New South Wales Vegetation classification and Assessment: Part 3, plant communities of the NSW Brigalow Belt South, Nandewar and west New England Bioregions and update of NSW Western Plains and South-western Slopes plant communities, Version 3 of the NSWVCA database

This fourth paper in the NSW Vegetation Classification and Assessment series covers the Brigalow Belt South-/1(BBS) and Nandewar (NAN) Bioregions and the western half of the New England Bioregion (NET), an area of 9.3 million hectares being 11.6% of NSW. It completes the NSWVCA coverage for the Border Rivers-Gwydir and Namoi CMA areas and records plant communities in the Central West and Hunter–Central Rivers CMA areas. In total, 585 plant communities are now classified in the NSWVCA covering 11.5 of the 18 Bioregions in NSW (78% of the State). Of these 226 communities are in the NSW Western Plains and 416 are in the NSW Western Slopes. 315 plant communities are classified in the BBS, NAN and west-NET Bioregions including 267 new descriptions since Version 2 was published in 2008. Descriptions of the 315 communities are provided in a 919 page report on the DVD accompanying this paper along with updated reports on other inland NSW bioregions and nine Catchment Management Authority areas fully or partly classified in the NSWVCA to date. A read-only version of Version 3 of the NSWVCA database is on the DVD for use on personal computers. A feature of the BBS and NAN Bioregions is the array of ironbark and bloodwood Eucalyptusdominated shrubby woodlands on sandstone and acid volcanic substrates extending from Dubbo to Queensland. This includes iconic natural areas such as Warrumbungle and Mount Kaputar National Parks and the 500,000 ha Pilliga Scrub forests. Large expanses of basalt-derived soils support grassy box woodland and native grasslands including those on the Liverpool Plains; near Moree; and around Inverell, most of which are cleared and threatened. Wetlands occur on sodic soils near Yetman and in large clay gilgais in the Pilliga region. Sedgelands are rare but occupy impeded creeks. Aeolian lunettes occur at Narran Lake and near Gilgandra. Areas of deep sand contain Allocasuarina, eucalypt mallee and Melaleuca uncinata heath. Tall grassy or ferny open forests occur on mountain ranges above 1000m elevation in the New England Bioregion and on the Liverpool Range while grassy box woodlands occupy lower elevations with lower rainfall and higher temperatures. The vegetation classification and assessment is based on over 100 published and unpublished vegetation surveys and map unit descriptions, expert advice, extra plot sampling and data analysis and over 25 000 km of road traverse with field checking at 805 sites. Key sources of data included floristic analyses produced in western regional forest assessments in the BBS and NAN Bioregions, floristic analyses in over 60 surveys of conservation reserves and analysis of plot data in the western NET Bioregion and covering parts of the Namoi and Border Rivers- Gwydir CMA areas. Approximately 60% of the woody native vegetation in the study area has been cleared resulting in large areas of “derived” native grasslands. As of June 2010, 7% of the area was in 136 protected areas and 127 of the 315 plant communities were assessed to be adequately protected in reserves. Using the NSWVCA database threat criteria, 15 plant communities were assessed as being Critically Endangered, 59 Endangered, 60 Vulnerable, 99 Near Threatened and 82 Least Concern. 61 of these communities are assessed as part of NSW or Commonwealth-listed Threatened Ecological Communities. Current threats include expanding dryland and irrigated cropping on alluvial plains, floodplains and gently undulating topography at lower elevations; over-grazing of steep hills; altered water tables and flooding regimes; localized mining; and the spread of exotic species, notably Coolatai Grass (Hyparrhenia hirta)

Planning and managing water resources at the river-basin level: emergence and evolution of a concept

River basin development / Legislation / Environmental effects / Water resource management / Watersheds

Incentive-Based Instruments for Water Management

This report provides a synthesis review of a set of incentive-based instruments that have been employed to varying degrees around the world. It is part of an effort by The Rockefeller Foundation to improve understanding of both the potential of these instruments and their limitations. The report is divided into five sections. Section 1 provides an introduction to the synthesis review. Section 2 describes the research methodology. Section 3 provides background on policy instruments and detail on three incentive-based instruments -- water trading, payment for ecosystem services, and water quality trading -- describing the application of each, including their environmental, economic, and social performances, and the conditions needed for their implementation. Section 4 highlights the role of the private sector in implementing these instruments, and Section 5 provides a summary and conclusions

Tourism Development Strategies in the Context of Coast, Culture and Agriculture-Büyükmenderes Basin

Turkey, during nearly in a hundred years of development period have lived a process where population and income in rural areas have decreased but on the contrary urban and coastal areas have developed. Now, one of every four people live in urban settlements. During this process, the living environment and the quality of life has negatively effected by the concentration of the urban areas not as the planning has foreseen, the concretion of urban surfaces and insufficient reinforcement area problems. The naturalness of the rural areas, product diversity, open space, the relations of production, rural culture and lifestyle has become longed qualifications. Büyükmenderes basin with its nature of accessibility, integrity of coastal-plain-mountain where combined, different geographies, naturalness, rich fauna and flora, the sea, lakes, rivers, hot springs, special products, historical values and cultural diversity has a special place. At the same time the country's most important coastal tourism are the focus of the surface of the rear axle Ku?adas?-Bodrum. Increase in the density of urban settlements, inadequate reinforcement measures and the loss of legibility, rural poverty and abandonment of settlements inhabited by the problems of this scope requires new improvements and the development of new principles of sustainability. In this context Büyükmenderes basin is in great potential. To participate in the production process, nature sports facilities, health tourism through thermal resources, cultural tourism, access to a rich diversity of fauna and flora, opportunities provided by sea, lake, river sources, the local culture, lifestyle, recognition of settling relations, accommodation with local properties for the region will take different roles at all levels and contains programmability. In this study, such urban settlements like Aydin, Soke specified in the above content, for Büyükmenderes basin development and promotion strategies will be examined for the integrity of coastal tourism, culture, agriculture and a proposal of a model will be developed.

Research on Ecological Corridor Planning of Lanzhou Yuzhong Ecological Innovation City from the Perspective of Ecological Civilization

The practice and research of ecological civilization is a focus of current planning and design, as well as a scientific strategy under the current situation of resource constraint, environmental degradation and ecosystem degradation. Urban elements such as buildings, green land, farmland,water systems and mountains can be connected by ecological corridors into a green ecological system design.At present, many ecological and environmental problems, such as urban heat island effect, fog and haze, automobile exhaust have a negative effect on the construction of social ecological environment. In order to build a new modern city with prosperous economy, beautiful environment and social civilization, scientific and efficient ecological corridors should be designed to improve the environmental quality of the eco-city, and promote the construction and development of ecological civilization and green cities. Based on the relevant research and specific practices of ecological corridors at home and abroad,combine the needs of the planning and construction of the Yuzhong Ecological Innovation City, and discuss on the connotation and characteristics of ecological corridors, and discuss the key elements of ecological corridor planning.This article will take the ecological corridor planning of Yuzhong Eco Innovation City as an example. We design ecological corridor based on field investigation, literature and geographic information system..The planning and design of the ecological corridor in the planning area proposed in this paper can provide positive suggestion on the planning and design of the ecological corridor in other ecological innovation cities

Impacts of forest changes on hydrology: a case study of large watersheds in the upper reaches of Minjiang River watershed in China

Quantifying the effects of forest changes on hydrology in large watersheds is important for designing forest or land management and adaptation strategies for watershed ecosystem sustainability. Minjiang River watershed, located in the upper reach of the Yangtze River basin, plays a strategic role in the environmental protection and economic and social well-being for both the watershed and the entire Yangtze River basin. The watershed lies in the transition zone from Sichuan Basin to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with a size of 24 000 km<sup>2</sup>. Due to its strategic significance, severe historic deforestation and high sensitivity to climate change, the watershed has long been recognized as one of the highest priority watersheds in China for scientific research and resource management. The purpose of this review paper is to provide a state-of-the-art summary on what we have learned from several recently completed research programs (one of them known as "973 of the China National Major Fundamental Science" from 2002 to 2008). This summary paper focused on how land cover or forest change affected hydrology at both forest stand and watershed scales in this large watershed. Inclusion of two different spatial scales is useful, because the results from a small spatial scale (e.g. forest stand level) can help interpret the findings on a large spatial scale. Our review suggests that historic forest harvesting or land cover change has caused significant water yield increase due to reduction of forest canopy interception and evapotranspiration caused by removal of forest vegetation on both spatial scales. The impact magnitude caused by forest harvesting indicates that the hydrological effects of forest or land cover changes can be as important as those caused by climate change, while the opposite impact directions suggest their offsetting effects on water yield in the Minjiang River watershed. In addition, different types of forests have different magnitudes of evapotranspiration (ET), with the lowest in old-growth natural coniferous forests (<i>Abies faxoniana</i> Rehd. et Wils.) and the highest in coniferous plantations (e.g. <i>Picea asperata</i> Mast.) among major forest types in the study watershed. This suggests that selection of different types of forests can have an important role in ET and consequently water yield. Our synthesis indicates that future reforestation and climate change would likely produce the hydrological effects in the same direction and thus place double the pressure on water resource as both key drivers may lead to water yield reduction. The findings can support designing management strategies for protection of watershed ecological functions in the context of future land cover and climate changes

Special Issue: Food Sustainability, the Food System, and Alaskans

[Geography] -- The Alaska Food Policy Council: Everyone knows that food is important, but our dependence upon Outside for the stuff of life has finally begun to seem, well, just a little discomfiting to Alaska's policymakers. Once again, Alaskans are searching for a way to feed themselves. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Supermarkets in Fairbanks: Food must be affordable as well as accessible for a community to achieve food security. How well does Fairbanks, Alaska's second-largest city, stack up in this regard? / Alison Meadow -- [High-Latitude Agriculture] -- Homegrown Alaska: Farmer Profiles Open the Eyes of the Interior to the Scope of Local Agriculture: The scope of food grown by Interior farmers is staggering, and the breadth and variety of the farmers' characters is equally impressive. From Bethel to North Pole to Manley Hot Springs, there's more growing here than most people realize. / Nancy Tarnai -- Assessing Food security in Fairbanks, Alaska: There's a lot of farmers in the Interior, but finding out what they grow, what they need, and where they sell their agricultural products can by tricky. This senior thesis project answers several questions about agriculture in the Tanana Valley and points the way to determining how best to improve food security in the Fairbanks area. /Charles Caster -- Recovering from an aberration: The Future of Alaska's Livestock: Livestock is an integral part of agriculture, and this is true in Alaska as anywhere else: animals are raised for meat, milk, fiber, transportation, labor, and companionship. Or is there a difference in the Last Frontier? / Deirdre Helfferich -- Greenhouse: a place to grow: When the forty-year-old Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station greenhouse on the West Ridge of the UAF campus was dismantled, it was only a matter of months before a brand-new teaching and research greenhouse was constructed. / Nancy Tarnai and Deirdre Helfferich -- ARS shuts the door on Alaska research: Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack approved the closure of twelve Agricultural Research Service stations, including the ARS in Alaska, and despite a plea from US Senator Mark Begich. When the Sub-Arctic Research Unit and its gene bank close, the door will shut on a long history of research that won't be easily picked up by anyone else. / Nancy Tarnai -- [Events, People, & Places] Food -- Food Day begins with a bang: The first national Food Day celebration was inaugurated in 2011, and UAF was right there with an Iron Chef Surf vs. Turf Cookoff Challenge, Food Jeopardy, films, displays, and a delicious free all-local buffet. / Nancy Tarnai -- Buzz Klebesadel: An Alaskan author, scientist, and agricultural leader has passed on. -- [Natural Resources] -- Fisheries and food security in Alaska: Any discussion of food security in Alaska is incomplete without at least some attention to the current and potential role of fisheries. For thousands of years, coastal and living marine resources have provided a keystone for the cultural, economic, and environmental health and wellbeing of Alaska's people and communities. / Philip A. Loring and Hannah L. Harrison -- Seed libraries: Seed-Sharing on a Community Level: While many people are familiar with the concept of a seed bank, not so many are acquainted with the idea of a seed library. Now this new kind of lending institution has come to Alaska. / Deirdre Helfferich -- A guide to bumblebees of the Interior: A Taxonomic Key and Notes on BOMBUS Species: Bumblebees are important pollinators, and can even be more efficient than honeybees at crop pollination. Their tongues are longer, they can buzz pollinate, and there are lots of them in Alaska. With the recent die-offs of honeybees due to Colony Collapse Disorder, scientists are looking at native bees and other pollinators. / Rehanon Pampell, Alberto Pantoga, Derek S. Sikes, Patricia Holloway, and Charles Knight

Integrated water resources management for sustainable irrigation at the basin scale

The objective of this paper is to review the state of art on integrated water resources management (IWRM) approaches for sustainable irrigation at the basin scale under semi-arid and arid climatic conditions, with main emphasis on Latin America, but including case studies of other semi-arid and arid regions in the world. In Latin America the general concept of IWRM has proved to be hard to implement. Case studies recommend to develop the approach from lower to upper scale and oriented at the end-user. As IWRM is an interdisciplinary approach and used for very different objectives, the main emphasis is given to IWRM approaches for sustainable irrigation and their environmental aspects. The review shows that in Latin America the environmental impact is mostly analysed at the field level, the impact on the whole basin is less considered. Many publications present the development of models, advisory services and tools for decision support systems at a high technical level. Some papers present studies of environmental aspects of sustainable irrigation, especially for salt affected areas. Multi-criteria decision making models are developed for irrigation planning and irrigation scenarios are used to show the impact of different irrigation management decision. In general integrated approaches in Latin America are scarce