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International audience; Soil erosion is the primary process driving land degradation. Using multiple scales of management to minimize soil erosion is crucial to achieve land degradation neutrality targets within the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Land management (LM) influences both on-site and off-site erosion on the event-scale and over the long-term. However, each LM differs in effectiveness depending on the temporal scale considered. In order to understand how LM effects internal and external catchment dynamics, we apply LandSoil, a physically based landscape evolution model, to evaluate 7 LM scenarios over long- (30 years) and short-terms (event scale). LM scenarios included changes in land use and/or landscape structure. Under current LM, mean surface soil erosion was similar to 0.69 +/- 39.10(-3) m over 30 years. In contrast, a single extreme event (435 mm/24 h) in January resulted in similar to 0.62 +/- 3.10(-3) In loss and similar to 0.04 +/- 2.10(-3) m if it occurred in October. Heterogeneous patterns of erosion and deposition developed after 30 years, whereas extreme events dominantly showed soil loss and high catchment connectivity. Effectiveness of LM in erosion mitigation and sediment trapping differed according to temporal and spatial scales for each scenario. We concluded that multiple temporal and spatial scales must be incorporated in order to adaptively manage land degradation and meet neutrality targets.

On a worldwide scale, Brazil is the country hosting the greatest number of stingless bee species. The species natural distribution favours the Amazonian basin, even though the Meliponinies settlement area (family to which these insects belong) covers the entire national territory. In southern Brazil, Meliponinies domestication for a long time concerned exclusively the Tetragonisca angustula, a very common species in Latin America, and some melipona: Melipona bicolor, M. marginata, M. quadrifasciata. The harsh pressure on nests linked with the destruction of natural habitats provoked a tremendous decline in wild bee populations. In the state of Santa Catarina, a majority of native bees is still threatened of disappearing despite a very restrictive law adopted in August 2004 by the Brazilian parliament. In urban areas like Chapeco city (175,000 inhabitants), the breeding of Meliponinies has been developing intensively over the past fifteen years. Nowadays, between 1,800 and 2,000 bee colonies and 21 species of Meliponini are managed in the average sized inland town by 50-80 new bee-keepers. Generally they want to sell (honey trade) their production or raise bees as a hobby (leisure). This urban meliponiculture may thus represent a way of conserving these bee species.

International audience; The high plains of Lebanon are subject to water erosion which tends to strip its soils and threaten its agricultural activities. The combined effect of anthropogenic actions (cultural management, deforestation, overgrazing) and natural factors (climatic aggressiveness, steep slopes, soil), weakens the soil and threatens agricultural parcels by depositing sediments. Mhaydssé is a village concerned by this problem and its representative of the natural and anthropogenic conditions of the Békaa’s southeast. The study uses GIS and the Universal Earth Loss Equation (USLE). To replace the intensity of precipitation, the aggressiveness index was calculated from the equation of Renard and Freimund. Five soil types were sampled, for which the soil granulometry was analyzed in five classes. The topography (slope), the vegetation cover and the anti-erosion practices are the other factors that have been quantified. Of the 1800 hectares of the study area, the average loss of land is 46 t / ha / year. This high value comes from a high spatial heterogeneity. The barren slopes are subject to rates above 300 t /ha /yr, while the bottom of the plain is practically untouched. Large spatial differences over small distances confirm the thoroughness of an accurate analysis of soil texture.; Le Liban des hautes plaines subit une érosion hydrique qui tend à décaper ses sols et menacer ses activités agricoles. L’effet conjugué des actions anthropiques (conduites culturales, déboisement, surpâturage) et des facteurs naturels (agressivité climatique, versants abrupts, sol), fragilise le sol et menace les parcelles agricoles par le depôt des sédiments. Mhaydssé est un village concerné par le problème, représentatif des conditions naturelles et anthropiques du sud-est de la Békaa. L’étude utilise les SIG et l’équation universelle des pertes en terre (USLE). Pour remplacer l’intensité des précipitations, l’indice d’agressivité a été calculé à partir de l’équation de Renard et Freimund. Cinq types de sols ont été échantillonnés, pour lesquels la granulométrie a été analysée en cinq classes. La topographie (pente), le couvert végétal et les pratiques anti-érosives sont les autres facteurs qui ont été quantifiés. Sur les 1800 hectares du terrain d’étude, la perte moyenne en terre est de 46 t/ha/an. Cette valeur élevée est issue d’une grande hétérogénéité spatiale. Les versants dénudés subissent des taux supérieurs à 300 t/ha/an, tandis que le fond de la plaine n’est pratiquement pas touché. Les grandes différences spatiales sur de petites distances confirment le bienfondé d’une analyse précise de la texture des sols.

Abstract The carbon and land footprint of 26 certified food products – geographical indications and organic products and their conventional references are assessed. This assessment goes beyond existing literature by (1) designing a calculation method fit for the comparison between certified food and conventional production, (2) using the same calculation method and parameters for 52 products – 26 Food Quality Schemes and their reference products – to allow for a meaningful comparison, (3) transparently documenting this calculation method and opening access to the detailed results and the underlying data, and (4) providing the first assessment of the carbon and land footprint of geographical indications. The method used is Life Cycle Assessment, largely relying on the Cool Farm Tool for the impact assessment. The most common indicator of climate impact, the carbon footprint expressed per ton of product, is not significantly different between certified foods and their reference products. The only exception to this pattern are vegetal organic products, whose carbon footprint is 16% lower. This is because the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from the absence of mineral fertilizers is never fully offset by the associated lower yield. The climate impact of certified food per hectare is however 26% than their reference and their land footprint is logically 24% higher. Technical specifications directly or indirectly inducing a lower use of mineral fertilizers are a key driver of this pattern. So is yield, which depends both on terroir and farming practices. Overall, this assessment reinforces the quality policy of the European Union: promoting certified food is not inconsistent with mitigating climate change.

This paper aims to add two concepts to the term of Smart City, ubiquity and emergence. The first term used recently in computer science to describe the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in all areas of society, being the basis of two new research areas that currently have great interest, called the Internet of Things and smart environments. The second term, widely used by some sciences (biology, theology, etc.) to describe the behavior and dynamics that occur in the real phenomena in their areas. In this paper, we analyze their contributions to help to design cities more autonomous, with more capacities of self-management and adaptation.

Urban gardening is not a new phenomenon but it has received considerably more practical and academic interest in recent years. Studies on economic aspects such as crop yields, inputs and outputs of production, productivity, gross margins and the contribution to home economics are rare, especially in Europe. While urban gardening plays an important role in the Global South, its role in Western Europe for food productivity and home economics is currently under-researched. The aim of this study is to analyse European urban gardeners’ economic performance and self-sufficiency on a household level, as well as to reach a better understanding of their contribution to food self-provision and food security in the metropolitan areas. In a study carried out in 2014 with on-site personal and with online questionnaires participated 180 urban gardeners from three case study cities (Ljubljana, Milan, and London). Results from the economic analysis showed that although for most urban gardeners, profit is not their main motivation, the economic calculation shows that productivity in small urban plots can be comparable to market garden production. Urban gardeners are saving money, especially when, compared to retail prices for regular produce or organic produce, their input is included in the gross margin calculation. We conclude that, in the case-study cities, the self-provisional potential of urban gardeners’ households to adequately cover the annual vegetable need of five-a-day servings can be met under three conditions: (1) sufficient garden size; (2) increased area productivity, and (3) sufficient labour-hour inputs.

International audience; In the literature on urban sprawl, few studies have looked at possible connection between effective protection of agricultural land and urban or community food strategies. Our case studies in Provence and Tuscany show that planning prescriptions and land-market control are insufficient to protect farmland on the urban fringe if regulatory approaches are not integrated into a global strategy for agriculture and food based on community involvement. Farmland protection policies are more effective if they combine top-down policies with bottom-up initiatives and if they recognize the multifunctional character of urban agriculture, especially with processed goods such as wine or olive oil.

article i nfo Farmers have been increasingly called upon to respond to an ongoing redefinition in consumers' demands, having as a converging theme the search for sustainable production practices. In order to satisfy this objective, instruments for the environmental management of agricultural activities have been sought out. Environmental impact assessment methods are appropriate tools to address the choice of technologies and management practices to minimize negative effects of agricultural development, while maximizing productive efficiency, sound usage of natural resources, conservation of ecological assets and equitable access to wealth generation means. The 'system for weighted environmental impact assessment of rural activities' (APOIA-NovoRural) presented in this paper is organized to provide integrated farm sustainability assessment according to quantitative environmental standards and defined socio-economic benchmarks. The system integrates sixty-two objective indicators in five sustainability dimensions — (i) Landscape ecology, (ii) Environmental quality (atmosphere, water and soil), (iii) Sociocultural values, (iv) Economic values, and (v) Management and administration. Impact indices are expressed in three integration levels: (i) specific indicators, that offer a diagnostic and managerial tool for farmers and rural administrators, by pointing out particular attributes of the rural activities that may be failing to comply with defined environmental performance objectives; (ii) integrated sustainability dimensions, that show decision-makers the major contributions of the rural activities toward local sustainable development, facilitating the definition of control actions and promotion measures; and (iii) aggregated sustainability index, that can be considered a yardstick for eco-certification purposes. Nine fully documented case studies carried out with the APOIA- NovoRural system, focusing on different scales, diverse rural activities/farming systems, and contrasting spatial/territorial contexts, attest to the malleability of the method and its applicability as an integrated farm environmental management tool.

In this study, we have used qualitative data from land-use conflicts for a development-related infrastructure project based on the case of Chotiari reservoir in Pakistan. Our results primarily highlight the networks of stakeholders involved in making the decisions for this project and their opposition to the desires of the local population, leading to significant tensions and conflicts due to the superposition of land-use expectations in the project area. Through this research, we have identified the key groups of actors and their logics, links and behaviors in terms of multi-level governance (from community level to international level) and territorial governance, thus revealing the positions of stakeholders and their relative social power. We show how public authorities have disregarded international rules and laws in undertaking a development project, and caused great damage to local populations and environmental resources. This article aims to provide useful information and insights for recommendations to help prevent and resolve land-use conflicts, principally on the basis of an analysis of proximity relations.