Papers by Nelson Lourenco
... The preparation of village-level database and the socio-economic analysis of secondary data f... more ... The preparation of village-level database and the socio-economic analysis of secondary data for all three study sites are in progress. Nelson Lourenco,* Maria do Ros??rio Jorge,* * Carlos Russo Machado,** Lu??s Rodrigues** E-mail [email protected] ...
Due to its scale and geographical scope, tourism industry is a major driver of both biophysical a... more Due to its scale and geographical scope, tourism industry is a major driver of both biophysical and social changes. It is an important factor in the economy of many countries and in the management of many cultural sites and natural areas. Being a people-oriented industry, tourism also provides many jobs which have helped revitalize local economies. Yet by its very nature tourism is ambivalent, generating well-known problems as well as well-known benefits.
The project 'Measuring, monitoring and managing sustainability: the coastal dimension' has now co... more The project 'Measuring, monitoring and managing sustainability: the coastal dimension' has now come to an end. Since the last issue, everyone has been busy putting together the different pieces of work and integrating the analysis and the data. The following has been accomplished for all the three study locations: socioeconomic assessments, groundwater assessments, vegetation analysis, and coastal water quality assessments. The study has modelled environmental loads and resource use for the different drivers under different scenarios and developed a management model towards the optimization of groundwater resources. Projections of land-cover change, according to different possible scenarios, are simulated using Cellular Automata and Markov models in combination in a GIS context. A set of tools to help decision-makers on sustainable management of coastal areas is designed, defining development drivers as the main driving forces, and water and land availability as natural resources. The tools are classified into three main groups: visualization tools, spatial analysis techniques, and advanced analysis modelling tools.
ABSTRACT Global Change is still associated with considerable levels of uncertainty, especially wi... more ABSTRACT Global Change is still associated with considerable levels of uncertainty, especially with regard to the extent and geographical distribution of this change. Thus, the construction of scenarios on how global change might affect human societies and political systems necessarily involves higher levels of uncertainty. Given this range of uncertainty becomes clear why discussions of responses (adaptation and mitigation) remain controversial and no agreement on the solutions presented. In a globalized world, where insecurity and violence increase, the consequences become global. The potential consequences of global change are serious and can be a threat to security (broadly defined as advocated by the UNDP and covering the environmental, economic and health issues) of individuals, communities and countries. The way society responds to Global change should be a central policy of peace and security of the XXI century.
In the Mediterranean basin, wide differences in water supply and demand characteristics exist and... more In the Mediterranean basin, wide differences in water supply and demand characteristics exist and no individual case study may be a representative of the entire region. Some countries suffer problems of overexploitation of groundwater while others suffer from water quality degradation. On the other hand, some have enough or plentiful water but lack institutional structures to manage water efficiently, while others have scarce and limited water and seek non-conventional water like desalination or importation of water. Managing water scarcity Integrated water resource management is a cross-sectoral policy approach that requires coordination among the different water uses and institutional sectors to respond to the growing demands for water in the context of finite supplies. This process aims at ensuring the coordinated development of water, land and related resources to optimise economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of environmental systems. Therefore, it is a complex and multi-dimensional process that must be customised to the specific geographical, environmental, social, cultural, political and economic conditions of each region and catchments (GWP, 2000). It involves understanding the interactions of the various social, political, economic and ecological processes that influence choices and strategies within the ecosystem, and addressing issues through the involvement of various stakeholder groups. This ecosystem approach has been developed, through the concept of integrated watershed management, as a strategy to rebuild agriculture and promote participatory development. (Noronha, 2004). It is a great tool for an adequate decisionmaking process, providing stakeholders, decision-makers and policy makers with integrated environmental and socioeconomic information to deal with the needs of local populations, and to assess different development options and water management strategies (White et al., 2002).
Page 1. Environment and Social Sciences: land-use dynamics studies Nelson Louren??o* Universidade... more Page 1. Environment and Social Sciences: land-use dynamics studies Nelson Louren??o* Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Maria do Ros??rio Jorge**; Carlos Russo Machado**; Lu??s Rodrigues** Universidade Atl??ntica, Portugal ...
ABSTRACT The present report aims at presenting the typology of main pressures for the two study a... more ABSTRACT The present report aims at presenting the typology of main pressures for the two study areas of ECOMAN: Cachoeira Catchment (Bahia), in Brazil; and Central Volcanic Mountain Range Conservation Area, in Costa Rica. In both study areas tropical deforestation drives land cover and land use changes, migratory processes, biodiversity changes, erosion processes. Nevertheless, the two case-studies are somewhat different. In the Cachoeira Catchment, the decrease of cocoa production in the last decades, without sustainable socio-economic alternatives, produced significant human pressures both on rural areas (land use changes and forest fragmentation) and urban areas (increase of built-up areas with few measures of territorial planning). On the other hand, the Conservation Area of Central Volcanic Range (Costa Rica) reflects the implementation of a solid forest conservation policy, which faced the strong deforestation rates felt in this country since the middle of the 20th century. This analysis is structured in three parts. The first two chapters concern some socio economic variables (Population, Households and Agrarian Structures) for both case studies. The third chapter presents a typology of administrative units according with the main socio-economic pressures identified in the previous chapters.
Mulemba, Nov 1, 2015
Resumo: As actividades humanas estão a transformar o Sistema Terra com impactos significativos so... more Resumo: As actividades humanas estão a transformar o Sistema Terra com impactos significativos sobre o ambiente ao nível local, regional e global. As alterações climáticas e a perda de biodiversidade difi cultam a melhoria do bem-estar humano e a redução da pobreza. A nível global é essencial compreender de que forma as pressões sobre os ecossistemas constituem um risco para o funcionamento do Sistema Terra, em geral, e da sociedade, em particular. Em África, a promoção da sustentabilidade e a procura de melhor qualidade de vida para as populações enfrenta desafi os de particular importância, nomeadamente os que estão relacionados com o acesso a água potável, ar limpo e alimentos; a adaptação dos sistemas de governança para promoção da sustentabilidade; a gestão de áreas urbanas; a redução da pobreza e a criação de rendimento. Nesta conferência, propõe-se um novo quadro teórico e analítico multidisciplinar para o estudo de questões críticas para o desenvolvimento e a sustentabilidade global: segurança alimentar, segurança hídrica, segurança energética, segurança na saúde e segurança humana. Este novo quadro conceptual tem de produzir e integrar novos conhecimentos em áreas como: governança e limites e limiares de mudança; uso sustentável do capital natural e conservação da biodiversidade; estilos de vida, ética e valores; implicações económicas das mudanças tecnológicas e sociais associadas à transição para economias com baixa intensidade de carbono. Considerando a escala e impactos das actividades humanas, as estratégias de sustentabilidade têm forçosamente de integrar as perspectivas e conhecimentos das ciências sociais na análise da mudança ambiental global e na defi nição de estratégias e políticas de desenvolvimento.
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Papers by Nelson Lourenco
Este livro é dedicado à análise da relação estabelecida entre a sociedade e a segurança, no contexto histórico da globalização. Nesta época em que todos os tipos de relações sociais são crescentemente conectadas a redes globais, a análise da segurança exige que se retenha o conceito de sociedade global e a densificação e o alargamento do conceito de segurança, assim como, a importância da visão subjectiva de segurança, expressa pelo sentimento de insegurança e a perda de consistência da demarcação estabelecida entre as entre as dimensões de segurança externa e segurança interna