scholarly journals Linking Ecosystem Services to Social Well-Being: An Approach to Assess Land Degradation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Sharafatmandrad ◽  
Azam Khosravi Mashizi
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Forage Production ◽  
Rangeland Degradation ◽  
Being There

Land degradation usually leads to the loss of ecosystem services, which may threaten social well-being. There is no approach to identify and manage all ecosystem services based on their importance in degradation processes and social systems. This study aimed to link ecosystem services to social well-being in order to assess rangeland degradation. Eleven ecosystem services (forage production, water yield, edible plants, fuel, medicinal plants, pollination, gas regulation, soil resistivity to erosion, soil fertility, scenic beauty, and recreation) were assessed in a semiarid rangeland near Bardsir city, Kerman Province, southeast Iran. There were significant differences between the rangeland types in providing ecosystem services (p < 0.05). Four criteria and 17 indices of social well-being were weighed according to their importance for local stakeholders. Rangeland degradation was estimated using the weight of the indices for social well-being and ecosystem services. Discriminant analysis indicated that supporting services (soil fertility) and provisioning services (water yield and forage production) had the greatest impact on rangeland degradation, which is related to food security in social well-being. Ecosystem services and social well-being declined in medium and severe degradation due to plant composition change and overgrazing based on principal component analysis (PCA). More than 70% of the watershed has been highly and severely degraded. There was a trade-off relationship between ecosystem services and social well-being in very severe degraded areas because of social well-being promotion due to agriculture expansion. Based on our approach, the loss rate of the ecosystem services and social well-being indices in each degradation category is a good guide for management programs and decision-makers to meet both the needs of the people and the preservation of ecosystems.

scholarly journals Disaggregating Ecosystem Benefits: An Integrated Environmental-Deprivation Index

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily C. Hazell
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Composite Index ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Environmental Deprivation

The valuation of ecosystem services has become an integral part of smart urban planning practices. Traditionally designed to bridge ecology and economy through economic language and logic (e.g., goods and services), this conceptual framework has developed into an effective tool for interdisciplinary work. The concept of ecosystem services is used to improve the management of ecosystems for human well-being. However, gaps in how to govern ecological benefits remain. Specifically, identifying which stakeholders benefit the most from the provision of ecosystem services remains largely unaddressed. This study examines the spatial discordance between ecosystem services and the residential stakeholders who may benefit. Using a landscape approach to quantify urban ecosystem services, an area-based composite index was developed for the City of Toronto, Canada, based on the three pillars of sustainability in order to identify potentially vulnerable populations. This method combines the use of principal component analysis (PCA) and spatial multicriteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) to combine and weight a select grouping of socioeconomic and ecological indicators. In addition, two sets of enumeration units (i.e., dissemination areas and census tracts) were evaluated to assess the potential impact of measurement scale on subsequent decision or policy outcomes. Results indicate the spatial interdependencies between ecological and socioeconomic processes in an urban setting, offering a unique framework for novel planning and policy intervention strategies. The influence of measurement scale was demonstrated, creating an opportunity to assess an appropriate policy scale by which to measure and evaluate trends over time and space. This approach seeks to provide a flexible and intuitive planning tool that can help to achieve goals relating to urban sustainability, resiliency and equity.

scholarly journals Urban gardening as a means for fostering embodied urban human–food connection? A case study on urban vegetable gardens in Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Artmann ◽  
Katharina Sartison ◽  
Christopher D. Ives
Keyword(s):  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Human Food ◽  
Urban Garden ◽  
Urban Gardening ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Being There

AbstractUrbanization is increasingly compromising residents’ connection to natural habitats and landscapes. With established relationships between human–nature connection (HNC) and pro-environmental behaviour and human well being, there are calls for effective interventions to strengthen HNC in urban settings. However, much of this research has operationalised HNC in narrow psychological terms. Based on an embodied framework of urban human–food connection (HFC) as a specific dimension of HNC, this article explores the role of active urban gardening in promoting different types of internal and external HFC and their link with pro-environmental food behaviour (PEFB). Based on a quantitative survey in Germany addressing vegetable gardeners in Munich (N = 254), a principal component analysis extracted four components of HFC comprising external body-related HFC (i.e. immediate urban garden-body activities: food harvesting and experiential food interaction) and internal mind-related HFC (i.e. immediate urban garden-mind activities including food discovery as well as food consciousness). These were found to be statistically related to one another. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed that food consciousness through concerns on food consumption and environmental impacts as well as food as part of life attitude as an internal HFC is the sole predictor of PEFB. The study suggests an embodied HFC model emphasizing the need for local body- and mind-based nature connections for fostering earth stewardship. Future research should explore the relationship between inner dimensions of nature connectedness and external behavioural change to enable transformations towards sustainability.

scholarly journals Evolutionary Overview and Prediction of Themes in the Field of Land Degradation

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Xinhai Lu ◽  
Yanwei Zhang ◽  
Chaoran Lin ◽  
Feng Wu
Keyword(s):  
Land Degradation ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Combined Method ◽  
Degraded Land ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Rangeland Degradation ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Scientific Innovation

Land degradation has become one of the major global environmental problems threatening human well-being. Whether degraded land can be restored has a profound effect on the achievement of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the ways by which to identify the current research status and potential research topics in the massive scientific literature data in the field of land degradation is a crucial issue for scientific research institutions in various countries. In view of the shortcomings in the current research on the thematic evolution and thematic and thematic prediction, such as the ignorance of random features during scientific innovation, the defects of manual classification, and the difficulty of identifying technical terms, this research proposes a new combined method. First, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm in machine learning is used to capture the potential clustering of themes in the literature sample set of land degradation research. The distribution characteristics and evolution of themes in each period are then analyzed. The method is combined with the Hidden Markov Model (HMM), which contains double stochastic process to quantitatively predict the trend of future thematic evolution. Finally, the above-mentioned combined method is used to analyze the evolution characteristics and future development trends of the themes in the field of land degradation. Comparative experiments show that the method in this study is effective and practical. The research results show that rangeland degradation, surface temperature, island, soil degradation, water quality, crop productivity and restoration are important research topics in the field of land degradation in the future. In addition, based on the advantages of this model, this model can be widely used in the thematic evolution and prediction analysis of different research fields in land use science.

scholarly journals Land productivity dynamics in and around protected areas globally from 1999 to 2013

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Begoña de la Fuente ◽  
Mélanie Weynants ◽  
Bastian Bertzky ◽  
Giacomo Delli ◽  
Andrea Mandrici ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Active Management ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Land Productivity ◽  
Productivity Dynamics

AbstractTracking changes in total biomass production or land productivity is an essential part of monitoring land transformations and long-term alterations of the health and productive capacity of land that are typically associated with land degradation. Persistent declines in land productivity impact many terrestrial ecosystem services that form the basis for sustainable livelihoods of human communities. Protected areas (PAs) are a key strategy in global efforts to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services that are critical for human well-being, and cover about 15% of the land worldwide. Here we globally assess the trends in land productivity in PAs of at least 10 km2 and in their unprotected surroundings (10 km buffers) from 1999 to 2013. We quantify the percentage of the protected and unprotected land that shows stable, increasing or decreasing trends in land productivity, quantified as long-term (15 year) changes in above-ground biomass derived from satellite-based observations with a spatial resolution of 1 km. We find that 44% of the land in PAs globally has retained the productivity at stable levels from 1999 to 2013, compared to 42% of stable productivity in the unprotected land around PAs. Persistent increases in productivity are more common in the unprotected lands around PAs (32%) than within PAs (18%) globally, which may be related to more active management and vegetation cover changes in some of these unprotected lands. About 14% of the protected land and 12% of the unprotected land around PAs has experienced declines in land productivity from 1999 to 2013 globally. Oceania has the highest percentage of land with stable productivity in PAs (57%) followed by Asia (52%). Europe is the continent with the lowest percentage of land with stable productivity levels in PAs (38%) and with the largest share of protected land with increasing land productivity (32%), which may be related to the high population density and share of agricultural land within PAs as well as to rural land abandonment processes in many regions of Europe. In conclusion, we provide a relevant indicator and assessment of land productivity dynamics that contributes to characterise the state, pressures and changes in and around protected areas globally. Further research may focus on more detailed analyses to disentangle the relative contribution of specific drivers (from climate change to land use change) and their interaction with land productivity dynamics and potential land degradation in different regions of the world.

Green infrastructure—approach and public health benefits

2018 ◽  
pp. 252-256
Author(s):  
Raffaele Lafortezza ◽  
Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Multiple Services ◽  
Temporal Dimensions

Green infrastructure (GI) planning is becoming a pre-eminent approach for delivering essential goods and services to people while reversing trends such as landscape and habitat fragmentation. By means of sound ecosystems delivering multiple services and benefits, GI can contribute to public health, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. These services and benefits are provided at the local, regional, and national scales, and are therefore closely knit to planning and policymaking at various levels. The Green Infrastructure Framework was conceptualized to incorporate the multifunctional, multiscale, and temporal dimensions of GI and to demonstrate the associations between ecosystem services and human well-being. It stresses biodiversity, social and territorial cohesion, and sustainable development as key contributions of GI, creating the environmental settings for well-being and community health. Adopting the GI approach and its characteristics of connectivity (by connecting ecological and social systems), accessibility, and functionality in urban planning may contribute to healthier societies.

scholarly journals Cultural Ecosystem Services Provided by Urban Green Change along an Urban-Periurban Gradient

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maraja Riechers ◽  
Micha Strack ◽  
Jan Barkmann ◽  
Teja Tscharntke
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Perceived Importance

Urbanization by densification is globally increasing and endangers maintenance of urban green and associated social-ecological systems. Cultural ecosystem services play a crucial role in human well-being, especially in urban areas. We analyzed perceived importance of cultural ecosystem services provided by green space in Berlin along an urban-periurban gradient. Based on extensive pretests, we designed a standardized questionnaire and conducted 558 face-to-face interviews. B using multiple regressions and principal component analysis, we show that perceived importance of cultural ecosystem services and patterns of urban green use are affected by an urbanization gradient and associated changes in population density. Important cultural ecosystem services decreases in urban core areas with higher population density, whereas people in periurban areas with more available green spaces exhibit a greater valuation of nature. In contrast, social relations and cultural diversity had the highest importance in the urban core, while cultural heritage, education, natural awareness, recreation, and aesthetical appreciation were higher valued in the less populated periurban areas, suggesting two bundles of cultural ecosystem services.

scholarly journals Nature connectedness and ecosystem services towards urban planning for residents' health in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mosunmola Coker ◽  
◽  
Wahab Bolanle ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Preventative Health ◽  
Environmentally Safe ◽  
Nature Connectedness ◽  
Being There ◽  
Improve Health

In the urban context, nature is not entirely devoid of human influence or inaccessible to man, rather, nature exists in urban areas and does not only survive the influence of man but also depends on it. An individual’s subjective sense of their relationship with the places of nature within a city explains the concept of nature- connectedness. In the wake of rapid urbanization around the world, spaces of natural features in urban areas have been constantly overtaken by the developments and activities of man. There is a link between the number of ecosystem services provided by the mapped natural features and residents’ nature connectedness in the Lagos Metropolis. To understand this, spaces of natural features in the Lagos metropolis have to be examined with focus on how it is environmentally safe, how it improves human health and also the level of its accessibility to the residents. To improve health and well-being, there is need to strengthen the evidence of how nature affects health and promote preventative health contribution made by protected areas and elements of urban nature.

scholarly journals Evaluating Ecosystem Services Supply and Demand Dynamics and Ecological Zoning Management in Wuhan, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (13) ◽  
pp. 2332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feiyan Chen ◽  
Ling Li ◽  
Jiqiang Niu ◽  
Aiwen Lin ◽  
Shiyu Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Grain Yield ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Relative Equilibrium ◽  
Central Area ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Climate Regulation ◽  
Recreation Services

The concept of ecosystem services (ES) supply and demand has attracted increasing attention in science and policy making because it effectively links ecosystem services to human well-being. The imbalance of ES supply and demand in urban areas has become a key issue in regional sustainable development. In this context, we calculated ES supply and demand for Wuhan City, China, using the ES supply and demand ratio (ESDR) and the comprehensive ES supply–demand ratio (CESDR) to express the relationship between ES supply and demand. Ecological zoning was proposed according to the spatial differentiation of the ES supply–demand relationship, and policy recommendations are made. The results show that from the perspective of total ES supply and demand, the water yield supply (SWY), grain yield supply (SGY), and recreation services supply (SRS) are greater than the water yield demand (DWY), grain yield demand (DGY), and recreation services demand (DRS), and that the climate regulation supply (SCR) is less than the climate regulation demand (DCR). From a spatial perspective, there are imbalances and mismatches in ES supply and demand, especially in urban central areas. The values of SWY, SGY, SCS, and SRS per unit area are less than their respective demand values, and the area of mismatch has expanded with the gradual increase of the built-up area. The spatial pattern of ES supply and demand is circular, with the form of “deficit zone–relative equilibrium zone–surplus zone”, which corresponds to “urban central area–near suburbs–distant suburbs and rural areas”.

The Effects of a Caffeine Placebo and Experimenter Expectation on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Well-Being, and Cognitive Performance

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Walach ◽  
Stefan Schmidt ◽  
Yvonne-Michelle Bihr ◽  
Susanne Wiesch
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Being There ◽  
To Receive

We studied the effect of experimenter expectations and different instructions in a balanced placebo design. 157 subjects were randomized into a 2 × 4 factorial design. Two experimenters were led to expect placebos either to produce physiological effects or not (pro- vs. antiplacebo). All subjects except a control group received a caffeine placebo. They were either made to expect coffee, no coffee, or were in a double-blind condition. Dependent measures were blood pressure, heart rate, well-being, and a cognitive task. There was one main effect on the instruction factor (p = 0.03) with the group “told no caffeine” reporting significantly better well-being. There was one main effect on the experimenter factor with subjects instructed by experimenter “proplacebo” having higher systolic blood pressure (p = 0.008). There was one interaction with subjects instructed by experimenter “proplacebo” to receive coffee doing worse in the cognitive task than the rest. Subjects instructed by experimenter “antiplacebo” were significantly less likely to believe the experimental instruction, and that mostly if they had been instructed to receive coffee. Contrary to the literature we could not show an effect of instruction, but there was an effect of experimenters. It is likely, however, that these experimenter effects were not due to experimental manipulations, but to the difference in personalities.

Customer-Related Social Stressors

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Dudenhöffer ◽  
Christian Dormann
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emotional Dissonance ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Service Jobs ◽  
Single Data

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to replicate the dimensions of the customer-related social stressors (CSS) concept across service jobs, to investigate their consequences for service providers’ well-being, and to examine emotional dissonance as mediator. Data of 20 studies comprising of different service jobs (N = 4,199) were integrated into a single data set and meta-analyzed. Confirmatory factor analyses and explorative principal component analysis confirmed four CSS scales: disproportionate expectations, verbal aggression, ambiguous expectations, disliked customers. These CSS scales were associated with burnout and job satisfaction. Most of the effects were partially mediated by emotional dissonance. Further analyses revealed that differences among jobs exist with regard to the factor solution. However, associations between CSS and outcomes are mainly invariant across service jobs.

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