Water demand in a viable economy tends to be dynamic: it changes over time in response to growth, drought, and social policy. Institutional capacity to re-allocate water between users and uses under stress from multiple sources is a key concern. Climate change threatens to add to those stresses in snowmelt systems by changing the timing of runoff and possibly increasing the severity and duration of drought. This article examines Snake and Klamath River institutions for their ability to resolve conflict induced by demand growth, drought, and environmental constraints on water use.

Agriculture and forestry play an important role in emitting and storing greenhouse gases. For an efficient and cost-effective climate policy it is therefore important to explicitly include land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) in economy-climate models. This paper gives an overview and assessment of existing approaches to include land use, land-use change, and forestry into climate-economy models or to link economy-climate models to land-use models.

Climate changes affect the abundance, geographic extent, and floral composition of vegetation, which are reflected in the pollen rain. Sediment cores taken from lakes and peat bogs can be analysed for their pollen content. The fossil pollen records provide information on the temporal changes in climate and palaeo-environments. Although the complexity of the variables influencing vegetation distribution requires a multi-dimensional approach, only a few research projects have used GIS to analyse pollen data.

Land use and land cover changes in the Brazilian Amazon have major implications for regional and global carbon (C) cycling. Cattle pasture represents the largest single use (about 70%) of this once-forested land in most of the region. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the RothC and Century models at estimating soil organic C (SOC) changes under forest-to-pasture conditions in the Brazilian Amazon. We used data from 11 site-specific 'forest to pasture' chronosequences with the Century Ecosystem Model (Century 4.0) and the Rothamsted C Model (RothC 26.3).

This report seeks to present micro evidence on how environmental changes affect poor households. It focuses primarily on environmental resources that are outside the private sphere, particularly commonly held and managed resources such as forests, fisheries, and wildlife. The objectives for this volume are three-fold. It is first interested in using an empirical data-driven approach to examine the dependence of the poor on natural resources. The second objective is to examine the role of the environment in determining health outcomes.

The purpose of this review is to outline the status quo regarding multifunctional and social demands on grasslands. The products and services that grassland ecosystems can provide society are detailed. Existing agro-policies are reviewed as to how they reflect social demands on grasslands. A farm level analysis considers many factors that may influence the fulfilment of social demands. Conclusions are drawn on the future of grassland use under different socioeconomic conditions.

Much is reported about the destruction of natural forests and the consequences for global warming, while on the other hand, exotic plantations in some regions struggle to gain public acceptance. The earth's population is projected to rise to around 9 billion by 2050, with a concomitant increase in demand for forest products. Inevitably, forests in general, and managed forest in particular, will be called on to provide an ever-increasing proportion of local supplies and the international wood trade.

In Europe, grassland is one of the dominant forms of land use. Within 20 years, the area of permanent grasslands and pastures in Western Europe has declined by 12%. Semi-natural grasslands are often hot spots of biodiversity and are threatened both by intensive farming and by the abandonment of farmland in marginal areas. In this review, we show that biodiversity, climate change, C sequestration and farming systems issues are highly interconnected in grassland ecosystems.

Designers, architects and planners must begin to anticipate the far reaching changes we are facing in connection with climate change. What if we take action and actively participate in the transition from fossil-fuel driven society towards a more sustainable society? This Wageningen University paper intends to discuss some of the spatial opportunities and consequences of a sustainable energy transition in relation to climate change and depletion of fossil-fuels.

De landschappen in ons land zijn ‘man made’ en tot enkele decennia geleden nog met een geheel eigen ‘gezicht’. De afgelopen halve eeuw zijn er telkens schoksgewijs grote landschappelijke veranderingen aan de orde geweest door veranderingen in het landgebruik, en de effecten van klimaatverandering komen daar nog bovenop. Dit rapport gaat in op de effecten die optreden door de ‘mediterranisatie’ en zeespiegelrijzing en hoe dat doorwerkt in de identiteit van het landschap. Landschappelijke verandering mondt uit in het verloren gaan van kenmerken, maar er ontstaan ook weer nieuwe.

The main objective of the Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) in Nepal is to identify opportunities for enhancing the overall performance of select environmental management systems through improvements in the effectiveness of institutions, policies, and processes.