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ContextLocal scale assessments of ecosystem/landscape services in Africa are insufficient and lack relevance in landscape management. Also, few studies have explored the potential benefits of PGIS/PPGIS approaches for landscape management and stewardship among the participating stakeholders.ObjectivesOur aim is (1) to establish an understanding of the realization of landscape services at the local scale across three multifunctional rural landscapes in Tanzania through PGIS/PPGIS approaches and (2) to create an understanding of these approaches’ potential to support participatory spatial planning.MethodsSemi-structured surveys (n = 313) including participatory mapping of provisioning and cultural landscape services were organised to characterise their spatial patterns. The survey results were shared with the communities (n = 97) in workshops where services were ranked and the participants interviewed about their map-reading capacity, personal learning experiences, and their ability to use maps to express opinions.ResultsThe most abundant landscape services are sites for social gatherings and cultivation. The spatial patterns of provisioning services are realizations of human benefits from the patterns of the biophysical landscape. Overall, cultural landscape services show clustering and small spatial extent (except aesthetics). The PGIS/PPGIS approach allows for local-level, spatially specific discussions between stakeholders. The visual power of maps and satellite images is particularly emphasised.ConclusionIn the data-scarce context common in the Global South, the participatory mapping of landscape services has the potential to advance understanding of the benefits that the landscape has for the local communities and how this information, when mapped spatially, can be integrated with local-level planning practices.

ContextThe study of sustainable land use reflects the interdisciplinary characteristics of land science, geography, ecology and sustainability science. In recent years, research on sustainable land use has rapidly increased in scope and speed around the world.ObjectivesTo discuss the trends, research power distribution, key areas, research hotspots and international cooperation in sustainable land use research in the past 20 years.MethodsThis paper used the Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny software packages to entire process of bibliometric analysis and visual display of sustainable land use research papers from 1990 to 2019 (data update time is May 10, 2019).Results(1) The amount of publications in the field of sustainable land use from 1990 to 2019 increased with time and entered a period of rapid growth after 2013. (2) From the perspective of research power, the influence of developed countries in the field of sustainable land use is significantly stronger than that of developing countries. (3) Through high-frequency keyword analysis, land use change, land degradation, and sustainable land management are hotspots in the field of sustainable land use. (4) The themes of sustainable land use have changed greatly in various periods, and some of the themes have strong continuity.ConclusionsIn order to promote the development of sustainable land use, this paper proposes to integrate strong sustainability theory, landscape ecology theory, and geographical design concepts into this field, thereby greatly expanding the theoretical space. Also, this paper proposes to improve the scientificity of the evaluation indicators and use emerging technologies to timely monitor the status and evolution of land use, which can provide scientific basis and decision-making reference for the formulation of sustainable land use strategies, policies, and countermeasures.

The three-pillar conception of (social, economic and environmental) sustainability, commonly represented by three intersecting circles with overall sustainability at the centre, has become ubiquitous. With a view of identifying the genesis and theoretical foundations of this conception, this paper reviews and discusses relevant historical sustainability literature. From this we find that there is no single point of origin of this three-pillar conception, but rather a gradual emergence from various critiques in the early academic literature of the economic status quo from both social and ecological perspectives on the one hand, and the quest to reconcile economic growth as a solution to social and ecological problems on the part of the United Nations on the other. The popular three circles diagram appears to have been first presented by Barbier (Environ Conserv 14:101, doi: 10.1017/s0376892900011449, 1987), albeit purposed towards developing nations with foci which differ from modern interpretations. The conceptualisation of three pillars seems to predate this, however. Nowhere have we found a theoretically rigorous description of the three pillars. This is thought to be in part due to the nature of the sustainability discourse arising from broadly different schools of thought historically. The absence of such a theoretically solid conception frustrates approaches towards a theoretically rigorous operationalisation of ‘sustainability’.

Context The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is a landscape where buildings and wildland vegetation meet or mix, and is usually regarded as a high risk region because of the high impact of human activities. The expansion of the wildland–urban interface (WUI) could exacerbate environmental risks such as wildfire risk at the landscape scale. China’s dryland landscape provides an ideal case study for assessing WUI dynamics, as they are experiencing rapid urbanization and increasing vegetation cover. However, the morphological features, which is essential in landscape planning, are few recorded in the rapid increase in WUI landscape in China’s dryland. Methods We produced a set of WUI datasets for the five-year period of 1990–2020 in the drylands of China, and introduced landscape configuration metrics, such as Landscape Shape Index (LSI), Largest Patch Index (LPI), to analyze morphological changes in four WUI types across China’s dryland from 1990 to 2020, and correlated them with population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among 486 counties. Results We identified the WUI area in China’s dryland was spatially accounted for approximately one-tenth of the total area and was concentrated around big cities, exhibited a growth rate of 15% during the 30 years. WUI landscape heterogeneity showed substantial increases, with the LSI increased by 81.1%, and LPI decreased by 38.3%. The WUI area changes were significantly correlated with GDP and population changes; while some landscape configuration metrics showed significant correlations with GDP, but none with population. Conclusions The WUI fragmentation tendency implies greater exposure of homes and infrastructure to wildfire-prone areas and harder efforts on controlled burns and firefighting in dryland landscape management, especially around big cities. Furthermore, GDP growth may correspond to continued WUI expansion and fragmentation, even if population urbanization will be stagnating.

Context Increasing agricultural production shapes the flow of ecosystem services (ES), including provisioning services that support the livelihoods and nutrition of people in tropical developing countries. Although our broad understanding of the social-ecological consequences of agricultural intensification is growing, how it impacts provisioning ES is still unknown. Objectives We examined the household use of provisioning ES across a gradient of increasing agricultural production in seven tropical countries (Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Zambia). We answered two overarching questions: (1) does the use of provisioning ES differ along gradients of agriculture production ranging from zones of subsistence to moderate and to high agriculture production? and (2) are there synergies and/or trade-offs within and among groups of ES within these zones? Methods Using structured surveys, we asked 1900 households about their assets, livestock, crops, and collection of forest products. These questions allowed us to assess the number of provisioning ES households used, and whether the ES used are functionally substitutable (i.e., used similarly for nutrition, material, and energy). Finally, we explored synergies and trade-offs among household use of provisioning ES. Results As agricultural production increased, provisioning ES declined both in total number and in different functional groups used. We found more severe decreases in ES for relatively poorer households. Within the functional groups of ES, synergistic relationships were more often found than trade-offs in all zones, including significant synergies among livestock products (dairy, eggs, meat) and fruits. Conclusions Considering landscape context provides opportunities to enhance synergies among provisioning services for households, supporting resilient food systems and human well-being.

Agriculture is one of the main human activities with direct and indirect effects on the environment. The abandonment of many traditional agricultural practices, mainly for their inability to meet the current requirements of industrial agriculture, has brought to unsustainable agricultural systems characterized by high external energy inputs and by a high fragility to environmental and political shocks. Therefore, sustainable agriculture is nowadays crucial for preserving the environment. Agricultural heritage systems are receiving increasing attention at the international level, as testified by the establishment of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The aim of the GIAHS Programme is, in fact, to identify and safeguard agro-silvo-pastoral systems resulting from the co-existence between humans and nature, which survived using traditional techniques are still providing many ecosystem services, while maintaining magnificent landscapes, wild and agricultural biodiversity, ancestral knowledge, and strong cultural and social values. These systems, based on sustainable practices, are still able to provide food and livelihood security, resources and services to local communities, but are also examples of adaptation and mitigation to climate change and to different and often difficult environmental conditions, as well as models of resilience and sustainability. In 2018 the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), together with the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence, developed a project called “GIAHS Building Capacity”, aimed at identifying agricultural heritage sites in different parts of the world. This Special Issue collects the results of investigations carried out in thirteen sites in Central and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia offering a wide an coherent perspective on agricultural heritage systems across the world. The papers included in the Special Issue proved that agricultural heritage systems, despite some vulnerabilities mainly due to socio-economic causes rather than to environmental ones, still provide different ecosystem services to local communities, including: food and byproducts supply, soil erosion protection, hydrogeological risk and deforestation defense, agrobiodiversity and biodiversity conservation, cultural landscape preservation, agro-tourism; at the same time they can be important for transmitting traditional knowledge to new generations and for the local identity. The GIAHS programme can play a key role in preserving traditional agricultural systems, and their related agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services, both in developing and developed countries. In fact, its aim is not limited to the conservation of these systems, but the whole Programme is based on the concept of dynamic conservation, as sustainable innovations are needed for the preservation of agricultural heritage systems and, therefore, for the future of rural areas and of rural communities. The research is part of the activities promoted by the UNESCO Chair on Agricultural Heritage Landscapes established at the University of Florence.

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects biophysical systems and human well-being. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 2016 with the objective of strengthening the global response to climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. The agreement requires all Parties to submit their “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Extensive tropical forest loss and degradation have increased awareness at the international level of the need to undertake large-scale ecological restoration, highlighting the need to identify cases in which restoration strategies can contribute to mitigation and adaptation. Here we consider Brazil as a case study to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing large-scale restoration programs in developing countries. The Brazilian NDC included the target of restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares of forests for multiple uses by 2030. Restoration of native vegetation is one of the foundations of sustainable rural development in Brazil and should consider multiple purposes, from biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation to social and economic development. However, ecological restoration still presents substantial challenges for tropical and mega-diverse countries, including the need to develop plans that are technically and financially feasible, as well as public policies and monitoring instruments that can assess effectiveness. The planning, execution, and monitoring of restoration efforts strongly depend on the context and the diagnosis of the area with respect to reference ecosystems (e.g., forests, savannas, grasslands, wetlands). In addition, poor integration of climate change policies at the national and subnational levels and with other sectorial policies constrains the large-scale implementation of restoration programs. The case of Brazil shows that slowing deforestation is possible; however, this analysis highlights the need for increased national commitment and international support for actions that require large-scale transformations of the forest sector regarding ecosystem restoration efforts. Scaling up the ambitions and actions of the Paris Agreement implies the need for a global framework that recognizes landscape restoration as a cost-effective nature-based solution and that supports countries in addressing their remaining needs, challenges, and barriers.

Context Often called a ‘Garden city’, Bengaluru is renowned for its green infrastructure. However, the association of human wellbeing with the amount of tree cover (as an example of green infrastructure), degree of urbanization, and local people's socio-demographics has not been explored. Objective We investigated how human wellbeing is related to the amount of tree cover at household and neighborhood levels, the degree of urbanity, and underlying social factors among respondents. Methods The study was conducted in 61 towns along the rural–urban gradient of Bengaluru, surveying 836 respondents in total. Data on multiple dimensions of respondents’ wellbeing was collected between December 2016 and May 2017. The percentage of tree cover at the household and neighborhood levels was obtained based on WorldView-3 images. Logistic regression models were applied to assess correlations between human wellbeing and tree cover. Kruskal–Wallis tests, Mann–Whitney tests, and cross tabulation with chi-square tests were conducted to investigate relations of human wellbeing with the degree of urbanity, and with social factors. Results We found that several variables of human wellbeing were positively associated with tree cover. Measures of wellbeing also differed along the rural–urban gradient and among social groups. Conclusions Though urbanization is often considered to promote material wellbeing, non-material aspects (e.g., community activities and social relationships) are also important components of overall human wellbeing in urbanizing landscapes. Holistic interactions among natural, spatial, and social factors should be considered while designing interventions for equitable urban landscapes that promote human wellbeing and ecological restoration.