Richard Aspinall - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Richard Aspinall

Journal of Land Use Science, 2021

Land, 2022

Farming faces new and urgent pressures, with an array of mounting social, environmental and econo... more Farming faces new and urgent pressures, with an array of mounting social, environmental and economic challenges, and growing public and political expectations for improved stewardship of natural resources [...]

Environmental Management, 1998

Biological Invasions, 2006

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022

Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, cli... more Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, food security, poverty alleviation, and sustainable energy. In this paper, we synthesize knowledge accumulated in land system science, the integrated study of terrestrial social-ecological systems, into 10 hard truths that have strong, general, empirical support. These facts help to explain the challenges of achieving sustainability in land use and thus also point toward solutions. The 10 facts are as follows: 1) Meanings and values of land are socially constructed and contested; 2) land systems exhibit complex behaviors with abrupt, hard-to-predict changes; 3) irreversible changes and path dependence are common features of land systems; 4) some land uses have a small footprint but very large impacts; 5) drivers and impacts of land-use change are globally interconnected and spill over to distant locations; 6) humanity lives on a used planet where all land provides benefits t...

Journal of Environmental Management, 2000

Modelling and analytical needs of the science land-use and land-cover change present some demandi... more Modelling and analytical needs of the science land-use and land-cover change present some demanding challenges to agent-based and spatial modelling methodologies. Landuse change is increasingly recognised as an emergent property of interactions of coupled natural and human systems operating as a complex adaptive system (StaffordSmith and Reynolds, 2002; Lambin et al, 2003). Land-use and land-cover change have been related to a variety of direct (proximate) and indirect (underlying) factors (Geist and Lambin 2002, 2004). Observed changes are associated with i) multi-factor explanations, including interaction between factors, ii) complex localand regionalscale institutional and individual decisions, themselves related to nationalto globalscale opportunities associated with new technologies as well economic and other policies, and iii) historical contingency, reflecting development and transition of underlying and proximate factors over time and producing both path dependence and non-s...

Land

Dynamics of arable and pastoral farming systems in Scotland over the period 1867–2020 are documen... more Dynamics of arable and pastoral farming systems in Scotland over the period 1867–2020 are documented using time series analysis methods, including for nonlinear dynamical systems. Results show arable and pastoral farming, at a national scale, are dynamic over a range of timescales, with medium- and short-term dynamics associated with endogenous system forces and exogenous factors, respectively. Medium-term dynamics provide evidence of endogenous systems-level feedbacks between farming sectors responding to change in world and national cereal prices as an economic driver, and act to dampen impacts of exogenous shocks and events (weather, disease). Regime shifts are identified in national cereal prices. Results show change and dynamics as emergent properties of system interactions. Changes in dynamics and strength of endogenous dampening over the duration of the study are associated with dynamical changes from major governmental policy decisions that altered the boundary conditions fo...

Environmental Information Management And Analysis

... Environmental databases used for research in global ecology are, however, generally suited to... more ... Environmental databases used for research in global ecology are, however, generally suited to inductive methods for exploratory spatial data analysis in which pattern analysis is used to infer possible ... GIS and spatial analysis for ecological modelling 381 modelling impacts ...

Proceedings of the 2000 International Snow Science Workshop October 1 6 Big Sky Montana, 2000

Proceedings of the 2004 International Snow Science Workshop Jackson Hole Wyoming, 2004

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 02693799208901899, Oct 29, 2007

... RICHARD ASPINALL GIs and Remote Sensing Unit, Land Use Division, Macaulay Land Use Research I... more ... RICHARD ASPINALL GIs and Remote Sensing Unit, Land Use Division, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB9 2QJ, UK Abstract. ... In contrast, the potential for the application of GIs in the analysis of spatial pattern is only just beginning to be ...

Cold Reg Sci Technol, 2003

Many ski areas, backcountry avalanche centers, highway departments, and helicopter ski operations... more Many ski areas, backcountry avalanche centers, highway departments, and helicopter ski operations record and archive daily weather and avalanche data. This paper presents a probabilistic method that allows avalanche forecasters to better utilize historical data by incorporating a Geographic Information System (GIS) with a modified meteorological nearest neighbors approach. This nearest neighbor approach utilizes evolving concepts related to visualizing geographic

2002 International Snow Science Workshop Penticton British Columbia, 2002

ABSTRACT The demands placed on land, water, energy and other natural resources are exacerbated as... more ABSTRACT The demands placed on land, water, energy and other natural resources are exacerbated as the world population continues to increase together with the expectations of economic growth. This, combined with concerns over environmental change, presents a set of scientific, policy and management issues that are critical for sustainability. Resource Accounting for Sustainability Assessment: The nexus between energy, food, water and land use offers an approach for multi-scale, integrated assessment of this nexus. It presents a comprehensive and original method of resource accounting for integrated sustainability assessments. The approach is illustrated with three detailed case studies: the islands of Mauritius, the Indian state of Punjab, and the energy economy of South Africa. The relationships between flows of goods, services and materials in these case studies offer valuable insights. The book provides a much needed quality control on the information used in deliberative processes about policy and planning activities. This innovative book will be of interest to researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of sustainability science, international development, industrial ecology, sustainable resource management, geography and ecological economics.

ABSTRACT A prominent specialist in environmental geography introduces a symposium on climate chan... more ABSTRACT A prominent specialist in environmental geography introduces a symposium on climate change published in Eurasian Geography and Economics. He argues that the three papers (a) demonstrate the geographical approaches necessary for understanding broader social, economic, and environmental consequences of climate change at a range of scales; and (b) allow understanding to be gained of a possible world under changed climate. The author's review highlights assessments that climate changes in the Arctic will provide a variety of geographical outcomes (entailing both opportunity and challenge) for Eurasia and North America. The three important papers, he points out, effectively identify and analyze a regional geography for a future world geographical system, as well as illuminate important scientific and policy issues associated with climate change in Eurasia and the planet's northern rim. Journal of Economic Literature.