Human-environment Systems Research Articles

In the Footsteps of Amelia Brown: Collaborative Historical Ecology at Shin-yvslh-sri∼, a Tolowa Village on the North Coast of California

Research at Shin-yvslh-sri (CADNO-14), a pre-contact Tolowa village and shell midden site on the north coast of California, involves an innovative collaborative historical ecology approach—an explicitly multi-disciplinary cooperative effort between Tribal communities, a Federal agency, cultural resource management practitioners, and academic researchers. Multiple lines of evidence—including ethno-historic, oral history, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) data, documentation of past archaeological research, analysis of varied scales of (micro and macro) archaeological data from both recent fieldwork and legacy collections—give a more complete picture of the historical ecology of the northern California coast. Results indicate that plank house village life emerged at Shin-yvslh-sri∼ approximately 1,000 years ago, and that people pursued a wide array of marine and terrestrial taxa throughout its occupation. Archaeological data provide new evidence, as well as support for oral histories indicating the critical importance of mass captured smelt, as well as salmon, shellfish, and marine mammals. In addition to providing important data on coastal human-environmental systems, the project provides a case study model for future studies in collaborative historical ecology, particularly those that involve indigenous community concerns at endangered coastal archaeological and cultural sites.

Assessing the spatial sensitivity of a random forest model: Application in gridded population modeling

AbstractGridded human population data provide a spatial denominator to identify populations at risk, quantify burdens, and inform our understanding of human-environment systems. When modeling gridded population, the information used for training the model may differ in spatial resolution than what is produced by the model prediction. This case arises when approaching population modeling from a top-down, dasymetric approach in which one redistributes coarse administrative unit level population data (i.e., source unit) to a finer scale (i.e., target unit). However, often overlooked are issues associated with the differing variance across the scale, spatial autocorrelation and bias in sampling techniques. In this study, we examine the effects of intentionally biasing our sampling from the source to target scale within the context of a weighted, dasymetric mapping approach. The weighted component is based on a Random Forest estimator, which is a non-parametric ensemble-based prediction model. We investigate issues of autocorrelation and heterogeneity in the training data using 18 different types of samples to show the variations in training, census-level (i.e., source) and output, grid-level (i.e., target) predictions. We compare results to simple random sampling and geographically stratified random sampling. Results indicate that the Random Forest model is sensitive to the spatial autocorrelation inherent in the training data, which leads to an increase in the variance of the residuals. Sample training datasets that are at a spatial scale representative of the true population produced the best fitting models. However, the true representative dataset varied in autocorrelation for both scales. More attention is needed with ensemble-based learning and spatially-heterogeneous data as underlying issues of spatial autocorrelation influence results for both the census-level and grid-level estimations.

Examination of coastal vulnerability framings at multiple levels of governance using spatial MCDA approach

The multidimensional impacts of climate change necessitate participation of large scale organizations in the management of vulnerability to climate change. Operating at multiple levels of governance, these organizations help manage the deleterious effects of changing climate for different sectors of human-environment systems. How they frame vulnerability, what influences their framings, why are their framings aligned or misaligned: while these are critical questions for managing vulnerability, they are often overlooked in the literature. By ‘framing’ we mean how actors understand and evaluate key factors of vulnerability. Through a case study in Bangladesh, we analyze how vulnerability is framed by the leading organizations across five sectors and three levels of governance. Drawing from key-informant interviews, we developed a spatial multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach and identified vulnerability hotspots. With few variations, our study reveals that the framings of vulnerability are mostly aligned across scale irrespective at which stakeholders are operating. Collectively, proximity to river/sea along with poverty, schooling, cropping intensity, soil salinity, and availability of multipurpose disaster shelters are identified as key determinants of vulnerability by all organizations. They prioritize infrastructural and agricultural development as basis for vulnerability management. We argue that similarity of the understanding of vulnerability across scale would facilitate adaptation decision-making process. However, less focus on socio-economic criteria can undermine the success of adaptation initiatives. While the findings of this study can assist the decision-makers of Bangladesh in coastal vulnerability management, the methodological approach should be useful to assess coastal vulnerability in other parts of the world as well.

Sustainable systemic urban planning: principles and trends

The crisis of the urban environment is a systemic one, and it is due to a joint action of socio-cultural, politic, economic, physic and ecologic factors. It is also related to the progressive decay of communitarian sense and policy representativeness as generative factors of the city; to his economic bases transformation; to decentralization processes and loss of public spaces; to his increasing dimension and speculative land annuity phenomena; to his unsustainable energy needs and environmental impacts. Therefore, this crisis is summarizable as a systemical and sustainability one. But the crisis of the city is also due to the inadequacy of urban planning: the poor comprehension of city systemic nature and poor presence of sustainability measures, the formal rigidity of the top-down processes unable to manage the bottom-up self-organized transformations, lead to a lack of operability of its instruments. As a consequence, the perspectives of the study of the city have to be shifted from the urban structures to the related processes; from the urban components to the whole environment; from the juxtaposition of objects to social and cultural interactions. The most interesting trends in this direction seem to move toward urban regeneration processes through Digital Social Economy that, together with the use of Social Web Platforms, could make more publicly visible, shared and effectively participative the planning processes allowing a real involvement of citizens and communities. Aims of this study is to summarily describe these trends toward systemic urban planning processes, through the analysis of literature and examples, in light of a possible sustainable future of the human environmental system definable as city.

Tradeoffs/synergies of multiple ecosystem services based on land use simulation in a mountain-basin area, western China

Driven by economic and political influences, land-use change has become a significant factor impacting ecosystem service changes. It is vital to assess how multiple ecosystem services change under different scenarios for policy decisions pertaining to land use and ecological construction, especially for fragile mountainous areas. In this study, InVEST and scenario analyses are used to assess the changes of multiple ESs in Bailongiang watershed (BLJW), a typical mountain-basin ecotone in western China. Two indexes, ecosystem service change index (ESCI) and ecosystem service tradeoff degree (ESTD), are used to contrast the ESs change and its tradeoffs and synergies under land use scenarios, including urban and rural construction land expansion (URE), Grain for Green (GFG) and Scenario of Spatial Optimization of land use and land cover (SSO). Results show that under the URE scenario, watershed soil conservation and water yield increased with its ESCI of 3.0 × 10−4 and 61.0 × 10−4, respectively; and a slight decrease of carbon storage with its ESCI of −67.0 × 10−4. Soil conservation, water yield and carbon storage increased under GFG scenario. In addition, there are some increases of soil conservation and carbon storage with the decrease of water yield in BLJW.Different tradeoffs/synergies relationships are illustrated for different land use scenarios. The service-oriented ESTD can be used to analyze the tradeoffs/synergies of multiple ESs and serve for ESs management. The SSO scenario of optimization of human activities and natural environmental systems, will be the win-win way for sustainable land use and ecosystem management in the mountain-basin area.

Ecosystem services as the products of land system dynamics: lessons from a longitudinal study of coupled human–environment systems

We address understanding of whole-system and landscape-based approaches to the ecosystem services framework by considering the supply of provisioning services and the dynamics of agricultural land use in Scotland between 1940 and 2016. To characterise and understand the dynamics of change in provisioning services from agriculture in Scotland over the period 1940–2016. To identify ways in which funds of capitals and flows of inputs and output ecosystem goods are linked to land management practices and policies at a national scale. Data describing agricultural land use, production, financial and energy inputs and outputs, and drivers of change in land use in Scotland are analysed with an accounting framework that links funds of natural, human, physical and financial capital, with flows of goods and services. Flow–fund ratios are used as benchmarks of system performance and dynamics. Scotland’s agriculture has modernised since 1940 and become more efficient in conversion of resources, with a consequent increase in delivery of provisioning goods and services. Although the energy ratio, and flow of goods per unit hectare and per unit labour have increased, the inputs necessary to maintain those flows of ecosystem goods are also increasing, even as their relative economic costs decrease. Increases in use of fertiliser suggests that production from the soil, as a natural capital fund, is not being conserved without a large, and increasing, input. Analysis of the complexity of the coupled agricultural land system also suggests that land management rather than biodiversity is a necessary subject for evaluation of provisioning services from agriculture. Understanding of ecosystem services based on accounts that integrate inputs, outputs and flows from funds of natural, human, social, financial and physical capitals, provides a process-based foundation for improved understanding of ecosystem services and human–environmental relationships. Adopting an accounting approach for understanding the role of agricultural land use for supply of provisioning services, and particularly examining a long time-series of accounts, enables understanding of land changes and underlying drivers, as well as the contribution of cultural and other aspects of human systems coupled with environment systems. Accounting for ecosystem services using costs as well as benefits, and use of metrics beyond financial benefit, supports debate and evaluation of trade-offs between services and has direct relevance for decision- and policy-making.

Fuelwood extraction intensity drives compensatory regrowth in African savanna communal lands

AbstractWoody biomass remains the primary energy source for domestic use in the developing world, raising concerns about woodland sustainability. Yet woodland regenerative capacity and the adaptive response of harvesters to localised fuelwood shortages are often underestimated or unaccounted for in fuelwood supply–demand models. Here, we explore the rates and patterns of height‐specific woody vegetation structural dynamics in three communal lands in a semiarid savanna in South Africa. Using repeat, airborne light detection and ranging, we measured height‐specific change in woody vegetation structure, and the relative influence of geology, fire, and ease of access to fuelwood. Monitoring 634,284 trees canopies over 4 years revealed high compensatory growth, particularly in the high wood extraction communal land: 34.1% of trees increased in height >1 m. Vegetation structural patterns were associated with ease of access to the communal land but were mediated by wood extraction intensity. In these communal lands, vegetation structural dynamics show rapid woody thickening as a response to repeat harvesting. However, loss of height in vegetation structure did not follow a gradient of wood extraction intensity. We propose a conceptual framework to better understand change in vegetation structural metrics and the paradoxical phenomenon of high growth in high wood extraction scenarios. We also show coadaptive responses of humans and woody vegetation to fuelwood harvesting in human–environment systems through patterns of regrowth response relative to ease of access to fuelwood resources.

Islands of the Anthropocene

The accelerating and intensifying dynamics of the Anthropocene are highly topical for island studies. Manifold effects of urbanisation, offshoring, migration and climate change become heightened in the context of island spatiality as global connections, fascination and conservation ideals produce tax havens, mass tourism, ecological enclaves and novel island ecosystems. The Anthropocene calls for a rethinking of relations between humans and nature. Recent research highlights the usefulness of islands in providing models of intensely coupled human–environmental systems. However, there is little research about where and how forces of the Anthropocene and natural dynamics physically intersect and how island spatiality intervenes. Contributing to a better understanding of island landscapes and seascapes, this paper explores how the scales and volumes of the Anthropocene shape spaces in small islands. In considering islands’ characteristics of smallness, borders, isolation and littorality, the paper illustrates the distinct spatial developments on islands in the Anthropocene, such as resort sprawl, airports and artificial coastlines. The observations demonstrate how forces of the Anthropocene challenge island isolation, stretch and reshape island borders. They manipulate islands’ smallness and congest small island spaces, and intervene in the manageability of island systems. Furthermore, developments of the Anthropocene highlight the paradoxical and hybrid nature of islands. I suggest that developing and better understanding concepts of island spatiality can be meaningful for informing future spatial transformation in, and for adopting contextualised approaches to, both islands and the Anthropocene.

A human-environmental network model for assessing coastal mitigation decisions informed by imperfect climate studies

Abstract A Bayesian network model is developed to explore the interaction between physical and social processes that influence mitigation decisions and outcomes for extreme events. The network includes statistical relationships for event occurrence and magnitude; uncertainty in the parameters of these models; a high degree of variability in the sequence of events that occurs in any given time interval, and the possibility of long-term trends in the frequency, magnitude and impact of events. The model is applied to coastal storm surge events in the New York City (NYC) area. A 50 cm increase in sea level is predicted to approximately double the expected cumulative damage over a 40-year period. A 20% increment in storm frequency yields a further predicted increase of about 18% in the cumulative damage. The uncertainties in long-term trends associated with climate change may be reduced by scientific studies. However the value of this information is affected both by study accuracy and the extent of its trust, acceptance and utilization by decision makers. Implications of this are assessed in the model, showing that the probability of regret is notably reduced when climate study results are used to support mitigation decisions. This is demonstrated even when the studies have relatively low accuracy, moreso when they exhibit good or perfect accuracy. Based on model insights and limitations, further research needs are identified to better understand extreme event risk perception and management in coupled human-environmental systems.

TOWARDS JUDICIAL COORDINATION FOR GOOD WATER GOVERNANCE?

AbstractThis article explores the procedural environmental rights practice of regional human rights and environmental protection systems through a comparative lens in order to identify the ways in which existing developments and current trends can inform and enrich the procedural dimension of the right to water. The study suggests that enhanced levels of transparency, public engagement and justiciability in water-related decisions are significant steps towards the achievement of the substantive dimension of the right to water and highlights the potential for cross-fertilization between such regimes towards good water governance.

Economics and Environmental Change: The Challenges We Face, by Clement A.Tisdell. Published by Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2017, pp. 256, ISBN: 978‐1782549628, AU$175.00 (Hardcover).

Economics and Environmental Change: The Challenges We Face, by Clement A.Tisdell. Published by Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2017, pp. 256, ISBN: 978‐1782549628, AU$175.00 (Hardcover).

Archaeonics - (Geo)archaeological studies in Anthropogenic Dark Earths (ADE) as an example for future-oriented studies of the past

This review paper examines the potential of (geo)archaeological data of past human-environment systems to contribute to the development of sustainable land use and soil management strategies. Looking at past land use systems and their socio-economic background extends our understanding of the slow processes and low frequency events that appear to be the key in deciding whether land use systems lead to sustainability or to collapse. As an example, the paper focuses on so-called Anthropogenic Dark Earths (ADE). These highly fertile soils were managed or actively created by ancient cultures in different regions of the world. Since they are rich in humic matter and carbon, and are highly stable to biochemical oxidation, they appear very relevant both as a model for sustainable soil and land management systems and as a tool for climate change mitigation on different scales - local as well as global. The paper argues in favor of a historical perspective to learn about risks and possibilities of land use strategies. We propose a co-adaptive transdisciplinary problem-solving approach ("Archaeonics"), which includes the study of the past as well as respective technical and social implications for the future.

Moving from completing system boundaries to more realistic modeling of the economy in life cycle assessment

Existing process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) models can be supplemented by input-output (IO) models to correct for the so-called truncation error resulting from an “incomplete” system boundary. The resulting hybrid LCA is not necessarily but probably a closer approximation to an ideally complete process model with a global all-inclusive system boundary. Here, we discuss whether such a complete process model is a goal worth pursuing and whether system boundary is the main limitation of process-based LCA. We argue that the results of the ideally complete process model, with every single economic activity on earth embodied within, have little to limited implications and relevance for the decisions which LCA seeks to support and which involve changes aimed at reducing environmental impacts through altering product systems or promoting alternatives. The main limitations of process-based LCA, as a supply chain based linear model, lie not in the “incomplete” system boundary but in the narrow focus on supply chain and the unrealistic assumptions, such as omission of price effects and constraints. These assumptions reflect poorly how the economy works. Hybrid LCA, through adding IO models, which are also supply chain and linearity based, doubles down on both the narrow focus on supply chain and the unrealistic assumptions, and thus is a step forward but in the wrong direction. Reflecting on advances in corn ethanol research, we show that pursuing a more complete system boundary by, for instance, covering Chinese stuffed animal production does not make the LCA results more accurate or relevant for determining if corn ethanol in the US should be promoted. Not only is the theoretical argument for including Chinese stuffed animal industry tenuous, but there is no evidence it has been affected by US corn ethanol expansion. And by worrying about processes far away up the supply chain could distract us from focusing on the actual market mechanisms, such as indirect land use change, that are more likely to occur and are essential to predicting whether promoting corn ethanol would reduce total carbon emissions. We suggest future studies shifting focus from “completing” system boundary within the conventional supply chain and linear framework towards more realistic modeling of our complicated human-environment system. Instead of trying to always include everything, we argue for a flexible and market-based system boundary tailored to the decision in question, particularly considering the scale of potential changes it may cause and how it may affect the economy. A change at larger scales is likely to have a broader impact, thus justifying the definition of a broader system boundary. But to cover a broad system boundary for a small change will likely result in overestimates. More is not necessarily better.

Geodesign Processes and Ecological Systems Thinking in a Coupled Human-Environment Context: An Integrated Framework for Landscape Architecture

Scholars from a variety of disciplines have been working to unravel the complexities of geodesign as an approach to tackling a host of problems. We argue that a mature understanding of geodesign requires a systemic perspective to organize the interconnections between ecological, social and economic conditions at multiple spatial and temporal scales. We reviewed definitions and perspectives of geodesign and key concepts of ecological systems thinking to develop a new framework for landscape architecture. We provide the state-of-the-art in geodesign within the context of systems thinking and coupled human-environmental resilience. We show that geodesign is capable to encourage public participation and interdisciplinary collaboration through its systemic planning processes and synergetic technologies. The thrust of geodesign-related research is the emerging paradigm of landscape-based sustainability. While landscape architecture is complex in many aspects, the integrated framework promotes our understanding about its social-ecological potential, spatial-temporal association and resilience of coupled human-environment systems. Based on the findings, we outline key contributions, implications, challenges and recommendations for future research.

Combining Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data for improved land use and land cover mapping of monsoon regions

Land use and land cover maps can support our understanding of coupled human-environment systems and provide important information for environmental modeling and water resource management. Satellite data are a valuable source for land use and land cover mapping. However, cloud-free or weather independent data are necessary to map cloud-prone regions. This particularly applies to monsoon regions such as the Chennai basin, located in the north of Tamil Nadu and the south of Andhra Pradesh, India, which is influenced by the South Asian Monsoon and has abundant cloud cover, throughout the monsoon season. The Basin is characterized by small-scale agriculture with multiple cropping seasons and the rapidly developing metropolitan area of Chennai. This study aims to generate a land use and land cover map of the Chennai Basin for the cropping season of Rabi 2015/16 and to assess the influence of combining the new ESA Copernicus satellites Sentinel-1 and -2 on classification accuracies. A Random Forest based wrapper approach was applied to select the most relevant radar (Sentinel-1) images for the combination with the optical (Sentinel-2) data. Area proportion weighted accuracy with 95% confidence interval were estimated for the Random Forest models, which differentiated 13 land cover classes. The highest overall accuracy of 91.53% ± 0.89 pp was achieved with a combination of 1 Sentinel-2 and 8 Sentinel-1 scenes. This is an improvement of 5.68 pp over a classification with Sentinel-2 data only. An addition of further Sentinel-1 scenes showed no improvement in overall accuracy. The strongest improvement in class-specific accuracy was achieved for paddy fields. This study shows for the first time how land use and land cover classifications in cloud-prone monsoon regions with small-scale agriculture and multiple cropping patterns can be improved by combining Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data.

The Impact of Climate on Hydrological Extremes

High and low flows and associated floods and droughts are extreme hydrological phenomena mainly caused by meteorological anomalies and modified by catchment processes and human activities. They exert increasing on human, economic, and natural environmental systems around the world. In this context, global climate change along with local fluctuations may eventually trigger a disproportionate response in hydrological extremes. This special issue focuses on observed extreme events in the recent past, how these extremes are linked to a changing global/regional climate, and the manner in which they may shift in the coming years.

What is equitable resilience?

Resilience has attracted criticism for its failure to address social vulnerability and to engage with issues of equity and power. Here, we ask: what is equitable resilience? Our focus is on what resilience does on the ground in relation to development, adaptation and disaster management, and on identifying critical issues for engaging with equity in resilience practice. Using techniques from systematic reviews, with variants of equitable resilience as our key search terms, we carried out an analytical literature review which reveals four interconnected themes: subjectivities, inclusion, cross-scale interactions, and transformation. Drawing on this analysis, we find that 'equitable resilience' is increasingly likely when resilience practice takes into account issues of social vulnerability and differential access to power, knowledge, and resources; it requires starting from people's own perception of their position within their human-environmental system, and it accounts for their realities and for their need for a change of circumstance to avoid imbalances of power into the future. Our approach moves beyond debates that focus on the ontological disconnect between resilience and social theory, to provide a definition that can be used in practice alongside resilience indicators to drive ground level interventions towards equitable outcomes. Defined in this way, equitable resilience is able to support the development of social-ecological systems that are contextually rooted, responsive to change and socially just, and thus relevant to global sustainability challenges.

Is increased precipitation during the 20th century statistically or ecologically significant in the eastern US?

ABSTRACTWe address the climate versus disturbance debate to understand drivers of change in human-environment systems. We examine whether recent increased precipitation episodes (‘pluvials’) are unique and have ecological implications for the humid climate of the eastern United States. Robust statistical analyzes presented here indicate that the 20th century was wet, but not significantly different than other centuries during the last millennium. Statistical methods did not establish increased precipitation episodes as an unusual change that correlated with transition shifts in eastern forests during the early 20th century. Additionally, modest precipitation change was not ecologically significant enough to result in forests composed of drought-tolerant trees in the past or drought-intolerant trees currently. We conclude that fire is a parsimonious explanation for composition and structure of historical open fire-tolerant oak and pine forests. Fire exclusion was unprecedented during early 20th century and loss of this driver provides a mechanism for forest transitions.

Co-evolutionary dynamics of the human-environment system in the Heihe River basin in the past 2000 years

There is limited quantitative understanding of interactions between human and environmental systems over the millennial scale. We aim to reveal the co-evolutionary dynamics of the human-environment system in a river basin by simulating the water use and net primary production (NPP) allocation for human and environmental systems over the last 2000years in Heihe River basin (HRB) in northwest China. We partition the catchment total evapotranspiration (ET) into ET for human and environmental systems with a social-hydrological framework and estimate the NPP for human and environmental systems using the Box-Lieth model, then classify the co-evolutionary processes of the human-environment system into distinct phases using the rate of changes of NPP over time, and discover the trade-offs or synergies relationships between them based on the elasticity of change of the NPP for humans to the change of NPP for environment. The co-evolutionary dynamics of human-environment system in the HRB can be divided into four periods, including: Phase I (Han Dynasty-Yuan Dynasty): predevelopment characterized by nearly no trade-offs between human and environment; Phase II (Yuan Dynasty-RC): slow agricultural development: characterized by a small human win due to small trade-offs between human and environment; Phase III (RC-2000): rapid agricultural development: characterized by a large human win due to large trade-offs between human and environment, and Phase IV (2000−2010): a rebalance characterized by large human wins with a small-environment win due to synergies, although these occurred very occasionally. This study provides a quantitative approach to describe the co-evolution of the human-environment system from the perspective of trade-offs and synergies in the millennial scale for the first time. The relationships between humans and environment changed from trade-off to synergy with the implementation of the water reallocation scheme in 2000. These findings improve the understanding of how humans influence environmental systems and responses to environmental stresses.

Environmental impact assessment of ecological migration in China: a survey of immigrant resettlement regions

Implementation of ecological migration (eco-migration) policies may improve the fragile ecological environment of emigration areas; however, it also places enormous pressure on the human-environment systems in immigrant resettlement regions. Via the application of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods, ecological footprint (EF), and stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) models, 21 villages of Huanjiang County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China were used in this research as a case study area for the environmental appraisal of eco-migration policies in immigrant resettlement regions. Results show: (1) In the past 20 years of implementing eco-migration policies, the EF per capita constantly increased, the biocapacity (BC) per capita constantly decreased, and the ecological deficit gradually increased, indicating an extremely negative impact of eco-migration projects on the ecological environment in the immigration areas. (2) Cropland and forest land are the most important components of the per-capita EF. The per-capita EF of cropland experienced overall a first increasing and then decreasing trend, and the per-capita EF of forest land constantly increased and showed the most rapid increase among all types of EF in the last two decades. (3) The proportion of per-capita EF of different types of productive land is in the order of forest land > cropland > carbon uptake land > built-up land > grazing land from high to low, and this is a significant change from the original order of cropland > forest land > carbon uptake land > grazing land > built-up land. (4) Because of unequal possession of ecologically productive resources, the overall per-capita EF, overall per-capita BC, overall per-capita ecological deficit of productive land use by migrants, and their component values of different types of productive land use are all lower than the corresponding values of the natives. The ecological deficit of natives is more severe than that of migrants. (5) Whereas population growth and overexploitation of resources lead directly to the increased pressure on the ecological environment in the immigration areas, increasing nonagricultural income and improving the consumption structure can reduce the dependence of farmers on the land, thus inhibiting the increase of EF.