Landsat 8, a NASA and USGS collaboration, acquires global moderate-resolution measurements of the Earth's terrestrial and polar regions in the visible, near-infrared, short wave, and thermal infrared. Landsat 8 extends the remarkable 40.
Peru contains the fourth largest area of tropical forest in the world, yet faces a worsening net deforestation rate. In 2008, to address this threat, the national government announced its ambition to reduce deforestation to zero by 2021. Via literature review and key informant interviews, this study assess two years of REDD+ readiness preparations according to six readiness functions. A mixed pattern of outcomes emerge. Although significant advances were made by various local-level initiatives, national-level efforts continue to struggle.
The present study focuses on the growing problem of the impacts of human displacement resulting from hydropower dam construction, within the context of the integrated lake basin management of dam reservoirs. Dam‐forced displacement and resettlement can pose severe challenges to the environmental, economic and social sustainability of a reservoir basin.
The paper review the naturalness related concepts, with a special emphasis on forests, and also their implications on forest conservation. Beside naturalness, key aspects of wild(er)ness, ecosystem integrity, ecosystem health, forest quality and authenticity are disscussed. The main approaches on forest naturalness are presented, including the basic (minimum) naturalness requests, the shortcomings of associating high extreme naturalness levels (virgin, pristine) to forests, or the necessity to consider the temporal component of naturalness (e.g. the forest history).
Fires are the main driver of land degradation in forest areas in Mediterranean sub‐humid regions and are likely to increase as a result of climate and other global changes. To prevent deleterious processes induced by fire, several policies and strategies have been implemented at national and regional scales. We perform a comparative study of policies and strategies of Portuguese and Spanish (Comunitat Valenciana) cases in order to assess the differences between them and identify their roles in forest fire prevention and in combating and mitigating impacts.
In the Peruvian highlands, climate change and inadequate management are causing land degradation and collapse of the pastoral system. Our research project was aimed at assessing the impact of grazing on dry Puna ecosystem, as understanding and predicting vegetation changes in harsh environments in the face of different disturbance regimes is required for aware and effective management. The study area was the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve. Two experimental areas were selected, characterized by deep soils with gentle slopes and by shallow soils with steeper slopes.
Water resources are influenced by various factors such as weather, topography, geology, and environment. Therefore, there are many difficulties in evaluating and analyzing water resources for the future under climate change. In this paper, we consider climate, land cover and water demand as the most critical factors affecting change in future water resources. We subsequently introduce the procedures and methods employed to quantitatively evaluate the influence of each factor on the change in future water resources.
Surface albedo determines radiative forcing and is a key parameter for driving Earth’s climate. Better characterization of surface albedo for individual land cover types can reduce the uncertainty in estimating changes to Earth’s radiation balance due to land cover change. This paper presents new albedo look-up maps (LUM) using a multi-scale hierarchical approach based on MODIS BRDF/albedo products and Landsat imagery. Ten years (2001-2011) of MODIS BRDF/albedo products were used to generate global albedo climatology.
Land degradation is a process negatively affecting environmental sustainability and requires permanent monitoring for understanding its nonlinear trajectories of change over time and space. Environmental sustainability is linked to a theoretical definition of dynamic balance among various components contributing to the ecosystem quality and functioning.
Rapid development of shrimp farming may lead to unrecognized and undesirable changes of land cover/land use patterns in coastal areas. Of special concern is the loss of mangrove forest in coastal areas such as Quang Ninh, Vietnam, which is adjacent to the World Heritage-listed Ha Long Bay. Understanding the status and changes of land cover/land use for coastal shrimp farms and mangrove forests can support environmental protection and decision-making for sustainable development in coastal areas.
BACKGROUND: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) addresses the challenge of meeting the growing demand for food, fibre and fuel, despite the changing climate and fewer opportunities for agricultural expansion on additional lands. CSA focuses on contributing to economic development, poverty reduction and food security; maintaining and enhancing the productivity and resilience of natural and agricultural ecosystem functions, thus building natural capital; and reducing trade-offs involved in meeting these goals.
BACKGROUND: Ethiopia encompasses an extraordinary number of ecological zones and plant diversity. However, the diversity of plants is highly threatened due to lack of institutional capacity, population pressure, land degradation and deforestation. An adequate documentation of these plants also has not been conducted. The farmers in Ethiopia face serious and growing food insecurity caused by drought, land degradation and climate change. Thus, rural communities are dependent on underutilized wild edible plants to meet their food and nutritional needs.