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Land Use, Climate Change and Biodiversity Modeling: Perspectives and Applications
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Author(s)/Editor(s): Yongyut Trisurat (Kasetsart University, Thailand), Rajendra P. Shrestha (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand)and Rob Alkemade (Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency, The Netherlands)
Copyright: ©2011
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-619-0
ISBN13: 9781609606190
ISBN10: 1609606191
EISBN13: 9781609606206
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DescriptionHow humans use terrestrial land affects the earth and all life forms on it. Biodiversity loss and climate change are consequences of the same inappropriate and careless uses of land that negatively impact ecosystems on a smaller scale. Land Use, Climate Change and Biodiversity Modeling: Perspectives and Applications combines state-of-the-art modeling approaches at various scales with case studies from across the world. These examples help natural resource managers, scientists, and decision makers overcome their fear of models. The case studies show how to translate models into results and illustrate how pro-active implementation can mitigate biodiversity loss. This material will interest individual researchers, but it is also critical for policy-makers committed to the future of the planet.
PrefaceThis edited book focuses on discussing three interrelated issues; namely, land use, climate change, and biodiversity. It particularly looks at the impacts of land-use change and climate change on biodiversity with reference to the state-of-the-art modeling approaches at various scales and through case studies representing various regions of the world. In addition, we hope it will help natural resource managers, scientists, and decision makers in overcoming their fear of models and help them in translating the model results into pro-active implementation to mitigate biodiversity loss. This subject area is of high importance nowadays, because it is not only of interest to individual scientists, but also to policy-makers who are committed to at least three global commitments, namely Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Most countries of the world have already agreed upon their implementation.
The idea to develop this book originated in 2006 when the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency organized an international meeting on biodiversity modeling in the Netherlands. Approximately 20 land use, climate, and biodiversity modelers gathered in this meeting. One key message derived from the meeting was to document the concept and methodology currently practiced in various parts of the world and to disseminate it to a wide audience.
Why another biodiversity modeling book? While there already are a number of publications on the subject of a particular threat, like land-use change, climate change, or biodiversity, there is no single book volume at the moment that combines these important issues. Therefore, this book, “Land Use, Climate Change and Biodiversity Modeling: Perspectives and Applications,” is unique and is distinguished from existing titles within the subject area. In addition, it responds to the remaining controversial issue on the effects of accumulative land-use and climate change on biodiversity.
This edited book contains 20 chapters divided into five parts. Part I, the introduction, provides a coherent presentation of the essential concepts, key terminology, and historical background of land use informatics, deforestation, and climate change, in light of their global threat to biodiversity. Part II, Setting the Scene, starts off the overview of deforestation and climate impacts on biodiversity followed by the information on how to monitor and quantify these impacts. Part III, Methods: Land Use and Biodiversity Modeling, gives readers essential tools for land use studies and biodiversity modeling. These insights are put into practice in Part IV: Case Studies. Part V, Conclusions and Recommendations, summarizes and presents analytical views on the status, trend and way forward with regard to the issues of biodiversity and land use modeling and conservation in the context of climate change. More details about the content of each chapter can be found at the end of the Chapter 1.
The contributors to this book are university professors, scientists, and conservation practitioners, who are internationally recognized and have published a number of scientific papers in international journals and at international conferences. Some are the architects of land use and biodiversity models currently used worldwide.
The edited book not only contains recent concepts and methods on land-use modeling and species modeling and accumulative impacts of land use and climate change on biodiversity, but also several case studies of practical importance from various parts of the world. In addition, contributors elaborate methods and processes integrated in a single volume using a simple language that is understandable to non-modelers and resource managers. This edited book is of value for resource managers, scientists, and graduate students. It has a potential for use as a textbook and reference in various university classes. Further, researchers should be interested in our conclusion and recommendations on future research needs in order to fill existing gaps on land use and biodiversity modeling. Land use planners and protected area managers would be interested in finding optimal land allocation options and in prioritizing protected area network to effectively conserve biodiversity.
Reviews and Testimonials
PBL started to develop modeling tools for national use in 2005, together with a large group of modelers from various regions of world. Modelers from Meso- and South America, from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia and from Eastern and Southern Africa were brought together to actually develop tools to be used in their own countries, based on the principles of models developed at a global level. Aspects of models like IMAGE and GLOBIO and also the land use allocation model CLUE proved to be very useful at (sub-) national levels. This book includes some of these experiences and gives the wider, methodological context of these experiences. I hope that this book may inspire research in many countries to set up science-based policy support even if resources are limited or data are scarce. Biodiversity loss declines too quickly to wait for sufficient data. I appreciate the initiative of (especially) Yongyut Trisurat to assemble all these experiences and join them together with theory and background.
– Professor Maarten Hajer, Director of PBL-The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Netherlands
This book serves as a source of sound information for many practitioners like investors, environmental advocacy groups, forestry professionals and educators, policy-makers, and the general public, which can be used to formulate recommendations for future policies and management strategies needed in support of sustainable development. I would like to congratulate the authors and editors of this book; I know it will be a worthwhile contribution to our society at large.
– Professor Don Koo Lee, Minister of the Korean Forest Service, Korea
Biodiversity loss and climate change are the evident consequences of inappropriate and careless use of land. The case studies used in this resource illustrate how to translate models into results and show how active implementation can reduce that loss of biodiversity. It offers state-of-the-art modeling methods at several scales with those case studies. The examples are intended to help resource managers, scientists, and decision makers understand and work with models. [...] The material will interest researchers, but also would be important reading for policy makers involved in these issues.
– Book News, Reference - Research Book News - August 2011
Author's/Editor's Biography
Yongyut Trisurat (Ed.)
Yongyut Trisurat is an Associate Professor of Forestry at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand. He received PhD in natural resources management and conservation from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. He was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Geography, Freie University Berlin in 1995, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar affiliated with University of Hawaii and the East-West Center in 2005, and a Visiting Researcher at AIT in 2009. He has been active in the area of protected areas, biodiversity conservation, landscape ecology and GIS for over 15 years and has been a frequent contributor to several international agencies (e.g., ITTO, IUCN, ADB, CIDA, DANCED/DANIDA, WWF). His current research involves biodiversity conservation and climate change. In addition, he has published a number of peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on these subjects.
Rajendra Shrestha (Ed.)
Rajendra P Shrestha received his PhD in natural resources management and currently is an Associate Professor at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. His areas of research interests include land use and land cover change focusing on land change/degradation-human interface for policy support in the context of climate change. He also has interest in livelihood studies and food security in relation to land use. He has extensively published on these topics in southeast and south Asia. His research collaboration has been with several organizations, FAO, UNDP, UNEP, IUCN, WAC and the universities in the region. Previously, he has worked as lecturer and agriculture officer in Nepal. He was also a Senior Programme Officer at the United Nations Environment Programme, Bangkok, a Visiting Scientist at Nihon University of Japan, and Roskilde University of Denmark.
Rob Alkemade (Ed.)
Rob Alkemade is a senior researcher at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). He obtained his PhD at Wageningen University in the role of nematodes in coastal ecosystems. He developed and applied models for assessing the effects of environmental change on biodiversity, first at the National Institute for the Environment and Public Health (RIVM) and later at PBL. He has a wide experience in biodiversity assessment and scenario analysis at the global level and contributed to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Global Environmental Outlooks and Global Biodiversity Outlooks. For this purpose, he developed the GLOBIO3 model. He is a visiting scientist at Wageningen University doing research on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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