Suchergebnisse

In this research we address factors contributing to landscape change in a midwestern (USA) watershed. Specifically, the relationship between the parcelization of agricultural land (ownership subdivisions) and changes in amounts of riparian forest cover are explored. The study area is the River Raisin Watershed in southeastern Michigan, which is typical of rural watersheds in the lower Great Lakes region. Two townships within the watershed were sampled from data spanning a 20-year time period. Using land-use and land-cover data for 1968, 1978, and 1988, combined with ownership records for the same years, we determined a relationship between rates of parcelization and changes in forest cover. These findings indicate that increasing trends in riparian forest area follow increases in land parcelization at the township scale. For these two townships, agricultural decline and land-use diversification seem positively related to larger areas and widths of riparian forests. As the number of acres being farmed and the number of farms have decreased, the land has been divided into more and smaller lots and the forests along rivers like the Raisin and its tributaries have increased in area. There are several possible factors at the township and farm scale which may influence this landscape phenomenon, including land-use policies, governmental programs, agricultural mechanization, and agricultural economics.

Satellite remote sensing is a promising technology for monitoring natural and anthropogenic changes occurring in remote, northern environments. It offers the potential to scale-up ground-based, local environmental monitoring efforts to document disturbance types, and characterize their extents and frequencies at regional scales. Here we present a simple, but effective means of visually assessing landscape disturbances in northern environments using trend analysis of Landsat satellite image stacks. Linear trends of the Tasseled Cap brightness, greenness, and wetness indices, when composited into an RGB image, effectively distinguish diverse landscape changes based on additive color logic. Using a variety of reference datasets within Northwest Territories, Canada, we show that the trend composites are effective for identifying wildfire regeneration, tundra greening, fluvial dynamics, thermokarst processes including lake surface area changes and retrogressive thaw slumps, and the footprint of resource development operations and municipal development. Interpretation of the trend composites is aided by a color wheel legend and contextual information related to the size, shape, and location of change features. A companion paper in this issue (Olthof and Fraser) focuses on quantitative methods for classifying these changes.

"This book is about politics and planning outside of cities, where urban political economy and planning theories do not account for the resilience of places that are no longer rural and where local communities work hard to keep from ever becoming urban. By examining exurbia as a type of place that is no longer simply rural or only tied to the economies of global resources (e.g., mining, forestry, and agriculture), we explore how changing landscapes are planned and designed not to be urban, that is, to look, function, and feel different from cities and suburbs in spite of new home development and real estate speculation. The book's authors contend that exurbia is defined by the persistence of rural economies, the conservation of rural character, and protection of natural ecological systems, all of which are critical components of the contentious local politics that seek to limit growth. Comparative political ecology is used as an organizing concept throughout the book to describe the nature of exurban areas in the U.S. and Australia, although exurbs are common to many countries. The essays each describe distinctive case studies, with each chapter using the key concepts of competing rural capitalisms and uneven environmental management to describe the politics of exurban change. This systematic analysis makes the processes of exurban change easier to see and understand. Based on these case studies, seven characteristics of exurban places are identified: rural character, access, local economic change, ideologies of nature, changes in land management, coalition-building, and land-use planning. This book will be of interest to those who study planning, conservation, and land development issues, especially in areas of high natural amenity or environmental value. There is no political ecology book quite like this--neither one solely focused on cases from the developed world (in this case the United States and Australia), nor one that specifically harnesses different case studies from multiple areas to develop a central organizing perspective of landscape change."--Back cover

This book is about politics and planning outside of cities, where urban political economy and planning theories do not account for the resilience of places that are no longer rural and where local communities work hard to keep from ever becoming urban. By examining exurbia as a type of place that is no longer simply rural or only tied to the economies of global resources (e.g., mining, forestry, and agriculture), we explore how changing landscapes are planned and designed not to be urban, that is, to look, function, and feel different from cities and suburbs in spite of new home development and real estate speculation. The book's authors contend that exurbia is defined by the persistence of rural economies, the conservation of rural character, and protection of natural ecological systems, all of which are critical components of the contentious local politics that seek to limit growth. Comparative political ecology is used as an organizing concept throughout the book to describe the nature of exurban areas in the U.S. and Australia, although exurbs are common to many countries. The essays each describe distinctive case studies, with each chapter using the key concepts of competing rural capitalisms and uneven environmental management to describe the politics of exurban change. This systematic analysis makes the processes of exurban change easier to see and understand. Based on these case studies, seven characteristics of exurban places are identified: rural character, access, local economic change, ideologies of nature, changes in land management, coalition-building, and land-use planning. This book will be of interest to those who study planning, conservation, and land development issues, especially in areas of high natural amenity or environmental value. There is no political ecology book quite like this--neither one solely focused on cases from the developed world (in this case the United States and Australia), nor one that specifically harnesses different case studies from multiple areas to develop a central organizing perspective of landscape change.

Land degradation is frequently cited as a factor in the collapse of ancient complex societies. Implicit in these tales of ecological suicide is the assumption that land degradation is an ecological rather than a social problem. Here, I discuss how land degradation can be reconceptualized as a social–environmental dialectic. I then discuss the implications of this perspective using evidence from a recent landscape project exploring diachronic relationships between environmental and social transformations in the development of the Precolumbian Tarascan (Purépecha) empire, centered in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Mexico. Project findings challenge common conceptions regarding the impact of agriculture, urbanism, and state collapse on ancient landscapes, as well as the dating of the most serious episodes of degradation.

The article considers the influence of the military-ecological and man-caused-anthropogenic factors on the environment state and natural processes. Epidemic risks and consequences resulted from landscapic changes of the environment which arise as a result of war and destruction of ecosystems are described.

On 30 December 2020 a quick-clay landslide occurred in Gjerdrum, Norway. Becauseof the severe consequences, the Norwegian government appointed an externalexpert committee to investigate the landslide. In order to investigate the changes inthe landscape that could have contributed to the destabilisation of the slopes, a wideapproach was necessary. For this, the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) hascontributed with several GIS analyses and 3D modelling.This report is a documentation of the methods utilised during the work done by NGU.The data quality of the input data for the analyses and modelling are also presented.The main results of the work are shown, but not discussed with regard to theunderlying causes and\/or triggers of the landslide. Most of the results are used anddiscussed in the report of the Gjerdrum committee. ; 67386

Dere Street is the Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge and continuing into what is now Scotland. The road served a military and economic purpose facilitating the transport of troops and trade north and south across the frontier zone. Here we present a well resolved palaeoenvironmental record within the Hadrianic-Antonine frontier zone that is tied directly to the archaeological evidence for Dere street. The evidence indicates limited woodland clearance during the Neolithic and Bronze Age followed by large scale woodland clearance at c. 890 BC, with woodland replaced by open grassland indicating that throughout the Iron Age land use was primarily pastoral. Dere Street was constructed in (AD 79–81) and when the Roman road builders arrived at Dun Law the landscape was largely open. Limited local timber resources meant that hazel scrub cover was probably used to construct the road with evidence to suggest that other timber resources were brought in from outside the site. The landscape at Dun Law was predominantly grazed during and post Roman occupation and there is some evidence for shifts in intensity of grazing from c. AD 950. ; Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Online

Citizen Science has become a vital source for data collection when the spatial and temporal extent of a project makes it too expensive to send experts into the field. However, involving citizens can go further than that – participatory projects focusing on subjective parameters can fill in the gap between local community needs and stakeholder approaches to tackle key social and environmental issues. LandSense, a Horizon 2020 project that is deeply rooted in environmental challenges and solutions, aims to establish a citizen observatory that will provide data to stakeholders, from researchers to businesses. Within this project, a mobile application has been developed that aims not only to stimulate civic engagement to monitor changes within the urban environment, but also to enable users to drive improvements by providing city planners with information about the public perception of urban spaces. The launch of a public version of such an app requires preparation and testing by focus groups. Recently, a prototype of the app was used by both staff and students from Vienna University of Technology, who contributed valuable insights to help enhance this citizen science tool for engaging and empowering the inhabitants of the city. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 689812.