From scaling to governance of the land system: bridging ecological and economic perspectives

One of the main unresolved problems in policy making is the step from scale issues to effective governance. What is appropriate for a lower level, such as a region or location, might be considered undesirable at a global scale. Linking scaling to governance is an important issue for the improvement of current environmental management and policies. Whereas social–ecological science tends to focus on adaptive behavior and aspects of spatial ecological data, new institutional economics focuses more on levels in institutional scales and temporal dimensions. Consequently, both disciplines perceive different scaling challenges while aiming at a similar improvement of effective governance. We propose that future research needs to focus on four themes: (1) How to combine spatial properties such as extent and grain with the economic units of market and agent; (2) How to combine the different governance instruments proposed by both perspectives; (3) How to communicate the different scaling perspectives (hierarchy vs. no hierarchy) and meanings to policy makers and other stakeholders; and (4) How to deal with the non-equilibrium conditions in the real world and the disciplinary perspectives. Here, we hypothesize that a combined system perspective of both disciplines will improve our understanding of the missing link between scaling and governanc

Panarchy rules: rethinking resilience of agroecosystems, evidence from Dutch dairy-farming

Resilience has been growing in importance as a perspective for governing social-ecological systems. The aim of this paper is first to analyze a well-studied human dominated agroecosystem using five existing key heuristics of the resilience perspective and second to discuss the consequences of using this resilience perspective for the future management of similar human dominated agroecosystems. The human dominated agroecosystem is located in the Dutch Northern Frisian Woodlands where cooperatives of dairy farmers have been attempting to organize a transition toward more viable and environmental friendly agrosystems. A mobilizing element in the cooperatives was the ability of some dairy farmers to obtain high herbage and milk yield production with limited nitrogen fertilizer input. A set of reinforcing measures was hypothesized to rebalance nitrogen flows and to set a new equilibrium. A dynamic farm model was used to evaluate the long-term effects of reinforcing measures on soil organic matter content, which was considered the key indicator of an alternative system state. Simulations show that no alternative stable state for soil organic matter exists within a plausible range of fertilizer applications. The observed differences in soil organic matter content and nutrient use efficiency probably represent a time lag of long-term nonequilibrium system development. The resilience perspective proved to be especially insightful in addressing interacting long-term developments expressed in the panarchy. Panarchy created a heterogeneity of resources in the landscape providing local landscape-embedded opportunities for high N-efficiencies. Stopping the practice of grassland renewal will allow this ecological landscape embedded system to mature. In contrast, modern conventional dairy farms shortcut the adaptive cycle by frequent grassland renewals, resulting in high resilience and adaptability. This comes at the cost of long-term accumulated ecological capital of soil organic matter and transformability, thus reinforcing the incremental adaptation trap. Analysis of such a human dominated agroecosystem reveals that rather than alternative states, an alternative set of relationships within a multiscale setting applies, indicating the importance for embedding panarchy in the analysis of sustainable development goals in agroecosystem

The Projective Line Over the Finite Quotient Ring GF(2)[xx]/<x3−x>< x^{3} - x> and Quantum Entanglement I. Theoretical Background

The paper deals with the projective line over the finite factor ring $R\_{\clubsuit} \equiv$ GF(2)[$x$]/$$. The line is endowed with 18 points, spanning the neighbourhoods of three pairwise distant points. As $R\_{\clubsuit}$ is not a local ring, the neighbour (or parallel) relation is not an equivalence relation so that the sets of neighbour points to two distant points overlap. There are nine neighbour points to any point of the line, forming three disjoint families under the reduction modulo either of two maximal ideals of the ring. Two of the families contain four points each and they swap their roles when switching from one ideal to the other; the points of the one family merge with (the image of) the point in question, while the points of the other family go in pairs into the remaining two points of the associated ordinary projective line of order two. The single point of the remaining family is sent to the reference point under both the mappings and its existence stems from a non-trivial character of the Jacobson radical, ${\cal J}\_{\clubsuit}$, of the ring. The factor ring $\widetilde{R}\_{\clubsuit} \equiv R\_{\clubsuit}/ {\cal J}\_{\clubsuit}$ is isomorphic to GF(2) $\otimes$ GF(2). The projective line over $\widetilde{R}\_{\clubsuit}$ features nine points, each of them being surrounded by four neighbour and the same number of distant points, and any two distant points share two neighbours. These remarkable ring geometries are surmised to be of relevance for modelling entangled qubit states, to be discussed in detail in Part II of the paper.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Pathways to the Future: Community Dialogues on Adaptive Environmental Management Through Scenario Projection in Google Maps

This paper presents research on the potential of interactive media for regional community dialogues on future uncertainties and complexities in coupled human and natural systems. More adaptive perspectives on natural resources management are needed to respond to rapid environmental and social change. Scenarios are a useful tool for participatory explorations of future issues that are high on uncertainties and complexities. We explore how scenarios can bank on the communicatory effectiveness of interactive media to increase their impact. We present a method, the Scenario Communities project, currently in testing phase, that combines strategies from serious gaming, landscape visualization and web 2.0 technology. We also present a number of visual tests that we use to analyse the effects of the scenario communication

Comparison of three modelling approaches to simulate regional crop yield:a case study of winter wheat yield in western Germany

The need for more comparisons among models is widely recognized. This study aimed to compare three different modelling approaches for their capability to simulate and predict trends and patterns of winter wheat yield in Western Germany. The three modelling approaches included an empirical model, a process-based model (LINTUL2), and a metamodel derived from the process-based model. The models outcomes were aggregated to general climate zones level of Western Germany to allow for a comparison with agricultural census data for validation purposes. The spatial patterns and temporal trends of winter wheat yield seemed to be better represented by the empirical model (R2= 70%, RMSE= 0.48 t ha-1 yr-1, and CV-RMSE= 8%) than by the LINTUL2 model (R2= 65%, RMSE= 0.67 t ha-1 yr-1, and CV-RMSE=11%) and the metamodel (R2= 57%, RMSE= 0.77 t ha-1 yr-1, and CV-RMSE=13%). All models demonstrated a similar order of magnitude of yield prediction and associated uncertainties. The suitability of the three models is context dependent. Empirical modelling is most suitable to analyze and project past and current crop-yield patterns, while crop growth simulation models are more suited for future projections with climate scenarios. The derived metamodels are fast reliable alternatives for areas with well calibrated crop growth simulation models. A model comparison helps to reveal shortcomings and strengths of the models. In our case, a performance comparison between the three modelling approaches indicated that, for simulating winter wheat growth in Western Germany, higher sensitivity to soil depth and lower sensitivity to drought in the LINTUL2 model would probably lead to better predictions. <br/