Human induced salinisation and the use of quantitative methods

Sustainable development of the earth's limited water and land resources is of paramount importance because of rising world population and existing conflicting demands for these resources. Enormous capital investment has been made in developing these resources, but now there is irrefutable evidence that such developments have led to major resource degradation. This includes problems of salinisation and damages to ecosystems. The countries predominantly affected by human induced salinisation are located in arid and semi-arid regions of the world and include Australia, China, Egypt, India, Pakistan, USSR, and USA. This paper describes the processes of salinisation, its impacts and the use of quantitative methods in salinity investigation and management. Australia is used as a case study of typical salinity problems and as a demonstration of the fruitful application of quantitative methods. The paper concludes that quantitative methods such as surface water and groundwater models are powerful design, management and predictive tools in salinity investigation. However, application of some models, such as those for unsaturated flow and transport and groundwater solute transport, are not widespread due to uncertainties in describing the complexity of the processes and the lack of hydrodispersive data.     

An integrated modelling system for investigating the benefits of catchment management

Complex natural resource degradation problems such as dryland salinisation require integrated management solutions. Integrated catchment modelling can be used to develop such solutions. This paper presents three models that were applied independently in the Liverpool Plains Catchment, an important crop production area, in Eastern Australia. They are a point soil-plant-water model, an economic catchment model, and a catchment hydrology model. After discussing their individual merits and limitations, the paper develops the concept of a holistic modelling framework by combining these models to gain synergy effects in analytical ability as well as applicability and implementation of results.     

Soil salinity,household wealth and food insecurity in tropical deltas: evidence from south-west coast of Bangladesh

As a creeping process, salinisation represents a significant long-term environmental risk in coastal and deltaic environments. Excess soil salinity may exacerbate existing risks of food insecurity in densely populated tropical deltas, which is likely to have a negative effect on human and ecological sustainability of these regions and beyond. This study focuses on the coastal regions of the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh, and uses data from the 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey and the Soil Resource Development Institute to investigate the effect of soil salinity and wealth on household food security. The outcome variables are two widely used measures of food security: calorie availability and household expenditure on food items. The main explanatory variables tested include indicators of soil salinity and household-level socio-economic characteristics. The results of logistic regression show that in unadjusted models, soil salinisation has a significant negative effect on household food security. However, this impact becomes statistically insignificant when households’ wealth is taken into account. The results further suggest that education and remittance flows, but not gender or working status of the household head, are significant predictors of food insecurity in the study area. The findings indicate the need to focus scholarly and policy attention on reducing wealth inequalities in tropical deltas in the context of the global sustainable deltas initiative and the proposed Sustainable Development Goals.     

Achieving sustainability by introducing alternative livelihoods

The millennium ecosystem assessment report on global assessment of desertification has highlighted its worldwide impacts on the environment—increasing dust storms, floods and global warming—as well as on societies and economies. It links sustainable management of resources, and inter alia well-being of dryland populations, to reducing societal pressures on dryland ecosystems through adoption of alternative livelihoods. This paper, in combination with a companion paper by Safriel and Adeel, presents the conceptual underpinnings of this approach as well as examples of how innovative approaches for creating livelihoods can help reduce the pressure on marginal drylands. Three case studies presented are based on activities undertaken within a joint international project called sustainable management of marginal drylands. First, introduction of chicken farming to farmers in Hunshundake Sandland in northern China has reduced the pressure on grasslands and led to a major recovery of these ecosystems. Second, development of desert-based aquaculture, with accompanied longer-term storage of water, on the margins of the Cholistan desert in Pakistan has provided a new source of income for the villagers. Third, development of a new income-generating activity based on soap production from olive oil in Dana Biosphere Reserve in Jordan has demonstrated that traditional olive farming can be linked to community-based innovation to create a new, high-demand market for goods. Working with communities to develop new, sustainable livelihoods that reduce pressure on marginal drylands can thus be used as powerful tool for overcoming and reversing desertification.     

Community-Based Integrated Watershed Management

Community-based watershed management is different from the traditional natural resources management. Traditional natural resources management is a way from up to bottom, but the community-based watershed management is from bottom to up. This approach focused on the joining of different stakeholders in integrated watershed management, especially the participation of the community who has been ignored in the past. The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the important basic definitions, concepts and operational framework for initiating community-based watershed management projects and programs as well as some successes and practical challenges associated with the approach.     

Community-Based Integrated Watershed Management

1 INTRODUCTIONIn the past, natural resources management initiatives havefocused on large but specific sector projects such as dams,reservoirs for water supply schemes, irrigation systems,crop production, at forestation, etc. Often these projectswere treated as technical and administrative issues ratherthan as a socio-economic and political one. However, thehigh social and environmental cost of such schemes haveled to a change of paradigm since the 1980s towards small-scale community projec…     

Community-Based Integrated Watershed Management

Abstract

Community-based watershed management is different from the traditional natural resources management. Traditional natural resources management is a way from up to bottom, but the community-based watershed management is from bottom to up. This approach focused on the joining of different stakeholders in integrated watershed management, especially the participation of the community who has been ignored in the past. The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the important basic definitions, concepts and operational framework for initiating community-based watershed management projects and programs as well as some successes and practical challenges associated with the approach.     

Australia and Russia: How do their environmental policy processes differ?

This paper focuses on comparative review and analysis of the systems of environmental protection, national environmental strategies and fundamentals of environmental legislation in Australia and the Russian Federation. These countries have many socioeconomic similarities, such as low population densities and richness in natural resources which are largely exported. The main disparity between Australia and Russia is in the types of economy. This paper ‘continues’ the sequence of recent scholarly publications on comparison of various features of environmental policies in the countries from all over the world. Comparative analysis in this research has been based on examination of scholarly publications, legislation, government documents, mass media sources and NGO responses. The analysis has revealed a number of differences including top-down implementation of policies in Russia whereas in Australia, each State (Territory) implements policies with significant independence from the Commonwealth Government. At the same time, similarities between the countries have been identified: for example, in deficits in the budget of local environmental authorities and in the presence of contradictions in legislation at national and regional levels of government. Suggestions resulting from this analysis include further integration of sustainable development strategies at all levels of Australian government to encourage further protection of the environment and, for Russia, creating a separate Ministry of Environmental Protection. These approaches should assist facilitation of sustainable development for both nations. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

日本国土开发利用及对我国的启示

日本在战后经历了经济高速增长，工业化和城市化快速推进的发展历程，其间土地利用在结构、规模、价格、集约利用等方面发生了巨大变动。本文全面分析了二战之后，日本在经济高速增长、产业结构巨大变动、城市化迅速推进的发展过程中．农业用地、工业用地和城市用地在结构、规模、价格、集约利用程度等方面的特征；日本政府针对经济发展和土地利用的变动和影响。制订的一系列规划调整措施和政策法规体系。通过以上分析，探讨日本在有限的土地资源条件下实现经济高速增长的原因、途径和措施，以及对我国的启示。     

Linear and quadratic models of the southern Murray-Darling basin.

Linear programming (LP), a well-established technique for modelling agricultural and other systems, has been extensively used to model irrigation systems in Australia. The models constructed have been used to assess the effects of changing water charges on farm incomes, water use, and the effects of trade in water allocations. An LP model that reflects actual farm behaviour requires a large amount of data. Moreover, demand and supply functions estimated with LP models are necessarily stepped rather than smooth. Howitt has suggested a way of escaping from these problems of LP models. His positive programming approach replaces an LP model with a simpler quadratic programming model. In this paper, Howitt's approach is used to develop a quadratic programming model from an existing LP model of irrigated agriculture in the southern Murray-Darling basin of Australia. A comparison of the quadratic and linear models indicates that the quadratic programming model is smaller and simpler to specify and that it produces similar results to the linear model, in terms of cropping, trade, and demand for irrigation water. The choice of modelling technique depends on the problem and the available resources. Positive programming can be a valuable addition to the farm modellers' arsenal.     

Introduction of a recycling system for sustainable municipal solid waste management: a case study on the greater Banjul area of the Gambia

This research proposes for the introduction of a recycling system in the Gambia to enhance sustainable municipal solid waste management. Poor infrastructures, coupled with inadequate resources and lack of funding, work against the optimization of a MSW disposal service. In the authors’ view, authorities in charge of waste management need to change not only behaviors, but modernize their processes. Recycling technology is a key part of the solution. A model has been developed which suggest the involvement of stakeholders to achieve meaningful sustainable MSWM. This can be achieved by recognizing the role of the informal sector through community-based organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. The open dump approach is leading to severe environmental consequences as the groundwater and soil within the dump is been contaminated. In this study, an integrated municipal solid waste management approach was developed with a model to help achieve sustainable municipal solid waste management. Resource recovery, not waste disposal, must be the ultimate goal with clearly defined end user markets so that the recovery loop is complete. Mandatory sorting of waste at household level would help greatly in making recycling activity successful.     

Urbanization and sustainability: challenges and strategies for sustainable urban development in Bangladesh

Like other developing countries, urbanization in Bangladesh is a growing phenomenon, which is steady in nature but fretfully affects urban sustainability in the wake of lacking in good governance. Despite urban authorities are concerned about this issue, they often fail to address the problems due to the fact of uncontrollable and unpredictable rural to urban migration, and negligence of urban poor’s sustainable living and access to basic services. Virtually the rural poverty problem has been transposed to urban areas, particularly in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Inadequacy of infrastructural services, basic amenities and environmental goods; environmental degradation; traffic jam and accidents; violence and socioeconomic insecurity are the major challenges which are created through rapid urbanization. This paper provides a general understanding of urbanization in Bangladesh and tries to embrace related sustainability issues and challenges hindrance to sustainable urban development in Dhaka city. In addition, it presents a brief case study of water supply in Dhaka city which introduces an issue of ‘system hijack’. The paper concludes providing some strategies that might be helpful to the policy makers in formulating development policies for sustainable urban services.     

低碳旅游概念辨识及其实现途径

随着节能减排、应对气候变化等概念的实践和推广,低碳旅游也越来越多的被提及和实践。低碳旅游由于其新,无国际经验可循,在概念、内涵以及实现途径等方面认识还不够深入,甚至形成了一些认识的误区,实践中可能因为认识的偏误,阻碍旅游业的发展,而忽略了"低碳发展"所特有的协同发展与控制温室气体排放的积极意义。本文认为,低碳发展是异于传统旅游业发展模式的一种转型发展方式,具有明确的保护气候环境的目的。同时,旅游业是主张消费和体验的行业,低碳旅游不应该以刻意减少或约束消费和体验为手段来实现,低碳旅游的实现途径是多样的,不仅仅有节能减排,还可以根据不同地区的资源条件,选择以成本最低的方式实现低碳发展。我国正处于经济和旅游业的快速发展期,实践低碳旅游发展必然会面临更多挑战,但尽早实现低碳旅游发展转型,不仅对发展低碳经济、保障气候安全做出贡献,也能为改善生态环境,保障能源安全,实现可持续发展做出贡献。     

Making Progress? Reproducing Hegemony Through Discourses of “Sustainable Development” in the Australian News Media

While numerous studies have investigated discourses of “sustainable development” in a variety of institutional and academic contexts, media discourses on this issue have remained largely unexamined. But considering the intertwined nature of media and society, the construction of sustainable development in the news may be an important factor shaping future ecological and social outcomes. Proceeding from the thesis that the news is a site in which hegemony may be reproduced, this paper critically analyses discourses used to construct sustainable development in news texts published over the 10-year period 2004–2013 across the eight most widely circulated newspapers in Australia. The findings show that sustainable development news is confined to a narrow range of discourses that largely serve to perpetuate the status quo, which is broadly consistent with the media hegemony thesis. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings, propose possible explanations, and explore avenues for future research.     

A multiple criteria evaluation of sustainable agricultural development models using AHP

Selection of the appropriate agricultural development model has become an important issue in Iran. Using data from Fars province of Iran, the purpose of this paper is to use analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for selecting between the two competing sustainable agricultural development models, which have been developed based on the general tenets of Ecological Modernization (EM) and De-Modernization (DM) theories. Farmers, environmentalists, board members of rural cooperative, rural women and experts from Fars Agricultural (Jehad-e-Keshavarzi) Organization participated in application of AHP to this study. They applied AHP to determine the priority of DM and EM based sustainable agricultural development models. Each group determined the priority of the two models for sustainable agricultural development. The findings indicated that ecological criteria i.e. wise use of resources, environmental protection and product quality are the most important criteria for sustainable agriculture of Iran, followed by economic criterion employment and social criterion participation. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the critical factors that affected the priority of alternatives. The results indicated that EM-based sustainable agricultural development model has a higher priority as the theoretical base of agricultural development of Iran. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

International experience of green development in Western China: an overall review of policy and practice

Green development emphasizes co-development between economic and environmental dimensions, and is a people-centered sustainable development approach. Western China demands green development, and international experience could provide necessary, unique and important help and support for Western China to achieve its green development goals. This paper has made a comprehensive overall review and analysis of international experience in green development policy and its implementation, in particular, OECD countries’ (mostly Australia and Canada) experience have been analyzed following the major policy foci defined by the Task Force on Strategy and Policies on Environment and Development in Western China initiated by China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). Data and information were gathered from the field surveys and investigations, expert meetings, as well as literature review. The main sessions include policy framework and road map establishment, implementation and performance assessment, co-development between economic development and environmental protection, as well as green employment and poverty alleviation. The paper has addressed five policy considerations for the future promotion of green development in Western China.     

From climate research to climate compatible development: experiences and progress in the Netherlands

Over the past decades, significant experience has been gained in demand-driven research on climate change in many countries. In the Netherlands, a competitive call for proposals for large research programmes at the interface between policy, science and private sector was issued in 2001. Members of the Dutch climate research community proved they were able to develop two large research programme proposals which were funded: ‘Climate changes Spatial Planning’ and its successor ‘Knowledge for Climate’. The programmes ran from 2004 to 2012 and from 2008 to 2014, respectively. Both programmes can be considered as a 10-year research programme experiment to develop knowledge about both the climate system and climate compatible development by crossing disciplines, institutions and national research funding strategies. Within this 10-year period, a trend can be observed in which a ‘top-down’ climate impact assessment approach is increasingly combined with a ‘bottom-up’ approach. Based on the 15 articles presented in this special issue (and others), we argue that this development has enriched both fundamental and applied research on climate adaptation. Despite the predominantly Dutch-oriented scope of the presented research, we believe that such experiences can be of international interest. Climate adaptation research finds itself in between global systems knowledge on the one hand and practical needs and experiences at the local, regional and national level on the other. This demands the utmost from all actors involved to enable an efficient and constructive flow and use of knowledge and expertise.     

Involving local farmers in rehabilitation of degraded tropical forests: some lessons from Ghana

The role of community-based plantation development in forest rehabilitation and poverty alleviation is a pressing issue for the government of Ghana. In this paper, we present an analysis of the prospects of a community-based plantation using taungya systems and indigenous trees as means to forest rehabilitation and livelihood improvement in Ghana. The project management strategies, communication process and incentive mechanism and their impact on local participation are discussed with the aim to recommending a mechanism through which local farmers can best be involved in rehabilitation of degraded sites in the future in Ghana. Data were collected through a survey using personal interviews of 431 farming households and ten key informants from ten communities living in scattered hamlets in and around forests reserves. The results show a high rate of local participation in project tree planting activities. Four years after the project’s initiation, about 250 ha of plantations had been established using twelve priority indigenous and one exotic species and farmers had indicated improvement in their farming practices and availability of food and forest products. Restoring forest quality as a timber resource and associated values, getting money, food stuff and timber and non-timber for domestic use, and having access to fertile land for farming were the top three issues prioritised by respondents as motivational factors for engaging in the project activities. Overall, this project demonstrates that reversing tropical forest degradation is possible. For this we need local involvement in tree domestication combined with activities that addresses livelihood needs and environmental concerns. This case also demonstrates the prospects of utilising indigenous tree species, not only exotic species that dominated tree planting in the past, for plantations and landscape rehabilitation in Ghana. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Managing the village-level open-access water resources in a region facing rapidly declining water availability

Growing population, human settlements, industrialization and intensification in groundwater-based cultivation have resulted in severe onslaught on underground aquifers in West Bengal, an eastern province of India with high population density. The present paper focuses on this water resource management issue. The study shows that traditional, village-level surface water reservoirs which for centuries had supplemented irrigation in addition to providing water for all sorts of domestic needs are now in doldrums. Through statistical analysis, the study shows that for all practical purposes, there is very little effective management of these precious open-access water resources. The situation calls for paradigm shift in policy on water resource management that entails development of community-based management catalyzed by government intervention, external agencies and NGOs under supervision and control of local elected bodies.     

A guidance framework for mainstreaming resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production in a developing country context

Mainstreaming represents an integrated, cross government agency approach to incorporating an issue into programmes and policies. Mainstreaming of resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production (SCP and RE) has been identified to be essential to ensuring the development of policies, programmes, actions and initiatives with a wider reaching set of outcomes than if these were to be undertaken on their own. This paper outlines a guidance framework which was developed to support practitioners, champions and UN support teams on mainstreaming of SCP and RE. The framework is based on the programmatic approach to environmental mainstreaming which has been developed through wide-ranging experience on other environment and poverty-environment related topics. The approach presented here is not linear, and each of the elements requires ongoing evaluation and updating. In addition, it is identified that mainstreaming of SCP and RE should form part of overall environmental mainstreaming efforts. Furthermore, unless a country has already developed a national SCP programme, the development of such a programme and the mainstreaming process discussed in this current document should be done in parallel, not as separate processes.