Investigating Climate and Human Induced Landscape Change for Improving Social-ecological System Resilience
Author | : Susan Kotikot |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 0 |
Release | : 2023 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:1424642629 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (29 Downloads) |
Arid and Semi-Arid Landscapes (ASALs) support millions of people worldwide yet these livelihoods and landscapes are increasingly vulnerable in the face of multiple environmental stressors. In recent decades, climate change and variability of rainfall -- from droughts to increasingly patchy rainfall - have exacerbated this vulnerability and worsened aridity in many ASALs. Climate change is also expected to cause shifts in climate suitability of crops and increase the suitability of some crop disease vectors, pests, and diseases, potentially leading to further decrease in productivity of crops and pastoral systems. Increasing demand for row crop agriculture has further caused unsustainable intensification and expansion of cropland into ASALs and forests leading to continuous degradation of the ecological landscape. Such dynamics collectively change the structure and function of ASALs in unknown ways that reduce social-ecological system (SES) resilience. Recent expansion of cropland into arid and semi-arid land and forests further threatens traditional livelihoods and ecosystem services. Successful mainstreaming of climate change adaptation policies requires integrative approaches that span the socioeconomic and biophysical spheres, especially within complex social-ecological systems. Limited studies have been done to characterize dynamics of agropastoral landscapes in the sub-Saharan region where vulnerability to climate change is highest, and where local assessment of impact is necessary to adequately determine adaptation strategies. My dissertation research investigated landscape dynamics of the agropastoral landscape of Narok, Kenya -- as a case study site, focusing on the nature and impacts of climate induced changes in rainfall patterns, and historical legacies of land policies to understand how the resultant landscape supports ecosystem services abundance and access to address local vulnerability. To begin with, in Chapter 2, I investigated the influence of historical land policies on contemporary patterns of land use and land cover to determine potential impacts on ecosystem services. In Chapter 3, I characterized the spatial and temporal patterns of rainfall variability. In Chapter 4, I explored local perceptions of change in rainfall patterns, and its impacts. Collectively, my dissertation generated essential knowledge on dynamics of a complex and vulnerable agropastoral landscape that are necessary for determining contextualized adaptation strategies and enhancing social-ecological resilience.