Alvar Aalto in Yyteri: Naturecultural quest for organic land use planning in the City of Pori, Finland

During the Holocene, the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River valley in China were pivotal areas for agricultural development. Quantitatively reconstructing the spatiotemporal changes in prehistoric human land use is essential for understanding, from a long-term perspective, the interactions among evolutions of climate, agriculture, and human activities. Based on 327 archaeological sites and the PLUM (prehistoric land use model), we quantitatively reconstructed human land use changes from 6 to 3 ka BP (thousands of years before the present) in the Tao River valley, the second-largest tributary in the upper reach of the Yellow River valley. The results indicated that regional land use areas increased from 571 km2 to 1468 km2, with spatial expansion from the lower reach to the upper–middle reach of the Tao River valley. A comparison of the five areas distributed across the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River valley revealed two different trends of increasing land use from 8 to 3 ka BP within these areas. The first group (the Wei River and Yiluo River valleys) exhibited rapid and substantial growth before 5 ka BP, while the second group (the Huangshui River and Tao River valleys, and the Yunlin district) showed a much slower and less significant increase before 5 ka BP, but a more obvious increase thereafter. The asynchronous increases in these areas indicate an expansion of land use from the southeastern part of the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River Valley to across the entire region between 8 and 3 ka BP, which was primarily driven by agricultural development and cultural communication.

Processes of land use change in mining regions

The city of Pori is situated in western Finland alongside the Kokemäki River. The river has an occasional tendency to flood. In the present situation the flood protection of Pori is inadequate. If the worst conceivable flood occurs, there is a hazard risk, which may mean that 15,000 people could lose their homes and they should be evacuated. In such case, the economical damage could amount to three billion euros. The aim of the flood protection project is to reduce the hazard risk caused by potential flooding of the Kokemäki River. In the framework of the project, three different alternative solutions have preliminarily been designed for the Pori city center area. The alternatives would for the most part be realized with structures consisting of soil: flood dams and additional canals to be built. Because of geology of the area, the geotechnical feasibility of these structures is challenging. The bedrock (sandstone) in the area lies 50–100 m below the ground surface, which has caused the river valley to be filled with homogeneous erosion-prone sediment soil, drifted by the river. The soil mainly consists either of clayey silt prone to erode, or lean or fat clay. The geotechnical feasibility and condition of preliminarily designed structures and existing riverbanks were evaluated with the help of stability analyses. The stability designing conditions were determined, considering that they differ considerably from those of road and railway structures. Field and laboratory research helped to decide whether an effective stress analysis or total stress analysis should be used. Effective strength parameters and undrained shear strength to be used in the stability calculations were determined on the basis of field and laboratory research. Effective shear strength parameters for the design sections were defined using stress path diagrams of triaxial tests and various indirect relations. With the help of stability analyses, it became obvious that the present stability of the riverbanks is poor. Slope failures occur from time to time in the area. In the worst places the condition of the banks can endanger health or even threaten human lives. Water erodes the riverbanks, and therefore, the stability of the riverbanks deteriorates all the time. Because of poor stability and erosion, all new structures should be made so that the river slope is gentle enough, or alternatively other measures should be used to improve the stability. All new structures should also be protected from erosion.

Policy lessons from spatiotemporal enrollment patterns of payment for ecosystem service programs in Argentina

Soil organic matter (SOM) influences a wide range of ecosystem processes, including nutrient cycling, water movement, plant productivity, and biodiversity. In agricultural landscapes, adjacent land uses often differ in SOM contents and related soil properties, such as soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, but the direction and magnitude of these effects are inconsistent across studies. We assessed how land uses differed in SOM and related properties in a representative US Midwest agricultural–forest landscape to support land‐use and management decisions by local landowners and producers. We measured SOM, bulk density (Db), root biomass, and pH, and estimated SOC stocks, in a Typic Hapludalf under four adjacent land uses (permanent forest, pasture, restored prairie on former pasture, and spruce plantation on former pasture). Surface SOM concentrations and stocks were higher under permanent forest (89 g kg−1 and 85 Mg ha−1, respectively) and pasture (63 g kg−1 and 81 Mg ha−1, respectively) than under restored prairie (49 g kg−1 and 58 Mg ha−1, respectively) and spruce plantation (46 g kg−1 and 46 Mg ha−1, respectively). Land uses also differed in Db, root biomass, and pH, with permanent forest and spruce plantation soils having generally lower Db, more root biomass, and more acidic pH than pasture and restored prairie soils. Specific statistically significant differences depended upon depth in the soil profile. Overall, our results suggest that each land use differentially impacts a unique set of soil properties, precluding any single explanation or management recommendation aimed at improving soil health as a whole.

Climate change issues are contemporary global phenomena which affect the largest part of the world in different ways. This paper explores how local communities living in sensitive ecological areas, particularly in river valleys, respond to and adapt to climate change. By employing a qualitative research approach, findings have indicated that heavy rainfall and prolonged droughts coupled with population increase have led to land use changes and loss of biodiversity in the river valley. In turn, 37% of villagers have decided to shift from rain-fed to irrigated agriculture, 34% move to other areas during the heavy rain season while 29% have shifted from agricultural activities. However, due to limited resources and technology, the strategies adapted have not provided satisfactory results. For this case, dam construction in the upper stream and dredging of Miwaleni springs can improve livelihood social and economic activities in the village and sustain biodiversity and ecosystem in the river valley.

In Finland the construction of post-war neighbourhoods started in 1950, but its ideological background was in the planning of the 1940s. As has been shown, the principles of Anglo-American neighbourhood unit planning and regional planning influence the structural principles that were adopted for neighbourhood units. This paper presents another narrative for the period by analysing the work of the architect Alvar Aalto, who was a pioneer of Finnish regional planning and was significantly active in community planning. After having established good relations with Finnish industry, he got the chance to develop his own community planning principles. They became close to the principles of neighbourhood unit planning but, at the same time, were personal and extended beyond them. This paper examines in closer detail three of Aalto's plans and the way he combined planning and building design. In this way it is possible to better understand the ideas of the 1940s and the importance of Finnish industry during this time. Aalto's activity during the 1940s also explains his success in later decades.

An iterative runoff propagation approach to identify priority locations for land cover change minimizing downstream river flood hazard

Etude de la mobilite des groupes aurignaciens du bassin de la Vezere a partir de l'economie de la matiere premiere lithique et de la saisonnalite animale. Ces elements fournissent des donnees nouvelles sur l'extension du territoire exploite, sur le degre de sedentarisation et de saisonnalite humaine

GC: Your professional life is closely tied to New York City, but the Second City [Chicago] was the first chronologically. What about your life in Chicago was significant to your subsequent career in anthropology? SS: The Chicago time of my life had everything to do with the way I've functioned since. I was born in the shadow of the 1933 World's Fair, in the middle of the Depression, into an Orthodox Jewish family, the youngest of seven children. My parents had both immigrated from Lithuania as young adults. My father was a rabbi, a scholar, a teacher. To support his family he became a ritual slaughterer of poultry. He came from a distinguished line of rabbis and scholars. My mother came from a simpler background and only went through the third grade. While she was raising all her children and also supporting the family during the war years, she went back to school to get her 8th-grade diploma, and her ambition was to get her high school diploma. She was an extremely intelligent woman who could do everything: she was a dressmaker, a professional cook, had a talent for business; she helped all her brothers and sisters get started in business. She gave me a sense that everything was possible for me.

Reconstructing valley landscapes. GIS-analyses of past land use changes in three Flemish river valleys since the late 18th century

Our landscapes and watercourses face intense pressures from climate extremes, land use change, declining biodiversity and increased demand for water resources. It is increasingly proposed that by working with natural processes, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can increase resilience to these pressures, providing multiple environmental and societal benefits.Beavers are the archetypal ecosystem engineers and keystone species, which can profoundly alter ecosystem structure and function, creating complex wetland environments (Brazier et al., 2021). Research has shown the return of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) to European landscapes can provide multiple benefits including for biodiversity and water resource management (Puttock et al., 2021). However, beaver activity such as damming and tree-felling within our intensively managed and populated landscapes can also conflict with existing land use (Auster et al., 2019). Therefore, management and policy frameworks are required which mitigate conflicts and maximise the NbS benefits beavers can bring.The Making Space for Water Programme (Barclay et al., 2023) will be introduced, which aims to support land managers to build a network of nature rich wetlands across South West England. This project led by Devon Wildlife Trust, in partnership with the University of Exeter and local landowners is the first of its kind in the UK, aiming to work with wild beavers to deliver natural solutions to address societal challenges.  Case studies will be presented discussing how geospatial mapping and modelling, stakeholder engagement and green finance approaches are being implemented to make catchments ‘beaver ready’, target financial support and enable NbS to deliver significant and lasting benefits. It is hoped that the approach adopted in this project alongside discussion of challenges and benefits can contribute towards progress in the mainstreaming of nature-led NbS approaches.ReferencesAuster, R. E., Puttock, A., & Brazier, R. (2019). Unravelling perceptions of Eurasian beaver reintroduction in Great Britain. Area, area.12576. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12576Barclay, H., Holden, M., Puttock, A., & Burgess, P. (2023) Making Space for Water: Investing in nature-based solutions with beavers. https://www.flipsnack.com/devonwildlifetrust/dwt-beaver-green-finance-programme/full-view.htmlBrazier, R. E., Puttock, A., Graham, H. A., Auster, R. E., Davies, K. H. & Brown, C. M. . (2021). Beaver: Nature’s ecosystem engineers. WIREs Water. DOI:10.1002/wat2.1494Puttock, A., Graham, H. A., Ashe, J., Luscombe, D. J. & Brazier, R. E. (2021). Beaver dams attenuate flow: A multi‐site study. Hydrological Processes, 35(2), e14017. DOI:10.1002/hyp.14017

Human impact on regional groundwater composition through intervention in natural flow patterns and changes in land use

Large lowland river valleys include a variety of floodplain environments that represent opportunities and constraints for human activities. This study integrates extensive field observations and geomorphic data with analysis of satellite remote sensing data to examine spatial relations between land use/land cover (LULC) and floodplain environments in the lower Pánuco basin of eastern Mexico. The floodplain of the lower Pánuco basin was delineated by combining a digital elevation model with a satellite image of a large flood event. The LULC was classified by combining a hybrid classification strategy with image stratification, applied to 15-m-resolution ASTER data. A geomorphic classification of floodplain environments was performed using a dry-stage image (ASTER data) and a 1993 Landsat image acquired during a large flood event. Accuracy assessment was based on aerial photographs (1:38,000), global positioning satellite ground-truthing, and a Landsat 7ETM(+) image from 2000, which resulted in an overall accuracy of 82.9% and a KHAT of 79.8% for the LULC classification. The geomorphic classification yielded 83.5% overall accuracy, whereas the KHAT was 81.5%. LULC analysis was performed for the entire floodplain and individually within four valley segments. The analysis indicates that the study area is primarily utilized for grazing and farming. Agriculture is primarily associated with coarse-grained (sandy/silty) natural levee and point bar units close to the river channel, whereas cattle grazing occurs in distal and lower-lying reaches dominated by cohesive fine-grained (clayey) deposits, such as backswamps. In the Pánuco valley, wetlands and lakes occur within backswamp environments, whereas in the Moctezuma segments, wetlands and lakes are associated with relict channels. This study reveals considerable variation in LULC related to spatial differences in floodplain environments and illustrates the importance of considering older anthropogenic influences on the landscape. The research design should be applicable for other large lowland coastal plain river valleys where agriculture is a major component of the floodplain landscape.

The change in land use leads to territorial spatial conflict. Territorial spatial conflicts mainly show that the boundaries of agricultural space, urban space, and ecological space overlap each other and interfere with each other’s functions, which will have a negative impact on regional high-quality development. The Aksu River, the most principal source of the Tarim River, the largest instream river in China, is a key area for maintaining ecological security in Northwestern China. It is highly significant to identify the spatial conflict characteristics of land use in this region to promote the sustainable use of regional land resources, optimization of spatial patterns, and the balance between economic construction and ecological environmental protection in mountainous areas. This paper takes the Aksu River Basin as the research area. Using Arcgis 10.8 software, Yaahp software, and SPSSAU software, it builds a land use spatial conflict measurement model based on a quantitative analysis of land use changes from 1990 to 2020 and explores the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of land use conflicts in the Aksu River Basin. The results show that: (1) From 1990 to 2020, the spatial conflict pattern of the study area was dominated by ecological spatial conflicts. The spatial conflict area shows dynamic changes, but the overall trend is decreasing. (2) The spatial conflict pattern of territorial space in the Aksu River Basin has basically formed, and the three types of spatial conflicts are closely related to the level of local economic development. (3) Ecological spatial conflicts are mainly distributed in high-altitude mountains, river valleys, and oasis-to-desert transition areas. Urban spatial conflicts are mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Aksu River plain oasis. Agricultural spatial conflicts are scattered but large in scale, with small differences in the proportion of conflict distribution among the counties.