Context Socio-ecological landscapes typically characterized by non-linear dynamics in space and t... more Context Socio-ecological landscapes typically characterized by non-linear dynamics in space and time are difficult to be analyzed using standard quantitative methods, due to multiple processes interacting on different spatial and temporal scales. This poses a challenge to the identification of appropriate approaches for analyzing time series that can evaluate system properties of landscape dynamics in the face of disturbances, such as uncontrolled fires. Objective The purpose is the application of non-linear methods such as recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) to landscape ecology. The examples concern the time series of burnt and unburnt Mediter-ranean rangelands, to highlight potential and limits of RQA. Methods We used RQA together with joint recurrence analysis (JRA) to compare the evolutionary behavior of different land uses. Results Time series of forests and grasslands in rangelands present both periodic and chaotic components with a rather similar behavior after the fire...
Landscape sciences emphasize the importance of spatial pattern and scale in determining the relat... more Landscape sciences emphasize the importance of spatial pattern and scale in determining the relative degree of environmental security. The primary hypothesis of the landscape sciences is that spatial pattern and distribution of biotic and abiotic attributes of the environment, including people, are important determinants of landscape processes and structures which in turn provide ecological goods and services upon which society depends. Because of the emphasis on spatial pattern and scale, the landscape sciences also provide insight into how the spatial distribution of human activities influences important landscape processes and structures from which services are derived. As such, the landscape sciences provide a way to determine the continuous interplay between changes in the conditions of human needs (social, economic, cultural) and changes in the environment. The methodologies of the landscape sciences are applied at different scales and hierarchical levels of organization in the context of complex adaptive socioeconomic and ecological systems.
Environmental security, as the opposite of environmental fragility (vulnerability), is multilayer... more Environmental security, as the opposite of environmental fragility (vulnerability), is multilayered, multi-scale and complex, existing in both the objective realm of biophysics and society, and the subjective realm of individual human perception. For ecological risk assessments (ERAs), the relevant objects of environmental security are social-ecological landscapes (SELs). ERAs, in this case, are less precise than traditional ERAs, but provide results that are more comprehensive and understandable by stakeholders. In this paper, we detect and quantify the scales and spatial patterns of human land use as ecosystem disturbances at different hierarchical levels in a panarchy of SELs by using a conceptual framework that characterizes multi-scale disturbance patterns exhibited on satellite imagery over a four-year time period in Apulia (South Italy). Multi-scale measurements of the composition and spatial configuration of disturbance are the basis for evaluating fragility through multiscale disturbance profiles, and the identification of scale mismatches revealed by trajectories diverging from the global profile to local spatial patterns. Scale mismatches of disturbances in space and time determine the role of land use as a disturbance source or sink, and may govern the triggering of landscape changes affecting regional biodiversity. This study clarifies the potential roles for environmental security of natural areas and permanent cultivations (olive groves and vineyards) in buffering Mediterranean landscape disturbance dynamics and compensating for disturbances across the whole panarchy of Apulia, allowing for potential landscape planning of disturbance. Keywords: Environmental security; multi-scale disturbance; scale mismatches; socialecological landscapes
We describe a framework to characterize and interpret the spatial patterns of disturbances at mul... more We describe a framework to characterize and interpret the spatial patterns of disturbances at multiple scales in socio-ecological systems. Domains of scale are defined in pattern metric space and mapped in geographic space, which can help to understand how anthropogenic disturbances might impact biodiversity through habitat modification. The approach identifies typical disturbance 'profiles' based on the similarity of trajectories in a pattern metric space over a range of spatial scales. When different profiles are coherent in pattern metric space, they describe a regional spatial pattern. The divergence of a profile indicates a scale-dependent transition to a local spatial pattern, which can be examined for correspondence to different regions of geographic space. We illustrate the conceptual model with simulated maps and real disturbance maps from satellite imagery in south Italy. The results suggest that management of disturbances in the study region depend less on local drivers of disturbance and more on broader-scale drivers within the socio-ecological framework.
The maintenance of ecosystem services is the basic guarantee of environmental security that, in a... more The maintenance of ecosystem services is the basic guarantee of environmental security that, in an objective sense, aims to evaluate the level of threats to actual acquired goods and services and, in a subjective sense, the level of consciousness and fear that such services will be attacked and possibly lost. To this purpose the aim of this research is: (1) to assess the temporal dynamics of land use and land cover mosaics, and indirectly of ecosystem services, using the economic valuations as surrogates; (2) to verify if the environmental conservation policies can foster ecosystem services; and, since it is still necessary to foster users’ perception of ecosystem services in order to reduce their fragility, (3) to compare the results coming from objective and subjective analyses. This is overriding in the case of tourism, where the attarctiveness of tourist destinations will depend on the maintenance of recreational ecosystem services based on both natural and cultural heritages. This research highlights the need for a dynamic and continuous inter-comparison between objective and subjective analyses in order to reduce progressively their possible discordance and, consequently, increase environmental security for a more effective adaptive management of ecosystem goods and services. Keywords: Ecosystem goods and services; environmental security; socioeconomic valuation
Risk assessment of landscape biological integrity, associated with ecotypes or ecotype mosaics, i... more Risk assessment of landscape biological integrity, associated with ecotypes or ecotype mosaics, is addressed by simple multi-scale conceptual models incorporating metrics related to current human disturbance, based on native species most threatened with extinction and reduction. We aim at identifying gaps in the Italian existing reserve network to establish new reserves and protected areas to get a more representative network of regional biological diversity, based on (1) their “natural values”, and (2) “fragility”. Distribution maps of habitat sensitivity and fragility give policy makers and land managers information on impacts their land-use decisions will have on existing risks to biological integrity. Such approaches have application in Central Asian ecological evaluation and environmental decision-making.
Managing Socio-Ecological Landscapes (SELs) for environmental security implies the recognition th... more Managing Socio-Ecological Landscapes (SELs) for environmental security implies the recognition that social systems interact with ecological systems, and requires new strategies to improve environmental policies, in light of the mismatch between existing global management capacity and likely threats to environmental resources. This because mismanagement is recognized as one of the main causes that generates environmental insecurity. Thus, decision-makers should consider whether a course of action is reversible and should utilize procedures to evaluate the outcomes of actions, learning from them. These are the principles of adaptive management, based on the ability to adapt to change considered as an intrinsic feature of SELs. In the conclusion we present some general requirements to enhance environmental security through adaptive management approach, highlighting that managing SELs for environmental security demands for a new strategy which includes uncertainty and the dynamics of systems. Keywords: adaptive management; environmental security; socio-ecological landscape; stakeholders’ participation
Context Socio-ecological landscapes typically characterized by non-linear dynamics in space and t... more Context Socio-ecological landscapes typically characterized by non-linear dynamics in space and time are difficult to be analyzed using standard quantitative methods, due to multiple processes interacting on different spatial and temporal scales. This poses a challenge to the identification of appropriate approaches for analyzing time series that can evaluate system properties of landscape dynamics in the face of disturbances, such as uncontrolled fires. Objective The purpose is the application of non-linear methods such as recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) to landscape ecology. The examples concern the time series of burnt and unburnt Mediter-ranean rangelands, to highlight potential and limits of RQA. Methods We used RQA together with joint recurrence analysis (JRA) to compare the evolutionary behavior of different land uses. Results Time series of forests and grasslands in rangelands present both periodic and chaotic components with a rather similar behavior after the fire...
Landscape sciences emphasize the importance of spatial pattern and scale in determining the relat... more Landscape sciences emphasize the importance of spatial pattern and scale in determining the relative degree of environmental security. The primary hypothesis of the landscape sciences is that spatial pattern and distribution of biotic and abiotic attributes of the environment, including people, are important determinants of landscape processes and structures which in turn provide ecological goods and services upon which society depends. Because of the emphasis on spatial pattern and scale, the landscape sciences also provide insight into how the spatial distribution of human activities influences important landscape processes and structures from which services are derived. As such, the landscape sciences provide a way to determine the continuous interplay between changes in the conditions of human needs (social, economic, cultural) and changes in the environment. The methodologies of the landscape sciences are applied at different scales and hierarchical levels of organization in the context of complex adaptive socioeconomic and ecological systems.
Environmental security, as the opposite of environmental fragility (vulnerability), is multilayer... more Environmental security, as the opposite of environmental fragility (vulnerability), is multilayered, multi-scale and complex, existing in both the objective realm of biophysics and society, and the subjective realm of individual human perception. For ecological risk assessments (ERAs), the relevant objects of environmental security are social-ecological landscapes (SELs). ERAs, in this case, are less precise than traditional ERAs, but provide results that are more comprehensive and understandable by stakeholders. In this paper, we detect and quantify the scales and spatial patterns of human land use as ecosystem disturbances at different hierarchical levels in a panarchy of SELs by using a conceptual framework that characterizes multi-scale disturbance patterns exhibited on satellite imagery over a four-year time period in Apulia (South Italy). Multi-scale measurements of the composition and spatial configuration of disturbance are the basis for evaluating fragility through multiscale disturbance profiles, and the identification of scale mismatches revealed by trajectories diverging from the global profile to local spatial patterns. Scale mismatches of disturbances in space and time determine the role of land use as a disturbance source or sink, and may govern the triggering of landscape changes affecting regional biodiversity. This study clarifies the potential roles for environmental security of natural areas and permanent cultivations (olive groves and vineyards) in buffering Mediterranean landscape disturbance dynamics and compensating for disturbances across the whole panarchy of Apulia, allowing for potential landscape planning of disturbance. Keywords: Environmental security; multi-scale disturbance; scale mismatches; socialecological landscapes
We describe a framework to characterize and interpret the spatial patterns of disturbances at mul... more We describe a framework to characterize and interpret the spatial patterns of disturbances at multiple scales in socio-ecological systems. Domains of scale are defined in pattern metric space and mapped in geographic space, which can help to understand how anthropogenic disturbances might impact biodiversity through habitat modification. The approach identifies typical disturbance 'profiles' based on the similarity of trajectories in a pattern metric space over a range of spatial scales. When different profiles are coherent in pattern metric space, they describe a regional spatial pattern. The divergence of a profile indicates a scale-dependent transition to a local spatial pattern, which can be examined for correspondence to different regions of geographic space. We illustrate the conceptual model with simulated maps and real disturbance maps from satellite imagery in south Italy. The results suggest that management of disturbances in the study region depend less on local drivers of disturbance and more on broader-scale drivers within the socio-ecological framework.
The maintenance of ecosystem services is the basic guarantee of environmental security that, in a... more The maintenance of ecosystem services is the basic guarantee of environmental security that, in an objective sense, aims to evaluate the level of threats to actual acquired goods and services and, in a subjective sense, the level of consciousness and fear that such services will be attacked and possibly lost. To this purpose the aim of this research is: (1) to assess the temporal dynamics of land use and land cover mosaics, and indirectly of ecosystem services, using the economic valuations as surrogates; (2) to verify if the environmental conservation policies can foster ecosystem services; and, since it is still necessary to foster users’ perception of ecosystem services in order to reduce their fragility, (3) to compare the results coming from objective and subjective analyses. This is overriding in the case of tourism, where the attarctiveness of tourist destinations will depend on the maintenance of recreational ecosystem services based on both natural and cultural heritages. This research highlights the need for a dynamic and continuous inter-comparison between objective and subjective analyses in order to reduce progressively their possible discordance and, consequently, increase environmental security for a more effective adaptive management of ecosystem goods and services. Keywords: Ecosystem goods and services; environmental security; socioeconomic valuation
Risk assessment of landscape biological integrity, associated with ecotypes or ecotype mosaics, i... more Risk assessment of landscape biological integrity, associated with ecotypes or ecotype mosaics, is addressed by simple multi-scale conceptual models incorporating metrics related to current human disturbance, based on native species most threatened with extinction and reduction. We aim at identifying gaps in the Italian existing reserve network to establish new reserves and protected areas to get a more representative network of regional biological diversity, based on (1) their “natural values”, and (2) “fragility”. Distribution maps of habitat sensitivity and fragility give policy makers and land managers information on impacts their land-use decisions will have on existing risks to biological integrity. Such approaches have application in Central Asian ecological evaluation and environmental decision-making.
Managing Socio-Ecological Landscapes (SELs) for environmental security implies the recognition th... more Managing Socio-Ecological Landscapes (SELs) for environmental security implies the recognition that social systems interact with ecological systems, and requires new strategies to improve environmental policies, in light of the mismatch between existing global management capacity and likely threats to environmental resources. This because mismanagement is recognized as one of the main causes that generates environmental insecurity. Thus, decision-makers should consider whether a course of action is reversible and should utilize procedures to evaluate the outcomes of actions, learning from them. These are the principles of adaptive management, based on the ability to adapt to change considered as an intrinsic feature of SELs. In the conclusion we present some general requirements to enhance environmental security through adaptive management approach, highlighting that managing SELs for environmental security demands for a new strategy which includes uncertainty and the dynamics of systems. Keywords: adaptive management; environmental security; socio-ecological landscape; stakeholders’ participation
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Papers by Irene Petrosillo