scholarly journals Integrating GeoDesign with Landscape Sustainability Science

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Huang ◽  
Weining Xiang ◽  
Jianguo Wu ◽  
Christoph Traxler ◽  
Jingzhou Huang
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
World Population ◽  
Landscape Sustainability ◽  
Landscape Sustainability Science

With an increasing world population and accelerated urbanization, the development of landscape sustainability remains a challenge for scientists, designers, and multiple stakeholders. Landscape sustainability science (LSS) studies dynamic relationships among landscape pattern, ecosystem services, and human well-being with spatially explicit methods. The design of a sustainable landscape needs both landscape sustainability–related disciplines and digital technologies that have been rapidly developing. GeoDesign is a new design method based on a new generation of information technology, especially spatial information technology, to design land systems. This paper discusses the suitability of GeoDesign for LSS to help design sustainable landscapes. Building on a review of LSS and GeoDesign, we conclude that LSS can utilize GeoDesign as a research method and the designed landscape as a research object to enrich and empower the spatially explicit methodology of LSS. To move forward, we suggest to integrate GeoDesign with LSS from six perspectives: strong/weak sustainability, multiple scales, ecosystem services, sustainability indicators, big data application, and the sense of place. Toward this end, we propose a LSS-based GeoDesign framework that links the six perspectives. We expect that this integration between GeoDesign and LSS will help advance the science and practice of sustainability and bring together many disciplines across natural, social, and design sciences.

scholarly journals The erosion of relational values resulting from landscape simplification

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 2601-2612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maraja Riechers ◽  
Ágnes Balázsi ◽  
Lydia Betz ◽  
Tolera S. Jiren ◽  
Joern Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Landscape Sustainability ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Relational Values ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
Instrumental Values ◽  
Landscape Sustainability Science

Abstract Context The global trend of landscape simplification for industrial agriculture is known to cause losses in biodiversity and ecosystem service diversity. Despite these problems being widely known, status quo trajectories driven by global economic growth and changing diets continue to lead to further landscape simplification. Objectives In this perspective article, we argue that landscape simplification has negative consequences for a range of relational values, affecting the social-ecological relationships between people and nature, as well as the social relationships among people. A focus on relational values has been proposed to overcome the divide between intrinsic and instrumental values that people gain from nature. Results We use a landscape sustainability science framing to examine the interconnections between ecological and social changes taking place in rural landscapes. We propose that increasingly rapid and extreme landscape simplification erodes human-nature connectedness, social relations, and the sense of agency of inhabitants—potentially to the point of severe erosion of relational values in extreme cases. We illustrate these hypothesized changes through four case studies from across the globe. Leaving the links between ecological, social-ecological and social dimensions of landscape change unattended could exacerbate disconnection from nature. Conclusion A relational values perspective can shed new light on managing and restoring landscapes. Landscape sustainability science is ideally placed as an integrative space that can connect relevant insights from landscape ecology and work on relational values. We see local agency as a likely key ingredient to landscape sustainability that should be actively fostered in conservation and restoration projects.

scholarly journals Spatial analysis, local people’s perception and economic valuation of wetland ecosystem services in the Usumacinta floodplain, Southern Mexico

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Camacho-Valdez ◽  
Andrea Saenz-Arroyo ◽  
Andrea Ghermandi ◽  
Dario A. Navarrete-Gutiérrez ◽  
Rocío Rodiles-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Economic Valuation ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Biodiversity Indicators ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Wetland Ecosystems ◽  
Local Perception

The Usumacinta floodplain is an exceptional area for biodiversity with important ecosystem services for local people. The main objective of this paper was to estimate reference values and define local perceptions of ecosystem services provided by wetlands and overlapping them with spatially explicit socioeconomic and biodiversity indicators. We used the Usumacinta floodplain as an example of a territory where high dependence of rural people on ecosystem services is confronted with development projects that threat the flow of ecosystem services, thus affecting rural people well-being. With a combination of data from remote sensing, global databases of ecosystem service values, local perception of ecosystem services and socioeconomic and biodiversity richness indicators in a spatially explicit framework, we develop a policy-oriented approach for rapid assessment to manage wetlands and maintain people’s livelihoods. Regulating and provisioning services are identified as the most relevant ecosystem services in terms of their monetary value and local perceived importance. In a spatially explicit manner, this approach highlights the most valuable wetlands and identifies rural societies that are highly dependent on ecosystem services. Our approach can be replicated elsewhere and could provide valuable information for policymakers to design policies that can contribute to conserve wetland ecosystems where under threat of development.

Kinds of freshwater and their relation to ecosystem services and human well-being

Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1229-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakeel Hayat ◽  
Joyeeta Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
The Subject

The concept of ecosystem services (ESS) has evolved as a link between society and the environment and is recognized by both natural and social scientists. While this concept is increasingly being developed and applied to various ecological systems, it has not been defined specifically for different kinds of water. As water circulation is crucial for large-scale services, such as climatic and hydrological regulation at global and regional scales, water provides specific ecological and anthropogenic services needed for a myriad of chemical, biological, and social needs. Various scholars mostly deal with one specific kind of water, while efforts at water governance need to understand that water passes through different phases and geographical locations providing different services at multiple scales within social-ecological systems. Hence, this paper addresses the question: what are the ESS of different kinds of freshwater and how are these services linked to human well-being? This paper investigates the literature on the subject to create a taxonomy of the kinds of water and their relations to ESS and human well-being. The paper concludes by identifying the implications for governing different kinds of water in order to enhance the potential for optimizing the ESS provided by water in its different phases.

scholarly journals Measuring conditions and trends in ecosystem services at multiple scales: the Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (SA f MA) experience

2005 ◽  
Vol 360 (1454) ◽  
pp. 425-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S van Jaarsveld ◽  
R Biggs ◽  
R.J Scholes ◽  
E Bohensky ◽  
B Reyers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ◽  
Fuel Wood ◽  
Ecosystem Assessment ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Land Use Decisions ◽  
High Infant Mortality

The Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (SA f MA) evaluated the relationships between ecosystem services and human well-being at multiple scales, ranging from local through to sub-continental. Trends in ecosystem services (fresh water, food, fuel-wood, cultural and biodiversity) over the period 1990–2000 were mixed across scales. Freshwater resources appear strained across the continent with large numbers of people not securing adequate supplies, especially of good quality water. This translates to high infant mortality patterns across the region. In some areas, the use of water resources for irrigated agriculture and urban–industrial expansion is taking place at considerable cost to the quality and quantity of freshwater available to ecosystems and for domestic use. Staple cereal production across the region has increased but was outstripped by population growth while protein malnutrition is on the rise. The much-anticipated wood-fuel crisis on the subcontinent has not materialized but some areas are experiencing shortages while numerous others remain vulnerable. Cultural benefits of biodiversity are considerable, though hard to quantify or track over time. Biodiversity resources remain at reasonable levels, but are declining faster than reflected in species extinction rates and appear highly sensitive to land-use decisions. The SA f MA sub-global assessment provided an opportunity to experiment with innovative ways to assess ecosystem services including the use of supply–demand surfaces, service sources and sink areas, priority areas for service provision, service ‘hotspots’ and trade-off assessments.

Landscape sustainability science in the drylands: mobility, rangelands and livelihoods

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 2433-2447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan Liao ◽  
Arun Agrawal ◽  
Patrick E. Clark ◽  
Simon A. Levin ◽  
Daniel I. Rubenstein
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Landscape Sustainability ◽  
Landscape Sustainability Science
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