The farming system component of European agricultural landscapes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Erling

2017-01-01

Agricultural landscapes are the outcome of combined natural and human factors over time. This paper explores the scope of perceiving the agricultural landscapes of the European Union (EU) as distinct patterns of farming systems and landscape elements in homogeneous biophysical and administrative...... landscapes evolve from the praxis of the farmers and takes into account the scale, intensity and specialisation of the agricultural production. From farming system design point of view, the approach can be used to integrate the landscape in the design process. From a policy point of view, the approach offers...... endowments. The focus is on the farming systems component of the agricultural landscapes by applying a typology to the sample farms of the Farm Accountancy Data Network and scaling up the results to the landscape level for the territory of the EU. The farming system approach emphasises that agricultural...

Landscape Diversity as a Screening Tool to Assess Agroecosystems Sustainability; Preliminary Study in Central Italy

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Francesco Visicchio

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Modernization of agricultural activities has strongly modified agricultural landscapes. Intensive agriculture, with the increased use of inorganic fertiliser and density of livestock, affects water quality discharging nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in water bodies. Nutrients in rivers, subsequently, are excellent indicators to assess sustainability/ land-use intensity in agroecosystems. Landscape, however, is a dynamic system and is the product of interaction amongst the natural environment and human activities, including farming which is a main driving force. At present not much has been investigated on the predictive role of landscape on land-use intensity. Aim of this study is to determine if, in Italian agroecosystem, landscape complexity can be related to land-use intensity. Indexes of landscape complexity (i.e. edge density, number of patches, Shannon’s diversity index, Interspersion-Juxtaposition index derived by processing Corine Land Cover data (level IV, 1:25.000 of Lazio Region, were related with landuse intensity (values of compounds of nitrogen and phosphorus and other parameters found in rivers monitored in accordance to European Directives on Waste Water. Results demonstrate that some landscape indexes were related to some environment parameters. Consequently landscape complexity, with further investigation, could be an efficient screening tool, at large scale, to assess water quality and ultimately agroecosystems sustainability in the absence of monitoring stations.

Sustaining Agriculture and the Rural Environment; governance, policy and multifunctionality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brouwer, F.M.

2004-01-01

Apart from food and raw materials, agriculture can also provide ancillary benefits such as landscapes, biodiversity, cultural heritage and thriving rural communities. This book offers a state-of-the-art overview of strategies for sustainable management practices and their implementation through the

Sustainability, Smart Growth, and Landscape Architecture

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Sustainability, Smart Growth, and Landscape Architecture is an overview course for landscape architecture students interested in sustainability in landscape architecture and how it might apply to smart growth principles in urban, suburban, and rural areas

Toward a whole-landscape approach for sustainable land use in the tropics.

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DeFries, R; Rosenzweig, C

2010-11-16

Increasing food production and mitigating climate change are two primary but seemingly contradictory objectives for tropical landscapes. This special feature examines synergies and trade-offs among these objectives. Four themes emerge from the papers: the important roles of both forest and agriculture sectors for climate mitigation in tropical countries; the minor contribution from deforestation-related agricultural expansion to overall food production at global and continental scales; the opportunities for synergies between improved food production and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through diversion of agricultural expansion to already-cleared lands, improved soil, crop, and livestock management, and agroforestry; and the need for targeted policy and management interventions to make these synergistic opportunities a reality. We conclude that agricultural intensification is a key factor to meet dual objectives of food production and climate mitigation, but there is no single panacea for balancing these objectives in all tropical landscapes. Place-specific strategies for sustainable land use emerge from assessments of current land use, demographics, and other biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics, using a whole-landscape, multisector perspective.

Towards sustainable and multifunctional agriculture in farmland landscapes: Lessons from the integrative approach of a French LTSER platform.

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Bretagnolle, Vincent; Berthet, Elsa; Gross, Nicolas; Gauffre, Bertrand; Plumejeaud, Christine; Houte, Sylvie; Badenhausser, Isabelle; Monceau, Karine; Allier, Fabrice; Monestiez, Pascal; Gaba, Sabrina

2018-06-15

Agriculture is currently facing unprecedented challenges: ensuring food, fiber and energy production in the face of global change, maintaining the economic performance of farmers and preserving natural resources such as biodiversity and associated key ecosystem services for sustainable agriculture. Addressing these challenges requires innovative landscape scale farming systems that account for changing economic and environmental targets. These novel agricultural systems need to be recognized, accepted and promoted by all stakeholders, including local residents, and supported by public policies. Agroecosystems should be considered as socio-ecological systems and alternative farming systems should be based on ecological principles while taking societal needs into account. This requires an in-depth knowledge of the multiple interactions between sociological and ecological dynamics. Long Term Socio-Ecological Research platforms (LTSER) are ideal for acquiring this knowledge as they (i) are not constrained by traditional disciplinary boundaries, (ii) operate at a large spatial scale involving all stakeholders, and (iii) use systemic approaches to investigate biodiversity and ecosystem services. This study presents the socio-ecological research strategy from the LTSER "Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre" (ZA PVS), a large study area where data has been sampled since 1994. Its global aim is to identify effective solutions for agricultural development and the conservation of biodiversity in farmlands. Three main objectives are targeted by the ZAPVS. The first objective is intensive monitoring of landscape features, the main taxa present and agricultural practices. The second objective is the experimental investigation, in real fields with local farmers, of important ecosystem functions and services, in relation to pesticide use, crop production and farming socio-economic value. The third aim is to involve stakeholders through participatory research, citizen science and

Determinants of a traditional agricultural landscape

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Janina Borysiak

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The study aim was to define the landscape determinants as certificates of natural and cultural heritage which identify the young glacial landscape under traditional agricultural management. These studies were conducted in the upper Parsęta basin (Pomerania, Poland covered by the many annual environmental monitoring programs since 1994. The aim of this monitoring is to observe changes in geoecosystems of the temperate climate zone. The parameters of the abiotic landscape subsystem have been monitored in a wide range of terms, whereas biotic elements and cultural resources only in a very limited way. This was the reason for undertaking complementary studies. The paper presents the so-called “zero-state” for 2014, which will be a reference point from which to track the direction of landscape changes in the future. The abiotic, geobotanical, and cultural determinants of this state chosen have been characterized on the basis of field mapping data and the available literature. They were chosen based on the methodology of landscape audit to define the specificity of the traditional agricultural landscape. They were selected on the basis of assessment criteria for landscape structure: complexity (diversification of land use and cover, naturalness (syngenesis of plant communities, hydrochemical properties of surface waters, coherence of composition with natural conditions, stewardship (intensity of use, crop weeds, ecological succession, fallows, anthropogenic denudation, aesthetic and visual perception, historicity (continuity of natural landscape elements, continuation of traditional agricultural use, architectural objects, and disharmonious elements.

Landscape Sustainability in a Sonoran Desert City

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Chris A. Martin

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to discuss concepts of landscape sustainability in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is situated in the greater Salt River Valley of the lower Sonoran Desert in the southwest United States. In this paper I use the ecological frameworks of ecosystem services and resiliency as a metric for understanding landscape sustainability. An assessment of landscape sustainability performance benchmarks were made by surveying research findings of scientists affiliated with the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project (CAP LTER. In Phoenix, present day emphases on cultural, aesthetic, and habitat formation ecosystem services within an arid ecoregion of low natural resilience coupled to a complex matrix of socioeconomic stratification, excessive landscape water use and pruning practices has had the undesired effect of degrading landscape sustainability. This has been measured as mixed patterns of plant diversity and human-altered patterns of carbon regulation, microclimate control, and trophic dynamics. In the future, sustainable residential landscaping in desert cities such as Phoenix may be fostered through use of water-conserving irrigation technologies, oasis-style landscape design motifs, recycling of landscape green waste, and conservative plant pruning strategies.

LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE SUPPLIES OF BIOENERGY FEEDSTOCK AND ENHANCED SOIL QUALITY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Douglas L. Karlen; David J. Muth, Jr.

2012-09-01

Agriculture can simultaneously address global food, feed, fiber, and energy challenges provided our soil, water, and air resources are not compromised in doing so. As we embark on the 19th Triennial Conference of the International Soil and Tillage Research Organization (ISTRO), I am pleased to proclaim that our members are well poised to lead these endeavors because of our comprehensive understanding of soil, water, agricultural and bio-systems engineering processes. The concept of landscape management, as an approach for integrating multiple bioenergy feedstock sources, including biomass residuals, into current crop production systems, is used as the focal point to show how these ever-increasing global challenges can be met in a sustainable manner. Starting with the 2005 Billion Ton Study (BTS) goals, research and technology transfer activities leading to the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Revised Billion Ton Study (BT2) and development of a residue management tool to guide sustainable crop residue harvest will be reviewed. Multi-location USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Renewable Energy Assessment Project (REAP) team research and on-going partnerships between public and private sector groups will be shared to show the development of landscape management strategies that can simultaneously address the multiple factors that must be balanced to meet the global challenges. Effective landscape management strategies recognize the importance of nature’s diversity and strive to emulate those conditions to sustain multiple critical ecosystem services. To illustrate those services, the soil quality impact of harvesting crop residues are presented to show how careful, comprehensive monitoring of soil, water and air resources must be an integral part of sustainable bioenergy feedstock production systems. Preliminary analyses suggest that to sustain soil resources within the U.S. Corn Belt, corn (Zea mays L.) stover should not be harvested if average grain

Factors Affecting Water Dynamics and Their Assessment in Agricultural Landscapes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sakadevan, K.; Nguyen, M.L.

2015-01-01

The intensification and extension of agriculture have contributed significantly to the global food production in the last five decades. However, intensification without due attention to the ecosystem services and sustainability of soil and water resources contributed to land and water quality degradation such as soil erosion, decreased soil fertility and quality, salinization and nutrient discharge to surface and ground waters. Land use change from forests to crop lands altered the vegetation pattern and hydrology of landscapes with increased nutrient discharge from crop lands to riverine environment. Global climate change will increase the amount of water required for agriculture in addition to water needed for further irrigation development causing water scarcity in many dry, arid and semi-arid regions. The water and nutrient use efficiencies of agricultural production systems are still below 40% in many regions across the globe. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizer use in agriculture have accelerated the cycling of these nutrients in the landscape and contributed to water quality degradation. Such nutrient pollution has a wide array of consequences including eutrophication of inland waters and marine ecosystems. While intensifying drought conditions, increasing water consumption and environmental pollution in many parts of the world threatens agricultural productivity and livelihood, these also provided opportunities for farmers to use improved land and water management technologies and practices to make agriculture resilient to external shocks

Farm multifunctional diversification and agricultural landscape trasformations

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Emilio Chiodo

Full Text Available The work aims to analyze changes in agricultural landscape linked to transformations in agricultural productive system. The territory for analysis is situated along the “internal Marche ridge” of the Apennines, in the province of Ancona (Marche region, partly included in the Regional Natural Park “Gola della Rossa e Frassassi”. The work aims at elaborating an investigative methodology which can highlight the transformation of territorial structures and the dynamics that influence management of the territory and landscape in order to provide operative instructions for an integrated elaboration of instruments for urban planning and economic programming, specially for agricultural policies. Multi-functionality and diversification in agriculture are the instruments that can help agriculture to improve the economic value of products and at the same time to improve the quality of territory and landscape.

Balancing shifting cultivation and forest conservation: lessons from a "sustainable landscape" in southeastern Mexico.

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Dalle, Sarah Paule; Pulido, María T; de Blois, Sylvie

2011-07-01

Shifting cultivation is often perceived to be a threat to forests, but it is also central to the culture and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Balancing agriculture and forest conservation requires knowledge of how agricultural land uses evolve in landscapes with forest conservation initiatives. Based on a case study from Quintana Roo, Mexico, and remote sensing data, we investigated land use and land cover change (LUCC) in relation to accessibility (from main settlement and road) in search of evidence for agricultural expansion and/or intensification after the initiation of a community forestry program in 1986. Intensification was through a shortening of the fallow period. Defining the sampling space as a function of human needs and accessibility to agricultural resources was critical to ensure a user-centered perspective of the landscape. The composition of the accessible landscape changed substantially between 1976 and 1997. Over the 21-year period studied, the local population saw the accessible landscape transformed from a heterogeneous array of different successional stages including mature forests to a landscape dominated by young fallows. We detected a dynamic characterized by intensification of shifting cultivation in the most accessible areas with milpas being felled more and more from young fallows in spite of a preference for felling secondary forests. We argue that the resulting landscape provides a poorer resource base for sustaining agricultural livelihoods and discuss ways in which agricultural change could be better addressed through participatory land use planning. Balancing agricultural production and forest conservation will become even more important in a context of intense negotiations for carbon credits, an emerging market that is likely to drive future land changes worldwide.

Urban Landscapes and Sustainable Cities

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Erik Andersson

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Ecological research targeting sustainable urban landscapes needs to include findings and methods from many lines of ecological research, such as the link between biodiversity and ecosystem function, the role of humans in ecosystems, landscape connectivity, and resilience. This paper reviews and highlights the importance of these issues for sustainable use of ecosystem services, which is argued to be one aspect of sustainable cities. The paper stresses the need to include social and economic factors when analyzing urban landscapes. Spatially explicit data can be used to assess the roles different green areas have in providing people with ecosystem services, and whether people actually have access to the services. Such data can also be used to assess connectivity and heterogeneity, both argued to be central for continuous, long-term provision of these services, and to determine the role urban form has for sustainability.

Prospects for land-use sustainability on the agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon.

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Galford, Gillian L; Soares-Filho, Britaldo; Cerri, Carlos E P

2013-06-05

The Brazilian Amazon frontier shows how remarkable leadership can work towards increased agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability without new greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to initiatives among various stakeholders, including national and state government and agents, farmers, consumers, funding agencies and non-governmental organizations. Change has come both from bottom-up and top-down actions of these stakeholders, providing leadership, financing and monitoring to foster environmental sustainability and agricultural growth. Goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-cover and land-use change in Brazil are being achieved through a multi-tiered approach that includes policies to reduce deforestation and initiatives for forest restoration, as well as increased and diversified agricultural production, intensified ranching and innovations in agricultural management. Here, we address opportunities for the Brazilian Amazon in working towards low-carbon rural development and environmentally sustainable landscapes.

Sustainable Agricultural Marketing Initiatives

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Hakan Adanacıoğlu

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Sustainable marketing is a holistic approach that puts equal emphasis on environmental, social equity, and economic concerns in the development of marketing strategies. The purpose of the study is to examine and discuss the sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives practiced throughout the World and Turkey, and to put forth suggestions to further improve the performance of agricultural marketing initiatives in Turkey. Some of the sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives practiced around the world are carried out through civil organizations. Furthermore; some of these initiatives have also launched by farmers, consumers, food processors and retailers. The long-term strategies to increase these initiatives should be determined due to the fact that examples of successful sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives are inadequate and cannot be spread in Turkey. In this context, first of all, the supports provided by the government to improve agricultural marketing systems, such as EU funds for rural development should be compatible with the goals of sustainable marketing. For this purpose, it should be examined whether all proposed projects related to agricultural marketing meet the social, economic, and environmental principles of sustainable marketing. It is important that supporting organizations, especially civil society organisations, should take an active role for faster dissemination and adoption of sustainable agricultural marketing practices in Turkey. These organizations may provide technical assistance in preparing successful project proposals and training to farm groups. In addition, the other organizations, such as local administrations, producers' associations, cooperatives, can contribute to the success of sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives. The use of direct marketing strategies and vertical integration attempts in sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives that will likely be implemented in Turkey is

[Spatial evaluation on ecological and aesthetic quality of Beijing agricultural landscape].

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Ying; Xiao, He; Yu, Zhen-Rong

2009-10-01

A total of ten single indices mainly reflecting the ecological and aesthetic quality of agricultural landscape, including ecosystem function, naturalness, openness and diversity, contamination probability, and orderliness were selected, their different weights were given based on field survey and expert system, and an integrated evaluation index system of agricultural landscape quality was constructed. In the meantime, the land use data provided by GIS and the remote sensing data of vegetation index were used to evaluate the Beijing agricultural landscape quality and its spatial variation. There was a great spatial variation in the agricultural landscape quality of Beijing, being worse at the edges of urban area and towns, but better in suburbs. The agricultural landscape quality was mainly related to topography and human activity. To construct a large-scale integrated index system based on remote sensing data and landscape indices would have significance in evaluating the spatial variation of agricultural landscape quality.

A landscape project for the coexistence of agriculture and nature: a proposal for the coastal area of a Natura 2000 site in Sicily (Italy

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Lara Riguccio

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Many rural coastal Mediterranean areas suffer from great anthropomorphic pressure. This is due to intensive agriculture, and construction for residential, tourism and industrial uses. The present work investigates the idea of using a landscape project in the Gulf of Gela in South Sicily to recover the dunes and the area behind them. The method used is based on the literature and will evaluate and interpret the dynamics of the landscape, so as to draw up a landscape plan, which can be used to help sustain the assets of the area, in a way, which is compatible with conserving nature. This method was tested in the LIFE11-Leopoldia project, funded by the European Union. The results of the study form part of the landscape project. This project is aimed at connecting the different productive zones in the area, protecting the natural environments and the rural historical patrimony, through combining the modern road networks with the older slower, historic infrastructure. Three different levels of landscape management are proposed: total protection (the dunes, high-level protection (the area behind the dunes where traditional agriculture is practised, buffer areas and ecological connecting areas, medium levels of protection (sustainable agriculture, green connections and ecological corridors. The key aims of the project are as follows: transversality - repairing the agricultural fabric and the relationship between the land and the sea; sustainability - recovering the environmental system and traditional activities; flexibility - agriculture with only minor environmental impact.

Landscape management for sustainable supplies of bio energy feedstock and enhanced soil quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Douglas, K.; Muth, D.

2013-01-01

Agriculture can simultaneously address global food, feed, fiber, and energy challenges provided our soil, water, and air resources are not compromised in doing so. Our objective is to present a landscape management concept as an approach for integrating multiple bio energy feedstock sources into current crop production systems. This is done to show how multiple, increasing global challenges can be met in a sustainable manner. We discuss how collaborative research among Usda-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), US Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL), several university extension and research partners, and industry representatives [known as the Renewable Energy Assessment Project (Reap) team] has led to the development of computer-based decision aids for guiding sustainable bio energy feedstock production. The decision aids, known initially as the Corn Stover Tool and more recently as the Landscape Environmental Assessment Framework (Leaf) are tools designed to recognize the importance of nature s diversity and can therefore be used to guide sustainable feedstock production without having negative impacts on critical ecosystem services. Using a 57 ha farm site in central Iowa, USA, we show how producer decisions regarding corn (Zea mays L.) stover harvest within the US Corn Belt can be made in a more sustainable manner. This example also supports Reap team conclusions that stover should not be harvested if average grain yields are less than 11 Mg ha-1 unless more balanced landscape management practices are implemented. The tools also illustrate the importance of sub-field management and site-specific stover harvest strategies

From Forest Landscape to Agricultural Landscape in the Developing Tropical Country of Malaysia: Pattern, Process, and Their Significance on Policy

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Abdullah, Saiful Arif; Hezri, Adnan A.

2008-11-01

Agricultural expansion and deforestation are spatial processes of land transformation that impact on landscape pattern. In peninsular Malaysia, the conversion of forested areas into two major cash crops—rubber and oil palm plantations—has been identified as driving significant environmental change. To date, there has been insufficient literature studying the link between changes in landscape patterns and land-related development policies. Therefore, this paper examines: (i) the links between development policies and changes in land use/land cover and landscape pattern and (ii) the significance and implications of these links for future development policies. The objective is to generate insights on the changing process of land use/land cover and landscape pattern as a functional response to development policies and their consequences for environmental conditions. Over the last century, the development of cash crops has changed the country from one dominated by natural landscapes to one dominated by agricultural landscapes. But the last decade of the century saw urbanization beginning to impact significantly. This process aligned with the establishment of various development policies, from land development for agriculture between the mid 1950s and the 1970s to an emphasis on manufacturing from the 1980s onward. Based on a case study in Selangor, peninsular Malaysia, a model of landscape pattern change is presented. It contains three stages according to the relative importance of rubber (first stage: 1900-1950s), oil palm (second stage: 1960s-1970s), and urban (third stage: 1980s-1990s) development that influenced landscape fragmentation and heterogeneity. The environmental consequences of this change have been depicted through loss of biodiversity, geohazard incidences, and the spread of vector-borne diseases. The spatial ecological information can be useful to development policy formulation, allowing diagnosis of the country’s “health” and sustainability

Sustainability and Agenda 21: teaching sustainability ideology and landscape design practice

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David Jones

2000-03-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the 'Issues in Landscape Sustainability' subject/project that has been devised by Adelaide University's School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. It has been successfully run in the townships of Strathalbyn (University of Adelaide 1997, Loxton (University of Adelaide 1998, Port Broughton (University of Adelaide 1999a, and Lobethal (University of Adelaide 2000. The subject/project was recently recognised by the Royal Australian Planning Institute (SA Group with a Student Project Award in their 1999 State Awards of Excellence: 'Issues in Landscape Sustainability' is a project that introduces tertiary students to concepts of urban design, community planning, and landscape design with economic implications, woven around the concept of sustainability as contained in the State Government's Agenda 21 Strategy (Anon 1999 p 19. Agenda 21 is about devising policy and practical ideas to address sustainability objectives in communities. This project has focused upon rural communities as a vehicle to involve community and municipal representatives actively, to expose students to both theory and practice, and to serve as an introduction to landscape design principles at a medium level.

Conservation planning in agricultural landscapes: hotspots of conflict between agriculture and nature.

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Shackelford, Gorm E; Steward, Peter R; German, Richard N; Sait, Steven M; Benton, Tim G

2015-03-01

Conservation conflict takes place where food production imposes a cost on wildlife conservation and vice versa. Where does conservation impose the maximum cost on production, by opposing the intensification and expansion of farmland? Where does conservation confer the maximum benefit on wildlife, by buffering and connecting protected areas with a habitable and permeable matrix of crop and non-crop habitat? Our aim was to map the costs and benefits of conservation versus production and thus to propose a conceptual framework for systematic conservation planning in agricultural landscapes. World-wide. To quantify these costs and benefits, we used a geographic information system to sample the cropland of the world and map the proportion of non-crop habitat surrounding the cropland, the number of threatened vertebrates with potential to live in or move through the matrix and the yield gap of the cropland. We defined the potential for different types of conservation conflict in terms of interactions between habitat and yield (potential for expansion, intensification, both or neither). We used spatial scan statistics to find 'hotspots' of conservation conflict. All of the 'hottest' hotspots of conservation conflict were in sub-Saharan Africa, which could have impacts on sustainable intensification in this region. Systematic conservation planning could and should be used to identify hotspots of conservation conflict in agricultural landscapes, at multiple scales. The debate between 'land sharing' (extensive agriculture that is wildlife friendly) and 'land sparing' (intensive agriculture that is less wildlife friendly but also less extensive) could be resolved if sharing and sparing were used as different types of tool for resolving different types of conservation conflict (buffering and connecting protected areas by maintaining matrix quality, in different types of matrix). Therefore, both sharing and sparing should be prioritized in hotspots of conflict, in the context of

Urban landscape architecture design under the view of sustainable development

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Chen, WeiLin

2017-08-01

The concept of sustainable development in modern city landscape design advocates landscape architecture, which is the main development direction in the field of landscape design. They are also effective measures to promote the sustainable development of city garden. Based on this, combined with the connotation of sustainable development and sustainable design, this paper analyzes and discusses the design of urban landscape under the concept of sustainable development.

Organic fields sustain weed metacommunity dynamics in farmland landscapes.

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Henckel, Laura; Börger, Luca; Meiss, Helmut; Gaba, Sabrina; Bretagnolle, Vincent

2015-06-07

Agro-ecosystems constitute essential habitat for many organisms. Agricultural intensification, however, has caused a strong decline of farmland biodiversity. Organic farming (OF) is often presented as a more biodiversity-friendly practice, but the generality of the beneficial effects of OF is debated as the effects appear often species- and context-dependent, and current research has highlighted the need to quantify the relative effects of local- and landscape-scale management on farmland biodiversity. Yet very few studies have investigated the landscape-level effects of OF; that is to say, how the biodiversity of a field is affected by the presence or density of organically farmed fields in the surrounding landscape. We addressed this issue using the metacommunity framework, with weed species richness in winter wheat within an intensively farmed landscape in France as model system. Controlling for the effects of local and landscape structure, we showed that OF leads to higher local weed diversity and that the presence of OF in the landscape is associated with higher local weed biodiversity also for conventionally farmed fields, and may reach a similar biodiversity level to organic fields in field margins. Based on these results, we derive indications for improving the sustainable management of farming systems. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Sustainable Landscapes Initiative 2020

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gardner, Leah [Environmental Landscape Design Associates; Rogers, Sam [Environmental Landscape Design Associates; Sipes, James L. [Sand County Studios

2012-09-01

The goal of the ORNL Sustainable Landscapes Initiative 2020 is to provide a framework that guides future environmental resources and sustainable landscape practices on the ORNL campus. This document builds on the 2003 ORNL Conceptual Landscape Plan and is presented in the context of embracing new opportunities.

Biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes

OpenAIRE

Josefsson, Jonas

2015-01-01

Agricultural industrialization alters rural landscapes in Europe, causing large-scale and rapid loss of important biodiversity. The principal instruments to protect farmland biodiversity are various agri-environmental measures (AEMs) in the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, growing awareness of shortcomings to CAP biodiversity integration prompts examination of causes and potential solutions. This thesis assesses the importance of structural heterogeneity of crop and non-crop habi...

Soil governance in the agricultural landscapes of New South Wales, Australia

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Ashley A Webb

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Soil is a valuable natural resource. In the state of New South Wales, Australia, the governance of soil has evolved since Federation in 1901. Following rapid agricultural development, and in the face of widespread soil degradation, the establishment of the Soil Conservation Service marked a turning point in the management of soil. Throughout the 20th century, advances in knowledge were translated into evolving governance frameworks that were largely reactionary but saw progressive reforms such as water pollution legislation and case studies of catchment-scale land and vegetation management. In the 21st century, significant reforms have embedded sustainable use of agricultural soils within catchment- and landscape-scale legislative and institutional frameworks. What is clear, however, is that a multitude of governance strategies and models are utilised in NSW. No single governance model is applicable to all situations because it is necessary to combine elements of several different mechanisms or instruments to achieve the most desired outcomes. Where an industry, such as the sugar industry, has taken ownership of an issue such as acid sulfate soil management, self-regulation has proven to be extremely effective. In the case of co-managing agricultural soils with other landuses, such as mining, petroleum exploration and urban development, regulation, compliance and enforcement mechanisms have been preferred. Institutional arrangements in the form of independent commissioners have also played a role. At the landscape or total catchment level, it is clear that a mix of mechanisms is required. Fundamental, however, to the successful evolution of soil governance is strategic investment in soil research and development that informs the ongoing productive use of agricultural landscapes while preventing land degradation or adverse environmental effects.

Agriculture and land management: the landscape monitoring system in Tuscany

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Mauro Agnoletti

2009-10-01

Full Text Available With respect to the reduced weight in the Gross National Product (GDP and the continuous decrease in manpower which has been recorded in the last decades, an important role is recognized to the rural sector in the current developmetn model which justify the heavy financial committment of Europe and Italy to sustain european agriculture.Within this role, land preservation has an important role for the sector competitiveness, the rural space quality and the citizen’s life quality, and this role is nowadays recognized even by the politics for landscape defined for the Piano strategico nazionale 2007-20131. Both action definitions and planning and development of landscape resources firstly require to define landscape monitoring systems pointing out trends, and critical and strength points represented by the great historical and environmental differences of Italian landscapes. This study is a synthesis of the results from a 5 year project aimed to the definition of a landscape monitoring system in Tuscany, ranging from 1800 and 2000 and based on study areas covering around 1% of the regional territory, which will soon be implemented. The first recorded results show a strong decrease of landscape diversity (40-50% in the investigated time period. This study want to be an example for the implementation of the future monitoring system of this resource.

Mapping agricultural landscapes and characterizing adaptive capacity in Central America

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Holland, M. B.; Imbach, P. A.; Bouroncle, C.; Donatti, C.; Leguia, E.; Martinez, M.; Medellin, C.; Saborio-Rodriguez, M.; Shamer, S.; Zamora, J.

2013-12-01

One of the key challenges in developing adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers in developing countries is that of a data-poor environment, where spatially-explicit information about where the most vulnerable smallholder communities are located is lacking. Developing countries tend to lack consistent and reliable maps on agricultural land use, and have limited information available on smallholder adaptive capacity. We developed a novel participatory and expert mapping process to overcome these barriers and develop detailed national-scale maps that allow for a characterization of unique agricultural landscapes based on profiles of adaptive capacity for smallholder agriculture in each area. This research focuses specifically on the Central American nations of Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, where our focus is on coffee and basic grains as the two main cropping systems. Here we present the methodology and results of a series of in-depth interviews and participatory mapping sessions with experts working within the broader agricultural sector in each country. We held individual interviews and mapping sessions with approximately thirty experts from each country, and used a detailed survey instrument for each mapping session to both spatially identify distinct agricultural landscapes, and to further characterize each area based on specific farm practices and social context. The survey also included a series of questions to help us assess the relative adaptive capacity of smallholder agriculture within each landscape. After all expert mapping sessions were completed in each country we convened an expert group to assist in both validating and refining the set of landscapes already defined. We developed a characterization of adaptive capacity by aggregating indicators into main assets-based criteria (e.g. land tenure, access to credit, access to technical assistance, sustainable farm practices) derived from further expert weighting of indicators through an online

The Importance of Landscape Elements for Bat Activity and Species Richness in Agricultural Areas.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Heim

Full Text Available Landscape heterogeneity is regarded as a key factor for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in production landscapes. We investigated whether grassland sites at close vicinity to forested areas are more frequently used by bats. Considering that bats are important consumers of herbivorous insects, including agricultural pest, this is important for sustainable land management. Bat activity and species richness were assessed using repeated monitoring from May to September in 2010 with acoustic monitoring surveys on 50 grassland sites in the Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin (North-East Germany. Using spatial analysis (GIS, we measured the closest distance of each grassland site to potentially connecting landscape elements (e.g., trees, linear vegetation, groves, running and standing water. In addition, we assessed the distance to and the percent land cover of forest remnants and urban areas in a 200 m buffer around the recording sites to address differences in the local landscape setting. Species richness and bat activity increased significantly with higher forest land cover in the 200 m buffer and at smaller distance to forested areas. Moreover, species richness increased in proximity to tree groves. Larger amount of forest land cover and smaller distance to forest also resulted in a higher activity of bats on grassland sites in the beginning of the year during May, June and July. Landscape elements near grassland sites also influenced species composition of bats and species richness of functional groups (open, edge and narrow space foragers. Our results highlight the importance of forested areas, and suggest that agricultural grasslands that are closer to forest remnants might be better buffered against outbreaks of agricultural pest insects due to higher species richness and higher bat activity. Furthermore, our data reveals that even for highly mobile species such as bats, a very dense network of connecting elements within the

Sustainable agriculture in the picture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brouwer, F.M.; De Bont, C.J.A.M.; Leneman, H.; Van der Meulen, H.A.B.

2004-01-01

Sustainable agriculture in the picture provides a systematic overview of the available data that are relevant for debate on transitions towards sustainable agriculture. Review for the agrocomplex, greenhouse horticulture, dairy farming and pig farming. Indicators on economy, environment, nature, animal welfare, human and animal health. Results achieved in practice for the three dimensions of sustainable agriculture, namely economics ('profit'), ecology ('planet') and socio-cultural ('people') [nl

Sustainable Agriculture: Cover Cropping

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, Megan

2018-01-01

Sustainable agriculture practices are increasingly being used by farmers to maintain soil quality, increase biodiversity, and promote production of food that is environmentally safe. There are several types of sustainable agriculture practices such as organic farming, crop rotation, and aquaculture. This lesson plan focuses on the sustainable…

Designing agricultural landscapes for natural pest control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steingrover, E.G.; Geertsema, W.; Wingerden, van W.K.R.E.

2010-01-01

The green–blue network of semi-natural non-crop landscape elements in agricultural landscapes has the potential to enhance natural pest control by providing various resources for the survival of beneficial insects that suppress crop pests. A study was done in the Hoeksche Waard to explore how

Mimicking biochar-albedo feedback in complex Mediterranean agricultural landscapes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bozzi, E; Genesio, L; Miglietta, F; Toscano, P; Pieri, M

2015-01-01

Incorporation of charcoal produced by biomass pyrolysis (biochar) in agricultural soils is a potentially sustainable strategy for climate change mitigation. However, some side effects of large-scale biochar application need to be investigated. In particular a massive use of a low-reflecting material on large cropland areas may impact the climate via changes in surface albedo. Twelve years of MODIS-derived albedo data were analysed for three pairs of selected agricultural sites in central Italy. In each pair bright and dark coloured soil were identified, mimicking the effect of biochar application on the land surface albedo of complex agricultural landscapes. Over this period vegetation canopies never completely masked differences in background soil colour. This soil signal, expressed as an albedo difference, induced a local instantaneous radiative forcing of up to 4.7 W m −2 during periods of high solar irradiance. Biochar mitigation potential might therefore be reduced up to ∼30%. This study proves the importance of accounting for crop phenology and crop management when assessing biochar mitigation potential and provides more insights into the analysis of its environmental feedback. (letter)

Mitigation/Adaptation: landscape architecture meets sustainable energy transition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stremke, S.

2009-01-01

Mitigation of climate change and adaptation to renewable energy sources are among the emerging fields of activity in landscape architecture. If landscape architects recognize the need for sustainable development on the basis of renewable energy sources, then how can we contribute to sustainable and

GIS analysis of change in an agriculture landscape in Central Finland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riitta Ruuska

1996-12-01

Full Text Available Changes in landscape over a period of 50 years were analysed in a rural area of 324 ha in Central Finland. The data were digitized from aerial photographs of the National Land Survey taken in 1944, 1959, 1979 and 1991, and analysed with the IDRISI™ geographic information system (GIS. The average proportion of land in agricultural use in the sample area was 17.4%. The arable area declined from the maximum of 62.3 ha (1959 to 47.6 ha. The total length of linear landscape elements, predominantly ditch bank habitats, halved, from 876 m/ha of field (1944 to 449 m/ha by the end of the period. The average rate of loss of field boundary habitat was 9.1 m/ha/ year. At the same time, the Shannon-Weaver index of diversity of agricultural landscape elements dropped from 0.37 to 0.24. The number of field parcels declined by 29%, and the mean parcel size increased by 45%, from 1.2 ha to 1.7 ha. The index value of the fractal dimension measuring the complexity of parcel shapes also fell, from 1.88 (1959 to 1.86 (1991. The change in spatial structure reflects the intensification of farming in Finland. Biodiversity at ecosystem level has clearly declined. However, the implications for the agroecosystem and its sustainability are still unknown.

Weed sustainable managment in agricultral and non-agricultural areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Arcangeli

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Sustainable agriculture is a way to assure the availability of natural resources for future generations.Weed managementin cultivated and not cultivated areas is part of sustainable agriculture as well, and has to face three important challenges:economical (to increase income and competitiveness of farm sector, social (give rural areas opportunity of economicdevelopment and improvement of living conditions, environmental (promote good agricultural practices andpreserve habitats, biodiversity and landscape. The first two challenges involve the in-depth study of models, the economicthreshold of intervention, the management of herbicide resistance phenomena, the study and development ofnew herbicide molecules, or even modern formulations, leading to the optimization of treatments with possible reductionof distributed doses per hectare. Environmental issues must be set in the studies to assess and manage the factorsleading to phenomena of diffuse or point pollution (i.e. water volumes, soil, etc.. However, a sustainable agricultureproduction must take into account consumers’ needs and concerns, especially about food health and safety withrespect to production methods (traditional, integrated and biological. In this context, the results obtained by the developmentof more advanced active principles, the spread of public and private Integrated Production Specifications(Disciplinari di Produzione Integrata and the greater and greater commitment by the institutions in charge of monitoringthe agro-pharmaceutical residues in agro-food products, can be set. The SIRFI SIRFI (Società Italiana per laRicerca sulla Flora Infestante, thanks to the multi-disciplinarity of the structures supporting it, always takes an activepart into innovation especially aimed to the identification of tools implementing farm activity sustainability.

Sustaining Rocky Mountain landscapes: Science, policy and management for the Crown of the Continent ecosystem

Science.gov (United States)

Prato, Tony; Fagre, Daniel B.

2007-01-01

Prato and Fagre offer the first systematic, multi-disciplinary assessment of the challenges involved in managing the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem ( CCE), an area of the Rocky Mountains that includes northwestern Montana, southwestern Alberta, and southeastern British Columbia. The spectacular landscapes, extensive recreational options, and broad employment opportunities of the CCE have made it one of the fastest growing regions in the United States and Canada, and have lead to a shift in its economic base from extractive resource industries to service-oriented recreation and tourism industries. In the process, however, the amenities and attributes that draw people to this “New West” are under threat. Pastoral scenes are disappearing as agricultural lands and other open spaces are converted to residential uses, biodiversity is endangered by the fragmentation of fish and wildlife habitats, and many areas are experiencing a decline in air and water quality. Sustaining Rocky Mountain Landscapes provides a scientific basis for communities to develop policies for managing the growth and economic transformation of the CCE without sacrificing the quality of life and environment for which the land is renowned. This forthcoming edited volume focuses on five aspects of sustaining mountain landscapes in the CCE and similar regions in the Rocky Mountains. The five aspects are: 1) how social, economic, demo graphic and environmental forces are transforming ecosystem structure and function, 2) trends in use and conditions for human and environmental resources, 3) activating science, policy and education to enhance sustainable landscape management, 4) challenges to sustainable management of public and private lands, and 5) future prospects for achieving sustainable landscapes.

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL METHOD TO STUDY AGRICULTURAL VEGETATION: SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE PO VALLEY

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E. GIGLIO

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Vegetation is the most important landscape component, as regards to its ability to catch solar energy and to transform it, but also to shape the landscape, to structure the space, to create the fit environment for different animal species, to contribute to the maintenance of a correct metastability level for the landscape, etc. It is a biological system which acts under the constraints of the principles of the System Theory and owns the same properties of any other living system: so, it is a complex adaptive, hierarchical, dynamic, dissipative, self-organizing, self-transcendent, autocatalytic, self-maintaining system and follows the non-equilibrium thermodynamic. Its ecological state can be investigated through the comparison between “gathered data” (pathology and “normal data” (physiology for analogous types of vegetation. The Biological Integrated School of Landscape Ecology provides an integrated methodology to define ecological threshold limits of the different Agricultural Landscape types and applies to agricultural vegetation the specific part of the new methodology already tested to studying forests (the Landscape Biological Survey of Vegetation. Ecological quality, better and worst parameters, biological territorial capacity of vegetated corridors, agricultural field, poplar groves, orchards and woody remnant patches are investigated. Some examples from diverse agricultural landscapes of the Po Valley will be discussed. KEY WORDS: agricultural landscape, vegetation, landscape ecology, landscape health, Biological Integrated Landscape Ecology, Landscape Biological Survey of vegetation.

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL METHOD TO STUDY AGRICULTURAL VEGETATION: SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE PO VALLEY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. GIGLIO

2006-05-01

Full Text Available Vegetation is the most important landscape component, as regards to its ability to catch solar energy and to transform it, but also to shape the landscape, to structure the space, to create the fit environment for different animal species, to contribute to the maintenance of a correct metastability level for the landscape, etc. It is a biological system which acts under the constraints of the principles of the System Theory and owns the same properties of any other living system: so, it is a complex adaptive, hierarchical, dynamic, dissipative, self-organizing, self-transcendent, autocatalytic, self-maintaining system and follows the non-equilibrium thermodynamic. Its ecological state can be investigated through the comparison between “gathered data” (pathology and “normal data” (physiology for analogous types of vegetation. The Biological Integrated School of Landscape Ecology provides an integrated methodology to define ecological threshold limits of the different Agricultural Landscape types and applies to agricultural vegetation the specific part of the new methodology already tested to studying forests (the Landscape Biological Survey of Vegetation. Ecological quality, better and worst parameters, biological territorial capacity of vegetated corridors, agricultural field, poplar groves, orchards and woody remnant patches are investigated. Some examples from diverse agricultural landscapes of the Po Valley will be discussed. KEY WORDS: agricultural landscape, vegetation, landscape ecology, landscape health, Biological Integrated Landscape Ecology, Landscape Biological Survey of vegetation.

Emerging Agricultural Biotechnologies for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Jennifer A; Gipmans, Martijn; Hurst, Susan; Layton, Raymond; Nehra, Narender; Pickett, John; Shah, Dilip M; Souza, Thiago Lívio P O; Tripathi, Leena

2016-01-20

As global populations continue to increase, agricultural productivity will be challenged to keep pace without overtaxing important environmental resources. A dynamic and integrated approach will be required to solve global food insecurity and position agriculture on a trajectory toward sustainability. Genetically modified (GM) crops enhanced through modern biotechnology represent an important set of tools that can promote sustainable agriculture and improve food security. Several emerging biotechnology approaches were discussed in a recent symposium organized at the 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. This paper summarizes the innovative research and several of the new and emerging technologies within the field of agricultural biotechnology that were presented during the symposium. This discussion highlights how agricultural biotechnology fits within the context of sustainable agriculture and improved food security and can be used in support of further development and adoption of beneficial GM crops.

Sustainable development in agriculture: is it really sustainable?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, S.R.K.; Srinivas, K.; Kumar, L.R.; Gupta, H.S.

2005-01-01

Indian agriculture has achieved remarkable success in the food grain production due to inception of 'rainbow revolution', which made the country self-sufficient in food production. Sustainable agriculture (SA) is an ongoing process, in which people take actions leading to development of agriculture that meets their current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It advocates avoiding all those actions, which reduce the ability of future generations to meet out the present generations. It is based on the optimal interaction between clean environment, healthy economy, and vital society by avoiding trade-off of problems to other regions on to the future. Moreover, sustainable agriculture is the function of people's progress and nature's capacity. In fact, SA commits us to considering the long-term effect and to recognize our place within the ecosystem. It encourages a continuous reflection on the implications of human activity on the ecosystem. Empirical evidences shows that in the race of self-sufficiency in food grain production, we compromised a lot on social and environmental fronts. The aftermath of green revolution is not so sustainable as it showed reverse side too, in the form of environmental degradation and ecological imbalances. Such threats have led to the need for promoting sustainable development in agriculture. Due to several unsustainable activities which resulted in resource degradation in the form of top soil loss, ground water depletion and forest degradation. The average soil loss is estimated to be over 16 tonnes/ha/year. The ground water depletion resulted in several blocks as 'grey blocks' and 'dark blocks'. This happened mainly due to increase in number of tube-wells and free supply of electricity making the cost of pumping water very low. Rate of human induced land degradation is very high. Out of total geographical area of 329.0 million ha, 187 million ha (57.0 %) are reported to have degraded, of

Spatial Analysis of Agricultural Landscape and Hymenoptera Biodiversity at Cianjur Watershed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

YAHERWANDI

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Hymenoptera is one of the four largest insect order (the other three are Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera. There are curerently over 115 000 described Hymenoptera species. It is clear that Hymenoptera is one of the major components of insect biodiversity. However, Hymenoptera biodiversity is affected by ecology, environment, and ecosystem management. In an agricultural areas, the spatial structure, habitat diversity, and habitat composition may vary from cleared landscapes to structurally rich landscape. Thus, it is very likely that such large-scale spatial patterns (landscape effects may influence local biodiversity and ecological functions. Therefore, the objective of this research were to study diversity and configuration elements of agricultural landscapes at Cianjur Watershed with geographical information sytems (GIS and its influence on Hymenoptera biodiversity. The structural differences between agricultural landscapes of Nyalindung, Gasol, and Selajambe were characterized by patch analyst with ArcView 3.2 of digital land use data. Results indicated that class of land uses of Cianjur Watershed landscape were housing, mixed gardens, talun and rice, vegetable, and corn fields. Landscape structure influenced the biodiversity of Hymenoptera. Species richness and the species diversity were higher in Nyalindung landscape compare to Gasol and Selajambe landscape.

Genetically Modified Crops: Towards Agricultural Growth, Agricultural Development, or Agricultural Sustainability?

OpenAIRE

Azadi, Hossein; Ghanian, Mansour; Ghuchani, Omid M.; Rafiaani, Parisa; Taning, Clauvis N. T.; Hajivand, Roghaye Y.; Dogot, Thomas

2015-01-01

The present debate on how to increase global food production in a sustainable way has focused on arguments over the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) crops. Scientists in both public and private sectors clearly regard GM technology as a major new set of tools, whereas industry sees it as an opportunity for increased profits. However, it remains questionable whether GM crops can contribute to agricultural growth, agricultural development, and agricultural sustainability. This review p...

How Landscape Ecology Can Promote the Development of Sustainable Landscapes in Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Jesper; Antrop, Marc; Ramos, Isabel Loupa

2013-01-01

related concepts. International cooperation demands a certain harmonization of these concepts for better mutual understanding. The 2000 European Landscape Convention provided an important momentum to rethink research, policy and management of landscapes from the perspective of sustainable development...

Social-ecology networks : building connections for sustainable landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opdam, P.F.M.

2014-01-01

Humans adapt their landscapes, their living environment. Sustainable use of the various landscape benefits requires that land owners and users collaborate in managing ecological networks. Because the government is stepping back as the organizer of coordinated landscape adaptation, we need new

High trees increase sunflower seed predation by birds in an agricultural landscape of Israel

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Jessica eSchäckermann

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Natural habitats in agricultural landscapes promote agro-ecosystem services but little is known about negative effects (dis-services derived by natural habitats such as crop seed predation. Birds are important seed predators and use high landscape structures to perch and hide. High trees in agricultural landscapes may therefore drive seed predation. We examined if the presence, the distance and the percentages of high trees (tree height >5 m and the percentages of natural habitat surrounding sunflower fields, increased seed predation by birds in Israel. At the field scale, we assessed seed predation across a sample grid of an entire field. At the landscape scale, we assessed seed predation at the field margins and interiors of 20 sunflower fields. Seed predation was estimated as the percentage of removed seeds from sunflower heads. Distances of sample points to the closest high tree and percentage of natural habitat and of high trees in a 1km radius surrounding the fields were measured.We found that seed predation increased with decreasing distance to the closest high tree at the field and landscape scale. At the landscape scale, the percentage of high trees and natural habitat did not increase seed predation. Seed predation in the fields increased by 37 %, with a maximum seed predation of 92 %, when a high tree was available within zero to 50 m to the sunflower fields. If the closest high tree was further away, seed predation was less than 5 %. Sunflower seed predation by birds can be reduced, when avoiding sowing sunflowers within a radius of 50 m to high trees. Farmers should plan to grow crops, not sensitive to bird seed predation, closer to trees to eventually benefit from ecosystem services provided by birds, such as predation of pest insects, while avoiding these locations for growing crops sensitive to bird seed predation. Such management recommendations are directing towards sustainable agricultural landscapes.

Sustainable agriculture: a challenge in Bangladesh

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M.A.A. Faroque

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The sustainability of conventional agriculture in Bangladesh is under threat from the continuous degradation of land and water resources, and from declining yields due to indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals. Government is pursuing efforts to promote sustainable agriculture with emphasis on better use of on-farm resources and the reduction of external inputs. This paper presents four dimensions of agricultural sustainability as productivity, environmental stability, economical profitability, and social and economic equity. Six characters were selected to evaluate sustainability. Significant differences were found between the two systems (conventional and sustainable agriculture in crop diversification, soil fertility management, pests and diseases management, use of agro-chemicals and environmental issues. However, no significant variations were found in other indicators such as land-use pattern, crop yield and stability, risk and uncertainties, and food security. Although crop yield and financial return were found to be slightly higher in the conventional system, the economic return and value addition per unit of land did not show any difference. It can be suggested that sustainable agriculture has a tendency towards becoming environmental, economically and socially more sound than conventional agriculture, as it requires considerably less agro-chemicals, adds more organic matter to the soil, provides balanced food, and requires higher local inputs without markedly compromising output and financial benefits. Broad-policy measures, including the creation of mass awareness of adverse health effects of agrochemical-based products, are outlined for the promotion of sustainable agriculture.

Sustaining forest landscape connectivity under different land cover change scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rubio, L.; Rodriguez-Freire, M.; Mateo-Sanchez, M. C.; Estreguil, C.; Saura, S.

2012-11-01

Managing forest landscapes to sustain functional connectivity is considered one of the key strategies to counteract the negative effects of climate and human-induced changes in forest species pools. With this objective, we evaluated whether a robust network of forest connecting elements can be identified so that it remains efficient when facing different types of potential land cover changes that may affect forest habitat networks and ecological fluxes. For this purpose we considered changes both in the forested areas and in the non-forest intervening landscape matrix. We combined some of the most recent developments in graph theory with models of land cover permeability and least-cost analysis through the forest landscape. We focused on a case of study covering the habitat of a forest dwelling bird (nuthatch, Sitta europaea) in the region of Galicia (NW Spain). Seven land-use change scenarios were analysed for their effects on connecting forest elements (patches and links): one was the simplest case in which the landscape is represented as a binary forest/non-forest pattern (and where matrix heterogeneity is disregarded), four scenarios in which forest lands were converted to other cover types (to scrubland due to wildfires, to extensive and intensive agriculture, and to urban areas), and two scenarios that only involved changes in the non-forested matrix (re naturalization and intensification). Our results show that while the network of connecting elements for the species was very robust to the conversion of the forest habitat patches to different cover types, the different change scenarios in the landscape matrix could more significantly weaken its long-term validity and effectiveness. This is particularly the case when most of the key connectivity providers for the nuthatch are located outside the protected areas or public forests in Galicia, where biodiversity-friendly measures might be more easily implemented. We discuss how the methodology can be applied to

Sustainable agricultural development in inland valleys

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zwart, S.J.

2018-01-01

The inland valley in Africa are common landscapes that have favorable conditions for agricultural production. Compared to the surrounding uplands they are characterized by a relatively high and secure water availability and high soil fertility levels. Inland valleys thus have a high agricultural

Scale dependent drivers of wild bee diversity in tropical heterogeneous agricultural landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Parthiba; Parui, Arpan Kumar; Chatterjee, Soumik; Dutta, Aditi; Chakraborty, Pushan; Roberts, Stuart; Smith, Barbara

2016-10-01

Factors associated with agricultural intensification, for example, loss of seminatural vegetation and pesticide use has been shown to adversely affect the bee community. These factors may impact the bee community differently at different landscape scales. The scale dependency is expected to be more pronounced in heterogeneous landscapes. However, the scale-dependent response of the bee community to drivers of its decline is relatively understudied, especially in the tropics where the agricultural landscape is often heterogeneous. This study looked at effects of agricultural intensification on bee diversity at patch and landscape scales in a tropical agricultural landscape. Wild bees were sampled using 12 permanent pan trap stations. Patch and landscape characteristics were measured within a 100 m (patch scale) and a 500 m (landscape scale) radius of pan trap stations. Information on pesticide input was obtained from farmer surveys. Data on vegetation cover, productivity, and percentage of agricultural and fallow land (FL) were collected using satellite imagery. Intensive areas in a bee-site network were less specialized in terms of resources to attract rare bee species while the less intensive areas, which supported more rare species, were more vulnerable to disturbance. A combination of patch quality and diversity as well as pesticide use regulates species diversity at the landscape scale (500 m), whereas pesticide quantity drove diversity at the patch scale (100 m). At the landscape scale, specialization of each site in terms of resources for bees increased with increasing patch diversity and FL while at the patch scale specialization declined with increased pesticide use. Bee functional groups responded differentially to landscape characteristics as well as pesticide use. Wood nesting bees were negatively affected by the number of pesticides used but other bee functional groups were not sensitive to pesticides. Synthesis and Applications : Different factors

Beyond the edge: Linking agricultural landscapes, stream networks, and best management practices

Science.gov (United States)

Kreiling, Rebecca M.; Thoms, Martin C.; Richardson, William B.

2018-01-01

Despite much research and investment into understanding and managing nutrients across agricultural landscapes, nutrient runoff to freshwater ecosystems is still a major concern. We argue there is currently a disconnect between the management of watershed surfaces (agricultural landscape) and river networks (riverine landscape). These landscapes are commonly managed separately, but there is limited cohesiveness between agricultural landscape-focused research and river science, despite similar end goals. Interdisciplinary research into stream networks that drain agricultural landscapes is expanding but is fraught with problems. Conceptual frameworks are useful tools to order phenomena, reveal patterns and processes, and in interdisciplinary river science, enable the joining of multiple areas of understanding into a single conceptual–empirical structure. We present a framework for the interdisciplinary study and management of agricultural and riverine landscapes. The framework includes components of an ecosystems approach to the study of catchment–stream networks, resilience thinking, and strategic adaptive management. Application of the framework is illustrated through a study of the Fox Basin in Wisconsin, USA. To fully realize the goal of nutrient reduction in the basin, we suggest that greater emphasis is needed on where best management practices (BMPs) are used within the spatial context of the combined watershed–stream network system, including BMPs within the river channel. Targeted placement of BMPs throughout the riverine landscape would increase the overall buffering capacity of the system to nutrient runoff and thus its resilience to current and future disturbances.

The role of agricultural engineering in the management of landscape changes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Fumagalli

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Landscape represents the “sensory aspect” of the land and as such it can be appreciated by all the five senses: sight, smelling, hearing, touch and taste. At the same time, landscape evolves over time and its value – ecological, economical and affective – changes as its constitutive elements change. Engineering can help “to drive” this evolution addressing it towards a condition of balance between individual and community requirements, especially referred to the effect of technological development on landscape. This effect can be referred to three dimensions: perceptive, functional and symbolic dimensions. The possible contribution to the management of landscape changes concerns all the three historic souls of Agricultural Engineering; in particular, Agricultural Hydraulics deals with the topic of landscape referring to both irrigation and the possible recreational use of canal systems; Agricultural Engineering determines plot form and size and woodland view; Rural Building deals with both the recovery of existing buildings and the design and making of new ones and their fitting in the landscape; moreover, the sector has developed new methods for the evaluation and the planning of rural land resources, especially about agriculture and forestry productivity, ecological stability and visual quality of rural land itself.

Sustaining ecosystem services in cultural landscapes

OpenAIRE

Plieninger, T.; van der Horst, D.; Schleyer, C.; Bieling, C.

2014-01-01

Classical conservation approaches focus on the man-made degradation of ecosystems and tend to neglect the social-ecological values that human land uses have imprinted on many environments. Throughout the world, ingenious land-use practices have generated unique cultural landscapes, but these are under pressure from agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and urbanization. In recent years, the cultural landscapes concept has been broadly adopted in science, policy, and management. The ...

Ecological networks: a spatial concept for multi-actor planning of sustainable landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opdam, P.F.M.; Steingröver, E.G.; Rooij, van S.A.M.

2006-01-01

In this paper, we propose the ecological network concept as a suitable basis for inserting biodiversity conservation into sustainable landscape development. For landscapes to be ecologically sustainable, the landscape structure should support those ecological processes required for the landscape to

Sustainable energy landscapes : designing, planning, and development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stremke, S.; Dobbelsteen, van den A.

2013-01-01

In the near future the appearance and spatial organization of urban and rural landscapes will be strongly influenced by the generation of renewable energy. One of the critical tasks will be the re-integration of these sustainable energy landscapes into the existing environment—which people value and

Exploratory Landscape Metrics for Agricultural Sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaz, E; de Noronha, M.T.; Nijkamp, P.

2014-01-01

Socioeconomic growth and urban change have been an increasing concern for decision makers in recent decades. The monitoring, mapping, and analysis of agricultural land use change, especially in areas where urban change has been high, is crucial. The collision between traditional economic activities

Urban Landscape Metrics for Climate and Sustainability Assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Cochran, F. V.; Brunsell, N. A.

2014-12-01

To test metrics for rapid identification of urban classes and sustainable urban forms, we examine the configuration of urban landscapes using satellite remote sensing data. We adopt principles from landscape ecology and urban planning to evaluate urban heterogeneity and design themes that may constitute more sustainable urban forms, including compactness (connectivity), density, mixed land uses, diversity, and greening. Using 2-D wavelet and multi-resolution analysis, landscape metrics, and satellite-derived indices of vegetation fraction and impervious surface, the spatial variability of Landsat and MODIS data from metropolitan areas of Manaus and São Paulo, Brazil are investigated. Landscape metrics for density, connectivity, and diversity, like the Shannon Diversity Index, are used to assess the diversity of urban buildings, geographic extent, and connectedness. Rapid detection of urban classes for low density, medium density, high density, and tall building district at the 1-km scale are needed for use in climate models. If the complexity of finer-scale urban characteristics can be related to the neighborhood scale both climate and sustainability assessments may be more attainable across urban areas.

Time, Space and the History of Agricultural Landscapes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svenningsen, Stig Roar; Christensen, Andreas Aagaard

history, especially as the rate of changes in cultural landscapes has increased during the last 40 years as the result of the development in the agro-industrial sector. However landscape changes rarely occur as abrupt and sudden breaks, but more as gradual process over long time periods corresponding...... with development in farming technology, modes of production and social organization. The majority of sources material to landscape history are of geographic nature, such as cartographic material, aerial imagery, photographs and paintings and opposite to the gradual nature of changes in the landscape, most sources...... to the physical structure of landscapes has a fixed temporal nature depicting the landscape at time of record, often at different spatial scales. This creates a challenge for Environmental history of European agricultural landscapes to produce a framework, which can incorporate these differences in temporal...

Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Caporali

Full Text Available In the framework of the 16th National Meeting of the Italian Ecological Society (“Global Change, Ecological Diversity and Sustainability”, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, 19-22 September 2006, a symposium was devoted to “Agroecology and Sustainable Development”. A major goal of this symposium was to contribute to keeping the dialogue among the experts of the various disciplines alive. Sustainability of agriculture is a challenge for society world wide. Universities and society as a whole have a responsibility in re-examining current perception of nature, of the world and of human society in the light of natural resources depletion, increasing pollution and social inequalities. The urgency to address sustainability issues is increasingly being reflected in the manner in which institutions of higher education around the world are giving priority to the teaching, research and practice of sustainability. The University of Tuscia is involved in international initiatives concerning teaching and research in Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture.

Social-ecology networks : building connections for sustainable landscapes

OpenAIRE

Opdam, P.F.M.

2014-01-01

Humans adapt their landscapes, their living environment. Sustainable use of the various landscape benefits requires that land owners and users collaborate in managing ecological networks. Because the government is stepping back as the organizer of coordinated landscape adaptation, we need new landscape planning approaches that enhance collaboration by building social networks and link them to ecological networks. In this farewell address I will explain why the social-ecological network is a p...

Strategic planning for sustainable spatial, landscape and tourism development in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maksin Marija

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents an overview of the expected role of spatial and environmental planning in coordination and integration with strategic planning for sustainable spatial/territorial, landscape and tourism development. The application of an integrated approach to sustainable territorial development planning and management in the European Union is also analyzed in the context of problems associated with and possibilities to enhance the European Landscape Convention and Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism implementation. We have analyzed the contributions of reforms that have so far been implemented in current legislation and of planning bases to the establishment of coordinated sustainable territorial development planning and management in Serbia and to the procurement of support for the integration of sustainable tourism development and landscape planning and management into the process of spatial, environmental and sectoral planning. The approach to and problems of landscape protection and sustainable tourism development occurring in the practice in spatial planning are analyzed through examples of a new generation of spatial plans - the Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia, and a spatial plan of the special-purpose area for the Nature Park and Tourism Region of Stara Planina Mountain. Through the example of Mt Stara Planina, the role of strategic environmental assessment in coordination with spatial and sectoral planning is analyzed, as well as potential contribution to landscape integration and sustainable tourism development in the process of planning. The possibilities for better coordination of Serbian strategic planning in achieving the sustainable spatial and tourism development, and possibilities to integrate landscapes into the planning process are indicated.

Sustaining ecosystem services in cultural landscapes

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Tobias Plieninger

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Classical conservation approaches focus on the man-made degradation of ecosystems and tend to neglect the social-ecological values that human land uses have imprinted on many environments. Throughout the world, ingenious land-use practices have generated unique cultural landscapes, but these are under pressure from agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and urbanization. In recent years, the cultural landscapes concept has been broadly adopted in science, policy, and management. The interest in both outstanding and vernacular landscapes finds expression in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the European Landscape Convention, and the IUCN Protected Landscape Approach. These policies promote the protection, management, planning, and governance of cultural landscapes. The ecosystem services approach is a powerful framework to guide such efforts, but has rarely been applied in landscape research and management. With this paper, we introduce a special feature that aims to enhance the theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge of how to safeguard the resilience of ecosystem services in cultural landscapes. It concludes (1 that the usefulness of the ecosystem services approach to the analysis and management of cultural landscapes should be reviewed more critically; (2 that conventional ecosystem services assessment needs to be complemented by socio-cultural valuation; (3 that cultural landscapes are inherently changing, so that a dynamic view on ecosystem services and a focus on drivers of landscape change are needed; and (4 that managing landscapes for ecosystem services provision may benefit from a social-ecological resilience perspective.

The plurality of values in sustainable agriculture models: diverse lock-in and coevolution patterns

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Gael Plumecocq

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In Western economies, several agriculture models coexist. For instance, intensive agriculture organization, which has increased yields while causing major pollution and resource depletion, competes with alternative models, which tackle these sustainability issues and lead to lower yields. An agronomical typology of current agriculture models in Western societies is proposed that describes multiple sustainability issues through an agroecological perspective. However, in order to choose between these agroecological pathways, we must understand their social structure and the principles underlying them. Thus, our purpose is to characterize the institutional aspects of the alternative models using socioeconomic convention theory. We conducted a series of workshops with specialists in the natural sciences (agronomy, landscape ecology, and entomology and social sciences (economics and sociology to describe sustainable agriculture models. This characterization revealed the values underlying six different sustainable agriculture models, their forms of organization, and the institutions governing them. We discuss the implications of the coexistence of these six models in light of sustainable transition issues. From this coexistence perspective, transition (i refers to an intertwined process of legitimation and disqualification, and (ii means seeing pathways as the multiplicity and degree of interconnection between models. Therefore, we (i identified the elements in each model that legitimize its mode of organization, and (ii disqualified the elements that are incompatible with the principles underlying the model's practices. Moreover, we emphasize that multiple transition pathways are possible based on complex, complementary combinations of different models. This revealed the intricate processes of competition and complementarity involving these models. Finally, our study on the coexistence, interdependence, and coevolution of multiple agriculture models

Sustainable intensification of agriculture for human prosperity and global sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rockstrom, J.; Williams, J.; Daily, G.; Noble, A.; Matthews, N.; Gordon, L.; Wetterstrand, H.; DeClerck, F.; Fraiture, de C.M.S.

2017-01-01

There is an ongoing debate on what constitutes sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA). In this paper, we propose that a paradigm for sustainable intensification can be defined and translated into an operational framework for agricultural development. We argue that this paradigm must now be

Sustainability Assessment and Reporting in Agriculture Sector

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Edward Kassem

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Sustainability assessment is a mainstream business activity that demonstrates the link between the organization’s strategy and commitment to a sustainable global economy. Sustainability indicators describe the environmental, social, economic and governance performance of Small and Medium‑sized Businesses/Enterprises (SMB/SME. Unfortunately, their implementations in the Czech Republic show a low level of engagement in sustainability assessment. The paper presents the results of the authors’ research in sustainability assessment of SMB/SMEs in the agriculture sector of the Czech Republic. An appropriate set of key performance indicators (KPIs in four dimensions (economy, environment, social and governance was developed to suit the SMB/SMEs sustainability assessment in the agriculture sector. A set of KPIs is proposed to help SMB/SMEs to avoid the barriers of sustainability assessment. These indicators are based mainly on Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture, Global Reporting Initiatives Frameworks and on current research state‑of‑the‑art. They have been created following the analysis of a number of agricultural enterprises over the world, particularly within European countries.

Impact of landscape characteristics on the stream carbon and nitrogen export: example of a small agricultural catchment in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wohlfart, T.; Exbrayat, J.F.; Schelde, Kirsten

2012-01-01

Agriculture plays an important role on the environment, notably the quality of water draining cultivated soils. Understanding the relationship between landscape characteristics and stream quality is crucial to sustain a good quality of water and to develop adapted policies. Therefore, this study...... point between the chemical data and landscape characteristics (e.g. topography, land-use and soil type distributions) of the corresponding contributing area. Results show that, in spite of an overall little share, the influence of organic soil types seems to impact N losses to streams stronger than...... local land use by farming....

A methodology for creating greenways through multidisciplinary sustainable landscape planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Pena, Selma Beatriz; Abreu, Maria Manuela; Teles, Rui; Espírito-Santo, Maria Dalila

2010-01-01

This research proposes a methodology for defining greenways via sustainable planning. This approach includes the analysis and discussion of culture and natural processes that occur in the landscape. The proposed methodology is structured in three phases: eco-cultural analysis; synthesis and diagnosis; and proposal. An interdisciplinary approach provides an assessment of the relationships between landscape structure and landscape dynamics, which are essential to any landscape management or land use. The landscape eco-cultural analysis provides a biophysical, dynamic (geomorphologic rate), vegetation (habitats from directive 92/43/EEC) and cultural characterisation. The knowledge obtained by this analysis then supports the definition of priority actions to stabilise the landscape and the management measures for the habitats. After the analysis and diagnosis phases, a proposal for the development of sustainable greenways can be achieved. This methodology was applied to a study area of the Azambuja Municipality in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal). The application of the proposed methodology to the study area shows that landscape stability is crucial for greenway users in order to appreciate the landscape and its natural and cultural elements in a sustainable and healthy way, both by cycling or by foot. A balanced landscape will increase the value of greenways and in return, they can develop socio-economic activities with benefits for rural communities. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enabling a sustainable and prosperous future through science and innovation in the bioeconomy at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarkar, Sara F; Poon, Jacquelyne S; Lepage, Etienne; Bilecki, Lori; Girard, Benoit

2018-01-25

Science and innovation are important components underpinning the agricultural and agri-food system in Canada. Canada's vast geographical area presents diverse, regionally specific requirements in addition to the 21st century agricultural challenges facing the overall sector. As the broader needs of the agricultural landscape have evolved and will continue to do so in the next few decades, there is a trend in place to transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy, contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emission and our dependency on non-renewable resources. We highlight some of the key policy drivers on an overarching national scale and those specific to agricultural research and innovation that are critical to fostering a supportive environment for innovation and a sustainable bioeconomy. As well, we delineate some major challenges and opportunities facing agriculture in Canada, including climate change, sustainable agriculture, clean technologies, and agricultural productivity, and some scientific initiatives currently underway to tackle these challenges. The use of various technologies and scientific efforts, such as Next Generation Sequencing, metagenomics analysis, satellite image analysis and mapping of soil moisture, and value-added bioproduct development will accelerate scientific development and innovation and its contribution to a sustainable and prosperous bioeconomy. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How Could Companies Engage in Sustainable Landscape Management? An Exploratory Perspective

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Paul Opdam

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Current concepts that aim to align economic development with sustainability, such as the circular and green economy, often consider natural systems as externalities. We extend the green economy concept by including the landscape as the provider of social, economic and environmental values. Our aim is to explore how companies could engage in creating landscape-inclusive solutions for sustainable landscapes. We propose a conceptual model of the relationship between companies and landscape services based on a demand for landscape benefits by companies, implications for wider society. We present a short overview of how scientists addressed the role of companies in landscape-inclusive solutions. We also give some examples taken from the World Wide Web to illustrate the variety of ways in which companies already invest in landscape services. Our findings suggest that the relationship between companies and landscapes is not yet strongly recognized in sustainability science. However, examples from practice show that some companies do recognize the added values of landscape services, to the extent that they invest in landscape management. We conclude that future research should provide information on the added value of landscape-inclusive solutions to companies, and increase their capacity to engage in regional social–ecological networks.

Environmental research programme. Ecological research. Annual report 1995. Urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

In promoting ecology research, the federal ministry of science and technology (BMBF) pursues the aim to enhance understanding of the natural resources indispensable to the life of man, animals and plant societies and their interrelations, and to point out existing scope for action to preserve or replenish them. Consequently, ecology research makes an essential contribution towards effective nature conservancy and environmental protection. The interactions between climate and ecosystems also form an important part of this. With regard to topical environmental issues concerning agricultural landscapes, rivers and lakes, forests and urban-industrial agglomerations, system interrelations in representative ecosystems are investigated. The results are to be embodied in directives for the protection or appropriate use of these ecosystems in order to contribute towards a sustainable development of these types of landscapes. The book also evaluates and assesses which types of nuisances, interventions and modes of use represent hazards for the respective systems. (orig./VHE) [de

Characterizing European cultural landscapes: Accounting for structure, management intensity and value of agricultural and forest landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tieskens, Koen F.; Schulp, Catharina J.E.; Levers, Christian; Lieskovský, Juraj; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Plieninger, Tobias; Verburg, Peter H.

Abstract Almost all rural areas in Europe have been shaped or altered by humans and can be considered cultural landscapes, many of which now are considered to entail valuable cultural heritage. Current dynamics in land management have put cultural landscapes under a huge pressure of agricultural

Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management - A Sourcebook Volume 3 : Doing Participatory Research and Development. Couverture du livre Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management : A.

Arthropods Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes: Effects of Land Use and Anthropization

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Enrico Previati

2007-06-01

Full Text Available The greatest proportion of Po river plain is occupied by arable lands. Negative effects of modern intensive agriculture on biodiversity can derive from various phenomena operating at different spatial scales, from local to regional ones. If agricultural fields are subjected to periodical disturbances by farming practices, also landscape structure can influence community structure in the fields providing refugial areas or alternative trophic resources. In the same way in perennial habitats, such as strips and meadows, community structure and composition may be linked to both local factors and surrounding land use, that can influence organism persistence and dispersal mechanisms. We studied some natural and anthropized habitats in a wide agricultural area in the province of Ferrara (conventional annual and perennial fields, herbaceous strips, hedgerows and meadows to investigate relationships between arthropod community structure and both local impact factors (habitat type, management and surronding landscape structure and use. Results from uni and multivariate analysis showed a great influence on trophic and taxonomic structure of habitat type and quality.A less complex landscape had only slightly influence on trophic structure, leading to higher abundance and richness of generalist taxa. In conclusion we emphasize the importance of maintaining high-quality habitats to enhance arthopod diversity in agricultural landscapes.

Conservation of Pollinators in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes - New Challenges in Transylvania (Romania) Posed by EU Accession and Recommendations for Future Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Kovács-Hostyánszki, Anikó; Földesi, Rita; Mózes, Edina; Szirák, Ádám; Fischer, Joern; Hanspach, Jan; Báldi, András

2016-01-01

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES).

Conservation of Pollinators in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes - New Challenges in Transylvania (Romania Posed by EU Accession and Recommendations for Future Research.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki

Full Text Available Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007, we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES.

Keynote address: Modern agricultural landscapes – a perspective on their past, present and future

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Andreas Aagaard

of landscape patterns in affected territories, leading to the creation of a new type of landscape. A distinctly modern agricultural landscape, characterized by rectilinear spatial forms, functionally segregated, specialized land use patterns, individualized decision making practices and an agricultural economy...... embedded within regional, globalizing networks of economic, technological and cultural exchange. In such landscapes, patterns of land use have since converged to an increasing extent, forming flows of correlated practices and associated ecological impairments observable across extensive arrays of otherwise...... of a capitalist modern origin. In this context, the purpose of this keynote address is to explore how the relationship between institutional and physical legacies of land use modernization affects decision making in contemporary agricultural landscapes. On the basis of a selection of European and postcolonial...

Support of the landscape amenity function of agriculture and trade liberalisation

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Simona Kubíčková

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Recent agricultural policy and trade discussions have given increasing attention to “multifunctionality”, the notion, that agriculture provides multiple outputs that include public goods (such as landscape amenities as well as privately traded commodities. A frequent point of contention is also whether payment for the provision of non-commodity outputs distorts trade by giving domestic farmers a competitive advantage over foreign competitors. The paper reviews some requirements for environmental policy design and the role of property rights for the justification of the development of compensation programs targeted to landscape protection. The second part of the paper illustrates the possibilities, how to use results of Contingent Valuation (CV study of landscape amenity benefits of agriculture to prove eligibility for agri-environmental payments in the case of the Protected Landscape Area White Carpathians (Bílé Karpaty. It is documented in the paper, that Contingent Valuation can provide useful information about genuine concern and overall efficiency of compensation programs as well as people’s views about alternative ethical ends, besides human well-being, that policy makers should take in consideration.

Evaluating strategies for sustainable intensification of US agriculture through the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network

Science.gov (United States)

Spiegal, S.; Bestelmeyer, B. T.; Archer, D. W.; Augustine, D. J.; Boughton, E. H.; Boughton, R. K.; Cavigelli, M. A.; Clark, P. E.; Derner, J. D.; Duncan, E. W.; Hapeman, C. J.; Harmel, R. D.; Heilman, P.; Holly, M. A.; Huggins, D. R.; King, K.; Kleinman, P. J. A.; Liebig, M. A.; Locke, M. A.; McCarty, G. W.; Millar, N.; Mirsky, S. B.; Moorman, T. B.; Pierson, F. B.; Rigby, J. R.; Robertson, G. P.; Steiner, J. L.; Strickland, T. C.; Swain, H. M.; Wienhold, B. J.; Wulfhorst, J. D.; Yost, M. A.; Walthall, C. L.

2018-03-01

Sustainable intensification is an emerging model for agriculture designed to reconcile accelerating global demand for agricultural products with long-term environmental stewardship. Defined here as increasing agricultural production while maintaining or improving environmental quality, sustainable intensification hinges upon decision-making by agricultural producers, consumers, and policy-makers. The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network was established to inform these decisions. Here we introduce the LTAR Common Experiment, through which scientists and partnering producers in US croplands, rangelands, and pasturelands are conducting 21 independent but coordinated experiments. Each local effort compares the outcomes of a predominant, conventional production system in the region (‘business as usual’) with a system hypothesized to advance sustainable intensification (‘aspirational’). Following the logic of a conceptual model of interactions between agriculture, economics, society, and the environment, we identified commonalities among the 21 experiments in terms of (a) concerns about business-as-usual production, (b) ‘aspirational outcomes’ motivating research into alternatives, (c) strategies for achieving the outcomes, (d) practices that support the strategies, and (e) relationships between practice outreach and adoption. Network-wide, concerns about business as usual include the costs of inputs, opportunities lost to uniform management approaches, and vulnerability to accelerating environmental changes. Motivated by environmental, economic, and societal outcomes, scientists and partnering producers are investigating 15 practices in aspirational treatments to sustainably intensify agriculture, from crop diversification to ecological restoration. Collectively, the aspirational treatments reveal four general strategies for sustainable intensification: (1) reducing reliance on inputs through ecological intensification, (2) diversifying management

Landscape diversity and the resilience of agricultural returns: a portfolio analysis of land-use patterns and economic returns from lowland agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abson David J

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Conventional agriculture is increasingly based on highly specialized, highly productive farms. It has been suggested that 1 this specialization leads to farms that lack resilience to changing market and environmental conditions; and 2 that by decreasing agricultural diversity, the resilience of the farming system also decreases. Methods We used agricultural gross margin (GM forecasts from 1966 to 2010 and remote sensing data from agricultural landscapes in the lowland UK, in conjunction with modern portfolio theory, to test the hypothesis that decreasing land-use diversity results in landscapes that provide higher, but more volatile, economic returns. We considered the role of spatial scale on the expected levels of volatility and resilience of agricultural returns. Results We found that: 1 there was a strong linear trade-off between expected GMs and the expected volatility of those GMs in real lowland agricultural landscapes in the UK; 2 land-use diversification was negatively correlated with expected GMs from agriculture, and positively correlated with decreasing expected volatility in GMs; 3 the resilience of agricultural returns was positively correlated with the diversity of agricultural land use, and the resilience of agricultural returns rose quickly with increased land-holding size at small spatial extents, but this effect diminished after landholdings reached 12,000 hectares. Conclusions Land-use diversity may have an important role in ensuring resilient agricultural returns in the face of uncertain market and environmental conditions, and land-holding size plays a pivotal role in determining the relationships between resilience and returns at a landscape scale. Creating finer-grained land-use patterns based on pre-existing local land uses may increase the resilience of individual farms, while maintaining aggregate yield across landscapes.

Toward malaysian sustainable agriculture in 21st century

Science.gov (United States)

Khorramnia, K.; Shariff, A. R. M.; Rahim, A. Abdul; Mansor, S.

2014-02-01

Sustainable agriculture should be able to meet various social goals and objectives so that it can be maintained for an indefinite period without significant negative impacts on environment and natural resources. A wide variety of agricultural activities are running in Malaysia. Maintaining high quality of agricultural products with lower environmental impacts through a sustainable economic viability and life satisfaction of farmers and community are important factors helping to meet sustainable agriculture. Human resources are playing key role in directing the community toward sustainable development. The trend of improving the human development index in Malaysia is highest in the East Asia and the Pacific, high human development countries and the world, since 2000. Precision agriculture is providing strong tools to achieve sustainable agriculture. Different types of sensors, positioning and navigation systems, GIS, software and variable rate technology are well known components of precision agriculture. Drones and robots are promising tools that enabling farmers and managers to collect information or perform particular actions in remote areas or tough conditions. According to a survey, forestry and timber, rubber production and oil palm estates are three main agricultural divisions that precision agriculture may improve the productivity in respect to area of cropland/worker. Main factors affecting the adoption of precision agriculture in Malaysia are: a) Political and legal supports, b) Decision support systems and user interfaces c) Experienced research team works d) National educational policy e) Success in commercialization of precision agriculture system.

Toward malaysian sustainable agriculture in 21st century

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khorramnia, K; Shariff, A R M; Rahim, A Abdul; Mansor, S

2014-01-01

Sustainable agriculture should be able to meet various social goals and objectives so that it can be maintained for an indefinite period without significant negative impacts on environment and natural resources. A wide variety of agricultural activities are running in Malaysia. Maintaining high quality of agricultural products with lower environmental impacts through a sustainable economic viability and life satisfaction of farmers and community are important factors helping to meet sustainable agriculture. Human resources are playing key role in directing the community toward sustainable development. The trend of improving the human development index in Malaysia is highest in the East Asia and the Pacific, high human development countries and the world, since 2000. Precision agriculture is providing strong tools to achieve sustainable agriculture. Different types of sensors, positioning and navigation systems, GIS, software and variable rate technology are well known components of precision agriculture. Drones and robots are promising tools that enabling farmers and managers to collect information or perform particular actions in remote areas or tough conditions. According to a survey, forestry and timber, rubber production and oil palm estates are three main agricultural divisions that precision agriculture may improve the productivity in respect to area of cropland/worker. Main factors affecting the adoption of precision agriculture in Malaysia are: a) Political and legal supports, b) Decision support systems and user interfaces c) Experienced research team works d) National educational policy e) Success in commercialization of precision agriculture system

Comparative review of multifunctionality and ecosystem services in sustainable agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jiao; Tichit, Muriel; Poulot, Monique; Darly, Ségolène; Li, Shuangcheng; Petit, Caroline; Aubry, Christine

2015-02-01

Two scientific communities with broad interest in sustainable agriculture independently focus on multifunctional agriculture or ecosystem services. These communities have limited interaction and exchange, and each group faces research challenges according to independently operating paradigms. This paper presents a comparative review of published research in multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services. The motivation for this work is to improve communication, integrate experimental approaches, and propose areas of consensus and dialog for the two communities. This extensive analysis of publication trends, ideologies, and approaches enables formulation of four main conclusions. First, the two communities are closely related through their use of the term "function." However, multifunctional agriculture considers functions as agricultural activity outputs and prefers farm-centred approaches, whereas ecosystem services considers ecosystem functions in the provision of services and prefers service-centred approaches. Second, research approaches to common questions in these two communities share some similarities, and there would be great value in integrating these approaches. Third, the two communities have potential for dialog regarding the bundle of ecosystem services and the spectrum of multifunctional agriculture, or regarding land sharing and land sparing. Fourth, we propose an integrated conceptual framework that distinguishes six groups of ecosystem services and disservices in the agricultural landscape, and combines the concepts of multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services. This integrated framework improves applications of multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services for operational use. Future research should examine if the framework can be readily adapted for modelling specific problems in agricultural management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contribution of Nuclear Science in Agriculture Sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soliman, S.M.; Galal, Y.G.M.

2017-01-01

Sustainable agricultural systems employ natural processes to achieve acceptable levels of productivity and food quality while minimizing adverse environmental impacts. Sustainable agriculture must, by definition, be ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible. Sustainable agriculture must nurture healthy co systems and support the sustainable management of land, water and natural resources, while ensuring world food security. To be sustainable, agriculture must meet the needs of present and future generations for its products and services, while ensuring profitability, environmental health and social and economic equity. The global transition to sustainable food and agriculture will require major improvements in the efficiency of resource use, in environmental protection and in systems resilience. In Mediterrane an environments, crops are grown mainly in the semiarid and sub-humid are as. In arid and semiarid are as dry land farming, techniques are of renewed interest in the view of sustain ability. They are aimed to increase water accumulation in the soil, reduce runoff and soil evaporation losses, choose species and varieties able to make better use of rainwater, and rationalize fertilization plans, sowing dates, and weed and pest control. Fertilization plans should be based on well-defined principles of plant nutrition, soil chemistry, and chemistry of the fertilizer elements. Starting from the calculation of nutrient crop uptake (based on the actually obtainable yield), dose calculation must be corrected by considering the relation ship between the availability of the trace elements in soil and the main physical and chemical parameters of the soil (ph, organic matter content, mineralization rate, C/N, ratio of solubilization of phosphorus, active lime content, presence of antagonist ions, etc.). In the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Soil and Water Research Department, nuclear techniques including radio and stable isotopes in addition to

Low-Intensity Agricultural Landscapes in Transylvania Support High Butterfly Diversity: Implications for Conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Loos, Jacqueline; Dorresteijn, Ine; Hanspach, Jan; Fust, Pascal; Rakosy, László; Fischer, Joern

2014-01-01

European farmland biodiversity is declining due to land use changes towards agricultural intensification or abandonment. Some Eastern European farming systems have sustained traditional forms of use, resulting in high levels of biodiversity. However, global markets and international policies now imply rapid and major changes to these systems. To effectively protect farmland biodiversity, understanding landscape features which underpin species diversity is crucial. Focusing on butterflies, we addressed this question for a cultural-historic landscape in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Following a natural experiment, we randomly selected 120 survey sites in farmland, 60 each in grassland and arable land. We surveyed butterfly species richness and abundance by walking transects with four repeats in summer 2012. We analysed species composition using Detrended Correspondence Analysis. We modelled species richness, richness of functional groups, and abundance of selected species in response to topography, woody vegetation cover and heterogeneity at three spatial scales, using generalised linear mixed effects models. Species composition widely overlapped in grassland and arable land. Composition changed along gradients of heterogeneity at local and context scales, and of woody vegetation cover at context and landscape scales. The effect of local heterogeneity on species richness was positive in arable land, but negative in grassland. Plant species richness, and structural and topographic conditions at multiple scales explained species richness, richness of functional groups and species abundances. Our study revealed high conservation value of both grassland and arable land in low-intensity Eastern European farmland. Besides grassland, also heterogeneous arable land provides important habitat for butterflies. While butterfly diversity in arable land benefits from heterogeneity by small-scale structures, grasslands should be protected from fragmentation to provide

Quantifying Trade-Offs Among Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity, and Agricultural Returns in an Agriculturally Dominated Landscape Under Future Land‑Management Scenarios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma C. Underwood

2017-07-01

Full Text Available https://doi.org/10.15447/sfews.2017v15iss2art4Change in land use in agriculturally dominated areas is often assumed to provide positive benefits for land-owners and financial agricultural returns at the expense of biodiversity and other ecosystem services. For an agriculturally dominated area in the Central Valley of California we quantify the trade-offs among ecosystem services, biodiversity, and the financial returns from agricultural lands. We do this by evaluating three different landscape management scenarios projected to 2050 compared to the current baseline: habitat restoration, urbanization, and enhanced agriculture. The restoration scenario benefited carbon storage services and increased landscape suitability for birds, and also decreased ecosystem disservices (nitrous oxide emissions, nitrogen leaching, although there was a trade-off in slightly lower financial agricultural returns. Under the urbanization scenario, carbon storage, suitability for birds, and agricultural returns were negatively affected. A scenario which enhanced agriculture, tailored to the needs of a key species of conservation concern (Swainson’s Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, presented the most potential for trade-offs. This scenario benefitted carbon storage and increased landscape suitability for the Swainson's Hawk as well as 15 other focal bird species. However, this scenario increased ecosystem disservices. These spatially explicit results, generated at a scale relevant to land management decision-makers in the Central Valley, provide valuable insight into managing for multiple benefits in the landscape and an approach for assessing future land-management decisions.

Sustainability in the Agricultural sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Forgács

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The present study will examine the possible ways of integrating sustainability indicators in assessing the performance of agriculture. We are examining the appropriate ways of calculating the output of the sector including the damages caused by and the benefits of agricultural production. The involvment of environmental pressure into the assessment of agricultural performance does not show significant changes in values.

SUSTAINABLE FARMS: INTEGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manolo Muñoz-Espinosa

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The inappropriate use of agrochemicals and technologies in farming systems can cause an accelerated deterioration of agricultural and soil pollution. Thus, agriculture and livestock are becoming an environmental problem in the world, which implies the need to assess the efficiency of agricultural production systems related to sustainability. The traditional peasant system is apparently unsustainable, while farm with an integral production approach have better opportunities for development over time as they tend to sustainability. This type of farms incorporate productive alternatives that improve as a whole, the system and the livelihood of the peasants. The trends towards sustainability of farms are mainly due to a better land use. As well as, implementing systems adapted to each soil and production type to ensure profitability and persistence, achieving the highest possible agricultural productivity. The urgency to produce food for a growing population is almost a paradigm that reinforces the imperative for maximum yield per unit area, and creates a vision of the rural world aimed at increasing profit at the expense of the attributes and core values of livelihood in rural areas. It can be concluded that the integrated farming articulate various subsystems, which working together could allow higher sustainability of agricultural production practices, environmentally friendly, safeguarding the food sovereignty of the population and improving the quality of life of farmers

TMDL implementation in agricultural landscapes: a communicative and systemic approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Nicholas R; Slotterback, Carissa Schively; Cadieux, Kirsten Valentine; Mulla, David J; Pitt, David G; Olabisi, Laura Schmitt; Kim, Jin-Oh

2011-07-01

Increasingly, total maximum daily load (TMDL) limits are being defined for agricultural watersheds. Reductions in non-point source pollution are often needed to meet TMDL limits, and improvements in management of annual crops appear insufficient to achieve the necessary reductions. Increased adoption of perennial crops and other changes in agricultural land use also appear necessary, but face major barriers. We outline a novel strategy that aims to create new economic opportunities for land-owners and other stakeholders and thereby to attract their voluntary participation in land-use change needed to meet TMDLs. Our strategy has two key elements. First, focused efforts are needed to create new economic enterprises that capitalize on the productive potential of multifunctional agriculture (MFA). MFA seeks to produce a wide range of goods and ecosystem services by well-designed deployment of annual and perennial crops across agricultural landscapes and watersheds; new revenue from MFA may substantially finance land-use change needed to meet TMDLs. Second, efforts to capitalize on MFA should use a novel methodology, the Communicative/Systemic Approach (C/SA). C/SA uses an integrative GIS-based spatial modeling framework for systematically assessing tradeoffs and synergies in design and evaluation of multifunctional agricultural landscapes, closely linked to deliberation and design processes by which multiple stakeholders can collaboratively create appropriate and acceptable MFA landscape designs. We anticipate that application of C/SA will strongly accelerate TMDL implementation, by aligning the interests of multiple stakeholders whose active support is needed to change agricultural land use and thereby meet TMDL goals.

Inventions for future sustainable development in agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacobsen, E.; Beers, P.J.; Fischer, A.R.H.

2011-01-01

This chapter is directed to the importance of different inventions as driver for sustainable development of agriculture. Inventions are defined as radical new ideas, perspectives and technologies that hold the potential to trigger a change in sustainable agriculture. Innovation is based on one or

Conservation of Pollinators in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes – New Challenges in Transylvania (Romania) Posed by EU Accession and Recommendations for Future Research

Science.gov (United States)

Kovács-Hostyánszki, Anikó; Földesi, Rita; Mózes, Edina; Szirák, Ádám; Fischer, Joern; Hanspach, Jan; Báldi, András

2016-01-01

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups—wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES). PMID:27285118

INSPIA project: European Index for Sustainable and Productive Agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Triviño-Tarradas, Paula; Jesús González-Sánchez, Emilio; Gómez-Ariza, Manuel; Rass, Gerard; Gardette, Sophie; Whitmore, Gavin; Dyson, Jeremy

2017-04-01

The concept of sustainable development has evolved from a mere perception for the protection of the environment, to a holistic approach, seeking to preserve not only the environment, but also to achieve sustainability in economics and social wellbeing. Globally, there is a major challenge to face in the agricultural sector: to produce more food, feed and other raw materials to satisfy the increasing demand of a growing population, whilst also contributing to economic prosperity, climate change mitigation / adaptation, social wellbeing and preserving natural capital such as soil, water, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Nowadays, conventional approaches to agriculture are under threat. A more productive and resource efficient agriculture that integrates natural resource protection into its approach will help to meet all these challenges, enabling us to have more of everything - more food, more feed, more non-food crops, more biodiversity and natural habitats - while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, INSPIA is an innovative approach that has worked since 2013 towards demonstration that sustainable productive agriculture is possible thanks to the implementation of a host of best management practices (BMPs) capable of delivering the above achievements. The purpose on INSPIA is to make visible with European decision makers that a sustainable and productive agricultural model exists in a small scale in Europe and that wider dissemination is possible with enabling legislation. INSPIA is demonstrating sustainable agriculture through the implementation of BMPs and the measurement and monitoring of a set of defined indicators (economic, social and environmental ones). INSPIA promotes sustainable practices that protect biodiversity, soils and water and contribute towards maintaining ecosystems services. This holistic sustainable system of productive agriculture is based on the combination of Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Integrated Pest

Biophysical constraints to sustainable agricultural intensification in West African drylands: an example of the WASCAL Research Action Plan (WRAP 2.0) Flagship Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Tondoh, E. J.; Forkuor, G.; Adegoke, J. O.

2017-12-01

The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is an intergovernmental research organization established in 2012 as result of multilateral collaborations between the Republic of Germany and Governments of 10 West African countries. Its new research program termed WASCAL Research Action Plan (WRAP 2.0) aims to deploy first-class, demand-driven, and impact-oriented research to achieve development outcomes and deliver key science-based climate and environmental services. It's therefore structured around key flagships, including "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security" with a focus on enhancing the adaptive capacity of socio-ecological landscapes through increased agricultural productivity. However, as land degradation is one of the major obstacles to sustainable agricultural production and food security in sub Saharan African, it's imperative to mitigate this complex multifaceted process which is particularly acute in West African drylands. This case study aims to diagnose the main constraints to sustainable agricultural intensification at landscape scale and derive best bet soil management practices. The methodological approach is built around biophysical survey at sites of 100 km2 organized around 16 clusters each composed of 10 georeferenced sampling plots in three semi-arid agro-ecological landscapes located in upper-west region of Ghana (Lambussie), southwestern Burkina Faso (Bondigui) and southwestern Mali (Finkolo). Soil samples were collected in both the topsoil (0-20cm) and subsoil (20-50) and key soil physical constraints were measured at each sampling point. Remote Sensing (RS) variables representing biomass, climate and topography were correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC) to determine the influence of these variables on soil health. Results revealed within and between site variations in SOC concentration, soil pH, soil fertility index (SFI), erosion prevalence and root depth restriction. Different RS

Forest landscape restoration : reconciling biodiversity conservation with local livelihoods in Ecuador

OpenAIRE

Middendorp, Romaike Sanne

2017-01-01

Tropical forest conversion and agricultural intensification are important drivers of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services on which local communities depend. Resilient agricultural landscapes are crucial to safeguard food security and adapt to environmental and climate changes. An increasing number of policies and programs target forest landscape restoration but lack the scientific basis to ensure sustainable outcomes. This dissertation explores the potential of forest landscape restora...

SOME ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT AGRICULTURAL LAND USE AREAS WITHIN THE TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kapinos N.

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Land Fund in Ukraine is experiencing excessive human impact, which is reflected in its performance exceeding the allowable agricultural development and land structure imbalance. The environmental condition of land resources close to critical. Among the largest land area occupied by agricultural land (71% of which - 76% is arable land. Violation environmentally acceptable ratio of arable land, natural grasslands and forests negatively affected the sustainability of agricultural landscapes. Throughout the widespread land degradation processes, among which the most ambitious is the erosion (about 57.5% of the territory, pollution (20% of the territory, flooding (about 12% of the territory. Sustainable (balanced land is one of the key factors of sustainable nature of territorial entities and may be formed of a priority, taking into account environmental factors. In ecological optimization based on value criteria ekolohostabilizuyuchyh and anthropogenic pressures lands should necessarily provide for withdrawal of intensive land use, which in its modal properties can not ensure sustainability of land use. However, today in Ukraine within the territories of communities no project development to optimize land use on the basis of sustainable development. Accordingly, the purpose of the article was the study of certain aspects of Land Management sustainable development of agricultural land within the territories of local communities. The current structure of the land fund of Ukraine was actually formed in the Soviet period, under the influence of policies of extensive agricultural development. Violation environmentally acceptable ratio of arable land, natural grasslands and forests negatively affected the stability and condition of land, which is confirmed by relevant research. In such circumstances, balancing the land proposed to carry out in two stages - the ecological and economic. In ecological optimization criteria based on land value necessarily

Sustainable development of agriculture in karst areas, South China

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Linhua Song

1999-01-01

Full Text Available The exposed carbonate rocks aged from Sinian to Mid-Triassic Periods cover an area of 500,000 Km2 in south-west China. In karst areas with spectacular landscapes characterized by magnificent tower karst and conical karst, rare surface drainage systems and prevalent subsurface drainage systems, the environment is ecologically very fragile. The rapid increase of population, over deforested and cultivated lands, worsted the ecological system, causing a higher frequency of draught, flood and various disasters, backward economic development, low living standard of the people. In order to improve the sustainability of the agriculture the experience shows that the following operations should be adopted: (1 serious control of the population increase, emigration, extra labours and improvement of the environmental education of the local inhabitants; (2 terracing of the slopes (shi jala di as to improve the cultivated land quality, to preserve the water, soil and fertiliser and ameliorate the effective utilisation of the land; (3 development of new rural energies such as the solar energy and gas energy, and expansion of the saving-fuel stoves to reduce the load of bio-energy; (4 reforestation and bounding the hills and mountains; the ecological, economic and fuel forests model has been developed in fengcong-depression areas: the tree species with high ecological, economical and energetic characteristics, should be chosen, such as the bamboo, wild grapes, Sapium rotundifolium etc.; (5 better utilisation of the ram water and karst water resource to solve the water supply problems. The karst landscape is well developed in the 500,000 km2 carbonate terrain in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, west Hunan and south Sichuan provinces in south-west China, where 100 million habitants live (Song, 1997. The large population and its high density, serious deforestation, over-cultivation and fragile ecological system make the environmental problems very serious and about 30

The sustainability, base for the agriculture of next century

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baquero Haeberlin, I.B.

1997-01-01

It is defined the sustainability concept, their origin and the operation form to the interior of CORPOICA. It discusses the concept of sustained development and the characteristics that it should have the agricultural technology to involve the concept in the agricultural development, under the perspective of satisfying the necessities of people presently, maintaining options for the future generations. The sustainable agricultural development is analyzed in connection with the ecological, economic and social sustainability and the situation of the agricultural producer in the application of the concept. It thinks about the agriculture ecology like strategy guided to achieve a sustainable agriculture by means of the knowledge of the relationships that they are given among the production systems and the processes that govern the behavior and offer of the intervened ecosystems. Complementarity the technology use of under environmental impact and the development of productive systems adapted to the environment, taking advantage of the biodiversity. It concludes that the sustainability should be above all an ethical concept that makes part of the investigator's formation inside a holistic and interdisciplinary context

Integration Research for Shaping Sustainable Regional Landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David J. Brunckhorst

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Ecological and social systems are complex and entwined. Complex social-ecological systems interact in a multitude of ways at many spatial scales across time. Their interactions can contribute both positive and negative consequences in terms of sustainability and the context in which they exist affecting future landscape change. Non-metropolitan landscapes are the major theatre of interactions where large-scale alteration occurs precipitated by local to global forces of economic, social, and environmental change. Such regional landscape effects are critical also to local natural resource and social sustainability. The institutions contributing pressures and responses consequently shape future landscapes and in turn influence how social systems, resource users, governments, and policy makers perceive those landscapes and their future. Science and policy for “sustainable” futures need to be integrated at the applied “on-ground” level where products and effects of system interactions are fully included, even if unobserved. Government agencies and funding bodies often consider such research as “high-risk.” This paper provides some examples of interdisciplinary research that has provided a level of holistic integration through close engagement with landholders and communities or through deliberately implementing integrative and innovative on-ground experimental models. In retrospect, such projects have to some degree integrated through spatial (if not temporal synthesis, policy analysis, and (new or changed institutional arrangements that are relevant locally and acceptable in business, as well as at broader levels of government and geography. This has provided transferable outcomes that can contribute real options and adaptive capacity for suitable positive futures.

SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPE: AN APPROACH FOR ASSESSING AND APPROPRIATING INDICATORS

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Ahmed Mohamed Amin

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The impact of development on its context is considered a key issue that governs the discussion and understanding of sustainability. For the reason, that ethics of sustainability are based on developing with no or less negative impacts on the contextual environment despite its urban scale whether limited or extended. This describes types of development that increase the good impacts on the tangible and intangible aspects of the built environment. Thus, achieving sustainability is no more a choice but it is a must especially, in an environment suffering from a lot of threats and stresses that affect all aspects of life; socially, economically, environmentally and also affect the beauty and aesthetics of urban fabrics. Assessing sustainability, the applied indicators and ways of assessment are allimportant concerns for urban sustainability discourses. Especially in such sensitive interacting domains as landscape, that links nature with the built environment. Approaching these concerns has a great deal when enhancing our environment aiming at better urban life containers. This paper aims at investigating the issue of sustainable urban landscape assessment through discussing the hue of indicators, their ways of classification, the criteria of selection and stating the variety of methods in which they can be assessed. Finally, it appropriates an approach for stating and assessing urban landscape sustainability indicators, which evaluates their both qualitative and quantitative value upon performance scale.

Distributed denitrification in a northeastern agricultural landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, T. R.; Groffman, P. M.; Walter, M. T.

2011-12-01

Denitrification may be an important sink of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) in eastern US watersheds. Denitrification occurs primarily under anaerobic conditions by heterotrophic microbes, and is therefore expected to be vigorous in wet soils containing large amounts of organic carbon. Actual rates of denitrification, however, have been difficult to quantify, and remain one of the critical unresolved N processes at the landscape scale. We measured denitrification rates in situ along hydrologic flow paths and across gradients of hydroperiodicities, i.e., frequencies and durations of saturated conditions, at Cornell University's Teaching & Research Center in Harford, NY (an active dairy farm). Denitrification rates were measured monthly using the 15N push-pull method from 14 mini-piezometers arrayed along a gradient of hydroperiodicity as indicated by a soil topographic index (STI). Measured rates of denitrification were spatially variable across sites and ranged from undetectable to over 4500 μg N/kg soil/day with a mean of 572 ± 167 μg N/kg soil/day. Mean rates of denitrification increased with STI, which ranged from 8.7 to 23.0 across our mini-piezometer sites. This relationship was used to estimate denitrification rates across the landscape and resolve a missing piece of the N budget for the farm. Only 14% of the farm fell into areas of STI greater than 8.7; however, denitrification in these areas account for more than 60% of the missing N balance for the entire landscape. Improved understanding of the distribution and magnitudes of denitrification in agricultural landscapes has good potential to facilitate new, novel, and better management practices for controlling N loading to streams and rivers. Indeed, the very areas that appear to have a propensity to harbor denitrification, i.e., areas prone to be wet, are often artificially drained as part of standard agricultural practices which reduces the frequency that these areas are likely to be anaerobic and

Agricultural Landscape and Pesticide Effects on Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Biological Traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Alburaki, Mohamed; Steckel, Sandra J; Williams, Matthew T; Skinner, John A; Tarpy, David R; Meikle, William G; Adamczyk, John; Stewart, Scott D

2017-06-01

Sixteen honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies were placed in four different agricultural landscapes to study the effects of agricultural landscape and exposure to pesticides on honey bee health. Colonies were located in three different agricultural areas with varying levels of agricultural intensity (AG areas) and one nonagricultural area (NAG area). Colonies were monitored for their performance and productivity for one year by measuring colony weight changes, brood production, and colony thermoregulation. Palynological and chemical analyses were conducted on the trapped pollen collected from each colony and location. Our results indicate that the landscape's composition significantly affected honey bee colony performance and development. Colony weight and brood production were significantly greater in AG areas compared to the NAG area. Better colony thermoregulation in AG areas' colonies was also observed. The quantities of pesticides measured in the trapped pollen were relatively low compared to their acute toxicity. Unexplained queen and colony losses were recorded in the AG areas, while colony losses because of starvation were observed in the NAG area. Our results indicate that landscape with high urban activity enhances honey bee brood production, with no significant effects on colony weight gain. Our study indicates that agricultural crops provide a valuable resource for honey bee colonies, but there is a trade-off with an increased risk of exposure to pesticides. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Landscapes and ethno-knowledge in the Ticuna and Cocama agriculture at upper River Solimões, Amazonas, Brazil

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Sandra do Nascimento Noda

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The units of landscape in the Cocama and Ticuna agriculture, in the upper River Solimões, are characterized by productionarrangements and management of natural resources. This paper aims to characterize these agro-ecological based practices,the landscaped results and its regional applicability. The survey was conducted in Novo Paraíso, at Bom Intento Island,and in Nova Aliança, both located in the municipality of Benjamin Constant, state of Amazonas, Brazil. The social andeconomic organization of Ticuna and Cocama Peoples is founded on kinship and communal ownership of natural resources,including spaces for gathering. Family units, despite their weak linkages with the market and its rules, have in the logicof reciprocity the motivation for the production, transmission and management of resources and factors of production.The landscapes are reconstructed by agro-ecological production derived from ethno-knowledge and correspond to theinherent processes of management and conservation of flora and fauna. This process allows the existence of compleximbrications of constantly changing landscapes in which forms of production are recreated for sufficiency and sustainability.

Environmental research programme. Ecological research. Annual report 1994. Urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

In the annual report 1994 of the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology, the points of emphasis of the ecological research programme and their financing are discussed. The individual projects in the following subject areas are described in detail: urban-industrial landscapes, forests, agricultural landscapes, river and lake landscapes, other ecosystems and landscapes, terrestrial ecosystem research, environmental pollution and human health and cross-sectional activities in ecological research. (vhe) [de

Sustainable Agricultural Development and Environment: Conflicts ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

sustainable development in the context of Rwanda as the level of socio- political and ... envisaged by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) includes the .... sustainable agriculture and agri-business development in Rwanda is.

Earth Observation for Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Bach, Heike; Mauser, Wolfram; Gernot, Klepper

2016-08-01

The global and regional potentials of Earth Observation (EO) to contribute to food security and sustainable agriculture in the 2050-timeframe were analysed in the ESA study EO4Food, whose outcome will be presented (www.EO4Food.org). Emphasis was put on the global societal, economic, environmental and technological megatrends that will create demand for food and shape the future societies. They will also constitute the background for developments in EO for food security and sustainable agriculture. The capabilities of EO in this respect were critically reviewed with three perspectives 1) the role of EO science for society, 2) observables from space and 3) development of future science missions.It was concluded that EO can be pivotal for the further development of food security and sustainable agriculture. EO allows to support the whole economic and societal value chain from farmers through food industry to insurance and financial industry in satisfying demands and at the same time to support society in governing sustainable agriculture through verifyable rules and regulations. It has the potential to become the global source of environmental information that is assimilated into sophisticated environmental management models and is used to make agriculture sustainable.

Ants as tools in sustainable agriculture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Offenberg, Joachim

2015-01-01

1. With an expanding human population placing increasing pressure on the environment, agriculture needs sustainable production that can match conventional methods. Integrated pest management (IPM) is more sustainable, but not necessarily as efficient as conventional non-sustainable measures. 2...... in multiple crops. Their efficiency is comparable to chemical pesticides or higher, while at lower costs. They provide a rare example of documented efficient conservation biological control. 3. Weaver ants share beneficial traits with almost 13 000 other ant species and are unlikely to be unique...... of agricultural systems, this review emphasizes the potential of managing ants to achieve sustainable pest management solutions. The synthesis suggests future directions and may catalyse a research agenda on the utilization of ants, not only against arthropod pests, but also against weeds and plant diseases...

A Need for Education in Water Sustainability in the Agricultural Realm

Science.gov (United States)

Krajewski, J.

2015-12-01

This study draws upon the definition of water sustainability from the National Water Research Institute as the continual supply of clean water for human uses and for other living beings without compromising the water welfare of future generations. Currently, the greatest consumer of water resources worldwide is irrigation. The move from small-scale, family farms towards corporately owned and market driven, mass scale operations have drastically increased corn production and large-scale factory hog farming in the American Midwest—and the water quality related costs associated with this shift are well-documented. In the heart of the corn belt, the state of Iowa has dealt with issues over the past two decades ranging from flooding of historic proportions, to yield destroying droughts. Most recently, the state's water quality is intensely scrutinized due to nutrient levels higher than almost anywhere else in the world. While the changed agricultural landscape is ultimately responsible for these environmental costs, they can be mitigated if the farmers adopt practices that support water sustainability. However, many Iowa farmers have yet to embrace these necessary practices because of a lack of proper education in this context. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore how water sustainability is being conceptualized within the agricultural realm, and ultimately, how the issues are being communicated and understood within various subgroups in Iowa, such as the farmers, the college students, and the general public.

Soil Degradation, Policy Intervention and Sustainable Agricultural Growth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sasmal, J.; Weikard, H.P.

2013-01-01

Sustainable agricultural growth in developing countries is jeopardized by soil degradation consequent upon intensive cultivation and use of increasing doses of chemical inputs. To pave the way to sustainable agricultural growth we develop a model that incorporates organic fertilizer into the

Development of a concept for sustainable agriculture in the Elbe wetlands of Niedersachsen; Konzeptentwicklung fuer eine nachhaltige Landbewirtschaftung in den niedersaechsischen Elbtalauen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prueter, J. [Alfred Toepfer Akademie fuer Naturschutz (NNA), Schneverdingen (Germany); Horlitz, T.; Sander, A. [Arbeitsgemeinschaft Umweltplanung (ARUM), Hannover (Germany)

2000-07-01

Since late 1997, a cooperative project headed by Alfred Toepfer Akademie fuer Naturschutz has been investigating ''Models of conservation and its application in agriculture - goals, instruments and cost of sustainable, environment-friendly agriculture in the Elbe river valley in Niedersachsen''. The project receives funds in the context of the BMBF project ''Elbe river ecology''. Using the specific methods and tools of ecology, landscaping, agriculture and economics, the fundamentals for future interdisciplinary landscape development concepts will be established. The contribution presents the methodology of concept development and some exemplary goals for sustainable agricultural development in the context of the project. [German] Seit Ende 1997 widmet sich im Rahmen der BMBF-Forschungsfoerderung ''Elbe-Oekologie'' ein Verbundforschungsvorhaben unter Federfuehrung der Alfred Toepfer Akademie fuer Naturschutz dem Thema ''Leitbilder des Naturschutzes und deren Umsetzung mit der Landwirtschaft - Ziele, Instrumente und Kosten einer umweltschonenden und nachhaltigen Landwirtschaft im niedersaechsischen Elbetal''. Mit den spezifischen Methoden und fachlichen Instrumenten der Oekologie, der Landschaftsplanung sowie der Agrarwissenschaften einschliesslich Oekonomie sollen Grundlagen fuer moegliche ressortuebergreifend getragene Konzepte fuer die zukuenftige Landschaftsentwicklung erarbeitet werden. Im folgenden werden methodische Grundlagen der Konzeptentwicklung und beispielhafte Zielaussagen fuer eine nachhaltige Landbewirtschaftung aus dem laufenden Projekt vorgestellt. (orig.)

Study of agricultural waste treatment in China and Russia-based on the agriculture environment sustainable development

Science.gov (United States)

Chernyaeva, Victoria A.; Teng, Xiuyi; Sergio

2017-06-01

China and Russia are both agriculture countries, agricultural environment sustainable development is very important for them. The paper studies three main agricultural wastes: straw, organic waste and plastic waste, and analyzes their treatments with the view of agricultural sustainable development.

Sustainable intensification in agricultural systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Pretty, Jules; Bharucha, Zareen Pervez

2014-12-01

Agricultural systems are amended ecosystems with a variety of properties. Modern agroecosystems have tended towards high through-flow systems, with energy supplied by fossil fuels directed out of the system (either deliberately for harvests or accidentally through side effects). In the coming decades, resource constraints over water, soil, biodiversity and land will affect agricultural systems. Sustainable agroecosystems are those tending to have a positive impact on natural, social and human capital, while unsustainable systems feed back to deplete these assets, leaving fewer for the future. Sustainable intensification (SI) is defined as a process or system where agricultural yields are increased without adverse environmental impact and without the conversion of additional non-agricultural land. The concept does not articulate or privilege any particular vision or method of agricultural production. Rather, it emphasizes ends rather than means, and does not pre-determine technologies, species mix or particular design components. The combination of the terms 'sustainable' and 'intensification' is an attempt to indicate that desirable outcomes around both more food and improved environmental goods and services could be achieved by a variety of means. Nonetheless, it remains controversial to some. This review analyses recent evidence of the impacts of SI in both developing and industrialized countries, and demonstrates that both yield and natural capital dividends can occur. The review begins with analysis of the emergence of combined agricultural-environmental systems, the environmental and social outcomes of recent agricultural revolutions, and analyses the challenges for food production this century as populations grow and consumption patterns change. Emergent criticisms are highlighted, and the positive impacts of SI on food outputs and renewable capital assets detailed. It concludes with observations on policies and incentives necessary for the wider adoption of

Adaptation Options for Land Drainage Systems Towards Sustainable Agriculture and Environment: A Czech Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Kulhavý, Zbyněk; Fučík, Petr

2015-04-01

In this paper, issues of agricultural drainage systems are introduced and discussed from the views of their former, current and future roles and functioning in the Czech Republic (CR). A methodologically disparate survey was done on thirty-nine model localities in CR with different intensity and state of land drainage systems, aimed at description of commonly occurred problems and possible adaptations of agricultural drainage as perceived by farmers, land owners, landscape managers or by protective water management. The survey was focused on technical state of drainage, fragmentation of land ownership within drained areas as well as on possible conflicts between agricultural and environmental interests in a landscape. Achieved results confirmed that there is obviously an increasing need to reassess some functions of prevailingly single-purpose agricultural drainage systems. Drainage intensity and detected unfavourable technical state of drainage systems as well as the risks connected with the anticipated climate change from the view of possible water scarcity claims for a complex solution. An array of adaptation options for agricultural drainage systems is presented, aiming at enhancement of water retention time and improvement of water quality. It encompasses additional flow-controlling measures on tiles or ditches, or facilities for making selected parts of a drainage system inoperable in order to retain or slow down the drainage runoff, to establish water accumulation zones and to enhance water self-cleaning processes. However, it was revealed that the question of landowner parcels fragmentation on drained land in CR would dramatically complicate design and realization of these measures. Presented solutions and findings are propounded with a respect to contemporary and future state policies and international strategies for sustainable agriculture, water management and environment.

Scale-Aware Pansharpening Algorithm for Agricultural Fragmented Landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Lillo-Saavedra

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Remote sensing (RS has played an important role in extensive agricultural monitoring and management for several decades. However, the current spatial resolution of satellite imagery does not have enough definition to generalize its use in highly-fragmented agricultural landscapes, which represents a significant percentage of the world’s total cultivated surface. To characterize and analyze this type of landscape, multispectral (MS images with high and very high spatial resolutions are required. Multi-source image fusion algorithms are normally used to improve the spatial resolution of images with a medium spatial resolution. In particular, pansharpening (PS methods allow one to produce high-resolution MS images through a coherent integration of spatial details from a panchromatic (PAN image with spectral information from an MS. The spectral and spatial quality of source images must be preserved to be useful in RS tasks. Different PS strategies provide different trade-offs between the spectral and the spatial quality of the fused images. Considering that agricultural landscape images contain many levels of significant structures and edges, the PS algorithms based on filtering processes must be scale-aware and able to remove different levels of detail in any input images. In this work, a new PS methodology based on a rolling guidance filter (RGF is proposed. The main contribution of this new methodology is to produce artifact-free pansharpened images, improving the MS edges with a scale-aware approach. Three images have been used, and more than 150 experiments were carried out. An objective comparison with widely-used methodologies shows the capability of the proposed method as a powerful tool to obtain pansharpened images preserving the spatial and spectral information.

High-Resolution Biogeochemical Simulation Identifies Practical Opportunities for Bioenergy Landscape Intensification Across Diverse US Agricultural Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Field, J.; Adler, P. R.; Evans, S.; Paustian, K.; Marx, E.; Easter, M.

2015-12-01

The sustainability of biofuel expansion is strongly dependent on the environmental footprint of feedstock production, including both direct impacts within feedstock-producing areas and potential leakage effects due to disruption of existing food, feed, or fiber production. Assessing and minimizing these impacts requires novel methods compared to traditional supply chain lifecycle assessment. When properly validated and applied at appropriate spatial resolutions, biogeochemical process models are useful for simulating how the productivity and soil greenhouse gas fluxes of cultivating both conventional crops and advanced feedstock crops respond across gradients of land quality and management intensity. In this work we use the DayCent model to assess the biogeochemical impacts of agricultural residue collection, establishment of perennial grasses on marginal cropland or conservation easements, and intensification of existing cropping at high spatial resolution across several real-world case study landscapes in diverse US agricultural regions. We integrate the resulting estimates of productivity, soil carbon changes, and nitrous oxide emissions with crop production budgets and lifecycle inventories, and perform a basic optimization to generate landscape cost/GHG frontiers and determine the most practical opportunities for low-impact feedstock provisioning. The optimization is constrained to assess the minimum combined impacts of residue collection, land use change, and intensification of existing agriculture necessary for the landscape to supply a commercial-scale biorefinery while maintaining exiting food, feed, and fiber production levels. These techniques can be used to assess how different feedstock provisioning strategies perform on both economic and environmental criteria, and sensitivity of performance to environmental and land use factors. The included figure shows an example feedstock cost-GHG mitigation tradeoff frontier for a commercial-scale cellulosic

The Sustainable Expression of Ecological Concept in the Urban Landscape Environment Design

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Junyan; Zhou, Tiejun; Xin, Lisen; Tan, Yuetong; Wang, Zhigang

2018-02-01

Urbanization is an inevitable trend of development of human society, also the inevitable outcome of economic development and scientific and technological progress, while urbanization process in promoting the development of human civilization, also no doubt, urban landscape has been a corresponding impact. Urban environment has suffered unprecedented damage, the urban population density, traffic congestion, shortage of resources, environmental pollution, ecological degradation, has become the focus of human society. In order to create an environment of ecological and harmonious, beautiful, sustainable development in the urban landscape, This paper discusses the concept of ecological design combined with the urban landscape design and sustainable development of urban landscape design.

Sustainable landscape approach: Evaluation of xeriscape landscape design in KTU Kanuni Campus

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Elif Bayramoğlu

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Plant elements in landscape as well as all living beings have been affected from the global warming and drought in the last decade. With consideration the sustainable landscaping approach in order to reduce the negative effects of drought in planning and landscape, xeriscape approach has brought in issues of water use management. This study was conducted to determine the sustainability of grass and refuge plant for xeriscape around the road axis in the campus of Karadeniz Technical University and has led to some noticeably proposals solutions. According to the results achieved, 10 plant species from 53 species were determined with low water request, 13 of them dedicated a middle amount of water demand, and finally 4 of them requested high amount of water. Although water request of plants found in the area is low, natural species which are more effective for the xeriscape approach were not used in the site. In spite of some factors such as type of grass mixture used, capacity of water saving, and being strong to drought as well as dense surface which are important in xeriscape planning approaches , this study emphasizes that it is more appropriate to use natural ground cover in the xeriscape approaches.

Barriers to Sustainable Business Model Innovation in Swedish Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennie Cederholm Björklund

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Sweden’s agriculture industry has faced many challenges in recent years. Among the most severe challenges are the decrease in the number of small and medium-sized farms, the decrease in the number of people employed in agricultural actvites, and the increase in governmental regulatons and legislaton governing such actvites. At the same tme, the demand that agriculture contributes to sustainable social and ecological development has increased. Although research shows that sustainable business model innovaton (SBMI contributes to the creaton of sustainable businesses and to the development of a sustainable society, Swedish agriculture has not been at the forefront in the use of SBMI. The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers to SBMI in Swedish agriculture in order to understand why farmers seldom engage in SBMI. This qualitatve study follows the Gioia methodology and data for the analysis were acquired in semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs at six family farms in Sweden. The paper makes a theoretcal contributon to the research on SBMI with its focus on sustainable entrepreneurship in the Swedish agricultural industry. The paper concludes that the barriers to SBMI are external, internal, and contextual.

Identifying, monitoring and implementing "sustainable" agricultural practices for smallholder farmers over large geographic areas in India and Vietnam

Science.gov (United States)

Kritee, K.; Ahuja, R.; Nair, D.; Esteves, T.; Rudek, J.; Thu Ha, T.

2015-12-01

Industrial agriculture systems, mostly in developed and some emerging economies, are far different from the small-holder farms (size management variability from farm to farm and also the current inability to ground-truth remote sensing data due to lack of relaible basic parameters (e.g., yields, N use, farm boundaries) which are necessary for calibrating empirical/biogeochemical models. While we continue to learn from new research, we have found that it is crucial to follow some steps if sustainable farming programs are to succeed at small-holder farms Demographic data collection and GPS plot demarcation to establish farm size and ownership Baseline nutrient, water & energy use and crop yield determination via surveys and self-reporting which are verifiable through farmer networks given the importance of peer to peer learning in the dissemination of new techniques in such landscapes "Sustainable" practice determination in consultation with local universities/NGO experts Measurements on representative plots for 3-4 years to help calibrate biogeochemical models and/or empirical equations and establish which practices are truly "sustainable" (e.g., GHG emission reduction varies from 0-7 tCO2e/acre for different sustainable practices). Propagation of sustainable practices across the landscape via local NGOs/governments after analyzing the replicability of identified farming practices in the light of local financial, cultural or socio-political barriers. We will present results from representative plots (including soil and weather parameters, GHG emissions, yields, inputs, economic and environmental savings), farmer surveys and diary data; and discuss our key conclusions based on our approach and the analysis of the collected data which was enabled by use of a commercially available comprehensive agricultural data collection software.

Methylotrophic bacteria in sustainable agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Manish; Tomar, Rajesh Singh; Lade, Harshad; Paul, Diby

2016-07-01

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers to increase production from available land has resulted in deterioration of soil quality. To prevent further soil deterioration, the use of methylotrophic bacteria that have the ability to colonize different habitats, including soil, sediment, water, and both epiphytes and endophytes as host plants, has been suggested for sustainable agriculture. Methylotrophic bacteria are known to play a significant role in the biogeochemical cycle in soil ecosystems, ultimately fortifying plants and sustaining agriculture. Methylotrophs also improve air quality by using volatile organic compounds such as dichloromethane, formaldehyde, methanol, and formic acid. Additionally, methylotrophs are involved in phosphorous, nitrogen, and carbon cycling and can help reduce global warming. In this review, different aspects of the interaction between methylotrophs and host plants are discussed, including the role of methylotrophs in phosphorus acquisition, nitrogen fixation, phytohormone production, iron chelation, and plant growth promotion, and co-inoculation of these bacteria as biofertilizers for viable agriculture practices.

The heterogeneity of wooded-agricultural landscape mosaics influences woodland bird community assemblages

OpenAIRE

Neumann, Jessica L.; Griffiths, Geoffrey H.; Foster, Christopher W.; Holloway, Graham J.

2016-01-01

Context\\ud Landscape heterogeneity (the composition and configuration of different landcover types) plays a key role in shaping woodland bird assemblages in wooded-agricultural mosaics. Understanding how species respond to landscape factors could contribute to preventing further decline of woodland bird populations.\\ud Objective\\ud To investigate how woodland birds with different species traits respond to landscape heterogeneity, and to identify whether specific landcover types are important ...

Sustainable food and agriculture: stakeholder's frames

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Gorp, B.; van der Goot, M.J.

2012-01-01

Despite its importance, the notion of sustainability is open for discursive struggle. This article's primary objective is to acquire insight into the manner in which the principal stakeholders strategically use frames in their public communication about sustainable food and agriculture. A framing

The lichens in the agricultural landscape of Podlasie, North East Poland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matwiejuk, A.

2016-01-01

This paper carries information for diagnosis lichenobiota in the agricultural landscape of Poland NE. The research led to a better understanding of the problem of occurrence of lichens in the agricultural landscape. The functional groups of lichens, which were used to characterize lichen biota taking into account the morphological forms, frequency of occurrence and habitat requirements were determined. The basis for the specification of the more interesting taxa in the study area was to analyze the species composition of lichens in relation to the data on their previous records in rural areas, the degree of recognition in Poland NE and conservation status and threats in the country. (author)

36 CFR 219.12 - Collaboration and cooperatively developed landscape goals.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... cooperatively developed landscape goals. 219.12 Section 219.12 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PLANNING National Forest System Land and Resource Management Planning Collaborative Planning for Sustainability § 219.12 Collaboration and cooperatively developed landscape goals. (a...

Sustainability through precision agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

As population and standard of living increase in many parts of the world, so will the need for food and other agriculturally-based products. To be sustainable, these increases in production must occur with minimum impact on the environment and with efficient use of production resources, including la...

Nanotechnology in sustainable agriculture: Present concerns and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nanotechnology in sustainable agriculture: Present concerns and future aspects. ... of those living in developing countries face daily food shortages as a result of ... applications in agricultural, food, and water safety that could have significant ...

Habitat connectivity and fragmented nuthatch populations in agricultural landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langevelde, van F.

1999-01-01

In agricultural landscapes, the habitat of many species is subject to fragmentation. When the habitat of a species is fragmented and the distances between patches of habitat are large relative to the movement distances of the species, it can be expected that the degree of habitat

An unified framework to integrate biotic, abiotic processes and human activities in spatially explicit models of agricultural landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabrice eVinatier

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Recent concern over possible ways to sustain ecosystem services has triggered important research worldwide on ecosystem processes at the landscape scale. Understanding this complexity of landscape functioning calls for coupled and spatially-explicit modelling approaches. However, disciplinary boundaries have limited the number of multi-process studies at the landscape scale, and current progress in coupling processes at this scale often reveals strong imbalance between biotic and abiotic processes, depending on the core discipline of the modellers. We propose a spatially-explicit, unified conceptual framework that allows researchers from different fields to develop a shared view of agricultural landscapes. In particular,we distinguish landscape elements that are mobile in space and represent biotic or abiotic objects (for example water, fauna or flora populations, and elements that are immobile and represent fixed landscape elements with a given geometry (for example ditch section or plot. The shared representation of these elements allows setting common objects and spatio-temporal process boundaries that may otherwise differ between disciplines. We present guidelines and an assessment of the applicability of this framework to a virtual landscape system with realistic properties. This framework allows the complex system to be represented with a limited set of concepts but leaves the possibility to include current modelling strategies specific to biotic or abiotic disciplines. Future operational challenges include model design, space and time discretization, and the availability of both landscape modelling platforms and data.

A National Scale Sustainable Agriculture Matrix of Indicators to Inform Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, E. A.; Zhang, X.

2017-12-01

The ratification of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by all member countries of the United Nations demonstrates the determination of the international community in moving towards a sustainable future. To enable and encourage accountability, independent and transparent measurements of national sustainability efforts are essential. Among all sectors, agriculture is fundamental to all three pillars of sustainability, namely environment, society, and economy. However, the definition of a sustainable agriculture and the feasibility of measuring it remain elusive, in part because it encompasses both biophysical and socio-economic components that are still poorly integrated. Therefore, we have been developing a Sustainable Agriculture Matrix (SAM) on a national scale in order to measure country-level performance in agriculture. First proposed by Swaminathan for agricultural research and policy in 1990s, SAM is a collection of indicators measuring sustainable agriculture from environmental, social, and economic dimensions. The environmental dimension evaluates various impacts of agricultural production on the environment, such as water consumption and nutrient pollution. The economic dimension quantifies the costs and benefits for major stakeholders involved in agricultural production, including government, industry, farmers, and consumers. The social dimension considers three major aspects: 1) social welfare (e.g., hunger and poverty rate, nutritional quality, demography of rural community); 2) equity over sectors, space, and gender (e.g., access to resources/services and opportunities, distribution of income, land ownership and tenure rights); 3) systemic risk (e.g., fragility of the global agricultural production and trade system, resilience of a farm or a country to market and natural shocks). Translating the illustrative concepts into measureable indicators will not only provide an independent and transparent measurement of national performance in the

Nepal's agriculture, sustainability and intervention : looking for new directions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Basnyat, B.B.

1995-01-01

This study focuses on intervention processes that support sustainable agriculture. It argues that we know very little about how to intervene for sustainable agriculture, particularly for those areas where the Green Revolution has passed almost unnoticed and where degradation of natural

Land Tenure as a Factor Underlying Agricultural Landscape Changes in Europe: A Review

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Krčílková Š.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Land tenure is generally considered to be an important factor affecting farming, landscape, and rural development. This paper reviews selected case studies to identify how land tenure influences agricultural landscape changes in Europe. We identified how land tenure information was transformed into variables, grouping these variables into general thematic categories: (1 land rights variables based on references to the type of stakeholders and duration of land occupancy, (2 land structure variables describing general land structure, and (3 behavioural variables dependent on stakeholders’ attitudes, perceptions, and personal values. Each thematic category can be defined on three spatial levels: parcel or production block, stakeholder, and landscape. The results show that the tenure factor is not frequently included into landscape-change studies. When a land tenure factor was part of a given study, it either played a minor role among other drivers of landscape change or, if it influenced significant landscape changes, it had only locally specific effects. Moreover, there were studies with contradictory results and so it is difficult to generalize specific findings. Nevertheless, land tenure is frequently discussed within landscape-change research in relation to land abandonment as well as green services and their connection with the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

Participatory conservation approaches for satoyama, the traditional forest and agricultural landscape of Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobori, Hiromi; Primack, Richard B

2003-06-01

The traditional agricultural landscape of Japan, known as satoyama, consists of a mixture of forests, wet rice paddy fields, grasslands, and villages. This landscape supports a great diversity of plant and animal species, many of which are significant to the Japanese culture. The satoyama landscape is currently being rapidly converted to residential and industrial uses in Japan's expanding metropolitan areas, with the local loss of many species. Only 7% of the land in the Yokohama area remains as satoyama. City residents and older farmers have become key participants in programs to protect examples of satoyama. Many urban residents value the experience of participating in agricultural and conservation activities once they are made aware of the threat faced by the satoyama landscape. In one particularly successful program, conservation efforts and fund-raising are linked to "Totoro", an imaginary forest animal featured in a popular animated film.

Sustainable development in agriculture, food and nutrition--a patent analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Vani, Kohila P; Doble, Mukesh

2011-05-01

The paper discusses the patents that have been filed in the areas of sustainable development in agriculture, food and nutrition and use of natural resources in achieving this goal. A large number of patents deal with the production of fertilizers from animal manure, plant sources and other organic wastes, which are more sustainable that the chemical fertilizers that are being currently used. Sustainability in agriculture is achieved in developing processes for the manufacture of biopesticides/insecticides and bioactive agricultural products. Development of novel sustainable agricultural processes has also been the focus of researchers and technologists. Plant derived nutritious food products are sustainable and can cater for the growing population burden. This has been the focus of several patents. Processes for enhancing the nutrition in food also serve the purpose of catering for the under nourished population.

SPECIALIZATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zofia Kołoszko-Chomentowska

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In the present article, an attempt was made to assess the sustainability of agricultural holdings with diff erent directions of production. Agricultural holdings in the Podlaskie voivodeship registered in the FADN system in 2011–2012 were investigated. Assessment accounted for agroecological indicators (share of permanent grasslands, share of cereals in crops, soil coverage with vegetation, stock density and economic indicators (profi tableness of land and labor. Analysis was conducted according to a classifi cation into agricultural holding types: fi eldcrops, dairy cattle, and granivores. Fieldcrop and granivore holdings achieved more favourable environmental sustainability indicators. Holdings specializing in dairy cattle breeding posed a threat to the natural environment, mainly due to their excessive stock density. Economic sustainability assessment showed that granivore holdings were assessed most favorably. In these holdings, holding income per full-time worker was 37% greater than in fi eldcrop holdings and 57% greater than in dairy cattle holdings.

Aspects of Agricultural Landscape as a Cultural Asset in Metropolitan Areas: Case Study for Bucharest City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreea Popa

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Typical for the last decades economical and social processes at metropolitan level induce new models of spatial organization characterized by extensive urban development. These extensive processes configure various components of the cultural landscape in different ways. Such development modifies the rural, agricultural and industrial landscapes and generates new landscape typologies modeled by interaction between urban and rural space. Diverse approaches of urban development have modified the territorial structure and also the way in which the territory visually and dynamically responds to external factors by transforming the main cultural features. In such a context, preservation of common agricultural landscape as a part of cultural landscape is becoming an important issue for the local development policies

BARRIERS TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INSTRUMENTS ASSISTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryszard KATA

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This paper provides identification and assessment of barriers to the implementation of the instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP that support sustainable development of agriculture. This issue has been studied on the example of individual farms of south-eastern Poland, which benefited from programs to support sustainable agriculture in 2004-2013. The introduction of agriculture on the path of sustainable development depends on institutional factors (including political, which can induce farmers to take into account the environment and future generations in their microeconomic decisions. It has been shown that the most important barriers to the efficient and effective implementation of programs in support of sustainable agriculture are financial and information and education constraints.

The effects of erosional and management history on soil organic carbon stores in ephemeral wetlands of hummocky agricultural landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bedard-Haughn, A.; Jongbloed, F.; Akkennan, J.; Uijl, A.; Jong, de E.; Yates, T.; Pennock, D.

2006-01-01

Carbon sequestration by agricultural soils has been widely promoted as a means of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. In many regions agricultural fields are just one component of a complex landscape matrix and understanding the interactions between agricultural fields and other landscape

Socioeconomic Dimensions of Changes in the Agricultural Landscape of the Mediterranean Basin: A Case Study of the Abandonment of Cultivation Terraces on Nisyros Island, Greece

Science.gov (United States)

Petanidou, Theodora; Kizos, Thanasis; Soulakellis, Nikolaos

2008-02-01

Agricultural landscapes illustrate the impact of human actions on physical settings, and differential human pressures cause these landscapes to change with time. Our study explored changes in the terraced landscapes of Nisyros Island, Greece, focusing on the socioeconomic aspects during two time periods using field data, cadastral research, local documents, and published literature, as well as surveys of the islanders. Population increases during the late 19th to early 20th centuries marked a significant escalation of terrace and dry stone wall construction, which facilitated cultivation on 58.4% of the island. By the mid-20th century, the economic collapse of agricultural activities and consequent emigration caused the abandonment of cultivated land and traditional management practices, dramatically reducing farm and field numbers. Terrace abandonment continued in recent decades, with increased livestock grazing becoming the main land management tool; as a result, both farm and pasture sizes increased. Neglect and changing land use has led to deterioration and destruction of many terraces on the island. We discuss the socioeconomic and political backgrounds responsible for the land-use change before World War II (annexation of Nisyros Island by the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Greece; overseas migration opportunities; and world transportation changes) and after the war (social changes in peasant societies; worldwide changes in agricultural production practices). The adverse landscape changes documented for Nisyros Island appear to be inevitable for modern Mediterranean rural societies, including those on other islands in this region. The island’s unique terraced landscapes may qualify Nisyros to become an archive or repository of old agricultural management techniques to be used by future generations and a living resource for sustainable management.

Socioeconomic dimensions of changes in the agricultural landscape of the Mediterranean basin: a case study of the abandonment of cultivation terraces on Nisyros Island, Greece.

Science.gov (United States)

Petanidou, Theodora; Kizos, Thanasis; Soulakellis, Nikolaos

2008-02-01

Agricultural landscapes illustrate the impact of human actions on physical settings, and differential human pressures cause these landscapes to change with time. Our study explored changes in the terraced landscapes of Nisyros Island, Greece, focusing on the socioeconomic aspects during two time periods using field data, cadastral research, local documents, and published literature, as well as surveys of the islanders. Population increases during the late 19th to early 20th centuries marked a significant escalation of terrace and dry stone wall construction, which facilitated cultivation on 58.4% of the island. By the mid-20th century, the economic collapse of agricultural activities and consequent emigration caused the abandonment of cultivated land and traditional management practices, dramatically reducing farm and field numbers. Terrace abandonment continued in recent decades, with increased livestock grazing becoming the main land management tool; as a result, both farm and pasture sizes increased. Neglect and changing land use has led to deterioration and destruction of many terraces on the island. We discuss the socioeconomic and political backgrounds responsible for the land-use change before World War II (annexation of Nisyros Island by the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Greece; overseas migration opportunities; and world transportation changes) and after the war (social changes in peasant societies; worldwide changes in agricultural production practices). The adverse landscape changes documented for Nisyros Island appear to be inevitable for modern Mediterranean rural societies, including those on other islands in this region. The island's unique terraced landscapes may qualify Nisyros to become an archive or repository of old agricultural management techniques to be used by future generations and a living resource for sustainable management.

Chlorate origin and fate in shallow groundwater below agricultural landscapes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mastrocicco, Micòl; Di Giuseppe, Dario; Vincenzi, Fabio; Colombani, Nicolò; Castaldelli, Giuseppe

2017-01-01

In agricultural lowland landscapes, intensive agricultural is accompanied by a wide use of agrochemical application, like pesticides and fertilizers. The latter often causes serious environmental threats such as N compounds leaching and surface water eutrophication; additionally, since perchlorate can be present as impurities in many fertilizers, the potential presence of perchlorates and their by-products like chlorates and chlorites in shallow groundwater could be a reason of concern. In this light, the present manuscript reports the first temporal and spatial variation of chlorates, chlorites and major anions concentrations in the shallow unconfined aquifer belonging to Ferrara province (in the Po River plain). The study was made in 56 different locations to obtain insight on groundwater chemical composition and its sediment matrix interactions. During the monitoring period from 2010 to 2011, in June 2011 a nonpoint pollution of chlorates was found in the shallow unconfined aquifer belonging to Ferrara province. Detected chlorates concentrations ranged between 0.01 and 38 mg/l with an average value of 2.9 mg/l. Chlorates were found in 49 wells out of 56 and in all types of lithology constituting the shallow aquifer. Chlorates concentrations appeared to be linked to NO 3 − , volatile fatty acids (VFA) and oxygen reduction potential (ORP) variations. Chlorates behaviour was related to the biodegradation of perchlorates, since perchlorates are favourable electron acceptors for the oxidation of labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater. Further studies must take into consideration to monitor ClO 4 − in pore waters and groundwater to better elucidate the mass flux of ClO 4 − in shallow aquifers belonging to agricultural landscapes. - Highlights: • Chlorates were found in agricultural shallow wells after fertilizers spreading. • Chlorates concentrations appeared to be linked to NO 3 − , VFA and ORP variations. • Chlorates behaviour was

How could companies engage in sustainable landscape management?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opdam, P.F.M.; Steingröver, E.G.

2018-01-01

Current concepts that aim to align economic development with sustainability, such as the circular and green economy, often consider natural systems as externalities. We extend the green economy concept by including the landscape as the provider of social, economic and environmental values. Our aim

What Do We Need to Know to Enhance the Environmental Sustainability of Agricultural Production? A Prioritisation of Knowledge Needs for the UK Food System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William J. Sutherland

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Increasing concerns about global environmental change and food security have focused attention on the need for environmentally sustainable agriculture. This is agriculture that makes efficient use of natural resources and does not degrade the environmental systems that underpin it, or deplete natural capital stocks. We convened a group of 29 ‘practitioners’ and 17 environmental scientists with direct involvement or expertise in the environmental sustainability of agriculture. The practitioners included representatives from UK industry, non-government organizations and government agencies. We collaboratively developed a long list of 264 knowledge needs to help enhance the environmental sustainability of agriculture within the UK or for the UK market. We refined and selected the most important knowledge needs through a three-stage process of voting, discussion and scoring. Scientists and practitioners identified similar priorities. We present the 26 highest priority knowledge needs. Many of them demand integration of knowledge from different disciplines to inform policy and practice. The top five are about sustainability of livestock feed, trade-offs between ecosystem services at farm or landscape scale, phosphorus recycling and metrics to measure sustainability. The outcomes will be used to guide on-going knowledge exchange work, future science policy and funding.

Choosing the safest route: frog orientation in an agricultural landscape

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mazerolle, M.J.; Vos, C.C.

2006-01-01

Orientation is a key component to successful movements between habitats. We hypothesized that barren agricultural landscapes hinder the ability of frogs to orient and move between habitats. Specifically, we predicted that when presented with a choice between a short route through a hostile

Enhancing Sustainable Development of Diverse Agriculture in Bangladesh

OpenAIRE

Alam, Jahangir

2005-01-01

The report presents the current status of some selected CGPRT Crops (secondary crops) and examines their potentials in enhancing the sustainable development of diverse agriculture in Bangladesh. Agriculture in Bangladesh is composed of crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry subsectors. This study deals primarily with crop agriculture and the scope of diversification is limited to crop rather than agricultural diversification.

Socially optimal drainage system and agricultural biodiversity: a case study for Finnish landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Saikkonen, Liisa; Herzon, Irina; Ollikainen, Markku; Lankoski, Jussi

2014-12-15

This paper examines the socially optimal drainage choice (surface/subsurface) for agricultural crop cultivation in a landscape with different land qualities (fertilities) when private profits and nutrient runoff damages are taken into account. We also study the measurable social costs to increase biodiversity by surface drainage when the locations of the surface-drained areas in a landscape affect the provided biodiversity. We develop a general theoretical model and apply it to empirical data from Finnish agriculture. We find that for low land qualities the measurable social returns are higher to surface drainage than to subsurface drainage, and that the profitability of subsurface drainage increases along with land quality. The measurable social costs to increase biodiversity by surface drainage under low land qualities are negative. For higher land qualities, these costs depend on the land quality and on the biodiversity impacts. Biodiversity conservation plans for agricultural landscapes should focus on supporting surface drainage systems in areas where the measurable social costs to increase biodiversity are negative or lowest. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of Sustainable Landscape Designs for Improved Biomass Production in the U.S. Corn Belt

Science.gov (United States)

Bonner, Ian J.

Demand for renewable and sustainable energy options has resulted in a significant commitment by the US Government to research pathways for fuel production from biomass. The research presented in this thesis describes one potential pathway to increase the amount of biomass available for biofuel production by integrating dedicated energy crops into agricultural fields. In the first chapter an innovative landscape design method based on subfield placement of an energy crop into row crop fields in central Iowa is used to reduce financial loss for farmers, increase and diversify biomass production, and improve soil resources. The second chapter explores how subfield management decisions may be made using high fidelity data and modeling to balance concerns of primary crop production and economics. This work provides critical forward looking support to agricultural land managers and stakeholders in the biomass and bioenergy industry for pathways to improving land stewardship and energy security.

Agricultural sustainability in the semi-arid Near East

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Hole

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Agriculture began in the eastern Mediterranean Levantine Corridor about 11000 years ago toward the end of the Younger Dryas when aridity had diminished wild food resources. During the subsequent Climatic Optimum, agricultural villages spread rapidly but subsequent climatic changes on centennial to millennial scales resulted in striking oscillations in settlement, especially in marginal areas. Natural climate change thus alternately enhanced and diminished the agricultural potential of the land. Growing populations and more intensive land us, both for agriculture and livestock, have led to changes in the structure of vegetation, hydrology, and land quality. Over the millennia, political and economic interventions, warfare and incursions by nomadic herding tribes all impacted sustainability of agriculture and the ability of the land to supports its populations. In much of the region today, agricultural land use is not sustainable given existing technology and national priorities. The Near Eastern case is instructive because of the quality of information, the length of the record, and the pace of modern change.

Development of Bioelectrochemical Systems to Promote Sustainable Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaojin Li

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Bioelectrochemical systems (BES are a newly emerged technology for energy-efficient water and wastewater treatment. Much effort as well as significant progress has been made in advancing this technology towards practical applications treating various types of waste. However, BES application for agriculture has not been well explored. Herein, studies of BES related to agriculture are reviewed and the potential applications of BES for promoting sustainable agriculture are discussed. BES may be applied to treat the waste/wastewater from agricultural production, minimizing contaminants, producing bioenergy, and recovering useful nutrients. BES can also be used to supply irrigation water via desalinating brackish water or producing reclaimed water from wastewater. The energy generated in BES can be used as a power source for wireless sensors monitoring the key parameters for agricultural activities. The importance of BES to sustainable agriculture should be recognized, and future development of this technology should identify proper application niches with technological advancement.

Farmers' Perception of Sustainable Agriculture in South- Western ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

KENNY

Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the existence of relationships between the ... Key words Sustainable practices, industrial agriculture, agricultural technology, rural economy. Introduction .... consumers. 4.19. 1.11.

Hedgerows Have a Barrier Effect and Channel Pollinator Movement in the Agricultural Landscape

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Klaus Felix

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Agricultural intensification and the subsequent fragmentation of semi-natural habitats severely restrict pollinator and pollen movement threatening both pollinator and plant species. Linear landscape elements such as hedgerows are planted for agricultural and conservation purposes to increase the resource availability and habitat connectivity supporting populations of beneficial organisms such as pollinators. However, hedgerows may have unexpected effects on plant and pollinator persistence by not just channeling pollinators and pollen along, but also restricting movement across the strip of habitat. Here, we tested how hedgerows influence pollinator movement and pollen flow. We used fluorescent dye particles as pollen analogues to track pollinator movement between potted cornflowers Centaurea cyanus along and across a hedgerow separating two meadows. The deposition of fluorescent dye was significantly higher along the hedgerow than across the hedgerow and into the meadow, despite comparable pollinator abundances. The differences in pollen transfer suggest that hedgerows can affect pollinator and pollen dispersal by channeling their movement and acting as a permeable barrier. We conclude that hedgerows in agricultural landscapes can increase the connectivity between otherwise isolated plant and pollinator populations (corridor function, but can have additional, and so far unknown barrier effects on pollination services. Functioning as a barrier, linear landscape elements can impede pollinator movement and dispersal, even for highly mobile species such as bees. These results should be considered in future management plans aiming to enhance the persistence of threatened pollinator and plant populations by restoring functional connectivity and to ensure sufficient crop pollination in the agricultural landscape.

Urban agriculture in Tanzania : issues of sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Foeken, D.W.J.

2004-01-01

This book, the result of a collaborative study carried out by researchers from Tanzania, Israel and the Netherlands, assesses the sustainability of urban agriculture in two medium-sized towns in Tanzania: Morogoro and Mbeya. It first gives an overview of urban agriculture in Tanzania and a

Nutrient removal by prairie filter strips in agricultural landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

X. Zhou; M.J. Helmers; H. Asbjornsen; R. Kolka; M.D. Tomer; R.M. Cruse

2014-01-01

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from agricultural landscapes have been identified as primary sources of excess nutrients in aquatic systems. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of prairie filter strips (PFS) in removing nutrients from cropland runoff in 12 small watersheds in central Iowa. Four treatments with PFS of different spatial...

Modelling sustainable bioenergy potentials from agriculture for Germany and Eastern European countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simon, Sonja; Wiegmann, Kirsten

2009-01-01

This paper presents a model for analyzing the sustainable potential of agricultural biomass for energy production. Available land and residue potentials are assessed up to 2030 for Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Two scenarios are presented: a ''business as usual'' scenario is compared to a sustainability scenario. The latter implements a comprehensive sustainability strategy, taking also into account non-agricultural land use such as building activity and nature conservation. On the one hand our model quantifies the conflict of objectives between enhanced extensification in agriculture and increased area for nature conservation. On the other hand the synergies in restricting built up area and increased mobilisation of agricultural residues are assessed. Additionally the impact of reduced subsidized agricultural exports from the EU is calculated, also as an indicator for the influence of world food markets on bioenergy potentials. Our results show that the sustainable energy potential from agricultural biomass is strongly restricted for Germany and the Czech Republic compared to their energy demand. But in Poland and Hungary native agricultural biomass provides a much higher potential for energy supply, even if sustainability is comprehensively considered. However, this is strongly influenced by the amount of agricultural exports of each country. For bioenergy from agricultural cultivation to remain a sustainable option in the energy sector, its influence on the food markets must be respected more thoroughly and a comprehensive approach to sustainable development in land use is a prerequisite. (author)

Characterisation of Agri-Landscape Systems at a Regional Level: A Case Study in Northern Tuscany

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariassunta Galli

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Preserving our landscape in sustainable development processes is now widely considered as fundamental. It is a complex and evolving issue that can be tackled from several perspectives. Agronomy can contribute to analyzing the relationships between agricultural production systems (cropping, farming and agricultural systems at different levels (field, farm, and region and the agricultural landscape (in terms of patches, matrixes, dynamics, etc. This is of particular interest where the relationships between “what and how” are produced by agricultural activities and the landscape are changing. In this case their own reciprocity may represent an opportunity to analyze complex systems, such as the characterization of agri-landscapes at a regional level. We propose a case study developed as an up-scaling analytical process from a farm to a regional level. The result was the identification of six main agri-landscape systems highlighting the landscape drivers that are changing the traditional landscape of a rural region in Northern Tuscany (Lunigiana.

New concept of aging care architecture landscape design based on sustainable development

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Ying

2017-05-01

As the aging problem becoming serious in China, Aging care is now one of the top issuer in front of all of us. Lots of private and public aging care architecture and facilities have been built. At present, we only pay attention to the architecture design and interior design scientific, ecological and sustainable design on aged care architecture landscape. Based on the social economy, population resources, mutual coordination and development of the environment, taking the elderly as the special group, this paper follows the principles of the sustainable development, conducts the comprehensive design planning of aged care landscape architecture and makes a deeper understanding and exploration through changing the form of architectural space, ecological landscape planting, new materials and technology, ecological energy utilization.

Re-wilding Europe's traditional agricultural landscapes: Values and the link between science and practice

Science.gov (United States)

Paul H. Gobster

2014-01-01

Landscape and Urban Planning encourages multiple perspectives and approaches to help understand landscapes as social-ecological systems, with the goal that by building a robust science of landscape we can provide sustainable solutions for guiding its change. But the link between science and practice, or more simply put, between knowledge and action, is not always clear...

Sustainable Agriculture Evaluation for Red Soil Hill Region of Southeast China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHAO Qi-Guo; XU Meng-Jie

2004-01-01

Agricultural sustainability for economic development is important and a complex issue throughout the world; however,it is difficult to synthetically evaluate its use in the policy making process. The objective of this study was to evaluate sustainable agriculture in the red soil hill region of Southeast China through a newly proposed method combining four separate sub-systems: regional population (P), resource (R), environmental (E), and socio-economic (S). This new index system was proposed to appraise synthetically the agricultural sustainability of the red soil hill region from 1988 to 1996 with a two-step method assessing: a) the agricultural sustainability in each province independently and b) the relative sustainability of each province to the whole region. The first step only provided a development trend for each province based on its original situation, while the second step provided additional information on the comparative status of each province in agricultural development to the region as a whole. Higher index scores were found for the economy and resource categories denoting improvement. However, lower scores in the environment category indicated the improvement was achieved at the cost of deteriorating ecological surroundings due to an increasing population that demanded more from the agro-ecosystem and put heavier pressures on it. Results also showed that water and soil losses in this region were the major obstacles encountered in sustainable agriculture development. The assessment results were verified when compared with results from another method. This suggested that the new assessment system was reliable and credible in evaluating agricultural sustainability on a regional scale.

Sustainable agriculture a challenge for soil microbiology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nubia Moreno Sarmiento

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Soils: a solid foundation for life, was the theme of the celebration of 2015, the General Assembly of the UN, decides to declare as the International Year of Soils, considering that these are the foundation of agricultural development, the essential functions of ecosystems and food security. It is therefore a key to sustaining life on Earth element. During that year several actions that contributed to the awareness of their problems and protection of soil resources were made. One was that FAO, reviewed and published in June 2015, the World Soil Charter (originally developed in 1982. The World Soil Charter of Revised, as a preamble quote: 1. Soils are essential for life on Earth, but pressures on soil resources are reaching critical limits. Careful soil management is an essential factor of sustainable agriculture and also provides a valuable tool to regulate climate and a way to safeguard ecosystem services and biodiversity spring. 2. In the final document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil in June 2012, "The future we want" economic and social importance of good management is recognized land, including land, particularly its contribution to economic growth, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, food security, poverty eradication, empowerment of women, measures to address climate change and increase water availability.

Pollinator interactions with yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis across urban, agricultural, and natural landscapes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Misha Leong

Full Text Available Pollinator-plant relationships are found to be particularly vulnerable to land use change. Yet despite extensive research in agricultural and natural systems, less attention has focused on these interactions in neighboring urban areas and its impact on pollination services. We investigated pollinator-plant interactions in a peri-urban landscape on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, where urban, agricultural, and natural land use types interface. We made standardized observations of floral visitation and measured seed set of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis, a common grassland invasive, to test the hypotheses that increasing urbanization decreases 1 rates of bee visitation, 2 viable seed set, and 3 the efficiency of pollination (relationship between bee visitation and seed set. We unexpectedly found that bee visitation was highest in urban and agricultural land use contexts, but in contrast, seed set rates in these human-altered landscapes were lower than in natural sites. An explanation for the discrepancy between floral visitation and seed set is that higher plant diversity in urban and agricultural areas, as a result of more introduced species, decreases pollinator efficiency. If these patterns are consistent across other plant species, the novel plant communities created in these managed landscapes and the generalist bee species that are favored by human-altered environments will reduce pollination services.

Landscape anthropogenic disturbance in the Mediterranean ecosystem: is the current landscape sustainable?

Science.gov (United States)

Biondi, Guido; D'Andrea, Mirko; Fiorucci, Paolo; Franciosi, Chiara; Lima, Marco

2013-04-01

Mediterranean landscape during the last centuries has been subject to strong anthropogenic disturbances who shifted natural vegetation cover in a cultural landscape. Most of the natural forest were destroyed in order to allow cultivation and grazing activities. In the last century, fast growing conifer plantations were introduced in order to increase timber production replacing slow growing natural forests. In addition, after the Second World War most of the grazing areas were changed in unmanaged mediterranean conifer forest frequently spread by fires. In the last decades radical socio economic changes lead to a dramatic abandonment of the cultural landscape. One of the most relevant result of these human disturbances, and in particular the replacement of deciduous forests with coniferous forests, has been the increasing in the number of forest fires, mainly human caused. The presence of conifers and shrubs, more prone to fire, triggered a feedback mechanism that makes difficult to return to the stage of potential vegetation causing huge economic, social and environmental damages. The aim of this work is to investigate the sustainability of the current landscape. A future landscape scenario has been simulated considering the natural succession in absence of human intervention assuming the current fire regime will be unaltered. To this end, a new model has been defined, implementing an ecological succession model coupled with a simply Forest Fire Model. The ecological succession model simulates the vegetation dynamics using a rule-based approach discrete in space and time. In this model Plant Functional Types (PFTs) are used to describe the landscape. Wildfires are randomly ignited on the landscape, and their propagation is simulated using a stochastic cellular automata model. The results show that the success of the natural succession toward a potential vegetation cover is prevented by the frequency of fire spreading. The actual landscape is then unsustainable

Sustainable agriculture: Developing a common understanding for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The concept of sustainability has become central to all sectors all over the world, from agriculture to environment to business, engineering and industrialization. The principle of sustainability is the same all over these sectors. However, the understanding of the term may vary from sector to sector depending on how it may be ...

Brownfields Recommendations for Sustainable Site Design — Green Landscape Plan

Science.gov (United States)

The assessment of conditions contained in this report focuses on site-specific environmental and soil conditions that might affect recommendations related to sustainable landscaping and site design, stormwater management, and stormwater reuse.

Sustainability of current agriculture practices, community perception, and implications for ecosystem health: an Indian study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarkar, Atanu; Patil, Shantagouda; Hugar, Lingappa B; vanLoon, Gary

2011-12-01

In order to support agribusiness and to attain food security for ever-increasing populations, most countries in the world have embraced modern agricultural technologies. Ecological consequences of the technocentric approaches, and their sustainability and impacts on human health have, however, not received adequate attention particularly in developing countries. India is one country that has undergone a rapid transformation in the field of agriculture by adopting strategies of the Green Revolution. This article provides a comparative analysis of the effects of older and newer paradigms of agricultural practices on ecosystem and human health within the larger context of sustainability. The study was conducted in three closely situated areas where different agricultural practices were followed: (a) the head-end of a modern canal-irrigated area, (b) an adjacent dryland, and (c) an area (the ancient area) that has been provided with irrigation for some 800 years. Data were collected by in-depth interviews of individual farmers, focus-group discussions, participatory observations, and from secondary sources. The dryland, receiving limited rainfall, continues to practice diverse cropping centered to a large extent on traditional coarse cereals and uses only small amounts of chemical inputs. On the other hand, modern agriculture in the head-end emphasizes continuous cropping of rice supported by extensive and indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. Market forces have, to a significant degree, influenced the ancient area to abandon much of its early practices of organic farming and to take up aspects of modern agricultural practice. Rice cultivation in the irrigated parts has changed the local landscape and vegetation and has augmented the mosquito population, which is a potential vector for malaria, Japanese encephalitis and other diseases. Nevertheless, despite these problems, perceptions of adverse environmental effects are lowest in the heavily irrigated area.

Sustainable intensification in agricultural systems

Science.gov (United States)

Pretty, Jules; Bharucha, Zareen Pervez

2014-01-01

Background Agricultural systems are amended ecosystems with a variety of properties. Modern agroecosystems have tended towards high through-flow systems, with energy supplied by fossil fuels directed out of the system (either deliberately for harvests or accidentally through side effects). In the coming decades, resource constraints over water, soil, biodiversity and land will affect agricultural systems. Sustainable agroecosystems are those tending to have a positive impact on natural, social and human capital, while unsustainable systems feed back to deplete these assets, leaving fewer for the future. Sustainable intensification (SI) is defined as a process or system where agricultural yields are increased without adverse environmental impact and without the conversion of additional non-agricultural land. The concept does not articulate or privilege any particular vision or method of agricultural production. Rather, it emphasizes ends rather than means, and does not pre-determine technologies, species mix or particular design components. The combination of the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘intensification’ is an attempt to indicate that desirable outcomes around both more food and improved environmental goods and services could be achieved by a variety of means. Nonetheless, it remains controversial to some. Scope and Conclusions This review analyses recent evidence of the impacts of SI in both developing and industrialized countries, and demonstrates that both yield and natural capital dividends can occur. The review begins with analysis of the emergence of combined agricultural–environmental systems, the environmental and social outcomes of recent agricultural revolutions, and analyses the challenges for food production this century as populations grow and consumption patterns change. Emergent criticisms are highlighted, and the positive impacts of SI on food outputs and renewable capital assets detailed. It concludes with observations on policies and

The behaviour of hoverfly larvae (Diptera, Syrphidae) lessens the effects of floral subsidy in agricultural landscapes

OpenAIRE

Laubertie, Elsa; Wratten, Steve; Magro, Alexandra; Hemptinne, Jean

2016-01-01

Modern agricultural landscapes favour crop pests: herbivores benefit from resource concentration and/or the absence of natural enemies in large areas of intensively farmed fields interspersed by small fragments of natural or non-crop habitats. Conservation biological control (CBC) aims at increasing the functional diversity of agricultural landscapes to make them more hospitable to natural enemies, and less to herbivores. Although natural enemies readily respond to this management, very few s...

Integrated analysis of the effects of agricultural management on nitrogen fluxes at landscape scale

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kros, J., E-mail: hans.kros@wur.nl [Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen (Netherlands); Frumau, K.F.A.; Hensen, A. [Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands, P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands); Vries, W. de [Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen (Netherlands); Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen (Netherlands)

2011-11-15

The integrated modelling system INITIATOR was applied to a landscape in the northern part of the Netherlands to assess current nitrogen fluxes to air and water and the impact of various agricultural measures on these fluxes, using spatially explicit input data on animal numbers, land use, agricultural management, meteorology and soil. Average model results on NH{sub 3} deposition and N concentrations in surface water appear to be comparable to observations, but the deviation can be large at local scale, despite the use of high resolution data. Evaluated measures include: air scrubbers reducing NH{sub 3} emissions from poultry and pig housing systems, low protein feeding, reduced fertilizer amounts and low-emission stables for cattle. Low protein feeding and restrictive fertilizer application had the largest effect on both N inputs and N losses, resulting in N deposition reductions on Natura 2000 sites of 10% and 12%, respectively. - Highlights: > We model nitrogen fluxes and the impact of agricultural measures in a rural landscape. > Average model results appear to be comparable to observations. > The measures low protein feeding and restrictive fertilizer application had the largest effect. - Effects of agricultural management on N losses to air and water are evaluated at landscape scale combining a model assessment and measurements.

A Landscape View of Agricultural Insecticide Use across the Conterminous US from 1997 through 2012.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy D Meehan

Full Text Available Simplification of agricultural landscapes is expected to have positive effects on many crop pests and negative effects on their natural enemies, potentially leading to increased pest pressure, decreased crop yield, and increased insecticide use. While many intermediate links in this causal chain have empirical support, there is mixed evidence for ultimate relationships between landscape simplification, crop yield, and insecticide use, especially at large spatial and temporal scales. We explored relationships between landscape simplification (proportion of a county in harvested cropland and insecticide use (proportion of harvested cropland treated with insecticides, using county-level data from the US Census of Agriculture and a variety of standard and spatiotemporal regression techniques. The best model indicated that insecticide use across the US has increased between 1997 and 2012, was strongly dependent on the crops grown in a county, increased with average farm income and size, and increased with annual growing degree days. After accounting for those variables, and other unidentified spatial and temporal structure in the data, there remained a statistically significant, moderate, positive relationship between insecticide use and landscape simplification. These results lend general support to the causal chain outlined above, and to the notion that a landscape perspective is useful for managing ecosystem services that are provided by mobile organisms and valuable to agriculture.

Green Agriculture - features and agricultural policy measures for the transition to a sustainable agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cornelia Nistor

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in each country or area, as it is in close correlation with all other the other economic activities, in a whole which must be structured so as to achieve a more efficient planning and organization of the territory. The practice of a traditional agriculture, based on industrialization, affects the natural environment through emissions of pollutants, waste and deforestation which together affects biodiversity. Green Agriculture suppose to empower managers to widespread the use of fertilizers, to improve the crop rotation, to realize a more efficient water consumption, to improve the storage methods and the supply chain of products. Agricultural policies are closely interrelated with environmental policies as agricultural activities have a considerable influence on the environment. The efficiency of agricultural policies is reflected in monetary transfers between agriculture and other economic sectors, in the costs due to the reallocation of the resources between different agricultural and non-agricultural activities and in the realized gains. Currently there is a constant concern of the governments for the transition to a green agriculture, and most countries recognize the importance of achieving sustainable economic development.

Cross-Cultural Understanding for Global Sustainability: Messages and Meanings from Asian Cultural Landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, R.

2013-11-01

Concept of 'multifunctionality' of cultural landscapes is a reflection of imbued meaning and aesthetics inherent there and also human manifestation of this spirit through existence and aliveness by human creation, love and continuance in various cultures and traditions. This sense helps envisioning landscapes that cross urban-rural divides in sustainable and an integrated way - characterised by wholeness and ecospirituality that developed in the cultural history of landscape sustainability. That is how, the idea of 'wholeness' (cosmality) is transformed into 'holiness' (sacrality) ― evolved and represented with sacred ecology and visualised through the cosmic frames of sacredscapes in Asian region that survived there as part of lifeworld. Understanding, feeling, living with, practicing and passing on these inherent meanings and aesthetics provide peace, solace and deeper feelings to human mind which are the ethereal breathe of sustainability. The rethinking should be based on the foundational value ― the reasoning that underlies the ethical sense of deeper understanding of Man-Nature Interrelatedness, the basic philosophy of coexistence ― referred in different cultures in their own ways, like multicultural co-living ('Old-comer') in Korea, harmonious coexistence (tabunka kyosei) in Japan, harmonious society (xiaokang) in China, wahi tapu (sacred places) in Maori's New Zealand, global family (vasudhaiva kutumbakam) in Indian thought, and also African humanism (ubuntu) in South Africa. Think universally, see globally, behave regionally, act locally but insightfully; this is an appeal for shared wisdom for global sustainability in making our cultural landscapes mosaic of happy, peaceful and sustainable places crossing all the borders and transitions, especially interwoven links among Korea, Japan, China, and India.

Sustainability of agricultural water use worldwide

Science.gov (United States)

Tuninetti, M.; Tamea, S.; Dalin, C.

2017-12-01

Water is a renewable but limited resource. Most human use of freshwater resources is for agriculture, and global water demand for agriculture is increasing because of the growth in food demand, driven by increasing population and changing diets. Hence, measuring the pressure exerted by agriculture on freshwater sources is a key issue. The sustainability of water use depends on the water source renewability rate: the water use is not sustainable (depleting the water storage) where/when it exceeds the renewable freshwater availability. In this study, we explore the sustainability of rain and irrigation water use for the production of nine major crops, globally at a 5'x5' spatial resolution. We split the crop water use into soil moisture (from rainfall) and irrigation, with, for the first time, separating ground- and surface-water sources, which is a key distinction because the renewability of these two water sources can be very different. In order to physically quantify the extent to which crop water use is sustainable, we measure the severity of the source depletion as the number of years required for the hydrological cycle to replenish the water resource used by the annual crop production, namely the Water Debt. This newly developed indicator allows one to compare the depletion level of the three water sources at a certain location for a specific crop. Hence, we mapped, for each crop, the number of years required to replenish the water withdrawn from soil-, surface- and ground-water resources. Each map identifies the hotspots for each water source, highlighting regions and crops that threaten most the water resource. We found that the water debt with soil moisture is heterogeneous in space but always lower than one year indicating a non-surprising sustainability of rain-fed agriculture. Rice and sugarcane make the largest contribution to global soil moisture depletion. Water debt in surface water is particularly high in areas of intense wheat and cotton production

Increasing corn for biofuel production reduces biocontrol services in agricultural landscapes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Landis, D.A.; Gardiner, M.M.; Werf, van der W.; Swinton, S.M.

2008-01-01

Increased demand for corn grain as an ethanol feedstock is altering U. S. agricultural landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide. From 2006 to 2007, corn acreage increased 19% nationally, resulting in reduced crop diversity in many areas. Biological control of insects is an ecosystem

Nectar production in oilseeds: Food for pollinators in an agricultural landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Pollinating insects are in decline throughout the world, driven by a combination of factors including the loss of forage resources. The corn- and soybean-dominated agriculture of the Central and Midwestern US produces a landscape relatively devoid of nectar and pollen resources. Introducing specialt...

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL AGRICULTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anda GHEORGHIU

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Agriculture today is a strategic point of a country's economy, providing food based on population, development of internal and external trade and manufacturing industries by supplying raw materials. For Romania, this branch is a strong point both in terms climatic (temperate, balanced relief, soil quality and at the same time is also a way of national development and convergence of rural areas to their full potential untapped. With strong reforms, well implemented, a specific legislative framework which aims to protecting private property, Romania could reduce the low efficiency and can have a sustainable agriculture. The paper aimed to present the advantages of consuming organic products, and, on the other hand, the advantages of a country in terms of organic farming. European agriculture is a competitive, market-oriented, but also protecting the environment model.

18 Prerequisite for Sustainable Agricultural Development in the Sub ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

2011-07-21

Jul 21, 2011 ... Keywords: Prerequisite, agricultural development, sustainable .... into many areas of policy and public provision, reducing subsidies and bringing ... indirectly influence agricultural prices is often far greater than the effects of.

Towards an integral approach to sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition : vision of the Scientific Council for Integral Sustainable Agriculture and Nutrition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weijden, van der W.J.; Huber, M.A.S.; Jetten, T.H.; Blom, P.; Egmond, Van N.D.; Lauwers, L.; Ommen, van B.; Vilsteren, van A.; Wijffels, H.H.F.; Zijpp, van der A.J.; Lammerts Van Bueren, E.

2012-01-01

Sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition are high on the social agenda. Work is now being done to face both challenges, often with measurable success. However, huge changes are still needed and some problems have even been exacerbated. Although agriculture and nutrition are closely linked, both

Impacts of Intensified Agriculture Developments on Marsh Wetlands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoqing Luan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A spatiotemporal analysis on the changes in the marsh landscape in the Honghe National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar reserve, and the surrounding farms in the core area of the Sanjiang Plain during the past 30 years was conducted by integrating field survey work with remote sensing techniques. The results indicated that intensified agricultural development had transformed a unique natural marsh landscape into an agricultural landscape during the past 30 years. Ninety percent of the natural marsh wetlands have been lost, and the areas of the other natural landscapes have decreased very rapidly. Most dry farmland had been replaced by paddy fields during the progressive change of the natural landscape to a farm landscape. Attempts of current Chinese institutions in preserving natural wetlands have achieved limited success. Few marsh wetlands have remained healthy, even after the establishment of the nature reserve. Their ecological qualities have been declining in response to the increasing threats to the remaining wetland habitats. Irrigation projects play a key role in such threats. Therefore, the sustainability of the natural wetland ecosystems is being threatened by increased regional agricultural development which reduced the number of wetland ecotypes and damaged the ecological quality.

Sustainable Land-use Evaluation on Steep Landscapes and Flood

African Journals Online (AJOL)

processes of mountain ecosystems (Buttle et al, 2000). They minimise ... Conscious of the critical roles played by vegetation ecosystems on steep landscapes· and ... gco-informalion technology in the analysis of sustainable land and cm·ironmenlal .... surface and uncertainty of the predicted values to be calculated. This is.

College Students' View of Biotechnology Products and Practices in Sustainable Agriculture Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, William A.

2008-01-01

Sustainable agriculture implies the use of products and practices that sustain production, protect the environment, ensure economic viability, and maintain rural community viability. Disagreement exists as to whether or not the products and practices of modern biotechnological support agricultural sustainability. The purpose of this study was to…

Do Smallholder, Mixed Crop-Livestock Livelihoods Encourage Sustainable Agricultural Practices? A Meta-Analysis

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Thomas K. Rudel

2016-02-01

Full Text Available As calls for bolstering ecosystem services from croplands have grown more insistent during the past two decades, the search for ways to foster these agriculture-sustaining services has become more urgent. In this context we examine by means of a meta-analysis the argument, proposed by Robert McC. Netting, that small-scale, mixed crop-livestock farming, a common livelihood among poor rural peoples, leads to environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. As predicted, mixed crop-livestock farms exhibit more sustainable practices, but, contrary to predictions, a small scale of operation does not predict sustainability. Many smallholders on mixed crop-livestock farms use sustainable practices, but other smallholders practice a degrading, input-scarce agriculture. Some large farm operators use soil-conserving, minimum-tillage techniques while other large operators ignore soil-conserving techniques and practice an industrialized, high chemical input agriculture. The strength and pervasiveness of the link in the data between mixed crop-livestock farming and sustainable agricultural practices argues for agricultural policies that promote mixed crop-livestock livelihoods.

Knowledge production and learning for sustainable landscapes: seven steps using social-ecological systems as laboratories.

Science.gov (United States)

Angelstam, Per; Elbakidze, Marine; Axelsson, Robert; Dixelius, Malcolm; Törnblom, Johan

2013-03-01

There are multiple challenges regarding use and governance of landscapes' goods, functions and intangible values for ecosystem health and human well-being. One group of challenges is to measure and assess principal sustainability dimensions through performance targets, so stakeholders have transparent information about states and trends. Another group is to develop adaptive governance at multiple levels, and management of larger geographical areas across scales. Addressing these challenges, we present a framework for transdisciplinary research using multiple landscapes as place-based case studies that integrates multiple research disciplines and non-academic actors: (1) identify a suite of landscapes, and for each (2) review landscape history, (3) map stakeholders, use and non-use values, products and land use, (4) analyze institutions, policies and the system of governance, (5) measure ecological, economic, social and cultural sustainability, (6) assess sustainability dimensions and governance, and finally (7) make comparisons and synthesize. Collaboration, communication and dissemination are additional core features. We discuss barriers bridges and bridges for applying this approach.

Innovative Financial Approach for Agricultural Sustainability: A Case Study of Alibaba

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qi Zhou

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Sustainability and agricultural finance are two important issues attracting attention from industry and academia. This research adopts an in-depth case study methodology to investigate the agricultural finance initiatives of Alibaba Group, and explores how the agricultural finance practices of an e-commerce platform facilitate its sustainability goal. A reference framework is proposed to prove the adoption of agricultural finance. The influence of three moderating variables, namely, IT support, financial attractiveness, and cooperation with other entities, is analyzed. We find that advanced IT support and financial attractiveness are two indispensable enablers for agricultural finance initiatives, and collaboration with other entities is necessary in adopting agricultural supply chain finance.

Room for Sustainable Agriculture. Part 1 Advice. Part 2 Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-03-15

An outline is given of the social dilemmas associated with agriculture and horticulture in the Netherlands. Ongoing innovation and accelerated sustainable development are essential to resolve these dilemmas. Given the importance of the Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector, there is every reason for the central government to play its part and help remove the obstacles to the continuing sustainable development of the sector. The Council recommends that the central government continues developing the Council's vision for agriculture and horticulture with the parties concerned, allows scope for the development of different agricultural business models, applies knowledge and innovation as drivers of continuing sustainable development, amends laws and regulations as necessary, and facilitates a permanent dialogue between the sector and society. The advisory report also sets out the Council's vision concerning the political and public debate on agriculture and horticulture. This debate is most clearly characterised by major and seemingly insurmountable differences of opinion. The Council hopes that its report will induce a shift in thinking about Dutch agriculture among politicians and society at large, so that the transitions considered necessary by the Council can be implemented more rapidly.

Room for Sustainable Agriculture. Part 1 Advice. Part 2 Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-03-15

An outline is given of the social dilemmas associated with agriculture and horticulture in the Netherlands. Ongoing innovation and accelerated sustainable development are essential to resolve these dilemmas. Given the importance of the Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector, there is every reason for the central government to play its part and help remove the obstacles to the continuing sustainable development of the sector. The Council recommends that the central government continues developing the Council's vision for agriculture and horticulture with the parties concerned, allows scope for the development of different agricultural business models, applies knowledge and innovation as drivers of continuing sustainable development, amends laws and regulations as necessary, and facilitates a permanent dialogue between the sector and society. The advisory report also sets out the Council's vision concerning the political and public debate on agriculture and horticulture. This debate is most clearly characterised by major and seemingly insurmountable differences of opinion. The Council hopes that its report will induce a shift in thinking about Dutch agriculture among politicians and society at large, so that the transitions considered necessary by the Council can be implemented more rapidly.

Towards Conservation Agriculture systems in Moldova

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boris Boincean

2016-10-01

Full Text Available As the world population and food production demands rise, keeping agricultural soils and landscapes healthy and productive are of paramount importance to sustaining local and global food security and the flow of ecosystem services to society. The global population, expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, will put additional pressure on the available land area and resources for agricultural production. Sustainable production intensification for food security is a major challenge to both industrialized and developing countries. The paper focuses on the results from long-term multi-factorial experiments involving tillage practices, crop rotations and fertilization to study the interactions amongst the treatments in the context of sustainable production intensification. The paper discusses the results in relation to reported performance of crops and soil quality in Conservation Agriculture systems that are based on no or minimum soil disturbance (no-till seeding and weeding, maintenance of soil mulch cover with crop biomass and cover crops, and diversified cropping s involving annuals and perennials. Conservation Agriculture also emphasizes the necessity of an agro-ecosystems approach to the management of agricultural land for sustainable production intensification, as well as to the site-specificity of agricultural production. Arguments in favor of avoiding the use of soil tillage are discussed together with agro-ecological principles for sustainable intensification of agriculture. More interdisciplinary systems research is required to support the transformation of agriculture from the conventional tillage agriculture to a more sustainable agriculture based on the principles and practices of Conservation Agriculture, along with other complementary practices of integrated crop, nutrient, water, pest, energy and farm power management.

Seeds of Knowledge: The Evolution of the Louis Bromfield Sustainable Agriculture Library.

Science.gov (United States)

Miraglia, Laurie L.

The Louis Bromfield Sustainable Agriculture Library is located in Lucas, Ohio, at Malabar Farm State Park. Established in 1992, the library is jointly maintained by the Ohio State University Sustainable Agriculture Program and the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The library's namesake, Louis Bromfield, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and noted…

Nanotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Ram; Bhattacharyya, Atanu; Nguyen, Quang D.

2017-01-01

Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture. PMID:28676790

Nanotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ram Prasad

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture.

Assessing habitat quality of farm-dwelling house sparrows in different agricultural landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

von Post, Maria; Borgström, Pernilla; Smith, Henrik G; Olsson, Ola

2012-04-01

Having historically been abundant throughout Europe, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) has in recent decades suffered severe population declines in many urban and rural areas. The decline in rural environments is believed to be caused by agricultural intensification, which has resulted in landscape simplification. We used giving-up densities (GUDs) of house sparrows feeding in artificial food patches placed in farmlands of southern Sweden to determine habitat quality during the breeding season at two different spatial scales: the landscape and the patch scale. At the landscape scale, GUDs were lower on farms in homogeneous landscapes dominated by crop production compared to more heterogeneous landscapes with mixed farming or animal husbandry. At the patch level, feeding patches with a higher predation risk (caused by fitting a wall to the patch to obstruct vigilance) had higher GUDs. In addition, GUDs were positively related to population size, which strongly implies that GUDs reflect habitat quality. However, the increase followed different patterns in homogeneous and heterogeneous landscapes, indicating differing population limiting mechanisms in these two environments. We found no effect of the interaction between patch type and landscape type, suggesting that predation risk was similar in both landscape types. Thus, our study suggests that simplified landscapes constitute a poorer feeding environment for house sparrows during breeding, that the population-regulating mechanisms in the landscapes differ, but that predation risk is the same across the landscape types.

Sustainability of Indian Agriculture: Towards An Assessment

OpenAIRE

V M Rao

2008-01-01

This paper presents a systemic framework to look at the prospects for sustainability of Indian agriculture. The framework is based on trends, indicators and assessment by experts spanning three domains which are the principal influences shaping the growth, efficiency and stability of agriculture. The domains are: natural resources covering land, water, climate and environment; human development comprising the characteristics of farmers as producers and entrepreneurs; and, technology and insti...

Water, Forests, People: The Swedish Experience in Building Resilient Landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Mats; Samuelson, Lotta; Jägrud, Linnéa; Mattsson, Eskil; Celander, Thorsten; Malmer, Anders; Bengtsson, Klas; Johansson, Olof; Schaaf, Nicolai; Svending, Ola; Tengberg, Anna

2018-05-21

A growing world population and rapid expansion of cities increase the pressure on basic resources such as water, food and energy. To safeguard the provision of these resources, restoration and sustainable management of landscapes is pivotal, including sustainable forest and water management. Sustainable forest management includes forest conservation, restoration, forestry and agroforestry practices. Interlinkages between forests and water are fundamental to moderate water budgets, stabilize runoff, reduce erosion and improve biodiversity and water quality. Sweden has gained substantial experience in sustainable forest management in the past century. Through significant restoration efforts, a largely depleted Swedish forest has transformed into a well-managed production forest within a century, leading to sustainable economic growth through the provision of forest products. More recently, ecosystem services are also included in management decisions. Such a transformation depends on broad stakeholder dialog, combined with an enabling institutional and policy environment. Based on seminars and workshops with a wide range of key stakeholders managing Sweden's forests and waters, this article draws lessons from the history of forest management in Sweden. These lessons are particularly relevant for countries in the Global South that currently experience similar challenges in forest and landscape management. The authors argue that an integrated landscape approach involving a broad array of sectors and stakeholders is needed to achieve sustainable forest and water management. Sustainable landscape management-integrating water, agriculture and forests-is imperative to achieving resilient socio-economic systems and landscapes.

Actionable knowledge for ecological intensification of agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geertsema, W.; Rossing, W.A.H.; Landis, D.A.; Bianchi, F.J.J.A.; van Rijn, P.C.J.; Schaminée, J.H.J.; Tscharntke, T.; van der Werf, W.

2016-01-01

Ecological intensification of agriculture (EI) aims to conserve and promote biodiversity and the sustainable use of associated ecosystem services to support resource-efficient production. In many cases EI requires fundamental changes in farm and landscape management as well as the organizations and

The Importance of Edible Landscape in the Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filiz Çelik

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The 21st century sustainable city requires the merging of urbanism with sustainable food systems. The challenges industrial food system separates people from their food sources. The design strategies for edible landscape are about re-inviting food back into the city and re-connecting people with their local/regional food system to promote a healthier lifestyle. Edible landscapes are a movement in transition and sprouting up as a response to the slow food movement and living a greener lifestyle. These urban agricultural landscapes are fast becoming iconic media darlings and are demonstrating that they are far more than growing vegetables and fruits on abandoned lots. Edible landscaping is the use of food plants as design features in a landscape. These plants are used both for aesthetic value as well as consumption. Edible landscapes encompass a variety of garden types and scales but do not include food items produced for sale. Edible landscaping is the practical integration of food plants within an ornamental or decorative setting. Using edibles in landscape design can enhance a garden by providing a unique ornamental component with additional health, aesthetic, and economic benefits. In this study; emergence of edible landscape, edible landscape design and maintenance, samples of edible landscape, productive plants, importance of edible landscaping for urban environments have been explained.

Developing Sustainable Agromining Systems in Agricultural Ultramafic Soils for Nickel Recovery

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Petra Susan Kidd

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Ultramafic soils are typically enriched in nickel (Ni, chromium (Cr, and cobalt (Co and deficient in essential nutrients, making them unattractive for traditional agriculture. Implementing agromining systems in ultramafic agricultural soils represent an ecological option for the sustainable management and re-valorisation of these low-productivity landscapes. These novel agroecosystems cultivate Ni-hyperaccumulating plants which are able to bioaccumulate this metal in their aerial plant parts; harvested biomass can be incinerated to produce Ni-enriched ash or “bio-ore” from which Ni metal, Ni ecocatalysts or pure Ni salts can be recovered. Nickel hyperaccumulation has been documented in ~450 species, and in temperate latitudes these mainly belong to the family Brassicaceae and particularly to the genus Odontarrhena (syn. Alyssum pro parte. Agromining allows for sustainable metal recovery without causing the environmental impacts associated with conventional mining activities, and at the same time, can improve soil fertility and quality and provide essential ecosystem services. Parallel reductions in Ni phytotoxicity over time would also permit cultivation of conventional agricultural crops. Field studies in Europe have been restricted to Mediterranean areas and these only evaluated the Ni-hyperaccumulator Odontarrhena muralis s.l. Two recent EU projects (Agronickel and LIFE-Agromine have established a network of agromining field sites in ultramafic regions with different edapho-climatic characteristics across Albania, Austria, Greece and Spain. Soil and crop management practices are being developed so as to optimize the Ni agromining process; field studies are evaluating the potential benefits of fertilization regimes, crop selection and cropping patterns, and bioaugmentation with plant-associated microorganisms. Hydrometallurgical processes are being up-scaled to produce nickel compounds and energy from hyperaccumulator biomass. Exploratory

Environment, agriculture, and settlement patterns in a marginal Polynesian landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Kirch, P.V.; Hartshorn, A.S.; Chadwick, O.A.; Vitousek, P.M.; Sherrod, D.R.; Coil, J.; Holm, L.; Sharp, W.D.

2004-01-01

Beginning ca. A.D. 1400, Polynesian farmers established permanent settlements along the arid southern flank of Haleakala Volcano, Maui, Hawaiian Islands; peak population density (43-57 persons per km2) was achieved by A.D. 1700-1800, and it was followed by the devastating effects of European contact. This settlement, based on dryland agriculture with sweet potato as a main crop, is represented by >3,000 archaeological features investigated to date. Geological and environmental factors are the most important influence on Polynesian farming and settlement practices in an agriculturally marginal landscape. Interactions between lava flows, whose ages range from 3,000 to 226,000 years, and differences in rainfall create an environmental mosaic that constrained precontact Polynesian farming practices to a zone defined by aridity at low elevation and depleted soil nutrients at high elevation. Within this productive zone, however, large-scale agriculture was concentrated on older, tephra-blanketed lava flows; younger flows were reserved for residential sites, small ritual gardens, and agricultural temples.

Sustainable agriculture and protection of the environment

Science.gov (United States)

Siemianowska, Ewa; Wesołowski, Andrzej; Skibniewska, Krystyna A.; Tyburski, Józef; Gurzyński, Marcin

2017-10-01

The economic, environmental and social development should not degrade the environment but it should leave it for the next generations in the state that it is presently or even better. The principle of sustainable agriculture is to cover the human needs for food without damage to the environment. The aim of the article was to research the farmers' awareness of the principle of sustainable agriculture and balanced fertilization and their influence on the environment. Among 100 farmers of the Tczew district (Poland) there was done questionnaire research on the determination rates of nitrogen fertilizers and on the regulation of fertilizers usage in Poland. Most of farmers declared a good knowledge of good agricultural practices and of balanced fertilization and the awareness of threats issuing from their activities. At the same time in Poland since the announcement of the Nitrate Directive of the former European Common Market (1992) up till now (2013) the application of nitrogen fertilizers doubled and the yield of wheat increased only by 15%, which means the increase of environmental burden with this chemical element.

Sustainable agriculture and protection of the environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Siemianowska Ewa

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The economic, environmental and social development should not degrade the environment but it should leave it for the next generations in the state that it is presently or even better. The principle of sustainable agriculture is to cover the human needs for food without damage to the environment. The aim of the article was to research the farmers’ awareness of the principle of sustainable agriculture and balanced fertilization and their influence on the environment. Among 100 farmers of the Tczew district (Poland there was done questionnaire research on the determination rates of nitrogen fertilizers and on the regulation of fertilizers usage in Poland. Most of farmers declared a good knowledge of good agricultural practices and of balanced fertilization and the awareness of threats issuing from their activities. At the same time in Poland since the announcement of the Nitrate Directive of the former European Common Market (1992 up till now (2013 the application of nitrogen fertilizers doubled and the yield of wheat increased only by 15%, which means the increase of environmental burden with this chemical element.

Contribution of nuclear techniques towards a sustainable agriculture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muniz Ugarte, O.

1997-01-01

The papers mentions the main nuclear techniques applied in order to achieve a sustainable agriculture, the technical support given to Cuba by the IAEA mainly in training and in the creation of a infrastructure (Laboratories) to enable the application of nuclear techniques to agricultural research related to soil fertility, plant nutrition and water usage

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE New practices bring lasting food ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2010-11-16

Nov 16, 2010 ... Since 1970, IDRC-supported research has introduced sustainable agricultural practices to farmers and communities across the developing world. The result: higher productivity, less poverty, greater food security, and a healthier environment.

Empowering Women in Agricultural Education for Sustainable Rural Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Ugbomeh, George M. M.

2001-01-01

Discusses the concepts of agricultural education, women empowerment, and sustainable rural development. Suggests that, because women make up more than half of Nigeria's population, their empowerment would assist the efforts for sustainable rural development. (Contains 48 references.) (JOW)

Habitat connectivity and fragmented nuthatch populations in agricultural landscapes

OpenAIRE

Langevelde, van, F.

1999-01-01

In agricultural landscapes, the habitat of many species is subject to fragmentation. When the habitat of a species is fragmented and the distances between patches of habitat are large relative to the movement distances of the species, it can be expected that the degree of habitat connectivity affects processes at population and individual level. In this thesis, I report on a study of effects of habitat fragmentation and opportunities to mitigate these effects by planning ecological n...

Changes in forest landscape due to agricultural activities and their influence on natural ecosystems: the eastern Galician mountains

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diaz-Maroto I.J.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Forest and agricultural landscapes are vital in relation to biodiversity. Protection policies in such areas should include incentives to enable the common landuse practices. Conservation cannot be addressed in the short term because these landscapes have evolved as socio-ecological systems and provide optimal conditions for biodiversity maintenance. They occur in areas where agriculture has not changed significantly as in the eastern Galician mountains. The landscape dynamics has been shaped by human involvement during centuries. We analyzed how the landscape has evolved according to environmental, socioeconomic and historical changes with the aim of proposing actions for its conservation. The study focused on the recovery of natural hardwood forests which have been intensively exploited since ancient times. Over the past few centuries, these forests have been transformed to agricultural land, felled for use in the naval, metallurgical and railway industries, expropriated from the Church, and affected by wildfire; more recently, have been replaced by fast growing species. Today, broadleaved forests cover small areas of rugged land where the topography often precludes other land uses. In conclusion, although the landscape in the study area has undergone a major transformation, now this land is a priority for biodiversity conservation.

Promoting biodiversity values of small forest patches in agricultural landscapes: Ecological drivers and social demand.

Science.gov (United States)

Varela, Elsa; Verheyen, Kris; Valdés, Alicia; Soliño, Mario; Jacobsen, Jette B; De Smedt, Pallieter; Ehrmann, Steffen; Gärtner, Stefanie; Górriz, Elena; Decocq, Guillaume

2018-04-01

Small forest patches embedded in agricultural (and peri-urban) landscapes in Western Europe play a key role for biodiversity conservation with a recognized capacity of delivering a wide suite of ecosystem services. Measures aimed to preserve these patches should be both socially desirable and ecologically effective. This study presents a joint ecologic and economic assessment conducted on small forest patches in Flanders (Belgium) and Picardie (N France). In each study region, two contrasted types of agricultural landscapes were selected. Open field (OF) and Bocage (B) landscapes are distinguished by the intensity of their usage and higher connectivity in the B landscapes. The social demand for enhancing biodiversity and forest structure diversity as well as for increasing the forest area at the expenses of agricultural land is estimated through an economic valuation survey. These results are compared with the outcomes of an ecological survey where the influence of structural features of the forest patches on the associated herbaceous diversity is assessed. The ecological and economic surveys show contrasting results; increasing tree species richness is ecologically more important for herbaceous diversity in the patch, but both tree species richness and herbaceous diversity obtain insignificant willingness to pay estimates. Furthermore, although respondents prefer the proposed changes to take place in the region where they live, we find out that social preferences and ecological effectiveness do differ between landscapes that represent different intensities of land use. Dwellers where the landscape is perceived as more "degraded" attach more value to diversity enhancement, suggesting a prioritization of initiatives in these area. In contrast, the ecological analyses show that prioritizing the protection and enhancement of the relatively better-off areas is more ecologically effective. Our study calls for a balance between ecological effectiveness and welfare

Effects of farm heterogeneity and methods for upscaling on modelled nitrogen losses in agricultural landscapes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalgaard, T.; Hutchings, N.; Dragosits, U.; Olesen, J.E.; Kjeldsen, C.; Drouet, J.L.; Cellier, P.

2011-01-01

The aim of this study is to illustrate the importance of farm scale heterogeneity on nitrogen (N) losses in agricultural landscapes. Results are exemplified with a chain of N models calculating farm-N balances and distributing the N-surplus to N-losses (volatilisation, denitrification, leaching) and soil-N accumulation/release in a Danish landscape. Possible non-linearities in upscaling are assessed by comparing average model results based on (i) individual farm level calculations and (ii) averaged inputs at landscape level. Effects of the non-linearities that appear when scaling up from farm to landscape are demonstrated. Especially in relation to ammonia losses the non-linearity between livestock density and N-loss is significant (p > 0.999), with around 20-30% difference compared to a scaling procedure not taking this non-linearity into account. A significant effect of farm type on soil N accumulation (p > 0.95) was also identified and needs to be included when modelling landscape level N-fluxes and greenhouse gas emissions. - Highlights: → Farm-N balances and the distribution on types of N-losses are modelled for 56 farms. → Farm type significantly affects N-losses and soil-N accumulation. → A non-linear relation between livestock density and ammonia loss is identified. → Approaches for upscaling from farm to landscape level are discussed. → Accounting farm heterogeneity is important when upscaling N-losses. - This study illustrates the importance of including non-linear effects of farm and landscape heterogeneity on the modelling and upscaling of farm nitrogen losses and greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural landscapes.

Effects of farm heterogeneity and methods for upscaling on modelled nitrogen losses in agricultural landscapes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dalgaard, T., E-mail: tommy.dalgaard@agrsci.dk [Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Blichers Alle 20, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele (Denmark); Hutchings, N. [Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Blichers Alle 20, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele (Denmark); Dragosits, U. [CEH Edinburgh, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, Scotland (United Kingdom); Olesen, J.E.; Kjeldsen, C. [Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Blichers Alle 20, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele (Denmark); Drouet, J.L.; Cellier, P. [INRA, UMR Environnement et Grandes Cultures, BP 01, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon (France)

2011-11-15

The aim of this study is to illustrate the importance of farm scale heterogeneity on nitrogen (N) losses in agricultural landscapes. Results are exemplified with a chain of N models calculating farm-N balances and distributing the N-surplus to N-losses (volatilisation, denitrification, leaching) and soil-N accumulation/release in a Danish landscape. Possible non-linearities in upscaling are assessed by comparing average model results based on (i) individual farm level calculations and (ii) averaged inputs at landscape level. Effects of the non-linearities that appear when scaling up from farm to landscape are demonstrated. Especially in relation to ammonia losses the non-linearity between livestock density and N-loss is significant (p > 0.999), with around 20-30% difference compared to a scaling procedure not taking this non-linearity into account. A significant effect of farm type on soil N accumulation (p > 0.95) was also identified and needs to be included when modelling landscape level N-fluxes and greenhouse gas emissions. - Highlights: > Farm-N balances and the distribution on types of N-losses are modelled for 56 farms. > Farm type significantly affects N-losses and soil-N accumulation. > A non-linear relation between livestock density and ammonia loss is identified. > Approaches for upscaling from farm to landscape level are discussed. > Accounting farm heterogeneity is important when upscaling N-losses. - This study illustrates the importance of including non-linear effects of farm and landscape heterogeneity on the modelling and upscaling of farm nitrogen losses and greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural landscapes.

Sustainable commercialization of new crops for the agricultural bioeconomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N.R. Jordan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Diversification of agroecological systems to enhance agrobiodiversity is likely to be critical to advancing environmental, economic, and social sustainability of agriculture. Temperate-zone agroecological systems that are currently organized for production of summer-annual crops can be diversified by integration of fallow-season and perennial crops. Integration of such crops can improve sustainability of these agroecological systems, with minimal interference with current agricultural production. Importantly, these crops can provide feedstocks for a wide range of new bio-products that are forming a new agricultural bioeconomy, potentially providing greatly increased economic incentives for diversification. However, while there are many fallow-season and perennial crops that might be used in such a “bioeconomic” strategy for diversification, most are not yet well adapted and highly-marketable. Efforts are underway to enhance adaptation and marketability of many such crops. Critically, these efforts require a strategic approach that addresses the inherent complexity of these projects. We outline a suitable approach, which we term “sustainable commercialization”: a coordinated innovation process that integrates a new crop into the agriculture of a region, while intentionally addressing economic, environmental and social sustainability challenges via multi-stakeholder governance. This approach centers on a concerted effort to coordinate and govern innovation in three critical areas: germplasm development, multifunctional agroecosystem design and management, and development of end uses, supply chains, and markets. To exemplify the approach, we describe an ongoing effort to commercialize a new fallow-season crop, field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L..

Transition to Sustainable Fertilisation in Agriculture, A Practices Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huttunen, Suvi; Oosterveer, Peter

2017-01-01

It is argued that sustainability transition in agriculture requires a shift from a regime oriented towards increasing agricultural productivity to a regime in which the environmental and social effects of production are regarded as central. Practice theories represent an emerging perspective on

Pedo-environmental evolution and agricultural landscape transformation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilmo Vianello

different ecosystems are now “imposed” through investments and the use of considerable energy resources, where little account is taken of the actual sustainability of soil use or the progressive loss of natural fertility; moreover, the rural landscape, by virtue of an increasingly intense and localised single-crop specialisation, has become organised into areas displaying a uniform, regular and often monotonous appearance. However, the greatest source of worry lies in the progressive consumption of soil, which particularly affects flatlands and low hills. This phenomenon is tied not only to the relentless expansion of developed areas, but also to an irrational distribution of residential, industrial and commercial property, resulting in the segmentation and fragmentation of farmland. An irreversible trend that risks destroying the already fragile identity of the rural landscape completely.

Pedo-environmental evolution and agricultural landscape transformation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilmo Vianello

2009-10-01

different ecosystems are now “imposed” through investments and the use of considerable energy resources, where little account is taken of the actual sustainability of soil use or the progressive loss of natural fertility; moreover, the rural landscape, by virtue of an increasingly intense and localised single-crop specialisation, has become organised into areas displaying a uniform, regular and often monotonous appearance. However, the greatest source of worry lies in the progressive consumption of soil, which particularly affects flatlands and low hills. This phenomenon is tied not only to the relentless expansion of developed areas, but also to an irrational distribution of residential, industrial and commercial property, resulting in the segmentation and fragmentation of farmland. An irreversible trend that risks destroying the already fragile identity of the rural landscape completely.

Carbon dioxide exchange over agricultural landscape using eddy correlation and footprint modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søgaard, H.; Jensen, N.O.; Bøgh, E.

2003-01-01

Within an agricultural landscape of western Denmark, the carbon dioxide exchange was studied throughout a year (April 1998-March 1999). During the growing season, five eddy correlation systems were operated in parallel over some of the more important crops (winter wheat, winter barley, spring...

Agricultural policy and sustainable livestock development.

Science.gov (United States)

Schillhorn van Veen, T W

1999-01-01

Future agricultural and rural development is, to a large extent, influenced by the projected food needs of 2.5 billion people expected to swell the world population by 2020. This increase will require more food in general and, in view of recent experience in East Asia, more animal products. To achieve this increase will require judicious use of resources, and trade, especially in those countries where natural resources are insufficient to support food production. Achieving food sufficiency in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for farmers, agro-industries, researchers and governments. The latter play an important role as many of the farmers' choices are, to a large extent, directed by government or supra-government, often through macro- and micro-economic policy. In many countries the economic, environmental, trade and agricultural policies have not been conducive to an agricultural development that is risk-free with respect to the environment, animal welfare or public health. The recent decline of government support in agriculture forced farmers in Western countries to think about more risk adverse agricultural practices and more efficient production systems. On the other hand, many countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as other developing countries, are still going through a painful process of adjustment to new market conditions. International banks and development agencies have a mandate to help developing countries, but are somewhat restricted both by needing to work directly with governments and by their perceived dogmatic approach to development. Changing policies do, now and in the future, also affect the development of animal disease control programmes, including the control of parasitic diseases. On the one hand there is an increasing interest in risk-free control practices, and on the other hand a demand for greater regulatory control over the production process. As parasitic diseases of animals are closely linked to the

Sustainable Agriculture: enhancing the 'neem cake'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mariani, Susanna

2015-01-01

The 'neem cake' is the scrap processing of the industrial chain producing neem oil and azadirachtin. The ENEA Technical Unit Environment and Sustainable Development Innovation the Agro-Industrial System, developed a promising experiment to promote the use of 'neem cake' as an insecticide, and fertilizer of low cost in sustainable agriculture. [it

The footprint of marginal agriculture in the Mediterranean mountain landscape: An analysis of the Central Spanish Pyrenees.

Science.gov (United States)

Lasanta, T; Nadal-Romero, E; Errea, M P

2017-12-01

Agriculture forms an essential part of the mountains of the Mediterranean. For centuries, large areas were cultivated to feed the local population, with highly marginal slopes being tilled at times of heavy demographic pressure, using the shifting agriculture system. A great deal of agricultural land was abandoned during the 20th century, giving rise to secondary succession processes that tend to eliminate the agricultural footprint. However, revegetation is a highly complex process leading to areas with dense, well-structured plant cover, and other open areas of scrubland. This article studies the role of traditional agriculture in the deterioration of the landscape. By using experimental plots in the Central Pyrenees to reproduce traditional agriculture and abandonment, maps of field types, and current uses and ground cover, it could be confirmed that shifting agriculture has caused very heavy soil loss, which explains the deterioration of the landscape on several slopes. Burning scrub and adding the ash to the soil as a fertilizer did not greatly help to improve soil quality, but caused high rates of erosion and a very slow process of regrowth. The average data obtained from the shifting experimental plots recorded losses of 1356kgha -1 years -1 , 1.6 times more than the plot of fertilized cereal, and 8.2 times more than the dense scrub plot. Following abandonment, losses in the shifting agriculture plot were almost three times higher than the abandoned sloping field plot. Traditional shifting agriculture in the Pyrenees is the main cause of the deterioration of the landscape 50-70years after agriculture ceased. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Elimination Method of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA: A Simple Methodological Approach for Assessing Agricultural Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byomkesh Talukder

2017-02-01

Full Text Available In the present world context, there is a need to assess the sustainability of agricultural systems. Various methods have been proposed to assess agricultural sustainability. Like in many other fields, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA has recently been used as a methodological approach for the assessment of agricultural sustainability. In this paper, an attempt is made to apply Elimination, a MCDA method, to an agricultural sustainability assessment, and to investigate its benefits and drawbacks. This article starts by explaining the importance of agricultural sustainability. Common MCDA types are discussed, with a description of the state-of-the-art method for incorporating multi-criteria and reference values for agricultural sustainability assessment. Then, a generic description of the Elimination Method is provided, and its modeling approach is applied to a case study in coastal Bangladesh. An assessment of the results is provided, and the issues that need consideration before applying Elimination to agricultural sustainability, are examined. Whilst having some limitations, the case study shows that it is applicable for agricultural sustainability assessments and for ranking the sustainability of agricultural systems. The assessment is quick compared to other assessment methods and is shown to be helpful for agricultural sustainability assessment. It is a relatively simple and straightforward analytical tool that could be widely and easily applied. However, it is suggested that appropriate care must be taken to ensure the successful use of the Elimination Method during the assessment process.

Facilitating smallholder tree farming in fragmented tropical landscapes: Challenges and potentials for sustainable land management.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Syed Ajijur; Sunderland, Terry; Roshetko, James M; Healey, John Robert

2017-08-01

Under changing land use in tropical Asia, there is evidence of forest product diversification through implementation of tree-based farming by smallholders. This paper assesses in two locations, West Java, Indonesia and eastern Bangladesh, current land use conditions from the perspective of smallholder farmers, the factors that facilitate their adoption of tree farming, and the potential of landscape-scale approaches to foster sustainable land management. Data were collected through rapid rural appraisals, focus group discussions, field observations, semi-structured interviews of farm households and key informant interviews of state agricultural officers. Land at both study sites is typically fragmented due to conversion of forest to agriculture and community settlement. Local land use challenges are associated with pressures of population increase, poverty, deforestation, shortage of forest products, lack of community-scale management, weak tenure, underdeveloped markets, government decision-making with insufficient involvement of local people, and poor extension services. Despite these challenges, smallholder tree farming is found to be successful from farmers' perspectives. However, constraints of local food crop cultivation traditions, insecure land tenure, lack of capital, lack of knowledge, lack of technical assistance, and perceived risk of investing in land due to local conflict (in Bangladesh) limit farmers' willingness to adopt this land use alternative. Overcoming these barriers to adoption will require management at a landscape scale, including elements of both segregation and integration of land uses, supported by competent government policies and local communities having sufficiently high social capital. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wide-area mapping of small-scale features in agricultural landscapes using airborne remote sensing.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connell, Jerome; Bradter, Ute; Benton, Tim G

2015-11-01

Natural and semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes are likely to come under increasing pressure with the global population set to exceed 9 billion by 2050. These non-cropped habitats are primarily made up of trees, hedgerows and grassy margins and their amount, quality and spatial configuration can have strong implications for the delivery and sustainability of various ecosystem services. In this study high spatial resolution (0.5 m) colour infrared aerial photography (CIR) was used in object based image analysis for the classification of non-cropped habitat in a 10,029 ha area of southeast England. Three classification scenarios were devised using 4 and 9 class scenarios. The machine learning algorithm Random Forest (RF) was used to reduce the number of variables used for each classification scenario by 25.5 % ± 2.7%. Proportion of votes from the 4 class hierarchy was made available to the 9 class scenarios and where the highest ranked variables in all cases. This approach allowed for misclassified parent objects to be correctly classified at a lower level. A single object hierarchy with 4 class proportion of votes produced the best result (kappa 0.909). Validation of the optimum training sample size in RF showed no significant difference between mean internal out-of-bag error and external validation. As an example of the utility of this data, we assessed habitat suitability for a declining farmland bird, the yellowhammer ( Emberiza citronella ), which requires hedgerows associated with grassy margins. We found that ∼22% of hedgerows were within 200 m of margins with an area >183.31 m 2 . The results from this analysis can form a key information source at the environmental and policy level in landscape optimisation for food production and ecosystem service sustainability.

Wide-area mapping of small-scale features in agricultural landscapes using airborne remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connell, Jerome; Bradter, Ute; Benton, Tim G.

2015-11-01

Natural and semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes are likely to come under increasing pressure with the global population set to exceed 9 billion by 2050. These non-cropped habitats are primarily made up of trees, hedgerows and grassy margins and their amount, quality and spatial configuration can have strong implications for the delivery and sustainability of various ecosystem services. In this study high spatial resolution (0.5 m) colour infrared aerial photography (CIR) was used in object based image analysis for the classification of non-cropped habitat in a 10,029 ha area of southeast England. Three classification scenarios were devised using 4 and 9 class scenarios. The machine learning algorithm Random Forest (RF) was used to reduce the number of variables used for each classification scenario by 25.5 % ± 2.7%. Proportion of votes from the 4 class hierarchy was made available to the 9 class scenarios and where the highest ranked variables in all cases. This approach allowed for misclassified parent objects to be correctly classified at a lower level. A single object hierarchy with 4 class proportion of votes produced the best result (kappa 0.909). Validation of the optimum training sample size in RF showed no significant difference between mean internal out-of-bag error and external validation. As an example of the utility of this data, we assessed habitat suitability for a declining farmland bird, the yellowhammer (Emberiza citronella), which requires hedgerows associated with grassy margins. We found that ˜22% of hedgerows were within 200 m of margins with an area >183.31 m2. The results from this analysis can form a key information source at the environmental and policy level in landscape optimisation for food production and ecosystem service sustainability.

Expedition agroparks : research by design into sustainable development and agriculture in network society

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smeets, P.J.A.M.

2010-01-01

This book is the result of several years of expedition into the development of metropolitan FoodClusters. The authors fascination for the agricultural landscapes in and around metropolises led him to the conclusion that improving the efficiency of agriculture is the most effective way to safeguard

Factors Affecting the Greenhouse Owners’ Attitude toward Sustainable Agriculture in Zanjan Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zahra Hooshmandan Moghaddam Fard

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Due to the low compliance of greenhouse production with the principles of sustainable agriculture, a meaningful effort in this regard needs to be done. One of the important factors affecting the success of future planning is the positive attitude of greenhouse owners toward sustainable agriculture. The purpose of this descriptive- correlational study was to investigate factors affecting greenhouse owners’ attitude toward sustainable agriculture. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by a panel of experts in the related field and to obtain its reliability, calculated alpha Cronbach coefficient was higher than 0.75 for different parts. The statistical population consisted all greenhouse owners in Zanjan province (N=80 and based on Krejci and Morgan sampling Table and using randomized sampling method 66 greenhouse owners selected. Results showed that majority of greenhouse owner use moderately of information channels and mass media. The majority of greenhouse owners (59.6 percent had a medium level of knowledge regarding sustainable agriculture and Majority of them (73.7 percent had a positive attitude toward sustainable agriculture. Correlation coefficient showed that greenhouse owners’ attitude had a positive meaningful correlation with information using level, income from the greenhouse, number of educational classes and their job satisfaction but a negative meaningful correlation with the number of household members participating in the activity. Regression analysis revealed that five variable of information using level, the number of household members participating in activity, knowledge and daily time spending in the greenhouse were explained 55.4 percent of greenhouse owners’ attitude toward sustainable agriculture.

Multifunctional landscapes: Site characterization and field-scale design to incorporate biomass production into an agricultural system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ssegane, Herbert; Negri, M. Cristina; Quinn, John; Urgun-Demirtas, Meltem

2015-01-01

Current and future demand for food, feed, fiber, and energy require novel approaches to land management, which demands that multifunctional landscapes are created to integrate various ecosystem functions into a sustainable land use. We developed an approach to design such landscapes at a field scale to minimize concerns of land use change, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with production of food and bioenergy. This study leverages concepts of nutrient recovery and phytoremediation to place bioenergy crops on the landscape to recover nutrients released to watersheds by commodity crops. Crop placement is determined by evaluating spatial variability of: 1) soils, 2) surface flow pathways, 3) shallow groundwater flow gradients, 4) subsurface nitrate concentrations, and 5) primary crop yield. A 0.8 ha bioenergy buffer was designed within a 6.5 ha field to intercept concentrated surface flow, capture and use nitrate leachate, and minimize use of productive areas. Denitrification-Decomposition (DNDC) simulations show that on average, a switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) or willow (Salix spp.) buffer within this catchment according to this design could reduce annual leached NO 3 by 61 or 59% and N 2 O emission by 5.5 or 10.8%, respectively, produce 8.7 or 9.7 Mg ha −1 of biomass respectively, and displace 6.7 Mg ha −1 of corn (Zea mays L.) grain. Therefore, placement of bioenergy crops has the potential to increase environmental sustainability when the pairing of location and crop type result in minimal disruption of current food production systems and provides additional environmental benefits. - Highlights: • Design of a multifunctional landscape by integrating cellulosic biofuel production into an existing agricultural system. • The design does not adversely offset current grain production for bioenergy crops. • Maps of concentrated flow paths, subsurface flow direction, NO 3 –N hotspots, and intra-field corn yield variability. �

Interdependence of Agricultural Production and Environment and the Road to Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Curić Jasmina

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Sustainability of agricultural production in the world is in serious crisis. Interdependence of agricultural production and the environment is multiple and causality works both ways. On one hand, there are environmental changes which hamper food production, and on the other, the agricultural production, as it is, is severely damaging the environment. The very systems of agricultural production jeopardize future production. The goal of this paper is to explore causes of limitations of sustainable agricultural development in the world, where the authors emphasize the following: gas emissions with greenhouse effect, a disturbed cycle of nitrogen circulation and destruction of biodiversity.

Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

It is crucial, for example, that local stakeholders provide input to the process. Participatory research and ... Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management - A Sourcebook Volume 2: Enabling Participatory Research and Development. Book cover Participatory ...

Holistic Sustainability Assessment of Agricultural Rainwater Harvesting

Science.gov (United States)

We present a methodology for holistic sustainability assessment of green infrastructure, applied to agricultural rainwater harvesting (RWH) in the Albemarle-Pamlico river basin. It builds upon prior work in the region through the use of detailed, crop-level management information...

Agriculture, trade and the environment: The impact of liberalization on sustainable development

OpenAIRE

Antle, J. (ed.); Lekakis, J. (ed.); Zanias, G. (ed.)

1998-01-01

Metadata only record Revised papers selected from the international conference "European agriculture at the crossroads: Competition and sustainability" hosted by the Dept. of Economics of the University of Crete, in Rethimno, 1996. The conference examined the relationship between free trade and agricultural sustainability in the European Union.

Complexity of human and ecosystem interactions in an agricultural landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Coupe, Richard H.; Barlow, Jeannie R.; Capel, Paul D.

2012-01-01

The complexity of human interaction in the commercial agricultural landscape and the resulting impacts on the ecosystem services of water quality and quantity is largely ignored by the current agricultural paradigm that maximizes crop production over other ecosystem services. Three examples at different spatial scales (local, regional, and global) are presented where human and ecosystem interactions in a commercial agricultural landscape adversely affect water quality and quantity in unintended ways in the Delta of northwestern Mississippi. In the first example, little to no regulation of groundwater use for irrigation has caused declines in groundwater levels resulting in loss of baseflow to streams and threatening future water supply. In the second example, federal policy which subsidizes corn for biofuel production has encouraged many producers to switch from cotton to corn, which requires more nutrients and water, counter to national efforts to reduce nutrient loads to the Gulf of Mexico and exacerbating groundwater level declines. The third example is the wholesale adoption of a system for weed control that relies on a single chemical, initially providing many benefits and ultimately leading to the widespread occurrence of glyphosate and its degradates in Delta streams and necessitating higher application rates of glyphosate as well as the use of other herbicides due to increasing weed resistance. Although these examples are specific to the Mississippi Delta, analogous situations exist throughout the world and point to the need for change in how we grow our food, fuel, and fiber, and manage our soil and water resources.

Museums, a consolidated offer for sustainable tourism and the quality of the landscape

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuel Antonio Zárate Martín

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The International Council of Museums (ICOM and the World Federation of Friends of Museums (WFFM for worldwide Sustainable Cultural Tourism acknowledge that museums constitute an example of sustainable cultural tourism for a society with increasing free time and the ability to move for reasons of leisure and tourism. This paper analyzes the evolution of museums since their initial function of gathering material for its conservation to the current situation, in which museums form part of the tourism offer and compete among themselves to increase the number of visitors, and enhance feelings of a collective identity and of respect and tolerance towards other cultures in accordance with the Charter for Sustainable Tourism of 1995. Museums also contribute, through tourism, to generating employment and enhancing the landscape following strategies of the Convention of the European landscape of 2000.

Earthworms, pesticides and sustainable agriculture: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Datta, Shivika; Singh, Joginder; Singh, Sharanpreet; Singh, Jaswinder

2016-05-01

The aim of this review is to generate awareness and understand the importance of earthworms in sustainable agriculture and effect of pesticides on their action. The natural resources are finite and highly prone to degradation by the misuse of land and mismanagement of soil. The world is in utter need of a healthy ecosystem that provides with fertile soil, clean water, food and other natural resources. Anthropogenic activities have led to an increased contamination of land. The intensification of industrial and agricultural practices chiefly the utilization of pesticides has in almost every way made our natural resources concave. Earthworms help in a number of tasks that support many ecosystem services that favor agrosystem sustainability but are degraded by exhaustive practices such as the use of pesticides. The present review assesses the response of earthworm toward the pesticides and also evaluates the relationship between earthworm activity and plant growth. We strictly need to refresh and rethink on the policies and norms devised by us on sustainable ecology. In an equivalent way, the natural resources should be utilized and further, essential ways for betterment of present and future livelihood should be sought.

Investigating the Sustainability of Perennial Agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Sutherlin, C. E.; Brunsell, N. A.; De Oliveira, G.; Crews, T.; Vico, G.

2017-12-01

The changing climate leads to uncertainties concerning the sustainability of certain agricultural resources, and with the additional stresses of an increasing global population, uncertainty in food security will greatly increase. To adhere to future food demands in the face of this changing climate, perennial agriculture has been a proposed solution. However, it is equally important to assure that perennial agriculture is not negatively affecting the climate in exchange for this proposed more robust food source. We chose to examine the interactions between perennial and annual agricultural crops by focusing on the efficiency of exchanges with the atmosphere. This is done using the omega decoupling factor for 4 different sites as a way of quantifying the contributions of radiation and stomatal conductance over the resulting water and carbon cycles. This gives us an indication of how the plant canopy is interacting with, and influencing the local microclimate. Ultimately, this should give us an indication of the ability of perennial crops to aid in the climate mitigation process. We hypothesized that the perennial site chosen would have omega values more similar to the omega values of a natural grassland rather than an annual crop site. Using AmeriFlux towers to determine the canopy values needed to calculate the omega decoupling factor, we focused on the Kernza perennial crops being grown at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas (KLS), in comparison to a natural grassland in Manhattan, Kansas (KON), a typical land cover model in Lawrence, Kansas (KFS), and an annual crop site in Lamont, Oklahoma (ARM). These results will allow us to move forward in the investigation of perennial crops as a sustainable food source.

Aligning Land Use with Land Potential: The Role of Integrated Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. A. Liebig

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Contemporary agricultural land use is dominated by an emphasis on provisioning services by applying energy-intensive inputs through relatively uniform production systems across variable landscapes. This approach to agricultural land use is not sustainable. Achieving sustainable use of agricultural land should instead focus on the application of innovative management systems that provide multiple ecosystem services on lands with varying inherent qualities. Integrated agricultural systems (IAS represent an alternative approach to prevailing land use, whereby site-adapted enterprises are implemented to enhance synergistic resource transfer among enterprises and sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. Sustainable deployment of IAS on agricultural land involves placing the “right enterprise” at the “right intensity” at the “right time” on the “right location,” with the inherent attributes of location providing guidance for management decisions. There is an urgent need to design IAS that enhance delivery of ecosystem services while ensuring land potential thresholds are not exceeded.

Introduction: Features of environmental sustainability in agriculture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalgaard, Tommy; Ferrari, S; Rambonilaza, M

2006-01-01

This introductive paper aims to address the features of environmental sustainability in agriculture. Recent developments of the concept, which are discussed here, emphasise its multi-faceted nature and lead to various definitions as well as to different implications for policy measures in society...

Rapid genetic turnover in populations of the insect pest Bemisia tabaci Middle East: Asia Minor 1 in an agricultural landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Dinsdale, A; Schellhorn, N A; De Barro, P; Buckley, Y M; Riginos, C

2012-10-01

Organisms differ greatly in dispersal ability, and landscapes differ in amenability to an organism's movement. Thus, landscape structure and heterogeneity can affect genetic composition of populations. While many agricultural pests are known for their ability to disperse rapidly, it is unclear how fast and over what spatial scale insect pests might respond to the temporally dynamic agricultural landscapes they inhabit. We used population genetic analyses of a severe crop pest, a member of the Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodoidea: Aleyrodidea) cryptic species complex known as Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (commonly known as biotype B), to estimate spatial and temporal genetic diversity over four months of the 2006-2007 summer growing season. We examined 559 individuals from eight sites, which were scored for eight microsatellite loci. Temporal genetic structure greatly exceeded spatial structure. There was significant temporal change in local genetic composition from the beginning to the end of the season accompanied by heterozygote deficits and inbreeding. This temporal structure suggests entire cohorts of pests can occupy a large and variable agricultural landscape but are rapidly replaced. These rapid genetic fluctuations reinforce the concept that agricultural landscapes are dynamic mosaics in time and space and may contribute to better decisions for pest and insecticide resistance management.

The Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Ethiopia: History ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Senayet

based on the key findings, the article proposes a framework that can help integrate sustainability principles into a cooperative structure right from the ... wide variety of institutional and organizational landscapes, such as public and civil ..... financial services in rural areas, purchasing agricultural machinery, equipment and.

Sustainability and Competitiveness of Romanian Farms through Organic Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela Ionela Aceleanu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Currently, the development of any sector involves respecting the principles of sustainability, which means economic, social and environmental development. Moreover, organic farming is a very important field for ensuring sustainable development. Romania has great potential for the development of organic agriculture, especially due to the large number of available farmland and reduced use of fertilizers and other chemicals. However, the development of organic farming in Romania is in an early stage, due to the numerous problems that Romanian agriculture is still facing. Concern for the environment should be reflected at the level of production processes and consumption. As market demand influences and stimulates production, we can ask the question to what extent stimulating the consumption of organic products through green marketing can boost organic agriculture development and competitiveness of Romanian farms. Using several methods of research, such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, statistical methods and by calling on studies, reports and data series on organic farming in the EU and Romania, this paper highlights Romania's position in terms of the level of development of organic agriculture and recommends several ways to improve the outcomes obtained by Romania in the field. Moreover, based on regression equations, the trend of convergence of Romanian organic agriculture development in relation to the EU countries is analysed. The paper demonstrates that one of the measures that can be taken by Romanian farms is green marketing strategy development that can stimulate both consumption and production of organic products. Therefore, with increasing interest in the development of organic agriculture in Romania, green marketing can play an increasingly important role in promoting the benefits of consuming organic products, thus contributing to business development of organic products as well as to the development of Romanian agriculture

Visualisation of uncertainty for the trade-off triangle used in sustainable agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Paul; Takahashi, Taro; Lee, Michael

2017-04-01

Agriculture at the global-scale is at a critical juncture where competing requirements for maximal production and minimal pollution have led to the concept of sustainable intensification. All farming systems (arable, grasslands, etc.) are part of this debate, where each have particular associated environmental risks such as water and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and soil degradation, as well as issues affecting production efficiency, product quality and consumer acceptability, reflected in the development of agricultural sustainability policies. These challenges necessitate multidisciplinary solutions that can only be properly researched, implemented and tested in real-world production systems which are suited to their geographical and climatic production practice. In this respect, various high-profile agricultural data collection experiments have been set up, such as the North Wyke Farm Platform (http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/farmplatform) to research agricultural productivity and ecosystem responses to different management practices. In this farm-scale grasslands experiment, data on hydrology, emissions, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, productivity and livestock welfare/health are collected, that in turn, are converted to trade-off metrics with respect to: (i) economic profits, (ii) societal benefits and (iii) environmental concerns, under the umbrella of sustainable intensification. Similar agriculture research platforms have similar objectives, where data collections are ultimately synthesised into trade-off metrics. Trade-offs metrics can then be usefully visualized via the usual sustainable triangle, with a new triangle for each key time period (e.g. baseline versus post-baseline). This enables a visual assessment of change in sustainability harmony or discord, according to the remit of the given research experiment. In this paper, we discuss different approaches to calculation of the sustainability trade-off metrics that are required from the farm

Agroecology as a Science of Integration for Sustainability in Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Caporali

2007-06-01

Full Text Available A knowledge contribution is provided in order to understand agroecology as both a scientific discipline and a philosophical paradigm for promoting sustainability in agriculture. The peculiar character of agroecology as an applied science based on the systems paradigm is explored in the fields of research and tuition. As an organisational capability of connecting different hierarchical levels in accordance with the goal of sustainability, integration is shown as an emergent property of the evolution of agriculture as a human activity system.

Temporal dynamics influenced by global change: bee community phenology in urban, agricultural, and natural landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, Misha; Ponisio, Lauren C; Kremen, Claire; Thorp, Robbin W; Roderick, George K

2016-03-01

Urbanization and agricultural intensification of landscapes are important drivers of global change, which in turn have direct impacts on local ecological communities leading to shifts in species distributions and interactions. Here, we illustrate how human-altered landscapes, with novel ornamental and crop plant communities, result not only in changes to local community diversity of floral-dependent species, but also in shifts in seasonal abundance of bee pollinators. Three years of data on the spatio-temporal distributions of 91 bee species show that seasonal patterns of abundance and species richness in human-altered landscapes varied significantly less compared to natural habitats in which floral resources are relatively scarce in the dry summer months. These findings demonstrate that anthropogenic environmental changes in urban and agricultural systems, here mediated through changes in plant resources and water inputs, can alter the temporal dynamics of pollinators that depend on them. Changes in phenology of interactions can be an important, though frequently overlooked, mechanism of global change. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Expanding Agricultural and Rural Extension Roles for Sustainable ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Expanding Agricultural and Rural Extension Roles for Sustainable Extension ... privatization of the public sector of national economies of developing nations has ... include marketing extension, non-farm rural micro enterprise development, ...

Evaluating agricultural trade-offs in the age of sustainable development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kanter, David R.; Musumba, Mark; Wood, Sylvia L.R.; Palm, Cheryl; Antle, John; Balvanera, Patricia; Dale, Virginia H.; Havlik, Petr; Kline, Keith L.; Scholes, R.J.; Thornton, Philip; Tittonell, Pablo; Andelman, Sandy

2016-01-01

A vibrant, resilient and productive agricultural sector is fundamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Bringing about such a transformation requires optimizing a range of agronomic, environmental and socioeconomic outcomes from agricultural systems – from crop yields, to

Intensification of agriculture, landscape composition and wild bee communities: A large scale study in four European countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feon, Le V.; Schermann-Legionnet, A.; Delettre, Y.; Aviron, S.; Billeter, R.; Bugter, R.J.F.; Hendrickx, F.; Burel, F.

2010-01-01

The impacts of agricultural practices and landscape composition on bee communities were investigated in 14 sites located in four Western European countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland). Standardized interviews with farmers assessed agricultural practices in terms of

Challenges for Sustainable Land Management through Climate-Smart Agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Dougill, Andrew; Stringer, Lindsay

2017-04-01

There are increasing pushes for agricultural land management to be both sustainable and climate-smart (in terms of increasing productivity, building resilience to climate change and enhancing carbon storage). Climate-smart agriculture initiatives include conservation agriculture, based on minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation, and agroforestry. Such efforts address key international goals of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), but as yet have not seen widespread uptake. Based on analyses of different project interventions from across a range of southern African countries, we outline the inter-related challenges that are preventing adoption of climate-smart agriculture initiatives. We then identify routes to building multi-stakeholder partnerships and empowering communities through participatory monitoring with the aim of increasing uptake of such sustainable land management practices. Good practice examples remain largely restricted to local-level project interventions with significant donor (or private-sector) support, aligned to short-term community priorities relating to access to inputs or reduced labour requirements. Scaling-up to district- and national-level initiatives is yet to be widely successful due to problems of: limited policy coherence; a lack of communication between stakeholders at different levels; and limited understanding of long-term benefits associated with changes in agricultural practices. We outline opportunities associated with improved communication of climate information, empowerment of district-level adaptation planning and diversification of agricultural livelihood strategies as key routes to guide farmers towards more sustainable, and climate-smart, land management practices. Recent experiences in Malawi, which has experienced significant floods and an El Niño drought year in the last two years, are used to

Determinants of Sustainability Reporting in Food and Agriculture Sectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiří Hřebíček

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Since the end of the 1990s, sustainability reporting (SR has become an increasingly relevant topic in business and academia. However, it is still limited in food and agriculture sector in the Czech Republic and the European Union and only little information of the latest developments have thus far been presented. This paper provides current information dating from 2010 to 2014 from publications related to food and agriculture sector. The objective of the paper is to identify what determinants of SR are examined in the world initiatives to identify (in consistencies, gaps, and opportunities for our future research of this field. The paper focuses to new G4 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI and the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture (SAFA systems of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO of the United Nation. Finally, possible future research of SR including SR information systems are discussed by illuminating gaps and underexposed themes in the area of regulation and governance as well as stakeholder perception.

Impact of promoting sustainable agriculture project on livelihood ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study on impact assessment of Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Project ... the Fisher Index, Focused Group Discussion and descriptive statistical analysis. ... The qualitative analysis showed that 30%, 45% and 10% of men, women and ...

Chlorate origin and fate in shallow groundwater below agricultural landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Mastrocicco, Micòl; Di Giuseppe, Dario; Vincenzi, Fabio; Colombani, Nicolò; Castaldelli, Giuseppe

2017-12-01

In agricultural lowland landscapes, intensive agricultural is accompanied by a wide use of agrochemical application, like pesticides and fertilizers. The latter often causes serious environmental threats such as N compounds leaching and surface water eutrophication; additionally, since perchlorate can be present as impurities in many fertilizers, the potential presence of perchlorates and their by-products like chlorates and chlorites in shallow groundwater could be a reason of concern. In this light, the present manuscript reports the first temporal and spatial variation of chlorates, chlorites and major anions concentrations in the shallow unconfined aquifer belonging to Ferrara province (in the Po River plain). The study was made in 56 different locations to obtain insight on groundwater chemical composition and its sediment matrix interactions. During the monitoring period from 2010 to 2011, in June 2011 a nonpoint pollution of chlorates was found in the shallow unconfined aquifer belonging to Ferrara province. Detected chlorates concentrations ranged between 0.01 and 38 mg/l with an average value of 2.9 mg/l. Chlorates were found in 49 wells out of 56 and in all types of lithology constituting the shallow aquifer. Chlorates concentrations appeared to be linked to NO 3 - , volatile fatty acids (VFA) and oxygen reduction potential (ORP) variations. Chlorates behaviour was related to the biodegradation of perchlorates, since perchlorates are favourable electron acceptors for the oxidation of labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater. Further studies must take into consideration to monitor ClO 4 - in pore waters and groundwater to better elucidate the mass flux of ClO 4 - in shallow aquifers belonging to agricultural landscapes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable Land-Use Planning to Improve the Coastal Resilience of the Social-Ecological Landscape

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Min Kim

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The dynamics of land-use transitions decrease the coastal resilience of the social-ecological landscape (SEL, particularly in light of the fact that it is necessary to analyze the causal relationship between the two systems because operations of the social system and the ecological system are correlated. The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamics of the coastal SEL and create a sustainable land-use planning (SLUP strategy to enhance coastal resilience. The selected study site was Shindu-ri, South Korea, where land-use transitions are increasing and coastal resilience is therefore decreasing. Systems thinking was used to analyze the study, which was performed in four steps. First, the issues affecting the coastal area in Shindu-ri were defined as coastal landscape management, the agricultural structure, and the tourism industry structure. Second, the main variables for each issue were defined, and causal relationships between the main variables were created. Third, a holistic causal loop diagram was built based on both dynamic thinking and causal thinking. Fourth, five land-uses, including those of the coastal forest, the coastal grassland, the coastal dune, the agricultural area, and developed sites, were selected as leverage points for developing SLUP strategies to increase coastal resilience. The results show that “decrease in the size of the coastal forest”, “decrease in the size of the coastal dune”, and “increase in the size of the coastal grasslands” were considered parts of a land-use plan to enhance the resilience of the Shindu-ri SEL. This study developed integrated coastal land-use planning strategies that may provide effective solutions for complex and dynamic issues in the coastal SEL. Additionally, the results may be utilized as basic data to build and implement coastal land-use planning strategies.

Facilitating North-South Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Termeer, C. J. A. M.; Hilhorst, T.; Oorthuizen, J.

2010-01-01

The increased number of development cooperation and sustainable agriculture partnerships brings with it new challenges for professionals who are asked to facilitate these partnering processes. In this article we shed more light on the world of development cooperation and we explore questions that facilitators working with North-South partnerships…

Exploring the international policy dimension of sustainability in Dutch agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brouwer, F.M.; Leneman, H.; Groeneveld, R.A.

2007-01-01

The report offers an overview of experiences in France and the United Kingdom as regards efforts to promote sustainability in agriculture. It also identifies international policy constraints on national efforts to promote sustainability. In addition, it explores opportunities for and threats to the

Environmentally sustainable agriculture and future developments of the CAP

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Helle Ørsted; Pedersen, Anders Branth; Christensen, Tove

2009-01-01

Recent reforms of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have set in motion a process of increased market orientation in the agricultural sector, a process that will be intensified by trade liberalization if an agreement is reached under the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is wi......Recent reforms of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have set in motion a process of increased market orientation in the agricultural sector, a process that will be intensified by trade liberalization if an agreement is reached under the World Trade Organization (WTO...... in the world market could increase pressure to slacken regulatory requirements on agriculture. Thus, the question of whether liberalization will hinder or promote environmentally sustainable production methods in agriculture is unresolved. This paper analyses different scenarios of agricultural policy...

Stabilizing the agricultural frontier: Leveraging REDD with biofuels for sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Killeen, Timothy J.; Schroth, Goetz; Turner, Will; Harvey, Celia A.; Steininger, Marc K.; Dragisic, Christine; Mittermeier, Russell A.

2011-01-01

We evaluate the potential of a proposed policy model that would explicitly link the cultivation of biofuels with forest conservation (Biofuel + FC) as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The model postulates that a ratio of 4:1 forest conservation to biofuel cultivation be linked to proposals for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD + Biofuel), while a ratio of 9:1 biofuel cultivation to reforestation on degraded landscape (RDL + Biofuel) be linked to the afforestation/reforestation component of the Clean Development Mechanism. Both biofuel production options would be limited to the cultivation of woody perennial biofuel species on low biomass landscapes in order to maximize the carbon benefits of the proposed policy model. The potential to conserve forest, avoid GHG emissions, improve carbon sequestration, and produce renewable energy are evaluated by an illustrative model for five case studies (Pará – Brazil, East Kalimantan – Indonesia, Madagascar, Colombia and Liberia). The Biofuel + FC policy model is then compared with three counterfactual scenarios: REDD Alone with no biofuel cultivation; Biofuel Alone with expanded biofuel cultivation in the absence of REDD and a Most Likely scenario where REDD and biofuel cultivation are implemented without explicit regulatory linkages. The proposed policy model would leverage forest carbon with biofuel markets, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve biodiversity, as well as improve human welfare in developing countries, a win–win–win strategy for sustainable development. -- Highlights: ► We propose to link biofuel cultivation with forest conservation (REDD + Biofuels). ► A similar proposal to support reforestation on degraded landscapes (RDL + Biofuels). ► Woody perennial biofuel species on low biomass landscapes maximize carbon benefits. ► REDD+ revenues can subsidize and foster sustainable biofuels. ► Production of

Patterns and drivers of scattered tree loss in agricultural landscapes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Plieninger, Tobias; Levers, Christian; Mantel, Martin

2015-01-01

of high nature conservation value) for a region in Southwestern Germany for the 1968 2009 period and to identify the driving forces of this decline. We derived orchard meadow loss from 1968 and 2009 aerial images and used a boosted regression trees modelling framework to assess the relative importance......Scattered trees support high levels of farmland biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, but they are threatened by agricultural intensification, urbanization, and land abandonment. This study aimed to map and quantify the decline of orchard meadows (scattered fruit trees...... economic profitability and increase opportunity costs for orchards, providing incentives for converting orchard meadows to other, more profitable land uses. These insights could be taken up by local- and regional-level conservation policies to identify the sites of persistent orchard meadows...

Sustainable agricultural development in a rural area in the Netherlands? Assessing impacts of climate and socio-economic change at farm and landscape level

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reidsma, P.; Bakker, M.M.; Kanellopoulos, A.; Alam, S.J.; Paas, W.H.; Kros, J.; Vries, de W.

2015-01-01

Changes in climate, technology, policy and prices affect agricultural and rural development. To evaluate whether this development is sustainable, impacts of these multiple drivers need to be assessed for multiple indicators. In a case study area in the Netherlands, a bio-economic farm model, an

Agricultural and Food Production in Hungary: On the Road to Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szűcs Csaba

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In the last 25 years Hungarian agriculture has lost its position. Rapid growth in the world’s population requires an increase in food production since one seventh of the population is still starving. The development of agricultural production and the food industry is the basis for the development of rural areas. Hungary produces two per cent of the EU agricultural output, which is far behind its potential. Agriculture, food industry and food trade can only develop together. We need to find the most favourable forms of coexistence with multinational chains sustainably. Food industry is a critical point in the product line, it lags behind the performance of European countries, and resources are insufficient. Long-term co-operation between farmers and processors is inadequate; the common organizations of the markets are minimal. Today, sustainability is increasingly emphasized, environmental and nature protection has been appreciated. The agriculture and forestry sectors are not only suitable for production of food and other raw materials, but they can also replenish resources and have a beneficial effect on biodiversity as well. Today’s problems can only be solved by taking sustainability into consideration. Agri-food industry that complies with the requirements can play a major role in rural employment and value creation.

Sustainability and tourism in the cultural landscapes of industrialization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos J. Pardo Abad

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Old mining and industrial areas, many of them already abandoned after prolonged extractive and productive activity, often put up good experiences associated with recovery heritage and landscapes. Initially promoted by public administrations, particularly municipal bodies, with the active participation of private companies and the local community, nowadays these projects are an extraordinary reference for valuing a peculiar legacy that offers extensive possibilities for reuse under the indispensable perspective of sustainable development.

The potential for integrated landscape management to fulfil Europe's commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mann, Carsten; Garcia-Martin, Maria; Raymond, Christopher M.; Shaw, Brian J.; Plieninger, Tobias

2018-01-01

The aim of this perspective essay is to discuss how integrated landscape management (ILM) can contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda in Europe. Challenges for sustainable development become evident in the emergence of land-use conflicts. Facing multiple,

Complementary crops and landscape features sustain wild bee communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Kyle T; Albert, Cécile H; Lechowicz, Martin J; Gonzalez, Andrew

2018-06-01

Wild bees, which are important for commercial pollination, depend on floral and nesting resources both at farms and in the surrounding landscape. Mass-flowering crops are only in bloom for a few weeks and unable to support bee populations that persist throughout the year. Farm fields and orchards that flower in succession potentially can extend the availability of floral resources for pollinators. However, it is unclear whether the same bee species or genera will forage from one crop to the next, which bees specialize on particular crops, and to what degree inter-crop visitation patterns will be mediated by landscape context. We therefore studied local- and landscape-level drivers of bee diversity and species turnover in apple orchards, blueberry fields, and raspberry fields that bloom sequentially in southern Quebec, Canada. Despite the presence of high bee species turnover, orchards and small fruit fields complemented each other phenologically by supporting two bee genera essential to their pollination: mining bees (Andrena spp.) and bumble bees (Bombus spp.). A number of bee species specialized on apple, blueberry, or raspberry blossoms, suggesting that all three crops could be used to promote regional bee diversity. Bee diversity (rarefied richness, wild bee abundance) was highest across crops in landscapes containing hedgerows, meadows, and suburban areas that provide ancillary nesting and floral resources throughout the spring and summer. Promoting phenological complementarity in floral resources at the farmstead and landscape scales is essential to sustaining diverse wild bee populations. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Long-term sustainability of the landscape in new climatic conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Kubeckova, D.; Krocova, S.

2017-10-01

The long-term sustainability of the landscape and its natural environment must be the decisive task of the public administration and, in the wider concept, of every citizen. In new climatic conditions, this need has intensified. The following article suggests in a basic scope whether the above-mentioned task can be accomplished, and what means of solution should be used.

Sustainable Water Management in Urban, Agricultural, and Natural Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tess Russo

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Sustainable water management (SWM requires allocating between competing water sector demands, and balancing the financial and social resources required to support necessary water systems. The objective of this review is to assess SWM in three sectors: urban, agricultural, and natural systems. This review explores the following questions: (1 How is SWM defined and evaluated? (2 What are the challenges associated with sustainable development in each sector? (3 What are the areas of greatest potential improvement in urban and agricultural water management systems? And (4 What role does country development status have in SWM practices? The methods for evaluating water management practices range from relatively simple indicator methods to integration of multiple models, depending on the complexity of the problem and resources of the investigators. The two key findings and recommendations for meeting SWM objectives are: (1 all forms of water must be considered usable, and reusable, water resources; and (2 increasing agricultural crop water production represents the largest opportunity for reducing total water consumption, and will be required to meet global food security needs. The level of regional development should not dictate sustainability objectives, however local infrastructure conditions and financial capabilities should inform the details of water system design and evaluation.

Revegetation of lignite mining areas for sustainable agricultural use - research results and current information needs; Rekultivierung von Braunkohlebergbauflaechen fuer eine nachhaltige landwirtschaftliche Nutzung - Bisherige Forschungsergebnisse und aktueller Forschungsbedarf

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haubold-Rosar, M. [Forschungsinstitut fuer Bergbaufolgelandschaften e.V., Finsterwalde (Germany)

2004-07-01

The author explains the reasons and motives for agricultural reclamation which is still necessary in the mining districts of 'the New Laender'. Reclamation has to be aimed at the general objectives of a sustainable land use. The procedures of reclamation have to consider the special site conditions on the dumps. First of all they serve for the development of soil fertility. Proceeding from the research on agricultural reclamation carried out before 1990 the need of research at the beginning of the BMBF priority programme 'Rehabilitation and reclamation of landscapes after lignite mining in the New Laender' and the gained knowledge are given dealing with the topics: use and amelioration of cohesive mine soils, cultivation of alternative crops and pasture usage in post mining landscapes as well as application of soil improvers out of organic waste materials. Finally current deficits of knowledge are pointed out. (orig.)

Introducing perennial biomass crops into agricultural landscapes to address water quality challenges and provide other environmental services: Integrating perennial bioenergy crops into agricultural landscapes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cacho, J. F. [Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont IL USA; Negri, M. C. [Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont IL USA; Zumpf, C. R. [Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont IL USA; Campbell, P. [Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont IL USA

2017-11-29

The world is faced with a difficult multiple challenge of meeting nutritional, energy, and other basic needs, under a limited land and water budget, of between 9 and 10 billion people in the next three decades, mitigating impacts of climate change, and making agricultural production resilient. More productivity is expected from agricultural lands, but intensification of production could further impact the integrity of our finite surface water and groundwater resources. Integrating perennial bioenergy crops in agricultural lands could provide biomass for biofuel and potential improvements on the sustainability of commodity crop production. This article provides an overview of ways in which research has shown that perennial bioenergy grasses and short rotation woody crops can be incorporated into agricultural production systems with reduced indirect land use change, while increasing water quality benefits. Current challenges and opportunities as well as future directions are also highlighted.

Managing Water Resources for Environmentally Sustainable Irrigated Agriculture in Pakistan

OpenAIRE

Muhammad Afzal

1996-01-01

Pakistan’s agriculture is almost wholly dependent on irrigation and irrigated land supplies more than 90 percent of agricultural production. Irrigation is central to Pakistan’s economy. Massive investments in irrigation contributed to the development of one of the largest Indus Basin Irrigation System. Despite heavy budgetary inputs in irrigation system, it is facing shortage of resources and suffering from operational problems. The sustainability of irrigated agriculture is threatened due to...

Some criteria for landscape quality applied on an organic goat farm in Gelderland, the Netherlands.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hendriks, K.; Stobbelaar, D.J.; Mansvelt, van J.D.

1997-01-01

Within the framework of the concerted action 'The landscape and nature production capacity of organic/sustainable types of agriculture', the authors visited the organic goat farm Caprica to test some criteria on farm level

Some criteria for landscape quality implemented on a goat farm in the Netherlands.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hendriks, K.; Stobbelaar, D.J.; Mansvelt, van J.D.

1995-01-01

Report of a visit to an organic goat farm to test the usefulness of the criteria which proceeded from the first meeting of the concerted action "The landscape and nature production capacity of organic/sustainable types of agriculture in the EC"

Agricultural innovations for sustainable crop production intensification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michele Pisante

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Sustainable crop production intensification should be the first strategic objective of innovative agronomic research for the next 40 years. A range of options exist (often very location specific for farming practices, approaches and technologies that ensure sustainability, while at the same time improving crop production. The main challenge is to encourage farmers in the use of appropriate technologies,  and  to  ensure  that  knowledge  about  sound  production  practices  is  increasingly accepted and applied by farmers. There is a huge, but underutilized potential to link farmers’ local knowledge with science-based innovations, through favourable institutional arrangements.  The same  holds  for  the  design,  implementation  and  monitoring  of  improved  natural  resource management  that  links  community  initiatives  to  external  expertise.  It is also suggested that a comprehensive effort be undertaken to measure different stages of the innovation system, including technological adoption and diffusion at the farm level, and to investigate the impact of agricultural policies on technological change and technical efficiency. This paper provides a brief review of agronomic management practices that support sustainable crop production system and evidence on developments  in the selection of crops and cultivars; describes farming systems for crop which take a predominantly ecosystem approach; discusses the scientific application of ecosystem principles for the management of pest and weed populations; reviews the  improvements in fertilizer and nutrient management that explain productivity growth; describes the benefits and constraints of irrigation technologies; and suggests a way forward. Seven changes in the context for agricultural development are proposed that heighten the need to examine how innovation occurs in the agricultural sector.

Trait-based approaches for guiding the restoration of degraded agricultural landscapes in East Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lohbeck, Madelon; Winowiecki, Leigh; Aynekulu, Ermias; Okia, Clement; Vågen, Tor Gunnar

2018-01-01

Functional ecology provides a framework that can link vegetation characteristics of various land uses with ecosystem function. However, this application has been mostly limited to [semi-]natural systems and small spatial scales. Here, we apply functional ecology to five agricultural landscapes in

Monitoring the agricultural landscape for insect resistance

Science.gov (United States)

Casas, Joseph; Glaser, J. A.; Copenhaver, Ken

Farmers in 25 countries on six continents are using plant biotechnology to solve difficult crop production challenges and conserve the environment. In fact, 13.3 million farmers, which include 90 percent of the farming in developing countries, choose to plant biotech crops. Over the past decade, farmers increased area planted in genetically modified (GM) crops by more than 10 percent each year, thus increasing their farm income by more than 44 billion US dollars (1996-2007), and achieved economic, environmental and social benefits in crops such as soybeans, canola, corn and cotton. To date, total acres of biotech crops harvested exceed more than 2 billion with a proven 13-year history of safe use. Over the next decade, expanded adoption combined with current research on 57 crops in 63 countries will broaden the advantages of genetically modified foods for growers, consumers and the environment. Genetically modified (GM) crops with the ability to produce toxins lethal to specific insect pests are covering a larger percentage of the agricultural landscape every year. The United States department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that 63 percent of corn and 65 percent of cotton contained these specific genetic traits in 2009. The toxins could protect billions of dollars of loss from insect damage for crops valued at greater than 165 billion US dollars in 2008. The stable and efficient production of these crops has taken on even more importance in recent years with their use, not only as a food source, but now also a source of fuel. It is in the best interest of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to ensure the continued efficacy of toxin producing GM crops as their use reduces pesticides harmful to humans and animals. However, population genetics models have indicated the risk of insect pests developing resistance to these toxins if a high percentage of acreage is grown in these crops. The USEPA is developing methods to monitor the agricultural

Landscape changes have greater effects than climate changes on six insect pests in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Zihua; Sandhu, Hardev S; Ouyang, Fang; Ge, Feng

2016-06-01

In recent years, global changes are the major causes of frequent, widespread outbreaks of pests in mosaic landscapes, which have received substantial attention worldwide. We collected data on global changes (landscape and climate) and economic damage caused by six main insect pests during 1951-2010 in China. Landscape changes had significant effects on all six insect pests. Pest damage increased significantly with increasing arable land area in agricultural landscapes. However, climate changes had no effect on damage caused by pests, except for the rice leaf roller (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenee) and armyworm (Mythimna separate (Walker)), which caused less damage to crops with increasing mean temperature. Our results indicate that there is slight evidence of possible offset effects of climate changes on the increasing damage from these two agricultural pests. Landscape changes have caused serious outbreaks of several species, which suggests the possibility of the use of landscape design for the control of pest populations through habitat rearrangement. Landscape manipulation may be used as a green method to achieve sustainable pest management with minimal use of insecticides and herbicides.

Farmer’s motivation to adopt sustainable agricultural practices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davide Menozzi

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The 2014-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP reform defines new rules for farmers including maintenance of the ecological focus area (EFA. Sustainability is also a requirement to meet consumer expectations and a competitive advantage for firms. This paper aims to evaluate the farmers’ intention to implement sustainable practices related to the EFA measure and to the private sustainability schemes proposed by the food industry. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB was applied on a sample of durum wheat producers to analyse intentions 1 to maintain 7% of the arable land as an EFA, and 2 to implement the private sustainability scheme. Structural equation modelling was applied to test for the relative importance of intention determinants. The farmers’ attitude and past behaviour positively affect intentions to implement the EFA, while perceived behavioural control and attitudes predict intentions to adopt the private sustainability scheme. These results suggest possible interventions that public authorities and supply chain leaders might implement to stimulate farmers’ sustainable behaviours. 

Evaluating strategies for sustainable intensification of U.S. agriculture through the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network

Science.gov (United States)

Sustainable intensification is an emerging model for agriculture designed to reconcile accelerating global demand for agricultural products with long-term environmental stewardship. Defined here as increasing agricultural production while maintaining or improving environmental quality, sustainable i...

Sustainable intensification in agriculture as a factor of achieving food security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đurić Katarina

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Ending hunger, achieving food security and promoting sustainable development are at the top of the list of United Nations sustainable global development priorities after 2015. In addition to many positive effects, efforts of mankind regarding the reduction of rural poverty realized through the Green Revolution have had many negative effects, primarily related to natural resources. Irreversible devastation of land, air and water quality deterioration and jeopardizing biodiversity have been recognized as key elements of unsustainability of existing agricultural development concept. Consequently, there is a need for the adoption of a new concept of agricultural development, which will lie between intensive conventional and organic farming. The concept which has already been applied in some regions of the world and whose basic goal is to find a way to increase production with a negligible negative impact on the environment is sustainable agricultural intensification. The aim of this paper is to look at both positive and negative aspects of biotechnology development so far and point out the place and role the sustainable intensification concept should have in relation to conservation of natural resources and achievement of food security.

Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pigford, Ashlee Ann E.; Hickey, Gordon M.; Klerkx, Laurens

2018-01-01

Well-designed and supported innovation niches may facilitate transitions towards sustainable agricultural futures, which may follow different approaches and paradigms such as agroecology, local place-based food systems, vertical farming, bioeconomy, urban agriculture, and smart farming or digital

Shifting agriculture: the main cause of landscape degradation in the Central Spanish Pyrenees

Science.gov (United States)

Lasanta, Teodoro; Nadal-Romero, Estela; Errea, Paz

2017-04-01

Cereal agriculture occupied large areas in the Spanish Pyrenees to feed the population in a socio-economic system of limited exchanges with the outside. In the Western valleys, shifting agriculture constitutes the dominant field pattern, representing almost three-quarters of the traditional agricultural space (Lasanta et al., in press). These were cultivated at times of heavy population growth, necessitating steep and stony hillsides with poor soil to be tilled, or the ones that were far away from the village. The fields were created by clearing the vegetation from a slope, then burning it to use the ash as a fertilizer. Cereal was grown for 3-4 years, after which they were abandoned for 20-30 years to recover fertility, and the cycle was repeated. Almost all the fields (99%) using shifting agriculture had been abandoned by the 1950s. This study analyzes the role of the shifting agriculture in soil erosion and landscape degradation. For this purpose, (i) experimental plots, which reproduce the traditional agriculture in the Pyrenees and the abandonment processes, and (ii) the cartography made from the SIOSE (2009), which shows the present land cover 50 years after cropland abandonment, were used. The results show that shifting agriculture caused higher soil losses than other agricultural uses (1.36 kg m-2 yr-1): fallow land (0.87 kg m-2 yr-1), chemically fertilized cereal (0.86 kg m-2 yr-1) and meadow (0.14 kg m-2 yr-1). Also, after land abandonment, soil losses are higher in shifting agriculture (0.78 kg m-2 yr-1) than cereal lands (0.73 kg m-2 yr-1). The burning of the shrub cover and the use of ashes as fertilizer did not contribute to improve the soil quality, which explains both the higher soil losses during the cultivated period and after the abandonment, since slower plant succession occurs. The results obtained from the SIOSE confirm that the change from meadows to shrubland is relatively fast, as a consequence of the low relationship with livestock

Are Organic Standards Sufficient to Ensure Sustainable Agriculture? Lessons From New Zealand’s ARGOS and Sustainability Dashboard Projects

OpenAIRE

Merfield, Charles; Moller, Henrik; Manhire, Jon; Rosin, Chris; Norton, Solis; Carey, Peter; Hunt, Lesley; Reid, John; Fairweather, John; Benge, Jayson; Le Quellec, Isabelle; Campbell, Hugh; Lucock, David; Saunders, Caroline; MacLeod, Catriona

2015-01-01

Our review concludes that organic standards need to account for a broader set of criteria in order to retain claims to ‘sustainability’. Measurements of the ecological, economic and social outcomes from over 96 kiwifruit, sheep/beef and dairy farms in New Zealand between 2004 and 2012 by The Agricultural Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) project showed some enhanced ecosystem services from organic agriculture that will assist a “land-sharing” approach for sustainable land management. H...

Selecting landscape metrics as indicators of spatial heterogeneity-A comparison among Greek landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Plexida, Sofia G.; Sfougaris, Athanassios I.; Ispikoudis, Ioannis P.; Papanastasis, Vasilios P.

2014-02-01

This paper investigates the spatial heterogeneity of three landscapes along an altitudinal gradient and different human land use. The main aim was the identification of appropriate landscape indicators using different extents. ASTER image was used to create a land cover map consisting of three landscapes which differed in altitude and land use. A number of landscape metrics quantifying patch complexity, configuration, diversity and connectivity were derived from the thematic map at the landscape level. There were significant differences among the three landscapes regarding these four aspects of landscape heterogeneity. The analysis revealed a specific pattern of land use where lowlands are being increasingly utilized by humans (percentage of agricultural land = 65.84%) characterized by physical connectedness (high values of Patch Cohesion Index) and relatively simple geometries (low values of fractal dimension index). The landscape pattern of uplands was found to be highly diverse based upon the Shannon Diversity index. After selecting the scale (600 ha) where metrics values stabilized, it was shown that metrics were more correlated at the small scale of 60 ha. From the original 24 metrics, 14 individual metrics with high Spearman correlation coefficient and Variance Inflation Factor criterion were eliminated, leaving 10 representative metrics for subsequent analysis. Data reduction analysis showed that Patch Density, Area-Weighted Mean Fractal Dimension Index and Patch Cohesion Index are suitable to describe landscape patterns irrespective of the scale. A systematic screening of these metrics could enhance a deeper understanding of the results obtained by them and contribute to a sustainable landscape management of Mediterranean landscapes.

Sustainable Uses of FGD Gypsum in Agricultural Systems: Introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Watts, Dexter B; Dick, Warren A

2014-01-01

Interest in using gypsum as a management tool to improve crop yields and soil and water quality has recently increased. Abundant supply and availability of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum, a by-product of scrubbing sulfur from combustion gases at coal-fired power plants, in major agricultural producing regions within the last two decades has attributed to this interest. Currently, published data on the long-term sustainability of FGD gypsum use in agricultural systems is limited. This has led to organization of the American Society of Agronomy's Community "By-product Gypsum Uses in Agriculture" and a special collection of nine technical research articles on various issues related to FGD gypsum uses in agricultural systems. A brief review of FGD gypsum, rationale for the special collection, overviews of articles, knowledge gaps, and future research directions are presented in this introductory paper. The nine articles are focused in three general areas: (i) mercury and other trace element impacts, (ii) water quality impacts, and (iii) agronomic responses and soil physical changes. While this is not an exhaustive review of the topic, results indicate that FGD gypsum use in sustainable agricultural production systems is promising. The environmental impacts of FGD gypsum are mostly positive, with only a few negative results observed, even when applied at rates representing cumulative 80-year applications. Thus, FGD gypsum, if properly managed, seems to represent an important potential input into agricultural systems. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Technological Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture at a Crossroads: An Agroecological Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel A. Altieri

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Most efforts to improve agricultural production remain focused on practices driven by an intensification agenda and not by an agroecological one. Agroecology transcends the reformist notion of organic agriculture and sustainable intensification proponents who contend that changes can be achieved within the dominant agroindustrial system with minor adjustments or “greening” of the current neoliberal agricultural model. In the technological realm, merely modifying practices to reduce input use is a step in the right direction but does not necessarily lead to the redesign of a more self sufficient and autonomous farming system. A true agroecological technological conversion calls into question monoculture and the dependency on external inputs. Traditional farming systems provide models that promote biodiversity, thrive without agrochemicals, and sustain year-round yields. Conversion of conventional agriculture also requires major social and political changes which are beyond the scope of this paper.

Integrated analysis of the effects of agricultural management on nitrogen fluxes at landscape scale

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kros, J.; Frumeau, K.F.A.; Hensen, A.; Vries, de W.

2011-01-01

The integrated modelling system INITIATOR was applied to a landscape in the northern part of the Netherlands to assess current nitrogen fluxes to air and water and the impact of various agricultural measures on these fluxes, using spatially explicit input data on animal numbers, land use,

The Influence of Soil Displacement in Bavarian Agricultural Landscapes on the Land-Atmosphere Exchange of Greenhouse Gases.

Science.gov (United States)

Smidt, J.; Schmid, H. P. E.

2016-12-01

The terrestrial biosphere represents the world's second-largest stock of carbon, after the oceans, estimated to be 2300 Gt carbon with 1500 Gt of organic carbon (Kirkels et al., 2014). In agricultural landscapes, erosion and deposition caused by tillage and subsequent heavy precipitation redistribute large amounts of soil and therefore carbon (Van Oost et al., 2007). Erosion rates in areas of agricultural production are 1-2 magnitudes larger than in areas covered with native vegetation (Montgomery, 2007). Landscapes in the German state of Bavaria have been used for agricultural production for thousands of years. Within the framework of the project "Bavarian Landscapes Under Climate Change," a multi-method approach is taken. At two distinct watersheds in Bavaria, we attempt to quantify the effect of soil displacement on the fluxes of CO2, N2O and CH4 using continuous eddy covariance (EC) data, small manual gas chamber measurements and a soil laboratory incubation experiment designed to simulate an erosion event. The pre-alpine site of Rottenbuch, part of the TERENO network, is located at 690 masl and characterized by molasses and carbonic/dolomitic fluvioglacial sediments. The Otterbach site, part of the Bavarian Forest, lies at 350 masl and is dominated by granite and gneiss rock. The sites have an annual precipitation of 1200 and 700 mm, respectively. In Rottenbuch, the downslope area is managed grassland and the upslope area is grazed part of the year. In Otterbach, the downslope field is organic grassland, and the upslope area is used for agricultural production. There is a standard EC station at each site, as well as automatic chambers (Rottenbuch) and manual chambers (Otterbach). The data collected will be used to calibrate, run and verify numerical models to ascertain the sensitivity of the fluxes to biological, biochemical and physical processes and ultimately bring light to the question of agricultural landscapes as sinks or sources of greenhouse gases.

The Role of Biotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Views and Perceptions among Key Actors in the Swedish Food Supply Chain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karin Edvardsson Björnberg

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Researchers have put forward agricultural biotechnology as one possible tool for increasing food production and making agriculture more sustainable. In this paper, it is investigated how key actors in the Swedish food supply chain perceive the concept of agricultural sustainability and the role of biotechnology in creating more sustainable agricultural production systems. Based on policy documents and semi-structured interviews with representatives of five organizations active in producing, processing and retailing food in Sweden, an attempt is made to answer the following three questions: How do key actors in the Swedish food supply chain define and operationalize the concept of agricultural sustainability? Who/what influences these organizations’ sustainability policies and their respective positions on agricultural biotechnology? What are the organizations’ views and perceptions of biotechnology and its possible role in creating agricultural sustainability? Based on collected data, it is concluded that, although there is a shared view of the core constituents of agricultural sustainability among the organizations, there is less explicit consensus on how the concept should be put into practice or what role biotechnology can play in furthering agricultural sustainability.

Transdisciplinary Challenges for Sustainable Management of Mediterranean Landscapes in the Global Information Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zev Naveh

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The present chaotic transformation from the industrial to the global information society is accelerating the ecological, social and economic unsustainability. The rapidly growing unsustainable, fossil energy powered urbanindustrial technosphere and their detrimental impacts on nature and human well-being are threatening the solar energy powered natural and seminatural biosphere landscapes and their vital ecosystem services. A sustainability revolution is therefore urgently needed, requiring a shift from the „fossil age“ to the „solar age“ of a new world economy, coupled with more sustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns. The sustainable future of viable multifunctional biosphere landscapes of the Mediterranean Region and elsewhere and their biological and cultural richness can only be ensured by a post-industrial symbiosis between nature and human society. For this purpose a mindset shift of scientists and professionals from narrow disciplinarity to transdisciplinarity is necessary, dealing with holistic land use planning and management, in close cooperation with land users and stakeholders. To conserve and restore the rapidly vanishing and degrading Mediterranean uplands and highest biological ecological and cultural landscape ecodiversity, their dynamic homeorhetic flow equilibrium, has to be maintained by continuing or simulating all anthropogenic processes of grazing, browsing by wild and domesticated ungulates. Catastrophic wildfires can be prevented only by active fire and fuel management, converting highly inflammable pine forests and dense shrub thickets into floristically enriched, multi- layered open woodlands and recreation forests.

Understanding robustness as an image of sustainable agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goede, de D.M.

2014-01-01

The general aim of the research described in this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the conceptualisation of robustness in agricultural science as well as its relevance to sustainability. Robustness rapidly gained attention as a potential solution for a variety of

Soil Erosion and Agricultural Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Montgomery, D. R.

2009-04-01

Data drawn from a global compilation of studies support the long articulated contention that erosion rates from conventionally plowed agricultural fields greatly exceed rates of soil production, erosion under native vegetation, and long-term geological erosion. Whereas data compiled from around the world show that soil erosion under conventional agriculture exceeds both rates of soil production and geological erosion rates by up to several orders of magnitude, similar global distributions of soil production and geological erosion rates suggest an approximate balance. Net soil erosion rates in conventionally plowed fields on the order of 1 mm/yr can erode typical hillslope soil profiles over centuries to millennia, time-scales comparable to the longevity of major civilizations. Well-documented episodes of soil loss associated with agricultural activities date back to the introduction of erosive agricultural methods in regions around the world, and stratigraphic records of accelerated anthropogenic soil erosion have been recovered from lake, fluvial, and colluvial stratigraphy, as well as truncation of soil stratigraphy (such as truncated A horizons). A broad convergence in the results from studies based on various approaches employed to study ancient soil loss and rates of downstream sedimentation implies that widespread soil loss has accompanied human agricultural intensification in examples drawn from around the world. While a broad range of factors, including climate variability and society-specific social and economic contexts — such as wars or colonial relationships — all naturally influence the longevity of human societies, the ongoing loss of topsoil inferred from studies of soil erosion rates in conventional agricultural systems has obvious long-term implications for agricultural sustainability. Consequently, modern agriculture — and therefore global society — faces a fundamental question over the upcoming centuries. Can an agricultural system

Considering the normative, systemic and procedural dimensions in indicator-based sustainability assessments in agriculture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Binder, Claudia R.; Feola, Giuseppe; Steinberger, Julia K.

2010-01-01

This paper develops a framework for evaluating sustainability assessment methods by separately analyzing their normative, systemic and procedural dimensions as suggested by Wiek and Binder [Wiek, A, Binder, C. Solution spaces for decision-making - a sustainability assessment tool for city-regions. Environ Impact Asses Rev 2005, 25: 589-608.]. The framework is then used to characterize indicator-based sustainability assessment methods in agriculture. For a long time, sustainability assessment in agriculture has focused mostly on environmental and technical issues, thus neglecting the economic and, above all, the social aspects of sustainability, the multi-functionality of agriculture and the applicability of the results. In response to these shortcomings, several integrative sustainability assessment methods have been developed for the agricultural sector. This paper reviews seven of these that represent the diversity of tools developed in this area. The reviewed assessment methods can be categorized into three types: (i) top-down farm assessment methods; (ii) top-down regional assessment methods with some stakeholder participation; (iii) bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary methods with stakeholder participation throughout the process. The results readily show the trade-offs encountered when selecting an assessment method. A clear, standardized, top-down procedure allows for potentially benchmarking and comparing results across regions and sites. However, this comes at the cost of system specificity. As the top-down methods often have low stakeholder involvement, the application and implementation of the results might be difficult. Our analysis suggests that to include the aspects mentioned above in agricultural sustainability assessment, the bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary methods are the most suitable ones.

Sustainable City Regions: Re-localising Landscapes in a Globalising World

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Thayer Jnr

2004-06-01

Full Text Available This paper emphasises physical, technological and economic variables in a globalising world, and how they might influence local economies and local landscapes. With the expected 'big rollover' in demand versus supply of oil in the next decade, the scale of the landscape will change in response to a permanent rise in the price of transportation and shipping fuels. Air travel will become less accessible, as will shipping of high mass, low value-added materials and goods. This will necessitate the re-establishment of more local supplies and shorter transport distances for people and goods, and for the first time in human history the perceived size of the world will expand. In response, the 'grain' of the landscape will become finer. More people will populate the rural landscape, while cities and towns will become more compact. The landscape is influenced by the three major operative technological systems (matter, energy and information. While the depletion of oil will greatly affect matter and energy, it will have less influence on information, which is relatively immune from entropic thermodynamic effects. While source-to-end-use distances will shorten, world per-capita energy expenditures will fall, and more local goods will be created and consumed, it remains to be seen whether this contraction in the scale of the instrumental landscape will be matched by more localised ownership, or by continued globalisation of corporate systems of production and distribution. Assuming the former is preferable, the paper concludes by suggesting that the bioregion, or natural 'life place', is the appropriate location for the protection of biodiversity, sustained use of resources, and identity and life satisfaction of local inhabitants.

Effects of farm heterogeneity and methods for upscaling on modelled nitrogen losses in agricultural landscapes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalgaard, Tommy; Hutchings, Nicholas John; Dragosits, U

2011-01-01

The aim of this study is to illustrate the importance of farm scale heterogeneity on nitrogen (N) losses in agricultural landscapes. Results are exemplified with a chain of N models calculating farm-N balances and distributing the N-surplus to N-losses (volatilisation, denitrification, leaching......) and soil-N accumulation/release in a Danish landscape. Possible non-linearities in upscaling are assessed by comparing average model results based on (i) individual farm level calculations and (ii) averaged inputs at landscape level. Effects of the non-linearities that appear when scaling up from farm...... to landscape are demonstrated. Especially in relation to ammonia losses the non-linearity between livestock density and N-loss is significant (p > 0.999), with around 20–30% difference compared to a scaling procedure not taking this non-linearity into account. A significant effect of farm type on soil N...

Sustainable land management : strategies to cope with the marginalisation of agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brouwer, F.M.; Rheenen, van T.; Dhillion, S.; Elgersma, A.M.

2008-01-01

In large parts of the world, the reduction in the viability of agriculture and rural areas is an escalating problem. "Sustainable Land Management" offers a contemporary overview of the strategies employed to cope with the marginalisation of agriculture, through analyses of case studies and regional

The influence of mistletoes on birds in an agricultural landscape of central Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Zuria, Iriana; Castellanos, Ignacio; Gates, J. Edward

2014-11-01

Mistletoes are hemiparasitic flowering plants that function as keystone resources in forests and woodlands of temperate regions, where a positive relationship between mistletoe density and avian species richness has been observed. Mistletoes have been less studied in tropical regions and the relationship between birds and mistletoes has seldom been explored in tropical agricultural systems. Therefore, we studied the presence of infected trees and infection prevalence (i.e., number of parasitized trees/total number of trees) by Psittacanthus (Loranthaceae) mistletoes in 23 hedgerows located in an agricultural landscape of central Mexico during the dry and rainy seasons, and investigated the relationship between bird species richness and abundance and the abundance of mistletoes. We found a mean of 74 mistletoe plants per 100-m transect of only one species, Psittacanthus calyculatus. Thirty-one percent of the trees surveyed were infected and tree species differed in infection prevalence, mesquite (Prosopis laevigata) being the most infected species with 86% of the surveyed trees infected. For both seasons, we found a positive and significant association between bird species richness and number of mistletoe plants. The same pattern was observed for total bird abundance. Many resident and Neotropical migratory birds were observed foraging on mistletoes. Our results show that mistletoes are important in promoting a higher bird species richness and abundance in tropical agricultural landscapes.

McSustainability and McJustice: Certification, Alternative Food and Agriculture, and Social Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maki Hatanaka

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Alternative food and agriculture movements increasingly rely on market-based approaches, particularly voluntary standards and certification, to advance environmental sustainability and social justice. Using a case study of an ecological shrimp project in Indonesia that became certified organic, this paper raises concerns regarding the impacts of certification on alternative food and agriculture movements, and their aims of furthering sustainability and justice. Drawing on George Ritzer’s McDonaldization framework, I argue that the ecological shrimp project became McDonaldized with the introduction of voluntary standards and certification. Specifically, efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control became key characteristics of the shrimp project. While the introduction of such characteristics increased market access, it also entailed significant costs, including an erosion of trust and marginalization and alienation of farmers. Given such tradeoffs, in concluding I propose that certification is producing particular forms of environmental sustainability and social justice, what I term McSustainability and McJustice. While enabling the expansion of alternative food and agriculture, McSustainability and McJustice tend to allow little opportunity for farmer empowerment and food sovereignty, as well as exclude aspects of sustainable farming or ethical production that are not easily measured, standardized, and validated.

Addressing the multi-scale lapsus of landscape : multi-scale landscape process modelling to support sustainable land use : a case study for the Lower Guadalhorce valley South Spain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schoorl, J.M.

2002-01-01

"Addressing the Multi-scale Lapsus of Landscape" with the sub-title "Multi-scale landscape process modelling to support sustainable land use: A case study for the Lower Guadalhorce valley South Spain" focuses on the role of