Assessment of spatial variability of multiple ecosystem services in grasslands of different intensities

Grasslands provide multiple Ecosystem Services (ES) such as forage provision, carbon sequestration or habitat provision. Knowledge about the trade-offs between these ES is of great importance for grassland management. Yet, the outcome of different management strategies on ES provision is highly uncertain due to spatial variability. We aim to characterize the provision (level and spatial variability) of grassland ES under various management strategies. To do so, we combine empirical data for multiple ES with spatially explicit census data on land use intensities. We analyzed the variations of five ES (forage provision, climate regulation, pollination, biodiversity conservation and outdoor recreation) using data from biodiversity fieldwork, experimental plots for carbon as well as social network data from Flickr. These data were used to calculate the distribution of modelled individual and multiple ES values from different grassland management types in a Swiss case study region using spatial explicit information for 17,383 grassland parcels. Our results show that (1) management regime and intensity levels play an important role in ES provision but their impact depends on the ES. In general, extensive management, especially in pastures, favors all ES but forage provision, whereas intensive management favors only forage provision and outdoor recreation; (2) ES potential provision varies between parcels under the same management due to the influence of environmental drivers, related to topography and landscape structure; (3) there is a trade-offs between forage provision and other ES at the cantonal level but a synergy between forage provision and biodiversity conservation within the grassland categories, due to the negative impact of elevation on both ES. Information about multiple ES provision is key to support effective agri-environmental measures and information about the spatial variability can prevent uncertain outputs of decision-making processes

Children's Mental Health in Virginia: System Deficiencies and Unknown Outcomes

Examines the demand for community-based children's mental health care, the availability of various services in the state, and the need for uniform, accurate data collection across state agencies. Outlines implications

Advancing Cyberinfrastructure to support high resolution water resources modeling (Invited)

Addressing the problem of how the availability and quality of water resources at large scales are sensitive to climate variability, watershed alterations and management activities requires computational resources that combine data from multiple sources and support integrated modeling. Related cyberinfrastructure challenges include: 1) how can we best structure data and computer models to address this scientific problem through the use of high-performance and data-intensive computing, and 2) how can we do this in a way that discipline scientists without extensive computational and algorithmic knowledge and experience can take advantage of advances in cyberinfrastructure? This presentation will describe a new system called CI-WATER that is being developed to address these challenges and advance high resolution water resources modeling in the Western U.S. We are building on existing tools that enable collaboration to develop model and data interfaces that link integrated system models running within an HPC environment to multiple data sources. Our goal is to enhance the use of computational simulation and data-intensive modeling to better understand water resources. Addressing water resource problems in the Western U.S. requires simulation of natural and engineered systems, as well as representation of legal (water rights) and institutional constraints alongside the representation of physical processes. We are establishing data services to represent the engineered infrastructure and legal and institutional systems in a way that they can be used with high resolution multi-physics watershed modeling at high spatial resolution. These services will enable incorporation of location-specific information on water management infrastructure and systems into the assessment of regional water availability in the face of growing demands, uncertain future meteorological forcings, and existing prior-appropriations water rights. This presentation will discuss the informatics challenges involved with data management and easy-to-use access to high performance computing being tackled in this project

Automated analysis of feature models: Quo vadis?

Feature models have been used since the 90's to describe software product lines as a way of reusing common parts in a family of software systems. In 2010, a systematic literature review was published summarizing the advances and settling the basis of the area of Automated Analysis of Feature Models (AAFM). From then on, different studies have applied the AAFM in different domains. In this paper, we provide an overview of the evolution of this field since 2010 by performing a systematic mapping study considering 423 primary sources. We found six different variability facets where the AAFM is being applied that define the tendencies: product configuration and derivation; testing and evolution; reverse engineering; multi-model variability-analysis; variability modelling and variability-intensive systems. We also confirmed that there is a lack of industrial evidence in most of the cases. Finally, we present where and when the papers have been published and who are the authors and institutions that are contributing to the field. We observed that the maturity is proven by the increment in the number of journals published along the years as well as the diversity of conferences and workshops where papers are published. We also suggest some synergies with other areas such as cloud or mobile computing among others that can motivate further research in the future.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-70560-RJunta de Andalucía TIC-186

Biomass production and management practices in mixed crop-livestock systems in the west African Sahel: Opportunities and constraints

The Sahel is characterized by a marked inter-annual climate variability and has experienced a number of food security crises following the severe droughts during the 1970s and 1980s. Due to recent challenges such as rapid population growth, climate change, environmental concerns and market changes which cause major impacts to their production systems, the sahelian people have been shifting and adapting their production systems and the way they live to cope with uncertainties. The objective of the present report is to review the various biomass production and management issues in the mixed crop-livestock systems in West African Sahel. An elaborated literature survey of peer reviewed papers mostly, was conducted. The studies were based on the Sahel scale research, more specifically research that had been published on the West African Sahel, including studies published between 1990s and 2016. Results show that many factors have contributed to the changes, among which, rainfall variability, population growth, human induced-activities, land tenure systems and the effects of globalization. Various biomass production and management practices are employed in West African Sahel for both on-farm and off-farm biomass improvements. Some of the best practices are mulching, soil and water conservation techniques, composting, farmer managed natural regeneration, agroforestry, etc. These practices have overall contributed to increase agricultural productivity, ecosystem services provisioning and have sometime deepened the difference between men and women, rich and poor, young and old people. Most of the constraints associated with large adoption of the best practices in the Sahel are land tenure systems, the huge gap between inputs and output investment costs but, the climate conventions are offering new opportunities that will ultimately contribute to positive changes. This will be possible only when land tenure systems in the region are reinforced, institutional linkages are strengthened, and new information systems are used to inform farmers on climate issues and new agricultural practices