Landscape level characterization of seasonal floodplains under community based aquaculture: illustrating a case of the Ganges and the Mekong Delta

The project 'Community-based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains' (henceforward the community-based fish culture project), CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, aims to enhance fish production in seasonal floodplains to improve and sustain rural livelihoods in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam. Based on the premise that production from these water bodies could be enhanced by stocking locally important fish species, the community-based fish culture project seeks to develop technologies and institutional arrangements to support collective fish culture in the flood season. The current report provides a landscape level characterization of seasonal floodplains in two of these areas. We compare the Ganges seasonal floodplain agro-ecology in Bangladesh to that in the Mekong Delta of Cambodia and Vietnam. In both areas the project has been under implementation since the outset, but has met with contrasting resultsFlood plains, Aquaculture, Remote sensing

Perspectives on tipping points in integrated models of the natural and human earth system: cascading effects and telecoupling

© Copyright 2022 The Author(s). The Earth system and the human system are intrinsically linked. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have led to the climate crisis, which is causing unprecedented extreme events and could trigger Earth system tipping elements. Physical and social forces can lead to tipping points and cascading effects via feedbacks and telecoupling, but the current generation of climate-economy models do not generally take account of these interactions and feedbacks. Here, we show the importance of the interplay between human societies and Earth systems in creating tipping points and cascading effects and the way they in turn affect sustainability and security. The lack of modeling of these links can lead to an underestimation of climate and societal risks as well as how societal tipping points can be harnessed to moderate physical impacts. This calls for the systematic development of models for a better integration and understanding of Earth and human systems at different spatial and temporal scales, specifically those that enable decision-making to reduce the likelihood of crossing local or global tipping points.Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Republic of Korea, under IBS-R028-D1; European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 820712 (REmote Climate Effects and their Impact on European sustainability, Policy and Trade (RECEIPT)); CLICCS Cluster of Excellence (Grant ID: 2037) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

A multi-scale geospatial study of wetlands distribution and agricultural zones, and the case of India

This paper highlights the global and the regional scale representation of wetlands ecosystems using geospatial tools and multiple data sets. At global scale, the Ramsar database is investigated for representation of the wetlands sites of international importance against the global agricultural zones derived from the thematic aggregation of Global Irrigated Area Map databases. The analysis of Ramsar sites under cultivation reflects the present trend in wetlands use for agriculture. The scenario is also compared with the historical pattern derived from Vavilov\u27s food zones of 1926. Observed is an aggregate increase in cropped wetlands area from 25% (1926) to 43% (2006). The second component develops a regional partnership with Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History in India. The partnership reviews the thematic national database of inland wetlands and priority wetlands habitats (PWH) in comparison with the bio-geographic and agro-ecological factors (regions/sub-regions) and by means of geographical information system (GIS) tools. We elaborate the strength of spatial tools to better understand the relationship between wetlands distribution and agricultural zones, both historically and at the present time. The disseminated message states, though from a technical perspective, the understanding of scale and resolution in combining information from diverse sources is essential; the effective implementation of spatial analysis requires a true cross-disciplinary approach. Complementing that, relevant policy support and appropriate institutional arrangements are fundamental to advance the management work required for unification of wetlands conservation with the existing challenges of food and livelihood security

Linkages between changes in land cover (use) patterns, local perceptions and livelihoods in a coastal wetland system in Sri Lanka

The Muthurajawela-Negombo wetland system in Sri Lanka provides critical ecosystem services for local people. The wetland has, however, undergone considerable ecological change over the past few decades. A multi-scale, inter-disciplinary approach that combined geospatial analyses with livelihoods analyses was used to assess environmental change in the wetland and the impact of this change on local livelihoods. While a geospatial model was used to determine broad changes in land use patterns in the wetland, an in-depth case study covering one village was conducted, using local perceptions to explore the inter-linkages between environmental change and livelihood systems at the household level. The findings of this study suggest that there have been significant changes in the wetland cover/use patterns during the period under investigation and that these changes have been observed and experienced by local communities. There are differences in local perceptions on whether these changes are for the better or worse. This may be linked to whether the land cover types are directly accessed and used in the household livelihood system, and to the geographic location of the land cover types in relation to the village. The findings indicate the usefulness of adopting this type of approach where both conservation and development needs are considered to address environmental concerns and related livelihood issues in wetlands

CBD 2010 target: a case study of Kolleru Wetland (Ramsar Site), India using remote sensing and GIS

Regular monitoring of wetlands is an essential element of management for 'wise use'. Indeed, the Ramsar convention requires routine monitoring in order to detect changes in the ecological character at listed sites. However, there are few examples of monitoring of tropical wetlands on a sustained basis in the world. In the present study, we quantified land use/land cover changes in the lone Ramsar site, the Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary of Andhra Pradesh, India between 1977 and 2007 using remote sensing and GIS techniques. It was found that there was a significant increase in aquaculture farming (158.5 sq km) from 1977 to 2000, which put the habitat of flora and fauna in adverse conditions. The natural function of lake was being restored after the demolition of fishponds ordered by the Honorable Supreme Court of India it 2006. This study highlights the firsthand information to the user community after demolition, and offers suggestions for the future conservation of the lake. We suggest that remote sensing and GIS tools have a significant role in meeting the reported requirements for the CBD 2010 target