Nature-Based Solutions as Building Blocks for the Transition towards Sustainable Climate-Resilient Food Systems

This paper is the output of a project of the Knowledge-based Programme of the Wageningen University called ‘Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilient and Circular Food Systems’. The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the Wageningen University & Research ‘Food Secu- rity and Valuing Water programme’ (KB-35-007-002) and Circular and Climate Neutral’ programme’ (KB-34-007-010), which is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Security.Food systems—encompassing food production, transportation, processing and consump- tion, including food losses and waste—are currently not delivering what is expected or needed to ensure their full contribution to societal well-being and ecological sustainability. In this paper, we hypothesize that nature-based solutions (NBS; solutions that are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature) can overcome system challenges related to the functioning of the biosphere, society, or economy (including governance arrangements), and support a transition to sustainable climate-resilient food systems. We develop a conceptual framework to assess NBS contributions to such transitions. Three types of NBS are evaluated: intrinsic NBS which make use of existing ecosystems; hybrid NBS which manage and adapt ecosystems; and inspired NBS which consist of newly constructed ecosystems. We show that inspired NBS in particular will increase opportunities to achieve sustainable development in food systems. NBS can facilitate the much-needed transi- tion to a different way of using our natural resources to reach the SDGs by 2030. We identify the knowledge gaps that impede the development of NBS to support a transition towards sustainable, climate-resilient food systems.Wageningen University & Research 'Food Security and Valuing Water programme' KB-35-007-002Wageningen University & Research Circular and Climate Neutral' programme' - Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Security KB-34-007-01

National soil data in EU countries, where do we stand?

At the European scale, soil characteristics are needed to evaluate soil quality, soil health and soil-based ecosystem services in the context of the European Green Deal. While some soil databases exist at the European scale, a much larger wealth of data is present in individual European countries, allowing a more detailed soil assessment. There is thus an urgent and crucial need to combine these data at the European scale. In the frame of a large European Joint Programme on agricultural soils launched by the European Commission, a survey was conducted in the spring of 2020, in the 24 European participating countries to assess the existing soil data sources, focusing on agricultural soils. The survey will become a contribution to the European Soil Observatory, launched in December 2020, which aims to collect metadata of soil databases related to all kind of land uses, including forest and urban soils. Based upon a comprehensive questionnaire, 170 soil databases were identified at local, regional and national scales. Soil parameters were divided into five groups: (1) main soil parameters according to the Global Soil Map specifications; (2) other soil chemical parameters; (3) other physical parameters; (4) other pedological parameters; and (5) soil biological features. A classification based on the environmental zones of Europe was used to distinguish the climatic zones. This survey shows that while most of the main pedological and chemical parameters are included in more than 70% of the country soil databases, water content, contamination with organic pollutants, and biological parameters are the least frequently reported parameters. Such differences will have consequences when developing an EU policy on soil health as proposed under the EU soil strategy for 2023 and using the data to derive soil health indicators. Many differences in the methods used in collecting, preparing, and analysing the soils were found, thus requiring harmonization procedures and more cooperation among countries and with the EU to use the data at the European scale. In addition, choosing harmonized and useful interpretation and threshold values for EU soil indicators may be challenging due to the different methods used and the wide variety of soil land-use and climate combinations influencing possible thresholds. The temporal scale of the soil databases reported is also extremely wide, starting from the '20s of the 20th centuryEuropean Joint Program for SOIL “Towards climatesmart sustainable management of agricultural soils” (EJP SOIL)European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 862695

Nature-based solutions for flood-drought risk mitigation in vulnerable urbanizing parts of East-Africa

Urbanization and climate changes have direct impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide to society, thus influencing human well-being and health. Urban sprawl may conflict with ecosystem services, e.g. enhancing water-related stresses and risks of, e.g., droughts and floods, with significant economic, environmental and societal impacts. Such hydro-climatic extremes and their societal impacts are evident around the world. East Africa is a region with highly vulnerable populations to frequent floods and droughts. To achieve long-term sustainable solutions to such water-related risks and problems, we need to understand and plan for the feedback mechanisms between population expansion and associated land-use changes and their impacts on ecosystem services. The potential of nature-based solutions to mitigate these risk and problems in urban development under climate change needs to be considered and accounted for in spatial planning and management strategies.</p

Post-fire Practices Benefits on Vegetation Recovery and Soil Conservation in a Mediterranean Area

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG.[Abstract] Post-fire practices (PFP) aim to reduce soil erosion and favour vegetation recovery, but their effectiveness is spatially heterogeneous and under debate because of the economic and environmental costs. This study evaluates the different changes (Δ) of canopy cover (CC), sediment connectivity (SC) and local topography in four areas affected by the Pinet fire in eastern Spain (August 8th, 2018) and managed with: totally burnt with tree removal and long log erosion barriers (LEBs) (Pinet-1), partially burnt without PFP (Pinet-2), totally burnt with tree removal and short LEBs (Pinet-3), and totally burnt without PFP (Pinet-4). An unburnt nearby area was used as control site (Pinet-5). High-resolution images obtained before the fire and during two drone flights after the fire (10.5 and 5.5 months after the fire and PFP; and 18 and 13 months after the fire and PFP) were analysed; and LiDAR- and SfM-derived digital elevation models used to compute the Aggregated Index of SC (AICv2). After correcting calculations, because of the different input sources, and excluding the forest roads (=3.6% of the total surface), CC in the first post-fire scenario was of 25.5% (−40.4% with respect to the pre-fire scenario), 14.5% (−68.4%), 23.8% (−43.7%), 26.9% (−26.5%) and 29.6% (−32.7%) in Pinet-1, P-2_totally_burnt, P-2_partially_burnt, P-3 and P-4; and ΔCC among the drone flights were of +2.45%, +0.02% and +10.54% in Pinet-1, Pinet-3 and Pinet-4. The annual CC recovery rate decrease from 27.5% to 19.1% per year between the first and the second post-fire scenario, indicating a quick vegetation recovery, especially in the first year, and considering the surface area covered by rocks (=16.3%). Topographic changes indicated that not install LEBs favoured shorter flow length pathways after the fire, and thus, runoff will flow faster to cover the same area, achieving higher velocity and thus soil detachment capacity. Sediment connectivity increased in all burnt sub-sites after the fire (=+32.4%), but the increments in the two sub-sites with LEBs were 36% lower than the increase in the sub-sites without LEBs. The increase of connectivity in the first and second post-fire scenarios was −32% and −45% in the sub-site with long LEBs compared with the sub-site with short LEBs. Overall, LEBs effectively favoured vegetation recovery, lengthened overland flow pathways, and reduced sediment transport in the early months, but their usefulness was not as pronounced during the second post-fire year, although these results may be influenced by the Mediterranean conditions of the site.This research was funded by the project SPECTORS, which is a Dutch-German cooperation project funded by INTERREG V-A Deutschland-Nederland. This research was also included in the research activities of the European COST Action FIRElinks (CA18135) “Fire in the Earth System: Science & Society” (European Union Framework Programme Horizon 2020). This research was also partially funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (grant number KB-36–005-006/008; Nature-inclusive Transitions)Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; KB-36–005-006/00

Detecting and predicting the impact of land use changes on groundwater quality, a case study in Northern Kelantan, Malaysia

The conversions of forests and grass land to urban and farmland has exerted significant changes on terrestrial ecosystems. However, quantifying how these changes can affect the quality of water resources is still a challenge for hydrologists. Nitrate concentrations can be applied as an indicator to trace the link between land use changes and groundwater quality due to their solubility and easy transport from their source to the groundwater. In this study, 25 year records (from 1989 to 2014) of nitrate concentrations are applied to show the impact of land use changes on the quality of groundwater in Northern Kelantan, Malaysia, where large scale deforestation in recent decades has occurred. The results from the integration of time series analysis and geospatial modelling revealed that nitrate (NO3-N) concentrations significantly increased with approximately 8.1% and 3.89% annually in agricultural and residential wells, respectively, over 25 years. In 1989 only 1% of the total area had a nitrate value greater than 10 mg/L; and this value increased sharply to 48% by 2014. The significant increase in nitrate was only observed in a shallow aquifer with a 3.74% annual nitrate increase. Based on the result of the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model the nitrate contamination is expected to continue to rise by about 2.64% and 3.9% annually until 2030 in agricultural and residential areas. The present study develops techniques for detecting and predicting the impact of land use changes on environmental parameters as an essential step in land and water resource management strategy development

Assessment of soil particle erodibility and sediment trapping using check dams in small semi-arid catchments

Check dams can be used as a source of information for studies on sediment characteristics and soil particle erodibility. In this study, sediment yield and grain size distribution (GSD) were measured in twenty small catchments draining into a rock check dam in NW Iran for different runoffs during 2010-2011. Significant correlations were found between sediment yield and slope steepness, vegetation cover and soil erodibility factor (K) of the catchments. The erodibility of soil particles was determined using the comparison of GSD between sediment and original soil. Clay was the most erodible soil particle which showed 2.05 times more percentage in sediment than the original soil. The erodibility of soil particles were strongly affected by the rainfall erosivity (EI30). Check dams showed more effectiveness in trapping coarse particles (sand and gravel). The effectiveness of check dams in trapping coarse particles enhanced with increase in the remaining capacity of check dams

The role of soils in delivering Nature's Contributions to People

Data accessibility. This article does not contain any additional data. Funding Information:The input of P.S. contributes to Soils-R-GRREAT (NE/ P019455/1) and the input of P.S. and S.D.K. contributes to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme through project CIRCASA (grant agreement no. 774378). Acknowledgements. T.K.A. acknowledges the support of ‘Towards Integrated Nitrogen Management System (INMS)’ funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), executed through the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).Peer reviewedPostprin

Assessing land condition as a first step to achieving land degradation neutrality: A case study of the Republic of Srpska

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is a key voluntary and aspirational target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 which urges countries to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. A first and critical important step in the implementation of LDN is assessing the current land condition using not only active restoration of degraded land, but also targeting land degradation drivers behind the land degradation process. In a first step to achieve these goals, countries were provided a global dataset for three sub-indicators of land degradation: land cover (LC), land productivity dynamics (LPD) and soil organic carbon (SOC). Here, we report on trends in these sub-indicators for the Entity Republic of Srpska (RS) as a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a key analysis to inform the frame of reference or baseline conditions for the region to evaluate LDN across this region. Global data for LC for the RS indicates a 0.5% loss of forests (6400 ha) over the time period from 2000 to 2010. Of this area, 5000 ha were converted to cropland and an additional 1400 ha was converted to shrubs, grasslands and sparsely vegetated areas. LPD declined over 2.5% (63,500 ha) of the region. SOC declined on land use changed areas by 15.6% (74,609 Mg ha−1) over the same time period. Based on global data, we estimated that 3% of the country is in a degraded state. Based on interviews with local stakeholders in 31 local communities, the primary land degradation drivers were identified and validated by team experts. Depopulation and migration to urban centers were identified as the important underlying drivers of land degradation that most municipalities are facing. The most frequent direct drivers of land degradation across this region were land abandonment, floods, drought, erosion and urbanization. Land abandonment, more specifically, has resulted in conversion of agriculturally productive lands to lands dominated by a wide range of invasive species over the last 25 years. Continued land degradation is underpinned by the lack of understanding by stakeholders of the importance of land as a resource. In evaluating the status, trends and drivers of land degradation for this region, we have identified key areas or 'hot spots' that may be targeted for restoration options and may be used to achieve LDN targets by 2030

Impact of flight altitude and cover orientation on Digital Surface Model (DSM) accuracy for flood damage assessment in Murcia (Spain) using a fixed-wing UAV

Soil erosion, rapid geomorphological change and vegetation degradation are major threats to the human and natural environment. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can be used as tools to provide detailed and accurate estimations of landscape change. The effect of flight strategy on the accuracy of UAS image data products, typically a digital surface model (DSM) and orthophoto, is unknown. Herein different flying altitudes (126-235 m) and area coverage orientations (N-S and SW-NE) are assessed in a semi-arid and medium-relief area where terraced and abandoned agricultural fields are heavily damaged by piping and gully erosion. The assessment was with respect to cell size, vertical and horizontal accuracy, absolute difference of DSM, and registration of recognizable landscape features. The results show increasing cell size (5-9 cm) with increasing altitude, and differences between elevation values (10-20 cm) for different flight directions. Vertical accuracy ranged 4-7 cm but showed no clear relationship with flight strategy, whilst horizontal error was stable (2-4 cm) for the different orthophotos. In all data sets, geomorphological features such as piping channels, rills and gullies and vegetation patches could be labeled by a technician. Finally, the datasets have been released in a public repository.</p