scholarly journals Benefits of water-related ecological infrastructure investments to support sustainable land-use: a review of evidence from critically water-stressed catchments in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alanna J. Rebelo ◽  
Petra B. Holden ◽  
Karen Esler ◽  
Mark G. New
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
South African ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Ecological Infrastructure ◽  
Catchment Areas ◽  
Infrastructure Investments

Investments to promote sustainable land-use within critical river catchment areas are often undertaken to provide benefits to society. Investments generally aim to protect or restore ecological infrastructure—the underlying framework of ecosystems, functions and processes that supply ecosystem services—for multiple benefits to society. However, the empirical evidence base from studies across the world on both mechanisms and outcomes to support these assumptions is limited. We collate evidence on the benefits of ecological infrastructure interventions, in terms of ecosystem services provided to society, from three major South African water-providing catchments using a novel framework. In these catchments, millions of US Dollars' worth of investments have been made into ecological infrastructure since 1996. We ask the question: is there evidence that ecological infrastructure interventions are delivering the proposed benefits? Results show that even in catchments with substantial, long-term financial investment into ecological infrastructure, research has not empirically confirmed the benefits. Better baseline data collection is required, and monitoring during and after ecological infrastructure interventions, to quantify benefits to society. This evidence is needed to leverage investment into ecological infrastructure interventions at scale. Investment at scale is needed to transition to more sustainable land-use to unlock greater benefits to nature and people.

scholarly journals The Influence of Land Use Change on Key Ecosystem Services and Their Relationships in a Mountain Region from Past to Future (1995–2050)

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Jie Gao ◽  
Xuguang Tang ◽  
Shiqiu Lin ◽  
Hongyan Bian
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Mountain Region ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
The Government ◽  
Steep Slopes

The ecosystem services (ESs) provided by mountain regions can bring about benefits to people living in and around the mountains. Ecosystems in mountain areas are fragile and sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. Understanding the effect of land use change on ESs and their relationships can lead to sustainable land use management in mountain regions with complex topography. Chongqing, as a typical mountain region, was selected as the site of this research. The long-term impacts of land use change on four key ESs (i.e., water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ)) and their relationships were assessed from the past to the future (at five-year intervals, 1995–2050). Three future scenarios were constructed to represent the ecological restoration policy and different socioeconomic developments. From 1995 to 2015, WY and SC experienced overall increases. CS and HQ increased slightly at first and then decreased significantly. A scenario analysis suggested that, if the urban area continues to increase at low altitudes, by 2050, CS and HQ are predicted to decrease moderately. However, great improvements in SC, HQ, and CS are expected to be achieved by the middle of the century if the government continues to make efforts towards vegetation restoration on the steep slopes.

scholarly journals Food-for-work for poverty reduction and the promotion of sustainable land use: can it work?

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEIN HOLDEN ◽  
CHRISTOPHER B. BARRETT ◽  
FITSUM HAGOS
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Northern Ethiopia ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Labor Allocation ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Private Investments ◽  
Crowd Out

Food-for-work (FFW) programs are commonly used both for short-term relief and long-term development purposes. This paper assesses the potential of FFW programs to reduce poverty and promote sustainable land use in the longer run. There is a danger that such programs distort labor allocation or crowd out private investments and therefore have unintended negative effects. We explore this issue using survey evidence from northern Ethiopia that we use to motivate a simple theoretical model, a more detailed version of which we then implement through an applied bio-economic model calibrated to northern Ethiopia. The analysis explores how FFW project outcomes may depend on FFW project design, market conditions, and technology characteristics. We show that FFW programs may either crowd out or crowd in private investments and highlight factors that condition whether FFW promotes or undercuts sustainable land use.

Fostering Research into Coupled Long-Term Dynamics of Climate, Land Use, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services in the Central French Alps

2012 ◽  
pp. 485-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Lavorel ◽  
Thomas Spiegelberger ◽  
Isabelle Mauz ◽  
Sylvain Bigot ◽  
Céline Granjou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
French Alps

Potential Effect of Conservation Tillage on Sustainable Land Use: A Review of Global Long-Term Studies

Pedosphere ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 587-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Bin WANG ◽  
Dian-Xiong CAI ◽  
W.B. HOOGMOED ◽  
O. OENEMA ◽  
U.D. PERDOK
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Conservation Tillage ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Long Term Studies

scholarly journals Non-Monetary Assessment and Mapping of the Potential of Agroecosystem Services in Rural Slovakia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-276
Author(s):  
Jarmila Makovníková ◽  
Boris Pálka ◽  
Stanislav Kološta ◽  
Filip Flaška ◽  
Katarína Orságová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Texture ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Land Use Management ◽  
Biodiversity Protection

AbstractThe updated Slovak National Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 is a key document in the field of biodiversity protection, and assessment together with mapping of the value of different ecosystem services is one of its most important objectives. This study applies the first non-monetary assessment and pilot mapping of agroecosystem services in the Slovak Republic at seven model sites located in the main climatic areas and estimates the agroecosystem services potential of Slovakia as a rural country with a transformed multi-criteria approach used at national level. It suggests that the distribution of the value of agroecosystem services is geographically different probably due to climatic conditions, slope and soil texture. Our assessment provides a suitable basis for further investigation of agroecosystem services and contributes to optimizing sustainable land use management in Slovakia.

scholarly journals Over 150 Years of Change: Object-Oriented Analysis of Historical Land Cover in the Main River Catchment, Bavaria/Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4048
Author(s):  
Yrneh Ulloa-Torrealba ◽  
Reinhold Stahlmann ◽  
Martin Wegmann ◽  
Thomas Koellner
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Historical Maps ◽  
River Catchment ◽  
Main River ◽  
Object Based

The monitoring of land cover and land use change is critical for assessing the provision of ecosystem services. One of the sources for long-term land cover change quantification is through the classification of historical and/or current maps. Little research has been done on historical maps using Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA). This study applied an object-based classification using eCognition tool for analyzing the land cover based on historical maps in the Main river catchment, Upper Franconia, Germany. This allowed land use change analysis between the 1850s and 2015, a time span which covers the phase of industrialization of landscapes in central Europe. The results show a strong increase in urban area by 2600%, a severe loss of cropland (−24%), a moderate reduction in meadows (−4%), and a small gain in forests (+4%). The method proved useful for the application on historical maps due to the ability of the software to create semantic objects. The confusion matrix shows an overall accuracy of 82% for the automatic classification compared to manual reclassification considering all 17 sample tiles. The minimum overall accuracy was 65% for historical maps of poor quality and the maximum was 91% for very high-quality ones. Although accuracy is between high and moderate, coarse land cover patterns in the past and trends in land cover change can be analyzed. We conclude that such long-term analysis of land cover is a prerequisite for quantifying long-term changes in ecosystem services.

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