Critical Natural Resources Research Articles

How do individuals and groups perceive wetland functioning? Fuzzy cognitive mapping of wetland perceptions in Uganda

Wetlands are critical natural resources around the globe, providing many direct and indirect benefits to local communities. However, wetland degradation and conversion to other land uses are widespread. Sustainable wetland management requires an understanding of stakeholders’ perceptions of the ecosystem and its management. This paper uses fuzzy cognitive mapping to capture individual stakeholder perceptions and group knowledge of wetland ecosystems in order to assess areas of consensus and opposing interests between different stakeholders and to develop future management scenarios. For this purpose, the Rushebeya-Kanyabaha wetland, which is one of the few wetlands in southwest Uganda that is still largely intact, is used as a case study. Our findings reveal differences in perceptions between different resource users. Papyrus harvesters, beekeepers, fishermen, wetland non-users, and hunters associate the largest livelihood benefits with a wetland conservation scenario, while farmers and government officials perceive increased agricultural production in the wetland area to be more livelihood enhancing. This poses a challenge to sustainable wetland management. The scenario results also suggest that centralized top-down laws and rules on wetland use are not sufficient for maintaining the wetland ecosystem. Therefore, there is a need to develop shared understanding through bottom-up approaches to wetland management that are nested within national regulatory frameworks, ideally combined with awareness building and knowledge sharing on the ecological benefits of the wetland.

Improving Groundwater Management for Indian Agriculture: Assessing Tradeoffs Across Policy Instruments

Despite efforts to reform management of water resources, groundwater levels have continued to decline steadily in key aquifers across India, leading to serious environmental concerns and impacts. While policy makers have looked to efforts aimed at improving the efficiency of field-level irrigation and strengthening ownership and property rights in local resource management, hydrologists have asserted that more direct control of consumptive use patterns of water is needed. In this paper, we illustrate the divergence between current groundwater usage patterns and an optimal path, in which the groundwater levels are stabilized with better demand-side management. The paper assesses the tradeoffs embedded in alternative policy instruments that are aimed at modifying the groundwater pumping behavior of agricultural water users. The challenges of regulating smallholder agricultural water users are shown to be relevant in determining which instrument might have the best chance of slowing the depletion of groundwater resources in the hard-rock aquifers of India, and promoting the long-run sustainability of this critical natural resource.

What Is the Distance Between Objects in a Data Set?: A Brief Review of Distance and Similarity Measures for Data Analysis.

Digitally recorded data have become another critical natural resource in our current research environment. This reality is one of the tremendous victories for decades of research in computer engineering, computer science, electronics, and communications. While this scenario will continue to be the case in the future, our current era has also marked the beginning of another unstoppable activity that is intimately related to digitally stored data: extracting knowledge and information from such data. Digital data are recorded in different forms and at unprecedented scales. Examples include database tables in every business entity; Tweets; e-mails and text documents; audio and speech signals; seismic data (recorded as temporal multidimensional tensors); video data (possibly stored with other modalities such as audio and captions); graphs representing relations and interactions among different entities (links among web documents, users on social networks, devices on computer networks, or gene interaction networks); and images, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and more. Because of their different forms and structures, throughout this article, each datum in a data set will be referred to as an object.Digitally recorded data have become another critical natural resource in our current research environment. This reality is one of the tremendous victories for decades of research in computer engineering, computer science, electronics, and communications. While this scenario will continue to be the case in the future, our current era has also marked the beginning of another unstoppable activity that is intimately related to digitally stored data: extracting knowledge and information from such data. Digital data are recorded in different forms and at unprecedented scales. Examples include database tables in every business entity; Tweets; e-mails and text documents; audio and speech signals; seismic data (recorded as temporal multidimensional tensors); video data (possibly stored with other modalities such as audio and captions); graphs representing relations and interactions among different entities (links among web documents, users on social networks, devices on computer networks, or gene interaction networks); and images, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and more. Because of their different forms and structures, throughout this article, each datum in a data set will be referred to as an object.

Teaching and Learning of ‘Water for Agriculture’ in Primary Schools in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe

Teaching youths about the subject of water for agriculture is vital in southern Africa where climate adaptation is imperative. Fresh water is a critical natural resource experiencing dangerous scarcity globally, with climate change and variability being key drivers. Agriculture consumes most of the allocated water in most of the southern African countries, so this sector needs particular water harvesting and conservation education. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that 93% of cultivated land in southern Africa was rain-fed at the beginning of the 21st century. Drought hinders effective agricultural practices in poor-rainfall areas and is a common feature in most southern African countries. Increasingly frequent drought events affect Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe chronically due to climate variability and change. These three countries have school curricula that carry agricultural and sustainability learning to varying extents. Agriculture is taught as a science subject, and tends to be inclined towards normative technicist approaches at the expense of traditional and innovative sustainability practices. This omission in curriculum development and teaching may miss the opportunity to learn from lessons offered by these traditional and innovative systems that have demonstrated resilience to climate variability and change. This paper explores the opportunities and enablers of sustainability learning and relevance in the primary school agriculture curricula of these three countries. The paper argues for inclusion of sustainable agricultural water learning as an act of educational quality and relevance that reflects 21st century socio-ecological, agro-climate and socioeconomic challenges in southern Africa. Key words: primary school, water for agriculture, rainwater harvesting and conservation, learning.

Components of business concepts for the diffusion of large scaled environmental technology systems

Strategies for sustainable development are arguably part of the most discussed issues among political and corporate actors. These discussions are spurred by global challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and critical natural resource depletion. Sustainable development will require deep structural and wide-reaching changes in current institutions, technologies, and businesses. Furthermore, new approaches are needed to facilitate the development, diffusion, and implementation of environmental technologies. In the academic discourse different concepts, e.g., ecodesign and Product/Service System design, have been proposed within the framework of sustainable development. To deliver even more system-wide environmental improvements, these concepts have been challenged to be expanded in focus beyond products and services to include large technical systems encompassing non-technological dimensions. Motivated by these, the goal of this article is twofold. First, to offer an expanded view on ecodesign of Product/Service Systems using a perspective of large technical systems. Second, to propose and discuss important components to consider when developing business concepts for the diffusion of large scaled environmental technology systems such as district heating supply, waste management, and renewable energy systems. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and company documentation analysis, this study examines five companies that develop and diffuse large scaled environmental technology systems. As a result of these case studies, we propose components of business concepts that incorporate both technological and non-technological dimensions. Our proposed business concept components are: market (including regulation), finance, resources, activities, partnership (especially public-private partnership), ownership and responsibility, and legitimacy. Regulation, public-private partnership, and legitimacy are particularly important in the diffusion of large scaled environmental technology systems.

Toward enhanced understanding and projections of climate extremes using physics-guided data mining techniques

Abstract. Extreme events such as heat waves, cold spells, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, and tornadoes have potentially devastating impacts on natural and engineered systems and human communities worldwide. Stakeholder decisions about critical infrastructures, natural resources, emergency preparedness and humanitarian aid typically need to be made at local to regional scales over seasonal to decadal planning horizons. However, credible climate change attribution and reliable projections at more localized and shorter time scales remain grand challenges. Long-standing gaps include inadequate understanding of processes such as cloud physics and ocean–land–atmosphere interactions, limitations of physics-based computer models, and the importance of intrinsic climate system variability at decadal horizons. Meanwhile, the growing size and complexity of climate data from model simulations and remote sensors increases opportunities to address these scientific gaps. This perspectives article explores the possibility that physically cognizant mining of massive climate data may lead to significant advances in generating credible predictive insights about climate extremes and in turn translating them to actionable metrics and information for adaptation and policy. Specifically, we propose that data mining techniques geared towards extremes can help tackle the grand challenges in the development of interpretable climate projections, predictability, and uncertainty assessments. To be successful, scalable methods will need to handle what has been called "big data" to tease out elusive but robust statistics of extremes and change from what is ultimately small data. Physically based relationships (where available) and conceptual understanding (where appropriate) are needed to guide methods development and interpretation of results. Such approaches may be especially relevant in situations where computer models may not be able to fully encapsulate current process understanding, yet the wealth of data may offer additional insights. Large-scale interdisciplinary team efforts, involving domain experts and individual researchers who span disciplines, will be necessary to address the challenge.

Variations in tidal flats of the Changjiang (Yangtze) estuary during 1950s–2010s: Future crisis and policy implication

Tidal flat, is a critical natural resource for coastal ecosystem and plays a tremendous role in coastal sustainable development. However, most tidal flats in the world are facing serious challenges from both natural change and anthropogenic activities. Based on the multi-year monitoring records of tidal flats in the Changjiang (Yangtze) Estuary, the temporal-spatial changes of tidal flats and possible driving factors were statistically examined. The results indicate that the increased rate of the majority of tidal flats in the Changjiang Estuary has become slow since 2000s. Tidal flats of both Hengsha and Jiuduan Shoal showed minor enlarged trends from 2004 to 2009. However, Tidal flat areas of Nanhui Shoal above 0 m had greatly decreased by 80.8% from 1958 to 2012. Even though estuarine hydraulic engineering structures can mitigate tidal flats decreased trends, the tidal flats of the Changjiang Estuary will still suffer significant losses due to the decreasing sediment flux from upstream, ground subsidence, sea level rise and recent intensive reclamation. Thereafter, the adaptive management strategies for sustainable tidal flat resources of the Changjiang Estuary are as follows: (1) Proceeding comprehensive adjustment involving watershed and estuary; (2) keeping balance between reclamation and rebirth of tidal flats; (3) coping with sea level rise; (4) scientifically promoting aggradation of tidal flats.

The changes of renewable water resources in China during 1956–2010

Water is a critical natural resource upon which all social and economic activities and ecosystem functions depend. With a surprising social and economic development in the past decades, water has become an important constraint for China's sustainable development, and a matter concerning economic security, ecological security and national security of the country. Understanding the changes of water resources is greatly helpful in analyzing the impacts of climatic change, formulating plans for utilization and protection of water resources, and making water resource decisions. Based on China's national water resources assessment, the Mann-Kendall's test, and Morlet wavelet, we analyzed the changing trends and periods of China's renewable water resources during 1956-2010. The results as following: (1) There is no significant change trend of water resources on the countrywide scale during the period 1956-2010, the total water resources show a slight increasing trend, and the national annual average water resources during the period 1991-2010 increased by 1% relative to that of the period 1961-1990. (2) The changes of water resources in different level-I water resource regions vary significantly. Annual average water resources of the Haihe River and Yellow River regions in the northern China decreased 19% and 17% respectively in the past 20 years. Water resource increased in Southern and Northwestern rivers regions, particularly in the Northwest rivers region, with the increasing amplitude by nearly 10% in the past 20 years. (3) The inter-annual variation of national water resource became larger in the past 20 years, as compared with that of the period 1961-1990. The coefficients of water resource variation increased in Northwestern and Southwestern rivers regions, while the inter-annual variation tended to decrease in the Haihe and the Yellow River regions where significant decline of water resources happened. (4) A 14-year quasi-periodicity of the national water resource variation was detected, overlapping with various periodicities of water resources of different level-I water resource regions. Remarkable uniformity exists between the first or secondary primary periodicity of water resource variation in adjacent level-I water resource regions.

Foreclosing the future: the World Bank and the politics of environmental destruction

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has vowed that his institution will fight poverty and climate change, a claim that World Bank presidents have made for two decades. But if worldwide protests and reams of damning internal reports are any indication, it is doing just the opposite. By funding development projects and programmes that warm the planet and destroy critical natural resources on which the poor depend, the Bank has been hurting the very people it claims to serve. What explains this blatant contradiction? If anyone has the answer, it is arguably Bruce Rich - a lawyer and expert in public international finance who has for the last three decades studied the Bank's institutional contortions, the real-world consequences of its lending, and the politics of the global environmental crisis. What emerges from the bureaucratic dust is a disturbing and gripping story of corruption, larger-than-life personalities, perverse incentives, and institutional amnesia. The World Bank is the Vatican of development finance, and its dysfunction plays out as a reflection of the political hypocrisies and failures of governance of its 188 member countries. Foreclosing the Future shows how the Bank's failure to address the challenges of the 21st century has implications for everyone in an increasingly interdependent world. Rich depicts how the World Bank is a microcosm of global political and economic trends - powerful forces that threaten both environmental and social ruin.

Importance of National Policy and Local Interpretation in Designing Payment for Forest Environmental Services Scheme for the Ta Leng River Basin in Northeast Vietnam

The Leng River basin in BacKan province, northwest Vietnam hosts critical natural resources where lessons learnt from the pilot project of payment for forest environmental services (PFES) in Lam Dong and Son La provinces can be applied. PFES is broadly defined as an economic instrument that facilitates payments of forest environmental service flows to forest dwellers. The passage of a national PFES Decree in Vietnam where the K-factor framework was used to determine the payment level of environmental services created both opportunities and challenges in the design and implementation of PFES schemes.This paper presents how the national PFES policy was adapted, and how lessons in the pilot provinces were considered in developing a local PFES scheme. Important considerations and criteria for determining K-factors to standardize payments for similar environmental services, as well as the proposed PFES scheme for the Leng River Basin are discussed. The paper concludes that national policy framework and local interpretation of K-factors are crucially important in designing a PFES scheme that meets the realistic and pro-poor elements of PES. Finally, a PFES scheme must have detailed implementing guidelines that are developed with local stakeholders.

Valuing Water In Dry Land Tourism Regions

Water, particularly fresh water, is one of the most critical and scarce natural resources. It is well documented that the tourism industry over-uses water resources by at least a factor of two over permanent residents. In some regions of the world, where tourism is a major industry, this can result in water shortages and degradation of water supplies, as well as increased production of waste water. Water scarcity in some areas has also led to increased interest in water recycling, desalination, improved water storage capabilities and water conservation measures in order to provide greater water security into the future. This paper aims to review and analyse the current literature concerning water management initiatives in the tourism sector and the contrast between water demand and supply for sustainable tourism. The diverse nature of tourism activities makes the analysis of water uses and impacts quite different to other sectors such as agriculture or manufacturing. In effect tourism is defined on the basis of consumption rather than production and there are many ways of consuming water in tourism. The aim of this paper is to identify issues associated with water use and tourism in semi-arid or dryland environments and to inform a wider research project that aims to map the uses of water in tourism, to establish a water valuation method that considers the consumptive nature of tourism and to develop a model to guide tourism policy to achieve sustainable water use for tourism enterprises and communities.

Human Perceptions on Degradation of Wetland Ecosystems: The Case of Magwenzi Wetland in Chivi District; Zimbabwe

Wetlands are critical natural resources that serve various purposes including environmental, hydrological and socioeconomic functions. However, this important resource is so fragile and has suffered deterioration due to human activities such as cultivation, grazing, water abstraction among others. Several current studies have studied wetland ecosystem changes using GIS and remote sensing and other scientific methods. These studies lack information on people’s perceptions. In this study, degradation of Magwenzi wetland ecosystem was assessed based on local people’s perceptions. The Story Telling Approach (STA), questionnaire surveys, interviews and field observations were used to collect data. Stratified random sampling technique was used in the selection of respondents. The study found that human activities such as wetland cultivation, water abstraction and cattle grazing have resulted in the alteration of ecosystem functions and interactions. There have been reported changes in land cover, species richness, species evenness and the hydrology of the wetland. We conclude that humans perceive themselves as the critical driving force behind ecosystem degradation as their activities negatively affect wetland ecosystems by changing the type, number and interactions of vegetative and animal species on the wetland.

Life Cycle Assessment of Advanced Industrial Wastewater Treatment Within an Urban Environment

SummaryA dissolved air flotation (DAF) system upgrade was proposed for an urban paper mill to recycle effluent. To understand the influence of operating variables on the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water consumption, a dynamic supply chain model was linked with life cycle assessment (LCA) to produce an environmental inventory. Water is a critical natural resource, and understanding the environmental impacts of recycling water is paramount in continued development of sustainable supply chains involving water. The methodology used in this study bridged the gap between detailed process models and static LCA modeling so that operating variables beyond discrete scenario analysis could be investigated without creating unnecessarily complex models. The model performed well in evaluating environmental impacts. It was found that there was no single optimum operating regime for all environmental impacts. For a mill discharging 80 cubic meters of effluent per hour (m3/hour), GHGs could be minimized with a DAF capacity of 17.5 m3/hour, while water consumption could be minimized with a DAF capacity of 25 m3/hour, which allowed insight into where environmental trade‐offs would occur. The study shows that more complexity can be achieved in supply chain modeling without requiring a full technical model. It also illustrates the need to consider multiple environmental impacts and highlights the trade‐off of GHG emissions with water consumption in water recycling. The supply chain model used in this water treatment case study was able to identify the environmental trade‐offs from the operating variables selected.

Nature based Tourism, Opportunities of Indigenous Women and Their Empowerment: A North East Indian Perspective

The trade-off between economic development and the environmental quality is a wellknown phenomenon. Till a nation become very highly developed and learn how to manage environment or critical natural resources while undertaking various developmental socio-economic activities the growth process becomes unsustainable. Hence a debate has always been there in regard to the sustainability of the growth process and the preservation of natural resources and maintaining inter-generational as well as intra-generational equity. It is found that the poorer especially the indigenous people, whose livelihood are highly dependent on the natural resource extraction are the worst victim of the natural resource degradation that are caused by the socio-economic activities undertaken by the state as well the richer section of any society. Hence, there is a strong inter-linkage between social and economic activity, sustainability of the resource use and environmental quality. In the context of aforesaid background, nature based tourism that has been one of the fastest growing economic activities in the world during past few decades can be a better option for the maintenance of sustainable welfare along with the preservation of natural wealth. Ecotourism has thus become a buzzword of the time. The indigenous people especially the women have been found to be involved in selling a large number of handloom and handicrafts product that has been prepared from the locally collected minor forest products. Moreover, the development of scope of employment and income in the growing hospitality sector and transport business with the growing demand by the nature loving tourists has created an opportunity for sustainable environmental management at the regional level for the livelihood itself. This paper tries to explore how a substantial section of indigenous population of North East India manage their livelihood through the growing nature based tourism activities through the maintenance of nature itself. Not only that the women who are involved in such activities are empowered in their indigenous rural set up. It is examined on the basis of empirical observation through a primary survey conducted in three prime tourist sites in Meghalaya, the areas of highest rainfall zone in the world. The pleasant climate and the beauty of natural forest are the prime attractions of the visitors over the years.

A Natural Resource Scarcity Typology: Theoretical Foundations and Strategic Implications for Supply Chain Management

World population growth and increased consumption stemming from economic leveling are leading to scarcity of a number of natural resources on a global scale. Scarcity of critical natural resources such as oil, water, food, and precious metals has the potential to greatly impact commercial activity as the twenty‐first century progresses. The challenge of continuing to provide needed goods and services in the face of these constraints falls to supply chain managers, who are ultimately responsible for delivering utility to customers. Unfortunately, there has been almost no research focused on supply chain strategies aimed at mitigating natural resource scarcity’s (NRS) potential effects. The current research positions NRS as a supply chain risk and proposes an NRS typology based on key resource attributes. Supply chain mitigation strategies to counter each resource status are offered, with an overall objective of improving supply chain performance. The study recommends future research aimed at further developing theory and methods for countering NRS based on resource, systems and behavioral theories. In addition, this study has critical implications for practitioners faced with the growing threat of NRS in their supply chains.

Hunting and Morality as Elements of Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Contemporary subsistence hunting practices of North American Indians have been questioned because of hunters’ use of modern technologies and integration of wage-based and subsistence livelihoods. Tribal traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been questioned on similar grounds and used as justification for ignoring tribal perspectives on critical natural resource conservation and development issues. This paper examines hunting on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in North Central Wisconsin, USA. The study used semi-structured interviews with hunters from the reservation to document their contemporary hunting practices and the traditional moral code that informs their hunting-related behaviors and judgments. Subsistence hunting is framed in the context of TEK and attention focused on the interplay between TEK’s practical and moral dimensions. Results indicate the importance of traditional moral codes in guiding a community’s contemporary hunting practices and the inseparability and interdependence of epistemological, practical, and ethical dimensions of TEK.

Von Thünen e o abastecimento madeireiro de centros urbanos pré-industriais

Wood was a critical natural resource to the metabolism of pre-industrial urban centers, both as a building material and as an energy source. Due to the low value/volume ratio of wood products, wood economy was largely determined by transport costs. Thus, a theoretical framework that may be important to understanding the phenomenon of pre-industrial wood supply is Von Thunen’s theory about the effect of distance from market on the spatial structure of agricultural production. The article aims to discuss the potential and limitations of this approach. At first, we present the theory of “Isolated State”; then we review the historical studies that used the theory, both as a comprehensive framework and as an empirical theory. Later, we formulate a theoretical-conceptual model in which woodcutting responds to changes in agricultural intensity, as to show the usefulness of this scheme in interpreting the case of the city of Rio de Janeiro in the late colonial period.

Water: An Economic or Social Good?

Water is a critical natural resource for life and for development. This vital resource is however fugitive and finite. The conferment of such attributes on water suggests that the resource has to be managed from both economic and social standpoints otherwise some people will go without water. The paper thus reviews concepts and principles which relate to the management of water as both an economic and a social good. The argument which sticks out in the discussion is that trade-offs and compromises have to be made between treating water as an economic good and as a social good. Treatment of water as a social good encourages the inefficient and wasteful use of water. At the same time, treatment of water as an economic good would exclude other people from accessing this vital resource. Thus it is argued that water should be provided to the users taking into consideration that it is both an economic and a social imperative. The global search for solutions to the problems of water scarcity and increasing demand on the available finite freshwater reserves should continue. In this vein, efforts should and must be made to impress upon consumers of this all-important resource to appreciate the economic and social value of water.

Hunting and Morality as Elements of Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Contemporary subsistence hunting practices of North American Indians have been questioned because of hunters’ use of modern technologies and integration of wage-based and subsistence livelihoods. Tribal traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has been questioned on similar grounds and used as justification for ignoring tribal perspectives on critical natural resource conservation and development issues. This paper examines hunting on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in North Central Wisconsin, USA. The study used semi-structured interviews with hunters from the reservation to document their contemporary hunting practices and the traditional moral code that informs their hunting-related behaviors and judgments. Subsistence hunting is framed in the context of TEK and attention focused on the interplay between TEK’s practical and moral dimensions. Results indicate the importance of traditional moral codes in guiding a community’s contemporary hunting practices and the inseparability and interdependence of epistemological, practical, and ethical dimensions of TEK.

Chemical and biological monitoring in ephemeral and intermittent streams: a study of two transboundary Palestinian–Israeli watersheds

Although ephemeral streams constitute critical natural resources in dryland environments, water regulations and monitoring protocols typically focus on perennial streams, and may not always be appropriate for characterizing intermittent systems. The article presents findings from a comprehensive evaluation of environmental conditions in two ephemeral transboundary streams: the Hebron/Besor and Zomar/Alexander. The streams are representative of numerous watersheds which originate in Palestinian land and flow into Israel. Transboundary streams in the region exhibit high concentrations of point and non-point sources of pollution. Many of the region's streams that in the past had no flow except for isolated storm incidents have emerged as perennial streams, channelling raw or partially treated industrial or municipal wastes. Management of these natural resources constitutes a unique challenge because of the complex local political circumstances. The article presents chemical and biological monitoring results, identifying high levels of non-point source nutrient runoff during rainfall events and high percolation of contaminated stream water during its flow that should be addressed in future restoration strategies. The practical challenges associated with the monitoring of ephemeral streams are also discussed with suggestions for future studies and management efforts.