Integrative Assessment of Land Use Conflicts

Observational Evidence of the Need for Gender-Sensitive Approaches to Wildfires Locally and Globally: Case Study of 2018 Wildfire in Mati, Greece

The study takes an equality justice perspective to compare resilience against the controlled management of wildfires, for an effective preparedness, which is a prerequisite for equitable mitigation. The objectives were (a) conceptualizing wildfire mitigation by exploring the ties with gender equality to wildfire hazards, (b) taking the case of wildfire 2018 in Mati, Greece, to contribute reducing the country’s gender inequality, and (c) increasing resilience to climate change hazards by considering lessons learnt. The authors underscore the benefits of a workshop-based and instrumental case study methodology for unravelling evidence on the need for gender-sensitive approaches and tools for future planning at local, regional, and global scales. The case study unravels women’s lack of preparedness to wildfires in Greece, their absence in decision-making for fire management, and the need for capacity building to transform communities’ resilience. The literature research and the specific interviews conducted helped bring awareness to the wildfire’s dynamics, in alignment with the fundamental aspect of gender equality, and to ground recommendations for socio-ecological resilience transition and gender-sensitive approaches in fire management, from reactive fire-fighting to proactive integration. Although in the geographical-context, the study can bring widespread geographical awareness, bringing insights for relevance to similar areas worldwide.

Integrated Approach to the Management of the Landscape for the Implementation of the Danube Strategy

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region represents a new form of territorial cooperation. Its ambition is to establish a mechanism of joint responsibility of the countries in the Danube Region for the economic and social development respecting the preservation of natural and cultural heritage. The Strategy is built on four basic pillars: connectivity, building of prosperity, strengthening of the Danube Region and protection of the environment. The Strategy declares the necessity of interdisciplinarity and integrated approach to building a sustainable development of the Region. The scientific base of such an integrated management concerning the landscape and environment is in general the geosystem approach to the landscape, the managerial basement is the harmonisation of the development of the society with the natural, socio-economic and cultural-historical potential of landscape. The integration of both these bases needs a proper system of mutually complementary scientific methods and their implementation to the institutional tools convenient for the Danube Region. The goal of the article is to outline the possibilities for joining/implementation of scientific methods through legally supported tools to integrated landscape management and regional development.

Ecosystem Services: The Landscape-Ecological Base and Examples

The major problems of our environment have become mainstream themes in everyday life of the society, with corresponding moral, political, and financial consequences. The concept of ecosystem services (ESS) surely belongs to such mainstream popular topics regarded also by EU environmental strategies. Moreover, the right assessment and utilisation of ESS are without any doubt one of the precondition of sustainable development. In general, we can say that this concept has important influence on the spheres of economics and politics; these formulate demands towards the science, and consecutively, the science efforts to answer these demands. The paper is aimed at two goals: the first one is to zoom in on the landscape-ecological concept of ESS by the geosystem approach, for the correct understanding of the basic terms, such as as ecosystem, geosystem, landscape, utility values, and services. The second goal is to present examples of several types of ESS evaluation in different study areas using the integrated landscape-ecological (geosystem) approach. The methods used are based on the geosystem approach to the landscape; the process is based on the methods of landscape ecological planning. The results are the assessment of 4 types of ecosystem services on study areas.

The role of artificial ditches and their buffer zones in intensively utilized agricultural landscape

The extensive construction of drainage systems in the lowlands and flood plains of Slovakia has significantly changed the landscape and runoff ratios of rivers. Our study focuses on the assessment of the benefits provided by the ecosystems of water ditches and their catchment areas. Ditches and their buffer zone, similarly to other artificial anthropogenic elements in the country, fulfil various landscape-ecological functions and provide different ecosystem services (ESs) to human populations and society. As study areas, we chose ditches and their 1-km buffer zones in the Podunajská nížina (P) lowland and Východoslovenská nížina (V) lowland (Slovakia). There are notable differences between these two selected lowlands. Hence, there are also differences in their potential to provide various ESs. Based on a re-evaluation of the present state of the ditches, we evaluated nine ESs related to three main groups of ESs, using the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). We assessed the ESs and benefits provided by ditches and their buffer zone in two ways: (1) ES assessment by experts and (2) biophysical assessment of ESs and their benefits based on an integrated assessment framework (relations between pressures, ecological status, and delivery of ESs). Finally, we compared the potentials for provisioning of the study areas. The study area in the V lowland has the highest potential to provide "Lifecycle maintenance, habitat and gene pool protection" benefits, and the study area in the P lowland has the highest potential to provide "Surface water for non-drinking purposes."

Comparison of CORINE Land Cover Data with National Statistics and the Possibility to Record This Data on a Local Scale—Case Studies from Slovakia

Monitoring of land cover (LC) provides important information of actual land use (LU) and landscape dynamics. LC research results depend on the size of the area, purpose and applied methodology. CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data is one of the most important sources of LU data from a European perspective. Our research compares official CLC data (third hierarchical level of nomenclature at a scale of 1:100,000) and national statistics (NS) of LU in Slovakia between 2000 and 2018 at national, county, and local levels. The most significant differences occurred in arable land and permanent grassland, which is also related to the recording method and the development of agricultural land management. Due to the abandonment of agricultural areas, a real recorded increase in forest cover due to forest succession was not introduced in the official records of Land register. New modification of CLC methodology for identifying LC classes at a scale of 1:10,000 and fifth hierarchical level of CLC is firstly applied for local case studies representing lowland, basin, and mountain landscape. The size of the least identified and simultaneously recorded area was established at 0.1 ha the minimum width of a polygon was established at 10 m, the minimum recorded width of linear elements such as communications was established at 2 m. The use of the fifth CLC level in the case studies areas generated average boundary density 17.2 km/km2, comparing to the 2.6 km/km2 of the third level. Therefore, when measuring the density of spatial information by the polygon boundary lengths, the fifth level carries 6.6 times more information than the third level. Detailed investigation of LU affords better verification of national statistics data at a local level. This study also contributes to a more detailed recording of the current state of the Central European landscape and its changes.

Combining habitat area and fragmentation change for ecological disturbance assessment in Jiangsu Province, China

Understanding where and how human land use causes ecological consequences is essential for habitat conservation. However, the assessment of the ecological disturbance caused by human land use is usually shaped by the area change in ecological land. The comprehensive evaluation of ecological disturbance based on the losses and gains of ecological patches is neglected. This paper analyzed the land use change between agricultural land, construction land, and ecological land from 1995 to 2015 in Jiangsu Province of eastern China. The ecological disturbance was quantificationally evaluated by a proposed index that considered both the changes of habitat area and fragmentation caused by the losses and gains of ecological landscape patches. The findings showed that there was a slight increase in area of ecological land in Jiangsu Province; however, ecological fragmentation was becoming severe with the growth of human land use, which, in turn, resulted in increased ecological disturbance. The losses and gains in the area and fragmentation of ecological land were comprehensively reflected using the proposed ecological disturbance index. Negative ecological disturbance was more likely to be observed at the edge of the city centers, ecologically sensitive areas, and counties with low area ratios of ecological land. Ecological governance policies should be formulated and implemented based on quantity, quality, and spatial relationships between human land use and ecological disturbance.

Flood Risk Assessment for the Long-Term Strategic Planning Considering the Placement of Industrial Parks in Slovakia

The intention of the article is to demonstrate how data from historical maps might be applied in the process of flood risk assessment in peri-urban zones located in floodplains and be complementary datasets to the national flood maps. The research took place in two industrial parks near the rivers Žitava and Nitra in the town of Vráble (the oldest industrial park in Slovakia) and the city of Nitra (one of the largest industrial parks in Slovakia, which is still under construction concerning the Jaguar Land Rover facility). The historical maps from the latter half of the 18th and 19th centuries and from the 1950s of the 20th century, as well as the field data on floods gained with the GNSSS receiver in 2010 and the Q100 flood line of the national flood maps (2017), were superposed in geographic information systems. The flood map consists of water flow simulation by a mathematical hydrodynamic model which is valid only for the current watercourse. The comparison of historical datasets with current data indicated various transformations and shifts of the riverbanks over the last 250 years. The results proved that the industrial parks were built up on traditionally and extensively used meadows and pastures through which branched rivers flowed in the past. Recent industrial constructions intensified the use of both territories and led to the modifications of riverbeds and shortening of the watercourse length. Consequently, the river flow energy increased, and floods occurred during torrential events in 2010. If historical maps were respected in the creation of the flood maps, the planned construction of industrial parks in floodplains could be limited or forbidden in the spatial planning documentation. This study confirmed that the flood modelling using the Q100 flood lines does not provide sufficient arguments for investment development groups, and flood maps might be supplied with the data derived from historical maps. The proposed methodology represents a simple, low cost, and effective way of identifying possible flood-prone areas and preventing economic losses and other damages.

The Integrated Approach to Landscape Management —Experience from Slovakia

The integrated approach to landscape management is generally accepted, but its application is not on the desired practical level. Sectoral approaches to decision-making and planning processes still dominate. The presented paper concerns selected aspects of integrated landscape management in Slovakia. This paper reflects the present state of the long-term effort and experiences of the authors in the integration of ecological knowledge in landscape management tools. The basic methodological procedure needed to achieve this goal consists of analysis, mutual comparison, and confrontation of the existing principles and tools used in applied landscape ecology, as well as in legislation and planning practice. The landscape ecological base for the implementation of scientific achievements in landscape management consists of two methods: landscape ecological planning and ecological network planning. These two methods were implemented into the legislation and practice of nature conservation, physical/territorial planning, watershed management, land arrangement projecting, forestry planning, and flood prevention management. Such systematic landscape ecological regulations in planning practice can be considered the basis for sustainable development.

Modelling Development, Territorial and Legislative Factors Impacting the Changes in Use of Agricultural Land in Slovakia

The conflict of interests in agricultural land use based on the diversity of needs of private and public interest is the main problem of the current protection of agricultural land in Slovakia. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to identify factors affecting the withdrawal of agricultural land, i.e., conversion of the agricultural land to non-agricultural purposes, and to initiate a professional discussion on the concept of protection and use of the agricultural land in Slovakia. Through panel regression models, the developmental, territorial, and legislative factors affecting land withdrawal for the purpose of housing, industry, transport, mining, and other purposes were analyzed. Research has shown that developmental factors, compared to legislative ones, affect the total volume of agricultural land withdrawn in bigger scope. From the perspective of the conflict of interests between the individuals and state regarding land protection, the private interest prevails over the public one. As a consequence, agricultural land is withdrawn in suburbanized and attractive areas, where the land of the highest quality is mostly located. In accordance with the precautionary principle, the state should adopt a long-term conceptual document defining the areas of agricultural land use taking into account the impact of the developmental factors on the land protection.

Conflict and Impacts Generated by the Filming of Discovery Channel’s Reality Series “Naked and Afraid” in the Amazon: A Special Case in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, Ecuador

Conflicts and ecological impacts in natural protected areas can arise for various reasons. The behavior of social stakeholders in the face of conflict is the object of study. Their reactions can be varied according to the personal interests of the parties. Conflicts can cause changes in the communities, incomprehensibly affecting the environment and ultimately transforming their lives. Although the environmental impacts have generally been well studied in protected areas, after reviewing the literature, it was observed that very few studies exist on the local economic conflicts that frequently arise. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the socio-ecological conflicts and impacts generated by the filming of the American reality series Naked and Afraid, produced by the Discovery Channel in the Ecuadorian Amazon—a special case in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve. The data was gathered from numerous primary sources, including field interviews with the regional stakeholders involved and a video analysis of the Discovery Channels’ Naked and Afraid. The results of our study conclude several interesting insights into various social and ecological conflicts and their resulting impacts on the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve. The first of these concerns the high impacts mainly associated with biotic components in the Reserve. The second set of interesting findings are social conflicts that were caused by the discontent of the Indigenous communities in relation to royalties and compensations left by the filming.

Vegetation Restoration and Its Environmental Effects on the Loess Plateau

An analysis of land use/cover change (LUCC) on the Loess Plateau over the past 30 years and its environmental effects was performed to provide scientific guidance for a sustainable development policy for the regional ecological environment and social economy. Geostatistical and trend analyses are used to study the LUCC characteristics, driving forces and environmental effects, and the relationship between LUCC and regional sustainable development is explored. The following results were obtained: (1) Overall, the land use structure has not changed, with grassland, farmland, and forest land remaining dominant; however, the vegetation coverage has significantly increased, especially in the central area. (2) LUCC is affected by climate change and human activities, with greater climate change impacts in the northwest than the southeast and greater among which human-induced impacts on the hilly/gully region in the central part. (3) LUCC will produce long-term ecological and environmental processes, such as surface runoff, soil erosion, soil moisture and carbon cycling. Vegetation restoration has both negative and positive effects on the regional ecological environment. Vegetation productivity on the Loess Plateau has approached the water resource carrying capacity threshold. Therefore, improving artificial vegetation stability and promoting the water resources balance have become the main strategies for promoting sustainable development on the Loess Plateau.