Alan Palmer

Massey University

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Diane Pearson

Massey University

Estelle Dominati

AgResearch

John H. Lowry

Oregon State University

David A. Gray

California State University, Northridge

Duy X. Tran

AgResearch

Ranvir Singh

Massey University

Callum Rees

Massey University

Julie Palmer

Massey University

Cooperative Institutions

Massey University

AgResearch

Dehradun Institute of Technology University

ETH Zurich

Sharda University

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Iowa State University

Western Sydney University

Wageningen University & Research

American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

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Integrating ecosystem services with geodesign to create multifunctional agricultural landscapes: A case study of a New Zealand hill country farm

Ecological Indicators (2022)

Duy X. Tran Diane Pearson Alan Palmer Estelle Dominati David A. Gray

An ecosystem-based management approach (EBM) is suggested as one solution to help to tackle environmental challenges facing worldwide farming systems whilst ensuring socio-economic demands are met. Despite its usefulness, the application of this approach at the farm-scale presents several implementation problems, including the difficulty of (a) incorporating the concept of ecosystem services (ES) into agricultural land use decision-making and (b) involving the farmer in the planning process. This study aims to propose a solution to overcome these challenges by utilising a geodesign framework and EBM approach to plan and design a sustainable multifunctional agricultural landscape at the farm scale. We demonstrate how the proposed approach can be applied to plan and design multifunctional agricultural landscapes that offer improved sustainability, using a New Zealand hill country farm as a case study. A geodesign framework is employed to generate future land use and management scenarios for the study area, visualize changes, and assess the impacts of future land use on landscape multifunctionality and the provision of associated ES and economic outcomes. In this framework, collaboration with the farmer was carried out to obtain farm information and co-design the farmed landscapes. The results from our study demonstrate that farmed landscapes where multiple land use/ land cover types co-exist can provide a wide range of ES and therefore, meet both economic and environmental demands. The assessment of impacts for different land use change scenarios demonstrates that land use change towards increasing landscape diversity and complexity is a key to achieving more sustainable multifunctional farmed landscapes. The integration of EBM and geodesign, is a transdisciplinary approach that can help farmers target land use and management decisions by considering the major ES that are, and could be, provided by the landscapes in which these farm systems are situated, therefore maximising the potential for beneficial outcomes.

Land Cover

10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109762

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Citations (9)

Quantifying spatial non-stationarity in the relationship between landscape structure and the provision of ecosystem services: An example in the New Zealand hill country

The Science of The Total Environment (2021)

Duy X. Tran Diane Pearson Alan Palmer John H. Lowry David A. Gray

Land Cover

Explanatory power

Spatial heterogeneity

Ordinary least squares

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152126

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Citations (66)

Variation in Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity at the Outcrop Scale, the Whanganui Basin, New Zealand

Ground Water (2019)

Callum Rees Alan Palmer Julie Palmer Ranvir Singh

Groundwater flow and contaminant transport are strongly influenced by hydrogeological spatial variation. Understanding the textural heterogeneity of aquifer and aquitard units is critical for predicting preferential flow pathways, but is often hindered by sparse hydrogeological data, widely spaced data points, and complex stratigraphy. Here, we demonstrate the application of a relatively new air permeameter technology, providing a cost-effective, rapid alternative for characterizing hydrostratigraphic units in the field. The aim of this research is to (1) characterize the variation of saturated hydraulic conductivity across shallow-marine hydrostratigraphic units of the Whanganui Basin, New Zealand, and (2) assess the variation of saturated hydraulic conductivity within individual hydrostratigraphic units and relate these changes to facies and depositional environments. Results suggest heterogeneity within fine-grained aquitard units is controlled by bioturbation, whereby burrowing, ingestion and defecation results in grain size segregation and differential micrite cementation. Coarse-grained heterolithic aquifer facies display sharp changes in permeability across planar to cross-bedded sets, related to current and wave energy fluctuations within shallow-marine depositional settings. Bedding plane orientation creates high permeability zones that promotes down dip subsurface flow. Down dip gradation of coarse-grained nearshore facies into fine-grained shelf facies along the paleo shoreline-shelf transect is suggested to promote lateral and vertical groundwater flow within the basin fill. Air permeameter techniques have potential for application within groundwater basins around the world, providing datasets that facilitate greater understanding of groundwater systems, informing practices and policies for targeted water quality management.

Outcrop

Variation (astronomy)

10.1111/gwat.12948

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Citations (2)