Search results for " Resource"
showing 10 items of 3405 documents
Agder as Mutual Competence Builders: Developing Sustainability as a Competitive Advantage
2015
In this chapter, Agder as Mutual Competence Builders: developing sustainability as a competitive advantage, Karen Landmark, Marianne Rodvelt and Stina Torjesen provide a discussion of companies in the Agder region which are organised in the Eyde-network, and how they have developed a common sustainability agenda in co-operation with the university. The chapter shows how this is followed up by organising an Eyde-school as vocational training in co-operation with the university.
Assessment of site-specific drivers of farmland abandonment in mosaic-type landscapes: A case study in Vidzeme, Latvia
2018
Abstract Farmland abandonment, which causes changes in rural life and farming practices, can be observed throughout Europe. Over the last decades natural afforestation has decreased the area of farmland used for agricultural production, thereby leading to landscape homogenization and polarization. This process is explicitly evident in mosaic type landscapes consisting of highly complex land cover patterns, soil composition and topography. The aim of the study was to determine the site-specific driving forces of farmland abandonment at landscape scale in relation to agro-ecological and geographic factors, in a post-Soviet country in Eastern Europe. An extensive field survey approach with sta…
Agricultural landscapes and biodiversity conservation: a case study in Sicily (Italy)
2015
The diversity of life is made up not only of the diversity of plants and animal species, habitats and ecosystems, but also of the diversity of human cultures. These diversities interact with one another in complex ways and express the mutual adaptation between humans and the environment at local level. Sicilian traditional agro-ecosystems, due to the history of the territory and the resulting social and economic context, are configured in a heterogeneous mosaic rich in residual features of environmental value, which enhance the connectivity of the ecological network and support a high proportion of species that are rare or of conservation concern. As a case study we analyzed the characteris…
Understanding properly the `potential natural vegetation' concept
2010
This is a response to critical comments concerning the inappropriate use of the potential natural vegetation (PNV) concept made in a recent contribution to the Commentary section of this journal. We consider that the PNV concept has been misinterpreted. PNV has been used extensively in several European countries since the mid-1950s and was never intended to be used to make a prediction of what vegetation would dominate in an area if human influence were removed. PNV maps express hypothetical assumptions of what corresponds to dominant or natural vegetation in each area. Remnants of the vegetation of the past provided by palaeopalynology and other disciplines provide valuable information for…
SELECTING HERB-RICH FOREST NETWORKS TO PROTECT DIFFERENT MEASURES OF BIODIVERSITY
2001
Data on vascular plants of herb-rich forests in Finland were used to compare the efficiency of reserve selection methods in representing three measures of biodiversity: species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and restricted-range diversity. Comparisons of reserve selection methods were carried out both with and without consideration of the existing reserve system. Our results showed that the success of a reserve network of forests in representing different measures of biodiversity depends on the selection procedure, selection criteria, and data set used. Ad hoc selection was the worst option. A scoring procedure was generally more efficient than maximum random selection. Heuristic methods…
The Impact of Human Recreational Activities in Marine Protected Areas: What Lessons Should Be Learnt in the Mediterranean Sea?
2002
. The aesthetic appeal of marine reserves and the facilities provided, together with the increased public awareness of nature, all contribute to creating massive tourism in MPAs. Human activities are being changed inside MPAs in two ways: humans as top predators are generally being removed, but in turn they could come back at great numbers as visitors. Many authors have studied the impact of visitors, and the results highlight that the consequences can be very substantial and may represent a severe threat to the overall diversity of marine communities. To date, the documented effects of human recreational activities on natural communities are restricted to assessing the consequences of tram…
Assessing the sustainability of water companies: A synthetic indicator approach
2016
Performance indicators (PIs) are essential in the benchmarking process used to rate and rank water companies. However, a set of individual PIs does not provide a holistic assessment of company performance from multiple perspectives. A multidimensional evaluation of the performance of water companies can be achieved by aggregating the PIs into a synthetic indicator. Although the concept of sustainability involves economic, environmental and social criteria, most of the previous studies have not considered these three dimensions simultaneously. This paper discusses a process of indicator aggregation using two approaches based on multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate and compare the sus…
Unveiling community patterns and trophic niches of tropical and temperate ants using an integrative framework of field data, stable isotopes and fatt…
2018
Background: The use and partitioning of trophic resources is a central aspect of community function. On the ground of tropical forests, dozens of ant species may be found together and ecological mechanisms should act to allow such coexistence. One hypothesis states that niche specialization is higher in the tropics, compared to temperate regions. However, trophic niches of most species are virtually unknown. Several techniques might be combined to study trophic niche, such as field observations, fatty acid analysis (FAA) and stable isotope analysis (SIA). In this work, we combine these three techniques to unveil partitioning of trophic resources in a tropical and a temperate community. We d…
Economic Cooperation Between Latvia and China on the Background of Belt and Road Initiative with Focus on Cargo Potential
2018
Latvia is a Belt and Road Initiative country and can contribute to its Eurasian Land Bridge. The existing railway infrastructure can be used for establishing the Eurasian Land Bridge Northern Branch via Latvia, but the problem is a lack of cargo for this route. It can be integrated into the existing Eurasian Land Bridge with specialization to connect China and some European countries—the Scandinavian countries. The aim of the study is to assess the potential volume of Latvian cargo for the Eurasian Land Bridge Northern Branch through Latvia. The methods of the study are statistical analyses and the forecasts of experts. Forecast of experts is an innovative method for investigating this top…