The dynamic context of southern African savannas: investigating emerging threats and opportunities to sustainability

The Southern African Savannas Network and the Southern African Vulnerability Initiative used study areas and information from a wide range of sources to assess threats and opportunities to savanna sustainability from a natural and social science perspective, respectively. This paper describes an attempt to synthesise their findings using structural analysis. Key driving processes, main dependent processes, and processes that are inherent to most interactions by having both high driving power and high dependency, were identified. Qualitative examination reveals that while many of the changes within savannas reinforce each other, many of the key driving factors are generated externally, such as economic globalisation and climate change. In order to take advantage of opportunities and address challenges within such a complex and dynamic system, future interventions must address the different elements of savannas in a coherent and multi-sectoral manner. Within the large social, economic and environmental changes taking place over the past decade, changes in institutions and technologies and in indigenous fauna and flora continue to play a central role both in driving, and being dependent on, other processes and must continue to be a key focus of any coherent savanna policy.     

Food security and global environmental change: emerging challenges

Most research linking global environmental change and food security focuses solely on agriculture: either the impact of climate change on agricultural production, or the impact of agriculture on the environment, e.g. on land use, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and/or biodiversity. Important though food production is, many other factors also need to be considered to understand food security. A recent international conference on “Environmental Change and Food Security: Bridging Science, Policy and Development for Adaptation” included a range of papers that embraced the multiple dimensions of the food systems that underpin food security. The major conclusion from the conference was that technical fixes alone will not solve the food security challenge. Adapting to the additional threats to food security arising from major environmental changes requires an integrated food system approach, not just a focus on agricultural practices. Six key issues emerged for future research: (i) adapting food systems to global environmental change requires more than just technological solutions to increase agricultural yields; (ii) tradeoffs across multiple scales among food system outcomes are a pervasive feature of globalized food systems; (iii) within food systems, there are some key underexplored areas that are both sensitive to environmental change but also crucial to understanding its implications for food security and adaptation strategies; (iv) scenarios specifically designed to investigate the wider issues that underpin food security and the environmental consequences of different adaptation options are lacking; (v) price variability and volatility often threaten food security; and (vi) more attention needs to be paid to the governance of food systems.     

中国粮食安全与耕地资源变化的相关分析

实现国家粮食安全的最基本条件是保证粮食基本自给,而耕地资源是粮食自给能力的基础。21世纪中国人口将继续增长,人均粮食消费水平将有所提高,粮食需求压力日益增大;工业化、城市化进程加快和经济高速发展将使原本稀缺的耕地资源不可逆转地部分流向非农化利用,人地矛盾将更趋尖锐。论文分析了耕地数量变化及质量状况与粮食生产的相关关系,结论表明,中国21世纪粮食安全战略中必须高度重视耕地的数量保持和质量改善。     

深圳市土地利用/覆盖变化与生态环境安全分析

应用１９８０、１９８８、１９９４年的ＭＳＳ、ＴＭ资料,编制了相应时期深圳市土地利用／覆盖图,分析了近２０年来深圳市土地利用变化的时空分异规律。在此基础上,分析了土地利用变化与城市生态环境安全水平的关系。研究结果表明,深圳快速的城市化过程是引起土地利用变化的主要原因；土地利用中城镇用地的增加导致城市洪水的加剧和水土流失的增加；以乡镇为单元的环境污染的空间差异与对应区域城镇用地比例的大小呈明显的正相关关系,显著性水平达到０－００１,由此认为,在城市化过程中,确保相当数量的绿地对缓解城市生态环境问题有着不可替代的作用。     

Migrants,land markets and carbon emissions in Jambi,Indonesia: Land tenure change and the prospect of emission reduction

Policies designed to reduce land-based carbon emissions require a good understanding of the complex connections between state-sanctioned concessions, forest conversion, informal land markets and migrants. Our case study in the peat forests of the Tanjung Jabung Barat (TanJaBar) regency of Jambi, Indonesia aimed to explore relations between four key stakeholder groups: the state, local communities, migrants, and state-sanctioned concessions. We hypothesized that current land use patterns are shaped by insecurity in formal forest tenure alongside informal land tenure arrangements with migrants. In analyzing the six two-way relationships between the four stakeholder groups, we found that interactions between the stakeholders have changed local norms and practice, causing land conflicts and contested claims that need to be explicitly addressed in efforts to reduce carbon emissions in TanJaBar. Relational concepts of land rights between migrants and local community leaders are informed by social identity, expectations of investment opportunities, insecure customary forest tenure and competing land use policies. Migrants act as intermediaries in shaping the land tenure system and shift the balance of power between local communities, the state, and business concessions. We conclude that effective and equitable implementation of national Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation+ (REDD+) programs will need to recognize underlying land ownership dynamics, power struggles and strategic positioning among stakeholders across scales. Obtaining free and prior informed consent (FPIC) from all relevant stakeholders is a major challenge given this complexity. Low emission development strategies will require recognition of a reality beyond large-scale concessions and traditional local communities.     

Uncertainty analysis on aquatic environmental impacts of urban land use change

Uncertainties hamper the implementation of strategic environmental assessment (SEA). In order to quantitatively characterize the uncertainties of environmental impacts, this paper develops an integrated methodology through uncertainty analysis on land use change, which combines the scenario analysis approach, stochastic simulation technique, and statistics. Dalian city in China was taken as a case study in the present work. The results predict that the Fuzhou River poses the highest environmental pollution risk with a probability of 89.63% for COD in 2020. Furthermore, the Biliu River, Fuzhou River, Zhuang River, and Dasha River have 100% probabilities for NH₃-N. NH₃-N is a more critical pollutant than COD for all rivers. For COD, industry is the critical pollution source for all rivers except the Zhuang River. For NH₃-N, agriculture is the critical pollution source for the Biliu River, Yingna River, and Dasha River, sewage for the Fuzhou River and Zhuang River, and industry for the Dengsha River. This methodology can provide useful information, such as environmental risk, environmental pressure, and extremely environmental impact, especially under considerations of uncertainties. It can also help to ascertain the significance of each pollution source and its priority for control in urban planning.     

城市边缘区土地利用变化及人文驱动力机制研究

利用多期遥感影像 ,对土地利用进行了测量。再运用GIS软件进行空间叠加求得研究区土地利用变化的转移矩阵 ,分析马山区11年来土地利用变化的空间过程。结果表明 :1988～1998年之间农业景观为主的农田、林地显著减少 ,城镇沿公路迅速向外扩张 ,旅游度假区沿湖岸不断扩大且呈集中化趋势。这一变化趋势的驱动力是旅游为主的第三产业迅速发展、外资大量涌入、城镇人口增长和农副产品的价格波动。     

Underlying cause of fire: Different form of land tenure conflicts in Sumatra

One of the social phenomena that have arisen in Indonesia in the post-Reformasi period (mid-1998) is the increase in land tenure conflicts between local communities and tree plantation companies, and between local communities and the forestry department. Land tenure conflicts often trigger forest and land fires, which is both a symptom and a cause of increasing conflict over tenure and use rights. If the tenure issue is not appropriately addressed, it will continue to result in unwanted fires and forest degradation, related smoke and gas emissions, and environmental and economic losses. A recent study in Sumatra revealed that, in many cases, (1) tenure conflicts between companies and communities, resulting from past government policies and practices, often trigger forest and land fires because of frustrations by the communities of being unable to have their claims heard in a fair and transparent judicial system; and (2) even with the use of military force, forest policy and management has largely failed to protect forest resources when local communities were not involved. The nature of the partnership between communities and companies in land use development is also an important factor in influencing the incidence and control of fire.     

石漠化治理区土地利用变化安全性评价——以花江、红枫湖、鸭池石漠化治理区为例

土地利用变化的安全性是可持续土地利用的重要评价标准之一。以花江、红枫湖、鸭池三个石漠化治理区为例,运用“纵横向”拉开档次法,对石漠化治理区土地利用变化的安全性开展评价,为评估石漠化治理区土地利用变化效应和改进石漠化治理区的土地利用方式提供借鉴。结果表明：（1）石漠化治理区的土地利用变化明显。花江、红枫湖、鸭池三个石漠化治理区的土地利用变化面积比例分别为2.85%、3.34%和37.88%,表现为林地和建设用地增加,耕地和未利用地减少。（2）土地利用变化对不同治理区的综合安全性和生态、经济、社会安全性的影响不同。花江治理区和红枫湖治理区的综合安全性分别提高1.44%和0.46%;鸭池治理区的综合安全性下降了1.9%。花江治理区的生态、社会安全性有所提升,经济安全性有所下降;红枫湖治理区的生态安全性有所提升,经济安全性变化不明显,社会安全性有小幅下降;鸭池治理区的生态安全性有明显下降,经济安全性有小幅提升,社会安全性有小幅下降。（3）各治理区的生态、经济、社会安全性对土地利用变化的敏感性存在差异,其中生态安全性对土地利用变化最敏感。揭示石漠化治理区土地利用变化对生态安全性的影响最明显。在后续石漠化治理和土地利用规划中,应重点关注土地利用变化对区域生态安全的影响。     

Effect of land use and land cover change on soil erosion and the spatio-temporal variation in Liupan Mountain Region, southern Ningxia, China

The Liupan Mountains are located in the southern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China, that forms an important divide between landforms and biogeographic regions. The populated part of the Liupan Mountain Region has suffered tremendous ecological damage over time due to population pressure, excessive demand and inappropriate use of agricultural land resources. To present the relationship between land use/cover change and spatio-temporal variation of soil erosion, data sets of land use between the late 1980s and 2000 were obtained from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery, and spatial models were used to characterize landscape and soil erosion conditions. Also, soil erosion in response to land use and land cover change were quantified and analyzed using data from geographical information systems and remote sensing. Soil erosion by water was the dominant mode of soil loss, while soil erosion by wind was only present on a relatively small area. The degree of soil erosion was classified into five severity classes: slight, light, moderate, severe, and very severe. Soil erosion in the Liupan Mountain Region increased between the late 1980s and 2000, both in terms of acreage and severity. Moderate, severe, and very severe eroded areas accounted for 54.86% of the total land area. The lightly eroded area decreased, while the moderately eroded area increased by 368817 ha (22%) followed by severe erosion with 146552 ha (8.8%), and very severe erosion by 97067.6 ha (5.8%). Soil loss on sloping cropland increased with slope gradients. About 90% of the cropland was located on slopes less than 15°. Most of the increase in soil erosion on cropland was due to conversion of steep slopes to cropland and degradation of grassland and increased activities. Soil erosion was severe on grassland with a moderate or low grass cover and on dry land. Human activities, cultivation on steep slopes, and overgrazing of pastures were the main reasons for the increase in erosion severity.     

Catastrophe theory to assess water security and adaptation strategy in the context of environmental change

Economic development, population growth, urbanization and climate change have led to an increasing water shortage across the globe. Ensuring water security under changing environment will be the greatest challenge for water resources managers in near future. In this paper, catastrophe theory based multi-criteria evaluation model has been proposed to assess water security under different management strategies to recommend the best water management strategy to achieve water security in the context of global environmental change. The assessment model involves future scenarios of climate change, population growth and economic development. Total 16 indicators related to climate, socio-economy and water availability and consumption have been proposed to measure water security under three management strategies viz. business-as-usual, water demand management and water supply management. The model has been applied to Yulin city of North West China to assess water security as well as to identify the water management strategy under changing environment. The results show that under business-as-usual situation the water shortage rate will reach up to 44 % by the year 2020 and up to 70 % by the year 2030 in Yulin. Water supply is required to increase by 41 % to meet the water demand under supply management strategy which is beyond the safe baseline rate. The study reveals that water demand management can reduce the gap between water supply and demand to a reasonable amount and therefore, can be considered as the most effective approach for adapting with environment change.     

秦岭南北地区植被覆盖对区域环境变化的响应

利用GIMMS(Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies)和SPOT VGT(Spot Vegetation)两种数据集的归一化植被指数(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI)对1982~2007年26年间秦岭南北地区植被覆盖变化进行了比较,并对其环境驱动力进行了分析.结果表明,研究时段内,秦岭南北地区的植被覆盖均呈降低趋势,且秦岭以北地区的降低速度大于秦岭以南.经计算分析得出,两地区春季和夏季的季平均NDVI与温度的相关系数均通过了p<0.1的显著性检验,其中,秦岭以南地区1982~1997年春季NDVI与温度的相关系数最高为0.61(p<0.05);秦岭以北地区春季的降水与年NDVI之间也显著相关(p<0.05).值得注意的是,1998~2007年间,秦岭以北地区冬季NDVI与温度相关系数高达0.75(p<0.05),这是秦岭地区在区域环境影响下植被覆盖变化的一个重要特征,表明秦岭以北地区的植被更多地受气温变化的影响,在全球变暖大趋势下,该地区植被可能更为敏感,是区域生态响应的一个重要信号.人为活动（如土地利用类型的改变）也是影响该区植被覆盖变化的一个重要因子.     

Teaching sustainability as a contested concept: capitalizing on variation in engineering educators' conceptions of environmental,social and economic sustainability

This study documents variation in engineering academics conceptions of sustainability. We investigated how a group of Australian engineering academics described environmental, social and economic sustainability, and identified a broad range of actions that participating academics associated with achieving sustainability. The study suggested marked variation in the actions that participating academics viewed as coherent with sustainable engineering practice, and therefore, potentially marked variations in the sustainability actions academics might advocate to their undergraduate students. Rather than framing this variation as problematic for teaching and learning sustainable engineering, we suggest that such variation in conception of sustainability, and explicit contestation of this variation in the engineering classroom, offers opportunities to enrich undergraduate sustainability learning and teaching. We develop this argument by using some generic environmental, economic, and social theoretical frameworks to characterize the differences according to the values and assumptions that may underpin the observed variation. Validated frameworks are useful to move beyond discussions based on ‘opinion’, because they provide a framework for critical reflection by engineering students and academics about the values and assumptions that inform engineering practice generally and sustainable engineering practice, particularly.     

Gold mining in Australia: linking historical trends and environmental and resource sustainability

The mining of gold has been and continues to be an important aspect of Australian industry. Gold mining moved quickly from fossicking and alluvial sources in the 1850's to hard rock mining. This paper presents, arguably for the first time, a detailed historical compilation of Australian gold mining production data. This data is then analysed in the context of sustainability, focussing particularly on mineral resource sustainability and the broader aspects of environmental impacts now commonly reported by some mining companies in annual sustainability performance reports. The key trends which are demonstrated by the data include a long-term decline in ore grade, increased open cut mining, substantive increases in tailings and waste rock production, as well as showing the impact of new technologies and economics on available gold resources. The available environmental data on material and energy inputs to and pollutant emissions from gold production is also presented, showing a clear sensitivity to ore grade. In terms of sustainability, these relationships raise significant issues such as increasing greenhouse footprint per unit gold produced, potential impacts on energy and water consumption, as well as overall gold resource sustainability. The paper presents a unique case study of the resource and environmental sustainability of the Australian gold mining sector with major implications for sustainability policy and reporting.     

土地利用/覆盖变化对气候的反馈作用

土地利用与土地覆盖的变化直接反映了引起全球变化的主导因子---人类活动,关于土地利用与土地覆盖变化的研究将有助于加深对全球变化与陆地生态系统相互作用的理解。文中基于地球表面的能量与水分平衡方程,从理论上探讨了土地利用和土地覆盖对于气候的反馈作用,研究表明：①植被对于降水的作用不大,植被的存在有助于减少径流,增加保水能力,对于全球气候变化有减缓作用；②植被对于气候变化的作用是增温还是降温须视具体地点的情况而定；③对于中纬度地区,当下垫面反射率的变化与径流量的变化满足以下关系时：Δｆ＝５Δα×１０ｇ／ｃｍ^２·ｍｉｎ下垫面变化对于地表温度无影响。这表明在制定全球变化对策时必须因地制宜。     

吉林省生态系统服务价值变化研究

研究土地利用变化对区域生态系统服务价值的影响具有重要意义。论文以吉林省土地利用动态数据为基础,应用Costanza等提出的生态系统服务价值系数,分析了土地利用变化及其所引起的生态系统服务价值的变化。结果表明,从1980年到2000年,吉林省草地、水域和湿地面积大量减少,其它类型土地面积在增加;由于耕地的生态价值系数相对较小,湿地和水域的生态价值系数较高,耕地面积的增加不能弥补由于湿地、水域减少造成的区域生态系统服务价值的整体下降,使得区域生态系统服务价值显著减少。吉林省生态系统服务价值从1980年的12365.14×106＄减少到2000年的10700.38×106＄,减少率为13.46%,净减少值为1664.76×106＄,总生态系统服务价值每年变化率为0.72%。     

Increasing land pressure in East Africa: The changing role of cassava and consequences for sustainability of farming systems

Increasing land pressure during the past three to four decades has transformed farming systems in the mid-altitude zone of East Africa. Traditional millet-, cotton-, sugarcane- and/or banana-based farming systems with an important fallow and/or grazing component have evolved into continuously cultivated cassava or cassava/maize-based systems. Within three to four decades, cassava cultivation increased from 1–11 to 16–55% of cropped fields in our six study sites. Declining soil fertility, and not labour or food shortage, was apparently the primary trigger for this transformation. The land use changes have increased nutrient offtakes and reduced nutrient recycling rates. Cassava and maize now account for 50–90% of nutrient removal. Whereas single-season fallows were the most important source of nutrient recycling on cropped fields in the past, currently cassava litterfall and maize stover contribute roughly 70% of nutrient recycling, with 50–70% of N, P and K recycled in cassava litterfall. This may explain why many farmers reason that cassava ‘rests’ the soil. With increasing land use pressure farmers progressively use cassava as an ‘imitation fallow’ throughout their farm. Farmers increasingly target cassava to poor fertility fields characterized by low pH and available P. High cassava intensities are nonetheless maintained on more fertile fields, probably to guarantee regeneration of soil fertility on all fields. Once cassava is targeted to poor fertility soils, farmers have run out of low-input management options and need to intensify management to maintain system productivity. As cassava is now used by more farmers and on a larger acreage than fallowing in the studied farming systems, cassava cropping could perhaps serve as an excellent entry point to strengthen system sustainability.     

耕地结构变化下水土资源匹配时空特征效应分析——以黑龙江省为例

基于耕地利用水资源的供需视角,在综合考虑耕地利用类型、作物种植结构、作物生长期等条件的基础上,结合黑龙江省的国家气象站数据,对耕地利用需水量与有效供水量从微观尺度上进行分析,并以此对1990—2018年内不同生长期耕地利用水土资源匹配的时空动态进行分析。结果表明：1990—2018年间黑龙江省耕地结构不断变化,旱改水现象在2010— 2018年间最为普遍;作物生育前期与中期需水量较多,后期需水量较少,需水量逐年上涨,与水田占比变化保持较为一致,并且空间上需水量高值地区偏移规律与同时段内的旱地水田化现象保持高度一致;1990—2018年间,作物各生育期水土资源匹配程度均先降后升,大部分的水土资源匹配高值地区分布在有效降水量的高值地区与旱地地区的交接地带,可见天然降水仍是满足耕地作物用水的主要来源;近年来三江平原南部地区水土资源匹配程度严重下降,粮食单产下滑,建议该部分地区减少旱改水工程量,同时,松嫩平原西部地区水土资源匹配水平与粮食单产逐年上升,可适当进行旱改水工程。