Pub Date : 2022-08-24DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-22-00001.1
V. Miller, E. Joseph, Niroj Sapkota, Joerg Szarzynski
The explosive volcanic eruptions of La Soufrière volcano, St Vincent and the Grenadines, in April 2021 caused the displacement of thousands of people, resulting in heavy disruption of livelihoods and economic activities, destruction of critical infrastructure, and volcanic ash deposits that affected the entire mountainous island of St Vincent and the neighboring island of Barbados. The resulting triple crisis in the region included volcanological risks, the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, and hydrometeorological risks due to the approaching hurricane season. This article analyzes the scientific and operational activities that The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre undertook after effusive activity was detected in December 2020, as well as the actions taken during an official response mission of the United Nations, led by the Joint Environment Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva and upon request for international environmental assistance from the Government of St Vincent. It examines the interplay and collaboration between these 2 organizations and other disaster risk reduction agencies. The article also highlights how the interconnected, systemic nature of risks and disasters emphasizes the ultimate need for regional coordination and collaboration across sectors, including scientific monitoring networks; national, regional, and international emergency preparedness and response agencies; academia; and the private sector. The presented case study for elucidating the ongoing lahar hazard at La Soufrière volcano supports a long-term view for planning and mitigation in this challenging topography. This will help to ensure that the volcanic risks in the Caribbean region are appropriately considered a major component of the multihazard approach undertaken by national authorities and scientists to manage community safety and sustainable economic development through adequate means of disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness.
{"title":"Challenges and Opportunities for Risk Management of Volcanic Hazards in Small-Island Developing States","authors":"V. Miller, E. Joseph, Niroj Sapkota, Joerg Szarzynski","doi":"10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-22-00001.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-22-00001.1","url":null,"abstract":"The explosive volcanic eruptions of La Soufrière volcano, St Vincent and the Grenadines, in April 2021 caused the displacement of thousands of people, resulting in heavy disruption of livelihoods and economic activities, destruction of critical infrastructure, and volcanic ash deposits that affected the entire mountainous island of St Vincent and the neighboring island of Barbados. The resulting triple crisis in the region included volcanological risks, the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, and hydrometeorological risks due to the approaching hurricane season. This article analyzes the scientific and operational activities that The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre undertook after effusive activity was detected in December 2020, as well as the actions taken during an official response mission of the United Nations, led by the Joint Environment Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva and upon request for international environmental assistance from the Government of St Vincent. It examines the interplay and collaboration between these 2 organizations and other disaster risk reduction agencies. The article also highlights how the interconnected, systemic nature of risks and disasters emphasizes the ultimate need for regional coordination and collaboration across sectors, including scientific monitoring networks; national, regional, and international emergency preparedness and response agencies; academia; and the private sector. The presented case study for elucidating the ongoing lahar hazard at La Soufrière volcano supports a long-term view for planning and mitigation in this challenging topography. This will help to ensure that the volcanic risks in the Caribbean region are appropriately considered a major component of the multihazard approach undertaken by national authorities and scientists to manage community safety and sustainable economic development through adequate means of disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness.","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48031862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The dominant themes of social science research on mountain areas focus on the issues of outmigration and inmigration, and on functional changes under the impact of changing consumer demand and locational conditions. In this context, the majority of work probably shares the approach of path-dependent development, which assumes that local experiences and practices can explain the specific development of mountain regions today. In spite of this, within the mountain research community, less appears to be known regarding these trajectories in concrete terms. This is often a topic of research carried out by historians and social anthropologists but is rarely known outside their own discipline, largely due to their limited microlevel research field and lack of international comparisons. Knowledge of such work is necessary, however, both to understand the contemporary lines of conflict between uplands and lowlands as well as to question the idyll of supposedly lowconflict agrarian societies. Swiss historian Prisca Roth did just that: She analyzed territorialization and socioeconomic differentiation processes using the example of Val Bregaglia, an Italianspeaking mountain valley in the southern Alps of the Grisons, Switzerland, for the period of around AD 1300– 1600. The agricultural economic areas extend from the valley bottom to the alpine pastures that encompass an elevation gradient between 700 and more than 1800 m. In addition, traffic over the Septimer Pass at 2300 masl played an important role. Roth investigated cases of conflict between the different municipalities within and between the 3 different hierarchic levels of municipalities (several local municipalities within the 2 large municipalities of Sottoporta and Sopraporta, all part of the valley municipality Val Bregaglia). This research was done on the basis of handwritten notarial records preserved in the municipal archives, which she painstakingly transcribed. The documents (mainly notarial records, but also other administrative texts) were written in Italian, Latin, local Italian dialect, and German. The sources cited are partly translated into German, whereas for smaller sentences, a basic knowledge of Italian is assumed. The work is written in German, which limits its dissemination. Nevertheless, I think it makes sense to discuss it here, since it addresses fundamental questions of social differentiation in alpine settlement areas that might be fruitful for the study of other mountain areas as well. German language skills and an engagement with agrarian societies remain necessary, although translation machines have made things much easier. The analysis of everyday legal disputes may seem anecdotal to some, but systematic analysis, in the long run, makes it possible to assess important questions of a general character that are also of interest for other mountain areas, such as regulation of the commons (especially the use of alpine pastures) or the autonomy rights of the local municipalit
{"title":"Korporativ denken, genossenschaftlich organisieren, feudal handeln: Die Gemeinden und ihre Praktiken im Bergell des 14.–16. Jahrhunderts [Thinking Corporately, Organizing Cooperatively, Acting Feudally: Communes and Their Practices in Val Bregaglia in the 14th–16th Centuries]. By Prisca Roth","authors":"Manfred Perlik","doi":"10.1659/mrd.mm275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.mm275","url":null,"abstract":"The dominant themes of social science research on mountain areas focus on the issues of outmigration and inmigration, and on functional changes under the impact of changing consumer demand and locational conditions. In this context, the majority of work probably shares the approach of path-dependent development, which assumes that local experiences and practices can explain the specific development of mountain regions today. In spite of this, within the mountain research community, less appears to be known regarding these trajectories in concrete terms. This is often a topic of research carried out by historians and social anthropologists but is rarely known outside their own discipline, largely due to their limited microlevel research field and lack of international comparisons. Knowledge of such work is necessary, however, both to understand the contemporary lines of conflict between uplands and lowlands as well as to question the idyll of supposedly lowconflict agrarian societies. Swiss historian Prisca Roth did just that: She analyzed territorialization and socioeconomic differentiation processes using the example of Val Bregaglia, an Italianspeaking mountain valley in the southern Alps of the Grisons, Switzerland, for the period of around AD 1300– 1600. The agricultural economic areas extend from the valley bottom to the alpine pastures that encompass an elevation gradient between 700 and more than 1800 m. In addition, traffic over the Septimer Pass at 2300 masl played an important role. Roth investigated cases of conflict between the different municipalities within and between the 3 different hierarchic levels of municipalities (several local municipalities within the 2 large municipalities of Sottoporta and Sopraporta, all part of the valley municipality Val Bregaglia). This research was done on the basis of handwritten notarial records preserved in the municipal archives, which she painstakingly transcribed. The documents (mainly notarial records, but also other administrative texts) were written in Italian, Latin, local Italian dialect, and German. The sources cited are partly translated into German, whereas for smaller sentences, a basic knowledge of Italian is assumed. The work is written in German, which limits its dissemination. Nevertheless, I think it makes sense to discuss it here, since it addresses fundamental questions of social differentiation in alpine settlement areas that might be fruitful for the study of other mountain areas as well. German language skills and an engagement with agrarian societies remain necessary, although translation machines have made things much easier. The analysis of everyday legal disputes may seem anecdotal to some, but systematic analysis, in the long run, makes it possible to assess important questions of a general character that are also of interest for other mountain areas, such as regulation of the commons (especially the use of alpine pastures) or the autonomy rights of the local municipalit","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49196714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-18DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00035.1
Julia Grosinger, K. Grigulis, Nicolas Elleaume, N. Buclet, S. Lavorel
Livestock systems are vital to socioeconomic livelihoods in mountain territories, yet quantitative analyses of their diverse modes of production beyond farm level are missing. We used the concept of nature's contributions to people to account for these various society–ecosystem interactions. We investigated the role of biophysical constraints, resources, and community-based institutions (CBIs) for agricultural production at municipal scale. We asked: What are the driving variables that govern the agricultural system at municipal scale in a mountain territory, and what is the role of CBIs? Based on qualitative research with local informants, we identified the most relevant resources for agricultural production in 53 municipalities that are part of a cheese-producing CBI in Maurienne Valley (French Alps). Correlation analyses showed how biophysical constraints and external drivers from tourism shape the agricultural management of ecosystems. The inductive clustering to 3 production typologies suggested that the CBIs could buffer resulting differences in economic outcomes. Our results display how such mixed-method analyses can inform policymaking in heterogeneous mountain territories.
{"title":"Community-Based Institutions Shape Cheese Co-Production in a French Alpine Valley","authors":"Julia Grosinger, K. Grigulis, Nicolas Elleaume, N. Buclet, S. Lavorel","doi":"10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00035.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00035.1","url":null,"abstract":"Livestock systems are vital to socioeconomic livelihoods in mountain territories, yet quantitative analyses of their diverse modes of production beyond farm level are missing. We used the concept of nature's contributions to people to account for these various society–ecosystem interactions. We investigated the role of biophysical constraints, resources, and community-based institutions (CBIs) for agricultural production at municipal scale. We asked: What are the driving variables that govern the agricultural system at municipal scale in a mountain territory, and what is the role of CBIs? Based on qualitative research with local informants, we identified the most relevant resources for agricultural production in 53 municipalities that are part of a cheese-producing CBI in Maurienne Valley (French Alps). Correlation analyses showed how biophysical constraints and external drivers from tourism shape the agricultural management of ecosystems. The inductive clustering to 3 production typologies suggested that the CBIs could buffer resulting differences in economic outcomes. Our results display how such mixed-method analyses can inform policymaking in heterogeneous mountain territories.","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41310351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As described in Water Resource Management in Central Asia and Afghanistan, the transboundary Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers provide water and food security for more than 80 million people (p 4). Surprisingly little, however, is established in the academic literature on their dynamics and sensitivities to climate change and experiences of environmental degradation and land use change. To fill this gap, this book aggregates a multidisciplinary collection of papers, drawing on hydrology, glaciology, water chemistry, meteorology, and other fields. The resulting anthology provides rich regional context on current and future water issues, with an eye toward implementation of integrated water resource management, transboundary river management, sustainable development, and climate change adaptation. Read as a collection of conference papers, the work finds its strength in offering a cross-disciplinary and prefatory sampling of current and future water management issues facing Central Asia and Afghanistan. The central aim of the book is to further knowledge of water issues, present and future, in the transboundary river basins of Central Asia and Afghanistan. The work’s editors, Zheenbek E. Kulenbekov and Baktyiar D. Asanov, both professors at the American University of Central Asia, come to this work with backgrounds in hydrogeology and chemistry, respectively. They bring deep regional expertise to bear in this work, from careers performing environmental impact assessments and consultancies on water issues for national governments and international agencies. Their stated goal, more precisely, is to provide ‘‘a cross-sectoral, multi-scale assessment of development-directed investigations in the main rivers of wider Central Asia and Afghanistan.’’ To support this point, the book chapters are organized thematically, drawing on studies from an array of authors, primarily local to the region, under each chapter. Themes include current water availability, climate change impacts, water risk analysis, environmental flows, and remote sensing applications. Cross-cutting across the chapters is an understanding of the region as particularly sensitive to the impacts of climate change, explained as a product of its geographical diversity, glacierized headwaters, fragile transboundary river management regime, and high reliance on irrigated agriculture for regional food security. The range of material covered in the book draws on and contributes to literature on development in mountain regions by contextualizing water scarcity as a main limiting factor on regional socioeconomic development. Water modeling and monitoring are presented as key to improving water management and, in turn, development outcomes. Structural choices in the chapter organization and brevity of the individual papers constrain the theoretical and methodological contributions of the book to the broader field of water resource management. These structural choices are visible in 3 key ways: the miscel
正如《中亚和阿富汗水资源管理》所述，跨界的阿姆河和锡尔河为8000多万人提供了水和粮食安全(第4页)。然而，令人惊讶的是，学术文献中关于它们的动态和对气候变化的敏感性以及环境退化和土地利用变化的经验的研究却很少。为了填补这一空白，本书汇集了多学科的论文，在水文学，冰川学，水化学，气象学和其他领域绘图。由此产生的选集提供了当前和未来水问题的丰富区域背景，着眼于实施综合水资源管理，跨界河流管理，可持续发展和气候变化适应。作为会议论文的合集，本书的优势在于为中亚和阿富汗当前和未来的水管理问题提供了跨学科的初步样本。本书的中心目标是进一步了解水问题，现在和未来，在中亚和阿富汗的跨界河流流域。这本书的编辑，哲恩贝克·e·库伦别科夫(zhenbek E. Kulenbekov)和巴克蒂亚尔·d·阿萨诺夫(Baktyiar D. Asanov)都是中亚美国大学的教授，他们分别具有水文地质学和化学背景。他们为这项工作带来了深厚的区域专业知识，从从事环境影响评估和为国家政府和国际机构提供水问题咨询的职业。更确切地说，他们宣称的目标是“对更广泛的中亚和阿富汗主要河流的发展导向调查进行跨部门、多尺度的评估”。为了支持这一点，这本书的章节是按主题组织的，每一章都引用了一系列作者的研究，主要是当地的作者。主题包括当前水资源可用性、气候变化影响、水风险分析、环境流动和遥感应用。贯穿各章的是对该地区对气候变化影响特别敏感的理解，解释为其地理多样性、冰川化的源头、脆弱的跨界河流管理制度以及区域粮食安全高度依赖灌溉农业的产物。书中所涵盖的材料范围借鉴并促进了山区发展的文献，将水资源短缺作为区域社会经济发展的主要限制因素。水建模和监测被认为是改善水管理的关键，反过来也是发展成果的关键。章节组织中的结构选择和个别论文的简洁性限制了本书对更广泛的水资源管理领域的理论和方法贡献。这些结构上的选择在三个关键方面是可见的:章节主题的杂乱描述，学术工具的不均匀使用，以及对读者综合方向的遗漏。章节的主题是高度相互关联的，它们之间的界限并不总是清晰的。这使得很难把握每一章的独特的附加点，以及它所源于的更广泛的领域，为工作的目标增加了。例如，第一章的论文侧重于评估水资源的可用性，与气候变化和其他人类活动的影响密切相关，这是第二章的主题，第二章同样包括评估水资源可用性的研究。下一章中关于水资源风险的两篇论文，分别关注乌兹别克斯坦的棉花农业和比什凯克北部的地下水和洪水，可以很容易地合并到前面的章节中，因为它们同样广泛地探讨了气候变化下导致水资源短缺高风险的问题。一些论文提供了高质量的参考书目、脚注和尾注;然而，这些学术设备并没有在整个工作中提供。每一篇单独的论文都有自己的方法来提供视觉材料，并选择了一些数字、数字标题、地图和现场照片。中亚和阿富汗跨界河流的区域地图被省略了，它本可以提供一个关键资源，使所研究的各个流域的背景和建立对该区域的综合了解。如果在开幕词和结束语中综合了这一丰富的多学科信息，并更直接地提出了预期的“跨部门、多尺度评估”，本可以增强该工作实现其目标的能力。论文1、5和6中提出的关于加强跨界管理和科学合作的建议，综合的方向会增加更多的分量和深度。 由于没有综合论述，这本书就成了一个信息仓库，而不是为政策或学术思想的转变编织论据。缺乏综合的根本原因在第14章中提出了关于设计可持续未来的建议，这在山区研究与发展(MRD)工作中提供了唯一的暗示。这是一份由国际山地学会(IMS)出版的国际同行评审开放获取期刊www.mrd-journal.org MountainMedia
{"title":"Water Resource Management in Central Asia and Afghanistan: Current and Future Environmental and Water Issues. Edited by Zheenbek E. Kulenbekov and Baktyiar D. Asanov","authors":"Kate Altemus Cullen","doi":"10.1659/mrd.mm274","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.mm274","url":null,"abstract":"As described in Water Resource Management in Central Asia and Afghanistan, the transboundary Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers provide water and food security for more than 80 million people (p 4). Surprisingly little, however, is established in the academic literature on their dynamics and sensitivities to climate change and experiences of environmental degradation and land use change. To fill this gap, this book aggregates a multidisciplinary collection of papers, drawing on hydrology, glaciology, water chemistry, meteorology, and other fields. The resulting anthology provides rich regional context on current and future water issues, with an eye toward implementation of integrated water resource management, transboundary river management, sustainable development, and climate change adaptation. Read as a collection of conference papers, the work finds its strength in offering a cross-disciplinary and prefatory sampling of current and future water management issues facing Central Asia and Afghanistan. The central aim of the book is to further knowledge of water issues, present and future, in the transboundary river basins of Central Asia and Afghanistan. The work’s editors, Zheenbek E. Kulenbekov and Baktyiar D. Asanov, both professors at the American University of Central Asia, come to this work with backgrounds in hydrogeology and chemistry, respectively. They bring deep regional expertise to bear in this work, from careers performing environmental impact assessments and consultancies on water issues for national governments and international agencies. Their stated goal, more precisely, is to provide ‘‘a cross-sectoral, multi-scale assessment of development-directed investigations in the main rivers of wider Central Asia and Afghanistan.’’ To support this point, the book chapters are organized thematically, drawing on studies from an array of authors, primarily local to the region, under each chapter. Themes include current water availability, climate change impacts, water risk analysis, environmental flows, and remote sensing applications. Cross-cutting across the chapters is an understanding of the region as particularly sensitive to the impacts of climate change, explained as a product of its geographical diversity, glacierized headwaters, fragile transboundary river management regime, and high reliance on irrigated agriculture for regional food security. The range of material covered in the book draws on and contributes to literature on development in mountain regions by contextualizing water scarcity as a main limiting factor on regional socioeconomic development. Water modeling and monitoring are presented as key to improving water management and, in turn, development outcomes. Structural choices in the chapter organization and brevity of the individual papers constrain the theoretical and methodological contributions of the book to the broader field of water resource management. These structural choices are visible in 3 key ways: the miscel","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43951998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joerg Szarzynski, I. Alcántara-Ayala, M. Nüsser, S. Schneiderbauer
Healthy social–ecological systems in mountains are essential for reducing disaster risk and achieving sustainable development globally. Natural hazards and disaster risks in mountains differ significantly from those in lowlands, with multiple factors complicating disaster management and rescue operations in mountainous environments. Mountain social–ecological systems are highly sensitive to global warming, increasing climate variability, and related hazardous processes. Future scenarios include extensive melting of glaciers in mountain regions around the world, intrinsically interconnected with increased risks of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Furthermore, changes in precipitation patterns and the hydrological cycle involve changes in the cryosphere and vegetation cover. Altogether, these changes lead to more frequent disasters triggered by flash floods, landslides, or forest fires, with devastating consequences. Moreover, particularly in mountainous terrain, the interplay between geological setting and meteorological events often induces multihazard situations, leading to the simultaneous occurrence of several different hazard processes in the same location or their consecutive occurrence as cascading events (Kappes et al 2012; Terzi et al 2019). Disruption of livelihoods, increased pressure on natural resources, and effects on agricultural productivity, as well as food insecurity, land tenure, escalating poverty, and migration, are among the main areas of concern (Wymann von Dach et al 2017).
健康的山区社会生态系统对于减少灾害风险和实现全球可持续发展至关重要。山区的自然灾害和灾害风险与低地有很大不同，山区环境中的灾害管理和救援行动因多种因素而复杂化。山地社会生态系统对全球变暖、气候变率增加及相关危险过程高度敏感。未来的情景包括世界各地山区冰川的广泛融化，这与冰湖溃决洪水(GLOFs)风险的增加有着内在的联系。此外，降水模式和水文循环的变化涉及冰冻圈和植被覆盖的变化。总之，这些变化导致由山洪、山体滑坡或森林火灾引发的灾害更加频繁，造成毁灭性后果。此外，特别是在山区，地质环境和气象事件之间的相互作用往往会导致多灾害情况，导致同一地点同时发生几种不同的灾害过程，或作为级联事件连续发生(Kappes et al . 2012;Terzi et al 2019)。生计中断、自然资源压力增加、农业生产力受到影响，以及粮食不安全、土地权属、贫困加剧和移民等，都是令人担忧的主要领域(Wymann von Dach et al . 2017)。
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Pub Date : 2022-08-02DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00032.1
Pragya Bhatt, C. Pickering
Mountain protected areas are popular tourism destinations. Those managing such landscapes and activities require data on when and where people go, but obtaining such information is difficult for large and often remote areas, particularly when resources are limited. We illustrate how geolocated images posted on social media could be used to assess tourism by analyzing geolocated images taken in the Annapurna Conservation Area in Nepal and posted to the image-sharing platform Flickr. Data from 577 visitors covering 3 major periods—pre-2007 (limited roads and Maoist insurgency), 2008–2014 (post-insurgency and better roads), and 2015–2020 (post-blizzard and earthquake)—and 4 meteorological seasons were analyzed. We found monthly patterns based on photo user days correlated with recent official visitor data. When finer resolution mapping of photo-user-hour data was visualized using heatmaps, seasonal and spatial patterns were apparent. Visitors mainly stayed on trails, roads, or in villages, with few images off trails, at high elevations, or from the remote north, while visitation was greater and more dispersed in spring and autumn compared to summer and winter. The results highlight the concentrated nature of visitation and hence opportunities to promote new destinations, events, and activities, particularly in summer and winter. They also show how roads and trails have expanded the use of the area. Although beneficial, social media has limitations, as few visitors post to social media, platforms vary in popularity and access to data, and there are increasing ethical and privacy issues with data from social media that need to be considered.
{"title":"Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Visitation in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal: Insights from Geolocated Social Media Images","authors":"Pragya Bhatt, C. Pickering","doi":"10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00032.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00032.1","url":null,"abstract":"Mountain protected areas are popular tourism destinations. Those managing such landscapes and activities require data on when and where people go, but obtaining such information is difficult for large and often remote areas, particularly when resources are limited. We illustrate how geolocated images posted on social media could be used to assess tourism by analyzing geolocated images taken in the Annapurna Conservation Area in Nepal and posted to the image-sharing platform Flickr. Data from 577 visitors covering 3 major periods—pre-2007 (limited roads and Maoist insurgency), 2008–2014 (post-insurgency and better roads), and 2015–2020 (post-blizzard and earthquake)—and 4 meteorological seasons were analyzed. We found monthly patterns based on photo user days correlated with recent official visitor data. When finer resolution mapping of photo-user-hour data was visualized using heatmaps, seasonal and spatial patterns were apparent. Visitors mainly stayed on trails, roads, or in villages, with few images off trails, at high elevations, or from the remote north, while visitation was greater and more dispersed in spring and autumn compared to summer and winter. The results highlight the concentrated nature of visitation and hence opportunities to promote new destinations, events, and activities, particularly in summer and winter. They also show how roads and trails have expanded the use of the area. Although beneficial, social media has limitations, as few visitors post to social media, platforms vary in popularity and access to data, and there are increasing ethical and privacy issues with data from social media that need to be considered.","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47846605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-30DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00021.1
Mikaela Linder, K. Sidali, C. Fischer, M. Gauly, G. Busch
The European Union (EU) regulation on mountain food products represents a great opportunity for beef producers in mountain areas, particularly as the quality-certified food has received more attention from European consumers in recent years. However, for a food-quality system—such as the European Commission's mountain labeling scheme—to be effective, the regulation standards must meet consumer expectations. In Italy, there are few studies on consumer preferences regarding beef and none focused on meat produced in mountain areas. To help fill this gap, this study assessed the preferences of Italian citizens for attributes associated with beef produced in mountain areas and contrasted the results with the EU regulation on mountain food products. Furthermore, factors that explain the heterogeneity of Italians' preferences regarding beef production attributes were analyzed. Data were collected online using a consumer panel, and a best–worst scaling method and latent class analysis were used. The results indicate that Italians expect mountain beef to be healthier and produced according to higher animal welfare standards. Such preferences reveal the existence of a gap between what Italians expect and the quality standards of the EU regulation on mountain food products, a situation that may jeopardize the objectives of the European Commission's mountain labeling scheme.
{"title":"Assessing Italians' Preferences for Mountain Beef Production Using a Best–Worst Scaling Approach","authors":"Mikaela Linder, K. Sidali, C. Fischer, M. Gauly, G. Busch","doi":"10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00021.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00021.1","url":null,"abstract":"The European Union (EU) regulation on mountain food products represents a great opportunity for beef producers in mountain areas, particularly as the quality-certified food has received more attention from European consumers in recent years. However, for a food-quality system—such as the European Commission's mountain labeling scheme—to be effective, the regulation standards must meet consumer expectations. In Italy, there are few studies on consumer preferences regarding beef and none focused on meat produced in mountain areas. To help fill this gap, this study assessed the preferences of Italian citizens for attributes associated with beef produced in mountain areas and contrasted the results with the EU regulation on mountain food products. Furthermore, factors that explain the heterogeneity of Italians' preferences regarding beef production attributes were analyzed. Data were collected online using a consumer panel, and a best–worst scaling method and latent class analysis were used. The results indicate that Italians expect mountain beef to be healthier and produced according to higher animal welfare standards. Such preferences reveal the existence of a gap between what Italians expect and the quality standards of the EU regulation on mountain food products, a situation that may jeopardize the objectives of the European Commission's mountain labeling scheme.","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48399320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00066.1
Margherita Grandini, M. Medici, Maurizio Canavari, Elisa Palmioli, F. Mercati, A. Catorci, P. Scocco
Every year, mountain pastures show a progressive impoverishment of forage. The loss in grassland feed value restricts the production period of local Pecorino cheeses, which strongly depend on the vegetative cycle of the pasture linked to climatic conditions. The Monte Fietone mountain area (Macerata, Italy) has emblematic pasture flora during spring and early summer. This unique environment is normally used for rearing sheep, allowing regular production of local Pecorino cheeses from their milk, which is rich in vitamins and intrinsic floral aromas. Biologists and agronomists are giving increasing importance to these mountain food products. We conducted sensorial tests and experimental auctions to investigate recognition of the quality of this rare artisanal product. The results indicate considerable potential for economic differentiation. Accordingly, we recommend useful and applicable marketing and policy actions to support the sustainability of mountain grazing systems.
{"title":"Consumer Liking and Value Perception of Mountain Cheese from Different Pasture Periods: Evidence for Mountain Systems Supporting Policies","authors":"Margherita Grandini, M. Medici, Maurizio Canavari, Elisa Palmioli, F. Mercati, A. Catorci, P. Scocco","doi":"10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00066.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00066.1","url":null,"abstract":"Every year, mountain pastures show a progressive impoverishment of forage. The loss in grassland feed value restricts the production period of local Pecorino cheeses, which strongly depend on the vegetative cycle of the pasture linked to climatic conditions. The Monte Fietone mountain area (Macerata, Italy) has emblematic pasture flora during spring and early summer. This unique environment is normally used for rearing sheep, allowing regular production of local Pecorino cheeses from their milk, which is rich in vitamins and intrinsic floral aromas. Biologists and agronomists are giving increasing importance to these mountain food products. We conducted sensorial tests and experimental auctions to investigate recognition of the quality of this rare artisanal product. The results indicate considerable potential for economic differentiation. Accordingly, we recommend useful and applicable marketing and policy actions to support the sustainability of mountain grazing systems.","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44961112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is one of the world’s major paradigms of environmental and social challenges. This area comprises the highest peaks in the world, and its extent and amazing topography result in a rich variety of biodiversity and cultures. These headwaters feed 10 important rivers in Asia, which supply water to millions of people, whereas the combination of torrential precipitation, strong hydrodynamics, and intense human influence poses a threat for the region’s resilience to risks associated with climate extremes and their consequences (Chettri et al 2010). The vulnerability of these ecosystems to glacier melting and impacts on the snow regime because of global warming is also exacerbated by the consequences of globalization, human mobility, and overexploitation of natural resources (Jodha 2005). The lack of information to deeply understand the complex processes that interact in this region, and the difficult access to large fractions of its area, have limited the possibilities of developing long-term strategies based on ground observations because of the magnitude of the investment required. As the evolution of Earth observation (EO) technologies and the increasing delivery of products with higher time and spatial resolution sped up in the last decades, the Mountain Environment Regional Information System division at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) crystalized its continuous work since 1990 to introduce geospatial information technologies (GITs) in the HKH and develop and foster decision-making frameworks as internet-based applications by hosting a new regional hub of the SERVIR program (NASA 2021) in the HKH. SERVIR is a global program led by a partnership of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and leading geospatial organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. SERVIR’s goals are to address critical challenges in climate change, food security, water and related disasters, land use, and air quality and to codevelop innovative solutions based on satellite data and geospatial technology to improve resilience and sustainable resource management at the local, national, and regional scales. SERVIR-HKH was the third hub of the SERVIR regional network. Since 2010, SERVIR-HKH has bridged EO-based applications and the needs for web-based operational services to support decision-making in the framework of risk reduction and resilience building. This book compiles the efforts made to codevelop information services on a range of climate and land use–related topics since the launch of SERVIR-HKH. With 19 multiauthored chapters, the editors, from ICIMOD, cover a pathway from the program’s initial steps, in chapters 1 to 3 (general introduction, service design approach, and identifying the regional agencies’ needs to implement EO and GIT in their decision-making frameworks); across selected case studies, in chapters 4 to 12 (covering t
{"title":"Earth Observation Science and Applications for Risk Reduction and Enhanced Resilience in Hindu Kush Himalaya Region: A Decade of Experience From SERVIR. Edited by Birendra Bajracharya, Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, and Mir A. Matin","authors":"M. Polo","doi":"10.1659/mrd.mm273.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.mm273.1","url":null,"abstract":"The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is one of the world’s major paradigms of environmental and social challenges. This area comprises the highest peaks in the world, and its extent and amazing topography result in a rich variety of biodiversity and cultures. These headwaters feed 10 important rivers in Asia, which supply water to millions of people, whereas the combination of torrential precipitation, strong hydrodynamics, and intense human influence poses a threat for the region’s resilience to risks associated with climate extremes and their consequences (Chettri et al 2010). The vulnerability of these ecosystems to glacier melting and impacts on the snow regime because of global warming is also exacerbated by the consequences of globalization, human mobility, and overexploitation of natural resources (Jodha 2005). The lack of information to deeply understand the complex processes that interact in this region, and the difficult access to large fractions of its area, have limited the possibilities of developing long-term strategies based on ground observations because of the magnitude of the investment required. As the evolution of Earth observation (EO) technologies and the increasing delivery of products with higher time and spatial resolution sped up in the last decades, the Mountain Environment Regional Information System division at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) crystalized its continuous work since 1990 to introduce geospatial information technologies (GITs) in the HKH and develop and foster decision-making frameworks as internet-based applications by hosting a new regional hub of the SERVIR program (NASA 2021) in the HKH. SERVIR is a global program led by a partnership of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and leading geospatial organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. SERVIR’s goals are to address critical challenges in climate change, food security, water and related disasters, land use, and air quality and to codevelop innovative solutions based on satellite data and geospatial technology to improve resilience and sustainable resource management at the local, national, and regional scales. SERVIR-HKH was the third hub of the SERVIR regional network. Since 2010, SERVIR-HKH has bridged EO-based applications and the needs for web-based operational services to support decision-making in the framework of risk reduction and resilience building. This book compiles the efforts made to codevelop information services on a range of climate and land use–related topics since the launch of SERVIR-HKH. With 19 multiauthored chapters, the editors, from ICIMOD, cover a pathway from the program’s initial steps, in chapters 1 to 3 (general introduction, service design approach, and identifying the regional agencies’ needs to implement EO and GIT in their decision-making frameworks); across selected case studies, in chapters 4 to 12 (covering t","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43141550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-13DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00048.1
Neelakshi Joshi, W. Wende, P. Tiwari
Because of its location in the Indian Himalayas, the mountainous state of Uttarakhand is prone to multiple natural hazards and climate change extremes. At the same time, Uttarakhand is experiencing unprecedented population growth and undergoing rapid urbanization. Urban planning instruments like land use plans and building regulations allow disaster risk measures to be integrated in the rapidly emerging urban form. However, resources for formulating and implementing planning instruments might be limited in mountain urban centers. This paper takes stock of the risk addressed in the urban planning instruments at state and local levels through an analysis of land use plans and interviews with urban planning and disaster risk professionals. Results indicate that planning instruments are largely absent and do not sufficiently address urban risks. Lack of urban planning capacity at state and local levels, absence of local-level risk knowledge, and public pushback against introducing developmental regulations are identified as the primary constraints to addressing risk. We underline the urgent need to address risk in the urban development process and recommend broader engagement with universities and nongovernmental organizations to supplement existing knowledge and capacities.
{"title":"Urban Planning as an Instrument for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Uttarakhand Himalayas","authors":"Neelakshi Joshi, W. Wende, P. Tiwari","doi":"10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00048.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00048.1","url":null,"abstract":"Because of its location in the Indian Himalayas, the mountainous state of Uttarakhand is prone to multiple natural hazards and climate change extremes. At the same time, Uttarakhand is experiencing unprecedented population growth and undergoing rapid urbanization. Urban planning instruments like land use plans and building regulations allow disaster risk measures to be integrated in the rapidly emerging urban form. However, resources for formulating and implementing planning instruments might be limited in mountain urban centers. This paper takes stock of the risk addressed in the urban planning instruments at state and local levels through an analysis of land use plans and interviews with urban planning and disaster risk professionals. Results indicate that planning instruments are largely absent and do not sufficiently address urban risks. Lack of urban planning capacity at state and local levels, absence of local-level risk knowledge, and public pushback against introducing developmental regulations are identified as the primary constraints to addressing risk. We underline the urgent need to address risk in the urban development process and recommend broader engagement with universities and nongovernmental organizations to supplement existing knowledge and capacities.","PeriodicalId":49793,"journal":{"name":"Mountain Research and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44538469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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