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- Balfors, Berit, et al.
(författare)
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Impacts of urban development on biodiversity and ecosystem services
- 2016
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Ingår i: Handbook on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Impact Assessment. - : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781783478989 ; , s. 167-194
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global urbanization has increased rapidly and it is expected to continue. Due to the continuing urbanization process, green areas are transformed into areas for housing, industry and infrastructure. As a consequence, ecosystems in urbanizing areas are affected, which results in degradation of habitats, due to fragmentation and disturbances, with significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. In cities, green areas are of primary interest to support biodiversity as well as in their role as producers of ecosystem services; that is, services that ecosystems produce to the benefit of humans often without any costs. In addition, publicly accessible urban green areas enhance life quality for urban citizens. To strengthen biodiversity and ecosystem services considerations in the planning process and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in the long term, a consistent assessment of potential impacts is required. In particular, a landscape approach in urban planning and assessment is needed to address the scales of ecological processes, to strengthen important landscape structures and functions in urban, regional and infrastructure planning. A landscape approach calls for methods for assessing the impacts of human actions on biodiversity at a landscape level, across administrative borders. Such methods should allow an analysis of cumulative impacts of many single planning decisions. Several of the processes involved have a temporal and spatial dimension and are possible to quantify, analyse, and visualize with geographical information systems (GIS) combined with spatial ecological models. This allows for localization and quantification of predicted effects of urbanization on biodiversity components over landscape and regional scales. This chapter addresses impacts of urbanization on biodiversity and urban green areas’ capacity in providing ecosystem services. A brief description of the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services provides a framework for a landscape approach in biodiversity assessments and for the practical examples from the Stockholm region. Related to the assessment, tools for predicting and assessing biodiversity impacts at a landscape level will be discussed as well as planning and management of urban green areas. The chapter concludes with lessons learned and key recommendations for best practice.
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- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-
(författare)
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Brazilian land use policies and the development of ecosystem services
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Concerns related to global environmental changes due to land use changes have been driving international communities towards more sustainable land use systems. Brazil is a country of global strategic importance in this matter considering that it is the nation with the largest extension of preserved tropical native vegetation, recognised for its ecosystem services and high and unique biodiversity. Expansion of forestry and agriculture is taking place rapidly in Brazil, partly over degraded pastureland, but also over native vegetation. Regulating policies to govern and limit this expansion is crucial to ensure the preservation of the ecosystems services provided by native vegetation. This thesis aims at improving the understanding of the potential impacts of prevailing public and private policies in the conservation of nature in Brazil. For this end, the Land Use Policy Assessment (LUPA) model was employed to evaluate potential pathways of implementation of the land use policies. Paper 1 evaluated the effects of current private and public command and control regulations in the protection of above-ground carbon stocks, identifying the most relevant stakeholders holding carbon stocks. The findings suggest that about 10% of carbon stocks are unprotected, where other policy instruments based on the market will be mostly required. Paper 2 performed an assessment of the mechanism for offsetting the legal deficit of native vegetation among landholders, evaluating the different offsetting implementation practices and their impacts on nature protection and socio-economic development. The results indicate that the offsetting mechanism may have little or no additional effects on protection of native vegetation and its ecosystem services because most of the offsetting is likely to take place where native vegetation is already protected by current legislations. However, it is viable to maximise environmental and socio-economic returns from the offsetting mechanism.
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- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-
(författare)
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Brazilian public protection regulations and the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Brazil is significant for sustaining ecosystems services and biodiversity of global importance. However, the expansion of forestry and agriculture to supply national and international markets often results in loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Public protection regulations play a crucial role in setting limits for agricultural expansion. This thesis aims at improving the understanding of the potential impacts of prevailing policies in the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity associated with the native vegetation in Brazil. The Land Use Governance Assessment (LUGA) model was developed to simulate the implementation of existing public protection regulations, in particular, the Brazilian Forest Act.The results suggest that command and control regulations do not protect about 28 % of the above-ground carbon in Brazil. The regularisation process of undesignated land is expected to expand protection to an additional 18 % of the above-ground carbon stocks, leaving about 10 % of the carbon stocks unprotected. On the other hand, the preservation of viable populations of several threatened mammal species is highly dependent on an urgent expansion of protected areas in the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes. Furthermore, the results from this thesis indicate that offsetting legal deficit of native vegetation may have little or no additional effects on the protection of native vegetation. The potential loss of forest protection due to reduced legal reserve requirements in the Amazon could potentially range from 6.5 Mha to more than 15 Mha.There are critical gaps in the land use policies in Brazil that threaten the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity associated with native vegetation. Market-driven mechanisms can potentially contribute to filling this gap, protecting nature beyond the legal requirements. Yet, additional regulations may be necessary to improve the efficiency of the trading system of legal deficit of native vegetation among farmers, ensuring environmental and socio-economic functions of this system, and effectively balancing production with conservation.
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- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Recent political development threaten terrestrial mammal diversity in Brazil
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Recent political developments may weaken the legal protection of native vegetation in Brazil, which holds large areas of high biodiversity value. We assess the extent to which legislation protects terrestrial mammal species in Brazil. To this end, we quantify the natural population of mammal species in each fragment of native vegetation and relating this quantification to relevant legislation. We also assess the urgency of interventions to improve the protection of the mammal species. The results indicate that the legislation concerning private and public lands protects at least 40%, and about one-third, of the habitats where half of the threatened mammal species live, respectively. In scenarios of full compliance with relevant legislation, at least 40% of habitats supporting about one-third of these species are unprotected or undesignated lacking command and control regulations protecting the native vegetation. The implications of these results are discussed in light of recent policy developments in Brazil.
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- Mörtberg, Ulla, et al.
(författare)
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Integrating ecosystem services in urban energy trajectories
- 2015
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Ingår i: Biwaes 2015 9Th Biennial International Workshop Advances In Energy Studies. - : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz. - 9783851253931 - 9783851253955 ; , s. 89-
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Changes in urban development trajectories towards renewable energy sources and compact, energy- efficient urban agglomerations will have major impacts on ecosystem services, which cities are dependent on but tend to overlook. Such ecosystem services can be provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services, around which competition over land and water resources will increase with energy system shifts. Much of the land and water use conflicts can be foreseen to take place within urbanising regions, which simultaneously is the living environment of a major part of the human population today. In order to inform critical policy decisions, integrated assessment of urban energy system options and ecosystem services is necessary. For this purpose, the model integration platform Land Evolution and impact Assessment Model (LEAM) is built and empowered with models representing urban form, energy supply and use, transportation, and ecological processes and services, all related to the land and water use evolution. These types of analyses of interacting sub- systems require an advanced model integration platform, yet open for learning and for further development, with high visualisation capacity. Case studies are performed for the cities of Stockholm, Chicago and Shanghai, where urbanisation scenarios are under development. In the case study LEAMStockholm, scenarios for urban compaction and urban sprawl with different energy and water system solutions are being developed, in order to explore the sustainability of urban policy options. This will enable integrated policy assessment of complex urban systems, with the goal to increase their sustainability.
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| 9. |
- Page, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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Open-source planning support system for sustainable regional planning : A case study of Stockholm County, Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environment and planning B. - : SAGE Publications Ltd. - 2399-8083 .- 2399-8091. ; 47:8, s. 1508-1523
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Population increases and environmental degradation are challenges for urban sustainability. Planning support systems are available to assist local authorities in developing strategies toward sustainability and resilience of urban areas, but are not always used in practice. We adapted an open-source planning support system to the case of Stockholm County, Sweden, where there is a productive working relationship between researchers, city planners, and regional planners. We employed a collaborative approach in extending and updating the planning support system and analyzed the outcomes, in order to both improve the planning support system and to investigate the process of planner engagement in planning support system development. The approach involved systematic interactions with local planning authorities and e.g. additional data processing, integrating scientific knowledge, policy, and engagement by planners in the complex process of planning for sustainable urban development. This made the planning support system more user-friendly for local planners, facilitating adoption by planning authorities through overcoming common quality and acceptance barriers to the use of planning support system in practice. Involving planners in planning support system development thus increases (i) planning support system quality, producing relevant and up-to-date outputs, and (ii) acceptance for planning support system by regional planners. Further assessment is required to determine whether planners can operate the adapted planning support system unaided.
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| 10. |
- Pang, Xi, et al.
(författare)
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Ecological network assessment of forest bioenergy options using the landscape simulator LandSim : a case study of Kronoberg, southern Sweden
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The need to adapt to climate change as well as to secure the supply of energy has led to a shift in energy consumption from fossil fuel to renewables. In this context, forest biomass is a resource that is increasingly utilised for bioenergy purposes in Sweden, which along with the extraction of industrial wood may conflict with other sustainability goals such as those related to biodiversity conservation. In order to balance between main sustainability objectives, land zoning policies and related management regimes has been proposed, differentiating between the main management categories protected areas, multi-purpose forestry and intensive forestry. The aim of this project was to develop methods and tools for integrated sustainability assessment of forest biomass extraction, in particular from bioenergy and biodiversity perspectives.For this purpose, the landscape simulator LandSim was developed and applied in a case study in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. Forest growth and management was simulated in 5-year time steps for the period 2010-2110. The management followed two land zoning scenarios, one applying even-aged forestry on all forest land except for protected areas (EAF-tot), and one was applying continuous cover forestry on parts of the forest land, combined with protected areas and a shorter rotation time on the other parts (CCF-int). The outcome of the simulations was raster data on tree species, volume and age for each time step and scenario. From the outcome, harvested volumes and bioenergy feedstock yields were derived. The same outcome was used for an ecological network assessment, using the indicator Equivalent Connected Area (ECA) for two model species tied to mature and old coniferous and southern broadleaved forest, respectively.The results showed that the EAF-tot scenario implied higher yields of biomass feedstock for bioenergy than the CCF-int scenario, while the CCF-int scenario displayed more even yields over the years. By contrast, the CCF-int scenario performed substantially better than the EAF-tot scenario when it came to the ECA indicators. However, the CCF-int scenario involved a range of assumptions mirroring major uncertainties on habitat suitability, which yielded separate results and thus will need further exploration. Moreover, in order to support the model species and related biodiversity components, the forest management would need to allow larger areas to become suitable habitat, as well as to plan for habitat amount and connectivity on landscape scale in order to not only increase habitat size but also ECAs. Conclusively, the modelling framework linking the landscape simulator with the ecological network model could be used for integrated sustainability assessment of bioenergy options, integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options.
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