Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Nature and Society Relations

Wealth over Woe: global biases in hydro-hazard research

Lina Stein, S. Karthik Mukkavilli, Birgit M. Pfitzmann, et al.

Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Hydrology, Nature and Society Relations, Sustainability

Floods, droughts, and rainfall-induced landslides are hydro-geomorphic hazards that affect millions of people every year. Anticipation, mitigation, and adaptation to these hazards is increasingly outpaced by their changing magnitude and frequency due to climate change. A key question for society is whether the research we pursue has the potential to address knowledge gaps and to reduce potential [...]

Field Report No. 1 - Tabor Tree Project Report 2021

candace gossen

Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Nature and Society Relations, Other Plant Sciences

In this Survey, the Tabor Tree Project identified 130 trees randomly in all 12 zones of the park called Mt. Tabor in Portland, Oregon. The Majority of the Trees at Mt. Tabor Park are conifers, and specifically Douglas Fir who can live longer than 1,000 years. The oldest one in the park is 496 years old, and sprouted sometime around 1520 AD. Through the efforts of Tree Medicine hikes and Citizen [...]

Understanding Europe’s forest harvesting regimes

Susanne Suvanto, Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, Mart-Jan Schelhaas, et al.

Published: 2023-08-31
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations

The functioning and structure of most European forests are actively shaped by intensive human use. Harvesting of wood is one of the key processes of forest management, making it a crucial element to include in any large-scale analysis of forest ecosystems. Yet, our understanding of how forests are harvested across Europe is limited, as the true harvest regimes – a realisation of decisions made by [...]

Global protection from tropical cyclones by coastal ecosystems - past, present, and under climate change

Sarah Hülsen, Robert I. McDonald, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, et al.

Published: 2023-06-27
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Risk Analysis

Coastal ecosystems have the potential to contribute to disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. While previous studies have estimated the value of current coastal ecosystems for reducing coastal risk, there have been relatively few studies that look at changes in ecosystem service provision, in the past and under climate change. We employ the probabilistic, event-based CLIMADA [...]

Exponential life-threatening rise of the global temperature

Markus Noll

Published: 2023-05-23
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Nature and Society Relations

Global temperatures are rising. This paper demonstrates for the first time that the global temperature increase has not been linear but is exponential with a doubling time of about 25 years. Both the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the combustion of fossil fuels and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have also risen exponentially, with a similar doubling time. The exponential [...]

The Future in Anthropocene Science

Patrick W Keys, Rekha Warrier, Lynn Badia

Published: 2023-05-23
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Studies, Nature and Society Relations, Sustainability

The Anthropocene is the present time of human-caused accelerating global change, and new forms of Anthropocene risk are emerging that society has hitherto never experienced. Science and policy are grappling with the temporal and spatial magnitude of these changes, as well as the diminishing margin between science and policy itself. However, there is a gap in the transparency — and perhaps even in [...]

Did hydroclimate conditions contribute to the political dynamics of Majapahit? A preliminary analysis

Sandy Hardian Susanto Herho, Katarina Evelyn Permata Herho, Raden Dwi Susanto

Published: 2023-02-21
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Human Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Majapahit was the largest Hindu-Buddhist empire that ruled the Indonesian archipelago from the late 13th to mid-16th centuries CE. Only now there is still a lot of history surrounding the Majapahit era that has yet to be revealed. One is about how environmental factors influenced the political dynamics at that time. This study tries to discuss the influence of hydroclimate regimes using the Paleo [...]

Towards robust interdisciplinary modeling of global human-environmental dynamics

Carsten Meyer

Published: 2023-02-20
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Geography, Life Sciences, Nature and Society Relations

Real-world environmental problems are typically vast, urgent, and complex. Confronted with such problems, we are often tempted to act fast by pulling together little bits and pieces from different fields and simply adding these to pre-existing models and frameworks. Seldom, though, do we pause long enough to look whether and for how long those larger structures we build can support reliable [...]

The Dry Sky: Futures for Humanity’s Modification of the Atmospheric Water Cycle

Patrick W Keys, Lan Wang-Erlandsson, Michele-Lee Moore, et al.

Published: 2022-12-22
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Fresh Water Studies, Hydrology, Meteorology, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Sustainability, Water Resource Management

Humanity is modifying the atmospheric water cycle, via land use, climate change, air pollution, and weather modification. Given the implications of this, we present a theoretical framing of atmospheric water as an economic good. Historically, atmospheric water was tacitly considered a ‘public good’ since it was neither actively consumed (rival) nor controlled (exclusive). However, given [...]

Assessing the magnitude of volcanic risk to global shipping

Paul Cragg, Pete Rowley, Samuel J Mitchell

Published: 2022-10-28
Subjects: Nature and Society Relations, Volcanology

With a global economy dependent on marine traffic there has been little study or recognition of the risk posed to this industry by volcanism. Most major shipping lanes pass close to active volcanoes, or through straits and channels which can be impacted by volcanic debris. In this paper we set out the main hazards presented by volcanoes to shipping, and reflect on the magnitude of risk that these [...]

Applying a science-forward approach to groundwater regulatory design

Tom Gleeson, Xander Huggins, Deborah Curran

Published: 2022-07-14
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Hydrology, Nature and Society Relations

Groundwater sustainability is challenged by the difference between legal and scientific understanding of groundwater as well as the lack of focused attention to regulatory design in the literature on groundwater institutions, governance and management. The purpose of this paper is to use groundwater science to direct the necessary elements of regulatory design for the unique characteristics of [...]

Cutting down trees does not build prosperity: On the continued decoupling of Amazon deforestation and economic development in 21st century Brazil

DARREN NORRIS, Terciane Sabadini Carvalho, Angela M. Guerrero, et al.

Published: 2022-05-13
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Forest Management, Life Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Remote Sensing

Background and aims: We present evidence examining spatial and temporal patterns in forest cover changes and economic progress in Brazilian Amazonia. Specifically we tested two predictions embedded in arguments used by influential interest groups: i) where there is less forest cover economic progress should increase and ii) areas with most recent deforestation should have increased economic [...]

Groundwater connections and sustainability in social-ecological systems

Xander Huggins, Tom Gleeson, Juan Castilla-Rho, et al.

Published: 2022-04-08
Subjects: Dynamical Systems, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Sustainability, Water Resource Management

Groundwater resources are connected with social, economic, ecological, and Earth systems. We introduce the framing of groundwater-connected systems to better represent the nature and complexity of these connections in data collection, scientific investigations, governance and management approaches, and groundwater education. Groundwater-connected systems are social, economic, ecological, or Earth [...]

Knowledge co-production reveals nuanced societal dynamics and sectoral connections in mapping sustainable human-natural systems

Katrina Szetey, Enayat A. Moallemi, Brett A. Bryan

Published: 2022-04-08
Subjects: Human Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Sustainability

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encompass environmental, social, and economic dimensions which are linked to the characteristics of place and have a strong local dimension. They are interconnected at local scales in complex ways which makes progress towards them difficult to predict. To understand how these interconnections play out at the local scale, we used knowledge co-production [...]

Large-area mapping of active cropland and short-term fallows in smallholder landscapes using PlanetScope data

Philippe Rufin, Adia Bey, Michelle Picoli, et al.

Published: 2022-03-17
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science

Cropland mapping in smallholder landscapes is challenged by complex and fragmented landscapes, labor-intensive and unmechanized land management causing high within-field variability, rapid dynamics in shifting cultivation systems, and substantial proportions of short-term fallows. To overcome these challenges, we here present a large-area mapping framework to identify active cropland and [...]

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