Abstract
This paper presents the PESERA-DESMICE integrated model developed in the EU FP6 DESIRE project. PESERA-DESMICE combines a process-based erosion prediction model extended with process descriptions to evaluate the effects of measures to mitigate land degradation, and a spatially-explicit economic evaluation model to evaluate the financial viability of these measures. The model operates on a grid-basis and is capable of addressing degradation problems due to wind and water erosion, grazing and fire. It can evaluate the effects of improved management strategies such as maintaining soil cover, retention of crop residues, irrigation, water harvesting, terracing and strip cropping. These management strategies introduce controls to various parameters slowing down degradation processes. The paper first describes how the physical impact of the various management strategies is assessed. It then continues to evaluate the applicability limitations of the various mitigation options, and to inventory the spatial variation in the investment and maintenance costs involved for each of a series of technologies that are deemed relevant in a given study area. The physical effects of the implementation of the management strategies relative to the situation without mitigation are subsequently valuated in monetary terms. The model pays particular attention to the spatial variation in the costs and benefits involved as a function of environmental conditions and distance to markets. All costs and benefits are added to a cash flow and a discount rate is applied. This allows a cost-benefit analysis to be performed over a comparative planning period based on the economic lifetime of the technologies being evaluated. It is assumed that land users will only potentially implement technologies if they are financially viable. After this framework has been set-up, various analyses can be made, including the effect of policy options on the potential uptake of mitigation measures and an analysis of where cost-effectiveness is highest. Apart from model description, we present case studies of the use of the framework to illustrate its functioning and relevance for policy-making.
Highlights
Land degradation, the human-induced reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of agroecosystems (UNCCD, 1994), is a pressing development problem of global dimensions
As explained and illustrated above, the PESERA-DESMICE framework allows grid-based assessment of spatial variability of biophysical impact and economic viability of land degradation mitigation technologies. It thereby considers both spatial variability in costs and effectiveness. This adds an additional variable in terms of variable implementation/establishment cost compared to similar assessments documented in the literature, e.g., by Heckbert et al (2012) for prescribed fire and Evans et al (2015) for assisted natural regeneration
The framework overcomes a number of challenges to incorporate inputs from multiple stakeholders in very different contexts into the modeling process, in order to enhance both the realism and relevance of outputs for policy and practice
Summary
The human-induced reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of agroecosystems (UNCCD, 1994), is a pressing development problem of global dimensions. For a time series, there are options to include random fires (drawn at random with the calculated fire probability) and managed fires (regularly applied in a selected month of the year) These fires are assumed to destroy a fixed fraction of the vegetation biomass over the fire area, reducing the biomass in the grid cell, with knock-on effects to runoff and erosion in subsequent years (Esteves et al, 2012). Minimum tillage was considered here for both rainfed and irrigated maize crops This was one of the few study sites for which a landforms map existed, allowing to assess the quality of the DESMICE landforms submodel output described in Section Evaluating Applicability Limitations of Strategies. PSNSFM as recorded in experiments and elicited from experts and local stakeholders
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