Sustainable Landscape Management Research Articles

The Systems Approach in Soil Science and Landscape Science

The article describes the current state of the systems approach in two closely related scientific disciplines - soil science and landscape science. It is shown that, despite the widespread recognition of the need to apply the systems approach to solving topical theoretical and practical problems in these disciplines, it remains unrealized. This is manifested in the prevailing view of soils as systems rather than as elements of higher-order systems, the mixing of the basic landscape elements with their properties, the recognition of landscape systems and elements as spatially heterogeneous formations, the different understanding of emergent properties, structure, hierarchy of soil and landscape systems, and, as a result, in the absence of their unified system definitions, basic classification systems, consistent multiscale global maps, and, finally, a hierarchical decision-making system for sustainable management, protection and assessment of soils and landscapes. It is shown that such a situation is largely due to the conceptual-terminological confusion around the systems approach in philosophy. At the end of the article, the authors share their own experience in applying the systems approach in soil science and landscape science.

Land Use/ Cover Change Detection in High-Altitude Mountain Landscapes: A Case of Pangi Valley, Western Himalaya (India).

Recently, mountains are going to widely threatened by developmental activities and global climate change leading to changing shift of land uses/covers across the globe. The present study area has witnessed very significant changes in land use and land cover (LULC) especially after the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in the form of rapid developmental and constructional activities. As a result, rapid local roads and infrastructure construction has lead to increased hazards further putting pressure on the fragile physical landscape. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to evaluate changes and transformation in the LULC patterns in the Pangi valley, Western Himalaya (India). The LULC has been analyzed using remote sensing imagery from LANDSAT for the period 1992-2021. We conduct a supervised classification by using Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) to prepare LULC maps. In short, seven LULC classes have been delineated. The result shows that barren land, built-up land, water bodies and agriculture land have increased by 97.5 per cent, 98.5 per cent, 14.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent, while snow cover pasture land and forest cover have drastically decreased by 68.1 per cent, 21.1 per cent and 20.9 per cent respectively. The LULC transformation result illustrates that the area under snow cover, pasture land and forest cover converted into barren land by 217.8 km2, 175.3 km2 and 47.3 km2 respectively out of the total 1520 km2 area of the Pangi valley. It reflects human influence in terms of developmental activities and impact of global climate change in the transformation of the physical landscape in the study area. The outcome derived from the current research will be helpful for policy makers and spatial planners for sustainable landscape planning and management of the high-altitude mountain landscapes.

Native forest conversion alters soil macroinvertebrate diversity and soil quality in tropical mountain landscapes of northern Ecuador

Land use changes cause soil degradation and loss of biodiversity, thereby affecting ecological processes and soil-associated ecosystem services. However, land use change impacts on soil health have received little attention in the highland landscapes of the tropics. In this research, using the soil health framework, we assessed the impact of native forest conversion to anthropic systems (planted forests, pastures, and monocultures) on two ecosystem services: biodiversity conservation and soil fertility in the highlands of northern Ecuador. The biological dimension of our assessment focused on the diversity, abundance, and biomass of soil macroinvertebrate communities as proxies to soil functions, whereas soil chemical parameters were used to describe the soil fertility. The soil invertebrate communities and soil chemical parameters were studied in topsoil samples using 25 × 25 × 10 cm monoliths, obtained from 10 sampling sites randomly selected in each land use category. We hypothesized that native forests would present more diverse and even soil macroinvertebrate communities, and together with their soil chemical properties would indicate better soil quality than anthropic environments. Our results showed that the structure and composition of the edaphic macroinvertebrate communities significantly differed among the studied land use categories. As predicted, native forests presented greater values for richness, evenness and diversity of soil biota than did the other categories, demonstrating a significant loss of taxonomic biodiversity at order and genus levels. We also found a significant reduction of trophic diversity in native forests converted to anthropic environments. More trophic groups with greater abundances were found in native forests, where predators and detritivores stood out as dominant groups, indicating the good quality of the soil. The results from the soil chemical parameters also confirmed the distinction in soil health between native forests and anthropic environments. Our results highlight the risk associated with current trends of native forest loss and conversion to anthropic systems in high mountain ecosystems in the tropics, illustrating how these alterations could cause biodiversity loss and degradation of the chemical attributes of soil health. The findings of this research could contribute to the conservation and sustainable management of mountain agricultural landscapes in the study region.

Understanding the impact of sustainable land-scape management practices on farm productivity under intensifying tropical cyclones: Evidence from Southern Malawi

Southern Malawi is continuously affected by tropical cyclone-related floods (TCRFs), which have negative consequences on households' livelihoods, thereby displacing most households to neighbouring communities of Mozambique. The TCRFs have further threatened national, regional, community, and household food security agenda, which is already constrained by poverty, poor agricultural practices, low use of improved varieties, unaffordable inorganic fertilizers, and fragmenting landholding sizes. Accordingly, households have indigenously engineered resilience-based Sustainable Landscape Management (SLM) practices, like intercropping, agroforestry, cover cropping, and soil and water conservation practices, against the adverse effects of TCRFs on-farm productivity. Hence, this study examines the effect of TCRFs and SLM adoption on-farm productivity. While using rigorous endogenous switching regression econometric tools, the study finds TCRFs reducing farm productivity by 27 percent. After SLM adoption, the study observes farm productivity enhancement by 29–126 percent when households adopt at least one SLM practices under varying degrees of TCRFs. Despite the highlighted advantages of SLM adoption, female farmers are less likely to adopt SLM practices because they do not have access to productive resources. Hence, the study proposes the need of gender targeted extension services, accompanied by some seed capital for SLM adoption. Besides, there is need to sensitize farmers on the complementarities between inorganic fertilizer and SLM practices. Lastly, future studies should assess the effect of sustained SLM adoption or dis-adoption and input intensification on farm productivity.

On the urban compactness to ecosystem services in a rapidly urbanising metropolitan area: Highlighting scale effects and spatial non–stationary

Understanding how urban compactness is linked to ecosystem services is crucial for sustainable spatial planning and allows decision–makers to better assess the strengths and weaknesses of compactness options. Yet it is still unknown whether urban compactness is conducive to supporting various ecosystem services. In this study, urban compactness is conceptualised into physical space, social space, urban function and social activity organisation. Drawing on a case study of the Wuhan metropolitan area in China, we aim to address the impacts of urban compactness on ecosystem services (food production, carbon storage, habitat quality and recreation service) utilising ordinary least squares, geographically weighted regression and multiscale geographically weighted regression models at the grid scale. The results indicate that urban compactness has the highest negative correlation with food production, followed by carbon storage and habitat quality. In contrast, urban compactness is positively correlated with recreation service. In relational interpretation, the geographically weighted regression model effectively identifies spatial heterogeneity and improves the explanatory power compared to ordinary least squares. Furthermore, the multiscale geographically weighted regression model with different bandwidths as the effective method reveals local relationships between urban compactness and ecosystem services, as well as spatially non–stationary associations, which are particularly critical in the investigation of complex and heterogeneous urban landscapes. The contributions of different urban compactness factors to ecosystem services vary considerably. For example, the impacts of building density, information entropy of land use structure, land development intensity and public service density on ecosystem services are on a global scale. In contrast, the bandwidth of the percentage of ecological land in total land is smaller, indicating a higher level of spatial heterogeneity in its impact. These results contribute to decision–making criteria for sustainable urban development policies and urban ecological landscape management.

Landscape ecological modeling to identify ecologically significant regions in Tumkur district, Karnataka

Abstract Temporal land use and land cover (LULC) information of a landscape provide an overview of the drivers of change, and impacts on the socio-ecological system. This necessitates organizing diverse data of a landscape, which provides insights into sustainable management. Spatial heterogeneity with landscape dynamics influences biotic and abiotic processes. The knowledge of LULC dynamics aids in assessing the feedback between socio-ecological systems across the urban and rural environments. Visualizing likely landscape changes through modeling help in the decision-making for sustainable landscape management. The current chapter accounts for changes in LULC patterns of the agrarian district Tumkur in Karnataka State, considering temporal remote sensing data of three decades, using geospatial techniques and modeling. Land use (LU) analyses indicate an increase in horticulture area from 0.94 (1989) to 1.02% (2019) due to an increase in commercial cropping. An upsurge of built-up cover from 0.02 to 2.11% (1989–2019) with the enhanced socio-economic activities with the industrialization and infrastructure development across the Tumkur to Bangalore highway. Spatial patterns of landscape dynamics assessed through spatial matrices highlight of increase in urbanization with land conversion from agriculture and forest cover in the outskirts of the Tumkur city center. Ecologically significant regions (ESR) were identified at disaggregated levels through aggregate metrics incorporating bio-geo-climatic, social, hydrological, and ecological aspects. The study region is divided into 9 × 9 km grids for computing metrics at disaggregated levels. ESR is delineated based on the composite metric of all variables, depicts 17 grids (11%) under ESR 1, indicating the highest sensitivity, 29% area (46 grids) as ESR 2 (higher sensitivity), 45% (70 grids) as ESR 3 (high sensitivity), and the rest is 15% (24 grids) in ESR 4 (moderate sensitivity). The outcome of the current research would provide critical management approaches required for managing natural resources and will be valuable for policy and planning purposes in pursuing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the regional scale.

Climate change risk reduction in cultural landscapes: Insights from Cinque Terre and Waterloo

The risks posed by climate change are becoming an increasingly significant threat to land use and the socio-ecological system of many cultural landscapes. Despite substantial efforts to assess the vulnerability of cultural landscapes, building climate change adaptation capacity through participatory and integrated approaches has received less attention in landscape planning studies. Here, we assert that strengthening local community participation in regional planning is needed to support the sustainable management of cultural landscapes in a changing climate. We first identify fundamental determinants that affect local community involvement in cultural heritage conservation practices. Then, we apply these principles to analyze the adaptation planning processes in the cultural landscapes of Cinque Terre (Italy) and the Region of Waterloo (Canada). The findings suggest that although local community engagement is essential for building climate adaptation in cultural landscapes, decision-makers need improved strategies to integrate climate change policies into regional plans.

Contribution of coffee plants to carbon sequestration in agroforestry systems of Southwestern Ethiopia

AbstractCoffee forests are the most valuable land-use systems that provide multiple benefits such as biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and source of income. This study aimed to estimate the carbon stock of coffee agroforestry systems and the contribution of coffee plants (Coffea arabica L.) to carbon sequestration in the entire coffee agroforestry systems in southwestern Ethiopia. The carbon stock in trees was estimated by field-based measurements and allometric equations, whereas the carbon stocks in litter and soil were determined using field sampling and laboratory analysis. The carbon stocks of the coffee agroforestry systems in the study site ranged from 254.9 t C/ha in the Syzygium-shaded coffee forest to 321.8 t C/ha in the Albizia-shaded coffee forest. The overall mean carbon sequestration in the present coffee agroforestry systems was 287.1 t C/ha. The net carbon sequestered by coffee plants in the agroforestry systems ranged from 18.8 t C/ha in the Syzygium-shaded coffee stratum to 48.5 t C/ha in the Albizia-shaded coffee stratum. This demonstrates that Albizia is the most compatible shade tree for coffee plants. On average, coffee plants contributed 37.5 t C/ha, accounting for approximately 12.8% of the total carbon sequestered in the coffee agroforestry systems. Hence, we recommend coffee forests for all-in-one benefits such as climate change mitigation, sustainable landscape management and income generation.

Developing a new water–energy–food‐greenhouse gases nexus tool for sustainable agricultural landscape management

AbstractA new comprehensive water, energy, food, greenhouse gas (WEFG) nexus index was developed to capture the interrelationships between them. A total of 11 indicators were applied to consider the interplay of resources consumption, productivity, economic issues, and carbon emission as one of the most critical issues regarding sustainable agricultural development. The proposed WEFG index was evaluated for crop pattern optimization. The results showed that the WEFG ranged from 0.162 to 0.658, which were calculated respectively for almonds and rice due to their energy consumption and carbon emission levels. The optimal cultivation pattern based on WEFG leads to 11% and 15.8% reductions in water and energy consumption, even with a 2.3% increase in cultivation area. The estimated profit for optimal pattern based on WEFG decreased by 13.67% due to lower cultivation levels of high‐yield crops such as onion and potatoes. However, the optimal cultivation pattern based on the WEFG index has decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 2%, leading to sustainable agricultural management. Therefore, the presented WEFG nexus index can be a practical metric for sustainable planning and management in the agriculture sector.

Distance to semi‐natural habitats matters for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in wheat roots and wheat performance in a temperate agricultural landscape

Introduction The proximity of semi-natural habitats and agricultural fields in an agricultural landscape leads to unavoidable biological, chemical, and physical interactions. Fungi can negatively influence, but also support crop growth in agricultural fields. Therefore, in this field study we investigated the colonisation of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and non-AM fungi in winter-wheat roots as well as winter-wheat performance in distance to semi-natural habitats. Materials and Methods We sampled in an intensively managed agricultural landscape in North-east Germany along agricultural transition zones, that is, along 50 m-transects from semi-natural habitats like hedgerows and glacially created in-field ponds—so-called kettle holes—into agricultural fields. Results To our knowledge, we show for the first time that AM fungal colonisation in winter-wheat roots decreased linearly with increasing distance to semi-natural habitats while non-AM fungal root colonisation did not change. Winter-wheat grain yield and biomass slightly increased with increasing distance to hedgerows but not to kettle holes. This clearly shows that there is a difference between different crop performance parameters. Random forest machine learning algorithms confirmed the particular importance of distance to semi-natural habitats for AM fungal root colonisation and for winter-wheat grain yield. Less intensive agricultural management close to semi-natural habitats, for example, no herbicide and pesticide applications as a result of nature protection regulations, may partly explain this pattern. However, spatial response patterns of AM but not of non-AM fungi in wheat roots also point to changed ecological interactions close to semi-natural habitats. Conclusion Semi-natural and natural habitats in agricultural landscapes are slowly recognised not only to be important for biodiversity conservation, but also for sustainable crop production. Additionally, they may also be a tool for farmers and policy makers to improve sustainable landscape management. And agricultural transition zones are spatially and temporally complex dynamic ecosystems that should be the focus of further investigations.

ASSESSMENT OF LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE TOWARDS COST PLANNING: EXPERT VALIDATION ON THE CRITERIA OF SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE FOR PUBLIC PARK

In Malaysia, a substantial amount of money is spent yearly to maintain the public parks. However, there are still countless parks and open spaces that have been built with excellent facilities for the public but are being unkempt, deteriorating into disrepair and poorly maintained. Considering the importance of the public park to the community and how this is a critical link to landscape planning and maintenance, there is a need for a cost-efficiency study to set forth a strategy that best works to mitigate this issue. Adopting a quantitative research approach, the focus of this survey is to validate the expert's selection regarding attributes and parameters for the urban park maintenance checklist. The Percentage of Consensus of Agreement (PoCoA) analysis applied for this study has further demonstrated the significant sustainable landscape maintenance checklist criteria. The summary of these findings reveals the expert's preferences and validation process that further paved the conclusion on the need for sustainable landscape maintenance criteria that synergise to cost efficiency, linking to best practices for sustainable landscape planning and management.

Landscape Change Analysis: Ecosystem Services in the Peri-urban Agriculture of Bangkok

Over the past decades, Bangkok peri-urban has been transformed from agricultural villages to urban development communities. Within the flat terrain and poor drainage characteristic of Chao Phraya Lower Floodplain, peri-urban agricultures are considered to be one of landscape patches and areas that creating and adding ecosystem services and values for mega urban areas. The significant loss of agricultural landscape of Bangkok peri-urban means that the loss of seasonal water retention areas, productive landscapes, as well as habitat for urban wildlife. This research classifies and analyzes landscape transformations especially agricultural landscape structures and functions of eight selective sites surrounded by the urban fringe of Bangkok. By tracing over the landscape change patterns backs form 1952 to 2018, the study areas include; 1) Rangsit Klong Sam and Klong Si, Pathumthani 2) Bang Kradi, Patumthani, 3) Lum Lukka Klong Hok Wa, Patumthani, 4) Klong Chorakea Noi and Klong Lat Krabang, Bangkok, 5) Bang Pla, Samut Prakarn, 6) Kok Kham, Samutsakorn, 7) Tha Mai, Samutsakorn, and 8) Klong Mahasawat, Nakorn Pathom. It is also critical linking and discussing on the ecosystem functions and services toward sustainable landscape management. This paper concludes the research gap between the lack of policies to practices for promoting the ecosystem services linking to the preserving and focusing on peri-urban agriculture landscape of Bangkok.

Analytical techniques for mapping multi-hazard with geo-environmental modeling approaches and UAV images

The quantitative spatial analysis is a strong tool for the study of natural hazards and their interactions. Over the last decades, a range of techniques have been exceedingly used in spatial analysis, especially applying GIS and R software. In the present paper, the multi-hazard susceptibility maps compared in 2020 and 2021 using an array of data mining techniques, GIS tools, and Unmanned aerial vehicles. The produced maps imply the most effective morphometric parameters on collapsed pipes, gully heads, and landslides using the linear regression model. The multi-hazard maps prepared using seven classifiers of Boosted regression tree (BRT), Flexible discriminant analysis (FDA), Multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), Mixture discriminant analysis (MDA), Random forest (RF), Generalized linear model (GLM), and Support vector machine (SVM). The results of each model revealed that the greatest percentage of the study region was low susceptible to collapsed pipes, landslides, and gully heads, respectively. The results of the multi-hazard models represented that 52.22% and 48.18% of the study region were not susceptible to any hazards in 2020 and 2021, while 6.19% (2020) and 7.39% (2021) of the region were at the risk of all compound events. The validation results indicate the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of all applied models was more than 0.70 for the landform susceptibility maps in 2020 and 2021. It was found where multiple events co-exist, what their potential interrelated effects are or how they interact jointly. It is the direction to take in the future to determine the combined effect of multi-hazards so that policymakers can have a better attitude toward sustainable management of environmental landscapes and support socio-economic development.

Influential paths of ecosystem services on human well-being in the context of the sustainable development goals

Ecosystem services (ESs) and their demands from people are closely related to human well-being (HWB). Understanding of the influential paths of ecosystem services on human well-being is significant to sustainable landscape management. This study explored the supply of ecosystem services and the ecosystem service supply-demand relationships (i.e. the ecological supply-demand ratio, ESDR) in the Central and Western Inner Mongolia, as well as HWB by combining the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and the sustainable development goals of the United Nations (SDGs). A structural equation model (SEM) was built to quantify the influential paths of the ESs on the HWB. The results indicated that: (1) The HWB was improved during 2000–2018. (2) The supporting services promoted the provisioning services and the regulating services directly. (3) The provisioning services and the regulating services had positive direct influences on the HWB, and also affected the HWB through the ESDR indirectly. The combination of the supporting services and the ESDR presented a panorama of the influential paths of ecosystem services on the HWB and promoted the understanding of the driving mechanisms. Assessments on the ESs, the HWB in the context of SDGs, and their influential paths were instructive for decision-making towards sustainable landscape management.

Participatory land resources planning to promote sustainable landscape management in rainfed areas-Morocco

Land degradation and desertification affect around one-third of the land used for agriculture, undermining productivity, and farmers' livelihoods, and resilience. People in rainfed and dryland areas are the most vulnerable to the environmental and social impacts of degradation, yet opportunities to expand agricultural areas in order to meet the needs of an ever-growing population are limited and/or not feasible. On the bright side, there are opportunities to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation (LD), however, it will require identifying areas that are suited to implement sustainable land management (SLM) practices and create an enabling environment that encourages such initiatives. In Morocco, latest available data from 2015 showed that 19 percent of its land over the total land area is degraded. In order to assess the level of degradation in rainfed landscapes of Morocco and identify the appropriate technological solutions in response to the driving forces and pressures, and to come up with a territorial planning strategy, analyses were carried out at different levels to identify the land degradation “hot spots” as well as the SLM “bright spots.” This paper sheds light on the decision support framework, co-developed with partners and applied in Morocco, the findings from national and subnational assessments of LD, as well as the process of participatory planning in selected communities of the Souss-Massa region for evaluation and scaling up of SLM good practices. The process led to the development of a “Territorial Planning Pact” as a tool for land use planning and a 3-year action plan to help decision-makers implement and mainstream SLM in the selected communities and guide similar processes throughout the region. The “Territorial Planning Pact” forms a base for planning and implementing the development program in the region led by key stakeholders. The paper presents the actions taken and concludes by highlighting the importance of integrating both biophysical and socio-economic information in a multi-level participatory process to identify the actions and responsibilities of various stakeholders and ensure sustainable management of limited natural resources and improved livelihoods for all.

Impact of Landscape Management Scenarios on Ecosystem Service Values in Central Ethiopia

This study aimed at modeling scenarios of future land use and land cover (LULC) change and estimating ecosystem service (ES) values for the year 2051 compared to 2021 in Central Ethiopia. The future LULC changes for the year 2051 were simulated for four scenarios, namely Business-as-Usual (BAU), Rapid Agricultural Expansion (RAE), Ecosystems Protection and Agricultural Development (EPAD) and Landscape Ecosystems Restoration and Conservation (LERC). The four LULC change scenarios were simulated based on anticipated assumptions that were derived from existing spatial policies, a consultation workshop report on scenarios of agricultural development in Ethiopia, suitability analysis, population growth analysis and expert knowledge of the study area characteristics. We used a Multi-Layer Perceptron–Artificial Neuron Network (MLP–ANN) model-based projected LULC for the BAU scenario and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model to generate RAE, EPAD and LERC scenarios in the study landscape. The benefit transfer method was used to estimate the total ES values and for trade-off analysis. The result showed that LULC changes in the study area varied across simulated scenarios compared to the base year 2021. Under the BAU and RAE scenarios, cultivated land increased by 146,548 ha (22%) and 193,965 ha (29%), whereas forest, water body, wetland and shrub-bush land were reduced. However, forest cover increased by 31,725 ha and 100,080 ha but bare land was reduced by 8466 ha (21%) and 10,379 ha (25%) under the EPAD and LERC scenarios. The forest cover annual rate of change was 3.2% and 6% under the EPAD and LERC scenarios. As a result, the total ES value increased by USD 24.5 and 78.5 million under the EPAD and LERC scenarios for the year 2051, whereas the total ES value was reduced under the BAU and RAE scenarios by USD 27.1 and 73.2 million. The trade-offs among ecosystem services were significantly synergized under the LERC scenario compared to RAE. Therefore, EPAD and LERC could be used as a reference for sustainable landscape planning and management. Landscape ecosystems restoration integrated with a sustainable agricultural intensification approach would enable us to ensure the sustainability of both agricultural production and ecosystem service synergies without negatively affecting the natural environment.

The role of conserved and managed land in ecosystem service inequity

Integrating ecosystem services (ESs), i.e., the benefits humans obtain from nature, into decision making is essential for the sustainable management of resilient urban landscapes, where people and nature are interdependent. However, ES spatial assessments often leave unanswered important questions about their relationship to social systems and their implications in management. In this study, we identified ES provisioning areas in the Chicago metropolitan region that have potential to produce ESs across multiple ES-categories (i.e., ES hotspots). We also identified areas lacking this capacity (i.e., ES coldspots). We then analyzed spatial linkages to local demographics. Specifically, we: (1) modelled the distribution of ES hotspots and ES coldspots at 30-m resolution; (2) compared the proportion of total ES-hotspot and ES-coldspot land area to that of racial groups and residents living below the poverty line; and (3) determined overlap of ES hotspots and ES coldspots with conservation, managed and public open land. We found that, at regional level, ES-hotspots correlate negatively with racial minorities. We also observed that a great number of ES hotspots overlap with conserved and government-managed land, but because these land types inversely correlate with racial minorities it is likely that these cannot serve to alleviate race-based ES inequality if targeted. Therefore, we made a number of suggestions on how to circumvent this issue, including acquiring land (for conservation) in areas where racial minorities live the most, particularly targeting vacant lots and grassland within the City of Chicago to address ES inequity in the region.

UNESCO biosphere reserves show demand for multifunctional agriculture

Sustainable landscape management of protected areas in UNESCO-biosphere reserves (BR) has become an increasingly important topic for academics and environmental practitioners, yet it remains unclear how this can be operationalized in actual regional circumstances. To achieve positive and measurable sustainability impacts, effective BR management on the ground requires supplementary methods to conceive the unique territorial, political, economic and social characteristics of each case while also considering the needs and visions of different stakeholder groups.In this study, we used the Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA) to assess future projections of current land management strategies and possible alternatives in five BR in Germany. The FoPIA method helped identify major differences in the regional BR contexts, including defining the sustainability problem and sustainability challenges. It also proved suitable for fostering stakeholder dialog with regard to current and future sustainable land use management, particularly for the BR transition zones. Our results predict multiple negative impacts resulting from of a continuation of current practices, which are compared against the assessed outcomes of alternative multifunctional pathways. We use these findings to discuss recommendations and challenges for sustainable management of biosphere reserves, the potential of implementing the FoPIA in BR, and perspectives for further research needs.

Mainstreaming Smart Agroforestry for Social Forestry Implementation to Support Sustainable Development Goals in Indonesia: A Review

The increasing need for forest resources and cultivated land requires a solution in forest management to realize sustainable land use. Smart agroforestry (SAF) is a set of agriculture and silviculture knowledge and practices that is aimed at not only increasing profits and resilience for farmers but also improving environmental parameters, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity enhancement, and soil and water conservation, while assuring sustainable landscape management. SAF, a solution for land management systems to reduce the rate of deforestation, is a smart effort to overcome the food crisis and mitigate climate change that is prospectively applied mainly in the social forestry area. Optimized forest land utilization could be achieved by implementing SAF and applying silvicultural and crop cultivation techniques to optimize productivity and meet sustainability and adaptability goals. This paper reviews the existing conditions, opportunities, and challenges in the mainstreaming of SAF in social forestry implementation to support the Sustainable Development Goals in Indonesia. Mainstreaming SAF should include policy innovation and regulation implementation, the use of appropriate technology, and compromises or trade-offs among benefits, risks, and resources. SAF is a strategy to revive the rural economy and community prosperity through the optimal use of local resources as well as a form of smart landscape and land-use management that has significant roles in soil and water conservation, bioenergy, climate change responses, and enhanced biodiversity conservation.

Digital Experiential Learning for Sustainable Horticulture and Landscape Management Education

During the COVID-19 pandemic, horticulture and landscape management programmes in higher education experienced a huge drawback because of the impossibility of organising field studies and conducting site research. To pursue a more sustainable method of teaching, immersive technology such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly adopted as an effective approach for multimodal experiential learning. This study examines student perceptions on the use of digital technology in team-based hybrid learning to achieve sustainability in tree management using data collected from students of horticulture and landscape management in a higher education institute in Hong Kong. Key theoretical principles on Kolb’s experiential learning cycle as an interactive process are discussed, followed by an empirical analysis of student survey results. This research deepens the understanding of how immersive technology enhances both environmental sustainability and learning innovation. The results demonstrate that innovative ideas in instructional methods such as ARVR simulation can enhance the environmental sustainability of how tree management can be conducted, promoting a more environmentally conscious, experiential, collaborative and digital learning experience in higher education.