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This policy brief introduces preliminary research results of the
Build4People project, funded by the German government as part
of the multi-phase focus programme “Sustainable Development
of Urban Regions”. Furthermore, the research agenda of the
upcoming main four-year Research and Development phase (RD
phase) will be introduced based on insights gained in previous
shorter funding periods. The Build4People research consortium
consists of representatives from four German universities and two
German companies with their respective research, implementation and dissemination partners in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Build4People’s rationale is based on Phnom Penh‘s dynamic
economic growth, which is coupled with a local urbanisation and
construction boom. However, new buildings and neighbourhoods
are rarely constructed in a sustainable way with direct and
indirect negative environmental impacts. Issues of sustainability
are hardly addressed by decision-makers in the construction
sector, related ministries, city administrations or building users.
The overall aim of the multi- and trans-disciplinary Build4People
project during the RD phase is to support and analyse the
transformative shift in Phnom Penh’s current business-as-usual
urban development pathway towards a pathway with higher
sustainability and liveability levels. The entry points for the
research are the building and neighbourhood planning sectors.
Methods, tools and key instruments to achieve the objectives of
the RD phase are collaborative planning workshops, strategic
niche management approaches, transition management approaches and subsequent experimental implementation. All of these measures will generate applied knowledge for local stakeholders and a basis for evidence-based decision-making.
Urban quality of life as a people-driven approach serves as the
integrating link for all of our scientific, conceptional, analytical
and normative dimensions. During our research, we will jointly
conceptualize, measure and model urban quality of life and
consider its political dimension and its often-ambiguous
relationship to sustainability.
Biodiversity loss is an important topic considering climate change, global warming, and even the reasoning of current and future animal-related diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Urban biodiversity is also important because of the ecosystem services they provide, restorative benefits for well-being, and physical health of the people who live in urban areas. Each city has its own strategies to cope with this issue, and these strategies do not function without the contribution of habitants of the cities. We developed an index (BBS) of the existing possibilities to support urban biodiversity in Berlin to measure the awareness and willingness of the Berliners to participate and support urban biodiversity. A survey was conducted in a face-to-face situation in four districts of Berlin with 431 urban residents, measuring preference for three different levels of biodiversity, connectedness to residential greenspace, neighborhood and city, nature relatedness, and willingness in participatory actions around greenspace. The results show that the high biodiversity condition in a photo scenario was preferred by most residents, indicating the appreciation for urban biodiversity. The connectedness to the residential greenspace was high (and higher than the connectedness to neighborhood and city), showing large potential for quality of life. While the overall willingness to participate in actions to support urban greenspace was rather high, our index shows substantial differences in activities, which are perceived more or less. This is a key result for urban park management to increase urban biodiversity participation processes.
Im Rahmen eines vom Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit (BMU) geförderten Erprobungs- und Entwicklungs-(E+E-)Vorhabens „Naturerfahrungsräume in Großstädten am Beispiel Berlin“ wurde in
einer viereinhalbjährigen Begleituntersuchung die Neueinrichtung von Naturerfahrungsräumen (NER) in Berlin wissenschaftlich untersucht.
Das zu Grunde gelegte Konzept der NER für Großstädte in Deutschland knüpft an die Vorarbeiten von Schemel & Wilke (2008) und Stopka & Rank (2013) an. Gegenstand der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung sind die neu eingerichteten Berliner NER „Wilde Welt“ am Spieroweg in Spandau, an der Moorwiese in Pankow und auf dem Kienberg in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Alle drei untersuchten NER haben einen räumlichen Bezug zu Großwohnsiedlungen. Sie variieren sowohl in ihrer Größe (von 0,54 ha bis 1,58 ha) als auch in ihrer Vegetationsausstattung. Weiterentwicklungen des Konzeptes sind eine Anbindung der Pilotflächen an Einrichtungen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe sowie die Beschäftigung von Kümmer(er)*innen. Darüber hinaus wurden Erfahrungen in der Einrichtung und im Betrieb bisheriger NER in ganz Deutschland ausgewertet.
Ziel der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung war es, in einem interdisziplinären Ansatz einerseits das Spielverhalten von Kindern in NER sowie die Akzeptanz dieser Räume zu untersuchen.
Andererseits ging es darum, die gesetzlichen und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen, die für die Einrichtung und den Betrieb der NER förderlich oder hemmend wirken, zu analysieren.
Drittens sollte der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Spielverhalten der Kinder und der Entwicklung von Flora, Vegetation und Fauna auf diesen Flächen untersucht werden, um hieraus Rückschlüsse auf die Größe und Ausstattung von NER und auf die Notwendigkeit pflegerischer Eingriffe ziehen zu können.
In der Begleituntersuchung wurden die drei Arbeitsbereiche Lebensqualität (Spielverhalten, Gesundheitsvorsorge, (pädagogische) Begleitung durch Kümmer(er)*innen, Akzeptanz, Partizipation), Planungsqualität (gesetzliche Rahmenbedingungen, Betreiber*innen-Modelle, Flächengestaltung, Sicherheit und Haftung) und ökologische Qualität (Entwicklung von Flora, Vegetation und Fauna, Nutzungsspuren und Flächenentwicklung, Flächenpflege) unterschieden.
Entsprechend des Umfangs des Untersuchungsgegenstandes kam eine Vielzahl von Erhebungsmethoden zum Einsatz. Für den Bereich Lebensqualität war die Beobachtung des Spielverhaltens von Kindern ein wesentlicher methodischer Baustein. Darüber hinaus wurden Interviews mit relevanten Akteur*innen (Kümmer(er)*innen, Pädagog*innen, Kinder und Eltern) dieses Bereiches geführt.
Im Bereich der Planungsqualität sind mithilfe von Expert*inneninterviews Erkenntnisse über hemmende und fördernde Bedingungen in der Einrichtung und im Betrieb der NER gewonnen
worden. Zusätzlich wurde eine mit der Materie vertraute Anwaltskanzlei hinzugezogen, die den Stand des Wissens zur Bedeutung der Verkehrssicherungspflicht und zu den Möglichkeiten der planungsrechtlichen Verankerung von NER zusammenfassend darstellte.
Für den Bereich der ökologischen Qualität sind in den NER Flora (Gefäßpflanzenarten), Biotoptypen, Vegetationsstruktur und aussagekräftige Tiergruppen (Avifauna, Tagfalter und tag-
aktive Nachtfalter, Heuschrecken und Grillen) über einen Zeitraum von vier Jahren untersucht worden. Die Dokumentation von Trampelpfaden und eine Fotodokumentation des Zustands der Vegetationsentwicklung über die Jahre stellten einen weiteren methodischen Baustein dar.
Im Ergebnis zeigte sich, dass das Spielverhalten von Kindern auf NER wesentlich vielfältiger ist als auf herkömmlichen Kinderspielplätzen. Gerade die natürliche Ausstattung der NER und damit verbunden der Aufforderungscharakter der unterschiedlichen natürlichen Elemente führt zu einem komplexeren Spielverhalten, die Kreativität und Fantasie der Kinder wird gefördert.
Kinder machen nicht nur wichtige und vielfältige Naturerfahrungen, sie werden auch in ihrem Sozialverhalten positiv unterstützt. So profitieren gerade Kinder, die in einer Großstadt aufwachsen, wenig Zugang zur Natur haben und stärker unter dem Natur-Entfremdungssyndrom
leiden, von dem Besuch eines NER. Der Aufenthalt in natürlicher Umwelt wirkt sich auch positiv auf Gesundheitsaspekte aus, beispielsweise auf Selbstwirksamkeit, Wohlbefinden, Verantwortungsgefühl und Erholung.
Herauszustellen ist die Bedeutung des/der Kümmer(ers)*in für den erfolgreichen Betrieb eines NER. Dieser/Diese Kümmer(er)*in ist Ansprechperson für Kinder aber auch für pädagogische Fachkräfte, Eltern und die Nachbarschaft. Zudem sorgt er/sie für die Sicherheit und Sauberkeit im NER und beteiligt die Kinder bei der Pflege und dem Unterhalt im NER.
Viele Eltern unterstützen grundsätzlich den Besuch ihres Kindes in einem NER. Die Akzeptanz der Eltern hinsichtlich des Aufenthaltes der Kinder im NER ist besonders groß, wenn die Kinder bei der Planung und Einrichtung des NER beteiligt waren.
In Hinblick auf die planungsrechtliche Entwicklung ist es bedeutsam, dass neben der Einführung des NER im Bundesnaturschutzgesetz im Jahre 2009 nunmehr auch die Bestrebung besteht, den Begriff im Baugesetzbuch zu verankern. NER sollten als wichtige Bestandteile eines
städtischen Grünflächensystems gerade auch in hoch verdichteten Stadträumen in den Flächennutzungs- und Bebauungsplänen der Kommunen rechtssicher festgesetzt werden können. Vorbildhaft zeigen sich außerhalb Berlins 14 weitere Groß- und Mittelstädte, in denen
bereits NER oder dem Konzept entsprechende Flächen eingerichtet werden konnten. Einige andere deutsche Kommunen haben bereits von dem Konzept gehört und planen selbst die Einrichtung solcher Flächen. Diese Bestrebungen sind zu unterstützen.
Unsicherheiten in der Einschätzung der Verkehrssicherungspflicht für NER halten offenbar immer noch viele Kommunen davon ab, NER einzurichten und zu betreiben. Hierauf deuten Aussagen von Kommunalvertretern hin. Ein aktives Sicherheitsmanagement, das bereits in der Planung und Gestaltung der Flächen ansetzt, kann die Risiken für den/die Flächenbetreiber*in auf ein Minimum beschränken. Auch hier, das haben die Aussagen der Betreiber*innen von NER gezeigt, ist die institutionelle Verankerung eines/einer Kümmer(ers)*in und die vertrauensvolle Kooperation zwischen Flächeneigentümer*in, Flächenbetreibenden und für die Pflege Verantwortlichen für ein erfolgreiches Sicherheitsmanagement wesentlich.
Die ökologische Begleituntersuchung zeigte, dass die als Pilotflächen ausgewählten NER eine artenreiche Flora und Fauna aufweisen. Positiv für eine hohe Artenvielfalt der betrachteten Artengruppen ist eine Mischung aus unterschiedlichen Vegetationsbereichen, die eine hohe
Strukturvielfalt ergeben. Beim Kinderspiel kommt es zu leichten Abnutzungserscheinungen wie Trampelpfaden und Rindenschäden an Gehölzen. Die Nutzung führte im Untersuchungszeitraum nicht zu einem Verlust gefährdeter Tier- und Pflanzenarten und beeinträchtigte nicht
die Gesamtartenzahlen der untersuchten Tiergruppen. Das Kinderspiel sorgte allerdings für eine gewisse Dynamik in der Vielfalt der Pflanzenarten über die Zeit. Die Vegetationsstruktur wird davon aber nur kleinräumig beeinflusst. Andere Faktoren wie der Witterungsverlauf in den Untersuchungsjahren, die natürliche Sukzession sowie Bau-, Sicherungs- und Pflegemaßnahmen sind entscheidender. Da Bau- und Pflegemaßnahmen auch die Fauna beeinflussen, sollten diese behutsam durchgeführt werden und in für Flora und Fauna unproblematischen Zei-
ten erfolgen. Anfangsgestaltungen und Sicherungsmaßnahmen erhöhen aber auch die Strukturvielfalt, was auf längere Sicht zu einer Zunahme der Artenvielfalt führen kann. Die Nutzung der NER kann also im Rahmen der untersuchten Parameter im Untersuchungszeitraum als nachhaltig angesehen werden. Die NER blieben attraktiv für das Kinderspiel. Ein längerfristig angelegtes ökologisches Monitoring kann weitergehende Erkenntnisse liefern, um die richtige Balance zwischen Nutzungsintensität und ökologischer Flächenentwicklung zu finden.
Insgesamt lässt sich schon jetzt das Fazit ziehen, dass die Einrichtung von NER die Lebensbedingungen von Kindern und deren Familien in hochverdichteten Stadträumen wirksam verbessern kann. Als wichtiger Bestandteil des städtischen Grünflächensystems leisten Naturerfahrungsräume zudem einen wichtigen Beitrag für das Mikroklima und die Biotop- und Artenvielfalt in den Städten. Insofern ist zu hoffen, dass das Konzept der NER eine rasche Verbreitung in den Städten und Kommunen finden wird.
Cities at the fringe of the Taklimakan desert in NW China are prone to dust and sand storms with serious consequences for human well-being. The Kökyar Protection Forest was established in the 1980s as an ecological engineering project with the intent of protecting the city of Aksu, NW China, from these impacts. It is designed as a combination of poplar shelterbelts and orchards, irrigated by river water from the Aksu River, the main tributary of the Tarim River. Prevalent literature describes it as an afforestation project for combatting desertification with manifold positive effects for the economic, social, and environmental dimension of sustainable development. This paper sets out to challenge these claims by a sustainability assessment in which the plantation is examined from a broader perspective, embedding it to the wider context of social and environmental problems in South Xinjiang. Methods comprise evapotranspiration calculations, interviews, a socioeconomic household survey, stakeholder dialogues, and literature research. Results affirm its economic sustainability, but see a mixed record for the social sphere. From the nature conservation point of view, it has to be classified as unsustainable because its high irrigation water consumption results in the downstream desiccation and desertification of natural riparian forests along the Tarim River, causing a forest loss in the downstream area twice the size of the forest gain in the upstream area. There is a trade-off between artificial shelterbelt plantations for urban ecosystem services on the one hand side, and natural riparian forests and their biodiversity on the other hand side. The paper recommends restricting agricultural extension, and using locally adapted less water consuming agroforestry schemes to protect urban dwellers from dust stress.
Riparian forests are rare and valuable ecosystems in Central Asia, both due to their significance for biodiversity and to their provision of vital ecosystem services to local residents. However, the actual forest use behaviour is under-researched, official figures may not be trustworthy, and the question of over-use is up in the air. This paper sets out to shed light on riparian forest use behaviour by local residents using the example of Ak-Tal Village upon the Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan: Which economic use patterns do they practice (focusing on fuel wood and pasture)? Which other ecosystem services do they recognise? Is there forest over-exploitation? To answer these questions, this study builds on local knowledge, by applying the methods of focus group discussions and a household survey. Results show an extreme discrepancy between official wood consumption figures (50–60 m3 p.a.) and figures based on household wood consumption (310–404 m3 p.a.). The forest also serves as an important winter pasture over the seven months between October and April (stocking density 0.61 livestock units/ha), but payments for these ecosystem services are low, with annually 40 KGS/ha. Local residents are aware of additional material and nonmaterial ecosystem services of the riparian forest. Opinions diverge upon the question if there is forest over-exploitation, potentially because different stakeholders have different concepts of an optimal forest status. Consequently, optimal forest use behaviour can only be defined by the local users themselves, e.g., in a future stakeholder dialogue.
Peatlands in the European Union are largely drained for agriculture and emit 25% of the total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Drainage-based peatland use has also negative impacts on water quality, drinking water provision and biodiversity. Consequently, key EU environmental policy objectives include the rewetting of all drained peatlands as an essential nature-based solution. Rewetting of peatlands can be combined with site-adapted land use, so-called paludiculture. Paludiculture produces biomass from wet and rewetted peatlands under conditions that maintain the peat body, facilitate peat accumulation and can provide many of the ecosystem services associated with natural, undrained peatlands. The biomass can be used for a wide range of traditional and innovative food, feed, fibre and fuel products. Based on examples in Germany, we have analysed emerging paludiculture options for temperate Europe with respect to greenhouse gas fluxes, biodiversity and indicative business economics. Best estimates of site emission factors vary between 0 and 8 t CO2eq ha−1 y−1. Suitability maps for four peatland-rich federal states (76% of total German peatland area) indicate that most of the drained, agriculturally used peatland area could be used for paludiculture, about one-third of the fen area for any paludiculture type. Fen-specific biodiversity benefits from rewetting and paludiculture, if compared to the drained state. Under favourable conditions, paludiculture can be economically viable, but costs and revenues vary considerably. Key recommendations for large-scale implementation are providing planning security by paludiculture spatial planning, establishing best practice sites and strengthening research into crops, water tables and management options.
Biomass is an important metric for monitoring carabid populations and serves as an ecological indicator. Models that predict carabid weight based on body size represent a simple and straightforward method to estimate biomass and are therefore commonly used. However, such models are rarely evaluated against independent validation data. In this study, we evaluated the two widely used size-weight models by Szyszko (1983) and Booij et al. (1994) drawing on previously published independent data. Additionally, we developed and tested four new models to also evaluate the potential effect of taxonomic parameters; and compared model predictions with actual measurements of biomass using relative deviation graphs and observed versus predicted from regression. We show that the two models by Szyszko (1983) and Booij et al. (1994) contain systematic bias towards larger and smaller carabids, respectively, suggesting restricted applicability of such models. Additional taxonomic parameters improved weight predictions, indicating one possible solution to the issue of restricted applicability. We discuss further relevant limitations of size-weight models and their application and recommend a combined use of the models of Szyszko (1983) and Booij et al. (1994) for carabids ≥ 11.8 mm and < 11.8 mm, respectively.
Implications for insect conservation: Size-weight models are a suitable and simple method to estimate the biomass of carabids and have great potential to be used in monitoring schemes, the investigation of long-term trends and ecological studies. It is, however, essential that researchers pay special attention to potential restrictions in their applicability and methodological limitations.
Detailed knowledge of a soil’s lime requirement (LR) is a prerequisite for a demand-based lime fertilization to achieve the optimum soil pH and thus sustainably increasing soil fertility and crop yields. LR can be directly determined by the base neutralizing capacity (BNC) obtained by soil-base titration. For a site-specific soil acidity management, detailed information on the within-field variation of BNC is required. However, soil-base titrations for BNC determination are too laborious to be extensively applied in routine soil testing. In contrast, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (visNIRS) is a time and cost-effective alternative that can analyze several soil characteristics within a single spectrum. VisNIRS was tested in the laboratory on 170 air-dried and sieved soil samples of nine agricultural fields of a quaternary landscape in North-east Germany predicting the soil’s BNC and the corresponding lime requirement (LRBNC) at a target pH of 6.5. Seven spectral pre-processing methods were tested including a new technique based on normalized differences (ND). Furthermore, six multivariate regression methods were conducted including a new method combining a forward stagewise subset selection algorithm with PLSR (FS-PLSR). The models were validated using an independent sample set. The best regression model for most target variables was FS-PLSR combined with the second Savitzky-Golay derivation as pre-processing method achieving R2s from 0.68 to 0.82. Finally, the performance of the direct prediction of LRBNC (R2 = 0.68) was compared with an indirect prediction that was calculated by the predicted BNC parameters. This resulted in slightly higher correlation coefficients for the indirect method with R2 = 0.75.
Liming agricultural fields is necessary for counteracting soil acidity and is one of the oldest operations in soil fertility management. However, the best management practice for liming in Germany only insufficiently considers within-field soil variability. Thus, a site-specific variable rate liming strategy was developed and tested on nine agricultural fields in a quaternary landscape of north-east Germany. It is based on the use of a proximal soil sensing module using potentiometric, geoelectric and optical sensors that have been found to be proxies for soil pH, texture and soil organic matter (SOM), which are the most relevant lime requirement (LR) affecting soil parameters. These were compared to laboratory LR analysis of reference soil samples using the soil’s base neutralizing capacity (BNC). Sensor data fusion utilizing stepwise multi-variate linear regression (MLR) analysis was used to predict BNC-based LR (LRBNC) for each field. The MLR models achieved high adjusted R2 values between 0.70 and 0.91 and low RMSE values from 65 to 204 kg CaCO3 ha−1. In comparison to univariate modeling, MLR models improved prediction by 3 to 27% with 9% improvement on average. The relative importance of covariates in the field-specific prediction models were quantified by computing standardized regression coefficients (SRC). The importance of covariates varied between fields, which emphasizes the necessity of a field-specific calibration of proximal sensor data. However, soil pH was the most important parameter for LR determination of the soils studied. Geostatistical semivariance analysis revealed differences between fields in the spatial variability of LRBNC. The sill-to-range ratio (SRR) was used to quantify and compare spatial LRBNC variability of the nine test fields. Finally, high resolution LR maps were generated. The BNC-based LR method also produces negative LR values for soil samples with pH values above which lime is required. Hence, the LR maps additionally provide an estimate on the quantity of chemically acidifying fertilizers that can be applied to obtain an optimal soil pH value.
Soil acidification is caused by natural paedogenetic processes and anthropogenic impacts but can be counteracted by regular lime application. Although sensors and applicators for variable-rate liming (VRL) exist, there are no established strategies for using these tools or helping to implement VRL in practice. Therefore, this study aimed to provide guidelines for site-specific liming based on proximal soil sensing. First, high-resolution soil maps of the liming-relevant indicators (pH, soil texture and soil organic matter content) were generated using on-the-go sensors. The soil acidity was predicted by two ion-selective antimony electrodes (RMSEpH: 0.37); the soil texture was predicted by a combination of apparent electrical resistivity measurements and natural soil-borne gamma emissions (RMSEclay: 0.046 kg kg−1); and the soil organic matter (SOM) status was predicted by a combination of red (660 nm) and near-infrared (NIR, 970 nm) optical reflection measurements (RMSESOM: 6.4 g kg−1). Second, to address the high within-field soil variability (pH varied by 2.9 units, clay content by 0.44 kg kg−1 and SOM by 5.5 g kg−1), a well-established empirical lime recommendation algorithm that represents the best management practices for liming in Germany was adapted, and the lime requirements (LRs) were determined. The generated workflow was applied to a 25.6 ha test field in north-eastern Germany, and the variable LR was compared to the conventional uniform LR. The comparison showed that under the uniform liming approach, 63% of the field would be over-fertilized by approximately 12 t of lime, 6% would receive approximately 6 t too little lime and 31% would still be adequately limed.
Despite being a natural soil-forming process, soil acidification is a major agronomic challenge under humid climate conditions, as soil acidity influences several yield-relevant soil properties. It can be counterbalanced by the regular application of agricultural lime to maintain or re-establish soil fertility and to optimize plant growth and yield. To avoid underdose as well as overdose, lime rates need to be calculated carefully. The lime rate should be determined by the optimum soil pH (target pH) and the response of the soil to lime, which is described by the base neutralizing capacity (BNC). Several methods exist to determine the lime requirement (LR) to raise the soil pH to its optimum. They range from extremely time-consuming equilibration methods, which mimic the natural processes in the soil, to quick tests, which rely on some approximations and are designed to provide farmers with timely and cost-efficient data. Due to the higher analytical efforts, only limited information is available on the real BNC of particular soils. In the present paper, we report the BNC of 420 topsoil samples from Central Europe (north-east Germany), developed on sediments from the last ice age 10,000 years ago under Holocene conditions. These soils are predominantly sandy and low in humus, but they exhibit a huge spatial variability in soil properties on a small scale. The BNC was determined by adding various concentrations of Ca(OH)2 and fitting an exponential model to derive a titration curve for each sample. The coefficients of the BNC titration curve were well correlated with soil properties affecting soil acidity and pH buffer capacity, i.e., pH, soil texture and soil organic matter (SOM). From the BNC model, the LRs (LRBNC) were derived and compared with LRVDLUFA based on the standard protocol in Germany as established by the Association of German Agricultural Analytic and Research Institutes (VDLUFA). The LRBNC and LRVDLUFA correlated well but the LRVDLUFA were generally by approximately one order of magnitude higher. This is partly due to the VDLUFA concept to recommend a maintenance or conservation liming, even though the pH value is in the optimum range, to keep it there until the next lime application during the following rotation. Furthermore, the VDLUFA method was primarily developed from field experiments where natural soil acidification and management practices depressed the effect of lime treatment. The BNC method, on the other hand, is solely based on laboratory analysis with standardized soil samples. This indicates the demand for further research to develop a sound scientific algorithm that complements LRBNC with realistic values of annual Ca2+ removal and acidification by natural processes and N fertilization.
Evaluating Soil-Borne Causes of Biomass Variability in Grassland by Remote and Proximal Sensing
(2019)
On a grassland field with sandy soils in Northeast Germany (Brandenburg), vegetation indices from multi-spectral UAV-based remote sensing were used to predict grassland biomass productivity. These data were combined with soil pH value and apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) from on-the-go proximal sensing serving as indicators for soil-borne causes of grassland biomass variation. The field internal magnitude of spatial variability and hidden correlations between the variables of investigation were analyzed by means of geostatistics and boundary-line analysis to elucidate the influence of soil pH and ECa on the spatial distribution of biomass. Biomass and pH showed high spatial variability, which necessitates high resolution data acquisition of soil and plant properties. Moreover, boundary-line analysis showed grassland biomass maxima at pH values between 5.3 and 7.2 and ECa values between 3.5 and 17.5 mS m−1. After calibrating ECa to soil moisture, the ECa optimum was translated to a range of optimum soil moisture from 7% to 13%. This matches well with to the plant-available water content of the predominantly sandy soil as derived from its water retention curve. These results can be used in site-specific management decisions to improve grassland biomass productivity in low-yield regions of the field due to soil acidity or texture-related water scarcity.
Dominant agricultural and food systems lead to continuous resource depletion and unacceptable environmental and social impacts. While current calls for changing agrifood systems are increasingly framed in the context of sustainability transitions, they rarely make an explicit link to transition studies to address these systemic challenges, nor do transition scholars sufficiently address agri-food systems, despite their global pertinence. From this viewpoint, we illustrate several gaps in the agri-food systems debate that sustainability transition studies could engage in. We propose four avenues for research in the next decade of transition research on agri-food systems: 1) Crossscale dynamics between coupled systems; 2) Social justice, equity and inclusion; 3) Sustainability transitions in low- and middle-income countries; 4) Cross-sectoral governance and system integration. We call for a decade of new transition research that moves beyond single-scale and sector perspectives toward more inclusive and integrated analyses of food system dynamics.
With increasing road encroachment, habitat fragmentation by transport infrastructures has been a serious threat for European biodiversity. Areas with no roads or little traffic (“roadless and low-traffic areas”) represent relatively undisturbed natural habitats and functioning ecosystems. They provide many benefits for biodiversity and human societies (e.g., landscape connectivity, barrier against pests and invasions, ecosystem services). Roadless and low-traffic areas, with a lower level of anthropogenic disturbances, are of special relevance in Europe because of their rarity and, in the context of climate change, because of their contribution to higher resilience and buffering capacity within landscape ecosystems. An analysis of European legal instruments illustrates that, although most laws aimed at protecting targets which are inherent to fragmentation, like connectivity, ecosystem processes or integrity, roadless areas are widely neglected as a legal target. A case study in Germany underlines this finding. Although the Natura 2000 network covers a significant proportion of the country (16%), Natura 2000 sites are highly fragmented and most low-traffic areas (75%) lie unprotected outside this network. This proportion is even higher for the old Federal States (western Germany), where only 20% of the low-traffic areas are protected. We propose that the few remaining roadless and low-traffic areas in Europe should be an important focus of conservation efforts; they should be urgently inventoried, included more explicitly in the law and accounted for in transport and urban planning. Considering them as complementary conservation targets would represent a concrete step towards the strengthening and adaptation of the Natura 2000 network to climate change.
Remotely sensed effectiveness assessments of protected areas lack a common framework: A review
(2022)
Effective protected areas reflect socio-ecological values, such as biodiversity and habitat maintenance, as well as human well-being. These values, which safeguard ecosystem services in protected areas, are treated as models for the sustainable preservation and use of resources. While there is much research on the effectiveness of protected areas in a variety of disciplines, the question is whether there is a common framework that uses remote sensing methods. We conducted a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of 44 peer-reviewed scientific papers utilizing remote sensing data in order to examine the effectiveness of protected areas. Very few studies to date have a wide or even a global geographical focus; instead, most quantify the effectiveness of protected areas by focusing on local-scale case studies and single indicators such as forest cover change. Methods that help integrate spatial selection approaches, to compare a protected area's characteristics with its surroundings, are increasingly being used. Based on this review, we argue for a multi-indicator-based framework on protected area effectiveness, including the development of a consistent set of socio-ecological indicators for a global analysis. In turn, this will allow for globally applicable use, including a concrete evaluation that considers the diversity of regional parameters, biome-specific variables, and political frameworks. Ideally, such a framework will enhance the monitoring and evaluation of global strategies and conventions.
Expectations of what forests and woodlands should provide vary among locations, stakeholder groups, and over time. Developing multifunctional forests requires understanding of the dynamic roles of traditions and cultural legacies in social-ecological systems at multiple levels and scales. Implementing policies about multifunctional forests requires a landscape and social-ecological perspective, and recognition of both spatial and temporal features at multiple scales. This study explores the dissemination of even-aged silviculture in central, eastern and northern Europe, and the consequences of choosing different vantage points in social-ecological systems for mapping of barriers, and to identify levers, towards multifunctional forest landscapes. Using a narrative approach, we first summarise the development of even-aged silviculture in four European regions. Next, we focus on Sweden as a keen adopter of even-aged silviculture, and identify levers at three groups of vantage points. They were (1) biosphere with biodiversity as short-hand for composition, structure and function of ecosystems, which support human well-being at multiple scales; (2) society in terms of different levels of stakeholder interactions from local to global, and (3) economy represented by value chain hierarchies and currencies. The emergence of even-aged silviculture >200 years ago formed an expanding frontier from central to northern Europe. Sustained yield wood production and biodiversity conservation encompass different portfolios of ecosystem aspects and spatio-temporal scales. Ignorance and lack of knowledge about these differences enforce their mutual rivalry. An exploratory review of six groups of stakeholders at multiple levels in the traditional industrial forest value chain highlights inequalities in terms of distribution of income and power across different levels of governance. This effectively marginalises other than powerful industrial actors. The distribution of financial results along the value chain is dynamic in space and time, and not all benefits of forest ecosystems can be measured using monetary valuation. There are also other currencies and incentives. A discussion of cultural trajectories in central and eastern European, Russian and Swedish forest management illustrates that forest history patterns repeat themselves. Longitudinal case studies of countries and regions can help foster holistic multi-dimensional and multi-level systems thinking. Application of deep levers of change is likely to require external drivers. A key challenge is to handle the manufacturing of doubt and decay of truth, i.e., the appearance of alternative facts, and the diminishing role of evidence and systems analyses in political and civic discourses. This transition is fuelled by new and rapidly evolving digital arenas.
Little is known about the emergence and development of novel governance approaches for forest ecosystem services provision, what drives them, and how they can be fostered. Existing frameworks often deal with single aspects of resource management and thus fail to assess processes, multi-level influences, and interacting dimensions and factors in a system-based understanding. In this article, we introduce the conceptual foundation and an empirical application of an adapted Social-Ecological System framework with additional elements that builds on the idea of complex and interlinked social-ecological-technical-forestry-innovation systems that allows for the identification of key factors for revealing forest ecosystem services dynamics to understand the emergence and development of such governance innovations. The development and testing of the framework was based on six case studies for knowledge co-creation. To showcase its application, two governance innovations were examined: a voluntary carbon market payment scheme in Germany and a network approach for forest-pasture management in Italy. The application of the framework reveals required adaptations to improve innovation by systematically unpacking the system dimensions and identifying fostering and hindering factors and their interdependencies. We highlight the output of a sound system-based information basis that allows for purposeful innovation conditioning by policy makers, practitioners, and other related actors.
Forests are key components of European multifunctional landscapes and supply numerous forest ecosystem services (FES) fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of FES has the potential to provide responses to major societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or rural development. To identify suitable strategies for the future sustenance of FES, we performed a solution scanning exercise with a group of transdisciplinary forest and FES experts from different European regions. We identified and prioritized fifteen major challenges hindering the balanced provision of multiple FES and identified a series of potential solutions to tackle each of them. The most prominent challenges referred to the increased frequency and impacts of extreme weather events and the normative mindset regarding forest management. The respective solutions pointed to the promotion of forest resilience via climate-smart forestry and mainstreaming FES-oriented management through a threefold strategy focusing on education, awareness raising, and networking. In a subsequent survey, most solutions were assessed as highly effective, transferable, monitorable, and with potential for being economically efficient. The implementation of the solutions could have synergistic effects when applying the notion of leverage points. Seven emerging pathways towards the sustainable supply of FES have been identified. These pathways build on each other and are organized based on their potential for transformation: (1) shifting forest management paradigms towards pluralistic ecosystem valuation; (2) using integrated landscape approaches; (3) increasing forest resilience; (4) coordinating actions between forest-related actors; (5) increasing participation in forest planning and management; (6) continuous, open, and transparent knowledge integration; and (7) using incentive-based instruments to support regulating and cultural FES. These pathways can contribute to the implementation of the new EU Forestry Strategy to support the balanced supply of multiple FES.
Governance Innovations for forest ecosystem service provision – Insights from an EU-wide survey
(2022)
This paper analyses the occurrence of governance innovations for forest ecosystem service (FES) provision in the forestry sector in Europe and the factors that influence innovation development. Based on a European-wide online survey, public and private forest owners and managers representing different property sizes indicate what type of governance innovation activities they engage in, and why. To investigate forestry innovations as systems, the analysis focuses on biophysical, social and technical factors influencing innovation development. The results of our exploratory quantitative analysis show that most innovation activities identified are largely oriented towards biomass production. Accordingly, most forest owners implement efficiency-driven optimisation strategies for forest management and technological improvement for provisioning service supply, to generate income. In contrast, the provision of regulating and cultural services is not yet a prominent part of forestry innovation activities.Reasons are rooted in a market-oriented economic rationale focusing on timber production, a lack of financial resources to compensate for other FES provisions or institutions to provide backup and security to forest owners and managers for engaging in innovation development. Given that the provision of a wide range of FES is a politically well-established objective for forest management in Europe, a strategy is needed that helps to align actors and sectors for supporting and co-financing related forest management approaches and business models. The current revision of the forest related policy framework on EU level under the EU Green deal poses a window of opportunity for better fostering novel governance approaches for more sustainable FES provision.
Enduring sustainability challenges requires a new model of collective leadership that embraces critical reflection, inclusivity and care. Leadership collectives can support a move in academia from metrics to merits, from a focus on career to care, and enact a shift from disciplinary to inter- and trans-disciplinary research. Academic organisations need to reorient their training programs, work ethics and reward systems to encourage collective excellence and to allow space for future leaders to develop and enact a radically re-imagined vision of how to lead as a collective with care for people and the planet.