Green Water Credits – exploring its potential to enhance ecosystem services by reducing soil erosion in the Upper Tana basin, Kenya

Kauffman, S.; Droogers, P.; Hunink, Johannes E.; Mwaniki, Boniface; Muchena, F.N.; Gicheru, Patrick; Bindraban, P.S.; Onduru, D.D.; Cleveringa, Rudolph; Bouma, J.

doi:10.1080/21513732.2014.890670

Cited by 38 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This is not yet another study where erosion is studied with models as an isolated problem. Still, the erosion and economic studies by Hunink et al (2012) and Kauffman et al (2014) were crucial to be able to present a realistic storyline. The Kauffman et al (2014) paper tried to combine the technical information with the overall storyline and this turned out to be problematic for several reviewers of international technical journals but not for the journal where the paper was published.…”

Section: Case Study 1: Cradle-to-cradle Dairy Farming In the Northernmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Obviously, convincing these companies to pay farmers is very difficult because the idea is quite new to them and they require quantitative studies supporting claims being made. Based on an available soil map, that was transformed in a map of Hydraulic Response Units, the hydrology of the basin was simulated with the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model, focusing on 11 well established soil conservation scenario's (WOCAT 2007) (Hunink et al 2012(Hunink et al , 2013Kauffman et al 2014). Figure 3 shows the georeferenced simulated results of the effects of the ridging scenario in terms of the expected decline of erosion rates (and a corresponding increase of Green Water) as compared with a baseline scenario describing actual conditions.…”

Section: Case Study 1: Cradle-to-cradle Dairy Farming In the Northernmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reaching out from the soil-box in pursuit of soil security

Bouma¹

2015

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

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Soil security can only be achieved when the global soil resource is maintained and improved, requiring a reversal of current degradation processes. This demands a major effort by soil scientists in at least four directions by: (i) demonstrating the importance of soils in inter-and transdisciplinary programs focusing on food, water, climate, biodiversity and energy problems, which are environmental issues that are widely acknowledged to be important; (ii) focusing research on the seven soil functions to demonstrate the importance of soil for widely recognized Ecosystem Services (ES) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); (iii) reframing reporting of soil studies by not only including technical data but embedding this in human-interest storylines, building on the deep emotional links between soil and man, and (iv) educating and involving knowledge brokers that can link science with societal partners not only during a given project but also in the preparatory and implementation phase. Scientists can only effectively participate in Communities of Practice when they have first properly organized their own affairs in Communities of Scientific Practice. Two case studies illustrated the proposed procedures, combining results of state-of-the-art quantitative models with a description of aspirations, concerns and frustrations of the various stakeholders involved, including farmers, regulators, citizens and entrepreneurs. The connectivity dimension of soil security was quite important here. Soil scientists would be well advised to return to their roots when field work was effectively coupled with laboratory studies. Basic research is and will remain crucial for the profession but should be better linked with tacit knowledge in an effective knowledge chain, working in both directions. Overall, reframing of the soil message is not only needed but also very well possible, requiring out-of-the-box thinking.

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Section: Case Study 1: Cradle-to-cradle Dairy Farming In the Northernmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Study 1: Cradle-to-cradle Dairy Farming In the Northernmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaching out from the soil-box in pursuit of soil security

Bouma¹

2015

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

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“…Included in these hydrological ecosystem services, erosion and the problems of sedimentation in rivers were studied to consider the hydrological ecosystem service of preventing soil erosion [27,30,42,44,49]. The problems of nutrient pollution in rivers due to diffuse agricultural sources were also studied in order to determine the capacity of the landscape to mitigate the transmission of diffuse source pollution toward the water bodies, including for nitrates [30,44,50,51] and for phosphates [30,44,50].…”

Section: In the Terrestrial Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They could be used to predict the dynamics of the input to river (e.g., Johnston, et al [44]) in order to provide a finer quantification of the pollution loadings to rivers compared to the studies mentioned before that focus on the dynamics within the waterbodies only. They could also be used to quantify the capacity of the landscape to mitigate the pollution before reaching the river (e.g., Kauffman, et al [49]). …”

Section: In the Terrestrial Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges in Using Hydrology and Water Quality Models for Assessing Freshwater Ecosystem Services: A Review

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Freshwater ecosystems contribute to many ecosystem services, many of which are being threatened by human activities such as land use change, river morphological changes, and climate change. Many disciplines have studied the processes underlying freshwater ecosystem functions, ranging from hydrology to ecology, including water quality, and a panoply of models are available to simulate their behaviour. This understanding is useful for the prediction of ecosystem services, but the model outputs must go beyond the production of time-series of biophysical variables, and must facilitate the beneficial use of the information it contains about the ecosystem services it describes. This article analyses the literature of ad hoc approaches that aim at quantifying one or more freshwater ecosystem services. It identifies the strategies adopted to use disciplinary-specific models for the prediction of the services. This review identifies that hydrological, water quality, and ecological models form a valuable knowledge base to predict changes in ecosystem conditions, but challenges remain to make proper and fruitful use of these models. In particular, considerations of temporal and spatial scales could be given more attention in order to provide better justifications for the choice of a particular model over another, including the uncertainty in their predictions.

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“…Rather than focus on average values for a group of farmers, it would, in retrospect, have been preferable to focus on individual farms because every farm "has a different story to tell". Droogers and Bouma (2014) studied accelerating future water shortages in Asia and Africa, requiring development of operational water governance models, as illustrated by three case studies: (1) upstream-downstream interactions in the Aral Sea basin, where the signaling function of science was most prominent; (2) impact and adaptation of climate change on water and food supply in the Middle East and North Africa, where not only signaling but also a broad design and a slow start in the implementation were important; and (3) Green Water Credits in Kenya, where the entire policy cycle was covered, including the start of implementation (Kauffman et al, 2014).…”

Section: Science Versus Policy In the Real Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facing policy challenges with inter- and transdisciplinary soil research focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Bouma

Montanarella

2016

SOIL

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Abstract. Our current information society, populated by increasingly well-informed and critical stakeholders, presents a challenge to both the policy and science arenas. The introduction of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offers a unique and welcome opportunity to direct joint activities towards these goals. Soil science, even though it is not mentioned as such, plays an important role in realizing a number of SDGs focusing on food, water, climate, health, biodiversity, and sustainable land use. A plea is made for a systems approach to land use studies, to be initiated by soil scientists, in which these land-related SDGs are considered in an integrated manner. To connect with policy makers and stakeholders, two approaches are functional. The first of these is the policy cycle when planning and executing research, which includes signaling, design, decision making, implementation, and evaluation. Many current research projects spend little time on signaling, which may lead to disengagement of stakeholders. Also, implementation is often seen as the responsibility of others, while it is crucial to demonstrate -if successful -the relevance of soil science. The second approach is the DPSIR approach when following the policy cycle in land-related research, distinguishing external drivers, pressures, impact, and responses to land use change that affect the state of the land in the past, present, and future. Soil science cannot by itself realize SDGs, and interdisciplinary studies on ecosystem services (ESs) provide an appropriate channel to define contributions of soil science in terms of the seven soil functions. ESs, in turn, can contribute to addressing the six SDGs (2, 3, 6, 12, 13, and 15) with an environmental, land-related character. SDGs have a societal focus and future soil science research can only be successful if stakeholders are part of the research effort in transdisciplinary projects, based on the principle of time-consuming "joint learning". The internal organization of the soil science discipline is not yet well tuned to the needs of inter-and transdisciplinary approaches.

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Green Water Credits – exploring its potential to enhance ecosystem services by reducing soil erosion in the Upper Tana basin, Kenya

Cited by 38 publications

References 19 publications

Reaching out from the soil-box in pursuit of soil security

Reaching out from the soil-box in pursuit of soil security

Challenges in Using Hydrology and Water Quality Models for Assessing Freshwater Ecosystem Services: A Review

Facing policy challenges with inter- and transdisciplinary soil research focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals

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