The Fernow Experimental Forest,West Virginia,USA: Insights,datasets, and opportunities

Long-term experimental watershed studies have significantly influenced our global understanding of hydrological processes. The discovery and characterization of how stream water quantity and quality respond to a changing environment (e.g. land-use change, acidic deposition) has only been possible due to the establishment of catchments devoted to long-term study. One such catchment is the Fernow Experimental Forest (FEF) located in the headwaters of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, a region that provides essential freshwater ecosystem services to eastern and mid-western United States communities. Established in 1934, the FEF is among the earliest experimental watershed studies in the Eastern United States that continues to address emergent challenges to forest ecosystems, including climate change and other threats to forest health. This data note describes available data and presents some findings from more than 50 years of hydrologic research at the FEF. During the first few decades, research at the FEF focused on the relationship between forest management and hydrological processes—especially those related to the overall water balance. Later, research included the examination of interactions between hydrology and soil erosion, biogeochemistry, N-saturation, and acid deposition. Hydro-climatologic and water quality datasets from long-term measurements and data from short-duration studies are publicly available to provide new insights and foster collaborations that will continue to advance our understanding of hydrology in forested headwater catchments. As a result of its rich history of research and abundance of long-term data, the FEF is positioned to continue to advance understanding of forest ecosystems in a time of unprecedented change.     

Stormwater control impacts on runoff volume and peak flow: A meta-analysis of watershed modelling studies

Decades of research has concluded that the percent of impervious surface cover in a watershed is strongly linked to negative impacts on urban stream health. Recently, there has been a push by municipalities to offset these effects by installing structural stormwater control measures (SCMs), which are landscape features designed to retain and reduce runoff to mitigate the effects of urbanisation on event hydrology. The goal of this study is to build generalisable relationships between the level of SCM implementation in urban watersheds and resulting changes to hydrology. A literature review of 185 peer-reviewed studies of watershed-scale SCM implementation across the globe was used to identify 52 modelling studies suitable for a meta-analysis to build statistical relationships between SCM implementation and hydrologic change. Hydrologic change is quantified as the percent reduction in storm event runoff volume and peak flow between a watershed with SCMs relative to a (near) identical control watershed without SCMs. Results show that for each additional 1% of SCM-mitigated impervious area in a watershed, there is an additional 0.43% reduction in runoff and a 0.60% reduction in peak flow. Values of SCM implementation required to produce a change in water quantity metrics were identified at varying levels of probability. For example, there is a 90% probability (high confidence) of at least a 1% reduction in peak flow with mitigation of 33% of impervious surfaces. However, as the reduction target increases or mitigated impervious surface decreases, the probability of reaching the reduction target also decreases. These relationships can be used by managers to plan SCM implementation at the watershed scale.     

Configurations of community in flood risk management

ABSTRACT

Despite a notable increase in the literature on community resilience, the notion of ‘community’ remains underproblematised. This is evident within flood risk management (FRM) literature, in which the understanding and roles of communities may be acknowledged but seldom discussed in any detail. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how community networks are configured by different actors, whose roles and responsibilities span spatial scales within the context of FRM. Accordingly, the authors analyse findings from semi-structured interviews, policy documents, and household surveys from two flood prone areas in Finnish Lapland. The analysis reveals that the ways in which authorities, civil society, and informal actors take on multiple roles are intertwined and form different types of networks. By implication, the configuration of community is fuzzy, elusive and situated, and not confined to a fixed spatiality. The authors discuss the implications of the complex nature of community for FRM specifically, and for community resilience more broadly. They conclude that an analysis of different actors across scales contributes to an understanding of the configuration of community, including community resilience, and how the meaning of community takes shape according to the differing aims of FRM in combination with differing geographical settings.     

Access to electricity for all and the role of decentralized solar power in sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

Several hundred million people in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk of being without access to electricity by 2030 despite the ongoing work aimed at achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7—sustainable energy for all. Based on qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, observation, and participation in Kenya and Senegal between 2010 and 2018, the author aims to explain why the rate of progress is slower than intended. The findings highlight three strong hindrances: lack of affordability due to extreme poverty, mismatch between the village-level outreach of grid-based electricity systems and the geography of settlements, and lack of consideration given to gender inequality. The findings also provide new insights into the ways that decentralized small-scale solar power increasingly meets some of the shortcomings of centralized grids in addressing these three issues, even in rural areas where grids are already present. The author concludes that the ways in which village communities have combined the use of solar-powered energy with grid-supplied energy indicates the importance of the former and the need to intensify efforts to improve solar power delivery models and integrate them fully in energy sector strategies.     

Multivariate adaptive regression splines for estimating riverine constituent concentrations

Regression-based methods are commonly used for riverine constituent concentration/flux estimation, which is essential for guiding water quality protection practices and environmental decision making. This paper developed a multivariate adaptive regression splines model for estimating riverine constituent concentrations (MARS-EC). The process, interpretability and flexibility of the MARS-EC modelling approach, was demonstrated for total nitrogen in the Patuxent River, a major river input to Chesapeake Bay. Model accuracy and uncertainty of the MARS-EC approach was further analysed using nitrate plus nitrite datasets from eight tributary rivers to Chesapeake Bay. Results showed that the MARS-EC approach integrated the advantages of both parametric and nonparametric regression methods, and model accuracy was demonstrated to be superior to the traditionally used ESTIMATOR model. MARS-EC is flexible and allows consideration of auxiliary variables; the variables and interactions can be selected automatically. MARS-EC does not constrain concentration-predictor curves to be constant but rather is able to identify shifts in these curves from mathematical expressions and visual graphics. The MARS-EC approach provides an effective and complementary tool along with existing approaches for estimating riverine constituent concentrations.     

Collaborative Governance and Conflict Management: Lessons Learned and Good Practices from a Case Study in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

Given the linkages between natural resources and social conflicts, evidence increasingly shows that successful natural resource management requires conflict mitigation and prevention. However, there may be a gap in practice between knowing what processes and tools need to be used to manage conservation conflicts and how to actually implement them. We present learning from a practice-based case study of conflict management in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon that aimed to develop natural resource governance institutions and build stakeholder capacity, including of indigenous groups, to navigate existing conflict resolution mechanisms. Through applying good practices in conservation conflict management and collaborative governance, we generated important lessons on the practical considerations involved in collaborative conservation. These lessons, while specific to our case, could be applied to a variety of protected areas facing complex social-ecological systems dynamics and wicked problems.     

气候变化与多维度可持续城市化

全球大规模城市化和气候变化已是不争的事实,这是全人类需要共同面对和关注的突出问题。当前对于两者之间的复杂关系以及城市化进程如何科学应对气候变化并不清晰,从科学、管理到实践都需要进一步加强探究,以实现全球和区域可持续发展。本文首先给出全球大规模城市化和气候变化发生的基本事实,综述归纳城市化与气候变化的相互影响以及可能机制,城市化导致热岛效应、降水分配不均以及极端天气,并具有局地—区域—全球多尺度叠加效应,加剧了全球气候变化问题;气候变化对城市化的影响主要表现为能源消费变化、死亡率与传染病传播、海平面上升、极端天气对基础设施的破坏、水资源短缺等方面。简要梳理相关的国际研究和行动联盟,从城市化的4个关键维度：人口、土地、经济和社会视角出发,提出适应与减缓气候变化的多维度可持续城市化的分析框架。呼吁加强自然与人文学科交叉,将城市化等人类活动纳入地—气系统,探究人—地—气复杂耦合过程,从城市化为代表的人类活动角度的适应与减缓,或许是应对气候变化的最关键和最现实的路径。     

农业景观保护路径历史回顾及启示

农业景观保护是实现农业景观可持续发展的重要举措,关系到中国粮食安全保障、农耕文明传承、乡村风貌维系、生态安全格局构建乃至社会经济稳定发展。本文借助对发达国家农业景观保护路径的长时间尺度历史回顾,总结归纳出农业景观保护路径发展的一般规律,即其在社会经济发展进程中一般经历传统保护、应对保护、管制保护、治理保护和管护保护五个发展阶段。从最初的传统保护阶段到最近的管护保护阶段,农业景观保护目标从自给生产维续逐渐转变为可持续发展,景观可持续性先降后升。在此基础上,结合中国农业景观保护状况,提炼出增强主体管护意识、提升景观功能服务、优化信息沟通渠道、完善政策弹性结构等四方面启示。     

城市和城市群可持续发展指数研究进展

21世纪是城市的世纪,城市的高质量发展对区域和全球可持续发展至关重要。中国城市化发展迅速,城市化率从1978年的17.9%增加到2019年的60.6%,2030年将达到70%,大部分人口居住在城市。城市是中国经济发展的引擎,以全国近7%的土地面积生产了70%的国内生产总值(GDP),而城市群更是集聚了全国大部分城镇人口和GDP。因此,城市和城市群的健康与可持续性将决定中国未来发展的质量与进程。识别城市和城市群发展的程度、存在的问题以及国内外差距,亟需进行城市可持续发展的评价。本研究系统综述了城市可持续发展评价的思想与指标体系的发展历程,重点基于联合国可持续发展目标(SDG)框架考察了开展城市可持续发展评价的方法,提出了构建城市和城市群可持续发展指数的途径,并从平台构建、大数据基础、跟踪发布等方面提出了推进城市可持续发展指数评价建立城市发展“仪表盘”的思路。基于联合国SDG框架的城市和城市群可持续发展指数可为目标城市对标其他城市、开展不同区域城市的对比、找准发展目标与识别存在问题等方面提供重要支撑。     

地理空间传感网融合服务技术与应用

随着遥感数据网、传感网、物联网和人工智能的发展,逐渐形成空天地海立体化、集成化和一体化的地理空间传感网。地理空间传感网感知资源呈现出多源、异构和分散的特征,面向多层次用户个性化、即时化和智能化应用需求,存在异构资源共享管理、多协议实时接入、时空无缝感知、自动化感知和精准预测等技术挑战。静态地理信息服务由于无法提供鲜活的地理信息,难以满足地理事件的综合监测、决策预警和聚焦应用需求,急需发展地理空间传感网融合服务技术和实时动态地理信息服务平台。本文围绕信息物理网环境下空天地海观测平台的观测高效共享和融合服务问题,提出了传感网观测共享信息模型和点面观测协同无缝重建模型,突破了观测在线接入、集成管理、星地融合、时空预测和聚焦服务等地理空间传感网融合服务关键技术,研制了包含“感—联—知—控”等功能的传感网时空信息网络感知服务系统GeoSensor,介绍了GeoSensor在流域、海洋和城市等典型应用。未来将进一步发展“人—水—城”智能感知认知理论,突破“空天地海人”群智感知、空间智能和认知服务技术,开展长江经济带应用。