From the Publisher: 
The accessible presentation of this book gives both a general view of the entire computer vision enterprise and also offers sufficient detail to be able to build useful applications. Users learn techniques that have proven to be useful by first-hand experience and a wide range of mathematical methods. A CD-ROM with every copy of the text contains source code for programming practice, color images, and illustrative movies. Comprehensive and up-to-date, this book includes essential topics that either reflect practical significance or are of theoretical importance. Topics are discussed in substantial and increasing depth. Application surveys describe numerous important application areas such as image based rendering and digital libraries. Many important algorithms broken down and illustrated in pseudo code. Appropriate for use by engineers as a comprehensive reference to the computer vision enterprise.

Computer vision : a modern approach = 计算机视觉 : 一种现代的方法

Sustainable Development Goals

「脆弱性(Vulnerability)」とは何か

Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation

Governing the Commons

Dryland productivity under a changing climate

Global studies on large-scale land acquisitions based on some of the early data sets have been defined as ‘quick and dirty’ because they lacked adequate on-ground validation (e.g. Scoones et al. 2013). Does this mean that any study based on ‘imperfect data’ should be ignored? Scientists often have to deal with ‘noisy’ data. Past climates have been reconstructed using fossil records, sediment cores, corals or tree rings. The use of these noisy climate ‘proxies’ has led to major advances in paleoclimate research. Similarly, climate change studies often rely on model simulations that are in disagreement with one another. Only a superficial analysis of these efforts, however, could lead to the conclusion by Pearce (2013) that they should be ‘best ignored’ because of the underlying uncertainties. Likewise, the study of large-scale land acquisitions is just starting to provide some quantitative global estimates of the magnitude of this phenomenon. Despite the numerous sources of uncertainty, these estimates are an important milestone toward a better understanding of the significance of land grabbing and the role it may play in altering global food and water security. We agree that there are multiple ways of quantifying direct investments in agriculture and that it is time to move beyond metrics based only on spatial extent (Edelman 2013). Area values should be reported specifying whether land deals are at a proposal, negotiation or signed contract stage, and whether the land has started to be used and developed by the investors (Land Matrix 2013). Other metrics can be based on the appropriation of freshwater resources (Rulli et al. 2013), on the new employment opportunities and the increase in agricultural production resulting from these investments, or the number of people the acquired land could feed (D’Odorico and Rulli 2013). Other criticisms raised against some of these global studies suggest that they tend to inflate the numbers. It has been claimed (Edelman 2013) that, by reporting areas in acres instead of hectares or using scientific notation (e.g. expressing millions as 10), some authors make the numbers look bigger than they are. The arguments of this criticism are overall weak because any reader of the scientific journals that published these studies should be able to convert units or understand the scientific notation. A recent comment by Scoones et al. (Journal of Peasant Studies [JPS], June 2013) on the study by Rulli et al. (2013) is quite disturbing because it tends to quickly dismiss a scientifically sound investigation: ‘Despite the supposedly rigorous review, closer

The science of evidence: the value of global studies on land rush

The ongoing agrarian transition from smallholder farming to large-scale commercial agriculture promoted by transnational large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) often aims to increase crop yields through the expansion of irrigation. LSLAs are playing an increasingly prominent role in this transition. Yet it remains unknown whether foreign LSLAs by agribusinesses target areas based on specific hydrological conditions and whether these investments compete with the water needs of existing local users. Here we combine process-based crop and hydrological modelling, agricultural statistics, and georeferenced information on individual transnational LSLAs to evaluate emergence of water scarcity associated with LSLAs. While conditions of blue water scarcity already existed prior to land acquisitions, these deals substantially exacerbate blue water scarcity through both the adoption of water-intensive crops and the expansion of irrigated cultivation. These effects lead to new rival water uses in 105 of the 160 studied LSLAs (67% of the acquired land). Combined with our findings that investors target land with preferential access to surface and groundwater resources to support irrigation, this suggests that LSLAs often appropriate water resources to the detriment of local users. 

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Competition for water induced by transnational land acquisitions for agriculture

Since the turn of the century, rubber plantations have been expanding their footprint across Southeast Asia in response to an increasing global demand for rubber products. Between 2000 and 2014, the area cultivated with rubber more than doubled. It is not clear how this major change in the agricultural landscape of Southeast Asia, the main area of rubber production in the world, is affecting land‐use patterns and water resources in the region. Here we use maps of rubber plantations and other croplands in conjunction with a hydrological model and remote sensing analyses to assess land‐use patterns and water resources affected by natural rubber plantations. Results show water requirements of rubber trees are comparable to those of forests but by far exceed those of the other predominant crops and shrubland vegetation with the effect of potentially increasing water scarcity when rubber plantations replace these crops. The expansion of rubber plantations accounts for a 38 km³/yr increase in green water consumption, thereby exacerbating the monthly water scarcity, with an additional 2.4 million people and more than 0.6 Mha facing water scarcity in the driest months as a result of the increase in rubber production. Monthly runoff substantially decreases (by up to 25%) in 14% of the basins where rubber was planted. These results highlight the existence of major land use and hydrological impacts of agricultural development in Southeast Asia that affect the local environment and rural communities, calling for a more sustainable management of the limited land and water resources.

Hydrological consequences of natural rubber plantations in Southeast Asia

Referring to the analytical definition of water wars, several scholars have coherently argued against the “water leads to war thesis.” There are four arguments that have contributed to successfully dispel the myths of water wars: (a) interstate cooperation prevails over conflict; (b) development of new technologies increases freshwater availability; (c) the intrinsic characteristics of water as a resource do not justify interstate military intervention; (d) virtual water trade provides the opportunity to circumvent local water scarcity. These arguments converge demonstrating that rather than water wars in the future, water peace will prevail. While we agree with these arguments on the low likelihood of future water wars, we find that hydropolitical theories have generally neglected the fact that the conditions for interstate water peace come with high socio‐environmental costs. In particular, the central idea that virtual water trade resolve issues of local water scarcity and therefore reduces tensions and escalation of violence among different countries does not fully take into account the fact that dynamics of transnational water appropriation have serious socio‐environmental impacts on the virtual water exporting countries. To conceptualize this phenomenon we introduce the notion of “hidden socio‐environmental costs of virtual water transfer,” which is understood as a specific form of environmental cost‐shifting. The empirical support to our reasoning comes from the study of transnational large‐scale land acquisitions which represent an expanding phenomenon central in the contemporary global agrarian transformation.

Maria Cristina Rulli

Papers

Dryland productivity under a changing climate

The science of evidence: the value of global studies on land rush

Competition for water induced by transnational land acquisitions for agriculture

Hydrological consequences of natural rubber plantations in Southeast Asia

The neglected costs of water peace