Ecological Areas and Challenges of Urbanization

2022 ◽  
pp. 219-236
Author(s):  
Garima Toor ◽  
Tarush Chandra

Ecological areas are the network of protected areas that contribute to the ecosystem's productivity and services. With increased human demands, towns and cities are blooming with changes in landuse patterns around their peripheral areas or in the immediate vicinity. Land intensification and disproportionate urbanization have inflicted various challenges such as qualitative and quantitative depletion of natural resources, ecosystem services, and degradation of environmental quality in and around ecological areas. The chapter will focus on the circumstantial elucidation of ecological areas, their recorded challenges caused by urbanization, and the need for their conservation in previous research studies. The authors explore reported challenges encompassing ecological areas by urbanization. This will help understand the various aspects of urban transformation, like physical, social, cultural, and economic change in and around the ecological areas, and develop measures and strategies for ecosystem conservation and environmental restoration in ecological areas.

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta Schirpke ◽  
Rocco Scolozzi ◽  
Benedetta Concetti ◽  
Bruna Comini ◽  
Ulrike Tappeiner

Integrating ecosystem services (ES) into the management of protected areas, such as European Natura 2000 sites, can improve biodiversity conservation and human well-being; yet, the assessment and application of ES remains challenging. In this study, we propose a roadmap to guide managers in the assessment of ES at multiple levels, including a non-monetary valuation in qualitative and quantitative terms, as well as a monetary valuation, and suggesting the appropriate applications related to ES mapping, communication and planning. The roadmap proceeds through four steps and along a gradient of accuracy and effort required in the assessment methods, with different levels of spatial scale, to effectively support managers. Together with the description of the roadmap, this paper provides insights from its application to terrestrial Natura 2000 sites in Italy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
M Gray ◽  
N Barbour ◽  
B Campbell ◽  
AJ Robillard ◽  
A Todd-Rodriguez ◽  
...  

Ecolabels are increasingly being used to notify consumers that the labeled product imposes minimal harm to the environment or other natural resources. A growing number of studies have signaled that consumers respond to these labels, which can promote environmentally friendly production of consumable goods and incentivize growers to produce sustainably sourced goods. Shellfish are noticeably absent among these labeled products, but they are arguably the most sustainable source of animal protein. Additionally, while in the water, oysters and other shellfish provide numerous ecosystem services that improve environmental quality. We argue that shellfish aquaculture is uniquely positioned to take advantage of ecolabeling to improve public perception and steer consumers towards a highly sustainable source of animal protein. However, we also argue more research is needed to better understand how ecosystem services vary among different production modes of oyster aquaculture to ensure products are correctly labeled and inspire consumer confidence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
Yulia M Andriyanova ◽  
Irina V Sergeeva ◽  
Yulia M Mokhonko ◽  
Natalia N Gusakova

The influence of recreation being a set of measures to restore health and recreation, on the main components of forest phytocenoses in specially protected natural territories of the Tatishchevsky district of the Saratov region has been studied for the first time. These phytocenoses have been intensively used for tourism for a long time. The intensity and visits activity of protected areas has been determined; the recreational capacity of territorial objects has been studied. The degree of forest landscapes has been revealed in specially protected natural territories. The findings allow predicting the future state of the natural resources of the Saratov region and can be taken into account when assessing their optimal use.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7102
Author(s):  
Ana Carolina V. Nadalini ◽  
Ricardo de Araujo Kalid ◽  
Ednildo Andrade Torres

The objective of this paper is to present a review of current research on the valuation of ecosystem services, using emergy evaluation methodology (EME). A bibliometric analysis and a systematic review were carried out between 2000 and 2020, using all of Web of Science database subfields that collected 187 papers, selected through the keywords “emergy” and “ecosystem services”. In the second part of the research, we carried out a new search on Web of Science of the 187 initial articles produced, with the words “valuation” and “economic”, in order to analyze those directly related to the evaluation of ecosystem services. The results showed that the EME method is an effective tool to evaluate ecosystem services, since it relates economic and ecological aspects in the evaluations. The research also indicated that the use of isolated methods does not appear to be the most appropriate solution, and that emergy used in combination with other methodologies can be used to obtain more accurate and comprehensive results to evaluate natural resources.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan POPA ◽  
Claudiu COMAN ◽  
Stelian A. BORZ ◽  
Dan M. NITA ◽  
Codrin CODREANU ◽  
...  

In the last two decades different methodologies for assessing the economic implications of protected areas have been developed within the framework of "Total Economic Value", taking into account not only goods and services that have a price and a market but also those not priced or marketed. The present paper, by using a number of recognized methodologies applied by environmental economists around the world, estimates the economic value of ecosystem services of Piatra Craiului National Park, in one of the first attempts to frame ecosystem services valuation in Romania. The approach and results include a benefit distribution analysis, for both the economic sectors and the groups of beneficiaries. Even if the data are not comprehensive and depend on several assumptions, the paper provides very important practical and policy-relevant information on the economic value of Piatra Craiului National Park, in an attempt to stimulate increasing of the budgetary allocation and economic policy priority for protected areas in Romania.


Scientifica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanyaradzwa Chigonda

Access to natural resources has changed over the years in Zimbabwe. At least three broad periods of biodiversity conservation, utilisation, and access can be identified in the country, namely, the precolonial, colonial, and postindependence periods. This paper reviews the relationships between human livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in the rural areas of Zimbabwe during these periods and is informed by an extensive review of the relevant literature. A combination of historical narrative, thematic, and content analysis was used in analysing the various documents into meaningful information addressing the objective of the study. Traditional societies in precolonial Zimbabwe had access to abundant natural resources. However, access to these resources was not uncontrolled, but was limited by traditional beliefs, taboos, and customs enforced through community leadership structures. The advent of colonialism in the late 19th century dispossessed indigenous African communities of natural resources through command-type conservation legislation. At independence in 1980, the new majority government sought to redress the natural resource ownership imbalances created during colonialism, culminating in some significant measure of devolution in natural resource management to local communities in the late 1980s, though such devolution has been criticised for being incomplete. An accelerated land reform exercise since the year 2000 has adversely affected biodiversity conservation activities in the country, including the conservation-related livelihood benefits derived from protected areas. The review paper highlights the need for a more complete devolution of natural resource ownership and management down to the grassroots levels in the communal areas, if social and ecological sustainability is to be fully realised in these areas. On the other hand, the disruption of conservation activities in the country due to the ill-planned accelerated land reform exercise that has demarcated land for arable farming in some of the protected areas should be held in check as a matter of urgency.


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