Download or read book A Modelling Framework for Addressing the Synergies Between Global Conventions Through Land Use Changes written by Raul Ponce-Hernandez and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper proposed a methodological framework for the assessment of carbon stocks and the development and identification of land use, land use change and land management scenarios, whereby enhancing carbon sequestration synergistically increases biodiversity, the prevention of land degradation and food security through the increases in crop yields. The framework integrates satellite image interpretation, computer modelling tools (i.e. software customization of off-the-shelf soil organic matter turnover simulation models) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The framework addresses directly and indirectly the cross-cutting ecological concerns foci of major global conventions: climate change, biodiversity, the combat of desertification and food security. Their synergies are targeted by providing procedures for assessing and identifying simultaneously carbon sinks, potential increases in plant diversity, measures to prevent land degradation and enhancements in food security through crop yields, implicit in each land use change and land management scenario. The scenarios aim at providing quot;win-winquot; options to decision makers through the framework's decision support tools. Issues concerning complex model parameterization and spatial representation were tackled through tight coupling soil carbon models to GIS via software customization. Results of applying the framework in the field in two developing countries indicate that reasonably accurate estimates of carbon sequestration can be obtained through modeling; and that alternative best soil organic matter management practices that arrest shifting quot;slash-and-burnquot; cultivation and prevent burning and emissions, can be identified. Such options also result in increased crop yields and food security for an average family size in the area, while enhancing biodiversity and preventing land degradation. These options demonstrate that the judicious management of organic matter is central to greenhouse gas mitigation and the attainment of synergistic ecological benefits, which is the concern of global conventions. The framework is to be further developed through successive approximations and refinement in future, extending its applicability to other landscapes.
Download or read book Advancing Land Change Modeling written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how land is used by people (land use) and in the vegetation, rock, buildings, and other physical material that cover the Earth's surface (land cover) can be described and future land change can be projected using land-change models (LCMs). LCMs are a key means for understanding how humans are reshaping the Earth's surface in the past and present, for forecasting future landscape conditions, and for developing policies to manage our use of resources and the environment at scales ranging from an individual parcel of land in a city to vast expanses of forests around the world. Advancing Land Change Modeling: Opportunities and Research Requirements describes various LCM approaches, suggests guidance for their appropriate application, and makes recommendations to improve the integration of observation strategies into the models. This report provides a summary and evaluation of several modeling approaches, and their theoretical and empirical underpinnings, relative to complex land-change dynamics and processes, and identifies several opportunities for further advancing the science, data, and cyberinfrastructure involved in the LCM enterprise. Because of the numerous models available, the report focuses on describing the categories of approaches used along with selected examples, rather than providing a review of specific models. Additionally, because all modeling approaches have relative strengths and weaknesses, the report compares these relative to different purposes. Advancing Land Change Modeling's recommendations for assessment of future data and research needs will enable model outputs to better assist the science, policy, and decisionsupport communities.
Download or read book Dynamic land use cover change modelling written by Jamal Jokar Arsanjani and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thesis is an original and novel contribution to land use/land cover change analysis using methods of geosimulation and agent-based modeling. The author implements several traditional methodologies of land use change by means of remote sensing and GIS techniques. An Agent-Based Model was developed in order to simulate land use change in the Tehran metropolitan area, comparing the outcomes of each particular methodology. All methods are compared, and advantages and disadvantages discussed.
Download or read book Assessing Carbon Stocks and Modelling Win win Scenarios of Carbon Sequestration Through Land use Changes written by Raul Ponce-Hernandez and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication contains a methodology and software tools for assessing carbon stocks and modelling scenarios of carbon sequestration developed and tested in pilot field studies in Mexico and Cuba. The models and tools enable the analysis of land use change scenarios in order to identify in a given area (watershed or district) land use alternatives and land management practices that can both maximise food production, soil carbon sequestration and biodiversity and minimize land degradation. The aims is to develop and implement "win-win" options that satisfy the multiple goals of farmers, land users and other stakeholders in relation to food security, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and land conservation. The publication also contains a CD-ROM including three case studies and a Soil-C program demo, program and user manual.
Download or read book Ecosystems and Human Well being written by Joseph Alcamo and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecosystems and Human Well-Being is the first product of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year international work program designed to meet the needs of decisionmakers for scientific information on the links between ecosystem change and human well-being. The book offers an overview of the project, describing the conceptual framework that is being used, defining its scope, and providing a baseline of understanding that all participants need to move forward. The Millennium Assessment focuses on how humans have altered ecosystems, and how changes in ecosystem services have affected human well-being, how ecosystem changes may affect people in future decades, and what types of responses can be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and thereby contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation. The program was launched by United National Secretary-General Kofi Annan in June 2001, and the primary assessment reports will be released by Island Press in 2005. Leading scientists from more than 100 nations are conducting the assessment, which can aid countries, regions, or companies by: providing a clear, scientific picture of the current sta
Download or read book Climate Change and Arctic Sustainable Development written by UNESCO and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arctic is undergoing rapid and dramatic environmental and social transformations due to climate change. This has ramifications for the entire planet, as change spreads through interconnected global networks that are environmental, cultural, economic and political. Today, with the major thrust of research shifting away from deciphering causes and monitoring trends, the central preoccupation of a growing circle of actors has become the exploration of strategies for responding and adapting to climate change. But to understand the far-reaching nature of climate change impacts and the complexities of adaptation, a truly interdisciplinary approach is required. Unique in the UN system, UNESCO brings together the domains of natural sciences, social sciences,culture, education and communication. Given this broad mandate, UNESCO favors integrated approaches for monitoring and adapting to climate change in the Arctic, fostering dialogue among scientists, circumpolar communities and decision-makers. This book brings together the knowledge, concerns and visions of leading Arctic scientists in the natural and social sciences, prominent Chukchi, Even, Inuit and Saami leaders from across the circumpolar North, and international experts in education, health and ethics. They highlight the urgent need for a sustained interdisciplinary and multi-actor approach to monitoring, managing and responding to climate change in the Arctic, and explore avenues by which this can be achieved.--Publisher's description.
Download or read book The Governance of Rangelands written by Pedro M. Herrera and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rangelands are large natural landscapes that can include grasslands, shrublands, savannahs and woodlands. They are greatly influenced by, and often dependent on, the action of herbivores. In the majority of rangelands the dominant herbivores are found in domestic herds that are managed by mobile pastoralists. Most pastoralists manage their rangelands communally, benefitting from the greater flexibility and seasonal resource access that common property regimes can offer. As this book shows, this creates a major challenge for governance and institutions. This work improves our understanding of the importance of governance, how it can be strengthened and the principles that underpin good governance, in order to prevent degradation of rangelands and ensure their sustainability. It describes the nature of governance at different levels: community governance, state governance, international governance, and the unique features of rangelands that demand collective action (issues of scale, ecological disequilibrium and seasonality). A series of country case studies is presented, drawn from a wide spectrum of examples from Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe and North America. These provide contrasting lessons which are summarised to promote improved governance of rangelands and pastoralist livelihoods.
Download or read book Developments in Soil Classification Land Use Planning and Policy Implications written by Shabbir A. Shahid and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 875 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the world’s population continues to expand, maintaining and indeed increasing agricultural productivity is more important than ever, though it is also more difficult than ever in the face of changing weather patterns that in some cases are leading to aridity and desertification. The absence of scientific soil inventories, especially in arid areas, leads to mistaken decisions about soil use that, in the end, reduce a region’s capacity to feed its population, or to guarantee a clean water supply. Greater efficiency in soil use is possible when these resources are properly classified using international standards. Focusing on arid regions, this volume details soil classification from many countries. It is only once this information is properly assimilated by policymakers it becomes a foundation for informed decisions in land use planning for rational and sustainable uses.
Download or read book New Approaches to Economic Challenges Systemic Thinking for Policy Making The Potential of Systems Analysis for Addressing Global Policy Challenges in the 21st Century written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Systemic Thinking for Policy Making world experts from the OECD and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) pool their expertise and experience to propose new approaches to analysing the interconnected trends and issues shaping today’s and tomorrow’s world.
Download or read book Sustainable Development Goals written by Pia Katila and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A global assessment of potential and anticipated impacts of efforts to achieve the SDGs on forests and related socio-economic systems. This title is available as Open Access via Cambridge Core.
Download or read book Mitigation Adaptation Synergies in the NDCs written by and published by Nordic Council of Ministers. This book was released on 2017-05-26 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Signatories of Paris Agreement outlined their post-2020 climate actions, known as their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (I)NDCs. This study focuses on potential synergies between adaptation and mitigation in the (I)NDCs. It pays particular attention to the sectors of forestry, agriculture, energy and urban development. It draws on a review of climate change financing literature, and an analysis of the (I)NDCs and the financial and policy frameworks and programmes that make up global climate change financing structure, notably the texts of the Paris Agreement. The report contains recommendations for Nordic stakeholders to drive further synergies between mitigation and adaptation.
Download or read book Assessing the International Forest Regime written by Richard Tarasofsky and published by IUCN. This book was released on 1999 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an assessment of the international forest regime, in reponse to calls from many quarters, including the UN Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) and the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, as well as several NGOs. The focus is mainly on action taken by countries at the global level, in the framework of legally binding instruments and institutions. It builds on previous analyses of the international forest regime by looking beyond the legal mandates to begin exploring the actual performance of the components against their mandates. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) Proposals for Action as the point for departure, the effectiveness and impact of individual legal instruments and global instutions are analyzed, as is the potential for synergy between them.
Download or read book Soil Carbon Storage written by Brajesh Singh and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-04-12 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soil Carbon Storage: Modulators, Mechanisms and Modeling takes a novel approach to the issue of soil carbon storage by considering soil C sequestration as a function of the interaction between biotic (e.g. microbes and plants) and abiotic (climate, soil types, management practices) modulators as a key driver of soil C. These modulators are central to C balance through their processing of C from both plant inputs and native soil organic matter. This book considers this concept in the light of state-of-the-art methodologies that elucidate these interactions and increase our understanding of a vitally important, but poorly characterized component of the global C cycle. The book provides soil scientists with a comprehensive, mechanistic, quantitative and predictive understanding of soil carbon storage. It presents a new framework that can be included in predictive models and management practices for better prediction and enhanced C storage in soils. - Identifies management practices to enhance storage of soil C under different agro-ecosystems, soil types and climatic conditions - Provides novel conceptual frameworks of biotic (especially microbial) and abiotic data to improve prediction of simulation model at plot to global scale - Advances the conceptual framework needed to support robust predictive models and sustainable land management practices
Download or read book Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment LCSA written by Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) that was developed about three decades ago demands a broadening of its scope to include lifecycle costing and social aspects of life cycle assessment as well, drawing on the three-pillar or ‘triple bottom line’ model of sustainability, which is the result of the development of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). LCSA refers to the evaluation of all environmental, social and economic negative impacts and benefits in decision-making processes towards more sustainable products throughout their life cycle. Combination of environmental and social life cycle assessments along with life cycle costing leads to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This book highlights various aspects of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA).
Download or read book Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship written by F Stuart Chapin III and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-06-12 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is undergoing unprecedented changes in many of the factors that determine its fundamental properties and their in- ence on society. These changes include climate; the chemical c- position of the atmosphere; the demands of a growing human population for food and ?ber; and the mobility of organisms, ind- trial products, cultural perspectives, and information ?ows. The magnitude and widespread nature of these changes pose serious challenges in managing the ecosystem services on which society depends. Moreover, many of these changes are strongly in?uenced by human activities, so future patterns of change will continue to be in?uenced by society’s choices and governance. The purpose of this book is to provide a new framework for n- ural resource management—a framework based on stewardship of ecosystems for human well-being in a world dominated by unc- tainty and change. The goal of ecosystem stewardship is to respond to and shape change in social-ecological systems in order to s- tain the supply and opportunities for use of ecosystem services by society. The book links recent advances in the theory of resilience, sustainability, and vulnerability with practical issues of ecosystem management and governance. The book is aimed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students of natural resource management as well as professional managers, community leaders, and policy makers with backgrounds in a wide array of d- ciplines, including ecology, policy studies, economics, sociology, and anthropology.
Download or read book Climate Change 2001 Synthesis Report written by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group I. and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up jointly by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation in 1988 to provide periodic scientific analysis of the causes, impacts and possible policy response options to climate change issues. This synthesis report is the 4th and final part of the IPCC's third assessment report, and contains information on nine policy-relevant questions regarding the IPCC's 2001 assessment. It is intended to assist governments, individually and collectively, to formulate appropriate adaptation and mitigation responses to the threat of human-induced climate change.
Download or read book Achieving Sustainable Development and Promoting Development Cooperation written by Department of Economic & Social Affairs and published by United Nations Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an overview of the key debates that took place during the Economic and Social Council meetings at the 2007 High-level Segment, at which ECOSOC organized its first biennial Development Cooperation Forum. The discussions also revolved around the theme of the second Annual Ministerial Review, "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development."--P. 4 of cover.
