scholarly journals Complex effects of telecouplings on forest dynamics: an agent-based modeling approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Hongbo Yang ◽  
Arika Ligmann-Zielinska ◽  
Yue Dou ◽  
Min Gon Chung ◽  
Jindong Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractRural areas are increasingly subject to the effects of telecouplings (socioeconomic-environmental interactions over distances) whereby their human and natural dynamics are linked to socioeconomic and environmental drivers operating far away, such as the growing demand for labor and ecosystem services in cities. Although there have been many studies evaluating the effects of telecouplings, telecoulplings in those studies were often investigated separately and how telecoulplings may interact and affect dynamics of rural coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) jointly was rarely evaluated. In this study, we developed an agent-based model and simulated the impacts of two globally common telecouplings, nature-based tourism and labor migration, on forest dynamics of a rural CHANS, China’s Wolong Nature Reserve (Wolong). Nature-based tourism and labor migration can facilitate forest recovery, and the predicted forest areas in Wolong in 2030 would be reduced by 26.2 km2 (6.8%) and 23.9 km2 (6.2%), respectively, without their effects. However, tourism development can significantly reduce the probability of local households to have member(s) out-migrate to work in cities and decrease the positive impact of labor migration on forest recovery. Our simulations show that the interaction between tourism and labor migration can reduce the potential forest recovery by 3.5 km2 (5.0%) in 2030. Our study highlights that interactions among different telecouplings can generate significant impacts on socioeconomic and environmental outcomes and should be jointly considered in the design, management, and evaluation of telecouplings for achieving sustainable development goals.

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-80
Author(s):  
Olesya Tomchuk

The article highlights the problems and prospects of human development, which is the basis for the long-term strategies of social and economic growth of different countries and regions at the present stage. Submitting strategies of this type provides an opportunity to focus on individual empowerment and to build a favorable environment for effective management decisions in the field of forming, maintaining, and restoring human potential. The analysis of the Vinnytsia region human potential dynamics in the regional system of social and economic development factors was carried out. Application of generalized assessment of the regional human development index components allowed the identification of the main trends that characterize the formation of human potential of the territory, including the reproduction of the population, social environment, comfort and quality of life, well-being, decent work, and education. The article emphasizes that despite some positive changes in the social and economic situation of the region and in assessing the parameters of its human development level relative to other regions of Ukraine, Vinnytsia region is now losing its human potential due to negative demographic situation and migration to other regions and countries. The main reason for such dynamics is proven to be related to the outdated structure of the region's economy, the predominance of the agricultural sector, the lack of progressive transformations in the development of high-tech fields of the economy. An important factor is the low level of urbanization of the region, which leads to the spread of less attractive working conditions and less comfortable living conditions. The key factors that cause the growth of urbanization in the region have been identified, including the significant positive impact of the transport and social infrastructure expansion, the lack of which in rural areas leads to a decrease in the level and comfort of life. Without progressive structural changes in the economy and the resettlement system, the loss of human potential will continue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2937-2951
Author(s):  
Gunnar Petter ◽  
Gerhard Zotz ◽  
Holger Kreft ◽  
Juliano Sarmento Cabral

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 656-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Monticino ◽  
Miguel Acevedo ◽  
Baird Callicott ◽  
Travis Cogdill ◽  
Christopher Lindquist

Author(s):  
Paul Kraehling

The discussion will highlight results of recent PhD research examining the use of nature/natural systems by rural leaders in furthering their individual community interests for conditions of health/wellness, resiliency and sustainability. The research was completed using a qualitative mixed methods case study approach within a diversity of municipality settings across southern Ontario. The research examines how community planning with a diversity of GI elements is being implemented, e.g. strategic plans, plans for landscape scaled storm water management, tree planting systems, wildlife area enhancements. A further examination is made on the utility of a holistic planning model combining community greygreen infrastructures in a foundational framework for rural places. Many of the problems facing rural communities such as socio-economic challenges and climate change impacts can be addressed using the untapped natural asset features that are found within all rural areas.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Długosz

Abstract: Background: All over the world, the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and adolescents’ mental health is observed. The conducted research aims to verify whether returning to schools, to the education inside the classroom in the company of their peers, improved or undermined the students’ mental health. Metods: The study was carried out on a sample of students inhabiting rural areas in a borderland region. The research sample was collected using purposive sampling and consisted of 552 respondents from 7th and 8th grades of primary school. An auditorium questionnaire was used to gather the research material. Results: Three months after returning to school, the students are in a bad mental condition. 61% of the respondents are satisfied with their lives, 52% of the respondents show symptoms of depression measured with the WHO-5 index, whereas 85% of them have average and high stress levels as measured with the PSSC scale. Higher levels of mental disorders was observed among females, the students inhabiting villages and evaluating their financial status as worse. Conclusions: Returning to schools failed to have a positive impact on the students’ mental health. Disorders occurring at a large scale will have a negative influence on the students’ performance and hinder their re-adaptation to school. Educational authorities shall immediately provide the students with support and monitor the situation in the next months.


Author(s):  
D. S. Kleymenov ◽  
A. A. Ruban ◽  
A. A. Orekhov

The article presents proposals for the development of rural areas by increasing their investment attractiveness. It is proved that in addition to financial resources, limiting factors for the development of the territory can serve as its social, environmental, and institutional features. Lack of resources, technologies, and infrastructure will limit rural development. It is proved that the implementation of the development opportunities of territories involves the search for optimal solutions in the selection of investment objects, their integration into the economy of the region and the municipality. The article examines the investment attractiveness of the Ramon district of the Voronezh region, which has a shortage of energy capacity, which does not allow for further expansion of industrial activities in the municipality. It is proposed to consider the creation of a company providing services in the field of eco-tourism as an alternative investment object. Such projects do not have increased requirements for existing electrical capacity, preserve recreational potential, create jobs, and ultimately improve the quality of life of the district's population. A brief description of the development of the tourism industry in Russia and the Voronezh region is given, and the main measures of its state support are highlighted. The growth of the domestic tourist market is predicted, as well as an increase in demand for these services. The project for installing and launching a glamping complex on the territory of the Ramon district is calculated. Conclusions are drawn about the economic, social and budgetary effectiveness of the proposed project. The glamping complex will increase the export of tourist services in the region, increase the gross regional product, and create additional jobs without using significant energy capacity, which will ultimately have a positive impact on the development of the municipality as a whole.


Author(s):  
Valentí Rull ◽  
Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia

This paper compares the Medieval (ca. 400–1500 CE) dynamics of forests from low-mountain (Montcortès; ca. 1000 m a.s.l.) and high-mountain (Sant Maurici; 1900 m a.s.l.) areas of the Iberian Pyrenees, both of which experienced similar climatic forcing but different anthropogenic pressures. The main aim is to identify forest changes over time and associate them with the corresponding climatic and anthropogenic drivers (or synergies among them) to test how different forests at different elevations respond to external forcings. This could be useful to evaluate the hypothesis of general Pyrenean deforestation during the Middle Ages leading to present-day landscapes and to improve the background for forest conservation. The study uses palynological analysis of lake sediments, historical documents and paleoecological reconstructions based on pollen-independent proxies. The two sites studied showed different forest trajectories. The Montcortès area was subjected to intense human pressure during regional deforestation up to a maximum of ca. 1000 CE. Further forest recovery took place until the end of the Middle Ages due to a change in forest management, including the abandonment of slash-and-burn practices. Climatic shifts indirectly influenced forest trends by regulating human migrations and the resulting shifts in the type and intensity of forest exploitation. The highland Sant Maurici forests exhibited a remarkably long-standing constancy and an exceptional resilience to climatic shifts, which were unable to affect forest extension and composition, and to local human pressure, from which they rapidly recovered. The Montcortès and Sant Maurici records did not follow the rule of an irreversible forest clearing during the Middle Ages leading to present-day landscapes. The present Montcortès landscape was shaped after a Medieval forest recovery, a new Modern-Age deforestation and a further forest recovery during the last centuries. The Sant Maurici forests remained apparently untouched since the Bronze Age and were never cleared during the Middle Ages. The relevance of these findings for forest conservation is briefly addressed, and the need for the development of more high-resolution studies on Pyrenean forest dynamics is highlighted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (Special Edition) ◽  
pp. 271-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadia Majid

This paper examines the effects of increased connectivity in rural areas on child health outcomes. In particular, it studies whether improved access to markets for rural areas through an upgraded road network and greater openness, as measured by village electrification status, has had a positive impact on child health outcomes and awareness of health practices such as immunization and prenatal care. Using a 16-year panel dataset from rural Pakistan, we estimate two iterations of a probit model, where one examines the probability of child i being vaccinated and the second estimates the incidence of use of prenatal care. The results support the hypothesis that greater connectivity, as measured by road connectivity and electrification, improves health outcomes by increasing the likelihood of immunization and uptake of prenatal care.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiva L. Oken ◽  
André E Punt ◽  
Daniel S. Holland

Natural resources often exhibit large interannual fluctuations in productivity driven by shifting environmental conditions, and this translates to high variability in the revenue resource users can earn. However, users can dampen this variability by harvesting a portfolio of resources. In the context of fisheries, this means targeting multiple populations, though the ability to actually build diverse fishing portfolios is often constrained by the costs and availability of fishing permits. These constraints are generally intended to prevent overcapitalization of the fleet and ensure populations are fished sustainably. As linked human-natural systems, both ecological and fishing dynamics influence the specific advantages and disadvantages of increasing the diversity of fishing portfolios. Specifically, a portfolio of synchronous populations with similar responses to environmental drivers should reduce revenue variability less than a portfolio of asynchronous populations with opposite responses. We built a bioeconomic model characterized by the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister), Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and groundfish fisheries in the California Current, and used it to explore the influence of population synchrony and permit access on revenue patterns. As expected, synchronous populations reduced revenue variability less than asynchronous populations, but only for portfolios including crab and salmon. Synchrony with longer-lived groundfish populations was not important because environmentally-driven changes in groundfish early life survival were mediated by growth and natural mortality over the full population age structure, and overall biomass was relatively stable across years. Thus, building a portfolio of diverse life histories can buffer against the impacts of extremely poor environmental conditions over short time scales, though not for long-term declines. Increasing access to all permits generally led to increased revenue stability and decreased inequality of the fleet, but also resulted in less revenue earned by an individual from a given portfolio because more vessels shared the available biomass. This means managers are faced with a tradeoff between the average revenue individuals earn and the risk those individuals accept. These results illustrate the importance of considering connections between social and ecological dynamics when evaluating management options that constrain or facilitate fishers’ ability to diversify their fishing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (515) ◽  
pp. 231-237
Author(s):  
V. V. Lagodiienko ◽  
◽  
O. V. Shvets ◽  

The problem of labor migration in Ukraine has become relevant in recent years, as it significantly affects the socio-economic development of both donor and recipient countries. As a complex economic phenomenon, labor migration changes the composition of labor resources, creates a new situation in labor markets, exacerbates the demographic situation in the country. The article is concerned with the analysis of problems of labor migration of economically active population in Ukraine and aspects of formation of the State policy of regulation of migration processes. The purpose of the article is theoretical substantiation, development of scientific and methodological bases and practical recommendations aimed at improving the system of regulation of international migration of economically active population in the context of globalization in order to obtain socio-economic benefits from the State participation in migration processes, etc. In the process of detailed analysis of the characteristics of migrants, clear trends in modern migration processes have been identified: migrants mainly are from rural areas of the west of the country; migrant workers are mostly men; younger people and rural residents predominate among migrant workers; people with higher education are less likely to migrate, while people with vocational education are overrepresented among migrant workers; migrants risk losing skills, etc. The mechanism of regulation of migration flows is substantiated – as a set of measures of influence of the State bodies on migration objects in order to ensure the optimal level of migration that meets the needs of the national / regional labor market and helps stabilize the macroeconomic situation in the country / region; tasks of the mechanism are defined. Functioning and effective development of mechanisms for regulating labor migration processes, as a special tool for the transformation of regional labor markets – combines socio-cultural, research and economic functions, necessitates an interdisciplinary approach to substantiate the increase of the competitiveness of the latter. The scientific basis of this approach is the methodology of institutional analysis – a set of concepts, principles and provisions based on the theories of human, intellectual and migratory capital, institutional economics, the theory of territorial migration systems and more.


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