Meeting the urban challenge? Urban agriculture and food security in post-conflict Freetown,Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has recently emerged from a long period of political instability and is ranked among the world's poorest countries. During the decade-long civil war of the 1990s, widespread forced out-migration left much of the countryside abandoned, as rural residents fled to the safety of the capital city, Freetown. Consequently, food production became severely dislocated and, in the post-conflict era, the state of the agricultural sector has become a major concern to governmental and non-governmental development agencies. Focussing on the question of urban food security in Freetown, this paper examines the incidence, dynamics and significance of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) among households, at a crucial point in Sierra Leone's post-conflict reconstruction phase. Drawing on recent field-based data, the paper contributes to the growing debate concerning how urban planning and development might be reconciled with the promotion of an ‘enabling environment’ in which UPA is encouraged and supported. It is argued that in the case of Freetown, a detailed evaluation of UPA is urgently needed to determine how agricultural activities can fit in with urban structure, urban problems and the livelihoods of a wide range of actors in and around the city. The paper concludes that not only is UPA a vital element in ensuring household food security, but it could potentially play a fundamental role in safeguarding the urban food continuum and promoting sustainable urbanization in the post-conflict period and beyond.     

The poorest and most vulnerable? On hazards,livelihoods and labelling of riverine communities in Bangladesh

Within the field of hazard research, vulnerability studies have been central to inducing a shift in the perspective on disasters as being primarily inflicted by geophysical events to that of apprehending disasters as destructive outcomes of particular social as well as hazardous environmental conditions. However, the inherent tendency within vulnerability studies to classify certain areas or people as 'vulnerable' may in some cases also serve to reinforce popular and/or ingrained prejudices, negative stereotypes and dubious explanations of the living conditions and fate of specific communities that become so labelled. The riverbanks and islands in river courses of Bangladesh have long been portrayed as home to the 'poorest' and most vulnerable communities, the widespread assumption being that people would only live in such riverine environments because they have no other options. Drawing on an examination of existing literature on char settlements in Bangladesh and data from a field site in the Jamuna River, this paper argues that the prevailing perceptions and labelling of char dwellers as 'vulnerable' people is based on a far too simplistic understanding of both rural migration patterns and the livelihoods obtained in these riverine areas.     

New-type urbanization in China: Predicted trends and investment demand for 2015–2030

The future development of new-type urbanization has drawn great attention from both the government and public alike. In this context, the present study had three related research aims. Firstly, it sought to predict the urbanization and population dynamics in China at both national and provincial levels for the period of 2015 to 2030. Secondly, on this basis, it sought to examine the spatial variation of urbanization given the predicted national urbanization rate of 70.12%. Thirdly, it sought to estimate and evaluate the national and provincial demands of investment in the development of new-type urbanization. The main conclusions from this study were as follows: (1) The population size and urbanization rate will reach 1.445 billion and 70.12%, respectively, from 2015 to 2030. (2) The demographic dividend will vanish when the population pressure reaches its maximum. During this period, there will be 70.16 million urban population born. The suburban population that becomes urbanized will be 316.7 million, and thus the net increase in urban population will reach 386 million. (3) Although the urbanization rate of every Chinese province will increase during 2015–2030, it will do so unequally, while differences in urbanization quality among provinces will also be substantial. In some provinces, moreover, the urbanization quality is not compatible with their eco-social development. (4) A total of 4,105,380 billion yuan is required to fund new-type urbanization and the investment demand for each province varies greatly; for example, Guangdong province requires the most funding, amounting to approximately 148 times that required by Tibet, the province in least need of funding. In the final part of this study, policy suggestions concerning the investment of the new-type urbanization are put forward and discussed.     

New evidence for extreme and persistent terminal medieval drought in California’s Sierra Nevada

The level of Cliff Lake, a small, subalpine, moraine-dammed lake in California’s south central Sierra Nevada, was approximately 5 m lower than present for 50 years or more approximately 600 years ago, this determined by radiocarbon dating of wood recovered from a submerged tree stump found in the lake. This finding corresponds to commensurate data from throughout much of western North America, suggesting the duration and magnitude of terminal medieval megadrought was similar throughout the region. Ultimately this datum helps give credence to the perspective that though late Holocene climate in California was indeed variable, the effects of terminal Medieval megadrought was similar across both time and broad geographic expanse.     

Forest cover change and land tenure change in Mexico’s avocado region: Is community forestry related to reduced deforestation for high value crops?

Forest cover change in highland pine-oak forests of Michoacan, Mexico is due to a process of conversion of natural forests to avocado orchards. Privately-owned avocado orchards are found on land that was common forest before the 1992 Reform of the Mexican Constitution. We ask how forest cover change was facilitated by policy changes that affected land tenure rules and existing community forestry programs. We use a comparative case study of four communities, an analysis of forest cover change, and interviews and household surveys. Results show that 33.1% of forest cover was lost over a 16-year-period across the region. However, two forestry case study communities lost 7.2% and 15.1% of forest cover, while two adjacent non-forestry communities lost 86.5% and 92.4%, respectively. Interview data show that the Reform of Article 27 combined with the 1992 Forestry Law led to collapse of local governance, illegal division of common forests, and illegal logging in the two non-forestry communities.     

Climate change policy and practice in regional New Zealand: How are actors negotiating science and policy?

Regional governance to address climate change is being constituted in New Zealand through domestic policy measures and international discourses. We examine climate change responses in two regions: Marlborough and Waikato. Informants expressed a desire for more transparent government policy; that planning for climate change makes good business sense for farmers and other businesses; that technology is sought to increase productivity and decrease environmental impact; and research networks build capacity for local action, linking sectors and organisations. Often conflicting, these responses to climate change were informed by a mix of discourses shaping New Zealand, including participatory democracy, the knowledge economy and sustainable development.     

Whose climate change adaptation ‘barriers’? Exploring the coloniality of climate change adaptation policy assemblages in Thailand and beyond

Climate change adaptation (CCA) ‘barriers’ are frequently seen as responses to biophysical climate impacts, and thus defined as ‘obstacles’ to be ‘overcome’, rendered into categories of the techno-managerial. However, barriers are often undertheorized and are blind to explanations of their origins or the causal mechanisms by which they operate. This is especially complex for barrier critiques in the Global South in particular. Using a ‘hybrid’ assemblage and postcolonial approach, this paper disentangles existing barrier critiques in Thailand to lay bare underlying power imbalances and tensions. It finds that ‘simplistic’ vulnerability framings have deep roots in postcolonial histories; ‘complacent’ mainstreaming/budgeting trajectories have been nurtured by various IOs, and not necessarily much-maligned Thai bureaucrats; and limited technical expertise/willingness to engage are not so illogical, but rather results of diverse external forces. Given this, this paper urges institutional actors and researchers to reflect on epistemology, ontology, and their own positionality when assessing barriers in future.     

An event-based methodology for climate change and human–environment research

Abductive causal eventism (ACE) is an analytical methodology based on a pragmatic view of research methods and explanation that places at the center of research inquiry the answering of ‘why’ questions about events, including human actions or environmental changes of interest. When used in human–environment research, the methodology entails constructing causal histories of interrelated social and/or biophysical events backward in time through a process of eliminative inference and reasoning from effects to causes, called abduction. ACE encourages an eclectic use of methods, models, and theoretical ideas. It fosters integrative, interdisciplinary analysis without being committed either to systems as ontological entities or to holistic analytical frameworks. By not privileging particular theories or explanatory factors in advance, ACE enables researchers to interrogate the plausibility of different causal influences, including local environmental changes that may be related to much wider changes in climate. Likewise, behaviors or practices that may be of value in light of anticipated environmental changes can be studied without their presuming to be caused by these changes or by changes in climate per se. Research on coastal mangrove planting for storm protection in the Philippines and upland tree planting in St. Lucia are used to illustrate these arguments.     

Spatial and temporal change in the potential evapotranspiration sensitivity to meteorological factors in China (1960?2007)

Potential evapotranspiration (E0), as an estimate of the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, has been widely studied in the fields of irrigation management, crop water demand and predictions in ungauged basins (PUBs). Analysis of the sensitivity of E0 to meteorological factors is a basic research on the impact of climate change on water resources, and also is important to the optimal allocation of agricultural water resources. This paper dealt with sensitivity of E0 over China, which was divided into ten drainage systems, including Songhua River basin, Liaohe River basin, Haihe River basin, Yellow River basin, Yangtze River basin, Pearl River basin, Huaihe River drainage system, Southeast river drainage system, Northwest river drainage system and Southwest river drainage system. In addition, the calculation method of global radiation in Penman-Monteith formula was improved by optimization, and the sensitivities of Penman-Monteith potential evapotranspiration to the daily maximum temperature (STmax), daily minimum temperature (STmin), wind speed (SU2), global radiation (SRs) and vapor pressure (SVP) were calculated and analyzed based on the long-term meteorological data from 653 meteorological stations in China during the period 1960-2007. Results show that: (1) the correlation coefficient between E0 and pan evaporation increased from 0.61 to 0.75. E0 had the decline trends in eight of ten drainage systems in China, which indicates that “pan evaporation paradox” commonly exists in China from 1960 to 2007. (2) Spatially, Tmax was the most sensitive factor in Haihe River basin, Yellow River basin, Huaihe River drainage system, Yangtze River basin, Pearl River basin and Southeast river drainage system, and VP was the most sensitive factor in Songhua River Basin, Liaohe River basin, Northwest river drainage system while Rs was the most sensitive factor in Southwest river drainage system. For the nation-wide average, the most sensitive factor was VP, followed by Tmax, Rs, U2 and Tmin. In addition, the changes in sensitivity coefficients had a certain correlation with elevation. (3) Temporally, the maximum values of STmax and SRs occurred in July, while the maximum values of STmin, SVP and SU2 occurred in January. Moreover, trend analysis indicates that STmax had decline trends, while STmin, SU2, SRs and SVP had increasing     

Diverging Discourses on Bauxite Mining in Eastern India: Life-Supporting Hills for Adivasis or National Treasure Chests on Barren Lands?

This article identifies the two dominant discourses that attempt to explain socioenvironmental change from bauxite mining in Eastern India and compares them to empirical material from three proposed mining locations. The anti-mining “life-giving hills” discourse understands the bauxite-bearing hills as an essential part of a wider ecosystem that supports sustainable, indigenous communities. The pro-mining “treasure chest” discourse, on the other hand, sees barren, uninhabited hilltops with rich ore deposits possible to extract for the benefit of the nation without harming nearby forests or communities. It is found that both discourses hold universalizing aspirations not backed up by available evidence. The technical rationality of mining proponents create sweeping generalizations resulting in unmitigated socio-environmental change, while the eco-romanticist opposition fails to see how communities and environments are differentially affected by mining. Two untenable discourses at present underpin seemingly intractable conflict without addressing wider resource politics dominated by political and business elites.     

From rags to riches? Migration and intergenerational change in London's housing market, 1971–91

Summary In 1971 under half of London's young people, then living with their parents, lived in households that owned their homes, while well over half lived in rented housing. By 1991, now no longer living with their parents, less than a quarter of these young people were tenants. This paper identifies the components of that intergenerational tenure mobility, distinguishing between home ownership in more, and less, 'desirable' wards, and quantifies the role of migration in mediating the overall changes in Londoner's housing market status between 1971 and 1991. It analyses the moderating factors contributing to housing status mobility, such as labour market mobility and household type, and assesses the differential impact of these processes on men and women. ONS Longitudinal Study data for the period 1971–91 are analysed. Findings are that the aggregate changes concealed a range of housing careers. In particular, in-migrants fared less well in the London housing market than in its labour market.     

Foreign direct investment and local supplier upgrading – the case of grocery retail in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Foreign direct investments (FDIs) are noted as an important cross-border channel for knowledge. Thus, expanding companies can contribute to local supplying companies’ capability development, an important precondition for upgrading processes. Several transnational grocery retailers have expanded globally and introduced modern supply chain management practices to markets of emerging and developing countries. However, agri-food industries are under-researched regarding FDI-induced knowledge transfer and supplier upgrading. Based on qualitative interviews with both retailers and suppliers in the emerging market of Turkey, this article discusses the upgrading processes of fresh food suppliers driven by the FDI of grocery retailers. This article shows how the foreign retailers’ fresh fruit and vegetable supply structures have evolved towards the preferences of suppliers that vertically integrate value chain functions. Within this dynamic, transnational retailers proactively shape their suppliers and promote (functional) upgrading. The findings imply that (1) local regulatory environments should foster local sourcing and (2) the way for suppliers to work towards a solid value chain positioning is to fully integrate supply chain functions including agricultural primary production. This article argues that integrating low value-adding functions can be a type of functional upgrading that has not yet been acknowledged.     

Monthly calibration and optimization of ?ngstr?m-Prescott equation coefficients for comprehensive agricultural divisions in China

?ngstr?m-Prescott equation (AP) is the algorithm recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations for calculating the surface solar radiation (R_s) to support the estimation of crop evapotranspiration.Thus,the a_s and b_s coefficients in the AP are vital.This study aims to obtain coefficients a_s and b_s in the AP,which are optimized for China’s comprehensive agricultural divisions.The average monthly solar radiation and relative sunshine duration data at 121 stations from 1957–2016 were collected.Using data from 1957 to 2010,we calculated the monthly a_s and b_s coefficients for each subregion by least-squares regression.Then,taking the observation values of R_s from 2011 to 2016 as the true values,we estimated and compared the relative accuracy of R_s calculated using the regression values of coefficients a_s and b_s and that calculated with the FAO recommended coefficients.The monthly coefficients,a_s and b_s,of each subregion are significantly different,both temporally and spatially,from the FAO recommended coefficients.The relative error range (0–54%) of R_s calculated via the regression values of the a_s and b_s coefficients is better than the relative error range (0–77%) of R_s calculated using the FAO suggested coefficients.The station-mean relative error was reduced by 1%to 6%.However,the regression values of the a_s and b_s coefficients performed worse in certain months and agricultural subregions during verification.Therefore,we selected the a_s and b_s coefficients with the minimum R_(s )estimation error as the final coefficients and constructed a coefficient recommendation table for 36 agricultural production and management subregions in China.These coefficient recommendations enrich the case study of coefficient calibration for the AP in China and can improve the accuracy of calculating R_s and crop evapotranspiration based on existing data.     

Lake evolution and its implication for environ-mental changes in China during 1950?2000

Lakes in China have undergone considerable environmental changes during the past 50 years, e.g. lake level, water area changes, as did in the past several thousands years. The enhanced human activities, such as land reclamation, application of chemical fertilizer, land use and cover, irrigation and industrialization in the catchment etc., have played an im-portant role on the recent decades’ changes of these lakes, although constrained to a great extent by the natural impact. Comparative study on variations of lake volume (water level, depth and area) in the eastern and western lake regions of China during 1950–2000 indicated that, lake volume in the eastern region had approximately undergone a two-stage change, i.e. a dramatic decrease from the 1950s to 1970s, and a continuous increase between the 1980s and 1990s; while, in the western region, lake volume had been decreasing nearly all the time. Further studies on some typical lakes concluded that, climatic change was a primary factor for the variations of lake volume during the past 50 years, although human activities showed important effect.     

Spatiotemporal patterns and characteristics of land-use change in China during 2010–2015

Land use/cover change is an important theme on the impacts of human activities on the earth systems and global environmental change. National land-use changes of China during 2010–2015 were acquired by the digital interpretation method using the high-resolution remotely sensed images, e.g. the Landsat 8 OLI, GF-2 remote sensing images. The spatiotemporal characteristics of land-use changes across China during 2010–2015 were revealed by the indexes of dynamic degree model, annual land-use changes ratio etc. The results indicated that the built-up land increased by 24.6×10³ km² while the cropland decreased by 4.9×10³ km², and the total area of woodland and grassland decreased by 16.4×10³ km². The spatial pattern of land-use changes in China during 2010–2015 was concordant with that of the period 2000–2010. Specially, new characteristics of land-use changes emerged in different regions of China in 2010–2015. The built-up land in eastern China expanded continually, and the total area of cropland decreased, both at decreasing rates. The rates of built-up land expansion and cropland shrinkage were accelerated in central China. The rates of built-up land expansion and cropland growth increased in western China, while the decreasing rate of woodland and grassland accelerated. In northeastern China, built-up land expansion slowed continually, and cropland area increased slightly accompanied by the conversions between paddy land and dry land. Besides, woodland and grassland area decreased in northeastern China. The characteristics of land-use changes in eastern China were essentially consistent with the spatial govern and control requirements of the optimal development zones and key development zones according to the Major Function-oriented Zones Planning implemented during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015). It was a serious challenge for the central government of China to effectively protect the reasonable layout of land use types dominated with the key ecological function zones and agricultural production zones in central and western China. Furthermore, the local governments should take effective measures to strengthen the management of territorial development in future.