Leon Hauser | Vietnam Space Technology Institute (original) (raw)

Papers by Leon Hauser

In Western Europe the fate of biodiversity is intimately linked to agricultural land use. A drivi... more In Western Europe the fate of biodiversity is intimately linked to agricultural land use. A driving force behind biodiversity decline is the gradual conversion of Europe’s traditional integrated rural landscapes of nature and agriculture into monofunctional units of production. With these developments, semi-natural landscape elements have increasingly disappeared from agricultural landscapes. A growing body of research, however, underlines the importance of semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes for biodiversity conservation, habitat connectivity, and ecosystem services. On the local scale, considerable variation between the relative area of landscape elements on individual farms can be observed. Farm management decisions are presumed to be important determinants for the composition of agricultural landscapes and the services provided to society.

By bringing together data from farmer interviews and aerial photographic imagery, this paper analyzes the predictive validity of farm management characteristics to understand the distribution of landscape elements on farmland parcels. The farm management parameters included in the study are relevant to current dominant trends in the Dutch agricultural sector; intensification, scale enlargement, diversification, and gradual termination of farming activities. Scale enlargement and migratory processes are found to be important predictors. The results of the Dutch case study provide insights in the threats and opportunities for the conservation of semi-natural habitat in agricultural landscapes. The findings present an empirical contribution to the debate on sustainable management of agriculture’s green infrastructure and, in broader perspective, the objective to reconcile agricultural production with the urging need of biodiversity conservation in Europe’s spatially contested countryside.
Full-text (Open access): http://doi.org/10.16993/rl.14
RG: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310345623_The_Role_of_Farm_Management_Characteristics_in_Understanding_the_Spatial_Distribution_of_Landscape_Elements_A_Case_Study_in_the_Netherlands

Highlighting the importance of empowering citizens as environmental informants to track and ident... more Highlighting the importance of empowering citizens as environmental informants to track and identify environmental issues, this short commentary looks at the deeper and highly engrained role the public now play in securing a sustainable future through data collection as well as the importance of having the right data architectures available to do so.

Proceedings of the 6th DAAD and VNU international conference for ‘Remote Sensing and GIS Application and Integration’, 6-9 Oct. 2015, Hanoi; Vietnamese National University, pp. 649-656. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4535.3683

Remote sensing is an important tool for mapping and monitoring vegetation. Advances in sensor tec... more Remote sensing is an important tool for mapping and monitoring vegetation. Advances in sensor technology continually improve the information content of imagery from airborne as well as space-borne systems. This paper lays the foundation of species discrimination and vegetation mapping in mangrove forests in Vietnam’s southernmost district Ngoc Hien, Ca Mau province. For this purpose, a large sample set of field reflectance spectra of 6 common mangrove tree species have been collected in-situ in the study area under varying yet calibrated conditions. Mean spectra of the vegetation reflectance measurements have been established after high-dimensional outlier analysis and smoothing with a S-G filter. Consequently ANOVA tests and Stepwise Discriminant Analysis have been applied to assess the separability of the six mangrove species. The study shows that despite the challenges of field spectroscopy (environmental noises and variability in lighting conditions) hyperspectral data recorded in-situ provides a sound base for discrimination common mangrove species due to the wealth of hyperspectral information. This brings us a step closer to larger a scale remote sensing application for detailed vegetation mapping and the monitoring of species distributions of Vietnam’s mangrove ecosystems.

The control of invasive aquatic species in Africa has already seen numerous efforts and large sum... more The control of invasive aquatic species in Africa has already
seen numerous efforts and large sums of invested aid strand
against the perseverance, geography and complexity of the
problem. The involvement of a wide spectrum of concerned
stakeholders, lacking societal awareness of the problem, the
diffusion of responsibility across government bodies and the
need for long-term solutions that address both symptoms
and drivers imply that there is no easy-fix to the
containment of the water hyacinth. The solution proposed in this paper aims to bring together scientific knowledge and technologies at the disposal of local entrepreneurs and fishermen seeking new ways to support their family.

Currently water chain services in the Netherlands are charged through separate bills from differe... more Currently water chain services in the Netherlands are charged through separate bills from different institutions; these include levies and taxes for drinking water production and distribution, sewage and waste water treatment and groundwater and surface water management. The largest share of these charges is not depended on the quantified use of these services but is rather on-charged through fixed flat rates. Such a financial structure of water utility household revenues has its shortcomings. An integration of separate water bills to one water cycle tariff can provide gains in transparency, simplicity, fairness, monetary incentives for sustainable consumption, the attunement with the European Water Framework directive and organizational efficiency. Main drawbacks are an expected burden displacement, concerns for public health and organizational obstacles that need to be overcome.