Limits to adaptation to interacting global change risks among smallholder rice farmers in Northwest Costa Rica

In this paper, we discuss the theoretical relationships among interacting global change risks, valued livelihood goals, and adaptation limits. We build from research on the impacts of multiple and interacting global change risks in lesser-developed countries and seek to understand household adaptation limits in agrarian communities. We ask: What are valued livelihood goals among smallholder farmers in Northwest Costa Rica? How do socio-economic determinants of adaptive capacities determine their ability to meet these goals in the face of the impacts of interacting global change risks? Our data were based on focus groups, interviews, survey responses from 94 smallholder farmers, government statistics, and published literature. We analyzed our data using qualitative content analysis and quantitative logistic regression models. Our analysis showed that farmers perceived rice production as an identity, and that they were being forced to consider limits to their abilities to adapt to maintain that identity. We found that farm size, cattle ownership, years spent farming, and household income variety were determinants of their abilities to remain in rice production while maintaining sufficient levels of livelihood security. We also showed that for those households most vulnerable to water scarcity, their ability to successfully adapt to meet valued livelihood goals is diminished because adaptation to water scarcity increases vulnerability to decreased rice-market access. In this way, they become trapped by the inability to reduce their vulnerability to risks of the interaction between global changes and therefore abandon valued identities and livelihoods.     

The principles and guidelines for designing long-term agronomic experiments

Many of the important questions facing farming systems in the world today require long-term studies to provide meaningful information and answers. A long-term agronomic experiment (LTAE) should (1) have long-term objectives; (2) study important soil processes or ecological processes; and (3) be related to the productivity and sustainability of systems. A well established LTAE can provide both insights into how the system operates and foresight into where the system goes. The prerequisites for setting up a LTAE are the secured land, continuous funding and dedicated scientists. A number of principles must be considered carefully when establishing a LTAE, (1) the site must be representative of large areas; (2) the treatments should be simple, but focusing on the big questions; (3) the plots should be large enough to allow subsequent modification of the experiment if this becomes necessary; (4) crop rotations should minimise, wherever possible, the risk of build-up of pests and diseases, and rotational phase should be considered in a rotational experiment; (5) a clearly defined experimental protocol should be developed to ensure data collected is scientifically valid and statistically analysable, but with flexibility to allow essential changes; (6) soil samples, possibly plant samples, should be achieved to provide better answer to the original questions when new, perhaps more accurate analytical techniques are developed, or answer new research questions that were not considered in the original design. The MASTER experiment in Australia was used as a case study to demonstrate how these principles are implemented in practice.     

Urban sustainability: Lessons from organisms and ecosystems

The services essential for urban life include provision of electricity and water, disposal of sewage and solid waste, and management of stormwater. In the past two centuries, the infrastructure providing these services has become increasingly large and centralized, which from a sustainability perspective is problematic. I argue that, to be sustainable, a city must be integrated like a living organism, while having the resilience properties of a mature ecosystem. For the provision of infrastructure, this means that today's massive, highly centralized facilities must give way to more distributed yet interconnected systems.     

Changes of Extreme Indices over China in Response to 1.5 ℃ Global Warming Projected by a Regional Climate Model

The possible changes of extreme climates over China under 1.5 ℃ global warming scenario were investigated by using the output of CORDEX (COordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment) experiments with a regional air-sea coupled model FROALS over East Asia domain. Results indicated that compared to the baseline period of 1986-2005, warm events would significantly increase while cold events would significantly decrease over China in a 1.5 ℃ warmer world. The risks of extreme and moderate warm events would be 2.14 and 1.93 times of that in the baseline period, respectively. The risks of extreme and moderate cold events would be 0.58 and 0.63 times of that in the baseline period, respectively. Compared to other sub-regions, the increasing amplitude of extreme warm events would be higher in North China, while the decreasing amplitude of extreme cold events would be higher in Northeast China. Risks of extreme dry events would increase in Northwest China, Tibetan Plateau and Northeast China (1.13, 1.02 and 1.22 times of that in baseline period). Precipitation intensity and extreme wet events would increase significantly over most parts of China, and the increasing amplitudes extreme wet events will be higher in North China and South China (1.88 and 1.85 times of that in the baseline period). Days when people may feel uncomfortable would increase significantly in eastern China, and compared to simple extreme warm events, the increasing amplitude of extreme uncomfortable days would be larger. The absolute changes of heating degree-days would be larger than that of cooling degree-days (-258℃·d and 72℃·d, respectively) in eastern China, but the relative change of heating degree-days would be smaller than cooling degree-days (-10% and 82%, respectively).     

A Sustainability Initiative to Quantify Carbon Sequestration by Campus Trees

Abstract

Over 3,900 trees on a university campus were inventoried by an instructor-led team of geography undergraduates in order to quantify the carbon sequestration associated with biomass growth. The setting of the project is described, together with its logistics, methodology, outcomes, and benefits. This hands-on project provided a team of students with several learning opportunities including an introduction to carbon sequestration, basic arboriculture, field-based measurements, mapping, geographic information systems, and biogeography concepts. A GIS geodatabase was produced containing information on tree location, species, size, biomass, carbon content, and annual CO₂ sequestration, which was later customized for integration into campus facilities management.     

Sustainable Household Capability: which households are doing the work of environmental sustainability?

This paper presents a framework for analysing which households are doing ‘their bit’ for sustainability in an era of climate change, using a two-stage cluster analysis of sustainable household capabilities. The framework segments households by their reported level of commitment to ‘pro-sustainability’ practices common to conventional government policies. Results are presented from a large-scale survey of Wollongong households, New South Wales, Australia. Results illustrate the importance of approaching household sustainability through everyday practices. Attention is drawn to the wide variation in participation in specific household sustainability practices. Investigation into sustainable household capability by household segments shows the limits of even the most committed households. Results show the importance of socio-cultural contexts in differentiating sustainable household capabilities—with women, suburban-detached households and lower income segments of the population ultimately doing most of the work of being sustainable.     

Relationship analysis between livelihood assets and livelihood strategies: A Heihe River Basin example

The security and quality of the livelihood of farmers is of paramount concern in rural areas of China. Livelihood stability would force the related polity to act coordinately while eradicating poverty and promoting resource sustainability. For this study, the livelihood approach was used as a framework of analysis that is based upon Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, the core of which is livelihood assets. Livelihood capitals provide substantial contributions to the well-being of numerous rural dwellers. However, the level and degree of reliance on livelihood capital differ across households. Factors that contribute to the economic reliance of households on a particular economic activity in general and on livelihood capital in particular may vary depending upon the type of resource endowment, household demographic, and economic characteristic as well as exogenous factors such as markets, prices, policies, and technologies. This study identifies factors that influence a household’s livelihood strategy choice with a particular focus on livelihood assets. The study applies a preliminary investigation concerning the relationship between livelihood assets and livelihood strategies, that is, the allocation of assets. Environmentally augmented household livelihood assets were collected from 300 sample households within the Heihe River Basin. Results show that physical assets possess a maximum value (0.609) for farmers and human assets possess a relatively high value (0.516) followed by social assets (0.354). Besides, financial and natural assets possess relatively low values (0.286 and 0.241, respectively). An increment of one unit should reduce the occurrence of choosing non-agricultural activities for natural capital while an increment of one unit should increase the occurrence of choosing non-agricultural activities for financial capital, while other variables remain constant. Governments, therefore, should enhance funding and technological support to achieve livelihood diversity and strengthen the facility of farmers by way of establishing relevant polity. It would enable farmers and provide themselves with the ability and asset reserves to transition from agricultural production to secondary and tertiary industries in order to improve the livelihood of farmers overall.     

From market to multifunctionality? Land stewardship in Australia

Recent assessments of Australia's land and water resources have revealed widespread patterns of serious decline, much of it directly associated with agricultural practices. The environmental degradation associated with agriculture has both biophysical and socio-economic underpinnings. While there have been calls to attend to the sustainability 'crisis' of Australian agriculture, policy settings remain firmly locked onto a productivist trajectory. We consider the implications of contemporary policy settings for farmland sustainability against the background of debates as to the meaning of 'multifunctionality'. The discussion is then turned to the Land Stewardship project, a strategic policy initiative within the State of Victoria that was looked to as a means of redressing environmental degradation in agricultural landscapes while also being attentive to rural community and economic issues. Towards the end of the paper we reflect on the question of how the Land Stewardship project aligns with theorizations of multifunctionality.     

吉林省农安县生态示范区评价指标体系和可持续发展度研究

经实地考察、典型调查和分析研究,构建了以可持续发展度为目标的农安县生态示范区评价指标体系,由4个层次19项指标组成。采用加权求和计量模型计算了农安县规划基准年、近期、中期和远景目标年的可持续发展度值。用这个指标体现该县的可持续发展能力,从而为生态示范区评价提供了一种可供借鉴的方法。