Integration of Nature-based solution (NBS) as adaptation in planning and policy remains a challenge due to lack of adequate information on economic feasibility. This is mainly due to non-availability of economic evaluation framework for informed decision. Present study tries to address this by examining the status of evaluation frameworks through a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2023. Based on the synthesis of the evidence a five-step framework, exclusively for economic evaluation of NBS as urban adaptation has been developed. Using this a novel, holistic, just, equitable and inclusive cyclical decision tool has been proposed. The review confirmed the lack of economic assessment and a holistic evaluation framework. The evaluation framework has been backed by operational guidance by providing comprehensive recommendations on the methodologies, tools and techniques and indicators and metrics that can be used for execution of each step. The proposed cyclical decision tool facilitates equity and justice by having provisions for ensuring equal participation of each stakeholder in decision making. It specifically ensures incorporation of plurality of knowledge and in particular value of the ecosystem services (ESs) from NBS. The tool has applicability across the urban spatial scale in cities of developed and developing economies.
Publication type: Methodological Article
Methodological article
As climate change transforms the biosphere, more comprehensive and biologically relevant measurements of changing conditions are needed. Traditional climate measurements are often constrained by geographically static, coarse, sparse and biased sampling, and only indirect links to ecological responses. Here we discuss how animal-borne sensors can deliver spatially fine-grain, biologically fine-tuned, relevant sampling of climatic conditions in support of ecological and climatic forecasting. Millions of fine-scale meteorological observations from over a thousand species have already been collected by animal-borne sensors. We highlight the opportunities that these growing data have for the intersection of biodiversity and climate science, particularly in terrestrial environments. Tagged animals worldwide could close critical data gaps, provide insights about changing ecosystems and broadly function as active environmental sentinels.
The need to ensure that rising investment in nature-based climate solutions delivers expected outcomes hinges on incorporating current and future climate into design and implementation. Technical guidelines and formal planning processes serve a purpose in ensuring the quality of climate-informed strategies for local projects. The inherent complexity, cost, and time required to use these tools, however, can make them inaccessible or daunting. Taking lessons learned from a decade of funding over 100 adaptation initiatives in conservation—some of which also provide mitigation benefits—we describe a simple rapid assessment framework for use by practitioners and funders. This framework, which we refer to as the 5Ws (what, when, where, why, and who) of climate-informed action, serves as a guide to make projects more robust to future climate.
Adverse effects of climate change are increasing around the world and the floods are posing significant challenges for water managers. With climate projections showing increased risks of storms and extreme precipitation, the use of traditional measures alone is no longer an option. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer a suitable alternative to reduce the risk of flooding and provide multiple benefits. However, planning such interventions requires careful consideration of various factors and local contexts. The present paper provides contribution in this direction and it proposes a methodology for allocation of large-scale NBS using suitability mapping. The methodology was implemented within the toolboxes of ESRI ArcMap software in order to map suitability for four types of NBS interventions: floodplain restoration, detention basins, retention ponds, and river widening. The toolboxes developed were applied to the case study area in Serbia, i.e., the Tamnava River basin. Flood maps were used to determine the volume of floodwater that needs to be stored for reducing flood risk in the basin and subsequent downstream areas. The suitability maps produced indicate the potential of the new methodology and its application as a decision-support tool for selection and allocation of large-scale NBS.
Healthy ecosystems such as forests and wetlands have a great potential to support adaptation to climate change and are the foundation of sustainable livelihoods. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) can help to protect and maintain healthy ecosystems providing resilience against the impacts of climate change. This paper explores the role of EbA in reconciling socio-economic development with the conservation and restoration of nature in Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya, East Africa. Using selected ecosystems in the Lake region, the paper identifies key EbA approaches and explores trade-offs and synergies at spatial and temporal scales and between different stakeholders. The research methods used for this study include site visits, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, participatory workshops and literature reviews. An analytical framework is applied to advance the understanding of EbA approaches and how they lead to synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services provision at spatial and temporal scales and multiple stakeholders. Our results show that EbA approaches such as ecosystem restoration have the potential to generate multiple adaptation benefits as well as synergies and trade-offs occurring at different temporal and spatial scales and affecting various stakeholder groups. Our paper underscores the need to identify EbA trade-offs and synergies and to explore the ways in which they are distributed in space and time and between different stakeholders to design better environmental and development programmes.
There has been a recent surge of interest in Nature-based Solutions, a concept encompassing a broad suite of ideas that have arisen from the intersection of ecology, engineering, sociology and economics. Solutions founded in nature are promised to resolve many issues resulting from global change, including reducing flood risk and air pollution, building social cohesion and enhancing resilience. However, what a Nature-based Solution means in practice remains unstructured and vaguely defined. Specifically, what is meant by Nature-based is not well defined and there has been little effort to rigorously understand how a solution is created. In response, we propose an integrated conceptual framework, extending the service-benefit relationship to include solutions, while acknowledging that multiple types of service exist (ecosystem services, technological services and labour). We present a method to measure the degree to which a solution is Nature-based: calculate the relative contribution of ecosystem services, compared with technological services and labour. The method and framework are applied to projects dealing with problems related to water pollution, demonstrating their applicability. The framework can be a useful tool to guide environmental managers in identifying both the scale and context at which, and the problems to which, Nature-based Solutions are applicable.
To bring to fruition the capability of nature-based solutions (NBS) in mitigating hydro-meteorological risks (HMRs) and facilitate their widespread uptake require a consolidated knowledge-base related to their monitoring methods, efficiency, functioning and the ecosystem services they provide. We attempt to fill this knowledge gap by reviewing and compiling the existing scientific literature on methods, including ground-based measurements (e.g. gauging stations, wireless sensor network) and remote sensing observations (e.g. from topographic LiDAR, multispectral and radar sensors) that have been used and/or can be relevant to monitor the performance of NBS against five HMRs: floods, droughts, heatwaves, landslides, and storm surges and coastal erosion. These can allow the mapping of the risks and impacts of the specific hydro-meteorological events. We found that the selection and application of monitoring methods mostly rely on the particular NBS being monitored, resource availability (e.g. time, budget, space) and type of HMRs. No standalone method currently exists that can allow monitoring the performance of NBS in its broadest view. However, equipments, tools and technologies developed for other purposes, such as for ground-based measurements and atmospheric observations, can be applied to accurately monitor the performance of NBS to mitigate HMRs. We also focused on the capabilities of passive and active remote sensing, pointing out their associated opportunities and difficulties for NBS monitoring application. We conclude that the advancement in airborne and satellite-based remote sensing technology has signified a leap in the systematic monitoring of NBS performance, as well as provided a robust way for the spatial and temporal comparison of NBS intervention versus its absence. This improved performance measurement can support the evaluation of existing uncertainty and scepticism in selecting NBS over the artificially built concrete structures or grey approaches by addressing the questions of performance precariousness. Remote sensing technical developments, however, take time to shift toward a state of operational readiness for monitoring the progress of NBS in place (e.g. green NBS growth rate, their changes and effectiveness through time). More research is required to develop a holistic approach, which could routinely and continually monitor the performance of NBS over a large scale of intervention. This performance evaluation could increase the ecological and socio-economic benefits of NBS, and also create high levels of their acceptance and confidence by overcoming potential scepticism of NBS implementations.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) can address climate change, biodiversity loss, human well-being and their interactions in an integrated way. A major barrier to achieving this is the lack of comprehensiveness in current carbon accounting which has focused on flows rather than stocks of carbon and led to perverse outcomes. We propose a new comprehensive approach to carbon accounting based on the whole carbon cycle, covering both stocks and flows, and linking changes due to human activities with responses in the biosphere and atmosphere. We identify enhancements to accounting, namely; inclusion of all carbon reservoirs, changes in their condition and stability, disaggregated flows, and coverage of all land areas. This comprehensive approach recognises that both carbon stocks (as storage) and carbon flows (as sequestration) contribute to the ecosystem service of global climate regulation. In contrast, current ecosystem services measurement and accounting commonly use only carbon sequestration measured as net flows, while greenhouse gas inventories use flows from sources to sinks. This flow-based accounting has incentivised planting and maintaining young forests with high carbon uptake rates, resulting, perversely, in failing to reveal the greater mitigation benefit from protecting larger, more stable and resilient carbon stocks in natural forests. We demonstrate the benefits of carbon storage and sequestration for climate mitigation, in theory as ecosystem services within an ecosystem accounting framework, and in practice using field data that reveals differences in results between accounting for stocks or flows. Our proposed holistic and comprehensive carbon accounting makes transparent the benefits, trade-offs and shortcomings of NbS actions for climate mitigation and sustainability outcomes. Adopting this approach is imperative for revision of ecosystem accounting systems under the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting and contributing to evidence-based decision-making for international conventions on climate (UNFCCC), biodiversity (CBD) and sustainability (SDGs).
The concept and establishment of Ecological Networks (EN) have been seen as a solution towards nature conservation strategies targeting biodiversity and ecological connectivity. Within this, the EN assumed a holistic view of land-use planning and biodiversity conservation as the core of the wider Green Infrastructure (GI) framework. The EN is considered a spatial concept recognized as a system of landscape structures or ecosystems, and a strategically connected fundamental infrastructure of abiotic and biotic systems, underlying the provision of multiple functions valuable to society. This concept moves beyond traditional approaches of “nature protection and preservation”, (re)focusing on the ecosystemic approach and the “continuum naturale”, emphasising the quality or potentiality of physical components, allowing the articulation with the nature conservation and at-risk areas. Portugal has long had legislation in place meant to protect the natural resources. Although the environmental policies are sectoral and unarticulated, and the environmental data is dispersed and absent. In addition, this study shows that the existing protected areas in Portugal, namely Natura 2000 and classified protected areas, are insufficient to ensure landscape ecological balance and avoid fragmentation. The main goal is to develop a methodology to map a National Ecological Network (NEN) for mainland Portugal, establish the theoretical framework of the EN/GI, by identifying and mapping the most valuable and sensitive areas that guarantee the ecosystem functioning through a multi-level ecological evaluation criteria that integrate the physical and biological systems. The Portuguese NEN map, with a 25 m spatial resolution, integrates in a single tool the Portuguese environmental policies more effectively, in order to facilitate its understanding and application into planning. Regarding the EN mapping method, it was used a GIS-based model made up of a sequence of analyses and evaluations that are driven by a GIS supported assessment of several indices/models used for each EN component. These NEN components were studied individually and collectively and the results, hierarchized in two levels, show that most of the ecological components do not overlap. The NEN1 has high biodiversity and ecological value, which means they are more vulnerable to anthropogenic activity. NEN1 covers a total of 67 % of the mainland, yet as of 2018, only 25 % is protected in nature conservation areas. Priority of action must be given to NEN1 in order to avoid/decrease landscape fragmentation, environmental risks, and natural disaster prevention. This paper contributes to the understanding of the NEN importance as an ecologically based tool towards a more sustainable landscape planning, and the basis of the development plans at national, regional and local levels in an integrated manner, instead of a compilation of disassociated often-contradictory planning tools. The benefits of a Portuguese NEN into a GI development and part of a (broader) nature base solutions by increasing the ecosystems quality and become less dependent on economic and social activities, helping in the restoration of degraded ecosystems and environmental risk prevention. Moreover, it represents the first attempt to map Portuguese EN, and addresses the lack of mapping and the inconsistent EN criteria. It is available online at http://epic-webgis-portugal.isa.ulisboa.pt.
Process-based restoration aims to reestablish normative rates and magnitudes of physical, chemical, and biological processes that sustain river and floodplain ecosystems. Ecosystem conditions at any site are governed by hierarchical regional, watershed, and reach-scale processes controlling hydrologic and sediment regimes; floodplain and aquatic habitat dynamics; and riparian and aquatic biota. We outline and illustrate four process-based principles that ensure river restoration will be guided toward sustainable actions: (1) restoration actions should address the root causes of degradation, (2) actions must be consistent with the physical and biological potential of the site, (3) actions should be at a scale commensurate with environmental problems, and (4) actions should have clearly articulated expected outcomes for ecosystem dynamics. Applying these principles will help avoid common pitfalls in river restoration, such as creating habitat types that are outside of a site’s natural potential, attempting to build static habitats in dynamic environments, or constructing habitat features that are ultimately overwhelmed by unconsidered system drivers.
We propose to enhance existing adaptive management efforts with a decision-analytical approach that can guide the initial selection of robust restoration alternative plans and inform the need to adjust these alternatives in the course of action based on continuously acquired monitoring information and changing stakeholder values. We demonstrate an application of enhanced adaptive management for a wetland restoration case study inspired by the Florida Everglades restoration effort. We find that alternatives designed to reconstruct the pre-drainage flow may have a positive ecological impact, but may also have high operational costs and only marginally contribute to meeting other objectives such as reduction of flooding. Enhanced adaptive management allows managers to guide investment in ecosystem modeling and monitoring efforts through scenario and value of information analyses to support optimal restoration strategies in the face of uncertain and changing information.
Managing forests under climate change requires adaptation. The adaptive capacity of forest tree populations is huge but not limitless. Integrating evolutionary considerations into adaptive forestry practice will enhance the capacity of managed forests to respond to climate-driven changes. Focusing on natural regeneration systems, we propose a general framework that can be used in various and complex local situations by forest managers, in combination with their own expertise, to integrate evolutionary considerations into decision making for the emergence of an evolution-oriented forestry. We develop a simple process-based analytical grid, using few processes and parameters, to analyse the impact of forestry practice on the evolution and evolvability of tree populations. We review qualitative and, whenever possible, quantitative expectations on the intensity of evolutionary drivers in forest trees. Then, we review the effects of actual and potential forestry practice on the evolutionary processes. We illustrate the complexity of interactions in two study cases: the evolutionary consequences for forest trees of biotic interactions and of highly heterogeneous environment. Evolution-oriented forestry may contribute adapting forests to climate change. It requires combining short-term and long-term objectives. We propose future lines of research and experimentation.
Freshwater ecosystems in many parts of the world have been severely affected by past management practices that have altered the volume, timing and quality of water flows and caused a decline in their ecological health. Some of these systems are also experiencing the negative impacts of climate change. Adaptation to climate change and the continual need to address existing ecological damage poses ongoing challenges for freshwater managers. In this paper we propose and discuss a Catchment Assessment Framework (CAF) that is used to evaluate existing and potential freshwater management actions, such as riparian revegetation and habitat connectivity, for their adaptation potential. The CAF was developed as a tool for prioritizing low risk climate change adaptation options in Australian catchment management. The CAF enables catchment managers and technical experts to assess management actions against seven inter-related criteria to provide a holistic assessment: relevance to the catchment; climate change adaptation potential, including potential for maladaptation and benefit under different climate scenarios; ecosystem service benefits; compatibility with other actions; implementation constraints; socio-economic consequences; and a risk assessment. It was developed and applied by assessing nine management options with stakeholders in three catchments within the Murray-Darling Basin in south-eastern Australia. We found that while management options are undertaken as a response to existing degradation, they can be used as building blocks for a climate change adaptation strategy that considers a range of different but complementary measures to better manage climate-related risk. The CAF enables practitioners to assess the advantages of a range of adaptation options and to subject them to their wider decision making and management planning.
Selection of areas for restoration should be based on cost-effectiveness analysis to attain the maximum benefit with a limited budget and overcome the traditional ad hoc allocation of funds for restoration projects. Restoration projects need to be planned on the basis of ecological knowledge and economic and social constraints. We devised a novel approach for selecting cost-effective areas for restoration on the basis of biodiversity and potential provision of 3 ecosystem services: carbon storage, water depuration, and coastal protection. We used Marxan, a spatial prioritization tool, to balance the provision of ecosystem services against the cost of restoration. We tested this approach in a mangrove ecosystem in the Caribbean. Our approach efficiently selected restoration areas that at low cost were compatible with biodiversity targets and that maximized the provision of one or more ecosystem services. Choosing areas for restoration of mangroves on the basis carbon storage potential, largely guaranteed the restoration of biodiversity and other ecosystem services
The marine environment plays an important role in controlling the amount of CO2 that remains within the earth’s atmosphere, but it has not received as much attention as the terrestrial environment regarding climate-change effects, mitigation programmes, and action plans. Potential physical effects of climate change within the marine environment, including ocean acidification, changes in winds that drive upwelling and ocean circulation patterns, increasing global sea surface temperatures, and sea level rise, can result in dramatic changes within marine and coastal ecosystems. Often, marine resource managers feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of this issue and are therefore uncertain how to begin to take action. It may seem that they do not have the time, funding, or staff to take on a challenge as large as climate change, and fail to act as a result. Using NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary as a case study, this paper outlines the need to act now and presents an easy-to-use process guide, providing managers options to incorporate effectively the influences of climate change into management strategies, as well as mitigate these influences through community outreach and a reduction in workplace emissions.
Tropical coastal communities face the impacts of climate change with increasing frequency and severity, which exacerbates existing local threats to natural resources and the societies that depend on them. Climate change presents a unique opportunity to reconsider how community-based planning is used to (1) improve overall climate knowledge, both through communicating climate science and incorporating local knowledge; (2) give equal consideration to the social and ecological aspects of community health and resilience; and (3) integrate multisector planning to maximize community benefits and minimize unintended negative impacts. This article describes a tool developed to respond to these opportunities in Micronesia and the Coral Triangle region, Adapting to a Changing Climate: Guide to Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) and Management Planning. It discusses challenges and lessons learned based on the process of the tool development, training with local communities and stakeholders, and input from those who have implemented the tool.
Ecosystems provide multiple benefits to people, including climate regulation. Previous efforts to quantify this ecosystem service have been either largely conceptual or based on complex atmospheric models. Here, we review previous research on this topic and propose a new and simple analytical approach for estimating the physical regulation of climate by ecosystems. The proposed metric estimates how land-cover change affects the loading of heat and moisture into the atmosphere, while also accounting for the relative contribution of wind-transported heat and moisture. Although feedback dynamics between land, atmosphere, and oceans are not modeled, the metric compares well with previous studies for several regions. We find that ecosystems have the strongest influence on surface climatic conditions in the boreal and tropical regions, where temperature and moisture changes could substantially offset or magnify greenhouse-forced changes. This approach can be extended to estimate the effects of changing land cover on local, physical climate processes that are relevant to society.
Context: Integrated conservation decision-making frameworks that help to design or adjust practices that are cognisant of environmental change and adaptation are urgently needed. Objective: We demonstrate how a landscape vulnerability framework combining sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and exposure to climate change framed along two main axes of concern can help to identify potential strategies for conservation and adaptation decision-making, using a landscape in Madagascar’s spiny forest as a case-study. Methods: To apply such a vulnerability landscape assessment, we inferred the sensitivity of habitats using temporal and spatial botanical data-sets, including the use of fossil pollen data and vegetation surveys. For understanding adaptive capacity, we analysed existing spatial maps (reflecting anthropogenic stressors) showing the degree of habitat connectivity, matrix quality and protected area coverage for the different habitats in the landscape. Lastly, for understanding exposures, we used climate change predictions in Madagascar, together with a digital elevation model. Results: The fossil pollen data showed how sensitive arid-adapted species were to past climate changes, especially the conditions between 1000 and 500 cal yr BP. The spatial analysis then helped locate habitats on the two-dimensional axes of concern integrating sensitivity, adaptive capacity and climate change exposure. By identifying resistant, resilient, susceptible, and sensitive habitats to climate change in the landscape under study, we identify very different approaches to integrate conservation and adaptation strategies in contrasting habitats. Conclusion: This framework, illustrated through a case study, provides easy guidance for identifying potential integrated conservation and adaptation strategies, taking into account aspects of climate vulnerability and conservation capacity.
Despite the growing interest in Ecosystem-based Adaptation, there has been little discussion of how this approach could be used to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change, while ensuring the continued provision of ecosystem services on which farming depends. Here we provide a framework for identifying which agricultural practices could be considered ‘Ecosystem-based Adaptation’ practices, and highlight the opportunities and constraints for using these practices to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. We argue that these practices are (a) based on the conservation, restoration or management of biodiversity, ecosystem processes or services, and (b) improve the ability of crops and livestock to maintain crop yields under climate change and/or by buffering biophysical impacts of extreme weather events or increased temperatures. To be appropriate for smallholder farmers, these practices must also help increase their food security, increase or diversify their sources of income generation, take advantage of local or traditional knowledge, be based on local inputs, and have low implementation and labor costs. To illustrate the application of this definition, we provide some examples from smallholders’ coffee management practices in Mesoamerica. We also highlight three key obstacles that currently constrain the use of Ecosystem-based Adaptation practices (i) the need for greater understanding of their effectiveness and the factors that drive their adoption, (ii) the development supportive and integrated agriculture and climate change policies that specifically promote them as part of a broader agricultural adaptation program; and (iii) the establishment and maintaining strong and innovative extension programs for smallholder farmers. Our framework is an important starting point for identifying which Ecosystem-based Adaptation practices are appropriate for smallholder farmers and merit attention in international and national adaptation efforts.
Rapid climate change poses complex challenges for conservation, especially in tropical developing countries where biodiversity is high while financial and technical resources are limited. The complexity is heightened by uncertainty in predicted effects, both for ecological systems and human communities that depend heavily on natural resource extraction and use. Effective conservation plans and measures must be inexpensive, fast-acting, and able to increase the resilience of both the ecosystem and the social-ecological system. We present conservation practitioners with a framework that strategically integrates climate change planning into connectivity measures for tropical mountain ecosystems in Costa Rica. We propose a strategy for doubling the amount of habitat currently protected in riparian corridors using measures that are relatively low cost and fast-acting, and will employ and expand human capital. We argue that habitat connectivity must be enhanced along latitudinal gradients, but also within the same elevational bands, via a lattice-work corridor system. This is needed to facilitate range shifts for mobile species and evolutionary adaptation for less mobile species. We think that conservation measures within the elevational bands must include conservation-friendly land uses that improve current and future human livelihoods under dynamic conditions. Key components include community involvement, habitat priority-setting, forest landscape restoration, and environmental services payments. Our approach is fundamentally adaptive in that the conservation measures employed are informed by on-the-ground successes and failures and modified accordingly, but are relatively low risk and fast-acting. Our proposal, if implemented, would satisfy tenets of climate-smart conservation, improve the resilience of human and ecological communities, and be a model for other locations facing similar challenges.
A methodology is presented to construct supply curves and cost–supply curves for carbon plantations based on land-use scenarios from the Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment (IMAGE 2). A sensitivity analysis for assessing which factors are most important in shaping these curves is also presented. In the IPCC SRES B2 Scenario, the carbon sequestration potential on abandoned agricultural land increases from 60 MtC/year in 2010 to 2,700 MtC/year in 2100 for prices up to 1,000 $/tC, assuming harvest when the mean annual increment decreases and assuming no environmental, economical or political barriers in the implementation-phase. Taking these barriers into consideration would reduce the potential by at least 60%. On the other hand, the potential will increase 55 to 75% if plantations on harvested timberland are considered. Taking into account land and establishment costs, the largest part of the potential up to 2025 can be supplied below 100 $/tC (In this article all dollar values are in US dollars of 1995, unless indicated otherwise.). Beyond 2050, more than 50% of the costs come to over 200 $/tC. Compared to other mitigation options, this is relative cheap. So a large part of the potential will likely be used in an overall mitigation strategy. However, since huge emission reductions are probably needed, the relative contribution of plantations will be low (around 3%). The largest source of uncertainty with respect to both potentials and costs is the growth rate of plantations compared to the natural vegetation.
Massive deforestation induced by unplanned urbanization in the hilly watersheds of Brahmaputra basin, India, has led to ecological imbalance and is gradually transforming this basin into a multi-hazard zone. Removal of green cover is also becoming a matter of global concern, as it can accelerate the adverse impacts of climate change. People coming in search of work generally reside in the hills, as they cannot afford the high cost of land in plains. This has led to deforestation of the hilly area and has resulted in increased surface erosion from the upper catchments. Though sediment and water yield from these degraded watersheds could have been minimized by implementing ecologically sustainable management practices (EMPs), such as grass land, forest land and detention pond, poor economic conditions of the people stands in the way of field implementation. On the other hand, major industries, which can be held responsible for emission of greenhouse gases, can be asked to finance greenery development in these hilly watersheds through implementation of selected EMPs to earn carbon credit for them. To convert this concept into reality, the EMP combination must be selected in such a way that it restricts sediment and water yield from the watershed within the permissible limit and maximizes its carbon sequestration capacity at minimum possible cost. Such optimal planning is a prerequisite for preparing an acceptable logical agreement between Government and private companies. Keeping this in mind, an optimization model was developed and applied to a micro watershed of Guwahati to explore its applicability in actual field. The model developed in this study provides most logical carbon credit negotiation, subject to the availability of reliable value of CO2 sequestration for different EMPs.
Rajasthan presents evidence for the existence of one of the most advanced examples of ancient mining and accompanied deforestation to be found anywhere in the world. Mining continues to be an important economic activity contributing to 2% of the State Domestic Product and providing at least a 1.76 % share to the regular employment pool in Rajasthan. However, economic benefits of mineral extraction also accompany environmental, economic and social costs. Mine waste dumps and mined out areas viewed simply as the legacies of past may appear overwhelming environmental hazards presenting ugly picture of cultural landscape. However, mine wastes can be transformed into an opportunity for learning, adaptation and productivity enhancement for sustainable livelihoods through ecological restoration. Here we propose a strategy for mine spoil restoration aimed at creating a multifunctional ecosystem in mine waste dumps. We suggest that dredging and sediment removal from traditional tanks and ponds can potentially be used to prepare the substratum over the mine wastes for direct seeding. It will also create enhanced decentralized water storage capacity for wildlife and people. Our strategy combines the concomitant revival of traditional water harvesting systems, ground water recharge, enhanced biomass production and an adaptation to random recurrence of droughts in Rajasthan.
Ecosystem-based approaches (EBAs) to managing anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems, adapting to changes in ecosystem states (indicators of ecosystem health), and mitigating the impacts of state changes on ecosystem services are needed for sustainable development. EBAs are informed by integrated ecosystem assessments (IEAs) that must be compiled and updated frequently for EBAs to be effective. Frequently updated IEAs depend on the sustained provision of data and information on pressures, state changes, and impacts of state changes on services. Nowhere is this truer than in the coastal zone, where people and ecosystem services are concentrated and where anthropogenic pressures converge. This study identifies the essential indicator variables required for the sustained provision of frequently updated IEAs, and offers an approach to establishing a global network of coastal observations within the framework of the Global Ocean Observing System. The need for and challenges of capacity-building are highlighted, and examples are given of current programmes that could contribute to the implementation of a coastal ocean observing system of systems on a global scale. This illustrates the need for new approaches to ocean governance that can achieve coordinated integration of existing programmes and technologies as a first step towards this goal.
Decision making for the conservation and management of coral reef biodiversity requires an understanding of spatial variability and distribution of reef habitat types. Despite the existence of very high-resolution remote sensing technology for nearly two decades, comprehensive assessment of coral reef habitats at national to regional spatial scales and at very high spatial resolution is still scarce. Here, we develop benthic habitat maps at a sub-national scale by analyzing large multispectral QuickBird imagery dataset covering ~686 km2 of the main shallow coral fringing reef along the southern border with Tanzania (4.68°S, 39.18°E) to the reef end at Malindi, Kenya (3.2°S, 40.1°E). Mapping was conducted with a user approach constrained by ground-truth data, with detailed transect lines from the shore to the fore reef. First, maps were used to evaluate the present management system’s effectiveness at representing habitat diversity. Then, we developed three spatial prioritization scenarios based on differing objectives: (i) minimize lost fishing opportunity; (ii) redistribute fisheries away from currently overfished reefs; and (iii) minimize resource use conflicts. We further constrained the priority area in each prioritization selection scenario based on optionally protecting the least or the most climate exposed locations using a model of exposure to climate stress. We discovered that spatial priorities were very different based on the different objectives and on whether the aim was to protect the least or most climate-exposed habitats. Our analyses provide a spatially explicit foundation for large-scale conservation and management strategies that can account for ecosystem service benefits.