Fragmentation in Semi-Arid and Arid Landscapes

Fragmentation in Semi-Arid and Arid Landscapes

Author: Kathleen A. Galvin

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-10-12

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 1402049064

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With detailed data from nine sites around the world, the authors examine how the so-called ‘fragmentation’ of these fragile landscapes occurs and the consequences of this break-up for ecosystems and the people who depend on them. ‘Rangelands’ make up a quarter of the world’s landscape, and here, the case is developed that while fragmentation arises from different natural, social and economic conditions worldwide, it creates similar outcomes for human and natural systems.


Integrating Science and Policy

Integrating Science and Policy

Author: Roger E Kasperson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-08-06

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 113653900X

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As progress towards a greater knowledge in sustainability science continues, the question of how better to integrate scientific progress with actual decisions made by practitioners remains paramount. This book aims to help close the gap between science and practice. Based on a two year collaborative project between Harvard and Clark Universities, the book takes as its focus the vulnerability and resilience of people around the world to the effects of environmental change, a mature area of research in which one might expect the gap between science and policy/practice to have been extensively bridged. The book presents analysis of past studies, interviews conducted with the producers and users of scientific knowledge, and case studies performed by leading scholars across a spectrum of international settings and political systems. Crucially, the authors identify new directions and tools for closing the gap between science and policy across a range of situations and societies. The result is an illuminating collection of studies and analyses that suggest to researchers, students, practitioners, and policy-makers alike how best to ensure that high quality environmental research informs good environmental policy and practice. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors and authors are grateful to Lu Ann Pacenka, who formatted the text of the book. The editors also wish to express their appreciation to Bill Clark and Nancy Dickson of Harvard University, who commissioned and provided oversight for the preparation of the volume. Both editors and authors wish to express their appreciation to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for providing funds to support the project. Finally, the editors are grateful for the continuing support of the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University. Published with Science in Society


Rangeland Health

Rangeland Health

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1994-02-01

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0309048796

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Rangelands comprise between 40 and 50 percent of all U.S. land and serve the nation both as productive areas for wildlife, recreational use, and livestock grazing and as watersheds. The health and management of rangelands have been matters for scientific inquiry and public debate since the 1880s, when reports of widespread range degradation and livestock losses led to the first attempts to inventory and classify rangelands. Scientists are now questioning the utility of current methods of rangeland classification and inventory, as well as the data available to determine whether rangelands are being degraded. These experts, who are using the same methods and data, have come to different conclusions. This book examines the scientific basis of methods used by federal agencies to inventory, classify, and monitor rangelands; it assesses the success of these methods; and it recommends improvements. The book's findings and recommendations are of interest to the public; scientists; ranchers; and local, state, and federal policymakers.


Dryland East Asia

Dryland East Asia

Author: Jiquan Chen

Publisher: ISSN

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783110287868

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Ecosystem Science is a highly interdisciplinary field of global significance. This series - copublished by Higher Education Press (HEP) and De Gruyter Publishers - is devoted to prominent topics in the fundamentals of ecosystem science and its application. The series is targeted to an international audience of scientists and practitioners, while maintaining a strong emphasis on reaching scholars and the general public in China. This will be accomplished by publishing all ESA books in both English and Chinese.


Rangeland Systems

Rangeland Systems

Author: David D. Briske

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-04-12

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 3319467093

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This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresses the implications of these conceptual advances to management and policy. The third assesses several major challenges confronting global rangelands in the 21st century. This book will compliment applied range management textbooks by describing the conceptual foundation on which the rangeland profession is based. It has been written to be accessible to a broad audience, including ecosystem managers, educators, students and policy makers. The content is founded on the collective experience, knowledge and commitment of 80 authors who have worked in rangelands throughout the world. Their collective contributions indicate that a more comprehensive framework is necessary to address the complex challenges confronting global rangelands. Rangelands represent adaptive social-ecological systems, in which societal values, organizations and capacities are of equal importance to, and interact with, those of ecological processes. A more comprehensive framework for rangeland systems may enable management agencies, and educational, research and policy making organizations to more effectively assess complex problems and develop appropriate solutions.


Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia

Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia

Author: RebekaRebekah Plueckhahn

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2020-03-25

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1787351521

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What can the generative processes of dynamic ownership reveal about how the urban is experienced, understood and made in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia provides an ethnography of actions, strategies and techniques that form part of how residents precede and underwrite the owning of real estate property – including apartments and land – in a rapidly changing city. In doing so, it charts the types of visions of the future and perceptions of the urban form that are emerging within Ulaanbaatar following a period of investment, urban growth and subsequent economic fluctuation in Mongolia’s extractive economy since the late 2000s. Following the way that people discuss the ethics of urban change, emerging urban political subjectivities and the seeking of ‘quality’, Plueckhahn explores how conceptualisations of growth, multiplication, and the portioning of wholes influence residents’ interactions with Ulaanbaatar’s urban landscape. Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia combines a study of changing postsocialist forms of ownership with a study of the lived experience of recent investment-fuelled urban growth within the Asia region. Examining ownership in Mongolia’s capital reveals how residents attempt to understand and make visible the hidden intricacies of this changing landscape.


Climate Change and Water

Climate Change and Water

Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change / Working Group Technical Support Unit

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9789291691234

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The Technical Paper addresses the issue of freshwater. Sealevel rise is dealt with only insofar as it can lead to impacts on freshwater in coastal areas and beyond. Climate, freshwater, biophysical and socio-economic systems are interconnected in complex ways. Hence, a change in any one of these can induce a change in any other. Freshwater-related issues are critical in determining key regional and sectoral vulnerabilities. Therefore, the relationship between climate change and freshwater resources is of primary concern to human society and also has implications for all living species. -- page vii.