All publications and documents

This review discusses the challenges for integrating seasonal climate forecast information in user applications within the design of a simplified end-to-end forecasting system framework. Seasonal climate forecasts are operationally produced at various climate prediction centers around the world. However, these forecasts are rarely objectively integrated in application models to help the end user…

Continuing soil degradation remains a serious threat to future food security. Yet, global soil degradation assessments are based on qualitative expert judgments or remotely sensed quantitative proxy values that suffice to raise awareness but are too coarse to identify appropriate sustainable land management interventions. Studies in China and Sub Saharan Africa illustrate the considerable impact…

Arid regions and their cities are vulnerable to future water scarcity because climate change threatens to reduce supply and rapid growth increases demand. The study of water sustainability in these regions and cities transcends concern about climate change and growth, however, and includes the dynamics of water–energy relationships, tradeoffs involved in the use of irrigated landscaping for…

Hybrid lay-scientific concepts either arise outside the science domain and are later accepted by it, or have a scientific origin and are adopted by the policy domain. Typical examples are desertification, sustainable management, biodiversity and ecosystem services. They often evolve by accumulating multiple features in a piecemeal and unstructured way, and this contributes to uncertainty about…

Brazil has developed a large-scale commercial agricultural system, recognized worldwide for its role in domestic economic growth and expanding exports. However, the success of this sector has been associated with widespread destruction of Brazilian ecosystems, especially the Cerrado and the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, as well as environmental degradation. Brazil's agricultural development has…

There is a renewed interest in environmental migration and displacement that is fueled by concerns about the impacts of global environmental change on human populations. Regardless on-going debates about magnitudes and definitions, recent research on the topic shows a complex picture where environmental events are rarely the only drivers, several factors — among them the characteristics of the…