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Book Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South

Download or read book Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate Change in the Global South written by Simone Lucatello and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume integrates a conceptual framework with participatory methodologies to understand the complexities of dryland socio-ecological systems, and to address challenges and opportunities for stewardship of future drylands and climate change in the global south. Through several case studies, the book offers a transdisciplinary and participatory approach to understand the complexity of socio-ecological systems, to co-produce accurate resource management plans for sustained stewardship, and to drive social learning and polycentric governance. This systemic framework permits the study of human-nature interrelationships through time and in particular contexts, with a focus on achieving progress in accordance with the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development. The book is divided into four main sections: 1) drylands and socio-ecological systems, 2) transdisciplinarity in drylands, 3) interculturality in drylands, and 4) the governance of drylands. Expert contributors address topics such as pastoralism and the characteristics of successful agricultural lands, the sustainable development goals and drylands, dryland modernization, and arid land governance with a focus on Mexico. The volume will be of interest to dryland researchers, sustainable development practitioners and policymakers.

Book The Future of Drylands

Download or read book The Future of Drylands written by Cathy Lee and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-10-29 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drylands have been cradles to some of the world’s greatest civilizations, and contemporary dryland communities feature rich and unique cultures. Dryland ecosystems support a surprising amount of biodiversity. Desertification, however, is a significant land degradation problem in the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions of the world. Deterioration of soil and plant cover has adversely affected 70% of the world’s drylands as a result of extended droughts as well as mismanagement of range and cultivated lands. The situation is likely to worsen with high population growth rates and accompanying land-use conflicts. The contributions to The Future of Drylands – an international scientific conference held under the leadership of UNESCO – address these issues and offer practical solutions for combating desertification along with conserving and sustainably managing dryland ecosystems. Major themes include the conservation of dryland biological and cultural diversity and the human dryland interface. This volume documents how our improved understanding of drylands provides insight into the health and future prospects of these precious ecosystems that should help ensure that dryland communities enjoy a sustainable future.

Book Dryland Opportunities

Download or read book Dryland Opportunities written by Michael Mortimore and published by World Conservation Union. This book was released on 2009 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drylands cover 41 percent of the earth' s terrestrial surface. The urgency of and international response to climate change have given a new place to drylands in terms both of their vulnerability to predicted climate change impacts and their potential contribution to climate change mitigation. This book aims to apply the new scientific insights on complex dryland systems to practical options for development. A new dryland paradigm is built on the resources and capacities of dryland peoples, on new and emergent economic opportunities, on inward investment, and on the best support that dryland science can offer.

Book The Future of Arid Lands Revisited

Download or read book The Future of Arid Lands Revisited written by Charles F. Hutchinson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-12-07 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future of Arid Lands, edited by Gilbert White and published in 1956, comprised papers delivered at the "International Arid Lands Meetings" held in New Mexico in 1955. At these meetings, experts considered the major issues then confronting the world’s arid lands and developed a research agenda to address these issues. This book reexamines this earlier work and explores changes in the science and management of arid lands over the past 50 years within their historical contexts.

Book Land  Investment   Politics

Download or read book Land Investment Politics written by Jeremy Lind and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2020 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the new challenges facing Africa's pastoral drylands from large-scale investments and how this might affect the economic and political landscape for the regions affected and their peoples.

Book Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands

Download or read book Climate Variability Impacts on Land Use and Livelihoods in Drylands written by Mahesh K. Gaur and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume is devoted to the examination of the implications of the inevitable changes wrought by global change on the welfare and livelihoods of tens of millions of people who live in dryland regions. Global change is more than just climate change and the ramifications of changing trade patterns (geopolitical and economic aspects), the shift to the market economy, demographic factors (population growth, urbanization and re-settlement), receive attention here. Land use change specialists, policy makers and natural resource management agencies will find the book very useful. Chapters focus on examples that are drawn from a number of sources including previously unpublished studies on the impact of climate change, markets and economics on pastoralist and dryland farming households. The key focus is to provide readers with insights into the real world implications of change (including an analysis of the drivers of change) on these vulnerable groups within dryland societies. The role of humans as agents of these changes is canvassed. A regional analysis of the world's drylands is also performed including those in Australia, Argentina, India, North America, China, North Africa, Central Asia and Southern Africa.

Book The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands

Download or read book The Impact of Climate Change on Drylands written by A.J. Dietz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-11 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sahelian West Africa has recovered from the disastrous droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. People have learned to adapt to risk and uncertainty in fragile dryland environments. They, as well as global change scientists, are worried about the impact of climate change on these West African drylands. What do the experiences of the last thirty years say about the preparedness for higher temperatures, lower rainfall, and even more variability? Detailed studies on Dryland West Africa as a whole, and on Burkina Faso, Mali and Northern Ghana in particular show an advanced coping behaviour and increased adaptation, but also major differences in vulnerability and coping potential. Climate change preparedness programmes have only just started and require more robust support, and more specific social targeting, for a population which is rapidly growing, even more rapidly urbanising, and further integrating in a globalised economy. This book is the first of its kind with a comprehensive analysis of climate change experiences in West African drylands, with attention for pathways of change and the diversity of adaptation options available. This book is of interest to scientists studying global and climate change, especially dealing with issues of adaptation. Social scientists, economists, geographers and policy makers concerned with West Africa should also read this book.

Book Drylands Facing Change

    Book Details:
  • Author : Angela Kronenburg García
  • Publisher : Taylor & Francis
  • Release : 2022-12-13
  • ISBN : 1000802566
  • Pages : 284 pages

Download or read book Drylands Facing Change written by Angela Kronenburg García and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-13 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume examines the changes that arise from the entanglement of global interests and narratives with the local struggles that have always existed in the drylands of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia/Inner Asia. Changes in drylands are happening in an overwhelming manner. Climate change, growing political instability, and increasing enclosures of large expanses of often common land are some of the changes with far-reaching consequences for those who make their living in the drylands. At the same time, powerful narratives about the drylands as ‘wastelands’ and their ‘backward’ inhabitants continue to hold sway, legitimizing interventions for development, security, and conservation, informing re-emerging frontiers of investment (for agriculture, extraction, infrastructure), and shaping new dryland identities. The chapters in this volume discuss the politics of change triggered by forces as diverse as the global land and resource rush, the expansion of new Information and Communication Technologies, urbanization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the spread of violent extremism. While recognizing that changes are co-produced by differently positioned actors from within and outside the drylands, this volume presents the dryland’s point of view. It therefore takes the views, experiences, and agencies of dryland dwellers as the point of departure to not only understand the changes that are transforming their lives, livelihoods, and future aspirations, but also to highlight the unexpected spaces of contestation and innovation that have hitherto remained understudied. This edited volume will be of much interest to students, researchers, and scholars of natural resource management, land and resource grabbing, political ecology, sustainable development, and drylands in general. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Book Arid Zone Geomorphology

    Book Details:
  • Author : David S. G. Thomas
  • Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
  • Release : 2011-02-08
  • ISBN : 0470975695
  • Pages : 658 pages

Download or read book Arid Zone Geomorphology written by David S. G. Thomas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new edition of Arid Zone Geomorphology aims to encapsulate the advances that have been made in recent years in the investigation and explanation of landforms and geomorphological processes in drylands. Building on the success of the previous two editions, the Third Edition has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field. Whilst this latest edition will remain a comprehensive reference to the subject, the book has been restructured to include regional case studies throughout to enhance student understanding and is clearly defined into five distinct sections; Firstly, the book introduces the reader to Large Scale Controls and Variability in Drylands and then moves on to consider Surface Processes and Characteristics; The Work of Water, The Work of the Wind. The book concludes with a section on Living with Dryland Geomorphology that includes a chapter on geomorphological hazards and the human impact on these environments. Once again, recognised world experts in the field have been invited to contribute chapters in order to present a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of current knowledge about the processes shaping the landscape of deserts and arid regions. In order to broaden the appeal of the Third Edition, the book has been reduced in extent by 100 pages and the Regional chapters have been omitted in favour of the inclusion of key regional case studies throughout the book. The Editor is also considering the inclusion of a supplementary website that could include further images, problems and case studies.

Book Challenges and Strategies of Dryland Agriculture

Download or read book Challenges and Strategies of Dryland Agriculture written by S.C. Rao and published by Scientific Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has made remarkable progress in maintaining adequate food supplies during the past quarter century by introducing yield-increasing technologies such as better genetics, crop protection products, and more efficient use of fertilizers and irrigations. Far more people depend on irrigation in the modern world than during the times of ancient Sumeria. The spread of irrigation has been the key factor in increasing global crop yields. But future scarcity present the single biggest threat to future food production. The shift of water from agriculture to the growing cities and industry almost certainly will impact global food production. This means that dryland agriculture will be increasingly important in meeting food requirement for the growing population. Advaces in plant genetics and agronomic conservation technologies, when considered in concert, continue to provide the greatest opportunities to achieve sustainability and profitability in dryland agriculture and will continue to be the focus of the ARS research program. The ARS is please to join the crop Science Society of America and international center for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in sponsoring a symposium “Challenges and strategies for Dryland Agriculture” at the Trisocieties Annual Meeting in November 2002 at Indianapolis, IN. This special publication contains an impressive series of paper by international group of experts on dryland agricultural production, conservation, and policy. The principles, philosophies, and technologies presented in this publication have the potential to contribute to improve food security and livelihoods for the people in dryland regions of the world.

Book Ecosystems and Human Well being

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

Book Drylands

    Book Details:
  • Author : Peter Beaumont
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2014-04-08
  • ISBN : 1317858190
  • Pages : 513 pages

Download or read book Drylands written by Peter Beaumont and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drylands, which cover over half the world's area, have witnessed rapid development, exploitation and change with the discovery of mineral reserves, urbanization and population growth. Environmental management is critical to the conservation and sustainable use of resources. This comprehensive text offers a systematic study of the physical nature of drylands and the history of human response to and uses of these harsh landscapes. Detailed case studies, including urban as well as pastoral drylands from California to Soviet Central Asia, the Middle East, the Sahara and Australia, contrast different management approaches and problems.

Book The Arid Lands

    Book Details:
  • Author : Diana K. Davis
  • Publisher : MIT Press
  • Release : 2016-03-25
  • ISBN : 0262333546
  • Pages : 302 pages

Download or read book The Arid Lands written by Diana K. Davis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-03-25 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that the perception of arid lands as wastelands is politically motivated and that these landscapes are variable, biodiverse ecosystems, whose inhabitants must be empowered. Deserts are commonly imagined as barren, defiled, worthless places, wastelands in need of development. This understanding has fueled extensive anti-desertification efforts—a multimillion-dollar global campaign driven by perceptions of a looming crisis. In this book, Diana Davis argues that estimates of desertification have been significantly exaggerated and that deserts and drylands—which constitute about 41% of the earth's landmass—are actually resilient and biodiverse environments in which a great many indigenous people have long lived sustainably. Meanwhile, contemporary arid lands development programs and anti-desertification efforts have met with little success. As Davis explains, these environments are not governed by the equilibrium ecological dynamics that apply in most other regions. Davis shows that our notion of the arid lands as wastelands derives largely from politically motivated Anglo-European colonial assumptions that these regions had been laid waste by “traditional” uses of the land. Unfortunately, such assumptions still frequently inform policy. Drawing on political ecology and environmental history, Davis traces changes in our understanding of deserts, from the benign views of the classical era to Christian associations of the desert with sinful activities to later (neo)colonial assumptions of destruction. She further explains how our thinking about deserts is problematically related to our conceptions of forests and desiccation. Davis concludes that a new understanding of the arid lands as healthy, natural, but variable ecosystems that do not necessarily need improvement or development will facilitate a more sustainable future for the world's magnificent drylands.

Book Drylands

    Book Details:
  • Author : Thea Astley
  • Publisher : Text Publishing
  • Release : 2018-04-30
  • ISBN : 192562661X
  • Pages : 259 pages

Download or read book Drylands written by Thea Astley and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This will be a book for the world’s last reader, she decided, chewing pen-end over an open exercise book. In the dying town of Drylands, Janet Deakin sells papers to lonely locals. At night, in her flat above the newsagency, she attempts to write a novel for a world in which no one reads—‘full of people, she envisaged, glaring at a screen that glared glassily back.’ Drylands is the story of the townsfolk’s harsh, violent lives. Trenchant and brilliant, Thea Astley’s final novel is a dark portrait of outback Australia in decline. Thea Astley was born in Brisbane in 1925. Her first novel, Girl with a Monkey, was published in 1958 and her third, The Well Dressed Explorer (1962), won the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Many notable books followed, among them the groundbreaking A Kindness Cup (1974), which addressed frontier massacres of Indigenous Australians, and It’s Raining in Mango (1987). Her last novel was Drylands (1999), her fourth Miles Franklin winner. Her fiction is distinguished by vivid imagery and metaphor; a complex, ironic style; and a desire to highlight oppression and social injustice. One of the most distinctive and influential Australian novelists of the twentieth century, Astley died in 2004. ‘It is impossible to put this book down. It seethes with energy and passion.’ Herald Sun 'Wonderful.' Australian

Book The Future of Soil Carbon

Download or read book The Future of Soil Carbon written by Carlos Garcia and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future of Soil Carbon: Its Conservation and Formation provides readers with an integrative approach to understanding the important role of organic carbon in soil functioning and fertility. Terrestrial interactions between SOC and complex human-natural systems require new fundamental and applied research into regional and global SOC budgets. This book provides new and synthesized information on the dynamics of SOC in the terrestrial environment. In addition to rigorous state-of-the art on soil science, the book also provides strategies to avoid risks of soil carbon losses. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a vital component of soils, with important and far-reaching effects on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Human activities over the last several decades have significantly changed the regional and global balance of SOC, greatly exacerbating global warming and climate change. Provides a holistic overview of soil carbon status and main threats for its conservation Offers innovative solutions to conserve soil carbon Includes in-depth treatment of regional and global changes in soil organic carbon budget

Book Landscape Dynamics of Drylands across Greater Central Asia  People  Societies and Ecosystems

Download or read book Landscape Dynamics of Drylands across Greater Central Asia People Societies and Ecosystems written by Garik Gutman and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a compilation of studies on interactions of changes in land cover, land use and climate with people, societies and ecosystems in drylands of Greater Central Asia. It explores the effects of collapse of socialist governance and management systems on land use in various parts of Central Asia, including former Soviet Union republics, Mongolia and northern drylands of China. Often, regional land-atmosphere feedbacks may have large global importance. Remote sensing is a primary tool in studying vast dryland territories where in situ observations are sporadic. State-of-the-art methods of satellite remote sensing combined with GIS and models are used to tackle science questions and provide an outlook of current changes at land surface and potential scenarios for the future. In 10 chapters, contributing authors cover topics such as water resources, effects of institutional changes on urban centers and agriculture, landscape dynamics, and the primary drivers of environmental changes in dryland environment. Satellite observations that have accumulated during the last five decades provide a rich time series of the dynamic land surface, enabling systematic analysis of changes in land cover and land use from space. The book is a truly international effort by a team of scientists from the U.S., Europe and Central Asia. It is directed at the broad science community including graduate students, academics and other professionals at all levels within natural and social sciences. In particular, it will appeal to geographers, environmental and social scientists, economists, agricultural scientists, and remote sensing specialists.

Book Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments

Download or read book Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments written by Katarzyna Negacz and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-06-24 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food production on present and future saline soils deserves the world’s attention particularly because food security is a pressing issue, millions of hectares of degraded soils are available worldwide, freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce, and the global sea-level rise threatens food production in fertile coastal lowlands. Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments aims to showcase the global potential of saline agriculture. The book covers the essential topics, such as policy and awareness, soil management, future crops, and genetic developments, all supplemented by case studies that show how this knowledge has been applied. It offers an overview of current research themes and practical cases focused on enhancing food production on saline lands. FEATURES Describes the critical role of the revitalization of salt-degraded lands in achieving sustainability in agriculture on a global scale Discusses practical solutions toward using drylands and delta areas threatened by salinity for sustainable food production Presents strategies for adaptation to climate change and sea-level rise through food production under saline conditions Addresses the diverse aspects of crop salt tolerance and microbiological associations Highlights the complex problem of salinity and waterlogging and safer management of poor-quality water, supplemented by case studies A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.