Elevated participation in co-management increases the willingness of stalked barnacle harvesters to adopt highly restrictive and spatially explicit management strategies

A key challenge facing the management of many natural resources is how to achieve sustainable resource management outcomes that are beneficial to both the environment and resource users. Effective management is achieved when the interplay of ecological systems and social systems is understood. This understanding requires matching ecological systems with institutions used to manage human-environment interactions. However, the influence of institutions on resource users’ participation in natural resource governance is often not well understood, with literature focusing more on the influence of formal institutions. This book explores how the interactions between formal and informal institutions influence fisher folk participation in co-management within the context of Lake Victoria (Kenya). Although the institutional focus within co-management has been on formal institutions, the findings of this book show that informal institutions and power relations have a major influence on co-management outcomes. Based on the findings, this book shows the current structure of Lake Victoria (Kenya) co-management is inappropriate as an instrument for sustainable fisheries. It is, therefore, necessary to rethink the structure of Lake Victoria (Kenya) co-management and how it enables power sharing and inclusive participation for sustainable outcomes.

While researchers have encouraged more research on the causal chains between IT investments and firm performance, the results of empirical studies have been inconclusive. This is partly due to the exclusion of IT-business strategic alignment (known as strategic alignment). In particular, scholars have continuously called for research that addresses the antecedent factors that lead to the alignment. Moreover, the elusive link between strategic alignment and firm performance calls for further research into intermediate variables, which would in turn affect company performance. Furthermore, although there is significant literature on strategic alignment and its consequences, little progress has been made in developing a comprehensive theoretical understanding of how organizations can leverage strategic alignment types to positively influence firm performance.Therefore, this study has succeeded in developing a causal model illustrating the relationships between strategic alignment antecedents, strategic alignment, and firm performance through vital intermediary variables, namely explicit and tacit knowledge management (KM) strategies. Specifically, this study has examined the impact of IT-business strategic alignment antecedents in terms of interaction between business and IT managers, association between business and IT plans in terms of IS plans-reflect-business plans (ISP-BP) and business plans-reflect-IS plans (BP-ISP), shared knowledge between business and IT managers, and environmental uncertainty in terms of dynamism and heterogeneity; on ITbusiness strategic alignment in terms of managers’ exploitation and exploration activities; and finally the impact of IT-business strategic alignment on explicit and tacit KM strategies; and in turn on firm performance in terms of growth (i.e. accounting-based) and innovation (i.e. market-based) performances. Furthermore, in order to explore the above research relationships, the study utilizes the positivism paradigm while applying mixed-method techniques that acquired quantitative and qualitative data, in which such triangulation would help provided more insight into the issues studied in this research. Particularly, this study has tested the research model by conducting 152 survey questionnaires with public shareholding firms in Jordan. It examines the model by using dynamic panel data for the period 2000-2006 for the 152 Jordanian firms. This is by employing the generalised method of moment (GMM) technique, which supplies a set of results that is robust to the endogeneity of all explanatory variables, and to the presence of unobservable heterogeneity. After that, the study conducted several follow-up interviews in Jordan to further validate the research results. Therefore, the results obtained from the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique, generalised method of moment system, and supplementary interviews offer a valuable insight into the research questions. However, even though this study is the first research of its kind to incorporate different aspects of alignment antecedents, strategic alignment, explicit and tacit knowledge management strategies, and firm performance into an assessment instrument based on a model using structural equation modelling (SEM) and dynamic panel generalised method of moment (GMM) techniques, and several accompanying interviews to support interpreting the quantitative results, some limitations and directions for further research are discussed. Furthermore, since some of the research propositions were supported and some were not, and although this study has provided a detailed roadmap which researchers and practitioners can use to understand the resources required, realizing the potential values of their IT investments, future research is clearly needed to reveal better insights into the nature of these associations.

Bigeye tuna ( Thunnus obesus ) support a large commercial fishery in the Indian Ocean. However, explicit management strategies and harvest control rules are yet to be developed for the management of this fishery. We used a stochastic age-structured production model as an operating model to evaluate several potential management strategies under different assumptions of stock productivity. Five management strategies—constant fishing mortality, constant catch, quasi-constant catch, constant escapement, and status-dependent strategies—were evaluated and compared using the performance indicators including average catch, average spawning stock biomass, variation in catch, average fishing mortality and lowest biomass during the time period considered in the simulation. This study shows that (1) for the constant catch strategy, an annual catch of 90000 t would result in a low risk of stock being overfished while obtaining a stable catch; (2) for the constant fishing mortality strategy fishing mortality of 0.3 per year could yield a higher catch, but might have a high probability (64%) of stock dropping below the spawning stock biomass (SSB) that could achieve maximum sustainable yield ( SSB msy ); and (3) for the quasi-constant catch strategy an annual catch of 110000 t was sustainable if the current SSB was higher than SSB msy . Constant escapement and status-dependent strategies were robust with respect to different levels of virgin recruitment and steepness. This study suggests that it is important to incorporate uncertainties associated with key life history, fisheries and management processes in evaluating management strategies.

The authors assessed the capability of assays of activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) for supporting clinical decision algorithms for heparin therapies of varying complexity. Blood samples were collected prospectively in three explicit management strategies from 100 sequential patients for whom heparin dosage was adjusted for therapeutic monitoring, femoral venous sheath removal after cardiac catheterization, or heparinization after thrombolytic therapy. In two- and three-way decision algorithms, conventional and point-of-care aPTT assays agreed with heparin assays in approximately two thirds of cases, and the two aPTT assays agreed in 80% or more of all cases. In six-way decision algorithms, the two aPTT assays agreed in only about half of all cases. The authors conclude that the reliability of point-of-care aPTT assays is similar to that of conventional assays. Both techniques can support two- and three-way decision algorithms but not some more complex patient classifications.

This study investigated "thinking and behavioral" styles that are used to measure the concept of organizational culture among registered nurses (RNs) and unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs) in acute care hospitals. The Organizational Culture Inventory has been used in numerous industries, including hospitals, to describe aspects of organizational culture in order to better understand and manage change. Evidence shows that nursing unit and hospital culture tends to be "constructive" but little evidence indicates whether workers in different job categories influence the culture differently. This survey was conducted in five tertiary care hospitals on the west coast of the United States. The design is cross-sectional and analytic. A convenience sample was recruited from staff members working at least 20 hours per week in the adult medical-surgical and specialty nursing units. Analyses include descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Staff members of color, regardless of position, scored higher on the thinking and behavioral styles of approval, avoidance, and competitiveness. Unlicensed assistive personnel, regardless of race or ethnicity, scored higher on the thinking and behavioral styles dependence and opposition. Nurse administrators and managers should be aware of how the addition of unlicensed assistive personnel or people of color can change the culture of the nursing unit or hospital. Explicit management strategies may be necessary to promote employee behaviors that are desirable for patient care and for the organization.

In recent years, an increasing number of distribution maps of invasive alien plant species (IAPS) have been published using different machine learning algorithms (MLAs). However, for designing spatially explicit management strategies, distribution maps should include information on the local cover/abundance of the IAPS. This study compares the performances of five MLAs: gradient boosting machine in two different implementations, random forest, support vector machine and deep learning neural network, one ensemble model and a generalized linear model; thereby identifying the best‐performing ones in mapping the fractional cover/abundance and distribution of IPAS, in this case called Prosopis juliflora (SW. DC.). Field level Prosopis cover and spatial datasets of seventeen biophysical and anthropogenic variables were collected, processed, and used to train and validate the algorithms so as to generate fractional cover maps of Prosopis in the dryland ecosystem of the Afar Region, Ethiopia. Out of the seven tested algorithms, random forest performed the best with an accuracy of 92% and sensitivity and specificity >0.89. The next best‐performing algorithms were the ensemble model and gradient boosting machine with an accuracy of 89% and 88%, respectively. The other tested algorithms achieved comparably low performances. The strong explanatory variables for Prosopis distributions in all models were NDVI, elevation, distance to villages and distance to rivers; rainfall, temperature, near‐infrared and red reflectance, whereas topographic variables, except for elevation, did not contribute much to the current distribution of Prosopis. According to the random forest model, a total of 1.173 million ha (12.33% of the study region) was found to be invaded by Prosopis to varying degrees of cover. Our findings demonstrate that MLAs can be successfully used to develop fractional cover maps of plant species, particularly IAPS so as to design targeted and spatially explicit management strategies.

Many species distribution models (SDMs) incorporate external information, such as environmental or habitat features, yet the majority overlook age-specific information. Including age information may be particularly valuable for species exhibiting age-related spatial patterns driven by ontogenetic shifts, recruitment dynamics, and selective fishing pressures. Here, we develop an age-structured SDM framework using data from the west coast of the USA and concentrate on two species with distinct life histories: North Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) and sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria). We validate our approach by forecasting age classes across survey locations in future years; these results highlight that forecast models have predictive skill (sablefish more so than hake) and the predictive ability is highest for older age classes. Using predictions of age-1 sablefish as an example, we demonstrate how our models may be used to forecast future bycatch risk in space, helping increase the efficiency of fisheries. Our framework is applicable to a wide range of survey types and platforms around the world and supports the development of spatially explicit management strategies and optimal allocation of fishing effort.

A spatially explicit management strategy is presented for Kirtland’s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) habitat on the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The Hiawatha National Forest has a goal of continuously providing large patches of dense young jack pine for Kirtland’s warbler breeding habitat. The problem is challenging as patches of suitable habitat are relatively short lived, forcing large shifts in the location of large patches in the future. In this study, alternative management strategies for providing habitat are described, explicitly mapped, and compared on a 70,600 ha landscape in the context of implementing many desired conditions of the forest’s land management plan. Strategies are developed by using two interacting scheduling models. Comparisons address overall habitat levels, habitat spatial arrangement through time, and financial trade-offs. The financial cost of managing habitat is high and there are further financial trade-offs associated with aggregating habitat into large patches. Furthermore, the marginal cost of habitat increases as more habitat is added to the management system. Managers may use information about the added costs of spatially explicit habitat management to help evaluate the added benefits to the species. It is often expensive to establish wildlife habitat and desirable ecological conditions, but results show that there are potential benefits from using detailed computer-aided management scheduling tools to support the decision-making process.

Insect pests have garnered increasing interest because of anthropogenic global change, and their sustainable management requires knowledge of population habitat use and spread patterns. To enhance this knowledge for the prevalent tea pest Empoasca onukii, we utilized a random forest algorithm and a bivariate map to develop and integrate models of its habitat suitability and genetic connectivity across China. Our modeling revealed heterogeneous spatial patterns in suitability and connectivity despite the common key environmental predictor of isothermality. Analyses indicated that tea cultivation in areas surrounding the Tibetan Plateau and the southern tip of China may be at low risk of population outbreaks because of their predicted low suitability and connectivity. However, regions along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River should consider the high abundance and high recolonization potential of E. onukii, and thus the importance of control measures. Our results also emphasized the need to prevent dispersal from outside regions in the areas north of the Yangtze River and highlighted the effectiveness of internal management efforts in southwestern China and along the southeastern coast. Further projections under future conditions suggested the potential for increased abundance and spread in regions north of the Yangtze River and the southern tip of China, and indicated the importance of long-term monitoring efforts in these areas. These findings highlighted the significance of combining information on habitat use and spread patterns for spatially explicit pest management planning. In addition, the approaches we used have potential applications in the management of other pest systems and the conservation of endangered biological resources. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Invasive species management is often constrained by limited resources and complicated by ecological and socio-economic variability across landscapes, leading to inconsistent outcomes. We use water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) in South Africa as a case study to demonstrate how combining earth observation (EO) data, species distribution models (SDMs), and explainable artificial intelligence (xAI) can support more spatially explicit and context-sensitive management strategies. Despite decades of control efforts, water hyacinth remains widespread, with its proliferation shaped by ecological and socio-economic contexts in which the weed proliferates. Using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), we studied the environmental and socio-economic contexts impacting water hyacinth prevalence across multiple spatial scales in South Africa. Consistent patterns emerged with known physiological constraints, such as minimum temperature, while novel spatial trends were revealed—highlighting temperature effects along the coast and the role of vegetation type in inland regions. These insights offer opportunities for targeted fieldwork to investigate emergent non-linear relationships and interaction effects between covariates. The spatially explicit outputs, covering all South African water bodies, provide a low-cost, scalable tool to guide the prioritization of risk, inform monitoring and early detection efforts, and support the selection of locally appropriate management strategies. While focused on water hyacinth, our approach is generalizable to other invasive species, illustrating the value of integrating EO data and xAI to enhance understanding of species-environment dynamics and enable adaptive, data-driven intervention planning.

Substantive progress has been achieved in advancing emergency response interventions during disasters including assistance of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Explicit operational technical guidelines and management strategies have been successfully applied through the "cluster approach". In 2008-09 armed conflict in several districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan resulted in over 2.7 million IDPs. This report describes the response by the Pakistan government, assisted by the hosting populations and humanitarian partners, to deal with the crisis using the cluster approach to ensure the health protection of the IDPs, particularly mothers and children.

Since 1992, European Member States are legally committed to monitor the biodiversity in designated areas of community interest. This was the success of the European Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC; HabDir) which established a network of these NATURA 2000 sites where trends in area and the quality of the protected habitats have to be observed. To fulfill the Directive\'s reporting requirements, Earth observation (EO) techniques are regarded as crucial to effectively map and monitor habitat status and change dynamics. The derived information supports public authorities in implementing management strategies The shift from focusing on single species to protecting entire habitats is a step towards sustaining the natural environment sensu nature conservation in several aspects: (1) habitats have a large umbrella function providing living space to whole ecosystems and (2) habitat protection is area-effective meaning that habitats have critical spatial parameters of their integrity (such as connectivity etc.), which can be assessed mapped and managed. That results in a significant share of a country\'s territory is under direct concern. The potential of new concepts and methods combing EO data and in-situ measurements is currently investigated in the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) project MS.MONINA (www.ms-monina.eu) which aims at offering EO-based services to authorities on European, national and local level. The multiscale approach followed by the project reflects both the specific information requirements on different (political) implementation levels of the Directive and the ecological levels addressed, i.e. the level of single habitats, over habitat arrangements on site and range level, up to biogeographical regions. Local management of NATURA 2000 sites is required to regularly report on the conservation status including information on habitat range, area, quality, impacts and threats. Monitoring the changes also includes judging whether site conditions would improve or deteriorate. The latter triggers explicit management strategies in order to safeguard a favorable conservation status. Dependent on the occurring habitat types and pressures, specific information products are required from high-resolution satellite imagery. Such services shall be provided in a high operational level so to deliver the required information steadily and sound, but also user-focused. Several pilot sites all over Europe have been chosen in MS.MONINA to elaborate information products for different habitat types and user requirements. Heathlands, grasslands, estuaries, floodplains and riverine forests, as well as alpine meadows are among the habitats to be addressed. The anthropogenic impacts include farming, settlement land use, land abandonment and tourism. On the level of federal states or countries tools will be provided to monitor precious ecosystems outside the NATURA 2000 network of protected areas. On either level, services based on dedicated EO-based data helps foster a sustainable maintenance of precious ecosystems and reduce the loss of biodiversity.

Climate influences natural processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Consequently, climate change raises many challenges for sustainable forest management; among them, the integration of fire and forest management is increasingly discussed. We propose here an evaluation of the adaptive capacity of forest management under changing forest fire regimes under climate change in the boreal forest of Quebec. Adaptation begins by reinterpreting current practices dealing with climatically driven variability. Among them, fire suppression, and regeneration enhancement can contribute to coping with some impacts of climate change. However, there is an increasing need to develop more integrative and spatially explicit management strategies to decrease the vulnerability of forest management to changing fire risk. Some developing management strategies, such as fuel management or the triad approach (zoning system for conservation, intensive, and extensive forest management), present an interesting potential for integrating the fire risk in management plans. While fuel management and fire suppression are indicated for particularly severe fire regimes, protection against insects, and maintaining a shorter disturbance cycle using forest management represent the preferred adaptation options where the fire cycle is lengthening under climate change. Key words: forest fire, fire risk, climate change, vulnerability, impacts, adaptation strategy, adaptation options, sustainable forest management, fire management

PurposeIn the knowledge economy, the management of knowledge is important because the value of corporations and individuals is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. This is especially true for real estate management, which is of increasing concern to the public and plays an important role in the property market today. This paper aims to show the nature of property professionals' acquisition, sharing and reuse of knowledge in their work.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand the practices of knowledge management (KM) currently employed by property management firms, a study of the general practices of knowledge management in property management firms in Hong Kong was undertaken. This study described the notion of knowledge and knowledge management and investigated the norms of property professionals in acquiring, sharing and reusing knowledge in their daily practices. It also analyzed the relationship between size of firms and methods of knowledge acquisition and sharing. A questionnaire survey was conducted to study the opinions of professional property managers on the acquisition and reuse of knowledge and experience in their daily work. Questionnaires were sent to 103 PM firms with a response rate of 30 percent.FindingsThe survey results reveal that property managers mostly acquire their knowledge from the internet and newspapers. They also obtain knowledge from their colleagues and thus they are always important target persons with whom to share knowledge. In addition, property managers have close contact with professionals within and beyond their profession, allowing them to tap into and share knowledge across organizational boundaries. Although property managers are willing to share knowledge with others, there is no evidence to show that there are formal knowledge management strategies in PM firms. It seems that there is a need for explicit knowledge management strategies in property management, which could leverage their employees' knowledge assets.Research limitations/implicationsPast research that studied other types of knowledge workers may not be applicable to the unique nature of professionals working in the property management sector.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is that it examines the practices of property professionals in acquiring, sharing and reusing knowledge in their daily practices which have not been studied systematically before. This paper also makes suggestions for improving knowledge‐managing strategies in this profession to prevent knowledge loss.

A model of the real estate market is developed where the rent-vacancy trade-off also embeds selections on expenses. High expenses and rents or low expenses and rents are explicit strategies, positioning properties along an efficient isoprofit frontier. Instead of a rent-vacancy trade-off, the operator can select either gross or net rent, or some combination as an offset for vacancy. This macrostructure is more in keeping with observed real estate markets, where some managers focus on net operating income, and others on effective gross income. Empirical results for apartments in Portland, Oregon supports the hypothesis that expenses and rents are positively correlated. An aggressive expense-increasing strategy pays off in higher rents, though in not all cases is net operating income positive. There are two implications. First, incentives in management create strategies to maximize gross as opposed to net income. Second, rent-vacancy trade-offs that use gross income may misstate the adjustment toward equilibrium.