Sensor mapping of amazonian dark earths in deforested croplands

Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are fertile soils for agricultural production as well as important archaeological resources for understanding the pre-Columbian past of the Neotropical lowland rainforest. ADEs are threatened by expanding land exploitation and there is a need to develop efficient approaches to soil mapping and analysis for documenting these soils. In this paper we assess the potential of satellite remote sensing and proximal soil sensing to map, predict and monitor ADEs in land affected by agro-industrial development. We use instruments based on portable x-ray fluorescence (PXRF) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) as well as high-resolution satellite data (Spot 6) for detailed soil surveys at a 10-ha ADE site now mainly used for soybean production on the Belterra Plateau, Pará, Brazil. We predict the regional occurrence of ADE in a c. 250 km 2 test area centred on the known ADE site São Francisco using satellite data. Multivariate adaptive regression splines models were parameterised for predictions of soil organic carbon (SOC), cation exchange capacity (CEC), phosphorus (P) and depth of the A horizon in ADEs from sensor data - both from individual sensors and in sensor combinations. Combining sensors gave the best validation results: the highest modelling efficiencies (E) were 0.70 (SOC), 0.88 (CEC) and 0.74 (for both P and A depth). The most powerful single proximal sensor outputs in the predictions were Sr from the PXRF data and magnetic susceptibility (MSa) as measured by the EMI instrument. In the regional satellite based model we located 17 previously unrecorded ADE sites N2 ha. Ground control checks showed that 10 out of 11 sites were correctly classified. We conclude that these sensors are useful in studies of ADE in deforested cropland and provide new opportunities for detailed studies of the archaeological record

Global urbanization and food production in direct competition for land: Leverage places to mitigate impacts on SDG2 and on the Earth System

Global urbanization and food production are in direct competition for land. This paper carries out a critical review of how displacing crop production from urban and peri-urban land to other areas – because of issues related to soil quality – will demand a substantially larger proportion of the Earth’s terrestrial land surface than the surface area lost to urban encroachment. Such relationships may trigger further distancing effects and unfair social-ecological teleconnections. It risks also setting in motion amplifying effects within the Earth System. In combination, such multiple stressors set the scene for food riots in cities of the Global South. Our review identifies viable leverage points on which to act in order to navigate urban expansion away from fertile croplands. We first elaborate on the political complexities in declaring urban and peri-urban lands with fertile soils as one global commons. We find that the combination of an advisory global policy aligned with regional policies enabling robust common properties rights for bottom-up actors and movements in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as multi-level leverage places to intervene. To substantiate the ability of aligning global advisory policy with regional planning, we review both past and contemporary examples where empowering local social-ecological UPA practices and circular economies have had a stimulating effect on urban resilience and helped preserve, restore, and maintain urban lands with healthy soils

If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn? Ancient Urban Regions and the Durable Future

How can we transform urban environments to encourage durability and mediate the social price of myriad risks and vulnerability?Our work here is to build a bridge from archaeology to mainstream architectural and design theory. The study of places, landscapes, and regions links the two fields. Architecture can be shaped and enhanced by the long-term cultural and geographic perspective afforded by archaeology; architecture can offer archaeology a ride into the future. We hope that our efforts are novel enough to be inspiring and connected enough to allow existing concepts to be furthered. The bridge unites three domains: material, social, and aesthetic. We look to the past to find material technologies—new engineering and conceptual solutions to an array of problems—and the past obliges with many examples. However, these technologies in their material aspects are only part of the story. The archaeologist sees them as playing a role in a system. This system, while mechanically functional, is also profoundly social: it includes administrative structures, but also innumerable other kinds of relationships—kin groups, neighborhoods, genders—that mirror the embedded relations between humans and nature. As in architecture, systems include semantics and aesthetics: not only are these forms pleasing to the eye, but they also tell stories of history and place and give identity and meaning to the lives in which they are enmeshed. This multi-functionality and multi-vocality are inherent in past systems

If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn? Ancient Urban Regions and the Durable Future

How can we transform urban environments to encourage durability and mediate the social price of myriad risks and vulnerability?Our work here is to build a bridge from archaeology to mainstream architectural and design theory. The study of places, landscapes, and regions links the two fields. Architecture can be shaped and enhanced by the long-term cultural and geographic perspective afforded by archaeology; architecture can offer archaeology a ride into the future. We hope that our efforts are novel enough to be inspiring and connected enough to allow existing concepts to be furthered. The bridge unites three domains: material, social, and aesthetic. We look to the past to find material technologies—new engineering and conceptual solutions to an array of problems—and the past obliges with many examples. However, these technologies in their material aspects are only part of the story. The archaeologist sees them as playing a role in a system. This system, while mechanically functional, is also profoundly social: it includes administrative structures, but also innumerable other kinds of relationships—kin groups, neighborhoods, genders—that mirror the embedded relations between humans and nature. As in architecture, systems include semantics and aesthetics: not only are these forms pleasing to the eye, but they also tell stories of history and place and give identity and meaning to the lives in which they are enmeshed. This multi-functionality and multi-vocality are inherent in past systems

If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn? Ancient Urban Regions and the Durable Future

How can we transform urban environments to encourage durability and mediate the social price of myriad risks and vulnerability?Our work here is to build a bridge from archaeology to mainstream architectural and design theory. The study of places, landscapes, and regions links the two fields. Architecture can be shaped and enhanced by the long-term cultural and geographic perspective afforded by archaeology; architecture can offer archaeology a ride into the future. We hope that our efforts are novel enough to be inspiring and connected enough to allow existing concepts to be furthered. The bridge unites three domains: material, social, and aesthetic. We look to the past to find material technologies—new engineering and conceptual solutions to an array of problems—and the past obliges with many examples. However, these technologies in their material aspects are only part of the story. The archaeologist sees them as playing a role in a system. This system, while mechanically functional, is also profoundly social: it includes administrative structures, but also innumerable other kinds of relationships—kin groups, neighborhoods, genders—that mirror the embedded relations between humans and nature. As in architecture, systems include semantics and aesthetics: not only are these forms pleasing to the eye, but they also tell stories of history and place and give identity and meaning to the lives in which they are enmeshed. This multi-functionality and multi-vocality are inherent in past systems