scholarly journals 'Of Milk and Honey: A design strategy for the economical, ecological and ideological resilience of a cultural landscape and its people

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Findlay Sloane

<p>Wetlands are one of New Zealand’s most important freshwater ecosystems. They are low-lying waterlogged areas bordering rivers and streams and forming quiet edges of lakes, rivers, low- lying floodplains estuaries and harbours. In the last 150 years more than 90% of New Zealand’s wetlands have been destroyed or severely impacted by agricultural developments.  The South Wairarapa region, in the lower part of the North Island, covers 2,485 km2 and is characterised by its expanses of lowland plains and lakes, surrounded by mountainous ranges. Once its wetlands provided important ecosystem services filtering nutrients and controlling floodwaters but they are now under pressure from agricultural land use, including drainage, grazing, nutrient runoff and the impacts of pest animals and plants.  For the indigenous Māori culture of New Zealand, wetlands are often regarded as equivalent to organs that cleanse the body (tinana) such as the kidneys (nga whatumanawa) and the liver (te ate), and therefore represent important sites for purifying and cleaning, by filtering or reducing nutrients, chemicals and suspended sediment before it reaches the Lake Wairarapa. Many wetlands have historical and cultural importance as well as are regarded as source of food (mahinga kai) for the Māori tribes, providing important habitats for a range of culturally important food sources such as eel or important flora for carving such as flax, bulrush, tall grasses and bamboo spike sedges. Māori people perceive their own health as directly linked to the condition of their environments.  This study examines how we can re-purpose / re-configure land use within the region to a more ecologically conscious industry, finding a balance between the existing farming and agricultural practices that the region relies on and a recognition to the cultural practices of the Māori people and its importance to healthy communities and resourceful environments.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Findlay Sloane

<p>Wetlands are one of New Zealand’s most important freshwater ecosystems. They are low-lying waterlogged areas bordering rivers and streams and forming quiet edges of lakes, rivers, low- lying floodplains estuaries and harbours. In the last 150 years more than 90% of New Zealand’s wetlands have been destroyed or severely impacted by agricultural developments.  The South Wairarapa region, in the lower part of the North Island, covers 2,485 km2 and is characterised by its expanses of lowland plains and lakes, surrounded by mountainous ranges. Once its wetlands provided important ecosystem services filtering nutrients and controlling floodwaters but they are now under pressure from agricultural land use, including drainage, grazing, nutrient runoff and the impacts of pest animals and plants.  For the indigenous Māori culture of New Zealand, wetlands are often regarded as equivalent to organs that cleanse the body (tinana) such as the kidneys (nga whatumanawa) and the liver (te ate), and therefore represent important sites for purifying and cleaning, by filtering or reducing nutrients, chemicals and suspended sediment before it reaches the Lake Wairarapa. Many wetlands have historical and cultural importance as well as are regarded as source of food (mahinga kai) for the Māori tribes, providing important habitats for a range of culturally important food sources such as eel or important flora for carving such as flax, bulrush, tall grasses and bamboo spike sedges. Māori people perceive their own health as directly linked to the condition of their environments.  This study examines how we can re-purpose / re-configure land use within the region to a more ecologically conscious industry, finding a balance between the existing farming and agricultural practices that the region relies on and a recognition to the cultural practices of the Māori people and its importance to healthy communities and resourceful environments.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1497-1511
Author(s):  
Alexey Naumov ◽  
Varvara Akimova ◽  
Daria Sidorova ◽  
Mikhail Topnikov

AbstractDespite harsh climate, agriculture on the northern margins of Russia still remains the backbone of food security. Historically, in both regions studied in this article – the Republic of Karelia and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – agricultural activities as dairy farming and even cropping were well adapted to local conditions including traditional activities such as horse breeding typical for Yakutia. Using three different sources of information – official statistics, expert interviews, and field observations – allowed us to draw a conclusion that there are both similarities and differences in agricultural development and land use of these two studied regions. The differences arise from agro-climate conditions, settlement history, specialization, and spatial pattern of economy. In both regions, farming is concentrated within the areas with most suitable natural conditions. Yet, even there, agricultural land use is shrinking, especially in Karelia. Both regions are prone to being affected by seasonality, but vary in the degree of its influence. Geographical location plays special role, and weaknesses caused by remoteness to some extent become advantage as in Yakutia. Proximity effect is controversial. In Karelia, impact of neighboring Finland is insignificant compared with the nearby second Russian city – Saint Petersburg.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1541
Author(s):  
Albert Nkwasa ◽  
Celray James Chawanda ◽  
Anna Msigwa ◽  
Hans C. Komakech ◽  
Boud Verbeiren ◽  
...  

In SWAT and SWAT+ models, the variations in hydrological processes are represented by Hydrological Response Units (HRUs). In the default models, agricultural land cover is represented by a single growing cycle. However, agricultural land use, especially in African cultivated catchments, typically consists of several cropping seasons, following dry and wet seasonal patterns, and are hence incorrectly represented in SWAT and SWAT+ default models. In this paper, we propose a procedure to incorporate agricultural seasonal land-use dynamics by (1) mapping land-use trajectories instead of static land-cover maps and (2) linking these trajectories to agricultural management settings. This approach was tested in SWAT and SWAT+ models of Usa catchment in Tanzania that is intensively cultivated by implementing dominant dynamic trajectories. Our results were evaluated with remote-sensing observations for Leaf Area Index (LAI), which showed that a single growing cycle did not well represent vegetation dynamics. A better agreement was obtained after implementing seasonal land-use dynamics for cultivated HRUs. It was concluded that the representation of seasonal land-use dynamics through trajectory implementation can lead to improved temporal patterns of LAI in default models. The SWAT+ model had higher flexibility in representing agricultural practices, using decision tables, and by being able to represent mixed cropping cultivations.


Author(s):  
Hildegarde Vandenhove

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the foodchain and the possibility of continued restricted future land use. This paper summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the radionuclides transfer in the food chain and to facilitate the return of potentially affected soils to agricultural practices in areas impacted by a nuclear accident.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawan Thapa

Abstract Background: Soil erosion causes topsoil loss, which decreases fertility in agricultural land. Spatial estimation of soil erosion essential for an agriculture-dependent country like Nepal for developing its control plans. This study evaluated impacts on Dolakha using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model; analyses the effect of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) on soil erosion. Results: The soil erosion rate categorized into six classes based on the erosion severity, and 5.01% of the areas found under extreme severe erosion risk (> 80 Mg ha-1yr-1) addressed by decision-makers for reducing its rate and consequences. Followed by 10 % classified between high and severe range from 10 to 80 Mg ha-1yr-1. While 15% and 70% of areas remained in a moderate and low-risk zone, respectively. Result suggests the area of the north-eastern part suffers from a high soil erosion risk due to steep slope. Conclusions: The result produces a spatial distribution of soil erosion over Dolakha, which applied for conservation and management planning processes, at the policy level, by land-use planners and decision-makers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alenka FIKFAK ◽  
Velibor SPALEVIC ◽  
Saja KOSANOVIC ◽  
Svetislav G. POPOVIC ◽  
Mladen DJUROVIC ◽  
...  

Land development analyses play a fundamental role in understanding how land use change shapes the land, depending on continuously changing social, economic, and environmental factors that reflect the interests in space. It is especially important to follow land use changes in rural areas due to their role in food security, environmental hazards, cultural landscape preservation, etc. Continuous analyses and monitoring of land use changes allow for the identification and prevention of negative trends in land use (over intensification, land fragmentation, etc.) that might affect biodiversity, change physical and chemical properties of soil, causing soil degradation, change the spatial balance, stability and natural equilibrium in the rural area. The use of the cross-tabulation matrix methodology was suggested for land use change analyses. The methodology, when the cross-tabulation matrix elements are correctly interpreted, allows us to gain as much insight as possible in the process of land use change. This approach enabled a detailed analysis of vineyards in Goriška brda, Slovenia. It was found that the existing methodology fails to analyse the location of change. For this reason, additional analyses of spatial distribution of change and of the locations where changes in space occur were suggested. The study demonstrated that the land use category of vineyards changes systematically, although seemingly randomly. By comparing land use categories over several time periods, the study determined that the size and speed of change varied across different time intervals. The identified land use changes were assessed in the context of their high pressure on agricultural land. The results of the analyses showed different trends shaping the typical agrarian landscape in Goriška brda.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1193
Author(s):  
Carmen Schwartz ◽  
Mostafa Shaaban ◽  
Sonoko Dorothea Bellingrath-Kimura ◽  
Annette Piorr

Agricultural land use systems have been optimized for producing provisioning ecosystem services (ES) in the past few decades, often at the expense of regulating and cultural services. Research has focused mainly on the supply side of ES and related trade-offs, but the demand side for regulatory services remains largely neglected. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of participatory geographic information system (PGIS) methods for demand assessment in larger rural and agrarian contexts by identifying spatially explicit demand patterns for ES, thereby enlarging the body of participatory approaches to ES-based land use management. Accordingly, we map, assess, and statistically and spatially analyze different demands for five ES by different stakeholder groups in agricultural landscapes in three case studies. The results are presented in a stakeholder workshop and prerequisites for collaborative ES management are discussed. Our results show that poor correlation exists between stakeholder groups and demands for ES; however, arable land constitutes the highest share of the mapped area of demands for the five ES. These results have been validated by both the survey and the stakeholder workshop. Our study concludes that PGIS represents a useful tool to link demand assessments and landscape management systematically, especially for decision support systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Loredana Copăcean ◽  
Ionut Zisu ◽  
Valentina Mazăre ◽  
Luminiţa Cojocariu

The soil, regarded as a natural resource, but also as a determinant element of the living standards of rural communities, manly agricultural, may be influenced, directly and indirectly, by the modality of land organizing and use. Starting from this consideration, through this study, the spatial and temporal evolution of land use is being pursued, particularly that of forest areas and wooded grasslands. The goal is to notice the changes that have occurred over a 30-year period and the manner how these changes are reflected on the soil features. The researches presented in this paper have been taking place in the north-eastern hilly area of Timiş County, that area having entirely a rural character. For realizing this study satellite images, topographical and cadastral maps, from different time periods, national and international databases, data from specialty literature were used. To all these we should add direct observations in the field, topographic surveys and information collected from local authorities. The processing of cartographic materials and data and scientific information has been realized with Geographical Information Systems specific applications. The obtained result has been expressed in the form of thematic maps, in graphic form or as statistical analysis. At the level of the analyzed area, the obvious changes in the land use, registered over time, are caused by a number of factors, such as: the organization form, from communist to capitalist policies, leaving agricultural land as fallow ground, reduction in livestock, changing land use etc. All these changes have caused the extension of the wooded grasslands, reduction of arable land, installing inferior forest vegetation in qualitative and quantitative terms etc. As a result, the soil, one of the most important natural resources, is degraded qualitatively, underexploited, and on the other hand, its role as a direct and indirect food producer for local communities is significantly reduced.


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