Land Use and an Archaeological Perspective on Socio-Natural Studies in the Wadi Al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brett Hill
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

In recent years environmental archaeologists have emphasized evidence for human-caused degradation, and attention has been focused on the role of our discipline in debates over contemporary socioenvironmental problems. In a recent American Antiquity forum, van der Leeuw and Redman (2002) argue that current environmental research would benefit from an archaeological perspective on these problems, and that our discipline would benefit from more active engagement in the larger debate. I present research supporting the claim that archaeology has unique and compelling insights to offer socio-natural studies. I make arguments based on spatial statistical and GIS analyses of past land use in the Wadi al-Hasa, west-central Jordan, that environmental degradation in the form of soil erosion has been a problem for agropastoralists in that region for several millennia. Furthermore, I argue that an archaeological perspective on long-term patterns of land use provides information at a scale and resolution that makes it highly suitable for studies of human-environment dynamics. Archaeology's unique data and perspective create an opportunity to contribute in a more explicit manner to the study of contemporary environmental issues that currently lack long-term focus at a scale and resolution that is meaningful to humans.

Dynamics of seepage mobile inventory in forest and agricultural soils - Results from a comparative multi-year lysimeter study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Lehmann ◽  
Robert Lehmann ◽  
Kai Uwe Totsche
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Critical Zone ◽  
Soil Monitoring ◽  
Event Scale ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Physico Chemical

<p>The mobile inventory in soil seepage is of fundamental importance for soil development and for functioning of subsurface ecosystem compartments. The mobile inventory may encompass inorganic, organo-mineral and organics, dissolved and colloidal, but also particulate matter and microbiota. Still unknown are the conditions and factors that trigger the release and export of seepage-contained mobile matter within soil, and its translocation through the subsurface of the critical zone. Long-term and high-resolution field studies that includes the mobile particulate inventory are essentially lacking. To overcome this knowledge gap, we established long-term soil monitoring plots in the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory (HCZE; NW-Thuringia, central Germany). Soil seepage from 22 tension-supported lysimeters in topsoil and subsoil, covering different land use (forest, pasture, cropland) in the topographic recharge area of the HCZE, was collected and analyzed by a variety of analytical methods (physico-/chemical and spectroscopic) on a regular (biweekly) and event-scale cycle. With our study we proved that substances up to a size of 50 µm are mobile in the soils. The material spectra comprised minerals, mineral-organic particulates, diverse bioparticles and biotic detritus. Atmospheric forcing was found to be the major factor triggering the translocation of the mobile inventory. Especially episodic infiltration events during hydrological winter seasons (e.g. snow melts) with high seepage volume influences seepage hydrochemistry (e.g. pH, EC) and is important for transport of mobile matter to deeper compartments. Seasonal events cause mobilization of significant amounts of OC. On average, 21% of the total OC of the seepage was particulate (>0.45 µm). Furthermore, our results suggest that the formation environment and the geopedological setting (soil group, parent rock, land use) are controlling factors for the composition and the amount of soil-born mobile inventory. Our study provides evidence for the importance of the mobile inventory fraction >0,45 µm for soil element dynamics and budgets and highlights the role of weather events on soil and subsoil development and subsurface ecosystem functioning.</p>

scholarly journals Closing the Future: Environmental Research and the Management of Conflicting Future Value Orders

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson ◽  
Erik Westholm
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Major Research ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Value ◽  
The Creation

This paper examines a struggle over the future use of Nordic forests, which took place from 2009 to 2012 within a major research program, Future Forests—Sustainable Strategies under Uncertainty and Risk, organized and funded by Mistra, The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research. We explore the role of strategic environmental research in societal constructions of long-term challenges and future risks. Specifically, we draw attention to the role played by environmental research in the creation of future images that become dominant for how societies structure action for the long term. We also show that this process is on several accounts problematic. Research labeled “strategic” or “relevant” is intended to manage long-term risks and challenges in a sustainable way, by taking into account the “open” and “plural” nature of the future. The case of Future Forests suggests, rather, that by contributing to the emergence of dominant future images, environmental research is entangled with a process of gradual consensus creation around what may be highly selective or biased narratives of the long term, which may conceal or postpone key forms of future conflict.

scholarly journals Effects of long-term flooding on biogeochemistry and vegetation development in floodplains; a mesocosm experiment to study interacting effects of land use and water quality

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 1325-1339 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Banach ◽  
K. Banach ◽  
R. C. J. H. Peters ◽  
R. H. M. Jansen ◽  
E. J. W. Visser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Floodplain Wetlands ◽  
Vegetation Development ◽  
River Floodplains ◽  
Fertilized Soil ◽  
Agricultural Use ◽  
Effects Of Land Use

Abstract. Raising safety levees and reinforcing dykes is not a sufficient and sustainable solution to the intense winter and summer floods occurring with increasing frequency in Eastern Europe. An alternative, creating permanently flooded floodplain wetlands, requires improved understanding of ecological consequences. A 9 month mesocosm study (starting in January), under natural light and temperature conditions, was initiated to understand the role of previous land use (fertility intensity) and flooding water quality on soil biogeochemistry and vegetation development. Flooding resulted in severe eutrophication of both sediment pore water and surface water, particularly for more fertilized soil and sulphate pollution. Vegetation development was mainly determined by soil quality, resulting in a strong decline of most species from the highly fertilized location, especially in combination with higher nitrate and sulphate concentrations. Soils from the less fertilized location showed, in contrast, luxurious growth of target Carex species regardless water quality. The observed interacting effects of water quality and agricultural use are important in assessing the consequences of planned measures for ecosystem functioning and biodiversity in river floodplains.

Boundaries and Speed Bumps: The Role of Modernized Counties Managing Growth in the Fragmented Metropolis

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 658-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Deslatte
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
Development Patterns ◽  
Vertical Fragmentation ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Horizontal Fragmentation

Many counties in the U.S. federalist system have morphed from a limited role in service delivery to a workhorse for municipal-style local government. They also facilitate development and sprawl, helping to shape development patterns of the modern fragmented metropolis. Why do counties accommodate development demand that deviates from long-term land-use plans intended to prevent sprawl? Utilizing panel data of county land-use changes in Florida, this study finds evidence that the decisions are shaped by both external competition for growth and internal institutional incentives. Fragmentation fuels more leapfrog development patterns on the urban fringe. Horizontal fragmentation encourages counties to compete for development, whereas vertical fragmentation via special districts facilitates such development through provision of services and reducing pressure for public officeholders to raise taxes. However, these fragmentation effects are also influenced by modernized institutions in counties such as home-rule charters and form of government.

scholarly journals A 3000-year record of vegetation changes and fire at a high-elevation wetland on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi ◽  
Rahab Kinyanjui ◽  
Anna Shoemaker ◽  
Cassian Mumbi ◽  
Veronica Muiruri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Montane Forest ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Wetland Ecosystems ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Secular Variability ◽  
Ecosystem Changes

Abstract Kilimanjaro is experiencing the consequences of climate change and multiple land-use pressures. Few paleoenvironmental and archeological records exist to examine historical patterns of late Holocene ecosystem changes on Kilimanjaro. Here we present pollen, phytolith, and charcoal (>125 μm) data from a palustrine sediment core that provide a 3000-year radiocarbon-dated record collected from a wetland near the headwaters of the Maua watershed in the alpine and ericaceous vegetation zones. From 3000 to 800 cal yr BP, the pollen, phytolith, and charcoal records show subtle variability in ericaceous and montane forest assemblages with apparent multicentennial secular variability and a long-term pattern of increasing Poaceae and charcoal. From 800 to 600 cal yr BP, montane forest taxa varied rapidly, Cyperaceae abundances increased, and charcoal remained distinctly low. From 600 yr cal BP to the present, woody taxa decreased, and ericaceous taxa and Poaceae dominated, with a conspicuously increased charcoal influx. Uphill wetland ecosystems are crucial for ecological and socioeconomic resilience on and surrounding the mountain. The results were synthesized with the existing paleoenvironmental and archaeological data to explore the high spatiotemporal complexity of Kilimanjaro and to understand historical human-environment interactions. These paleoenvironmental records create a long-term context for current climate, biodiversity, and land-use changes on and around Kilimanjaro.

Pre-Columbian palaeodemography in the Atlantic Forest (Brazil): evaluating the role and influence of extreme hydroclimatic oscillations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Riris ◽  
Jonas Gregorio de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
South America ◽  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Forest Expansion ◽  
Forest Distribution ◽  
Push Factor ◽  
Over Time

<p>The Atlantic Forest is a major biogeographic zone of Brazil, encompassing biodiverse evergreen, semi‐deciduous, and <em>Araucaria </em>forests. It is presently home to millions of people, and, consequently, has experienced high levels of defaunation/deforestation through fragmentation and habitat loss in recent years. A growing archaeological and palaeoecological consensus indicates growing anthropic influences on forest distribution during the pre-Columbian period, hand-in-hand with land use intensification and increasing social complexity over time. </p><p>Against this backdrop, this paper expands upon recent palaeodemographic work in South America to evaluate the role of long-term (centennial-scale) hydroclimatic oscillations (and the antiphasing thereof) in the Atlantic Forest domain as a potential "push factor" engendering human-driven forest expansion. It will synthesise archaeological, palaeoclimatological, and palaeoecological records, evaluate data quality, and identify areas for expansive future research. </p>

Modeling the ecological niche of long-term land use changes: The role of biophysical factors

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 231-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Bajocco ◽  
T. Ceccarelli ◽  
D. Smiraglia ◽  
L. Salvati ◽  
C. Ricotta
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Biophysical Factors

scholarly journals Shining a light on solar energy in Ontario’s planning process: lessons from international best practices in solar energy.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Katrine Bernier
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Energy Potential

Solar energy is being heralded as a renewable, abundant and increasingly costeffective source of energy. The Ministry of Energy has made great strides promoting renewable energies such as solar power through the introduction of the Green Energy Act. The ‘elephant in the room' that remains to be addressed is the role of land use planning in enabling solar energy generation in urban Ontario. In light of provincial plan updates, the Province has a unique window to think about solar energy in urban planning and to help its municipalities become ‘solar ready’. The purpose of this paper is to identify transferable lessons from international best practices in order to derive key recommendations for the province. With provincial support, municipalities can develop plans and regulations that will maximize solar energy potential and ensure its long-term viability in their communities.

scholarly journals Shining a light on solar energy in Ontario’s planning process: lessons from international best practices in solar energy.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Katrine Bernier
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Energy Potential

Solar energy is being heralded as a renewable, abundant and increasingly costeffective source of energy. The Ministry of Energy has made great strides promoting renewable energies such as solar power through the introduction of the Green Energy Act. The ‘elephant in the room' that remains to be addressed is the role of land use planning in enabling solar energy generation in urban Ontario. In light of provincial plan updates, the Province has a unique window to think about solar energy in urban planning and to help its municipalities become ‘solar ready’. The purpose of this paper is to identify transferable lessons from international best practices in order to derive key recommendations for the province. With provincial support, municipalities can develop plans and regulations that will maximize solar energy potential and ensure its long-term viability in their communities.

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