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Sirvi Autor "Remmelgas, Laura" järgi

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  • Pisipilt
    Kirje
    LIFE Viva Grass recommendations on ecosystem-based planning and grassland management
    (Baltic Environmental Forum, 2019) Ruskule, Anda; Gulbinas, Justas; Prižavoite, Dana; Bojārs, Edgars; Veidemane, Kristīna; Morkvėnas, Žymantas; Kuris, Merle; Remmelgas, Laura; Nikodemus, Oļģerts; Villoslada Peciña, Miguel; Sepp, Kalev
    Grasslands are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world, providing a wide range of the ecosystem services essential for human welfare, e.g. biomass production for grazing animals, carbon storage, flood reduction, erosion prevention, water infiltration and purification, habitats for pollinators and protected species, etc. At the same time, semi-natural grasslands are among the most threatened habitat types in Europe – a substantial decrease in area and connectivity has been observed since the mid-20th century and the quality of the grassland habitats continues to deteriorate. This is also the case in the Baltic States, where the unfavourable conservation status of the semi-natural habitats has been confirmed by the last report of the Member States to the European Commission under the Article 17 requirements of the Habitats Directive. The policy analysis, carried out within the LIFE Viva Grass project, confirms that the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the strongest driver for the change in land use in the Baltic States, as well as the most influential policy instrument determining the grassland management practices and thus impacting the status of grassland ecosystems and services they provide. The financial contribution of CAP for the measures to support biodiversity maintenance is considerably higher compared to other financial mechanisms financing nature conservation. CAP and the national Rural Development Programmes (RDP) in the Baltic States support measures for maintaining grasslands and have thus minimised the trend of grassland abandonment. However, the assessment of the status of semi-natural grasslands indicates that the implementation of the RDP measures has not been efficient in halting the decline of grassland quality and thus also many of the ecosystem services provided by grasslands. The drawbacks of the rural support policy are related to rather superficial conditions for implementation of the agri-environmental measures as well as a non-motivating support policy, which is targeted more towards agriculture production, disregarding the public benefits resulting from ecosystem services provided by grasslands (e.g. healthy environment, amenities, opportunities for recreation, security etc.). A nature conservation policy and related financing instruments (including national and EU, e.g. LIFE + programme) provides support for the restoration of semi-natural grasslands, guidance on suitable management practices, as well as data collection and administration on distribution and quality of semi-natural grasslands. However, the nature conservation measures and financial resources are not sufficient for long-term maintenance of grassland biodiversity, and therefore the CAP support is acknowledged as the main financial instrument for achieving biodiversity conservation targets. This, however, requires close co-operation and coordination between the two sectors - agriculture and nature conservation - which so far has not been achieved in the Baltic States. The ecosystem service approach offers a holistic view on interactions between nature and humans, thus providing a suitable framework for policy and decision-makers to address conflicts and synergies between environmental and socio-economic goals and to balance different interests. Application of the ecosystem service approach in rural support policy would facilitate integration of ecological principles into agricultural practice and better targeting of interventions to areas with suitable agro-ecological conditions, thus increasing the efficiency and multi-functionality of the measures applied, as well as stimulating synergies between agricultural production and other ecosystem services. The ecosystem service approach can also be operationalised through spatial planning practices by defining the land use priorities based on the ecosystem service supply potential, as well as assessing trade-offs of different development alternatives. The Viva Grass integrated planning tool is designed to support application of the ecosystem service approach in land use planning and sustainable grassland management. Following the objectives of the LIFE Viva Grass project, as well as the concerns and opportunities described above, we have developed recommendations on how to: support maintenance of grassland biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by grasslands; foster ecosystem-based planning and land management; promote application of the integrated planning tool into daily processes of public administration at national, regional and municipality level.
  • Pisipilt
    Kirje
    The Resilience of Tallinn urban landscapes to a changing climate: land surface parameters and their impact on urban heat island effect
    (Eesti Maaülikool, 2020) Remmelgas, Laura; Pecina, Miguel Villoslada (juhendaja); Vassiljev, Peeter (juhendaja)
    The aim of the thesis is to provide an assessment on the impact of land surface parameters to the magnitude of UHI in Tallinn, and the level of resilience of mitigating the UHI effect within the existing policy and planning framework. There are already a few existing studies on the UHI effect in Tallinn from which the latest assessments are conducted by the scholars from the University of Tartu (Sagris, Sepp and Gauk). In the thesis, stepwise multiple linear regression modelling was used to identify which land surface parameters and their combinations contribute to the increase of land surface temperature in Tallinn. Dependent and independent variables used for the regression analysis were calculated in ArcGIS 10.4 into suitable units within a 100x100m grid. In addition to modelling works a number of multilevel planning and strategic documents were analysed to understand how are the spatial developments in correlation with the results of the modelling of predictor variables. The results of the modelling suggest that transport surfaces are the highest contributors to the magnitude of UHI within the impervious surfaces, and their impact is enhanced in combination with building area and height, and with the lack of greenery, especially tree cover. At the planning level, the UHI effect has not been acknowledged in Tallinn and the current measures that are having a potential mitigating impact on the magnitude of UHI are targeting other aspects, and therefore are not based on any vulnerability assessment and lack spatial specificity. For further vulnerability assessment including additional parameters such as the Sky View Factor, distance from water bodies and compactness are necessary to provide more focused information for the development of a methodology for calculating the volume of green spaces.