Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing and Cultural Ecosystem Services

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Systems and Global Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2024 | Viewed by 3692

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 80333 München, Germany
Interests: human geography; climate change adaptation; social capital; social-ecological systems; resilience; islands

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Guest Editor
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK
Interests: physical geography; ecosystem services; biodiversity; environmental justice; intersectionality; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is increasingly impacting ecosystems, land, landscapes and the wellbeing of human populations in the Global North and South. Besides the physical impacts and material losses and damages, there is also a growing awareness of the impacts of climate-related hazards on landscapes, the cultural ecosystem services they provide, and associated effects on physical and mental wellbeing. However, there is still a limited understanding of how climate change impacts wellbeing across social groups, individually and collectively, in urban areas and how to address the perceived impacts on diverse and valued cultural services provided by different types of landscapes. Moreover, disentangling the wellbeing effects of different drivers of change, including climate-related changes and unsustainable interventions in landscapes, as well as indirect drivers of change, such as governance, values and worldviews, is still challenging and deserves further empirical and methodological attention. An improved understanding and evidence base regarding these concerns is of great importance for developing collective visions to respond to future climate change impacts on ecosystems, land and landscapes and to develop adequate and inclusive approaches for adaptation that acknowledge the specific wellbeing needs of diverse populations and social groups beyond materialistic aspects.

In this Special Issue, we are therefore interested in contributions that link climate change impacts on land and landscapes specifically to changes in cultural ecosystem services or Nature’s Contributions to People and their effects on human wellbeing. Moreover, we welcome contributions that discuss potential adaptation pathways to land-related climate change impacts on human wellbeing. Contributions can include empirical research or conceptual/theoretical works, examining any key aspects, including but not limited to:

  • Land degradation through climate-related extreme events, droughts and sea level rise;
  • Direct and indirect drivers of climate-related ecosystem change and biodiversity loss;
  • Impacts of climate change on land resources and effects on human security, place attachment, indigenous and local knowledge;
  • Non-economic loss and damage through loss and degradation of landscapes and ecosystems;
  • Climate-related changes to land-based Nature’s Contributions to People;
  • Effects of ecosystem change and loss on mental health and ecological grief;
  • Climate-related change to land resources in rural and urban areas;
  • Access to land resources, and issues of social inequalities and intersectionality;
  • Land-related indigenous and local knowledge for inclusive adaptation and transformation pathways.

Contributions at the intersections of, for example, geography, sustainability science, anthropology and public health are welcome, as well as research from other human-environment fields that are at the forefront of climate change impacts on human wellbeing. Regional and scalar diversity in contributions is also desired.

Dr. Jan Petzold
Dr. Aleksandra Kosanic
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cultural ecosystem services
  • nature’s contribution to people
  • global warming
  • environmental change
  • health and wellbeing
  • climate risk
  • climate change adaptation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 707 KiB  
Article
The Impacts of Climate Change on Tourism Operators, Trail Experience and Land Use Management in British Columbia’s Backcountry
by Courtney W. Mason and Pate Neumann
Land 2024, 13(1), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010069 - 07 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1137
Abstract
Climate change, natural resource industries, and an expanding outdoor tourism sector have recently increased access to sensitive backcountry environments in Western Canada. Trail managers are struggling to manage trail conditions with the mounting effects of smoke, dust, fire, flood, area closures, and beetle [...] Read more.
Climate change, natural resource industries, and an expanding outdoor tourism sector have recently increased access to sensitive backcountry environments in Western Canada. Trail managers are struggling to manage trail conditions with the mounting effects of smoke, dust, fire, flood, area closures, and beetle outbreaks in their regions. Outdoor recreation trail managers are linking these events and are thinking critically about the history and interconnectedness of land use management decisions in the province of British Columbia (BC). As the effects of climate change continue to challenge both trail managers and sport recreationists, guides and trail associations have been identified as key education facilitators in the development and dissemination of environmental consciousness. Guided by a community-based participatory research approach, this study used personal interviews with trail managers across the province to highlight how a connection with local ecosystems can develop a more robust land ethic for recreational trail user communities in BC. Full article
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19 pages, 338 KiB  
Article
How Pacifika Arts Reveal Interconnected Losses for People and Place in a Changing Climate
by Rachel Clissold, Ellie Furlong, Karen E. McNamara, Ross Westoby and Anita Latai-Niusulu
Land 2023, 12(4), 925; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040925 - 20 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1903
Abstract
The loss and damage transpiring because of anthropogenic climate change is a confronting reality, especially for frontline communities of the Pacific Islands. Understandings and assessments of loss and damage often fall short on coverage of intangible and noneconomic dimensions, such as losses to [...] Read more.
The loss and damage transpiring because of anthropogenic climate change is a confronting reality, especially for frontline communities of the Pacific Islands. Understandings and assessments of loss and damage often fall short on coverage of intangible and noneconomic dimensions, such as losses to culture, place, Indigenous knowledge, and biodiversity, among others. In responding to this knowledge deficit, this paper turns its attention to the burgeoning Pacifika arts community because creative and cultural expressions have been critical avenues for sharing experiences, navigating loss, and exploring grief throughout history, including in the context of climate-driven loss. We analyse a series of Pacifika spoken, written, and visual items (n = 44), including visual art, poetry, song, film, documentary, and theatre, to identify the key categories and themes of noneconomic loss and damage (NELD) that emerge, better understand their nature, indicate their levels of prominence, reflect on them in relation to existing NELD frameworks and categories, and identify strategies for processing and coping. Our findings add to existing understandings of losses to territory, cultural heritage, human mobility, and health while also putting forward identity and agency as additional prominent NELD types. We emphasise that loss occurs within an interconnected and complex system that is centred on the critical relationships between people and their land, and greater attention must be paid to this interconnectivity as the foundation of identity and wellbeing. These perspectives enable stakeholders to better integrate experiences of NELD into future planning efforts so that they are not skewed (i.e., considering only economic loss and damage) or discounting people’s experiences. This will be critical for holistically building greater resilience and for communication in international fora and climate negotiations. Full article
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