The effects of scales, flows and filters on property rights and collective action in watershed management:

Research and policy on property rights, collective action and watershed management requires good understanding of ecological and socio-political processes at different social-spatial scales. On-farm soil erosion is a plot or farm-level problem that can be mitigated through more secure property rights for individual farmers, while the sedimentation of streams and deterioration of water quality are larger-scale problems that may require more effective collective action and / or more secure property rights at the village or catchment scale. Differences in social-political contexts across nations and regions also shape property rights and collective action institutions. For example, circumstances in the Lake Victoria basin in East Africa require particular attention to collective action and property rights problems in specific “hot spot” areas where insecure tenure leads to overuse or under-investment. Circumstances in the uplands of Southeast Asia require analysis of the opportunities for negotiating more secure rights for farmers in exchange for stronger collective action by farmer groups for maintaining essential watershed functions.

Education for Regeneration

It seems to me that we must think in terms of regeneration and resurgence, as Simpson says, not mere sustainability. Following centuries of colonization and imperialism, industrial “development”, toxic pollution, and carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, the status quo is not to be sustained, but rather remediated. The impacts on the most vulnerable are crucially important for us all as a species. It is a myth that the rich will always be able to buy their way out of crises, and in any case, building an attractive future for humans requires regenerating the Earth for all life. One good place to start is by recognizing the heinous impacts of capitalist growth-driven economic systems. As someone who was trained as a neoclassical economist, I can state that the more you learn about economics, the more pernicious you realize it is. We need to admit the impossibility of privatizing all that is valuable, and the need to instead equitably govern the life-support systems (water, soil, air, forests, culture) that sustain humans and all life. This requires building education processes and systems that will be capable of transmitting skills for personal and collective responsibility, conflict resolution, “two-eyed seeing, 5 ” awareness of nature and others, and discerning appropriate behaviours. It also requires continually articulating for ourselves, and publicly, that individual greed is not deserving of respect or adulation; linking personal wealth with political power is not the only or the best way to run human systems; it always eventually leads to downfall. Humans can do better. An example of a sustainable way to culturally embed the redistribution of wealth, and balance material wealth against respect for long-term leadership (rather than allowing wealth and political/economic leadership to reinforce each other) is the potlatch ceremony traditional to several First Nations on the Pacific Coast

Image segmentation with adaptive region growing based on a polynomial surface model

A new method for segmenting intensity images into smooth surface segments is presented. The main idea is to divide the image into flat, planar, convex, concave, and saddle patches that coincide as well as possible with meaningful object features in the image. Therefore, we propose an adaptive region growing algorithm based on low-degree polynomial fitting. The algorithm uses a new adaptive thresholding technique with the L∞ fitting cost as a segmentation criterion. The polynomial degree and the fitting error are automatically adapted during the region growing process. The main contribution is that the algorithm detects outliers and edges, distinguishes between strong and smooth intensity transitions and finds surface segments that are bent in a certain way. As a result, the surface segments corresponding to meaningful object features and the contours separating the surface segments coincide with real-image object edges. Moreover, the curvature-based surface shape information facilitates many tasks in image analysis, such as object recognition performed on the polynomial representation. The polynomial representation provides good image approximation while preserving all the necessary details of the objects in the reconstructed images. The method outperforms existing techniques when segmenting images of objects with diffuse reflecting surfaces

The role of traditional land use systems in the well-being of rural Timor-Leste

Natural ecosystems and traditional land use systems have an important role in the life and well being of the rural population of Timor-Leste. Our objectives are: 1) to analyse the different functions that natural ecosystems and land use systems supply to the rural populations of Timor-Leste, identifying the goods and services produced and their economic value; 2) to relate the services produced by land use patterns with Timor-Leste rural population well being; and 3) to discuss the impacts of the present situation and to foresee changes on the well being of rural Timor-Leste. This paper is based on a multidisciplinary approach incorporating contributions from several fields of knowledge, and uses documentary sources, field observations and interviews. The land use patterns identified in Timor-Leste are: natural and semi-natural ecosystems, subsistence agriculture, sacred, housing, basic infrastructures and industries and services. These land use patterns produce a set of goods and which are essential for the survival and well-being of Timor-Leste rural communities. Key-words: Timor-Leste, natural ecosystems, land, well being, developmen

The promise and peril of intensive-site-based ecological research: insights from the Hubbard Brook ecosystem study

Abstract. Ecological research is increasingly concentrated at particular locations or sites. This trend reflects a variety of advantages of intensive, site-based research, but also raises important questions about the nature of such spatially delimited research: how well does site based research represent broader areas, and does it constrain scientific discovery?We provide an overview of these issues with a particular focus on one prominent intensive research site: the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), New Hampshire, USA. Among the key features of intensive sites are: long-term, archived data sets that provide a context for new discoveries and the elucidation of ecological mechanisms; the capacity to constrain inputs and parameters, and to validate models of complex ecological processes; and the intellectual cross-fertilization among disciplines in ecological and environmental sciences. The feasibility of scaling up ecological observations from intensive sites depends upon both the phenomenon of interest and the characteristics of the site. An evaluation of deviation metrics for the HBEF illustrates that, in some respects, including sensitivity and recovery of streams and trees from acid deposition, this site is representative of the Northern Forest region, of which HBEF is a part. However, the mountainous terrain and lack of significant agricultural legacy make the HBEF among the least disturbed sites in the Northern Forest region. Its relatively cool, wet climate contributes to high stream flow compared to other sites. These similarities and differences between the HBEF and the region can profoundly influence ecological patterns and processes and potentially limit the generality of observations at this and other intensive sites. Indeed, the difficulty of scaling up may be greatest for ecological phenomena that are sensitive to historical disturbance and that exhibit the greatest spatiotemporal variation, such as denitrification in soils and the dynamics of bird communities. Our research shows that end member sites for some processes often provide important insights into the behavior of inherently heterogeneous ecological processes. In the current era of rapid environmental and biological change, key ecological responses at intensive sites will reflect both specific local drivers and regional trends

Governance, scale and the environment: the importance of recognizing knowledge claims in transdisciplinary arenas

Any present day approach of the world’s most pressing environmental problems involves both scale and governance issues. After all, current local events might have long-term global consequences (the scale issue) and solving complex environmental problems requires policy makers to think and govern beyond generally used time-space scales (the governance issue). To an increasing extent, the various scientists in these fields have used concepts like social-ecological systems, hierarchies, scales and levels to understand and explain the “complex cross-scale dynamics” of issues like climate change. A large part of this work manifests a realist paradigm: the scales and levels, either in ecological processes or in governance systems, are considered as “real”. However, various scholars question this position and claim that scales and levels are continuously (re)constructed in the interfaces of science, society, politics and nature. Some of these critics even prefer to adopt a non-scalar approach, doing away with notions such as hierarchy, scale and level. Here we take another route, however. We try to overcome the realist-constructionist dualism by advocating a dialogue between them on the basis of exchanging and reflecting on different knowledge claims in transdisciplinary arenas. We describe two important developments, one in the ecological scaling literature and the other in the governance literature, which we consider to provide a basis for such a dialogue. We will argue that scale issues, governance practices as well as their mutual interdependencies should be considered as human constructs, although dialectically related to nature’s materiality, and therefore as contested processes, requiring intensive and continuous dialogue and cooperation among natural scientists, social scientists, policy makers and citizens alike. They also require critical reflection on scientists’ roles and on academic practices in general. Acknowledging knowledge claims provides a common ground and point of departure for such cooperation, something we think is not yet sufficiently happening, but which is essential in addressing today’s environmental problems

Hydrologic Variability and Change in the New England Region, USA

Traditional water resources management aims to ensure the steady and reliable water supply for human uses and maximize the economic benefits by dampening natural flow variability. However, such management practices essentially changes the flow regime in many ways and ecological degradation is one of the obvious consequences of that. Natural functioning and productivity of the native species require enough water flow in the streams and lake levels with sufficient quality. Thus, to protect the natural ecosystem diversity, sustainable water allocation policies have been developed and employed by many societies around the world. Chapter 587: In-stream Flow and Lake and Pond Water Levels is an excellent example of proactive management and planning within a water allocation framework in achieving long-term sustainability of water resources in Maine. Success of this water policy largely depends on using a reasonable guide of ranges of hydrologic variability that may occur in the future, as well as updating the policy to reflect changes in water resources from human activities. A primary context for this work is Maine\u27s newly established water allocation framework, Chapter 587. The focus of this study is twofold: (a) to analyze a multi-century tree-ring based record of droughts in Maine and a framework to estimate watershed-specific drought risk and (b) to understand the recent changes in the streamflow variability across the New England region, with a particular focus on the nature of surface runoff and baseflow relationships. We use the multi-century reconstructed PDSI record to understand the natural envelope of drought occurrence (severity and duration) in the state of Maine. This work is motivated by the need to augment the scientific basis to support the emerging water allocation framework in Maine, Chapter 587. Through a joint analysis of the reconstructed PDSI and historical streamflow record for twelve streams in the state of Maine, we find that: (a) the uncertainties around the current definition of natural drought in the Chapter 587 (based on the 20th century instrumental record) can be better understood within the context of the nature and severity of past droughts in this region, and (b) a drought index provides limited information regarding at-site hydrologic variations. To fill this knowledge gap, a drought index-based risk assessment methodology for streams across the state is developed. Considering the importance of baseflow in river and lake stability during the dry seasons, computing the baseflow from total streamflow is another goal of this study. Three different baseflow separation algorithms were applied to thirty-one stream gauges with natural flow systems in the New England region to calculate and compare long-term Baseflow Index (BFI). A new approach is developed to determine trends at different significance level in daily streamflow, baseflow and surface runoff and applied to the abovementioned stations. In addition, clustering analysis is performed based on seasonal BFI quantiles. This work is a potential tool to support the water managers in decisionmaking in different water sensitive sectors. An improved understanding of sensitivity and severity of changes in surface runoff and baseflow is certainly important to human and ecosystem use of streamflow. Future changes, if examined in this framework, are likely to allow a reassessment of policy, a great challenge in changing climate

Web-Based Spatial Decision Support System and Watershed Management with a Case Study

In order to maintain a proper balance between development pressure and water resources protection, and also to improve public participation, efficient tools and techniques for soil and water conservation projects are needed. This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI. The WebWMPI uses the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach which is a prioritizing method for watershed management planning and it integrates land use/cover, hydrological data, soils, slope, roads, and other spatial data. The land is divided into three categories: Conservation Priority Index (CPI) land, Restoration Priority Index (RPI) land, and Stormwater Management Priority Index (SMPI) land. Within each category, spatial factors are rated based on their influence on water resources and critical areas can be identified for soil conservation, water quality protection and improvement. The WebWMPI has user-friendly client side graphical interfaces which enable the public to interactively run the server side Geographic Information System to evaluate different scenarios for watershed planning and management. The system was applied for Dry Run Creek watershed (Cedar Falls, Iowa, US) as a demonstration and it can be easily used in other watersheds to prioritize crucial areas and to increase public participation for soil and water conservation projects