Das Projekt "European Investment Bank - Water Management" wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Jena-Optronik GmbH.BACKGROUND: The Kingdom of Jordan belongs to the ten water scarcest countries in the world, and climate change is likely to increase the frequency of future droughts. Jordan is considered among the 10 most water impoverished countries in the world, with per capita water availability estimated at 170 m per annum, compared to an average of 1,000 m per annum in other countries. Jordan Government has taken the strategic decision to develop a conveyor system including a 325 km pipe to pump 100 million cubic meters per year of potable water from Disi-Mudawwara close to the Saudi Border in the south, to the Greater Amman area in the north. The construction of the water pipeline has started end of 2009 and shall be finished in 2013. Later on, the pipeline could serve as a major part of a national water carrier in order to convey desalinated water from the Red Sea to the economically most important central region of the country. The conveyor project will not only significantly increase water supplies to the capital, but also provide for the re-allocation of current supplies to other governorates, and for the conservation of aquifers. In the context of the Disi project that is co-funded by EIB two Environmental and Social Management Plans have been prepared: one for the private project partners and one for the Jordan Government. The latter includes the Governments obligation to re-balance water allocations to irrigation and to gradually restore the protected wetlands of Azraq (Ramsar site) east of Amman that has been depleted due to over-abstraction by re-directing discharge of highland aquifers after the Disi pipeline becomes operational. The Water Strategy recognizes that groundwater extraction for irrigation is beyond acceptable limits. Since the source is finite and priority should be given to human consumption it proposes to tackle the demand for irrigation through tariff adjustments, improved irrigation technology and disincentive to water intensive crops. The Disi aquifer is currently used for irrigation by farms producing all kinds of fruits and vegetables on a large scale and exporting most of their products to the Saudi and European markets and it is almost a third of Jordan's total consumption. The licenses for that commercial irrigation were finished by 2011/12. Whilst the licenses will be not renewed the difficulty will be the enforcement and satellite based information become an important supporting tool for monitoring. OUTLOOK: The ESA funded project Water management had the objective to support the South-North conveyor project and the activities of EIB together with the MWI in Jordan to ensure the supply of water for the increasing demand. EO Information provides a baseline for land cover and elevation and support the monitoring of further stages. usw.
Das Projekt "Assessment of genetic diversity of legumes in the highlands of Northern Vietnam for genetic resource conservation and sustainable landuse" wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität Hohenheim, Fakultät III Agrarwissenschaften I, Institut für Pflanzenproduktion und Agrarökologie in den Tropen und Subtropen, Fachgebiet Biodiversität und Landrehabilitation in den Tropen und Subtropen.Increasing population pressure is leading to unsustainable land use in North Vietnamese highlands and destruction of natural habitats. The resulting loss of biodiversity includes plant genetic resources - both wild (= non-cultivated) species and cultivated landraces - adapted to local conditions, and local knowledge concerning the plants. A particularly important group among endangered plants are the legumes (1) because Southeast Asia is a major centre of genetic diversity for this family, and (2) because the potential contribution of legumes to sustainable land use is, due to their multifunctionality (e.g., soil improvement, human and livestock nutrition), especially high. The project aims to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of legumes with an integrated approach wherein a series of components are combined: (1) A participatory, indigenous knowledge survey complemented by information from the literature; (2) germplasm collection missions (for ex situ conservation) complemented by field evaluation and seed increase; (3) genetic diversity analysis of selected material by molecular markers; and (4) GIS based analysis of generated data to identify areas of particular genetic diversity as a basis for land area planning and in situ preservation recommendations. Project results are expected to be also applicable to similar highlands in Southeast Asia.
Das Projekt "Functional Ecology and Sustainable Management of the Munessa Forest, Ethiopia; Silvicultural contributions towards sustainable management and conservation of forest resources in the highlands of Ethiopia" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Technische Universität München, Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt, Lehrstuhl für Waldbau.Up till now there are no sustainable use and management options of Ethiopian forests. The objective of the silviculture experiment is to provide the necessary knowledge on how forests can be managed in a sustainable way. Based on scientific studies on different management options in plantation and natural forests, the effect of such options on the stands, regeneration, vegetation, and soil can be determined and an evaluation of the options can be made. The natural forest in the study area is heavily degraded and characterised by many gaps resulting from uncontrolled logging. Therefore, investigation in natural forest includes enrichment plantings of the gaps with four ecologically and economically important indigenous tree species (Podocarpus falcatus, Prunus africana, Cordia africana and Juniperus procera). The plantation forests in the study area are poorly managed. Therefore, an experiment including three different silvicultural measures at different age classes will be carried out in the most important and frequent plantation forests (Eucalyptus saligna, Cupressus lusitanica, and Pinus patula). As the livestock considerably affects the forests in the study area, the research includes two different variant of protection (non-protection and protection by fencing). Results will provide a scientific basis for recommendations on the sustainable management of the highland forests in Ethiopia.
Das Projekt "Eco-geomorphology of vegetation borderline ecotones" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Universität Basel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität Basel, Institut für Umweltgeowissenschaften, Forschungsgruppe Physiogeographie und Umweltwandel.Surface processes strongly the quality of the critical zone to sustain a tree cover. Conventionally, the availability of water and sufficient temperatures are considered to be the controlling factors for the presence of vegetation and the development of a , grass, shrub or forest cover. However, in environments with high rates of surface processes, such as deserts and high alpine regions, the lack of a stable regolith determines whether and which type of vegetation cover forms. Climate and environmental change will affect the interaction between surface processes, regolith and vegetation in the 21. Century and thus lead to the alteration of perennial vegetation cover. In environments with a strong influence of surface processes, the extent of trees and shrubs may develop in the opposite direction of the changes of conventional geo-ecologic indices. For example, in alpine environments enhanced mass wasting processes due to an increase of temperatures may lead to a decline in the tree line. Similarly, more runoff during extreme events can increase soil erosion in drylands, destroying the critical zone for plant growth. In this project, the current change of vegetation cover in selected borderline ecotones of the European Alps, the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Negev Desert in Israel and the highlands of Tenerife are examined.
Das Projekt "Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 564: Nachhaltige Landnutzung und ländliche Entwicklung in Bergregionen Südostasiens; Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions of Southeast Asia, B 1.3: Water conservation scenario development at the regional level innovative mapping techniques - Phase 3" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) / National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Bodenkunde und Standortslehre.Population increase especial in the highlands of northern Thailand, reforestation, in-creasing wealth gradient between highland and lowland as well as the commercialisation of agriculture is responsible for the extreme competition for land and water re-sources. For this reason new approaches are urgently required, which intensify the use of land and water on the one hand, and which are ecologically and economically acceptable. The investigations of the second phase showed, that there are many agriculture systems in the highlands of northern Thailand. All of them can clearly be distinguished by their ecological and economical sustainability. A basic requirement of agricultural land use planning is the knowledge about the distribution pattern of soils and their site properties. Until now, there is not any soil map or soil information system for the highlands available, which could be used for a serious land use planning. For this reason intensive soil and petrographic mapping was carried out for three different petrographic areas. This soil knowledge gained during the second phase will now be used to calibrate radiometric data of northern Thailand to generate a digital soil map. In a next step the soil physical properties will be assigned to specific soils by transfer functions. Participative soil mapping, carried out in cooperation with A1.3, will help to find the boundaries of soil physical properties and to validate the soil map. Finally, the soil map information will be a tool which can be used for different kinds of models. In cooperation with C4.1; using the WaNulCAS model; efficient and adapted land use strategies will be developed and assigned to suitable areas. In the past many land development projects failed, because of their top down nature. For this reason a participatory land suitability analysis (PALSA), in cooperation with A1.3, C4.1 and G1.2, will be applied to assure that the developed land use strategies will be acceptable for the local people.
Das Projekt "Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 564: Nachhaltige Landnutzung und ländliche Entwicklung in Bergregionen Südostasiens; Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions of Southeast Asia, D 2.3: Efficiency of smallholder animal husbandry depending on intensity of management and genetic potential of livestock - Community driven breeding programmes: Optimisation of planning procedures" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) / National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Tierproduktion in den Tropen und Subtropen.In the mountainous regions of North Vietnam, smallholder farmers try to sustain and improve their livelihoods under conditions of growing population density and land pressure. Livestock husbandry appears as major development opportunity for them. Yet, 'mountainous regions' are heterogeneous, comprising areas near town with favourable access to markets and infrastructure but higher land pressure and remote areas, disadvantaged concerning market and infrastructure access but disposing of larger cropping and pasture areas. Low and unsteady resource availability in marginal areas limits the possibilities for intensification of livestock production. One solution is to increase production efficiency through improved resource utilisation. In animal production this can be realised through the development of sustainable livestock breeding and management programmes, using genotypes with high productive adaptability. Such programmes will have different structures depending on short- and medium-term resource availability, production objectives and production intensity of respective smallholder production systems.Based on the results of phase 1 and 2, D2.3 focuses on planning procedures for livestock breeding and management programmes for four combinations of production systems and species/genotypes, namely production of lean pork with exotic higher-yielding breeds in demand-driven systems, production of branded pork from local Ban pigs including remote, resource-driven pig producers, production of beef in farming systems of different scale, organisational set-up and remoteness, and production of goat meat as niche product in systems in transition. The four programmes will respond to the large heterogeneity of smallholder production systems in the project area. In fulfilment of its research objectives, D2.3 relies on cooperation with sub-projects E4.1 (Product marketing) concerning the design of a pork marketing and quality control system in the frame of village breeding and pork marketing programmes, G1.2 (Innovations and sustainability strategies) and C4.1 (Land use modelling) on integrated modelling concerning the identification of most sustainable development paths for farms of different production intensity, scale, organisational set-up and remoteness, F2.3 (Livelihood risks) for characterisation of smallholder farms using key indicator regarding adoption of technologies in livestock husbandry, A1.3 (Participatory research) on adoption of optimised breeding strategies by farmers, and D5.2 (Aquaculture) on conflicts and complementarities in the use of feed resources for investigated livestock species and fish/aquaculture.
Das Projekt "Global Change and Mountain Regions: The Mountain Research Initiative Coordination Office" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität Bern, Geographisches Institut.Mountain regions provide goods and services for much of humanity. Twelve percent of the world's population lives in mountain regions and half of humanity depends on resources arising in mountain regions. Outside of the tropics, mountain regions provide 40Prozent of all the freshwater, and in arid and semi-arid regions, this fraction approaches 70-100Prozent. Mountains contain one quarter of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity and one half of the planet's biodiversity hot spots. Mountain forests and soils are among the major terrestrial carbon pools. Mountain ecosystems are very sensitive to drivers of change, from climate change to the loss of vegetation and soils due to inappropriate management practices and extractive industries. The future ability of mountain regions to provide their many goods and services to highland and lowland residents is seriously threatened by climatic changes, environmental pollution, unsustainable management of natural resources and serious gaps in understanding of mountain systems. Both fundamental research activities and transdisciplinary efforts are required to achieve sustainable use of mountain regions. While a number of regional or disciplinary programs exist, the global mountain research community has historically operated at a sub-optimal level due to insufficient communication across geographic and linguistic barriers, less than desirable coordination of research frameworks, and a lack of funding. The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) was created to overcome these constraints by (1) framing research approaches within an interdisciplinary integrative framework; (2) improving communication to overcome the isolation of researchers separated by distance, language and discipline; and (3) influencing funding for global change research in mountain regions. The MRI supports the science needed to adapt successfully to global change by building on its successes to frame the research agenda, implement that agenda at a global and regional levels, integrate research results, provide key information services, improve communications and advocate for funding of global change research in mountains. With the support of several Swiss funding agencies, a small MRI Project Office was established in Bern in July 2001. It was funded at a more significant level by SNF in 2004. To conserve its limited resources, the MRI moved its main office to ETH Zürich in 2005 and also opened a small, free office at the University of Lausanne in order to reinforce contacts in French-speaking Switzerland. In 2007 MRI will move its main office to the University of Bern. Products will include articles in peer-reviewed journals, a scientifically focused Newsletter, an enhanced website, an expanded database of researchers and research programs, and innovative use of webcast and internet based communications.
Das Projekt "Extensive Production Systems in Semi-Arid Regions - Options for Sustainable Future Livelihoods (TPP 6; NCCR North South)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Universität Basel, Schweizerisches Tropen- und Public Health-Institut. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Institute of Sahel.Extensive production systems (EPS) are effective land use systems which allow using scarce natural resources in vast rural semi-arid and highland-lowland areas in a sustainable way by various societies. However, the societal and economic role of EPS is frequently underestimated if not overlooked, particularly at national political level. Ranging from pastoralism (sedentary and mobile) to alternative land uses (e.g. agro-sylvo-pastoralism), which secure the livelihoods of millions of rural peoples; the diversity of adaptation is remarkable. Over the last decades rapid and major socio-political, economic, cultural, institutional, and ecologic changes have put heavy and unprecedented pressures on many EPS. Considering their economic and political marginalisation, innovations are needed to motivate the younger generation to reconsider the EPS areas as a promising way of life and to convince policy makers to consider EPS as a potential capable to contribute to reduce migration towards urban centres. Though the scientific literature regarding key features, potentials, and alternative land use systems is vast, few rigorous scientific comparative investigation related to implementation processes has been conducted so far. To fill this gap, such research should (i) link sociological, ecological, and economic perspectives, (ii) follow an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach grounded in regional partnerships, and (iii) compare and capitalize experiences gained in different geographical contexts. Moreover, the current situation should be reassessed by applying modern technologies while developing and promoting simple but well standardised and adapted (impact) monitoring protocols. The research gap identified and intended to be addressed corresponds to two major strengths of the NCCR, which are (i) a strong focus on inter- and trans-disciplinary research and learning processes, and (ii) the opportunity to compare potentials, options, and best practices in the different JACS regions. The TPP is designed to build on these strengths in order to make a genuine contribution to research on EPS. Moreover, it draws upon a systemic approach allowing tackling the complexity of the issue. Two entry points for the selection and implementation of promising alternatives and options are proposed: (i) access to social services and (ii) sustainable natural resource management. These two entry points are chosen according to the existing research priorities in the JACS WAF and CAS. This will allow extending the current achievements in the different regions by broadening the perspective towards a more comprehensive understanding of implementation, e.g. of novel land use arrangements (pastoral code, new collective institutions) or adapted social and economic services (e.g. joint animal and human vaccinations, commodity chains). (abridged text)
Das Projekt "FP6-SUSTDEV, Sustainable Use of Tree Resources in the Tropics (SUSTREE)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften Brüssel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Institut für Waldökologie.Developing a knowledge base for increased and improved use of woody plants to stabilise land degradation, to strengthen the sustainable production of food and to create additional income from marketing woody plant products in African highland regions by interdisciplinary scientific collaboration between plant breeding, forest ecology and organic farming and by sharing of human as well as technical resources between BOKU and ICRAF.
Das Projekt "Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 564: Nachhaltige Landnutzung und ländliche Entwicklung in Bergregionen Südostasiens; Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions of Southeast Asia, B 2: Lateral water flow and transport of agrochemicals - Phase 1" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) / National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Bodenkunde und Standortslehre.The project aims at developing a model of the dynamics of agrochemicals (fertilisers, pesticides) and selected heavy metals on a regional scale as a function of cropping intensity in the highland areas of Northern Thailand. The model shall predict the effects of cropping intensity on mobility and leaching of agrochemicals in the agriculturally used system itself but also on the chemical status of neighbouring ecosystems including downstream areas. The methods for measuring and estimating the fluxes of agrochemicals in soils will be adapted to the conditions of the soils and sites in Northern Thailand. Fluxes of agrochemicals will be measured in fruit tree orchards on the experimental sites established together with projects B1, C1 and D1. Also, processes governing the dynamics of agrochemicals will be studied. The objectives for the first phase are as follows: - To identify suitable study sites - To establish the methods for measuring the fluxes of agrochemicals in the study sites - To adopt the analytical procedures for pesticides - To identify and parametrise the processes governing the mobility of agrochemicals - To identify the major chemical transformation processes for agrochemicals in the soils of the project area - To establish models of the fate of agrochemicals an the plot scale. Dynamics of agrochemicals include processes of mobilisation/immobilisation, degradation and transport. Both, experiments and field inventories are needed to elucidate the complex interaction of the various processes. Field measurements of the fluxes of nutrient elements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Zn, Cu), pesticides and some heavy metals will be conducted at different regional scales (plot, agricultural system, small catchment, region). Laboratory and field experiments consider chemical, physicochemical and biological processes. Biological processes and degradation of pesticides will not be considered in the first phase of the project, however, they should be included later on. The project as a whole is broken down into three essential parts, which consecutively follow each other. The subproject is methods- and processes-orientated. Methods, which were developed in Hohenheim to quantify the fluxes of chemicals in soils have to be adapted to meet the requirements of the specific conditions in the study area. Recently, these methods are already under development in tropical environments (Vietnam, Costa Rica). After adaptation the methods will be used to yield flux data on the plot scale. These data are needed to help deciding which of the hypothesised processes are of major importance for modelling the dynamics of agrochemicals. The final outcome of this project phase are models of the fate of agrochemicals as a function of management intensity on the plot scale.
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