▶ Addresses a wide range of timely environment, economic and energy topics ▶ A forum to review, analyze and stimulate the development, testing and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies at regional, national and global scales ▶ Contributes to real-time policy analysis and development as national and international policies and agreements are discussed and promulgated ▶ 94% of authors who answered a survey reported that they would definitely publish or probably publish in the journal again

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

/pdf/remote-sensing-of-the-environment-4yfxjaaswe.pdf

Remote sensing of the environment

Remote sensing for agricultural applications: A meta-review

The results of the Forest Resources Assessment 2000 carried out by FAO are synthetically presented and discussed. The world forest coverage is estimated equal to 38.6 million km 2 . The comparison of the estimates from the period 1990-2000 with those from the period 1980-1990 points out a certain general deceleration of the rate of net deforestation, that currently involves around 9 million hectares every year. However, the annua1 loss of tropical forests is still very large, while temperate and borea1 forests are in expansion. Overall, FRA2000 produced a relevant effort to compensate the existing technical, institutional and financial constraints and shortcomings for monitoring the world forest resources. The need to increase the quality and the frequency of forest surveys, both at national and international levels, s t a stands as a major issue to cope with.

http://ojs.aisf.it/index.php/ifm/article/download/774/738

Valutazione delle risorse forestali a livello globale

We reviewed the literature on leadership in linked social-ecological systems and combined it with the literature on institutional entrepreneurship in complex adaptive systems to develop a new theory of transformative agency in linked social- ecological systems. Although there is evidence of the importance of strategic agency in introducing innovation and transforming approaches to management and governance of such systems, there is no coherent theory to explain the wide diversity of strategies identified. Using Holling's adaptive cycle as a model of phases present in innovation and transformation of resilient social- ecological systems, overlaid by Dorado's model of opportunity context (opaque, hazy, transparent) in complex adaptive systems, we propose a more coherent theory of strategic agency, which links particular strategies, on the part of transformative agents, to phases of system change.

/pdf/a-theory-of-transformative-agency-in-linked-social-136jl6wy98.pdf

A Theory of Transformative Agency in Linked Social-Ecological Systems

/pdf/a-sustainability-evaluation-and-dynamic-modeling-tool-for-22gs2gtwcy.pdf

A Sustainability Evaluation and Dynamic Modeling Tool for Landscape and Urban Planning Policy Scenarios

Ecosystems play a vital role in achieving development goals and provide services of high value. Riparian ecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services that are vital to biotic, abiotic, and economic health of a region. An assessment of their economic value is important for conservation policy. This study uses a multi-attribute method to quantify relative values of riparian attributes. The conjoint analysis incorporates three riparian ecosystem management scenarios and was implemented through an online survey. A logistic regression is used to estimate marginal willingness to pay for changes in attribute levels. Economic variables were dominant in influencing riparian values compared to biophysical attributes. Recreation, tax incentives, jobs, and respondent income are statistically significant in influencing preferences to protect riparian ecosystems but riparian zone width, water clarity and species richness were not. The values of the recreation attribute, job creation from riparian protection were found significant. A tax rebate for households would be needed to gain support for a greater riparian ecosystem protection.

Economic value of riparian ecosystems: an attribute-based conjoint analysis


 Hydropower projects involve enormous investments that require an efficient cost–benefit framework and optimization model for proper development. Dams and hydropower plants have many impacts on the environment. These environmental impacts are often not included in the economic calculations and planning of the projects, which leads to the loss of natural resources. The primary purpose of this research is to incorporate environmental impacts into optimization and decision-making. A comprehensive simulation–optimization model is developed to optimize hydropower decisions. The positive and negative values of environmental impacts are incorporated into an economic objective function under different scenarios, and optimal design was done for each scenario. The results show that considering environmental economics affects the multipurpose hydropower project's NPV and decision outcomes. Considering environmental impacts compared to not considering them has reduced NPV of the project by 13.9%. The results emphasize the importance of including these impacts to achieve sustainable development and management.

https://iwaponline.com/hr/article-pdf/54/1/31/1163901/nh0540031.pdf

Sustainable planning of multipurpose hydropower reservoirs with environmental impacts in a simulation–optimization framework

Genetic variation among pumpkin landraces based on seed qualities and molecular markers

• Secondary salinity resulting from human activities was added to the SWAT-S model. • The modified SWAT-S was linked with the SWAP to improve the salinity simulation. • Critical salinity processes were assessed for management in a large watershed. Salinity is a major environmental phenomenon that affects watersheds and irrigated areas worldwide. The watershed-scale salinity modeling requires a watershed-scale model like the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) that simulates hydrologic processes throughout a watershed. The Richards equation can assist in addressing very complex processes that affect water flow in the unsaturated root zone influenced by gravity and capillarity at a field scale. The SWAT model does not use the Richards equation for modeling flows in the root zone, resulting in less accuracy in simulating hydrologic processes related to agriculture. This study presents an integrated framework for the watershed-scale salinity modeling by modifying the water-salt balance (SWAT-S) model linked to the Soil Water Atmosphere Plant (SWAP) model. The integrated framework was applied to the Mond River Basin of Iran. The model was calibrated and validated with historical records of the river discharge and salt concentration using the SUFI-2 optimization algorithm to evaluate the model's strength and to verify the accuracy of simulations. The model performance was satisfactory in calibration and validation periods with the coefficient of determination (R 2 ), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), Percent bias (|PBIAS|), and RMSE-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR) ranging from 0.56 to 0.87, 0.52 to 0.87, 0.2 to 22.2, and 0.37 to 0.69, respectively. Also, P‐factor values were more than 0.65, while R‐factor values were<1.40. 

Timothy O. Randhir

Papers

A Sustainability Evaluation and Dynamic Modeling Tool for Landscape and Urban Planning Policy Scenarios

Economic value of riparian ecosystems: an attribute-based conjoint analysis

Sustainable planning of multipurpose hydropower reservoirs with environmental impacts in a simulation–optimization framework

Genetic variation among pumpkin landraces based on seed qualities and molecular markers

An integrated framework for simultaneously modeling primary and secondary salinity at a watershed scale