• Energy Research
• 15. Life on land close
• AU close
• English close

Исследование ландшафтов всегда было традиционным научным направлением географии. В России подобная направленность исследований остаётся актуальной, несмотря на то, что термины «геоэкология» и «ландшафтная экология» сегодня более распространены в англоязычном научном сообществе. Наш краткий обзор показывает значительное ускорение антропогенных ландшафтных изменений в Европе, Центральной Азии и азиатской части России за последние пять десятилетий. Ландшафтные исследования в антропоцене должны быть направлены на достижение и сохранение устойчивости ландшафта при его высокой производительности, что включает в себя прекращение деградации ландшафтов, развитие культурных и сохранение природных ландшафтов. Чистая вода и чистый воздух, плодородные и здоровые почвы для производства продуктов питания и других экосистемных услуг, а также биологически разнообразная зеленая среда являются атрибутами ландшафтов, обеспечивающих выживание и благополучие населения. Дисциплинарные и междисциплинарные исследования должны генерировать знания, инновации и правила принятия действенных решений. Генерация знаний в глобализованном мире основана на сборе больших массивов данных и моделировании сценариев. Международные длительные полевые опыты и системы агроэкологического мониторинга будут предоставлять данные для экосистемных моделей и систем поддержки принимаемых решений. Landscape research has been a traditional scientific discipline of geography. This is still the case in Russia, whilst the terms geo-ecology and landscape ecology have become established in the English speaking scientific community. Our short review reveals huge and accelerating anthropogenic landscape transformations in Europe, Central Asia and Asian Russia since the end the 1960s. Landscape research in the Anthropocene has to focus on achieving landscape sustainability at high productivity. This includes halting landscape degradation, developing cultural landscapes, and maintaining semi-natural landscapes. Clean water and air, fertile and healthy soils for food and other ecosystem services and a green and bio-diverse environment are attributes of landscapes for the survival and well-being of humans. Research has to generate knowledge, innovations and decision rules by disciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary work. Knowledge generation in a globalized world is based on big data gathering and scenario modelling. International long-term experiments and agri-environmental monitoring systems will deliver data for ecosystem models and decision support systems.

This paper describes experiences in the development and testing of three distinct financial models to support farm forestry decisions involving non-traditional tree species in northern Australia and in the Philippines. A variety of options were examined with respect to model design, yield prediction, computing platform, forestry performance criteria and other features. Two of the models focus on the forestry enterprise in isolation, while the third evaluates forestry within the context of the overall farm business. It is found that choice of model design depends on the particular type of application intended and availability of financial data for this application. Some complementarities were gained in replicating features when progressing from one model to the next. Model construction and testing were challenging tasks requiring considerable funds and for two of the models proceeding over a number of years. Validation involved the gradual gaining of confidence in a model as it progressed through various versions. For the more complex models, greater effort in development of the user interface was found to be warranted. The models have proved more suitable for use by extension agents than individual landholders. Even with major resource inputs into model development, a number of desirable additional features can be identified.

The burial of the dead has been the concern of both mourners and civic authorities for as long as humans have lived in organised communities. Cemeteries have throughout history provided areas of open space to urban residents for civic activities and the maintenance of traditions, even in the most crowded areas. The emotional challenge of death is sometimes alleviated by traditionalism and continuity in burial forms which can be expressed through the perpetuation of 'collective representations', or patterns of ideas, values, beliefs and expectations that have emerged over time. It is generally easier when addressing the loss of loved ones to follow tradition or religion and normative social practices than to consider new procedures. Nevertheless normative burial practices are subject to cultural change over time. This paper argues that changes in contemporary burial practices in Australia can be understood as being mediated by tensions between cultural traditions, the act of mourning the dead, a regulated land market that restricts the space for attending to the dead, new demands for ecological sustainability, and state regulations relating to burial and mortuary processes. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

To quantify the climate change impacts of forestry and forest management options, we must consider the entire forestry system: the carbon dynamics of the forest, the life cycle of harvested wood products, and the substitution benefit of using biomass and wood products compared to more greenhouse gas intensive options. This paper presents modelled estimates of the greenhouse gas balance of two key native forest areas managed for production in New South Wales for a period of 200 years, and compares it to the option of managing for conservation only. These two case studies show that forests managed for production provide the greatest ongoing greenhouse gas benefits, with long-term carbon storage in products, and product substitution benefits critical to the outcome. Thus native forests could play a significant part in climate change mitigation, particularly when sustainably managed for production of wood and non-wood products including biomass for bioenergy. The potential role of production forestry in mitigating climate change, though substantial, has been largely overlooked in recent Australian climate change policy.

The continuing growth of large cities around the world makes water scarcity and urban flooding a serious global threat to life and property. Climate change exacerbates the challenges of urban flood management due to impacts to both intra-storm and intra-seasonal rainfall patterns. A dichotomy in urban flooding created, where floods from more intense storms increase in severity while flooding from less severe, more frequent storms are decreased. Hence, there is a need for a more flexible and adaptive approach to address this increased variability in urban surface water and flood management. This thesis evaluates changes in rainfall distributions, and the impacts on urban flooding, before incorporating resilience concepts into the urban flood management paradigm. First, it is shown that the variability in intra-storm rainfall patterns can impact urban flooding as much as the total volume of rainfall during a storm event. Indexing rainfall patterns to increases in temperature, it is also shown that urban flooding increases between 20-110% due to intensification of storms with changing climatic conditions. Then, the impact of changes in intra-seasonal rainfall distributions on global water stress is investigated. Changes in seasonal rainfall distributions in warmer climatic conditions are shown to increase dry spells which consequentially increase water stress by 30% on average for some of the largest cities around the world. Then it is shown that antecedent moisture conditions (AMCs) can be an important factor even in urban flooding. Here, changes in AMCs due to longer dry periods are shown to modulate flooding during the more frequent less intense storms. Finally a pathway towards solving this challenge and as an alternative to current single point designs, the concept of resilience as the basis for assessing and planning urban flood management is presented. Here, a novel way of using hydrologic and hydraulic modelling results as surrogates for components of resilience that form a resilience index is presented. Results using this index for assessment show that green infrastructure can be effective in urban flood management in warmer climatic conditions and that adequate flood management can be achieved with less area dedicated to green infrastructure than currently expected.

Climate change is expected to have a significant effect on agricultural production but less is known about its projected impact on the farm business. This paper provides a first attempt at an economic analysis of the impacts of climate change for broadacre farming systems and provides an insight into agricultural production areas in Western Australia at risk over the next 50 years. These risks have been assessed using the Simulated Transitional Economic Planning (STEP) model to investigate the impact on the farm business. Modelled future climate scenarios were incorporated into crop and pasture production models to examine the economic impact on the whole farming system. Uncertainties associated with climate and production projections were captured through the development of scenarios and sensitivity analyses were performed to encompass a range of potential outcomes for the impact of climate change on the farming systems of the northern wheat-belt. Testing of this process showed that the current farming systems of the region may decline in profitability under climate change to a point where some become financially unviable in the long term. This decline in profitability is driven not only by the decline in crop yields from climate change but also from a continuation in the trend of declining terms of trade. With innovation and adaptation it may be possible to overcome these impacts on the region‘s farming systems even under severe (CSIRO Mk2) climate change projections. Potential profitable adaptations under climate change included a combination farming system of trade cattle, opportunistic cropping and carbon sequestration from oil mallee trees in the low rainfall area; investment in technology and genetically modified crops in the medium rainfall area; and in the high rainfall area a combination of increased crop area on the better soil types and the use of perennial pastures on the poor soil types. The findings are dependent on the accuracy and validity of future climate projections, crop yield estimates and the economic conditions used in the STEP model. Use of this process has improved understanding of the potential impacts of climate change and facilitated regional planning, decision making and the setting of research and investment priorities. However, additional fine-tuning of the analysis and further exploration of alternatives is necessary before policy decisions are made on the future of agriculture in Western Australia‘s northern wheatbelt.

The environment of Aflaj system is shared between natural and old man made} created thousandth years ago to accommodate the old civilization. Howeverl this environment is disturbed by the climatic changes which affect the total area causing drought and desertification. The 2008 Stockholm World Water Week and the third Water WDR conference concluded that "The main impacts of climate change on humans and the environment occur through water". This effect of climate change is reflected by a degradation of Falaj numbers which cause drought and desertification of the soil in a valuable place such as, Oman Mountains rang. Accordingly, the impact of climate change on Aflaj environment can be identified by Fa/aj dry out and Water deficit in most Aflaj oasis, which lead to a desertification of irrigated areas and a reduction of green areas. AdditionallYl the more warmer and drier the land becomes, the more water is required. The higher temperature causes high water demand and evaporation from trees which cause rapid drying of existing crops. Moreover, drier soil is easy eroded by the rain and runoff which worsening the environment. This is being seen as a warning and that it is time to commence taking steps to reduce the effect of climate change and save the environment. This paper shows the effect of climate change on the Aflaj Oasis environment and its impacts. Given the importance of the Aflaj system to the Oman's society, the paper highlights the potential strategies to mitigate or reduce those impacts to sustain Aflaj environment. The strategy recommends better water management} impact minimisation and monitor and control. More efforts should be given for the use of water saving technology. With all of these measures, impact of climate change on Aflaj Oasis environment can be reduced Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper compares carbon pricing policies in British Columbia and Australia in order to identify differences between carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes (ETS) from a fairness perspective. We examine how taxes and trading systems impact indigenous communities in both jurisdictions. While the regressivity of carbon pricing is a critical part of any fairness assessment, we argue that socioeconomic and cultural factors must also be taken into consideration. We discuss the importance of accompanying carbon pricing with policies that mitigate not only distributional impacts, but also additional impacts. These may be funded by the revenue generated by the policy or by other sources of government revenue. We argue in favour of devoting at least some portion of revenues generated by the instruments to climate change mitigation, versus tax cuts, since vulnerable communities are often disproportionately impacted by climate change. We conclude that carbon pricing policies have the potential to be designed in a way that is fair to indigenous communities. The devil is in the details. Both ETS and carbon taxes have cost implications for disadvantaged groups such as indigenous peoples, but they can both be designed in a way that compensates fairly for these impacts. Ultimately, it is a political choice. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

A redevelopment of the Queenscliff Harbour in Victoria was completed in 2009 following extensive community consultation. The project was designed to be a community centrepiece that promoted sustainability. This paper explores the importance of community engagement in the creation of major icon developments that deliver benefits to the community. This is achieved through investigation of the satisfaction residents and tourists have with the redevelopment and the consultation and planning process preceding the redevelopment of the precinct. In addition the perceived personal and community benefits people associate with the harbour area were investigated. The physical recreation value of the development was assessed using SOPARC, the system for observing play and recreation in communities developed by Mackenzie et al (2006). This indicated the site is not frequently used for vigorous physical activity, rather it is a site for leisurely strolls and a meeting place for coffee. Results suggest some tension between local residents and developers in terms of the consultation process. Specifically, a concern existed that input from the community was not adequately considered in the final plans. The greatest use of the area was by tourists who demonstrated a high degree of satisfaction with the development. Local residents, on the other hand, reported lower levels of satisfaction. This paper highlights the need to have clear objectives, to understand the public and what types of participation are appropriate. It also offers a set of recommendations for managers on how to build better community support for future major projects. Refereed/Peer-reviewed