Bringing automated,remote‐sensed,machine learning methods to monitoring crop landscapes at scale

This article provides an overview of how recent advances in machine learning and the availability of data from earth observing satellites can dramatically improve our ability to automatically map croplands over long periods and over large regions. It discusses three applications in the domain of crop monitoring where machine learning (ML) approaches are beginning to show great promise. For each application, it highlights machine learning challenges, proposed approaches, and recent results. The article concludes with discussion of major challenges that need to be addressed before ML approaches will reach their full potential for this problem of great societal relevance.     

The Impacts of Elicitation Context on Stated Preferences for Agricultural Landscapes

Statements of willingness to pay (WTP) have been shown to be dependent upon the framing of the hypothetical market. In this paper we investigate the effects of variations in the timing and location of choice experiment questions concerned with conservation of a UK national park, as research involving measurement of psychological well‐being suggests potential differences for the same individual dependent upon when and where preferences are elicited. We apply the choice experiment technique to the valuation of changes in upland agricultural and semi‐natural landscapes in the Peak District National Park in the UK, to investigate whether timing and location of elicitation (context) affects the value associated with changes in ecosystem services under different management regimes. Four treatments are employed – using the same sample of individuals answering the same choice scenarios – to measure WTP ex‐ante (off site), in situ (on site), and ex‐post at two different time intervals (off site). We show that our on‐site (in situ) treatment generates very different estimates of preferences than any of the off‐site treatments. That stated preferences associated with environmental goods are so context dependent may have implications for the use of stated preferences in policy analysis in terms of identifying how environmental policy is funded and the divergence in value attributed to sampling different populations.     

城市绿地树种规划在城市旅游形象塑造中的作用

城市旅游的兴起带动了城市旅游形象方面的研究,城市植物景观是城市旅游形象的重要载体,独具特色的植物景观对于塑造城市旅游形象与提升城市知名度具有举足轻重的作用。实施基于旅游功能的树种规划是营造和凸显城市旅游形象的有效途径,依据旅游"城市化"与城市休闲对树种规划的更高标准要求,提出具体的措施与建议,为传统基于生态功能的城市树种规划提供了有益的补充。     

不能将生态文明等同于后工业文明——兼与王孔雀教授商榷

将生态文明等同于后工业文明的观点具有明显的逻辑错误和一定的现实危害.其在逻辑上的错误主要是概念不当并列和理由虚假,产生这些错误的原因主要在于思维方式和认识程度的局限.这一观点在现实中有可能造成的危害:一是缩减生态文明建设的时段,二是窄化生态文明建设的内涵.     

后工业化中国城市文化消费经济差异分析

随着国家经济的快速发展,人们的消费水平有了很大程度的提高。在物质财富不断增长的今天,人们的精神生活消费方式也是多姿多采。文化消费作为消费的主要形式之一,对社会和人的发展越来越重要。以后工业化时代中国城市经济发展为背景,探讨中国文化消费经济的未来发展之路。     

A novel approach for assessing the contribution of agricultural systems to the sustainable development of regions with multi-scale indicators: Application to Guadeloupe

The assessment of agriculture at a regional scale is necessary to better guide regional agricultural planning. To improve the contribution of agriculture to sustainable regional development, assessments must take account of the locations and diversity of cropping systems. We have therefore developed a method based on a set of multi-scale indicators to assess the contribution of agriculture to the sustainable development of regions, and its evolution over time. This method can identify: i) sustainability issues, ii) relevant indicators that will provide information on impacts at the field scale, iii) a method to aggregate indicators, iv) data on cropping systems, and v) a database containing spatial units to analyse the whole region. Application of this method to Guadeloupe (2004–2010) enabled the definition of ten issues and 16 indicators, with three procedures to aggregate information from 36 cropping systems allocated to 11,908 fields between 2004 and 2010. Economic, social and environmental sustainability was poor in 2004, with high dependency on subsidies (47.3 M€ yr⁻¹), low agricultural added value (48.5 M€ yr⁻¹), low employment (only 1799 workers), significant risks of crop contamination and pressure on water quality. The total value of subsidies and the risks of river pollution tended to decrease between 2004 and 2010 because of a reduction in intensive banana cropping systems. In parallel, we were able to see that sugar cane, the most widespread crop in Guadeloupe, made only a small contribution to employment and food self-sufficiency during the studied period. The spatial representation revealed that improvements have been seen in southern Guadeloupe due to reductions in banana cultivation. This method was therefore helpful in identifying the most critical agricultural development issues and helping to highlight areas where relevant agricultural land use policies could be formulated.     

Abandonment or survival? Understanding the future of Castanea sativa stands in function of local attitude (Northern Apennine,Italy)

In a chestnut belt in the northern Apennines (Italy), we interviewed current (n = 52) and potential growers from a younger generation (n = 57), to assess what factors are likely to drive their willingness to continue chestnut culture. In 35 cases, local appraisals of chestnut stand disturbances were also contrasted with expert assessments. More than half of current growers were confident about the future of chestnut cultivation. This proportion decreased with grower’s age and experienced issues, while slightly increased in presence of multifunctional management and support from family members. Although most growers resulted highly capable of diagnosing problems, expert advice significantly contributed to driving positive perceptions. About half of the younger interviewees also expressed interest in growing chestnut. This proportion was higher for respondents who are exposed to chestnut culture within the family, and who value cultural services above other ecosystem services (ES) of forests. Overall, passion for the activity and attachment to local heritage were the most influential motivation for both categories of respondents. We outline policy actions that may encourage the continuation of chestnut management and, more generally, conservation of cultural landscapes in mountain areas. Possible measures include financial incentives (e.g., payments for ES), tighter integration of traditional and expert knowledge in the production chain, and public recognition of the value of local heritage in land management. Broader support to maintaining services and infrastructure in rural areas, however, will also be a pre-condition.     

后工业滨水码头景观设计的实践与反思 —— 以南京大唐电厂出灰运煤码头改造为例

南京大唐电厂出灰运煤码头项目是一个已建成的后 工业滨水景观改造工程。场地内原有的民国首都电厂是中国第 一家官办公用模范电厂，是具有代表性的工业遗产。从保护工 业遗存、打造场所精神等设计理念入手，具体分析了项目在设 计和施工过程中遇到的问题及解决方法，如采用“放宽视野” 的方法对原有防汛墙进行改造重建，以便同时满足亲水和防汛 需求；通过“拆、固、增、改”手段，在滨江易塌陷的基础上 构建景观构筑物等。以期为同类型项目提供一些思路与参考。     

Identifying cost-effective hotspots for restoring natural capital and enhancing landscape multifunctionality

Much effort is expended toward planning for conservation, natural resource management and sustainable land use in agricultural landscapes. Although often not explicitly stated, the aims of these efforts are often to restore natural capital for the provision of ecosystem services and stimulate multifunctionality in landscapes. However, the scarcity of resources for, and the potential economic impact of, ameliorative actions that restore natural capital necessitates the identification of cost-effective geographic priorities, or hotspots, which provide multiple ecosystem goods and services. This requires the integrated spatial modelling of multiple environmental and economic processes accompanied by clear goals and performance indicators. Identification of hotspots provides guidance for highly targeted land use change that cost-effectively adds to the stocks of natural capital in a landscape. Additionally, the multifunctionality of the landscape can be increased through the provision of multiple ecosystem goods and services. This paper begins by examining data requirements for identifying geographic hotspots for land use change. This study integrates traditionally disparate landscape-scale biophysical and economic data and models. The elements of natural capital considered here are species and ecosystems, soil and water resources, and the atmosphere. It is demonstrated that locating ameliorative actions towards hotspots will be more cost-effective at restoring natural capital and stimulating landscape multifunctionality than a random targeting approach. We calculate these efficiencies using a small set of indicators for assessing aspects of multifunctionality. The focus of this study is the agricultural landscapes of the Lower Murray region of south-eastern Australia.     

基于《里山倡议》的乡村旅游发展途径初探——以台湾桃园地区对乡村旅游转型的需求为例

乡村旅游作为乡村地区发展的途径之一,必须面对当代乡村景观中传统农业主体性破坏对游憩资源运用的影响。在此过程中,最基本的问题在于乡村地区如何在发展与保护之间取得平衡?乡村旅游以环境资源为基础,建立适宜的乡村环境管理与旅游模式才是乡村旅游发展的根本。该研究主要结合《里山倡议(Satoyama Initiative)》的环境管理概念,探讨其融入乡村旅游发展的可能性,并以我国台湾桃园地区乡村景观为案例,通过对桃园地区乡村景观变迁的研究访谈、空间分析及乡村旅游发展课题的探讨,初步提出三种基于里山倡议概念的乡村旅游发展的可行途径,为未来乡村旅游规划活动提供一定的参考。