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The idea that nature provides services to people is one of the most powerful concepts to have emerged over the last two decades. It is shaping our understanding of the role that biodiverse ecosystems play in the environment and their benefits for humankind. As a result, there is a growing interest in operational and methodological issues surrounding ecosystem services amongst environmental managers, and many institutions are now developing teaching programmes to equip the next generation with the skills needed to apply the concepts more effectively. This handbook provides a comprehensive reference text on ecosystem services, integrating natural and social science (including economics). Colle...
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The growth of cities poses ever-increasing challenges for the natural environment on which they impact and depend, not only within their boundaries but also in surrounding peri-urban areas. Landscape ecology – the study of interactions across space and time between the structure and function of physical, biological and cultural components of landscapes – has a pivotal role to play in identifying sustainable solutions. This book brings together examples of research at the cutting edge of urban landscape ecology across multiple contexts that investigate the state, maintenance and restoration of healthy and functional natural environments across urban and peri-urban landscapes. An explicit focus is on urban landscapes in contrast to other books which have considered urban ecosystems and ecology without specific focus on spatial connections. It integrates research and perspectives from across academia, public and private practitioners of urban conservation, planning and design. It provides a much needed summary of current thinking on how urban landscapes can provide the foundation of sustained economic growth, prospering communities and personal well-being.
As human populations grow, so do the resource demands imposed on ecosystems, and the impacts of anthropogenic use and abuse are becoming ever more apparent. This has led to the development of the concept of ecosystem services, which describes the beneficial functions provided by ecosystems for human society. Ecosystem services are limited and hence threatened by over-exploitation, and there is an urgent imperative to evaluate trade-offs between immediate and long-term human needs and to take action to protect biodiversity, which is a key factor in delivering ecosystem services. To help inform decision-makers, economic value is increasingly being associated with many ecosystem services and is...
What can ecological science contribute to the sustainable management and conservation of the natural systems that underpin human well-being? Bridging the natural, physical and social sciences, this book shows how ecosystem ecology can inform the ecosystem services approach to environmental management. The authors recognise that ecosystems are rich in linkages between biophysical and social elements that generate powerful intrinsic dynamics. Unlike traditional reductionist approaches, the holistic perspective adopted here is able to explain the increasing range of scientific studies that have highlighted unexpected consequences of human activity, such as the lack of recovery of cod populations on the Grand Banks despite nearly two decades of fishery closures, or the degradation of Australia's fertile land through salt intrusion. Written primarily for researchers and graduate students in ecology and environmental management, it provides an accessible discussion of some of the most important aspects of ecosystem ecology and the potential relationships between them.
This book examines environmental security from the perspective of landscape sciences, identifying the forces that threaten environmental security at all levels. It stems from the last five years of the Pilot Study Project on Use of Landscape Sciences for Environmental Assessment sponsored by the NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society. Readers explore concepts of environmental security from subjective and objective perspectives.
What can ecological science contribute to the sustainable management and conservation of the natural systems that underpin human well-being? Bridging the natural, physical and social sciences, this book shows how ecosystem ecology can inform the ecosystem services approach to environmental management. The authors recognise that ecosystems are rich in linkages between biophysical and social elements that generate powerful intrinsic dynamics. Unlike traditional reductionist approaches, the holistic perspective adopted here is able to explain the increasing range of scientific studies that have highlighted unexpected consequences of human activity, such as the lack of recovery of cod populations on the Grand Banks despite nearly two decades of fishery closures, or the degradation of Australia's fertile land through salt intrusion. Written primarily for researchers and graduate students in ecology and environmental management, it provides an accessible discussion of some of the most important aspects of ecosystem ecology and the potential relationships between them.
This book aims to offer research at the cutting edge. The individual chapters are fully revised and updated versions of contributions to the first focused scientific symposium on research in geographic information systems GISRUK. The book provides the reader with a comprehensive outline of the full range and diversity of innovative research programmes in the science of GIS. Chapters address key issues such as computational support; spatial analysis and error; and application and implementation.
Ecosystem accounting is a relatively new and emerging field dealing with integrating complex biophysical data, tracking changes in ecosystems and linking those changes to economic and other human activity. There is an increasing urgency to advance this emerging field of statistics on ecosystems.
This book presents new research on innovative financial instruments and approaches available to implement nature-based solutions (NBS) at various scales and in different contexts. Despite knowledge of the multiple benefits NBS provide, a key barrier to their wide-spread adoption is a lack of knowledge over their financing, in particular, who should pay for an NBS and how it can be financed. The book explores a variety of public, private, and blended finance models and their applicability in developing NBS across terrestrial and marine ecosystems, involving multiple stakeholders, and in jurisdictions of varying climates and income levels. Furthermore, the book provides case studies of the innovative financing of NBS with best practices identified. This book is of interest to environmental planners, resource conservation managers, policymakers, international companies and organizations, environmental NGOs, researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students interested in NBS.