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Book
Ecology of Angola : terrestrial biomes and ecoregions
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Year: 2023 Publisher: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer,

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Abstract

This open access book richly illustrates the first, and comprehensive, account of the country’s biomes and ecoregions, the driving forces that account for their diversity and vulnerability, and the ecological principles that provide an understanding of the patterns and processes that have shaped landscapes, ecoregions, and ecosystems. Angola encompasses the greatest diversity of terrestrial biomes and is the second richest in terms of ecoregions, of any African country. Yet its biodiversity and the structure and functioning of its ecosystems are largely undocumented. The author draws on personal field observations from over 50 years of involvement in ecological and conservation studies in Angola and across Southern Africa. The vast recent literature published by researchers in neighboring, better resourced countries provides depth to the accounts of ecological principles and processes relevant to Angola and thus contributing to the understanding and sustainable management of its natural resources. .


Book
Fire Hazards: Socio-economic and Regional Issues
Authors: ---
ISBN: 3031504461 9783031504464 Year: 2024 Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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The open access book aims to show the readers novel, relevant and reproducible power of synergistic collaborations between European research groups and stakeholders with the objective to synthesize the existing knowledge and expertise about fire management and hazard and defining a concerted research agenda that promotes an integrated approach to create fire-resilient landscapes, taking into account biological, biochemical and physical, but also socio-economic, historical, geographical, sociological, perception and policy constraints. This is an urgent societal need due to the expected further intensification and geographical spreading of wildfire regimes under Global Change. Fire has been part of the Earth's System for the last 400 million years, and humans are the sole species that controls and manages fire. We have used fire for over a million years, both, as hunter-gatherers managing the landscape with fire and as farmers using fire as a low-cost, efficient and ecological tool for clearing and maintaining the productivity of the land. Fire has been highlighted as the most influential element in the development of human societies. The increase in prolonged dry and hot periods observed in many regions of the world is exacerbating the risk of fire. The causes of increased fire risk are not only linked to climate change but are also a consequence of economic and social changes and political decisions. Over the past few decades, many countries’ rural areas have seen significant depopulation and a reduction in land management as residents moved to cities or even other countries in search of work. The resulting rural depopulation has led to revegetation of the abandoned agricultural land, which favors fire spread. The enhanced risk of fires is moving beyond the capacity of even the best-funded wildland firefighting teams and therefore calls for the development of new approaches to fire management that are key nowadays at different scales. Instead of focusing primarily on increasing firefighting capabilities, a more effective approach is needed that focuses on long-term fire prevention through vegetation management by reducing fuel load or managing fuel type and fuel continuity at a landscape level. FIRElinks (COST Action CA18135) is developing the EU-spanning network of scientists and practitioners involved in forest fire research and land management with backgrounds such as fire dynamics, fire risk management, fire effects on vegetation, fauna, soil and water and socio-economic, historical, geographical, political perception and land management approaches. Among the different Working Groups, number 5 is aimed to connect communities from different scientific and geographic backgrounds, allowing the discussion of different experiences and the emergence of new approaches to fire research, human management, regional issues and socio-economic aspects. .


Book
Urban Living Lab for Local Regeneration : Beyond Participation in Large-scale Social Housing Estates
Authors: --- --- ---
ISBN: 3031197488 303119747X Year: 2023 Publisher: Cham Springer Nature

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This open access book provides an integrated overview of the challenges and resources of large-scale social housing estates in Europe and outlines possible interdisciplinary approaches and tools to promote their regeneration. It especially focuses on the tool of urban living labs, as promising in promoting new and more effective local governance and in including the different actors into the planning process. The book combines theory and practice, since it is the result of action-research conducted in different social housing estates all over Europe. Building on the results of the SoHoLab project (2017–2020), the book benefits from a multidisciplinary perspective, since the researchers involved belong to the fields of anthropology, urban planning, architecture, urban sociology. The project combined theoretical reflections with the installation and/or the consolidation of Urban Living Labs, run by universities, in large social housing estates in three European cities: Brussels, Milan and Paris.


Book
Bioeconomy and Global Inequalities : Socio-Ecological Perspectives on Biomass Sourcing and Production.
Authors: --- --- --- --- --- et al.
ISBN: 3030689441 3030689433 Year: 2021 Publisher: Springer Nature

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This open access book focuses on the meanings, agendas, as well as the local and global implications of bioeconomy and bioenergy policies in and across South America, Asia and Europe. It explores how a transition away from a fossil and towards a bio-based economic order alters, reinforces and challenges socio-ecological inequalities. The volume presents a historically informed and empirically rich discussion of bioeconomy developments with a particular focus on bio-based energy. A series of conceptual discussions and case studies with a multidisciplinary background in the social sciences illuminate how the deployment of biomass sources from the agricultural and forestry sectors affect societal changes concerning knowledge production, land and labour relations, political participation and international trade. How can a global perspective on socio-ecological inequalities contribute to a complex and critical understanding of bioeconomy? Who participates in the negotiation of specific bioeconomy policies and who does not? Who determines the agenda? To what extent does the bioeconomy affect existing socio-ecological inequalities in rural areas? What are the implications of the bioeconomy for existing relations of extraction and inequalities across regions? The volume is an invitation to reflect upon these questions and more, at a time when the need for an ecological and socially just transition away from a carbon intensive economy is becoming increasingly pressing.


Book
Culture and sustainability : exploring stability and transformation with the cultures framework
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ISBN: 3031255151 3031255143 Year: 2023 Publisher: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan,

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This Open access book brings a cultural lens, and a distinctive analytical framework, to the problem of transitioning to a sustainable, low-carbon future. The world faces a seemingly impossible hurdle – to radically alter long-established social, economic and technological systems in order to live within the biophysical limits of the globe, while ensuring a just and enduring transition. The overarching premise of this book is that this cannot be achieved without widespread cultural change. ‘We need a change in culture’ is often used rhetorically, but what does this really mean? Stephenson starts by exploring culture’s elusiveness, describing its divergent interpretations before identifying core features of culture that are common across most definitions. These characteristics form the core of the cultures framework, an extensively tested approach to studying the links between culture and sustainability outcomes. The framework makes culture an accessible concept which can be analytically applied to almost any sustainability problem. Using many examples from around the world, Stephenson illustrates how cultural stability, cultural flexibility and cultural transformation all have a part to play in the sustainability transition. She guides the reader in the use of the cultures framework for policy development and to underpin research undertaken by individuals or by multi-disciplinary teams. Clearly and engagingly written, Culture and Sustainability is essential reading for academics, students, policy makers and indeed anyone interested in a sustainable future. Janet Stephenson is a research professor at the Centre for Sustainability, an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Otago, New Zealand. A social scientist with a background in sociology, planning and cultural geography, she has a longstanding interest in the social determinants of the transition to a sustainable future. Much of her research examines the interplay between culture and sustainability in a variety of contexts. She is passionate about collaborative, interdisciplinary research and the contribution of different knowledge systems to solution-finding.


Book
Decolonising Blue Spaces in the Anthropocene : Freshwater Management in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Authors: --- ---
ISBN: 3030610713 3030610705 Year: 2021 Publisher: Springer Nature

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This open access book crosses disciplinary boundaries to connect theories of environmental justice with Indigenous people’s experiences of freshwater management and governance. It traces the history of one freshwater crisis – the degradation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Waipā River– to the settler-colonial acts of ecological dispossession resulting in intergenerational injustices for Indigenous Māori iwi (tribes). The authors draw on a rich empirical base to document the negative consequences of imposing Western knowledge, worldviews, laws, governance and management approaches onto Māori and their ancestral landscapes and waterscapes. Importantly, this book demonstrates how degraded freshwater systems can and are being addressed by Māori seeking to reassert their knowledge, authority, and practices of kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship). Co-governance and co-management agreements between iwi and the New Zealand Government, over the Waipā River, highlight how Māori are envisioning and enacting more sustainable freshwater management and governance, thus seeking to achieve Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ). The book provides an accessible way for readers coming from a diversity of different backgrounds, be they academics, students, practitioners or decision-makers, to develop an understanding of IEJ and its applicability to freshwater management and governance in the context of changing socio-economic, political, and environmental conditions that characterise the Anthropocene.

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