increasing number of cities are turning to land design to enhance urban sustainability. Land system architecture (LSA)—which examines the role of size, shape, distribution, and connectivity of land units in relation to the system’s social-environmental dynamics—can be a useful perspective for examining how land contributes to the social and environmental aspects of urban sustainability. There are two gaps, however, that prevent LSA from fully contributing to urban sustainability dialogues. First, it is not well understood how urban design goals, as expressed by urban planners and other practitioners, relate to LSA and environmental outcomes. Second, most LSA work focuses on individual environmental outcomes, such as the urban heat island effect, instead of considering the broader suite of outcomes that LSA changes impact. Here, we undertake an integrated assessment of LSA impacts on surface urban heat island (based on land surface temperature), vegetation presence/health (based on NDVI), and bird biota at two riparian sites with different design intentions in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. The Rio Salado in Tempe underwent a city-led, infill redevelopment that mixed economic, recreational, and flood control design goals. The New River in Peoria experienced a more typical developer-driven urbanization. The contexts and design goals of the sites generated differences in their LSA, but only a few of these differences were sufficiently unique to contribute to divergent environmental outcomes. These differences reside in (1) the greater distribution of recreational land-covers and (2) increased surface water at the Rio Salado site compared to the New River site. Both changes are linked to land-cover patches becoming greener and cooler as well as a greater presence of waterbird and warbler species at the Rio Salado site. The distinctions between the sites provide insight for crafting design goals for redeveloping or restoring urban riparian landscapes in the Phoenix metropolitan area that are grounded in LSA. With the incorporation of additional relevant variables, especially socioeconomic ones, the research approach employed in this study provides a foundation for the assessment of other urban land system change.
•Knowledge about ecosystem service production and distribution can foster sustainability.•Ecosystem service governance best practices can improve ecosystem management.•Ecosystem services research ...needs to become more transdisciplinary.•ecoSERVICES will advance co-designed, transdisciplinary ecosystem service research.
Ecosystem services have become a mainstream concept for the expression of values assigned by people to various functions of ecosystems. Even though the introduction of the concept has initiated a vast amount of research, progress in using this knowledge for sustainable resource use remains insufficient. We see a need to broaden the scope of research to answer three key questions that we believe will improve incorporation of ecosystem service research into decision-making for the sustainable use of natural resources to improve human well-being: (i) how are ecosystem services co-produced by social–ecological systems, (ii) who benefits from the provision of ecosystem services, and (iii) what are the best practices for the governance of ecosystem services? Here, we present these key questions, the rationale behind them, and their related scientific challenges in a globally coordinated research programme aimed towards improving sustainable ecosystem management. These questions will frame the activities of ecoSERVICES, formerly a DIVERSITAS project and now a project of Future Earth, in its role as a platform to foster global coordination of multidisciplinary sustainability science through the lens of ecosystem services.
Framing the search for a theory of land use Turner, BL; Meyfroidt, Patrick; Kuemmerle, Tobias ...
Journal of land use science,
07/2020, Letnik:
15, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Land system science and affiliated research linked to sustainability require improved understanding and theorization of land and its change as a social-ecological system (SES). The absence of a ...general land-use theory, anchored in the social subsystem but with explicit links to the environmental subsystem, hampers this effort. Drawing on land-use explanations, meta-analyses, and associated frameworks, we advance a broad framework structure of eight elements - aggregations of explanatory variables - with links to the biophysical subsystem, for systematic comparisons of extant explanations. Tests and models can be employed to identify which set of variables and their configurations provide robust explanations of across land uses, identifying the potential for theory development. The framework and its application are applicable to both top-down and bottom-up explanatory approaches employed in the social sciences. Links to the environmental subsystem invite future exploration of SES explanations that reach across the different dimensions of global change and sustainability science.
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