Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research

This paper outlines a framework for studying the multiple interactions of broadly defined food systems with global environmental change and evaluating the major societal outcomes affected by these interactions: food security, ecosystem services and social welfare. In building the framework the paper explores and synthesizes disparate literature on food systems food security and global environmental change, bridging social science and natural science perspectives. This collected evidence justifies a representation of food systems, which can be used to identify key processes and determinants of food security in a given place or time, particularly the impacts of environmental change. It also enables analysis of the feedbacks from food system outcomes to drivers of environmental and social change, as well as tradeoffs among the food system outcomes themselves. In food systems these tradeoffs are often between different scales or levels of decision-making or management, so solutions to manage them must be context-specific. With sufficient empirical evidence, the framework could be used to build a database of typologies of food system interactions useful for different management or analytical purposes.     

Vulnerability and resilience: Coalescing or paralleling approaches for sustainability science?

Vulnerability and resilience constitute different but overlapping research themes embraced by sustainability science. As practiced within this science, the two research themes appear to coalesce around one of the foundational pivots of sustainability, the coupled human–environment system. They differ in regard to their attention to two other pivots, environmental services and the tradeoffs of these services with human outcomes. In this essay I briefly review the emergence of sustainability science and the three foundational pivots relevant to vulnerability and resilience. I outline the distinctions and similarities between the two research themes foremost as practiced within sustainability science and especially in regard to the attention given to the three pivots. I conclude with the observation that improvement in the capacity of vulnerability and resilience research to inform sustainability science may hinge on their linkages in addressing tradeoffs.     

Assessment of future water provisioning and sediment load under climate and LULC change scenarios in a peninsular river basin,India

Assessment of the impact of changes in climate and land use and land cover (LULC) on ecosystem services (ES) is important for planning regional-scale strategies for sustainability and restoration of ES. The Upper Narmada River Basin (UNRB) in peninsular India has undergone rapid LULC change due to recent agricultural expansion. The impact of future climate and LULC change on ES in the UNRB is quantified and mapped using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST 3.3.0) tool. Our results show that water yield is projected to increase under climate change (about 43% for representative concentration pathway 4.5 for 2031–2040), whereas it is projected to decrease under the LULC change scenario. Sediment export is projected to increase (by 54.53%) under LULC change for 2031–2040. Under the combined effect of climate and LULC change, both water yield and sediment export are expected to increase. Climate change has a greater impact on projected water yield than LULC change, whereas LULC has greater impact on sediment export. Spatial analysis suggests a similar trend of variation in relative difference (RD) of ES in adjacent sub-basins. The quantified changes in ES provisioning will benefit future land management, particularly for operation of the Rani Avanti Bai Sagar Reservoir downstream of the UNRB.     

Near-term priorities for the science, policy and practice of Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP)

There is currently a rare opportunity to inform emerging efforts to implement coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) in the United States, Europe and elsewhere around the world. In particular, the newly formed US National Ocean Council is developing a strategic action plan for CMSP over the next 18-24 months. In order to identify priority needs for significantly advancing CMSP, a group of experts in the science, policy and practice of CMSP developed recommendations for (1) process development, (2) communication and engagement efforts, (3) tradeoff and valuation analyses, and (4) decision support. Some of these priorities are supported by existing activities in the United States and elsewhere. Others have yet to be addressed and merit immediate attention.