How to overcome the development deadlock in the Quilombo Vila Formosa,Brazil?

ABSTRACT

Although Brazilian Quilombolas possess specific land rights referring to their past as African slaves, the realization of such rights often fails due to the absence of land surveys, clarified institutional competencies and the general lack of power under which minorities suffer. Additional factors such as an expanding commercial agriculture contributing to land and water degradation and new actors introducing new logics intransparent to traditional populations often aggravate the situation. In order to identify options for traditional populations to overcome a development-deadlock typical for peripheral regions, the case of a Quilombo in Pará/Brazil will be analysed that has been struggling since decades with conflicting land tenure legislations and institutions. Starting from an inter- and transdisciplinary qualitative research process, scenario building by backcasting can represent an innovative approach to organize the central conflicts which have to be solved in order to overcome the development deadlock of the Quilombo Vila Formosa in Pará.     

Uncertainty in establishing forest reference levels and predicting future forest-based carbon stocks for REDD+

Forest reference levels (FRLs) provide a benchmark for assessing reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and they are central to demonstrate additionality of REDD+. Attaining realistic FRLs, however, is challenging, especially in complex mosaic landscapes. We established FRLs in northern Laos for different reference periods and tested them against actual carbon stock changes. Annual time series of Landsat satellite images were used to capture the subtle changes in carbon stocks in complex landscapes characterized by shifting cultivation. We found that FRLs differ considerably depending on the reference period chosen. Abrupt land-use changes occurred when hybrid maize replaced traditional shifting cultivation and forests, and this invalidated carbon stock trends that would have been predicted had the FRL been projected into the future. We conclude that demonstrating additionality of REDD+ in fast developing areas is difficult and that payment systems rewarding potential emission reductions against hypothetical extrapolation of FRLs are unlikely to be a cost-effective strategy.     

Using MCDA and GIS for hazardous waste landfill siting considering land scarcity for waste disposal

The main aim of this study was to develop a procedure that minimizes the wasting of space for the siting of hazardous waste landfills as part of a solid waste management system. We wanted to tackle the shortage of land for waste disposal that is a serious and growing problem in most large urban regions. The procedure combines a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach with a geographical information system (GIS). The GIS was utilised to obtain an initial screening in order to eliminate unsuitable areas, whereas the MCDA was developed to select the most suitable sites. The novelty of the proposed siting procedure is the introduction of a new screening phase before the macro-siting step aimed at producing a “land use map of potentially suitable areas” for the siting of solid waste facilities which simultaneously takes into consideration all plant types. The issue of obtaining sites evaluations of a specific facility was coupled with the issue of not wasting land appropriate to facilitate other types of waste management options. In the developed case study, the use of an innovative criteria weighting tool (the “Priority Scale”) in combination with the Analytic Hierarchy Process was useful to easier define the priorities of the evaluation criteria in comparison with other classic methods such as the Paired Comparison Technique in combination with the Simple Additive Weighting method.     

Leverage points to foster human–nature connectedness in cultural landscapes

Calls for a reconnection to nature and the biosphere have been growing louder over the last decades. Cultural landscapes are rapidly changing, posing a threat to ecosystems and biodiversity, but also to human–nature connections. Human–nature connectedness may be a potential lever to shift the unsustainable trajectory that we are currently proceeding, but is also negatively influenced by it. To concretize the call for a reconnection to nature, we used the leverage points perspective on five empirical case studies with focus on human–nature connectedness. Based on the synthesis of our yearlong work, in this perspective paper, we propose four leverage points to foster a sustainability transformation: (1) maintain and enhance the structural diversity of landscapes, (2) maintain and enhance economically and ecologically sustainable small-scale agriculture, (3) strengthen sense of place and (4) strengthen sense of agency in actors. Intervening in these leverage points could be effective to foster human–nature connectedness and ultimately contribute towards a sustainable trajectory. We further argue that the interconnection between leverage points is equally important as their systemic depth.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01504-2.     

矿区土地复垦措施选择分析

在全面分析文献及前人研究的基础上,通过理论分析,提出了矿区土地复垦模式的分类体系和确定的理论方法,总结了矿区土地复垦措施的特点。对矿区土地复垦模式的合理选择,实现矿区的可持续发展具有一定的指导意义。     

Exurban development

Exurbia, the rural area beyond the built-up urban and contiguous suburban area, is being developed rapidly with attendant losses in habitat and ecosystem services. This paper analyzes a spatial dynamic model with two production technologies for residential development—municipal sewer service for suburban development and septic systems for exurban development. In outlying agricultural areas, the additional sewer extension costs can significantly reduce the value of agricultural land in suburban use. Exurban development, while at lower density, can occur immediately and requires only the onsite conversion costs of septic systems. Hence, the willingness to pay for exurban use from households with higher preferences for lot size may exceed the agricultural landowner's reservation price on future suburban use for a range of distances from the city boundary. This results in a “feasible zone” for exurban leapfrog development and another fundamental reason for scattered development in the urban–rural fringe.     

Understanding land cover change in a Special Protection Area in Central Spain through the enhanced land cover transition matrix and a related new approach

This work analyses land cover changes occurring between 1990 and 2000 within a Natural Protected Area, southwest of Madrid (Spain). We develop a new methodology that considers the net change in different land cover categories in each municipality of the study area. Our methodology, which uses Factorial Correspondence Analysis, allows identification of the most important changes at the municipality level and groups the municipalities where land use dynamics are similar. This method is a powerful tool for synthesis and can potentially be applied to non-spatial geographical data sources (e.g. agrarian census statistics). Our results show that the land cover around SW Madrid is highly dynamic. The shrub vegetation, arable land, heterogeneous agricultural and human-created area categories show the highest total change. The dynamics of the changes detected are dominated by decreases in the area of different types of crops and increases in forest areas. These changes may have indirect effects on the conservation of natural resources and wildlife if not managed appropriately.     

Spatial and temporal variation in nutrient parameters in stream water in a rural-urban catchment, Shikoku, Japan: effects of land cover and human impact

Seasonal and spatial variations in major ion chemistry and isotope composition in the rural-urban catchment of the Shigenobu River were monitored to determine the influences of agricultural and urban sewage systems on water quality. Temporal patterns of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and suspended sediment (SS) were examined at four sites in the rural-urban catchment. Urban land cover, incorporating the effects of increased population, domestic water use, and industrial wastewater, was positively associated with increases in water pollution and was included as an important explanatory variable for the variations in all water quality parameters. Significant trends were found in each parameter. BOD concentrations ranged widely, and were high in urban regions, due to the presence of a waste water treatment plant. TN and SS showed various trends, but did not vary widely, unlike TP. TP concentrations varied greatly, with high concentrations in cultivated areas, due to fertilizer use. Local water quality management or geology could further explain some of the variations in water quality. Non-point-source pollution exhibited strong positive spatial autocorrelation, indicating that incorporating spatial dimensions into water quality assessment enhances our understanding of spatial patterns of water quality. Data from the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) and Environment Ministry (EM) were used to investigate trends in land management. Stepwise regression analysis was used to test the correlation between specific management practises and substance concentrations in surface water and sediment. MLIT and EM data for 1981-2003 showed an increase in TN, TP, and SS concentrations in surface water. High levels of fertilizer in dormant sprays and domestic water use were associated with high pesticide concentrations in water and sediment. This paper presents a novel method of studying the environmental impact of various agricultural management practises and recommends a management strategy that combines the use of reduced-risk pesticides with irrigation and non-irrigation periods in paddy fields.     

A conceptual framework of agricultural land use planning with BMP for integrated watershed management

Land use planning is an important element of the integrated watershed management approach. It not only influences the environmental processes such as soil and stream bed erosion, sediment and nutrient concentrations in streams, quality of surface and ground waters in a watershed, but also affects social and economic development in that region. Although its importance in achieving sustainable development has long been recognized, a land use planning methodology based on a systems approach involving realistic computational modeling and meta-heuristic optimization is still lacking in the current practice of integrated watershed management. The present study proposes a new approach which attempts to combine computational modeling of upland watershed processes, fluvial processes and modern heuristic optimization techniques to address the water-land use interrelationship in its full complexity. The best land use allocation is decided by a multi-objective function that minimizes sediment yields and nutrient concentrations as well as the total operation/implementation cost, while the water quality and the production benefits from agricultural exploitation are maximized. The proposed optimization strategy considers also the preferences of land owners. The runoff model AnnAGNPS (developed by USDA), and the channel network model CCHE1D (developed by NCCHE), are linked together to simulate sediment/pollutant transport process at watershed scale based on any assigned land use combination. The greedy randomized adaptive Tabu search heuristic is used to flip the land use options for finding an optimum combination of land use allocations. The approach is demonstrated by applying it to a demonstrative case study involving USDA Goodwin Creek experimental watershed located in northern Mississippi. The results show the improvement of the tradeoff between benefits and costs for the watershed, after implementing the proposed optimal land use planning.     

Estimating monthly total nitrogen concentration in streams by using artificial neural network

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a flexible and popular tool for predicting the non-linear behavior in the environmental system. Here, the feed-forward ANN model was used to investigate the relationship among the land use, fertilizer, and hydrometerological conditions in 59 river basins over Japan and then applied to estimate the monthly river total nitrogen concentration (TNC). It was shown by the sensitivity analysis, that precipitation, temperature, river discharge, forest area and urban area have high relationships with TNC. The ANN structure having eight inputs and one hidden layer with seven nodes gives the best estimate of TNC. The 1:1 scatter plots of predicted versus measured TNC were closely aligned and provided coefficients of errors of 0.98 and 0.93 for ANNs calibration and validation, respectively. From the results obtained, the ANN model gave satisfactory predictions of stream TNC and appears to be a useful tool for prediction of TNC in Japanese streams. It indicates that the ANN model was able to provide accurate estimates of nitrogen concentration in streams. Its application to such environmental data will encourage further studies on prediction of stream TNC in ungauged rivers and provide a useful tool for water resource and environment managers to obtain a quick preliminary assessment of TNC variations.