Determining Boundaries of Irrigated Landscape Ecosystems: A Participatory Approach Using Transect Walks and Focus Group Discussion | Chapter 2 | Geography, Earth Science and Environment: Research Highlights Vol. 2

The objective of the study is to identify and evaluate the different ecosystems in irrigation landscapes based on physical characteristics (land use, soil type, vegetation, crops cultivated, etc.), ecosystem services, and the location of key resources in order to determine the boundaries of the ecosystem in irrigated landscapes in the White Volta Basin. Agricultural landscapes are continuously changing under the influence of humans and nature, resulting in a variety of local impacts. Agricultural landscapes are the visual result of land uses that represent the cultural landscape group with origin, structure and ecological relations that differ from the natural landscapes. In the White Volta Basin (WVB), ecosystem boundaries are dynamic in both space and time, periodic evaluation is required to determine the boundaries and ecosystem services on which community livelihood depends. The study was conducted in 2015 - 2016 in the White Volta Basin. Transect walk and focus group discussions are Participatory Rural Appraisal tools used. These participatory methods enabled the active participation of community members in research. Focus group discussions enabled the assessment of the types of ecosystem (provisional and cultural) services available and ranking gave an indication of the most needed and available service and location to a household. Transact walk provided information on visual and physical characteristics in the ecosystems and focus group discussions with a checklist on thematic areas provided in-depth information on the ecosystem services availability and uses. Transect walk not only identifies ecosystem boundaries in a landscape but also aids in the evaluation of the type of provisioning services available between boundaries. The movement of ecosystem boundaries is often gradual and depends on the balance between external forces (such as climate, water management, and human activities) and natural ecological processes. Boundaries may also move in response to stress (drought), while in others, they expand as ecosystems adapt to new opportunities (irrigation or climate change). From the study, it was established that irrigated ecosystems can be partitioned into catchment, upstream, midstream, and downstream with very distinct boundaries and specific ecosystem provisioning services accessible in the demarcations availability and uses. Transect walk not only identifies ecosystem boundaries in a landscape but also aids in the evaluation of the type of provisioning services available between boundaries. Transect walks and focus group discussions were observed as necessary tools in identifying and categorizing ecosystem services available between ecosystem boundaries. From the study, it was established that irrigated ecosystems can be partitioned into catchment, upstream, midstream, and downstream with very distinct boundaries and specific ecosystem provisioning services accessible in the demarcations.

 

Author (s) Details

Gandaa ZB
University for Development Studies, Nyankpala, Ghana.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/geserh/v2/2785

Developing Complex Network Simulation of Forest Network Spatial Pattern in Pearl River Delta | Chapter 2 | Research Advances in Environment, Geography and Earth Science Vol. 6

In the history of more than 2000 years of development, the original forest of the Pearl River Delta area was almost cut down, hilly low mountain area was secondary or sparse forest; Now, Plain water network area grown mulberry, tropical fruit lychee, longan, sugar cane and banana. Vegetation ecological function in the area is weak as the beach, and wetland-based water ecological services are the main components. Forest network construction uses the method and model with the scale-free features of complex network theory based on random graph theory and dynamic network nodes which show a power-law distribution phenomenon. The model is suitable for ecological disturbance by larger ecological landscape Pearl River Delta consistent recovery. Remote sensing and GIS spatial data are available through the latest forest patches. A standard scale-free network node distribution model calculates the area of the forest network’s power-law distribution parameter value size; The recent existing forest polygons which are defined as nodes can compute the network nodes' decaying index value of the network’s degree distribution. The parameters of the forest network are picked up then make a spatial transition to GIS real world models. Hence the connection is automatically generated by minimizing the ecological corridor by the least cost rule between the near nodes. Based on scale-free network node distribution requirements, select the number compared with less, a huge point of aggregation as a future forest planning network’s main node, and put them with the existing node sequence comparison. By this theory, the forest ecological projects in the past avoid being fragmented, scattered disorderly phenomena. The previous regular forest networks can be reduced the required forest planting costs by this method. For ecological restoration of tropical and subtropical in south China areas, it will provide an effective method for the forest entering city project guidance and demonstration with other ecological networks (water, climate network, etc.) for networking a standard and base datum.

 

Author (s) Details

 

Yuhuai Zeng
Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Key Lab of Guangdong for Utilization of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Guangzhou, 510070, China.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/raeges/v6/403

Determining Boundaries of Irrigated Landscape Ecosystems: A Participatory Approach Using Transect Walks and Focus Group Discussion | Chapter 2 | Geography, Earth Science and Environment: Research Highlights Vol. 2

 

The objective of the study is to identify and evaluate the different ecosystems in irrigation landscapes based on physical characteristics (land use, soil type, vegetation, crops cultivated, etc.), ecosystem services, and the location of key resources in order to determine the boundaries of the ecosystem in irrigated landscapes in the White Volta Basin. Agricultural landscapes are continuously changing under the influence of humans and nature, resulting in a variety of local impacts. Agricultural landscapes are the visual result of land uses that represent the cultural landscape group with origin, structure and ecological relations that differ from the natural landscapes. In the White Volta Basin (WVB), ecosystem boundaries are dynamic in both space and time, periodic evaluation is required to determine the boundaries and ecosystem services on which community livelihood depends. The study was conducted in 2015 - 2016 in the White Volta Basin. Transect walk and focus group discussions are Participatory Rural Appraisal tools used. These participatory methods enabled the active participation of community members in research. Focus group discussions enabled the assessment of the types of ecosystem (provisional and cultural) services available and ranking gave an indication of the most needed and available service and location to a household. Transact walk provided information on visual and physical characteristics in the ecosystems and focus group discussions with a checklist on thematic areas provided in-depth information on the ecosystem services availability and uses. Transect walk not only identifies ecosystem boundaries in a landscape but also aids in the evaluation of the type of provisioning services available between boundaries. The movement of ecosystem boundaries is often gradual and depends on the balance between external forces (such as climate, water management, and human activities) and natural ecological processes. Boundaries may also move in response to stress (drought), while in others, they expand as ecosystems adapt to new opportunities (irrigation or climate change). From the study, it was established that irrigated ecosystems can be partitioned into catchment, upstream, midstream, and downstream with very distinct boundaries and specific ecosystem provisioning services accessible in the demarcations availability and uses. Transect walk not only identifies ecosystem boundaries in a landscape but also aids in the evaluation of the type of provisioning services available between boundaries. Transect walks and focus group discussions were observed as necessary tools in identifying and categorizing ecosystem services available between ecosystem boundaries. From the study, it was established that irrigated ecosystems can be partitioned into catchment, upstream, midstream, and downstream with very distinct boundaries and specific ecosystem provisioning services accessible in the demarcations.

 

Author(s)details:-

 

Gandaa ZB (PhD)
University for Development Studies, Nyankpala, Ghana.

 

Please See the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/geserh/v2/2785

Some Methodological Issues of Scientific Geosophy | Chapter 6 | Novel Perspectives of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences Vol. 8

 Our occasion is characterized by a legal combination of opposite processes in the development of wisdom - differentiation, meant in the emergence of new analytical, sectoral trainings, and integration, that consists in the design of artificial, complex disciplines mainly at the boundaries of science. One of the most immature synthetic geographic punishments is geosophy, which was settled about a hundred years ago at the line of geography and philosophy. In fact, fundamentals of geosophy were present in the works generated by ancient Greek and Roman scholars and theorists, but in the new time the first the one used the term “geosophy”, was German geographer Ewald Banse. But welcome geosophy occupied a place between the learning and art; the up-to-date, hardly experimental, geosophy was created by American scholar John Kirtland Wright. So, for as well hundred years, this experimental discipline has passed a troublesome way of happening, due to two together internal, expressed in the type of the discipline itself, and outside (ideological, geopolitical, etc.) factors.The object of geosophy is human scope, that is, scope perceived and understood by man.Nowadays, post-non-classical mechanics approaches are becoming more widely secondhand in geosophy - besides geosophical, it is noospheric (created by Pierre Teillard de Chardin and Volodymyr Vernadskyi), synergistic (settled by Isabelle Stengers and Ilya Prigogine), eco-evolutionary (famous also as the beginning of sustainable development begun by Dennis Meadows) and passionate (found by Lev Gumilyov). They are based on a fundamentally new connection between the subject and the object, qualitatively various from what has traditionally happened recognized as classical and non-simple geography. One feature of post-non-classic approaches is subject-object convergence.In particular, the content of the geosophical approach is to acknowledge geographical facial characteristics as totals that represent the joined unity of the all natural and human elements. Possibilities of its request exist in almost all portions of geography. One of the main one in all geology is the category of landscape. The doubt of its understanding attests to the fundamental importance concerning this concept, its special role in the information of the earth's surface as a multidimensional sensibility. In particular, the geosophical point of view on countryside consists in the beginning of the landscape and ethnicity interplay.From the diversity of countryside understandings, two basic concepts prominent. The content of one of bureaucracy, dating back to the 19th centennial, is to see the countryside as a general exact likeness the terrain, which was elucidated as totality. From different positions, designed in the early twentieth centennial, the landscape is understood as a actual existing unaffected material object, characterized by genetic uniformity, the presence of upright and horizontal form and clearly defined boundaries. The place of the aforementioned countryside concepts and the search for potential of combining bureaucracy is one of the main theoretical issues of modern geology, in particular, geosophy.It is emphasized that the categories of “spirit”, “knowledge”, “information field’ forming a triad, merge spiritual and material, ideal and real, emotional and objective components of countryside in a whole unity.

Author(s) Details:

Yu. O. Kyselov,
Uman National University of Horticulture, Uman, Ukraine.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/NPGEES-V8/article/view/11014

Optimization of Landscape Disturbances in the Territory during Mining | Chapter 7 | Novel Perspectives of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences Vol. 7

 Mining causes meaningful disturbances of the landscape on account of both construction and movement of open pits and underground mines and transfer of ore excavating and concentration wastes on the earth’s surface.The scientific work aims to expand individual issues of organization and the electronics of reclaiming disturbed regions of the lithosphere using the example of Kryvyi Rih iron mineral basin.Technical answers to the problem of the negative effects of secret mines and open pits on the ecosystem and countryside of the territory plan out intensification of iron ore natural resources processing, containing wider initiation of technologies for reprocessing off-grade ores, pebbles retreatment, wider use of waste rocks (quartz) in creation, introduction of within overburden stockpiling technologies. Promising organic reclamation electronics include provocation of natural overgrowth processes on the surface of depression and tailings conveniences by remote hydro-request of a fertile substrate mixed with not organic fertilizers and seeds of perpetual grasses, shrubs and arboreous plants to the surface of technogenic objects.

Author(s) Details:

Valeriy Antonik,
Scientific Research Ore-Mining Institute of Kryvyi Rih National University, Gagarin Ave., 57, Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine.

Yevgeniy Babets,
Scientific Research Ore-Mining Institute of Kryvyi Rih National University, Gagarin Ave., 57, Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine.

Irina Antonik,
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, Gagarin Ave., 54, Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine.

Irina Melnikova,
Kryvyi Rih National University, V Matusevych Str.11, Kryvyi Rih, 50027, Ukraine.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/NPGEES-V7/article/view/10534

Determining the Mechanism on Ventilation for Thermal Comfort in Residential Buildings: A Case of Government Housing Estates in Nigeria | Chapter 12 | New Approaches in Engineering Research Vol. 15

 Natural ventilation has been identified as an energy-efficient option for lowering building energy use, achieving thermal comfort, and preserving a healthy interior environment. The study looks at the ventilation system in residential structures for thermal comfort in a selected government housing estate in south-west Nigeria. As a result, the study identifies landscape aspects as well as consumers' levels of interest and desirability in using landscape features in their environments. There has been minimal research on the mechanics of ventilation in residential structures for thermal comfort. According to the survey findings, 78.0 percent of natural ventilation mechanisms were windows, 12.5 percent were soft landscape components, and 9.5 percent were a combination of window and courtyard. As a result, the study concluded that windows of adequate size and landscape elements should be included in residential buildings to increase natural ventilation.

Author(S) Details

Capatina Octavian
Renewable Energy Department, NEGOIU, Romania.

A. M. O. Atolagbe
Department of Architecture, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria.

View Book:- https://stm.bookpi.org/NAER-V15/article/view/4037