scholarly journals Economic valuation of water services related to protected forest management: a case of Bukit Batabuh in the RIMBA corridor, Central Sumatra, Indonesia

Author(s):  
Barano Siswa Sulistyawan ◽  
Budy P. Resosudarmo ◽  
Rene W. Verburg ◽  
Pita Verweij ◽  
Mia Amalia ◽  
...  

AbstractThe context of daily household needs of rural communities, particularly the needs for water, often remains insufficiently considered in tropical forest management as it is facing an important decision-making trade-off between profit and preservation. We conducted a choice experiment study to elicit preferences of the rural community members in Central Sumatra, Indonesia, who perpetually depend on the ecosystem services of tropical forests. To inform a spatial planning policy for the protected forest, we focus on the valuation of water services in the protected forest area of Bukit Batabuh where the surrounding communities living rely on upstream watershed and water storage management. We find that those communities have a strict preference for improving forest water provisioning services, compared to the current situation (status quo), with the estimated aggregate benefit of non-commercial use ranging between USD 2.71 million and USD 2.47 million per year for each of the options of (1) maintaining and enhancing water storage, (2) rehabilitating forest in the upper watershed or (3) restoring the riparian forest. This study also identifies preference attributes, such as water storage capacity, water scarcity and water turbidity which can be used in other tropical landscape contexts in Indonesia and beyond.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Yohanes Victor Lasi Usbobo

The implementation of todays forest management that based on formal-scientific knowledge and technical knowledge seems to fail to protect the forest from deforestation and the environmental damage. Decolonialisation of western knowledge could give an opportunity to identify and find the knowledge and practices of indigenous people in sustainable forest management. Forest management based on the indigenous knowledge and practices is believed easy to be accepted by the indigenous community due to the knowledge and practice is known and ‘lived’ by them. The Atoni Pah Meto from West Timor has their own customary law in forest management that is knows as Bunuk. In the installation of Bunuk, there is a concencus among the community members to protect and preserve the forest through the vow to the supreme one, the ruler of the earth and the ancestors, thus, bunuk is becoming a le’u (sacred). Thus, the Atoni Meto will not break the bunuk due to the secredness. Adapting the bunuk to the modern forest management in the Atoni Meto areas could be one of the best options in protecting and preserving the forest.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Chen ◽  
Xue-wen Lei ◽  
Han-lin Zhang ◽  
Zhi Lin ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe problems caused by the interaction between slopes and hydrologic environment in traffic civil engineering are very serious in the granite residual soil area of China, especially in Guangdong Province. Against the background of two heavy rainfall events occurring during a short period due to a typhoon making landfall twice or even two typhoons consecutively making landfall, laboratory model tests were carried out on the hydrological effects of the granite residual soil slope considering three vegetation types under artificial rainfall. The variation in slope surface runoff, soil moisture content and rain seepage over time was recorded during the tests. The results indicate that surface vegetation first effectively reduces the splash erosion impact of rainwater on slopes and then influences the slope hydrological effect through rainwater forms adjustment. (1) The exposed slope has weak resistance to two consecutive heavy rains, the degree of slope scouring and soil erosion damage will increase greatly during the second rainfall. (2) The multiple hindrances of the stem leaf of Zoysia japonica plays a leading role in regulating the hydrological effect of slope, the root system has little effect on the permeability and water storage capacity of slope soil, but improves the erosion resistance of it. (3) Both the stem leaf and root system of Nephrolepis cordifolia have important roles on the hydrological effect. The stem leaf can stabilize the infiltration of rainwater, and successfully inhibit the surface runoff under continuous secondary heavy rainfall. The root system significantly enhances the water storage capacity of the slope, and greatly increases the permeability of the slope soil in the second rainfall, which is totally different from that of the exposed and Zoysia japonica slopes. (4) Zoysia is a suitable vegetation species in terms of slope protection because of its comprehensive slope protection effect. Nephrolepis cordifolia should be cautiously planted as slope protection vegetation. Only on slopes with no stability issues should Nephrolepis cordifolia be considered to preserve soil and water.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146879412097888
Author(s):  
Rachel Creaney ◽  
Mags Currie ◽  
Paul Teedon ◽  
Karin Helwig

This project employed community researchers as a means of improving community engagement around their Private Water Supplies (PWS) in rural Scotland. In this paper, we reflect on working with community researchers in terms of the benefits and challenges of the approach for future rural research that seeks to improve community engagement. The paper (1) critiques the involvement of community researchers for rural community engagement, drawing on the experiences in this project and (2) provides suggestions for good practice for working with community researchers in rural communities’ research. We offer some context in terms of the role of community members in research, the importance of PWS, our approach to community researchers, followed by the methodological approach and findings and our conclusions to highlight that community researchers can be beneficial for enhancing community engagement, employability, and social capital. Future community researcher approaches need to be fully funded to ensure core researchers can fulfil their duty of care, which should not stop when data collection is finished. Community researchers need to be supported in two main ways: as continuing faces of the project after the official project end date and to transfer their newly acquired skills to future employment opportunities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harro Joseph Jongen ◽  
Gert-Jan Steeneveld ◽  
Jason Beringer ◽  
Andreas Christen ◽  
Krzysztof Fortuniak ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harro Jongen ◽  
Gert-Jan Steeneveld ◽  
Jason Beringer ◽  
Krzysztof Fortuniak ◽  
Jinkyu Hong ◽  
...  

<p>The amount and dynamics of urban water storage play an important role in mitigating urban flooding and heat. Assessment of the capacity of cities to store water remains challenging due to the extreme heterogeneity of the urban surface. Evapotranspiration (ET) recession after rainfall events during the period without precipitation, over which the amount of stored water gradually decreases, can provide insight on the water storage capacity of urban surfaces. Assuming ET is the only outgoing flux, the water storage capacity can be estimated based on the timescale and intercept of its recession. In this paper, we test the proposed approach to estimate the water storage capacity at neighborhood scale with latent heat flux data collected by eddy covariance flux towers in eleven contrasting urban sites with different local climate zones, vegetation cover and characteristics and background climates (Amsterdam, Arnhem, Basel, Berlin, Helsinki, Łódź, Melbourne, Mexico City, Seoul, Singapore, Vancouver). Water storage capacities ranging between 1 and 12 mm were found. These values correspond to e-folding timescales lasting from 2 to 10 days, which translate to half-lives of 1.5 to 7 days. We find ET at the start of a drydown to be positively related to vegetation fraction, and long timescales and large storage capacities to be associated with higher vegetation fractions. According to our results, urban water storage capacity is at least one order of magnitude smaller than the known water storage capacity in natural forests and grassland.</p>


2013 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
RC. Pontes ◽  
RT. Santori ◽  
FC. Gonçalves e Cunha ◽  
JAL. Pontes

Rocky seashores are low granitic hills distributed along the southeastern Brazilian coast with xeric-like vegetation due to the shallow soil. Knowledge on amphibian communities and their reproductive patterns is especially reduced on this kind of environment. Herein, we present a framework of two years monitoring an amphibian community at a rocky seashore environment located at the protected area of Parque Estadual da Serra da Tiririca, municipality of Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We conducted diurnal and nocturnal searches for frogs in tank bromeliads, rocky surface and shrubby vegetation. Annual pattern of breeding activity of anurans was also estimated. Individuals of the most abundant tank-bromeliad, Alcantarea glaziouana were collected and measured according to several variables to understanding the selection of bromeliads by frogs. We checked the influence of the environmental conditions on amphibian abundance, association between the bromeliads measures, and the water storage in the tank. We recorded the species: Scinax aff. x-signatus; S. cuspidatus; S. littoreus; Thoropa miliaris and Gastrotheca sp. Bromeliads were the preferential habitat used by anurans. The nocturnal habit was predominant for all species and during diurnal searches, the specimens were found sheltered in bromeliads axils. The number of calling males as well as amphibian abundance was associated with the rainiest and warmest period of the year. The species S. littoreus was observed in breeding activity in the majority of sample period. Adult calling males of T. miliaris were observed especially in the rainy season. Rainfall and temperature combined are positively correlated to the total number of captured amphibians. However, individually, rainfall was not significantly correlated, while temperature was positively correlated with the amphibian abundance. Water storage capacity by bromeliads was correlated to characteristics and size of the plant. In the rainy season, the height of the plant and the diameter on top view were correlated with the occurrence of amphibians, while during the driest period there was no correlation among variables and the bromeliad usage by amphibians. Recorded species were strongly associated to the Atlantic Forest domain. Nevertheless, the occupation of rocky seashores by anurans may be more associated with the specialized reproductive modes presented by species, since there is no permanent water available in ponds or streams.


Water SA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3 July) ◽  
Author(s):  
DC Sambo ◽  
A Senzanje ◽  
K Dhavu

Some parts of the rural areas of South Africa are receiving water services below the legislative standards stipulated in the Water Services Act (1997) of South Africa. This is because small-scale water infrastructures (SWI), including standpipes, handpumps and windmills, are failing to supply adequate water in rural communities for various activities that enhance their livelihoods. This is due to technical, community, institutional, and environmental factors. Literature indicates that these factors are complex in nature. However, research on their complex interactions has been limited. Therefore, the complex interactions of the factors causing SWI failure were investigated and analysed in this study. A qualitative research approach was employed to investigate the factors that cause failure of SWI. The network approach combined with graph theory and the community structure method were used to generate a theme and domain network that allowed for a systematic analysis and interpretation of the causes of SWI failure in the study area. The major causes of failure identified include: (i) the use of a top-down approach to implement water projects in rural communities without consultation, (ii) sharing of SWI in high numbers due to the limited number of SWI available/functional, resulting in overloading and increased breakdowns, and (iii) drying up of water sources due to poor siting leading to vandalism of SWI. Overall, the causes of SWI failure are as a result of the complex interactions of different categories of factors. The theme and domain network is a powerful tool that can be used represent and analyse the complex interactions. It is therefore imperative for interventions aiming to improve rural water supply to analyse the complex interactions of the causes of SWI failure to understand the underlying problems at a level of a system, in order to propose suitable solutions.


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