Resource-Mediated Indirect Effects of Grassland Management on Arthropod Diversity

Intensive land use is a driving force for biodiversity decline in many ecosystems. In semi-natural grasslands, land-use activities such as mowing, grazing and fertilization affect the diversity of plants and arthropods, but the combined effects of different drivers and the chain of effects are largely unknown. In this study we used structural equation modelling to analyse how the arthropod communities in managed grasslands respond to land use and whether these responses are mediated through changes in resource diversity or resource quantity (biomass). Plants were considered resources for herbivores which themselves were considered resources for predators. Plant and arthropod (herbivores and predators) communities were sampled on 141 meadows, pastures and mown pastures within three regions in Germany in 2008 and 2009. Increasing land-use intensity generally increased plant biomass and decreased plant diversity, mainly through increasing fertilization. Herbivore diversity decreased together with plant diversity but showed no response to changes in plant biomass. Hence, land-use effects on herbivore diversity were mediated through resource diversity rather than quantity. Land-use effects on predator diversity were mediated by both herbivore diversity (resource diversity) and herbivore quantity (herbivore biomass), but indirect effects through resource quantity were stronger. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing both direct and indirect effects of land-use intensity and mode on different trophic levels. In addition to the overall effects, there were subtle differences between the different regions, pointing to the importance of regional land-use specificities. Our study underlines the commonly observed strong effect of grassland land use on biodiversity. It also highlights that mechanistic approaches help us to understand how different land-use modes affect biodiversity.

Service Level Agreements-Driven Management of Distributed Applications in Cloud Computing Environments

Cloud Computing enables provisioning and distribution of highly scalable services in a reliable, on-demand and sustainable manner. However, objectives of managing enterprise distributed applications in cloud environments under Service Level Agreement (SLA) constraints lead to challenges for maintaining optimal resource control. Furthermore, conflicting objectives in management of cloud infrastructure and distributed applications might lead to violations of SLAs and inefficient use of hardware and software resources. This dissertation focusses on how SLAs can be used as an input to the cloud management system, increasing the efficiency of allocating resources, as well as that of infrastructure scaling. First, we present an extended SLA semantic model for modelling complex service-dependencies in distributed applications, and for enabling automated cloud infrastructure management operations. Second, we describe a multi-objective VM allocation algorithm for optimised resource allocation in infrastructure clouds. Third, we describe a method of discovering relations between the performance indicators of services belonging to distributed applications and then using these relations for building scaling rules that a CMS can use for automated management of VMs. Fourth, we introduce two novel VM-scaling algorithms, which optimally scale systems composed of VMs, based on given SLA performance constraints. All presented research works were implemented and tested using enterprise distributed applications.

Forest regeneration capacity and its enhancement by forest management and silviculture in Cabo Delgado

SDC has been involved in rural development in Cabo Delgado for more than 30 years. Shortly after the independence of Mozambique, projects in water supply and integrated rural development were initiated. The silvoagropastoral project FO9 based in Mueda was a very early experience in forestry in Cabo Delgado. Andreas Kläy was responsible for the forestry sector in FO9 for 3 years in the early 1980s and had an opportunity to initiate an exchange of ideas and experience in rural development theory and approaches with Yussuf Adam, who was doing research in human anthropology and history in the province. 25 years later, the current situation of forest management in Cabo Delgado was reassessed, with a specific focus on concessions in the North. The opportunity for a partnership between the MITI SA, the University of Eduardo Mondlane, and CDE was created on the basis of this preliminary study1. The aim of this partnership is to generate knowledge and develop capacity for sustainable forest management. The preliminary study showed that “…we have to face weaknesses and would like to start a learning process with the main institutions, organisations, and stakeholder groups active in forest management and research in the North of Cabo Delgado. This learning process will involve studies supported by competent research institutions and workshops …” The specific objectives of ESAPP project Q804 are the following: 1. Contribute to understanding of the forestry sector; 2. Capacity development for professionals and academics; 3. Support for the private sector and the local forest service; 4. Support data generation at Cabo Delgado's Provincial Service; 5. Capacity development for Swiss academic institutions (CDE and ETHZ). A conceptual planning platform was elaborated as a basis for cooperation and research in the partnership (cf. Annex 1). The partners agreed to work on two lines of research: biophysical and socio-economic. In order to ensure a transdisciplinary approach, disciplinary research is anchored in common understanding in workshops based on the LforS methods. These workshops integrate the main stakeholders in the local context of the COMADEL concession in Nangade District managed by MITI SA, and take place in the village of Namiune. The research team observed that current management schemes consist mainly of strategies of nature mining by most stakeholders involved. Institutional settings - formal and informal - have little impact due to weak capacity at the local level and corruption. Local difficulties in a remote rural area facilitate external access to resources and are perpetuated by the loss of benefits. The benefits of logging remain at the top level (economic and political elites). The interests of the owners of the concession in stopping the loss of resources caused by this regime offers a unique opportunity to intervene in the logic of resource degradation and agony in rural development and forest management.

Capacity building in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan: Final Report

The Swiss Swiss Consultant Trust Fund (CTF) support covered the period from July to December 2007 and comprised four main tasks: (1) Analysis of historic land degradation trends in the four watersheds of Zerafshan, Surkhob, Toirsu, and Vanj; (2) Translation of standard CDE GIS training materials into Russian and Tajik to enable local government staff and other specialists to use geospatial data and tools; (3) Demonstration of geospatial tools that show land degradation trends associated with land use and vegetative cover data in the project areas, (4) Preliminary training of government staff in using appropriate data, including existing information, global datasets, inexpensive satellite imagery and other datasets and webbased visualization tools like spatial data viewers, etc. The project allowed building of local awareness of, and skills in, up-to-date, inexpensive, easy-to-use GIS technologies, data sources, and applications relevant to natural resource management and especially to sustainable land management. In addition to supporting the implementation of the World Bank technical assistance activity to build capacity in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management, the Swiss CTF support also aimed at complementing the Bank supervision work on the ongoing Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP).

Capacity building in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan: Inception report BNWPP project

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) has been contracted by the World Bank Group to conduct a program on capacity development in use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan. The program aimed to help improving natural resource management by fostering the use of geospatial tools among governmental and non-governmental institutions in Tajikistan. For this purpose a database including a Geographic Information System (GIS) has been prepared, which combines spatial data on various sectors for case study analysis related to the Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP). The inception report is based on the findings resulting from the Swiss Consultant Trust Fund (CTF) financed project, specifically on the experiences from the awareness creation and training workshop conducted in Dushanbe in November 2007 and the analysis of historical land degradation trends carried out for the four CAWMP watersheds. Furthermore, also recommendations from the inception mission of CDE to Tajikistan (5-20 August 2007) and the inception report for the Swiss CTF support were considered. The inception report for the BNWPP project (The Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership Program) discusses the following project relevant issues: (1) Preliminary list of additional data layers, types of data analysis, and audiences to be covered by BNWPP grant (2) Assessing skills and equipment already available within Tajikistan, and implications for training program and specific equipment procurement plans (3) Updated detailed schedule and plans for all activities to be financed by BNWPP grant, and (4) Proposed list of contents for the final report and web-based presentations.

Shaping Institutions for Natural Resource Management

This InfoResources Focus tries to clarify challenges people face when shaping institutions for sustainable NRM and discusses key elements for implementing processes of institutional change. Emphasis is put on local institutions embedded in national, regional and global institutional schemes.

Management of Joint Research Activities within ERA-ARD: Guidelines for ARD programme planning, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment

The present document has been elaborated in the context of the ERA-ARD project “The Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) dimension of the European Research Area (ERA) “. It is based on work done within Task 3.2 to identify a set of common or compatible methodologies for ARD planning, monitoring and evaluation and impact assessment. This set should serve as a guide for the management of joint ARD activities that are presently developed within the framework of the ERA-ARD project.

Capacity Building in the Use of Geospatial Tools for Natural Resource Management in Tajikistan: Inception report

The sustainable management of natural resources is a key issue for sustainable development of a poor, mountainous country such as Tajikistan. In order to strengthen its agricultural and infrastructural development efforts and alleviate poverty in rural areas, spatial information and analysis are of crucial importance to improve priority setting and decision making efficiency. However, poor access to geospatial data and tools, and limited capacity in their use has greatly constrained the ability of governmental institutions to effectively assess, plan, and monitor natural resources management. The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) has thus been mandated by the World Bank Group to provide adequate technical support to the Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP). This support consists of a spatial database on soil degradation trends in 4 watersheds, capacity development in and awareness creation about geographic information technology and a spatial data exchange hub for natural resources management in Tajikistan. CDE’s support has started in July 2007 and will last until December 2007 with a possible extension in 2008.

Amadir: Livelihood and Resource Management in an Eritrean Highland Community: A development baseline

This publication presents the results of a study conducted in 2003 in Amadir, a village in the Central Highlands of Eritrea. It gives an overview of the natural resource base, livelihoods, farm management, and institutions that are important to the local community. The report concludes with a chapter on options for development as discussed with the village community and local administration. This report supports Eritrea's efforts to promote rural development. It contains an extensive summary in Tigrinya, as well as a large-scale satellite image and a large-scale land use map of the study area. The appendix presents a summary of the methods used in the study.

Service level agreements-driven management of distributed applications in cloud computing environments

Advancements in cloud computing have enabled the proliferation of distributed applications, which require management and control of multiple services. However, without an efficient mechanism for scaling services in response to changing workload conditions, such as number of connected users, application performance might suffer, leading to violations of Service Level Agreements (SLA) and possible inefficient use of hardware resources. Combining dynamic application requirements with the increased use of virtualised computing resources creates a challenging resource Management context for application and cloud-infrastructure owners. In such complex environments, business entities use SLAs as a means for specifying quantitative and qualitative requirements of services. There are several challenges in running distributed enterprise applications in cloud environments, ranging from the instantiation of service VMs in the correct order using an adequate quantity of computing resources, to adapting the number of running services in response to varying external loads, such as number of users. The application owner is interested in finding the optimum amount of computing and network resources to use for ensuring that the performance requirements of all her/his applications are met. She/he is also interested in appropriately scaling the distributed services so that application performance guarantees are maintained even under dynamic workload conditions. Similarly, the infrastructure Providers are interested in optimally provisioning the virtual resources onto the available physical infrastructure so that her/his operational costs are minimized, while maximizing the performance of tenants’ applications. Motivated by the complexities associated with the management and scaling of distributed applications, while satisfying multiple objectives (related to both consumers and providers of cloud resources), this thesis proposes a cloud resource management platform able to dynamically provision and coordinate the various lifecycle actions on both virtual and physical cloud resources using semantically enriched SLAs. The system focuses on dynamic sizing (scaling) of virtual infrastructures composed of virtual machines (VM) bounded application services. We describe several algorithms for adapting the number of VMs allocated to the distributed application in response to changing workload conditions, based on SLA-defined performance guarantees. We also present a framework for dynamic composition of scaling rules for distributed service, which used benchmark-generated application Monitoring traces. We show how these scaling rules can be combined and included into semantic SLAs for controlling allocation of services. We also provide a detailed description of the multi-objective infrastructure resource allocation problem and various approaches to satisfying this problem. We present a resource management system based on a genetic algorithm, which performs allocation of virtual resources, while considering the optimization of multiple criteria. We prove that our approach significantly outperforms reactive VM-scaling algorithms as well as heuristic-based VM-allocation approaches.

Future water quality monitoring--adapting tools to deal with mixtures of pollutants in water resource management.

Environmental quality monitoring of water resources is challenged with providing the basis for safeguarding the environment against adverse biological effects of anthropogenic chemical contamination from diffuse and point sources. While current regulatory efforts focus on monitoring and assessing a few legacy chemicals, many more anthropogenic chemicals can be detected simultaneously in our aquatic resources. However, exposure to chemical mixtures does not necessarily translate into adverse biological effects nor clearly shows whether mitigation measures are needed. Thus, the question which mixtures are present and which have associated combined effects becomes central for defining adequate monitoring and assessment strategies. Here we describe the vision of the international, EU-funded project SOLUTIONS, where three routes are explored to link the occurrence of chemical mixtures at specific sites to the assessment of adverse biological combination effects. First of all, multi-residue target and non-target screening techniques covering a broader range of anticipated chemicals co-occurring in the environment are being developed. By improving sensitivity and detection limits for known bioactive compounds of concern, new analytical chemistry data for multiple components can be obtained and used to characterise priority mixtures. This information on chemical occurrence will be used to predict mixture toxicity and to derive combined effect estimates suitable for advancing environmental quality standards. Secondly, bioanalytical tools will be explored to provide aggregate bioactivity measures integrating all components that produce common (adverse) outcomes even for mixtures of varying compositions. The ambition is to provide comprehensive arrays of effect-based tools and trait-based field observations that link multiple chemical exposures to various environmental protection goals more directly and to provide improved in situ observations for impact assessment of mixtures. Thirdly, effect-directed analysis (EDA) will be applied to identify major drivers of mixture toxicity. Refinements of EDA include the use of statistical approaches with monitoring information for guidance of experimental EDA studies. These three approaches will be explored using case studies at the Danube and Rhine river basins as well as rivers of the Iberian Peninsula. The synthesis of findings will be organised to provide guidance for future solution-oriented environmental monitoring and explore more systematic ways to assess mixture exposures and combination effects in future water quality monitoring.