Enhancing multiple benefits of brownfield cleanups by applying ecosystem services concepts

Brownfields are increasingly called upon to be transformed from potentially contaminated, often vacant properties into community assets that provide multiple benefits. Further, brownfields revitalization can provide critical opportunities and, particularly, nature-based solutions can enhance multiple ecological, human health, and economic benefits. Through a series of non-exhaustive surveys of existing examples of environmental benefits of cleanups, case study examples of brownfield cleanups achieving environmental benefits, and potential ecosystem services tools relevant to steps of a brownfields cleanup effort, we explore practical ideas for enhancing environmental benefits of brownfields cleanups by applying ecosystem services concepts. Examples of nature-based solutions, where appropriate, include the use of rain gardens, permeable pavements, green spaces, and the use of green technologies. Further, this article provides an overview of recent policy initiatives focused on nature-based solutions and enhancing ecosystem services in brownfields cleanup, revitalization, and reuse. Our goals are to increase the knowledge base on these opportunities and discuss how these concepts can be achieved through sharing success stories, making outreach materials accessible, and holding workshops to help successfully operationalize these concepts in a community’s visioning for upcoming revitalization projects

Preparation of updated volcanic hazards map for el Misti volcano, Peru

The city centre of Arequipa -second largest city in Peru (about one million people)- is located 17 km away from Misti Volcano (5822 a.s.l.) and about 3.5 km vertically below it. During the last 50,000 years, vulcanian and sub-plinian eruptions at Misti have produced about ten sizeable piroclastic flows and twenty tephra falls (Thouret et al., 2001). However, numerous ash falls, pyroclastic flows, and lahars from prehistoric subplinian eruptions, as recent as 2,000 years ago, have affected the region of Arequipa around the volcano. Misti’s only well-recorded historical activity consisted of small eruptions during the mid-15th century (Chávez, 1992). The Chili River and the main ravines (Pastores, San Lázaro, Huarangal, Huarangueros, Agua Salada) drain the W, S, and SE flanks of the volcanic edifice and cut through Arequipa city. Channeled through them, numerous pyroclastic flows and lahars have reached 12 to 25 km distance from source. Should El Misti Volcano awake in the future the volcanic and hydrological hazards associated with renewed eruptive activity and rainstorms would pose a serious threat to the people, infrastructures, and economy of Arequipa and its environs. Even though a number of volcano hazards maps and assessments have been made in recent years, these have not been entirely satisfactory due to the required detail or appropriate scale for use by decision makers in the preparation of contingency plans and risk-reduction measures. In recognition of El Misti’s enormous potential volcanic threat, the national geological agency of Peru –Instituto Geológico Minero y Metalúrgico del Perú (INGEMMET)– recently has initiated a project to make a detailed geological map and updated volcanic hazard map of El Misti Volcano. This new map will be completed in December 2006

Sustainable Sourcing of Global Agricultural Raw Materials: Assessing Gaps in Key Impact and Vulnerability Issues and Indicators.

Understanding how to source agricultural raw materials sustainably is challenging in today's globalized food system given the variety of issues to be considered and the multitude of suggested indicators for representing these issues. Furthermore, stakeholders in the global food system both impact these issues and are themselves vulnerable to these issues, an important duality that is often implied but not explicitly described. The attention given to these issues and conceptual frameworks varies greatly--depending largely on the stakeholder perspective--as does the set of indicators developed to measure them. To better structure these complex relationships and assess any gaps, we collate a comprehensive list of sustainability issues and a database of sustainability indicators to represent them. To assure a breadth of inclusion, the issues are pulled from the following three perspectives: major global sustainability assessments, sustainability communications from global food companies, and conceptual frameworks of sustainable livelihoods from academic publications. These terms are integrated across perspectives using a common vocabulary, classified by their relevance to impacts and vulnerabilities, and categorized into groups by economic, environmental, physical, human, social, and political characteristics. These issues are then associated with over 2,000 sustainability indicators gathered from existing sources. A gap analysis is then performed to determine if particular issues and issue groups are over or underrepresented. This process results in 44 "integrated" issues--24 impact issues and 36 vulnerability issues--that are composed of 318 "component" issues. The gap analysis shows that although every integrated issue is mentioned at least 40% of the time across perspectives, no issue is mentioned more than 70% of the time. A few issues infrequently mentioned across perspectives also have relatively few indicators available to fully represent them. Issues in the impact framework generally have fewer gaps than those in the vulnerability framework

Farmer Perceptions and Behaviors Related to Wildlife and On-Farm Conservation Actions

Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Policy makers are increasingly encouraging farmers to protect or enhance habitat on their farms for wildlife conservation. However, a lack of knowledge of farmers’ opinions toward wildlife can lead to poor integration of conservation measures. We surveyed farmers to assess their perceptions of ecosystem services and disservices from perching birds, raptors, and bats—three taxa commonly targeted by conservation measures. The majority of farmers thought that perching birds and bats were beneficial for insect pest control and that raptors were beneficial for vertebrate pest control; however, fruit farmers viewed perching birds more negatively than did farmers growing other crops. Farmers using organic methods viewed all three wildlife groups more positively than conventional farmers. Farmer perception toward each wildlife group predicted their action to either attract or deter those taxa, suggesting the need to focus research and outreach on the effects of wildlife on farms for conservation programs to positively influence farmer perceptions

Payments for ecosystem services in the tropics: a closer look at effectiveness and equity

We undertake a review of academic literature that examines the effectiveness and equity-related performance of PES initiatives targeting biodiversity conservation in tropical and sub-tropical countries. We investigate the key features of such analyses as regards their analytical and methodological approach and we identify emerging lessons from PES practice, leading to a new suggested research agenda. Our results indicate that analyses of PES effectiveness have to date focused on either ecosystem service provision or habitat proxies, with only half of them making explicit assessment of additionality and most describing that payments have been beneficial for land cover and biodiversity. Studies evaluating the impact of PES on livelihoods suggest more negative outcomes, with an uneven treatment of the procedural and distributive considerations of scheme design and payment distribution, and a large heterogeneity of evaluative frameworks. We propose an agenda for future PES research based on the emerging interest in assessing environmental outcomes more rigorously and documenting social impacts in a more comparative and contextually situated form

Informe del muestreo geoquímico de gases en sistemas geotermales en el sur del Perú (6 al 18 de julio del 2007)

La recolección y análisis de las muestras de gas se realizaron en el marco de un proyecto de cooperación entre el Instituto Geológico Minero y Metalúrgico (INGEMMET) y la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Teniendo como participantes al Dr. Claus Siebe de la UNAM – México; y los Drs. Fraser y Cathy Goff del Laboratorio Los Álamos de Estados Unidos, especialistas en campos geotermales y el Lic. Pablo Masías, Químico del INGEMMET. Los trabajos se realizaron del 6 al 18 de julio del 2007, en 17 zonas geotermales en 4 departamentos del sur del Perú (Puno, Arequipa, Moquegua y Tacna), las que se pueden apreciar en la fig. 1 y 2. Estas se caracterizaron por presentar agua caliente, en algunos casos se encontraron fuentes saturadas con vapor, además de geisers, solfataras y fumarolas. En algunas zonas se tomaron más de un punto de muestreo. El muestreo de gases se realizó utilizando las botellas de Giggenbach con el método que se describirá más adelante, además se tomaron muestras de agua para realizarle análisis químicos e isotópicos, se midieron parámetros como la temperatura, pH, Conductividad y los sólidos totales disueltos

Evaluación de peligros volcánicos y elaboración del mapa de peligros del Volcán Misti - Arequipa

Se presenta una evaluación de peligros volcánicos del Misti para la elaboración de un mapa de peligros actualizado. A su vez, el documento se empleará en programas de educaciòn y sensibilización frente a peligros volcánicos y ante el Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial de la Ciudad de Arequipa. Se anota la formación de un comité científico asesor, que incluye a Defensa Civil, como apoyo a la citada Región

Mapa de peligros del volcán Misti: Una herramienta para la planificación del desarrollo y ordenamiento territorial de la ciudad de Arequipa

Se describe el mapa de peligros del Volcán Misti, el cual tiene como propósito guiar a las autoridades, dirigentes y población en general en políticas de ordenamiento territorial, expansión urbana y planificación del desarrollo. Detalla las tres zonas de peligrosidad, según su grado: a) La zona de alto peligro, puede ser severamente afectada por lluvias de ceniza y pómez, flujos y oleadas piroclásticas, flujos de barro, avalanchas de escombros y/o flujos de lava. b) La zona de moderado peligro, puede ser afectada prácticamente por todos los peligros que alcanzarían la zona anterior, a excepción de flujos de lavas. c) La zona de bajo peligro, puede ser afectada solo por flujos, oleadas y caídas piroclásticas de pómez y/o ceniza, pero en erupciones de magnitud muy grande (IEV > 5), como las ocurridas hace 13 600 y 33 000 años. Se observa que durante los últimos 50 años la ciudad ha crecido de manera desordenada, con escasa planificación. El mapa de peligros muestra que varios sectores de la ciudad de Arequipa se emplazan en zonas de alto peligro, principalmente en áreas aledañas al río Chili y quebradas que drenan del volcán. Los distritos que vienen expandiéndose hacia zonas cercanas al volcán Misti y áreas de alto peligro, generando una mayor vulnerabilidad son Selva Alegre, Miraflores y Paucarpata

Evidence synthesis as the basis for decision analysis: a method of selecting the best agricultural practices for multiple ecosystem services

Agricultural management practices have impacts not only on crops and livestock, but also on soil, water, wildlife, and ecosystem services. Agricultural research provides evidence about these impacts, but it is unclear how this evidence should be used to make decisions. Two methods are widely used in decision making: evidence synthesis and decision analysis. However, a system of evidence-based decision making that integrates these two methods has not yet been established. Moreover, the standard methods of evidence synthesis have a narrow focus (e.g., the effects of one management practice), but the standard methods of decision analysis have a wide focus (e.g., the comparative effectiveness of multiple management practices). Thus, there is a mismatch between the outputs from evidence synthesis and the inputs that are needed for decision analysis. We show how evidence for a wide range of agricultural practices can be reviewed and summarized simultaneously (“subject-wide evidence synthesis”), and how this evidence can be assessed by experts and used for decision making (“multiple-criteria decision analysis”). We show how these methods could be used by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in California to select the best management practices for multiple ecosystem services in Mediterranean-type farmland and rangeland, based on a subject-wide evidence synthesis that was published by Conservation Evidence (www.conservationevidence.com). This method of “evidence-based decision analysis” could be used at different scales, from the local scale (farmers deciding which practices to adopt) to the national or international scale (policy makers deciding which practices to support through agricultural subsidies or other payments for ecosystem services). We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this method, and we suggest some general principles for improving evidence synthesis as the basis for multi-criteria decision analysis