Stefano Barchiesi | University of Florida (original) (raw)
Papers by Stefano Barchiesi
Journal of Environmental Management, 2022
On whether vegetation could contribute to major climate change mitigation efforts: Forestry for c... more On whether vegetation could contribute to major climate change mitigation efforts: Forestry for carbon credits or carbon credits for forestry? A multi-criteria decision support model for forest carbon offsets
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
Journal of Water and Climate Change, 2012
Despite uncertainty pertaining to methods, assumptions and input data of climate change models, m... more Despite uncertainty pertaining to methods, assumptions and input data of climate change models, most models point towards a trend of an increasing frequency of flooding and drought events. How these changes reflect water management decisions and what can be done to minimize climate change impacts remains unclear. This paper summarizes and extends the workshop outcomes on ‘Climate Change Impacts on Watershed Management: Challenges and Emerging Solutions’ held at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, Montréal, 2010, hosted by the IWA Watershed and River Basin Management Specialist Group. The paper discusses climate change impacts on water management of freshwater ecosystems and river basins, and illustrates these with three case studies. It is demonstrated through the case studies that engagement of relevant stakeholders is needed early in the process of building environmental flows and climate change decision-making tools, to result in greater buy-in to decisions made, create ...
Although environmental flow regime assessments are becoming increasingly holistic, they rarely pr... more Although environmental flow regime assessments are becoming increasingly holistic, they rarely provoke water managers to enact the adaptive water reallocation mechanisms required to secure environmental water for wetlands. The conditions that cause science-based environmental flow assessments to succeed or fail in informing the management of environmental water requirements remain unclear. To begin to resolve these conditions, we used process tracing to deconstruct the sequence of activities required to manage environmental water in four case studies of seasonally ponding wetlands in Mediterranean and Mesoamerican watersheds. We hypothesized that, when the flexibility and equitability of the socioeconomic system do not match the complexity of the biophysical system, this leads to a failure of managers to integrate scientific guidance in their allocation of environmental water. Diagnostic evidence gathered indicates that science-management partnerships are essential to align institut...
POPULATIONS IN THE PALO VERDE WETLAND, COSTA RICA Stefano Barchiesi1, Christian J. Köppl2, Alice ... more POPULATIONS IN THE PALO VERDE WETLAND, COSTA RICA Stefano Barchiesi1, Christian J. Köppl2, Alice Alonso3, Marco Pazmiño-Hernandez1, Juan M. Serrano-Sandí4, Monica Garcia2, Rafael Muñoz-Carpena1, Christine Angelini1 1University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA 2Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark 3Université catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium 4Organization for Tropical Studies, Palo Verde, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Inappropriate water management practices in the Komadugu Yobe Basin, upstream of Lake Chad in nor... more Inappropriate water management practices in the Komadugu Yobe Basin, upstream of Lake Chad in northern Nigeria, changed the seasonal river flow and caused widespread environmental degradation. Coupled with this was fragmented regulation and conflicting responsibilities among institutions, a lack of coordination for hydro-agricultural developments, inequitable access to water resources and growing tensions and risk of conflicts among water users. As a response to this situation, WANI and partners initiated a process of coordination and participation of all stakeholders in dialogue to reverse the trends in natural resources degradation in the basin through integrated management. This case study describes the situation, activities taken, and results achieved during this process.
Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 ... more Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 billion people by 2050, is a central challenge for this generation. Equally critical will be to achieve this in a way that keeps humanity's footprint within planetary boundaries. Water scarcity is self-evidently one of the key factors that will limit food production. This is especially the case in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where malnutrition and food insecurity are already widespread. In these areas, the livelihoods and well-being of poor communities are critically dependent on their farm produce and the ecosystem services from the local landscape that support their livelihoods and income. This synthesis and background document on Ecosystems for Water and Food Security is part of UNEP's contribution to the global food crisis, pledged to the United Nations Secretary-General and developed in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and other partners. Together, we identified and explored the links between ecosystems, water and food, and illustrate how resilient ecosystems can support and increase food security. It is clear that enormous opportunities exist to increase food production in ways that make optimal and sustainable use of water and other resources. This means that we can feed a global population without massive and irreversible damage to our ecosystems. It also means that ensuring food security, managing water resources and protecting ecosystems must be considered as a single policy rather than as separate, and sometimes competing, choices. Credits This report is based on the findings of the background document, Ecosystems for water and food security, coordinated for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Climate change and the over exploitation of water resources is challenging the sustainability of ... more Climate change and the over exploitation of water resources is challenging the sustainability of the Pangani River Basin to deliver water services. Competition for diminishing water resources has led to tensions between the various stakeholders within the basin. Together with the government of Tanzania and donor partners, WANI has responded to this crisis by supporting the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This sought to bring together a variety of stakeholders by creating platforms for dialogue and encouraged collaboration towards a common goal. The Pangani River Basin Management Project has generated technical information and developed participatory forums, mainstreamed climate change, supported the equitable provision and wise governance of freshwater for livelihoods and environment for current and future generations. This case study describes the situation, activities taken, and results achieved during this process.
Environmental flows improve water management by ensuring a sustainable water supply to meet the n... more Environmental flows improve water management by ensuring a sustainable water supply to meet the needs of people, agriculture, energy, industry and the environment. Environmental flows are effectively a balance between water resources development and the need to protect freshwater-dependent ecosystems. WANI has contributed to environmental flow assessments in river basins in Asia, America, and Africa over the last 10 years with the aim of reducing environmental impacts and increasing the benefits of river basin development. Through scaling-up, lessons learned have been mainstreamed into integrated water resources management (IWRM) allowing for the capacity building of existing legislation and the establishment of new, appropriate legislation on environmental flows. This influence on IWRM and water policy has resulted in better water resources management.
The transition towards a less carbon-intensive society has been initiated. Still, the internation... more The transition towards a less carbon-intensive society has been initiated. Still, the international climate policy arena is seeking a significant mitigation strategy. Land-Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) activities have been acknowledged to represent both a valid carbon dioxide reduction option through biological removal and a considerable source of greenhouse gas emissions at the same time, especially through deforestation. However, forest carbon credits are not being extensively purchased by government tendering and multinational banks. Moreover, the compliance market is generally failing to support sustainable development carbon projects while voluntary offsets appear in that sense more successful, yet less stringent. Therefore, this thesis questions the adequacy of the project-based approach to biological removal and points out other non-technical uncertainties prior to the scientific understanding of carbon sequestration. As a consequence of the inherent complexity ...
The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do n... more The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN.
ABSTRACT In many of the world’s river basins, the water resources are over-allocated and/or highl... more ABSTRACT In many of the world’s river basins, the water resources are over-allocated and/or highly modified, access to good quality water is limited or competitive and aquatic ecosystems are degraded. The decline in aquatic ecosystems can impact on human well-being by reducing the ecosystem services provided by healthy rivers, wetlands and floodplains. Basin water resources management requires the determination of water allocation among competing stakeholders including the environment, social needs and economic development. Traditionally, this determination occurred on a volumetric basis to meet basin productivity goals. However, it is difficult to address environmental goals in such a framework, because environmental condition is rarely considered in productivity goals, and short-term variations in river flow may be the most important driver of aquatic ecosystem health. Manipulation of flows to achieve desired outcomes for public supply, food and energy has been implemented for many years. More recently, manipulating flows to achieve ecological outcomes has been proposed. However, the complexity of determining the required flow regimes and the interdependencies between stakeholder outcomes has restricted the implementation of environmental flows as a core component of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). We demonstrate through case studies of the Rhône and Thames river basins in Europe, the Colorado River basin in North America and the Murray-Darling basin in Australia the limitations of traditional environmental flow strategies in integrated water resources management. An alternative ecosystem approach can provide a framework for implementation of environmental flows in basin water resources management, as demonstrated by management of the Pangani River basin in Africa. An ecosystem approach in IWRM leads to management for agreed triple-bottom-line outcomes, rather than productivity or ecological outcomes alone. We recommend that environmental flow management should take on the principles of an ecosystem approach and form an integral part of IWRM.Editor D. KoutsoyiannisCitation Overton, I.C., Smith, D.M., Dalton J., Barchiesi S., Acreman M.C., Stromberg, J.C., and Kirby, J.M., 2014. Implementing environmental flows in integrated water resources management and the ecosystem approach. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 860–877.
Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 ... more Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 billion people by 2050, is a central challenge for this generation. Equally critical will be to achieve this in a way that keeps humanity's footprint within planetary boundaries. Water scarcity is self-evidently one of the key factors that will limit food production. This is especially the case in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where malnutrition and food insecurity are already widespread. In these areas, the livelihoods and well-being of poor communities are critically dependent on their farm produce and the ecosystem services from the local landscape that support their livelihoods and income. This synthesis and background document on Ecosystems for Water and Food Security is part of UNEP's contribution to the global food crisis, pledged to the United Nations Secretary-General and developed in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and other partners. Together, we identified and explored the links between ecosystems, water and food, and illustrate how resilient ecosystems can support and increase food security. It is clear that enormous opportunities exist to increase food production in ways that make optimal and sustainable use of water and other resources. This means that we can feed a global population without massive and irreversible damage to our ecosystems. It also means that ensuring food security, managing water resources and protecting ecosystems must be considered as a single policy rather than as separate, and sometimes competing, choices. Credits This report is based on the findings of the background document, Ecosystems for water and food security, coordinated for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Managing water and agroecosystems for food security, 2013
Various food and fi nancial crises have increased the pressure on natural resources while expandi... more Various food and fi nancial crises have increased the pressure on natural resources while expanding on alternative ways of considering agroecosystems as potential long-term providers of ecosystem services if managed in a sustainable and equitable way. Through the study of interrelations between ecosystems, water and food security, this book has aimed to increase the understanding and knowledge of these interactions for better planning and decision making processes at various levels. This chapter concludes Managing Water and Agroecosystems for
The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do n... more The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN or the Rockefeller Foundation concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN or the Rockefeller Foundation.
Journal of Environmental Management, 2022
On whether vegetation could contribute to major climate change mitigation efforts: Forestry for c... more On whether vegetation could contribute to major climate change mitigation efforts: Forestry for carbon credits or carbon credits for forestry? A multi-criteria decision support model for forest carbon offsets
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
Journal of Water and Climate Change, 2012
Despite uncertainty pertaining to methods, assumptions and input data of climate change models, m... more Despite uncertainty pertaining to methods, assumptions and input data of climate change models, most models point towards a trend of an increasing frequency of flooding and drought events. How these changes reflect water management decisions and what can be done to minimize climate change impacts remains unclear. This paper summarizes and extends the workshop outcomes on ‘Climate Change Impacts on Watershed Management: Challenges and Emerging Solutions’ held at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, Montréal, 2010, hosted by the IWA Watershed and River Basin Management Specialist Group. The paper discusses climate change impacts on water management of freshwater ecosystems and river basins, and illustrates these with three case studies. It is demonstrated through the case studies that engagement of relevant stakeholders is needed early in the process of building environmental flows and climate change decision-making tools, to result in greater buy-in to decisions made, create ...
Although environmental flow regime assessments are becoming increasingly holistic, they rarely pr... more Although environmental flow regime assessments are becoming increasingly holistic, they rarely provoke water managers to enact the adaptive water reallocation mechanisms required to secure environmental water for wetlands. The conditions that cause science-based environmental flow assessments to succeed or fail in informing the management of environmental water requirements remain unclear. To begin to resolve these conditions, we used process tracing to deconstruct the sequence of activities required to manage environmental water in four case studies of seasonally ponding wetlands in Mediterranean and Mesoamerican watersheds. We hypothesized that, when the flexibility and equitability of the socioeconomic system do not match the complexity of the biophysical system, this leads to a failure of managers to integrate scientific guidance in their allocation of environmental water. Diagnostic evidence gathered indicates that science-management partnerships are essential to align institut...
POPULATIONS IN THE PALO VERDE WETLAND, COSTA RICA Stefano Barchiesi1, Christian J. Köppl2, Alice ... more POPULATIONS IN THE PALO VERDE WETLAND, COSTA RICA Stefano Barchiesi1, Christian J. Köppl2, Alice Alonso3, Marco Pazmiño-Hernandez1, Juan M. Serrano-Sandí4, Monica Garcia2, Rafael Muñoz-Carpena1, Christine Angelini1 1University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA 2Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark 3Université catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium 4Organization for Tropical Studies, Palo Verde, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Inappropriate water management practices in the Komadugu Yobe Basin, upstream of Lake Chad in nor... more Inappropriate water management practices in the Komadugu Yobe Basin, upstream of Lake Chad in northern Nigeria, changed the seasonal river flow and caused widespread environmental degradation. Coupled with this was fragmented regulation and conflicting responsibilities among institutions, a lack of coordination for hydro-agricultural developments, inequitable access to water resources and growing tensions and risk of conflicts among water users. As a response to this situation, WANI and partners initiated a process of coordination and participation of all stakeholders in dialogue to reverse the trends in natural resources degradation in the basin through integrated management. This case study describes the situation, activities taken, and results achieved during this process.
Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 ... more Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 billion people by 2050, is a central challenge for this generation. Equally critical will be to achieve this in a way that keeps humanity's footprint within planetary boundaries. Water scarcity is self-evidently one of the key factors that will limit food production. This is especially the case in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where malnutrition and food insecurity are already widespread. In these areas, the livelihoods and well-being of poor communities are critically dependent on their farm produce and the ecosystem services from the local landscape that support their livelihoods and income. This synthesis and background document on Ecosystems for Water and Food Security is part of UNEP's contribution to the global food crisis, pledged to the United Nations Secretary-General and developed in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and other partners. Together, we identified and explored the links between ecosystems, water and food, and illustrate how resilient ecosystems can support and increase food security. It is clear that enormous opportunities exist to increase food production in ways that make optimal and sustainable use of water and other resources. This means that we can feed a global population without massive and irreversible damage to our ecosystems. It also means that ensuring food security, managing water resources and protecting ecosystems must be considered as a single policy rather than as separate, and sometimes competing, choices. Credits This report is based on the findings of the background document, Ecosystems for water and food security, coordinated for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Climate change and the over exploitation of water resources is challenging the sustainability of ... more Climate change and the over exploitation of water resources is challenging the sustainability of the Pangani River Basin to deliver water services. Competition for diminishing water resources has led to tensions between the various stakeholders within the basin. Together with the government of Tanzania and donor partners, WANI has responded to this crisis by supporting the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This sought to bring together a variety of stakeholders by creating platforms for dialogue and encouraged collaboration towards a common goal. The Pangani River Basin Management Project has generated technical information and developed participatory forums, mainstreamed climate change, supported the equitable provision and wise governance of freshwater for livelihoods and environment for current and future generations. This case study describes the situation, activities taken, and results achieved during this process.
Environmental flows improve water management by ensuring a sustainable water supply to meet the n... more Environmental flows improve water management by ensuring a sustainable water supply to meet the needs of people, agriculture, energy, industry and the environment. Environmental flows are effectively a balance between water resources development and the need to protect freshwater-dependent ecosystems. WANI has contributed to environmental flow assessments in river basins in Asia, America, and Africa over the last 10 years with the aim of reducing environmental impacts and increasing the benefits of river basin development. Through scaling-up, lessons learned have been mainstreamed into integrated water resources management (IWRM) allowing for the capacity building of existing legislation and the establishment of new, appropriate legislation on environmental flows. This influence on IWRM and water policy has resulted in better water resources management.
The transition towards a less carbon-intensive society has been initiated. Still, the internation... more The transition towards a less carbon-intensive society has been initiated. Still, the international climate policy arena is seeking a significant mitigation strategy. Land-Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) activities have been acknowledged to represent both a valid carbon dioxide reduction option through biological removal and a considerable source of greenhouse gas emissions at the same time, especially through deforestation. However, forest carbon credits are not being extensively purchased by government tendering and multinational banks. Moreover, the compliance market is generally failing to support sustainable development carbon projects while voluntary offsets appear in that sense more successful, yet less stringent. Therefore, this thesis questions the adequacy of the project-based approach to biological removal and points out other non-technical uncertainties prior to the scientific understanding of carbon sequestration. As a consequence of the inherent complexity ...
The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do n... more The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN.
ABSTRACT In many of the world’s river basins, the water resources are over-allocated and/or highl... more ABSTRACT In many of the world’s river basins, the water resources are over-allocated and/or highly modified, access to good quality water is limited or competitive and aquatic ecosystems are degraded. The decline in aquatic ecosystems can impact on human well-being by reducing the ecosystem services provided by healthy rivers, wetlands and floodplains. Basin water resources management requires the determination of water allocation among competing stakeholders including the environment, social needs and economic development. Traditionally, this determination occurred on a volumetric basis to meet basin productivity goals. However, it is difficult to address environmental goals in such a framework, because environmental condition is rarely considered in productivity goals, and short-term variations in river flow may be the most important driver of aquatic ecosystem health. Manipulation of flows to achieve desired outcomes for public supply, food and energy has been implemented for many years. More recently, manipulating flows to achieve ecological outcomes has been proposed. However, the complexity of determining the required flow regimes and the interdependencies between stakeholder outcomes has restricted the implementation of environmental flows as a core component of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). We demonstrate through case studies of the Rhône and Thames river basins in Europe, the Colorado River basin in North America and the Murray-Darling basin in Australia the limitations of traditional environmental flow strategies in integrated water resources management. An alternative ecosystem approach can provide a framework for implementation of environmental flows in basin water resources management, as demonstrated by management of the Pangani River basin in Africa. An ecosystem approach in IWRM leads to management for agreed triple-bottom-line outcomes, rather than productivity or ecological outcomes alone. We recommend that environmental flow management should take on the principles of an ecosystem approach and form an integral part of IWRM.Editor D. KoutsoyiannisCitation Overton, I.C., Smith, D.M., Dalton J., Barchiesi S., Acreman M.C., Stromberg, J.C., and Kirby, J.M., 2014. Implementing environmental flows in integrated water resources management and the ecosystem approach. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 860–877.
Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 ... more Overcoming hunger and meeting the nutritional needs of almost 7 billion people, rising to over 9 billion people by 2050, is a central challenge for this generation. Equally critical will be to achieve this in a way that keeps humanity's footprint within planetary boundaries. Water scarcity is self-evidently one of the key factors that will limit food production. This is especially the case in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where malnutrition and food insecurity are already widespread. In these areas, the livelihoods and well-being of poor communities are critically dependent on their farm produce and the ecosystem services from the local landscape that support their livelihoods and income. This synthesis and background document on Ecosystems for Water and Food Security is part of UNEP's contribution to the global food crisis, pledged to the United Nations Secretary-General and developed in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and other partners. Together, we identified and explored the links between ecosystems, water and food, and illustrate how resilient ecosystems can support and increase food security. It is clear that enormous opportunities exist to increase food production in ways that make optimal and sustainable use of water and other resources. This means that we can feed a global population without massive and irreversible damage to our ecosystems. It also means that ensuring food security, managing water resources and protecting ecosystems must be considered as a single policy rather than as separate, and sometimes competing, choices. Credits This report is based on the findings of the background document, Ecosystems for water and food security, coordinated for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Managing water and agroecosystems for food security, 2013
Various food and fi nancial crises have increased the pressure on natural resources while expandi... more Various food and fi nancial crises have increased the pressure on natural resources while expanding on alternative ways of considering agroecosystems as potential long-term providers of ecosystem services if managed in a sustainable and equitable way. Through the study of interrelations between ecosystems, water and food security, this book has aimed to increase the understanding and knowledge of these interactions for better planning and decision making processes at various levels. This chapter concludes Managing Water and Agroecosystems for
The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do n... more The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN or the Rockefeller Foundation concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN or the Rockefeller Foundation.