Expert engagement in participatory processes: translating stakeholder discourses into policy options

This paper demonstrates an innovative role for experts in supporting participatory policy processes with an application to landslide risk management in the Italian town of Nocera Inferiore. Experts co-produce risk mitigation options based on their specialized knowledge taking account of local knowledge and values by directly coupling stakeholder discourses with option design. Drawing on the theory of plural rationality and based on a literature review, interviews and a public questionnaire, stakeholder discourses are elicited on the landslide risk problem and its solution. Armed with the discourses and in close interaction with stakeholders, experts provide a range of technical mitigation options, each within a given budget constraint. These options are subsequently deliberated in the participatory process with the intent of reaching compromise recommendations for landslide risk mitigation. As we show in an accompanying paper, “Compromise not consensus. Designing a participatory process for landslide risk mitigation” (this issue), the provision of multiple co-produced policy options enhances stakeholder deliberation by respecting legitimate differences in values and worldviews.     

Monitoring desertification by remote sensing using the Tasselled Cap transform for long-term change detection

Sensitive areas like oases are threatened by climatic variations and human activities that can catalyze desertification processes. Remote sensing the Earth surface from satellites is a good tool to monitor such types of change through several techniques. In this paper a remote sensing method that has been widely used for vegetated areas is adapted to study dry regions. The method consists of a combination of the Change Vector Analysis and the Tasselled Cap (TC) transform. To adapt it to dryland conditions a new set of parameters for the TC transform is hereby calculated for the Landsat 8 OLI system. The new TC parameters are tested in the analysis of the surface change in Azraq Oasis, Jordan, over a time span of 30 years (1984–2013) for Landsat satellites images. Azraq is considered a good testing site since in the early 1990s it has been subject to a complete drying up of the superficial springs, mainly due to over-exploitation of the groundwater basin. Results show that the chosen technique is able to detect the expected change on the surface, consistent with photo-interpretation and historical information available.     

Very hot,very shallow hydrothermal dolomitization: An example from the Maritime Alps (north‐west Italy–south‐east France)

In the Maritime Alps (north‐west Italy – south‐east France), the Middle Triassic–lowermost Cretaceous platform carbonates of the Provençal Domain locally show an intense dolomitization. Dolomitized bodies, irregularly shaped and variable in size from some metres to hundreds of metres, are associated with tabular bodies of dolomite‐cemented breccias, cutting the bedding at a high angle, and networks of dolomite veins. Field and petrographic observations indicate that dolomitization was a polyphase process, in which episodes of hydrofracturing and host‐rock dissolution, related to episodic expulsion of overpressured fluids through faults and fracture systems, were associated with phases of host‐rock dolomitization and void cementation. Fluid inclusion analysis indicates that dolomitizing fluids were relatively hot (170 to 260°C). The case study represents an outstanding example of a fossil hydrothermal system, which significantly contributes to the knowledge of such dolomitization systems in continental margin settings. The unusually favourable stratigraphic framework allows precise constraint of the timing of dolomitization (earliest Cretaceous) and, consequently, direct evaluation of the burial setting of dolomitization which, for the upper part of the dolomitized succession, was very shallow or even close to the surface. The described large‐scale hydrothermal system was probably related to deep‐rooted faults, and provides indirect evidence of a significant earliest Cretaceous fault activity in this part of the Alpine Tethys European palaeomargin.     

Modeling the Stakeholder Profile in Territorial Management: The Segarra-Garrigues Irrigation System,Spain

Interest in obtaining a more accurate snapshot of irrigation management from a geographical perspective is increasingly relevant. This proposal is based on existing qualitative approaches in combination with an alternative method (the territorial irrigation management model) to identify and present key stakeholders attitudes and perceptions in the Segarra-Garrigues irrigation system in Spain. Advantages are (1) the focus on interrelations and context, (2) the applicability and extrapolation of the irrigation system, and (3) the irrigator-driven rather than researcher-driven perspective. Results revealed that there are conceptual and practical heterogeneities between the preferences of stakeholders' groups regarding water resources management, environmental protection, and agricultural challenges.     

Gradient responses of epilithic diatom communities in the Baltic Sea proper

Diatom communities and assemblages are widely used as indicators of ecological change in aquatic environments and for reconstructing palaeo-environments. Good calibration data sets, directly linking changes in diatom composition to environmental factors, are needed for building reliable gradient models with high indicative value. Such models have a broad applicability because most diatom species have cosmopolitan distributions. This paper presents community analyses of brackish-water diatoms living on submerged stones in four areas of the Baltic Sea proper along the Swedish coast. The communities on the stones were composed of epilithic, epiphytic, epipelic, epipsammic and occasionally some pelagic species. Altogether, 158 quantitative samples were taken at 41 sites between 23 April and 11 May, 1990, and the data set contained 300 diatom taxa belonging to 75 genera. Species data were analysed with principal components analysis (PCA) and environmental factors were fitted passively by multiple regression analysis on the ordination results. Differences in community composition could be explained by variation in salinity (which was correlated with N:P and Si:P ratios and the occurrence of macroalgae on the stones), nutrient concentrations and variation in exposure to wave action (which was correlated to the occurrence of soft bottoms around the stones, water temperature and the occurrence of sand grains and macroalgae on the stones). Separate analyses for small taxa (cell biovolume <1000 μm³), for large taxa (cell biovolume ≥1000 μm³) and for small and large diatom taxa together showed that diatoms of different size classes respond differently to environmental variation.     

The economic sustainability of artisanal fisheries: the case of the trawl ban in the Gulf of Castellammare, NW Sicily

Small-scale fisheries and the communities they support are often given the protection of designated fishing zones from which non-artisanal vessels are excluded. This paper looks at one example of this approach, the trawl ban introduced in the Gulf of Castellammare (NW Sicily), focussing on the economic sustainability of the artisanal fishery currently operating within the protected area. The consequences of lifting the trawl ban and how far this would jeopardise the sustainability of the artisanal fishery are explored via an analysis of the financial viability of trammel net vessels under alternative assumptions concerning catch rates. The paper also investigates fishermen's attitudes towards the trawl ban and their predisposition either to remain in the fishery or to quit in the event of the ban being removed.