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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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- Byström, Gustaf, et al.
(författare)
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GIS-based methods for sustainable wind power planning
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research motivationRenewable energy has great importance in the work to counteract the global climate changes. The Swedish government has seta target that in 2020, 50% of the energy use shall come from renewable energy, and the government has also declared a longterm commitment for Sweden to be independent of fossil fuels. To reach these targets wind power is expected to play a greatpart, and approximately 50 TWh of new wind power is needed to meet this objective, compared to the current annual production of approximately 16 TWh. However, climate change is not the only issue at hand, and there is a risk of conflicts between meetingthe targets for renewable energy and other sustainability objectives, e.g. concerning ecosystem services, such as habitatsupporting biodiversity, recreation and cultural landscapes. Hence to steer towards a sustainable planning of wind power, targets and objectives as well as decision support has to be dealt with systematically, encompassing social, economic, technical and ecological perspectives.ObjectiveThe objective of the project is to develop GIS-based methods that can be used as planning support in sustainable planning of wind power, in cooperation with regional and municipal actors. The method will function as decision support, which will helpplanners and decision makers at local and regional level to systematically handle the different aspects related to wind power localisation.MethodologyThe project is performed in collaboration with the County Administrative Board of Västernorrland County, which is the study areafor the project. Initially, a literature study is performed to gain knowledge about earlier research in the field and identify importantfactors to include in the methodology. Workshops are held with the included actors, to gain further understanding of what information is relevant when planning for wind power, and to gain local knowledge about the study area; what issues are at hand,and what factors govern wind power planning in the particular area. During the workshops different scenarios related to theplanning process are also developed. The method will include the development of a number of GIS-models to be used in a multicriteria analysis that can be used for design and evaluation of the different planning scenarios.Preliminary resultsThe literature study as well as the workshops reveals that the location of wind turbines often can have impact on, and render conflict between, different interests and objectives. Factors of high concern when planning for locating wind turbines in the County of Västernorrland are, besides wind speed and technical considerations; noise impact, visual impact, and impact on certain bird species, reindeer hearding and recreation. In order to handle these factors, multi-criteria decision analysis within a GIS environment can support planning in the face of complex problems, with capabilities to handle multiple and often conflicting objectives, and to find sustainable solutions to decision-making problems.Management implicationsThe project will result in a General GIS-based Planning Support (GPS) methodology to integrate important sustainability issuesin wind power planning, which can be applied generally in future spatial planning. The project will contribute to a morepredictable planning process, where disparate sustainability targets will be handled in an integrated and systematic way, therebyincreasing the possibility of reaching the targets.
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- Dawson, Lucas, et al.
(författare)
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Impacts of the Water Framework Directive on learning and knowledge practices in a Swedish catchment
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Elsevier. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 223, s. 731-742
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Catchments are complex social-ecological systems involving multiple, and often competing, interests. Water governance and management regimes are increasingly embracing pluralistic, participatory, and holistic norms as a means to engage with issues of complexity, uncertainty, and value-conflicts. Integrated, participatory approaches are theoretically linked to improved learning amongst stakeholders across sectors and decision-making that is grounded in shared knowledge, experiences and scientific evidence. However, few studies have empirically examined the impacts of an integrated approach to learning and knowledge practices related to water resources.Here, a Swedish sub-catchment that has adopted such an approach in association with implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is examined. Interview-based analyses show that WFD implementation has both helped and hindered learning and knowledge practices surrounding both water planning and spatial planning. Whilst communities of practice have developed in the study area, a number of important challenges remain. These include the rigid goal-orientation of the WFD, the fragmentation of knowledge caused by an over-reliance on external consultants, as well as a lack of resources to synthesise information from multiple sources. Present results raise questions regarding the efficacy of the WFD to sufficiently enable the development of learning and knowledge practices capable of handling the complexity, uncertainties and value-conflicts facing catchments in Sweden and elsewhere.
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- Engström, Emma, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Applying spatial regression to evaluate risk factors for microbiological contamination of urban groundwater sources in Juba, South Sudan
- 2017
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Ingår i: Hydrogeology Journal. - : Springer Verlag. - 1431-2174 .- 1435-0157. ; 25:4, s. 1077-1091
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study developed methodology for statistically assessing groundwater contamination mechanisms. It focused on microbial water pollution in low-income regions. Risk factors for faecal contamination of groundwater-fed drinking-water sources were evaluated in a case study in Juba, South Sudan. The study was based on counts of thermotolerant coliforms in water samples from 129 sources, collected by the humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières in 2010. The factors included hydrogeological settings, land use and socio-economic characteristics. The results showed that the residuals of a conventional probit regression model had a significant positive spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I = 3.05, I-stat = 9.28); therefore, a spatial model was developed that had better goodness-of-fit to the observations. The most significant factor in this model (p-value 0.005) was the distance from a water source to the nearest Tukul area, an area with informal settlements that lack sanitation services. It is thus recommended that future remediation and monitoring efforts in the city be concentrated in such low-income regions. The spatial model differed from the conventional approach: in contrast with the latter case, lowland topography was not significant at the 5% level, as the p-value was 0.074 in the spatial model and 0.040 in the traditional model. This study showed that statistical risk-factor assessments of groundwater contamination need to consider spatial interactions when the water sources are located close to each other. Future studies might further investigate the cut-off distance that reflects spatial autocorrelation. Particularly, these results advise research on urban groundwater quality. © 2016, The Author(s).
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