Jan Diek Van Mansvelt | University of Amsterdam (original) (raw)

Papers by Jan Diek Van Mansvelt

Sustainability, 2021

Soils are an essential element in sustainable food systems and vital for ecosystem services. Soil... more Soils are an essential element in sustainable food systems and vital for ecosystem services. Soils are degrading, because of urbanization, poor soil management, depletion and mining, over-use of inputs and impacts of climate change. Poor soil management resulted from short-term yield maximization caused by changes in land tenure, property rights and land use. We argue for soil protection based on the concept of soil telos defined as the combined purposefulness in agricultural production and terrestrial ecosystem optimization. It includes the right of mankind to use soils, provided norms and values are respected based on the soil’s usefulness, its natural purposefulness and its right to be protected (including its physical, chemical and biological cycles). Finding a sustainable balance between these values and rights on the one hand and the need to use living soils for agricultural production on the other hand requires a new approach to soil management based on widely accepted norm- ...

Sustainability, 2019

We analyze the extent to which humans respect farm animals and crop plants and whether humans pro... more We analyze the extent to which humans respect farm animals and crop plants and whether humans provide them adequate care. Concerns are justified, since many farm animals and crop plants have become completely dependent on humans for their survival. We explore whether the concept of ‘telos’ can be useful. From a biocentric and ecocentric custodian position, an animal or a plant possesses a telos, a nature of its own and a natural, species-specific purpose, but also a telos through its destination imposed by humanity because of its usefulness and service to human beings. Based on both forms of telos farm animals and crop plants deserve respect and have a moral value. Both forms of telos seem to oppose each other: the more humans domesticate the animal or plant, the more it must sacrifice its ‘natural telos’ to serve its ‘utility telos’. Humans should enable the animal or the plant to realize its natural telos in harmony with its utility telos. Both forms of telos could be reconciled i...

Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C, 1975

Experiments were designed to investigate the low-dose side of the so-called dose-effect relation ... more Experiments were designed to investigate the low-dose side of the so-called dose-effect relation of mercuric chloride on the proliferation of a murine lymphoblastic cell strain (MB VIa). Three concentration ranges, from 0.9 × 10-5 м to 0.9 × 10-18 м, from 0.9 × 10-12 м to 0.9 × 10-25 м , and from 0.9 × 10-15 м to 0.9 x 10-21 м, in which the concentration decreased stepwise by a factor 10, were studied in 61, 74 and 58 experimental repetitions, respectively. In the first range, the concentrations 0.9 × 10-5 M and 0.9 x 10-6 м HgCl2 proved to be definitely toxic as was expected. However, also 0.9 × 10-16 м and 0.9 × 10-17 м appeared to be growth-inhibiting, the latter results being confirmed in the second and the third concentration ranges. These differences in cell growth were statistically significant.

The theoretical starting point of this excercise is the following. Arranged diversity on differen... more The theoretical starting point of this excercise is the following. Arranged diversity on different scale levels offers a readable landscape in which information about the natural and geographical site, its use, its history and the time of the year can be obtained. Diversity alone will cause incomprehensible chaos. The relationships, coherences between the landscape components make the landscape understandable

Report of a visit to an organic goat farm to test the usefulness of the criteria which proceeded ... more Report of a visit to an organic goat farm to test the usefulness of the criteria which proceeded from the first meeting of the concerted action "The landscape and nature production capacity of organic/sustainable types of agriculture in the EC"

In recent years, the increasing interest in fuzzy rough set theory has allowed the definition of ... more In recent years, the increasing interest in fuzzy rough set theory has allowed the definition of novel accurate methods for feature selection. Although their stand-alone application can lead to the construction of high quality classifiers, they can be improved even more if other preprocessing techniques, such as instance selection, are considered. With the aim of enhancing the nearest neighbor classifier, we present a hybrid algorithm for instance and feature selection, where evolutionary search in the instances' space is combined with a fuzzy rough set based feature selection procedure. The preliminary results, contrasted through nonparametric statistical tests, suggest that our proposal can improve greatly the performance of the preprocessing techniques in isolation.

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 1997

This special issue of Agriculture, Ecosystems Environment contains the work done in the frame- wo... more This special issue of Agriculture, Ecosystems Environment contains the work done in the frame- work of the EU-concerted action programme The nature and landscape production capacity of or- ganic/sustainable types of agriculture . The aim of this concerted action is to define proposals to extend the EU regulations for agriculture (such as regulation 2078\92 'countryside stewardship') with landscape standards. Such agro-landscape standards, among others, should help to keep the quality of rural areas on an acceptable level, or even, in due course, to restore them to their former quality. Also, a method is needed to assess whether the standards are useful and feasible. The concerted action tries both to de- velop standards and a method to assess them.

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural land... more In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural landscape was created. The ideaof the concerted action was to bring together experts from various disciplines involved in management of the countryside.They represented disciplines from alfa, beta and gamma oriented sciences, ranging form environmentalists over sociologists to culturalgeographers. They were all asked to list their (discipline’s) criteria and parameters for a sustainable management of the landscape. From all these criteria and parameters a checklist has been established. This checklist is presented in this paper,accompanied by an explanation of its basic concept that draws upon Maslow, its context, its methodology and its use. Finally summaries are presented of the ways the checklist, in various stages of its development, has been used in several European countries countrysides. It can be concluded that the checklist is a useful tool for valuing the contribution of farms viz. farmingsystems to the regional development and the sustainability of the landscape. It was found that organic farms included in the sample of our research often performed rather well in that perspective as compared to the non-organic farms in that region.

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

ABSTRACT

Landscape and Urban Planning, 1998

Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The N... more Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, and 3 organic farms and 4 conventional farms from the West Friesean region in The Netherlands were evaluated to compare their impact on landscape diversity. Materials used were soil-, water-, land use- and land-property maps, interviews with the farmers, repeated (several days) visits to the farms, allowing to make temporal transects, photographs and pictures of the farm-couples and their surroundings. Presence of diverse land use types, woody elements (plantings) and visual elements (vertical and horizontal coherence, colours and forms) were analysed. The results show that the diversity of landscapes and farming system was greater in organic farms. It regards to the land-use types, crops, livestock, plantings (hedges, solitary shrubs and trees), flora, sensorial information (more forms, colours, smells, sounds, spatial experiences) and labour (more on-farm processing and more people involved). Also, all forms of coherence were found to be greater in organic farms. In terms of landscape diversity the organic types of agriculture have a good potential for positive contributions to a sustainable agro-landscape management.
Keywords

Biodiversity; Rural landscape; Multifunctionality; Landscape production; Organic agriculture; Cross compliance

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 1997

A Concerted Action has been initiated to discuss the assessment of sustainable agro-landscape val... more A Concerted Action has been initiated to discuss the assessment of sustainable agro-landscape values in the EU. The objective is to find out how criteria and parameters can be defined that would help farmers, authorities and politicians to manage the agro-landscape towards sustainability and socio/cultural appreciation. Such parameters should most probably consist of a general mainframe with compatible regional specifications.

Tiers-monde, 1992

... biologiques et écologiques, une idée qui commence à faire son chemin (Rapports de la fao-sard... more ... biologiques et écologiques, une idée qui commence à faire son chemin (Rapports de la fao-sard et la Déclaration fao de Den Bosch, 1991 ; Altieri, 1991 ; Dupriez, 1980 ; Hobbelink, 1988 ; van der Ploeg, 1989). L'agriculture biologique pourrait alors se faire. 316. Jan Diek van ...

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural land... more In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural landscape was created. The idea of the concerted action was to bring together experts from various disciplines involved in management of the countryside. They represented disciplines from ␤, ␥ and ␣ oriented sciences, ranging form environmentalists over sociologists to cultural geographers. They were all asked to list their (discipline's) criteria and parameters for a sustainable management of the landscape. From all these criteria and parameters a checklist has been established. This checklist is presented in this paper, accompanied by an explanation of its basic concept that draws upon Maslow, its context, its methodology and its use. Finally summaries are presented of the ways the checklist, in various stages of its development, has been used in several European country countrysides. It can be concluded that the checklist is a useful tool for valuing the contribution of farms viz. farming systems to the regional development and the sustainability of the landscape. It was found that organic farms included in the sample of our research often performed rather well in that perspective as compared to the non-organic farms in that region.

Landscape and Urban Planning, 1998

Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The N... more Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, and 3 organic farms and 4 conventional farms from the West Friesean region in The Netherlands were evaluated to compare their impact on landscape diversity. Materials used were soil-, water-, land use-and land-property maps, interviews with the farmers, repeated (several days) visits to the farms, allowing to make temporal transects, photographs and pictures of the farm-couples and their surroundings. Presence of diverse land use types, woody elements (plantings) and visual elements (vertical and horizontal coherence, colours and forms) were analysed. The results show that the diversity of landscapes and farming system was greater in organic farms. It regards to the land-use types, crops, livestock, plantings (hedges, solitary shrubs and trees),¯ora, sensorial information (more forms, colours, smells, sounds, spatial experiences) and labour (more onfarm processing and more people involved). Also, all forms of coherence were found to be greater in organic farms. In terms of landscape diversity the organic types of agriculture have a good potential for positive contributions to a sustainable agrolandscape management. #

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 1997

In the framework of the Concerted Action ‘The Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Organic... more In the framework of the Concerted Action ‘The Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Organic ⧸ Sustainable Types of Agriculture’, the authors visited the organic goat farm Capricas to test some criteria on farm level. Ten, mainly cultural, criteria had been selected because they were related to the field of work of the authors. The aim was to test the

Sustainability, 2021

Soils are an essential element in sustainable food systems and vital for ecosystem services. Soil... more Soils are an essential element in sustainable food systems and vital for ecosystem services. Soils are degrading, because of urbanization, poor soil management, depletion and mining, over-use of inputs and impacts of climate change. Poor soil management resulted from short-term yield maximization caused by changes in land tenure, property rights and land use. We argue for soil protection based on the concept of soil telos defined as the combined purposefulness in agricultural production and terrestrial ecosystem optimization. It includes the right of mankind to use soils, provided norms and values are respected based on the soil’s usefulness, its natural purposefulness and its right to be protected (including its physical, chemical and biological cycles). Finding a sustainable balance between these values and rights on the one hand and the need to use living soils for agricultural production on the other hand requires a new approach to soil management based on widely accepted norm- ...

Sustainability, 2019

We analyze the extent to which humans respect farm animals and crop plants and whether humans pro... more We analyze the extent to which humans respect farm animals and crop plants and whether humans provide them adequate care. Concerns are justified, since many farm animals and crop plants have become completely dependent on humans for their survival. We explore whether the concept of ‘telos’ can be useful. From a biocentric and ecocentric custodian position, an animal or a plant possesses a telos, a nature of its own and a natural, species-specific purpose, but also a telos through its destination imposed by humanity because of its usefulness and service to human beings. Based on both forms of telos farm animals and crop plants deserve respect and have a moral value. Both forms of telos seem to oppose each other: the more humans domesticate the animal or plant, the more it must sacrifice its ‘natural telos’ to serve its ‘utility telos’. Humans should enable the animal or the plant to realize its natural telos in harmony with its utility telos. Both forms of telos could be reconciled i...

Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C, 1975

Experiments were designed to investigate the low-dose side of the so-called dose-effect relation ... more Experiments were designed to investigate the low-dose side of the so-called dose-effect relation of mercuric chloride on the proliferation of a murine lymphoblastic cell strain (MB VIa). Three concentration ranges, from 0.9 × 10-5 м to 0.9 × 10-18 м, from 0.9 × 10-12 м to 0.9 × 10-25 м , and from 0.9 × 10-15 м to 0.9 x 10-21 м, in which the concentration decreased stepwise by a factor 10, were studied in 61, 74 and 58 experimental repetitions, respectively. In the first range, the concentrations 0.9 × 10-5 M and 0.9 x 10-6 м HgCl2 proved to be definitely toxic as was expected. However, also 0.9 × 10-16 м and 0.9 × 10-17 м appeared to be growth-inhibiting, the latter results being confirmed in the second and the third concentration ranges. These differences in cell growth were statistically significant.

The theoretical starting point of this excercise is the following. Arranged diversity on differen... more The theoretical starting point of this excercise is the following. Arranged diversity on different scale levels offers a readable landscape in which information about the natural and geographical site, its use, its history and the time of the year can be obtained. Diversity alone will cause incomprehensible chaos. The relationships, coherences between the landscape components make the landscape understandable

Report of a visit to an organic goat farm to test the usefulness of the criteria which proceeded ... more Report of a visit to an organic goat farm to test the usefulness of the criteria which proceeded from the first meeting of the concerted action "The landscape and nature production capacity of organic/sustainable types of agriculture in the EC"

In recent years, the increasing interest in fuzzy rough set theory has allowed the definition of ... more In recent years, the increasing interest in fuzzy rough set theory has allowed the definition of novel accurate methods for feature selection. Although their stand-alone application can lead to the construction of high quality classifiers, they can be improved even more if other preprocessing techniques, such as instance selection, are considered. With the aim of enhancing the nearest neighbor classifier, we present a hybrid algorithm for instance and feature selection, where evolutionary search in the instances' space is combined with a fuzzy rough set based feature selection procedure. The preliminary results, contrasted through nonparametric statistical tests, suggest that our proposal can improve greatly the performance of the preprocessing techniques in isolation.

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 1997

This special issue of Agriculture, Ecosystems Environment contains the work done in the frame- wo... more This special issue of Agriculture, Ecosystems Environment contains the work done in the frame- work of the EU-concerted action programme The nature and landscape production capacity of or- ganic/sustainable types of agriculture . The aim of this concerted action is to define proposals to extend the EU regulations for agriculture (such as regulation 2078\92 'countryside stewardship') with landscape standards. Such agro-landscape standards, among others, should help to keep the quality of rural areas on an acceptable level, or even, in due course, to restore them to their former quality. Also, a method is needed to assess whether the standards are useful and feasible. The concerted action tries both to de- velop standards and a method to assess them.

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural land... more In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural landscape was created. The ideaof the concerted action was to bring together experts from various disciplines involved in management of the countryside.They represented disciplines from alfa, beta and gamma oriented sciences, ranging form environmentalists over sociologists to culturalgeographers. They were all asked to list their (discipline’s) criteria and parameters for a sustainable management of the landscape. From all these criteria and parameters a checklist has been established. This checklist is presented in this paper,accompanied by an explanation of its basic concept that draws upon Maslow, its context, its methodology and its use. Finally summaries are presented of the ways the checklist, in various stages of its development, has been used in several European countries countrysides. It can be concluded that the checklist is a useful tool for valuing the contribution of farms viz. farmingsystems to the regional development and the sustainability of the landscape. It was found that organic farms included in the sample of our research often performed rather well in that perspective as compared to the non-organic farms in that region.

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

ABSTRACT

Landscape and Urban Planning, 1998

Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The N... more Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, and 3 organic farms and 4 conventional farms from the West Friesean region in The Netherlands were evaluated to compare their impact on landscape diversity. Materials used were soil-, water-, land use- and land-property maps, interviews with the farmers, repeated (several days) visits to the farms, allowing to make temporal transects, photographs and pictures of the farm-couples and their surroundings. Presence of diverse land use types, woody elements (plantings) and visual elements (vertical and horizontal coherence, colours and forms) were analysed. The results show that the diversity of landscapes and farming system was greater in organic farms. It regards to the land-use types, crops, livestock, plantings (hedges, solitary shrubs and trees), flora, sensorial information (more forms, colours, smells, sounds, spatial experiences) and labour (more on-farm processing and more people involved). Also, all forms of coherence were found to be greater in organic farms. In terms of landscape diversity the organic types of agriculture have a good potential for positive contributions to a sustainable agro-landscape management.
Keywords

Biodiversity; Rural landscape; Multifunctionality; Landscape production; Organic agriculture; Cross compliance

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 1997

A Concerted Action has been initiated to discuss the assessment of sustainable agro-landscape val... more A Concerted Action has been initiated to discuss the assessment of sustainable agro-landscape values in the EU. The objective is to find out how criteria and parameters can be defined that would help farmers, authorities and politicians to manage the agro-landscape towards sustainability and socio/cultural appreciation. Such parameters should most probably consist of a general mainframe with compatible regional specifications.

Tiers-monde, 1992

... biologiques et écologiques, une idée qui commence à faire son chemin (Rapports de la fao-sard... more ... biologiques et écologiques, une idée qui commence à faire son chemin (Rapports de la fao-sard et la Déclaration fao de Den Bosch, 1991 ; Altieri, 1991 ; Dupriez, 1980 ; Hobbelink, 1988 ; van der Ploeg, 1989). L'agriculture biologique pourrait alors se faire. 316. Jan Diek van ...

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural land... more In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural landscape was created. The idea of the concerted action was to bring together experts from various disciplines involved in management of the countryside. They represented disciplines from ␤, ␥ and ␣ oriented sciences, ranging form environmentalists over sociologists to cultural geographers. They were all asked to list their (discipline's) criteria and parameters for a sustainable management of the landscape. From all these criteria and parameters a checklist has been established. This checklist is presented in this paper, accompanied by an explanation of its basic concept that draws upon Maslow, its context, its methodology and its use. Finally summaries are presented of the ways the checklist, in various stages of its development, has been used in several European country countrysides. It can be concluded that the checklist is a useful tool for valuing the contribution of farms viz. farming systems to the regional development and the sustainability of the landscape. It was found that organic farms included in the sample of our research often performed rather well in that perspective as compared to the non-organic farms in that region.

Landscape and Urban Planning, 1998

Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The N... more Four organic (biodynamic) farms coupled with conventional farms from their neighbourhood in The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, and 3 organic farms and 4 conventional farms from the West Friesean region in The Netherlands were evaluated to compare their impact on landscape diversity. Materials used were soil-, water-, land use-and land-property maps, interviews with the farmers, repeated (several days) visits to the farms, allowing to make temporal transects, photographs and pictures of the farm-couples and their surroundings. Presence of diverse land use types, woody elements (plantings) and visual elements (vertical and horizontal coherence, colours and forms) were analysed. The results show that the diversity of landscapes and farming system was greater in organic farms. It regards to the land-use types, crops, livestock, plantings (hedges, solitary shrubs and trees),¯ora, sensorial information (more forms, colours, smells, sounds, spatial experiences) and labour (more onfarm processing and more people involved). Also, all forms of coherence were found to be greater in organic farms. In terms of landscape diversity the organic types of agriculture have a good potential for positive contributions to a sustainable agrolandscape management. #

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 1997

In the framework of the Concerted Action ‘The Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Organic... more In the framework of the Concerted Action ‘The Landscape and Nature Production Capacity of Organic ⧸ Sustainable Types of Agriculture’, the authors visited the organic goat farm Capricas to test some criteria on farm level. Ten, mainly cultural, criteria had been selected because they were related to the field of work of the authors. The aim was to test the