scholarly journals ‘Back to the Future’—Oak wood-pasture for wildfire prevention in the Mediterranean

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Erwin Bergmeier ◽  
Jorge Capelo ◽  
Romeo Di Pietro ◽  
Riccardo Guarino ◽  
Ali Kavgacı ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Land Abandonment ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Tree Species Composition ◽  
Wood Pasture ◽  
The Mediterranean

In the summer of 2021, enormous wildfires in the Mediterranean eliminated huge areas of mainly coniferous forest, destroyed adjacent settlements and claimed the lives of many people. The fires indicate effects of climate change and expose consequences of rural demographic changes, deficits in regional and touristic development planning and shortcomings in forest policy. This forum article highlights the dimensions of the problem, calls for a paradigm shift and shows solutions. Land abandonment, woody plant encroachment and non-reflective afforestation are leading to increasing amounts of combustible biomass. To prevent disastrous fires in future, fundamental changes in tree species composition, forest structure and management are essential. Plantations of reseeding pines are to be substituted by spacious or periodically open woodlands of long-lived trees with resprouting capacity such as Mediterranean oaks. Biomass-reducing practices including wood-pasture have to be revived in rural and peri-urban areas. Exemplary fire-resistant multifunctional oak woodlands occur throughout the Mediterranean. Urgent and medium-term measures in the burnt areas include promoting natural ecosystem regeneration, developing regionalized seed banks and nurseries to support native genetic resources, fostering vegetation mosaics of groves and multiple-use open and coppice woodland maintained by traditional practices, and in general forest management aiming at fuel biomass reduction and a policy counteracting land abandonment.

Implementation of Low Impact Development Concept for New Town Construction in the Republic of Korea

2013 ◽  
Vol 742 ◽  
pp. 30-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ree Ho Kim ◽  
Jung Hun Lee ◽  
Mik Yeong Kim ◽  
Hyun Dong Lee
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Low Impact Development ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Flow Control Devices ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Storm Drain

New approach in stormwater management is urgent to address those water related problems and supplement the limitations of existed water management system. It should have functions to restore water and heat cycles in urban areas, that is, to restore hydrological cycle by promoting infiltration and evaporation, to secure water resources, to alleviate heat island phenomena, to prevent urban flood, and to conserve and restore the ecosystem. LID practices are one of prominent measures to mitigate the impacts of development and urbanization. It is important to have a LID approach in the step of site development planning. LID facilities could be categorized as flow control devices, detention, retention, vegetated filtration, infiltration and treatment. LID emphasizes local, decentralized solutions that capitalize on the beneficial services that natural ecosystem functions can provide. LID also focuses on controlling urban runoff and pollution right at the source, rather than at the end of the storm drain outlet. Since there are many different aspects of LID approach, the policy to promote or regulate LID should consider water, energy and ecology conservation.

MERSİN İLİNİN SÜS BİTKİSİ POTANSİYELİ TAŞIYAN BAZI DİKOTİL ENDEMİK BİTKİLERİ

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (16) ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
Muhyettin ŞENTÜRK ◽  
Rıza BİNZET
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Ornamental Plants ◽  
Ornamental Plant ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Flora Of Turkey ◽  
City Life ◽  
The Mediterranean

Flora of Turkey, which constitutes an important part of Turkey of biological diversity, ranks first among European countries. Flora of Turkey first among other countries in the world in terms of its endemism rate. Mersin province, which is located in the Mediterranean region, which is the richest region of Turkey concerning endemism, forms an important part of our country's flora and the Mediterranean in terms of floristic. The endemism rate of flora of Mersin province is approximately 23%. Today, when urbanization is increasing and the concentration in rural areas decreases, natural ingredients and plants are increasingly included in city life. For this reason, big cities and cities such as Mersin are trying to be integrated with nature or to include nature and its ingredients in city life. Unfortunately, most of the plants that are tried to be included in city life are not natural plants of our country but are mainly exotic dicotyledon ornamental plants of foreign origin. Some of these species are invasive and appear to threaten the natural ecosystem. For this reason, it is important in many aspects to include the species with natural distribution in Mersin to the landscape areas and urban ecosystem. Therefore, the natural ecosystem will not be damaged therewithal aesthetically valuable species can be considered ornamental plants. In this context, the spread of the species suggested in our study only in our country (and some only in Mersin) is of great importance in bringing these species to the ornamental plant sector. In this study, some of the dicotyl endemic plant taxa with ornamental plant potential were identified, and photographs of these taxa were presented. Thirty different endemic taxa belonging to 13 different dicotyl families identified are listed. It is seen that the endemic taxa we propose are not very aesthetically different from the taxa currently used in the landscape, and even some taxa are more striking than some exotic taxa evaluated in the landscape. In addition, the proposed list includes taxa with medical importance in the landscape and endemic taxa that can also be considered as honey plants, as well as ground cover and hedge plants. We anticipate that these taxa, which are the elements of the natural vegetation of Mersin, can be transferred to urban areas by taking inspiration from nature and prevent biological, ecological, economic, and even pathological problems caused by a significant part of exotic species.

scholarly journals An Optimized Approach for Extracting Urban Land Based on Log-Transformed DMSP-OLS Nighttime Light, NDVI, and NDWI

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 766
Author(s):  
Yuanmao Zheng ◽  
Qiang Zhou ◽  
Yuanrong He ◽  
Cuiping Wang ◽  
Xiaorong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Water Index ◽  
Nighttime Light

Quantitative and accurate urban land information on regional and global scales is urgently required for studying socioeconomic and eco-environmental problems. The spatial distribution of urban land is a significant part of urban development planning, which is vital for optimizing land use patterns and promoting sustainable urban development. Composite nighttime light (NTL) data from the Defense Meteorological Program Operational Line-Scan System (DMSP-OLS) have been proven to be effective for extracting urban land. However, the saturation and blooming within the DMSP-OLS NTL hinder its capacity to provide accurate urban information. This paper proposes an optimized approach that combines NTL with multiple index data to overcome the limitations of extracting urban land based only on NTL data. We combined three sources of data, the DMSP-OLS, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the normalized difference water index (NDWI), to establish a novel approach called the vegetation–water-adjusted NTL urban index (VWANUI), which is used to rapidly extract urban land areas on regional and global scales. The results show that the proposed approach reduces the saturation of DMSP-OLS and essentially eliminates blooming effects. Next, we developed regression models based on the normalized DMSP-OLS, the human settlement index (HSI), the vegetation-adjusted NTL urban index (VANUI), and the VWANUI to analyze and estimate urban land areas. The results show that the VWANUI regression model provides the highest performance of all the models tested. To summarize, the VWANUI reduces saturation and blooming, and improves the accuracy with which urban areas are extracted, thereby providing valuable support and decision-making references for designing sustainable urban development.

Continuity and change in the vegetation of a Central European oakwood

The Holocene ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Jamrichová ◽  
Péter Szabó ◽  
Radim Hédl ◽  
Petr Kuneš ◽  
Přemysl Bobek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Scotch Pine ◽  
Remarkable Change ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Wood Pasture ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Human Management ◽  
Fire Disturbances

The issue of continuity in deciduous oakwood vegetation has been in the forefront of woodland ecological studies for many decades. The two basic questions that emerge from existing research are whether or not oakwoods can be characterized by long-term stability and what may be the driving forces of the observed stability or change. To answer these questions in a well-defined case study, we examined the history of a large subcontinental oakwood (Dúbrava) in the southeastern Czech Republic with interdisciplinary methods using palaeoecological and archival sources. Palaeoecology allowed us to reconstruct the vegetation composition and fire disturbances in Dúbrava in the past 2000 years, while written sources provided information about tree composition and management from the 14th century onwards. The pollen profiles show that the present oakwood was established in the mid-14th century with an abrupt change from shrubby, hazel-dominated vegetation to oak forest. This change was most probably caused by a ban on oak felling in ad 1350. From the 14th to the late 18th centuries Dúbrava had multiple uses, of which wood-pasture and hay-cutting kept the forest considerably open. The second remarkable change was dated to the late 18th century, when multiple-use management was abandoned and Dúbrava was divided into pasture-only and coppice-only parts. The last major shift occurred in the mid-19th century, when modern forestry and Scotch pine plantation became dominant. We conclude that Dúbrava Wood did not show stability in the long run and that its species composition has dramatically changed during the last two millennia. The most important driving force in the shaping and maintenance of the unique vegetation of Dúbrava was human management.

scholarly journals Pan-European sustainable forest management indicators for assessing Climate-Smart Forestry in Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
G. Santopuoli ◽  
C. Temperli ◽  
I. Alberdi ◽  
I. Barbeito ◽  
M. Bosela ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Damage ◽  
Tree Species Composition ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Management Indicators ◽  
Using Data

The increasing demand for innovative forest management strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate change and benefit forest production, the so-called Climate-Smart Forestry, calls for a tool to monitor and evaluate their implementation and their effects on forest development over time. The pan-European set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management is considered one of the most important tools for assessing many aspects of forest management and sustainability. This study offers an analytical approach to selecting a subset of indicators to support the implementation of Climate-Smart Forestry. Based on a literature review and the analytical hierarchical approach, 10 indicators were selected to assess, in particular, mitigation and adaptation. These indicators were used to assess the state of the Climate-Smart Forestry trend in Europe from 1990 to 2015 using data from the reports on the State of Europe’s Forests. Forest damage, tree species composition, and carbon stock were the most important indicators. Though the trend was overall positive with regard to adaptation and mitigation, its evaluation was partly hindered by the lack of data. We advocate for increased efforts to harmonize international reporting and for further integrating the goals of Climate-Smart Forestry into national- and European-level forest policy making.

scholarly journals Relationships between landslides and land use changes in the Sanbagawa and Mikabu Belts, Shikoku, Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Roxanne Lai ◽  
Takashi Oguchi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Landslide Susceptibility ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Land Abandonment ◽  
Crystalline Schist ◽  
Agricultural Abandonment ◽  
Landslide Kinematics

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Changing land use is an increasingly important issue as human habits, behaviors, and needs change. There has been an increase in land and agricultural abandonment in some places of the world. In Japan, movement of the population from rural to urban areas have resulted in much land and agricultural abandonment. In 2016, a land ministry survey showed that 4.1 million hectares of land in Japan had unclear ownership, with farmland making up 16.9% of the total. As vegetation cover changes after land abandonment, this temporal and spatial effect may have important effects on geomorphic processes such as landslide susceptibility and landslide kinematics.</p><p>Here we track long-term land use changes over vegetated landslide areas of the Sanbagawa and Mikabu Belts of Shikoku Island, Japan. The Sanbagawa and Mikabu Belts are metamorphic belts that run across Southwest Japan, and are home to numerous large crystalline schist landslides, including the widely-studied slow but continuously moving Zentoku landslide. Villages and communities have been built on these landslide areas due to historical and cultural factors, as well as the fertility of the soil. Consequently, given the changing land uses including land abandonment in these landslide areas over time, we use long-term high-resolution land cover vegetation datasets to examine first the long-term land use changes, and then use statistical methods to explore their relationships with landslide susceptibility and kinematics. Mapping of spatial data and their analysis using GIS constitute a core part of the research. The results suggest interconnections between land use changes and land movement.</p>

scholarly journals Perancangan Kawasan Perkotaan Di Pulau Bali Sebagai Konektivitas Industri Pariwisata Yang Terintegrasi Pada Sistem ‘’Smart City Development’’

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
I Made Agus Mahendra
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
City Development ◽  
City Region ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The City

City Development Planning can be described as a decision-making process to realize economic, social, cultural and environmental goals through the development of a spatial vision, strategies and plans, and the application of a set of policy principles, tools, institutional participatory mechanisms, and regulatory procedures. Connectivity between cities is needed for a Bali island which is the best tourism destination in Indonesia. Good connectivity between cities can contribute greatly to tourism destinations in each city / region. In the future it will be a great work if the development of urban areas on the island of Bali is the integrated tourism industry path connectivity in the Smart City Development system. Smart city is a dream of almost all countries in the world both in the provincial and urban spheres. With Smart City, various kinds of data and information located in every corner of the city can be collected through sensors installed in every corner of the city, analyzed with smart applications, then presented according to user needs through applications that can be accessed by various types of gadgets. Through the gadget, users can also interactively become data sources, they send information to data centers for consumption by other users.

scholarly journals Boosting Rural Areas Revitalization in the Mediterranean through Cross-cutting Approach Based on Ecological and Social Resilience

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
C. Echave ◽  
A. Palladus ◽  
M. Boy-Roura ◽  
M. Cacciutolo ◽  
S. Niavis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
The Mediterranean

Urban areas have been identified as one of the key challenges to tackle in the next decades. Most of the environmental impacts associated to urban contexts are linked to an unsustainable use of resources basically due to urban planning and society’s consumption behaviour. Currently, the paradigm of sustainable cities brought out in the past years situates urban contexts as an opportunity to reduce these impacts. There is a wide range of strategies focused on cities and their transition to a more sustainable urban model: compactness, sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, waste management and greening are some of the most relevant approaches with clear indicators and implementation plans. However, rural areas are still pending for  a precise strategy that highlights their ecological added value avoiding to be defined only as “not urban”. Rural areas should be emphasized from their productivity perspective and their key role in terms of resilience and adaptation to Climate Change. In the framework of the Interreg Med Programme, Thematic Communities are working on the capitalisation of projects from different kind of approaches of application in the Mediterranean Area. Four of these communities - Renewable Energy, Green Growth, Sustainable Tourism and Efficient Buildings - have several projects that present rural areas as one common territory of intervention. The aim of this paper is to expose the standards and goals proposed by the Interreg Med Thematic Communities for Rural Areas Revitalization as a resilience strategy in the Mediterranean Region, using a cross-cutting approach. The cross-cutting approach stresses the relation among the environment, society and economy: rural liveability, increasing RES production with sharing microgrid systems & efficient buildings, as well as green economy based on sectors such as agricultural & tourism activities. These standards and results will provide reference values to shape final policies recommendations. Consequently, the present paper is based on the joint cross-thematic effort and work from four thematic communities of the Interreg MED programme, previously mentioned. It includes some references to existing research studies, but the aim is to open the path to identify new challenges of Mediterranean rural areas and find potential solutions from a holistic approach.

scholarly journals RURAL URBAN MIGRATION AND WOMEN IN URBAN SLUMS OF KARACHI

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-91
Author(s):  
Shagufta Nasreen ◽  
Asma Manzoor
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Urban Slums ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Rural Urban Migration ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
Questionnaire Method

Poverty creates many problems. Out of which one major problem is an increase in migration rate. In Pakistan, the rate of inter province and rural urban migration has increased in the last few years resulting in an expansion in urban population. The objective of this study was to explore the experience of women who have migrated from rural to urban areas with their families and are living in urban slums. Moreover, the study aims to explore the reasons of migration from rural to urban areas, the change occurred in their living conditions and their level of satisfaction. Total 100 women from selected katchi abadis (urban slums) of Karachi and were in-depth interviewed through questionnaire method. To have an in depth analysis of the situation, both open and closed ended questions were included. Results show that most of these women have migrated with their families due to poverty. The need is to take decisions that promote equity and social justice. The distribution of resources and development planning need to focus on the need of urban and rural areas on equal bases because just moving towards metropolitan city does not change their living rather it is deteriorating the situation.

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