The On-Site and Downstream Costs of Soil Erosion in the Magat and Pantabangan Watersheds

This article report is a condensed version of “The On-Site and Downstream Costs of Soil Erosion,” PIDS Technical Report 87-04 of the Upland Resource Policy Program. It estimates the economic costs arising from indiscriminate exploitation of the uplands. It also offers a practical methodology for assessing the economic impact of soil erosion and illustrates the methodology with results from two major watersheds--Magat and Pantabangan.watershed, uplands, soil erosion, soil conservation

Terrane evolution of the paratectonic Caledonides of northern Britain

A stratigraphically constrained re-evaluation of terrane amalgamation in the Caledonides of northern Britain allows the development of a new orogenic scenario which accounts for many of the outstanding problems in the paratectonic Caledonides and includes a new terrane template which correlates well with that proposed for Newfoundland. The Arenig Grampian Orogeny resulted from the accretion of two arc terranes to Laurentia: the Midland Valley (=Notre Dame Arc in Newfoundland) and a terrane of probable Avalonian/Gondwanan origin, here termed 'Novantia' (= Annieopsquotch Accretionary Tract (partim)), now hidden beneath the Southern Uplands allochthon. The Tyrone and Ballantrae ophiolites mark the northern boundary of Novantia within the composite Midland Valley Terrane. The Popelogan-Victoria Arc-Grangegeeth Terrane accreted to the amalgamated Midland Valley Terrane during the late Ordovician and initiated the Southern Uplands thrust duplex. A brief period of northward subduction during the Silurian followed, is ascribed to the northerly drift of the amalgamated Avalon-Baltica plate, and a final Wenlock (Scandian) collision and caused underplating of the Midland Valley Terrane. Caledonian deformation had ceased by the Emsian, the age of the undeformed Cheviot lavas that overlie the uplifted and peneplaned Southern Uplands

The On-Site and Downstream Costs of Soil Erosion in the Magat and Pantabangan Watersheds

This article report is a condensed version of “The On-Site and Downstream Costs of Soil Erosion,” PIDS Technical Report 87-04 of the Upland Resource Policy Program. It estimates the economic costs arising from indiscriminate exploitation of the uplands. It also offers a practical methodology for assessing the economic impact of soil erosion and illustrates the methodology with results from two major watersheds--Magat and Pantabangan.watershed, uplands, soil erosion, soil conservation

Economics of Upland Resource Depletion: Shifting Cultivation in the Philippines

This paper provides a systematic investigation of agricultural systems practiced in the uplands by starting with a formal treatment of the shifting cultivation problem. The optimum rate of use of forested land from society’s viewpoint and from the individual uplander’s viewpoint, given traditional choices between timber production and agricultural production through slash-and-burn farming is likewise investigated. The study explains swidden farming in the context of a standard resource economic model on open access exploitation, the discounting bias and zero valuation of the externalities involved.natural resources and environment, environmental issues, environmental management, resource management, uplands

Conodont biostratigraphy of the Crawford Group, Southern Uplands, Scotland

Extensive new conodont collections from the Crawford Group, the oldest succession in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, support the previously documented biostratigraphical ages for the included formations. The Raven Gill Formation is lower Whitlandian, Arenig (comparable in age to the Dounans Limestone in the Highland Border Complex) and the Kirkton Formation is latest Llandeilian-Aurelucian, Llanvirn to Caradoc in age. It is concluded that there is a significant stratigraphical gap within the Crawford Group. The restricted and probably fault-bounded nature of the Raven Gill outcrops suggests that these may represent olistoliths within a mélange of Llandeilian-Aurelucian age. The chert-bearing succession of the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands thus represents the juxtaposed sedimentary records of two entirely separate basins – the oldest pre-dates the Grampian assembly of the Laurentian margin, and the younger, the Northern Belt Basin sensu stricto, entirely post-dates this event

Using scenarios to explore UK upland futures

Uplands around the world are facing significant social, economic and environmental changes, and decision-makers need to better understand what the future may hold if they are to adapt and maintain upland goods and services. This paper draws together all major research comprising eight studies that have used scenarios to describe possible futures for UK uplands. The paper evaluates which scenarios are perceived by stakeholders to be most likely and desirable, and assesses the benefits and drawbacks of the scenario methods used in UK uplands to date. Stakeholders agreed that the most desirable and likely scenario would be a continuation of hill farming (albeit at reduced levels) based on cross-compliance with environmental measures. The least desirable scenario is a withdrawal of government financial support for hill farming. Although this was deemed by stakeholders to be the least likely scenario, the loss of government support warrants close attention due to its potential implications for the local economy. Stakeholders noted that the environmental implications of this scenario are much less clear-cut. As such, there is an urgent need to understand the full implications of this scenario, so that upland stakeholders can adequately prepare, and policy-makers can better evaluate the likely implications of different policy options. The paper concludes that in future, upland scenario research needs to: (1) better integrate in-depth and representative participation from stakeholders during both scenario development and evaluation; and (2) make more effective use of visualisation techniques and simulation models

Organic farming in the uplands – appraisal of a development programme

There is a widespread assumption that conversion of livestock production systems in the uplands can be achieved with minimal change to existing hill farming practices and yet still deliver environmental and financial benefits. This assumption needs to be examined because conversion of upland farm enterprises poses particular issues for organic farming, Frost (1999). The certifying bodies acknowledge that some of these issues are not adequately covered by the current standards for organic agriculture. The development of a hill farming organic system at Pwllpeiran was established to provide evidence for such an appraisal, Powell (1999). Appraisal of the project indicates that organic beef and sheep production can be a viable option in the uplands. Long term maintenance of clover content, the relationship between organic production, environmental conservation and veterinary treatment of livestock remain issues that require longer term study

Petrographical Analysis of Warthian Fuvioglacial Gravels as a Tool to Trace the Source Area – A Case Study From Central Poland

The petrographical features of the medium- and coarse-grained gravels (4-10 mm and 20-60 mm, respectively) of weathered and fresh (unweathered) deposits indicate, in combination with so-called indicator and statistical erratics, that two glacial lobes joined in the borderland of the Polish Lowlands and Uplands. Lower Palaeozoic limestones become less frequent in the finer gravel fraction, whereas crystalline rocks and flints become more frequent. The petrographical analysis of the coarser gravel fraction indicates that the ice sheet advanced from the NE to NNW (the Widawka lobe) and from the NE to ENE (the Rawka, Pilica and Luciąża lobes). The source areas of the gravel deposited by the Warthian ice sheet were magmatic and sedimentary areas of both the Baltic and the SE Sweden basins.National Science Centre project ‘Morphogenesis of the area between Radomsko, Przedbórz and Piotrków Trybunalski as evidence of the determinants, course and role of the youngest glacial events of the borderland of central Poland’s Lowlands and Uplands’ (N N306 721140; 2011–2013

Land Privatization and Livelihood Diversification: An Examination from the Southern Uplands of Vietnam

This paper examines the process of implementing land privatization and its effects on household livelihoods in the Uplands of Vietnam. The research was undertaken with three upland villages situated in the buffer zone of Cat Tien National Park in the southern uplands of Vietnam where have recently been adopted a land privatization program according to the 1993 Land Law and some other frontier development programs, such as nature conservation, remotely mountainous community development programs supported by the central government. Such policies and programs have ultimately aimed at improving both upland livelihoods and environmental sustainability of the uplands, simultaneously. The research demonstrates unequivocally that though the land privatization throughout the nationwide has been guided by the unique legal framework, the implementation of land privatization in the uplands, particularly in the buffer zone communities locating around the protected areas has resulted in the notable divergence across communities, even households. The differences in the result of implementing land privatization in the upland communities were mainly caused by different factors embodied in both land legislation and local practices. Unsurprisingly, the divergence of implementing land privatization among communities and households has actually created differentiation in distributing benefits of land privatization among communities and households. In fact, the empirical findings suggest that land privatization (land titling) served only as initial conditions while households´ initial assets play as the determinants factors which determine how households transfer their land title into material benefits. The empirical investigations also suggest that together with land privatization, market liberalization, the government's programs for socio- economic development and nature conservation have strongly influenced on the southern upland livelihoods. Differences in the results of land privatization, households´ initial assets ownership as well benefits from such programs which have been enable households to pursue different patterns and tendencies in livelihood makings. In other words, distributing benefits from land privatization and other government's programs was not equal among households and the ways in which households diversified their livelihoods, differently.southern uplands, buffer zone, Cat Tien National Park, land institutions, property rights, land privatisation, rural livelihood, indigenous ethnic minorities, Kinh, Tay, Ma, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use,

Use of thermal inertia determined by HCMM to predict nocturnal cold prone areas in Florida

Transparencies, prints, and computer compatible tapes of temperature differential and thermal inertia for the winter of 1978 to 1979 were obtained. Thermal inertial differences in the South Florida depicted include: drained organic soils of the Everglades agricultural area, undrained organic soils of the managed water conservation areas of the South Florida water management district, the urbanized area around Miami, Lake Okeechobee, and the mineral soil west of the Everglades agricultural area. The range of wetlands and uplands conditions within the Suwanee River basin was also identified. It is shown that the combination of wetlands uplands surface features of Florida yield a wide range of surface temperatures related to wetness of the surface features