Cluster A: Rurban land use and its social-ecological drivers

Project A01 aims to investigate the potential of tree-based agriculture to promote sustainable rurbanity in urbanising regions of Morocco, serving as a social-ecological model system. By combining biophysical and sociocultural data at various scales, the project aims to provide a novel understanding of the impact of tree-based agricultural development on ecosystem service supply, distribution, and access, and its contribution to the formation of rurbanity. Furthermore, the project seeks to examine how tree-based agriculture has transformed the rurban landscape using remote sensing and field-level data. The project intends to develop a more comprehensive conceptualisation of multifunctional agricultural landscapes in rurban environments through this analysis of the social-ecological context and spatial-temporal dynamics. The project will begin by identifying and mapping the social-ecological systems of rapidly transitioning tree-based agriculture in ruban contexts. The project will then monitor changes in rurban land use and land cover from 2005 to the present, exploring the links between these spatio-temporal dynamics and social-ecological factors. Finally, the project will quantify a range of ecosystem services provided by different arrangements of tree-based agriculture to local stakeholders, covering monospecific as well as diverse agroforestry systems, and considering factors such as gender, economic status, and other intersectional aspects of ecosystem service management. 

Project leaders:
Michael Wachendorf - Grassland Science and Renewable Plant Resources, Universität Kassel
Jayan Wijesingha - Grassland Science and Renewable Plant Resources, Universität Kassel
Tobias Plieninger - Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems, Universität Kassel
Co-Applicant: Andreas Braun - Human-Environment Interactions, Universität Kassel

International partners:
Kenza Ait El Kadi & Taha Lahrech - IAV Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco

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Project A02 addresses the role of tree-based land use diversification in enhancing, or mitigating trade-offs between soil functions in rurban social-ecological systems. Rurban transformation processes are closely linked to changes in land use and soil management, influencing the level and stability of soil functions. Intensification and extensification of agriculture, as well as land use homogenization and diversification, occur side by side as a rurban assemblage, affecting, among others, primary productivity, cycling of nutrients, water, and carbon. A critical challenge is reconciling trade-offs between soil functions valued by private beneficiaries (e.g., farmers prioritizing production) and public beneficiaries (e.g., carbon sequestration and nutrient retention) under climate and socio-economic perturbations. Tree-based systems could play a pivotal role in addressing these trade-offs as has been demonstrated for temperate and semi-arid regions. However, empirical evidence on how such systems enhance or exacerbate trade-offs remains limited, especially under the diverse social-ecological conditions of rurban farms. The central hypothesis of this project is that heterogeneity inherent to rurbanity enhances soil multifunctionality at the landscape scale. By combining empirical soil data and enhanced process understanding with a risk-sensitive ecological-economic farm and landscape model, we aim to better understand the interplay between tree-based systems, performance of soil functions and farm resilience in rurban transformation processes. Our empirical work will initially be conducted in Morocco in Phase 1, while the farm and landscape model will also be applied to available data for India. We will specifically focus on the prominent effect of soil organic matter on many soil functions by spatial analyses of organic carbon-related soil quality indicators, affected by management and tree-based agriculture. For example, we will analyse the effect of organic matter on soil water retention potential, and its contribution towards a more resilient agriculture. By bringing soil functions and socio-economic farm functions together in the robust, multicriteria land use allocation model optimLanduse, we will investigate how heterogeneity of farm endowments, lifestyles and perceptions in rurban settings affect the suitability of tree-based systems to simultaneously provide various soil functions and enhance farm resilience. The resulting in-silica rurban landscapes will improve our understanding on how rurban social-ecological heterogeneity is linked to land-use composition and the provision of soil functions. Combining empirical soil research with mechanistic social-ecological modelling and a co-learning process will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of sustainable rurbanity.

Project leaders:
Carola Paul, Forest Economics and Land Use Planning, University of Göttingen
Christine Wachendorf, Soil Science/Soil Ecology, University of Kassel
Co-applicant: Tobias Weber, Soil Science, University of Kassel

International partnes:
Ngonidzashe Chirinda and, Mohamed L. Metougui, UM6P, Ben Guerir, Morocco
Fatiha Hakimi and Nasreddine Maatala, IAV Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco
Sathish Ayyappa, UASB, Bengaluru, India

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Project A03 investigates how rurbanity affects soil health, a prerequisite for the maintenance of soil ecosystem services, at two study sites, Accra (Ghana) and Bengaluru (India). It investigates fluxes and soil pollution by the emerging contaminants PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and microplastics. Our hypothesis is that rurban soils show a patchy pollution behaviour, depending on their land use history. The fluxes of the chosen pollutants associated with compost and wastewater towards agricultural areas and the current state of soil pollution will be determined by field sampling campaigns. Drone-based multispectral imaging will be used for developing a method for the spatially distributed identification of microplastics in the field. Based on field measurements of soil pollution, drone-based images, measurements of soil electrical conductivity in the field, land use maps, and structural attributes of built-up areas, risk maps of potential soil pollution will be created. Additionally, the fate of the chosen pollutants will be investigated by laboratory soil column experiments (PFAS) and, in cooperation with project A04, in field experiments with compost and wastewater application. Two numerical PFAS leaching models, with different approaches for PFAS fate simulations, will be calibrated to the experimental data and used for an assessment of PFAS fate in soil until the end of the century. Scenarios of consumers’ future behaviour and regulations will provide information on PFAS soil pollution as influenced by the people in rurban spaces. All analyses and experiments are conducted at both study sites. The results will be compared and the differences between the study sites will be analysed. In Phase 2, we will apply the developed methods to the study site in Morocco, extend our approach to other emerging pollutants, and will use the data gained and the methods developed in Phase 1 for an upscaling approach.

Project leaders:
Matthias Gassmann, Hydrology and Substance Balance, University of Kassel
Stephan Peth, Soil Science, Leibnitz Universität Hannover

International partners:
Edward Yeboah, CSIR Soil Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana
Mike Osei-Atweneboana, CSIR-Water Research Institute, Accra, Ghana
George Nyarko, UDS, Tamale, Ghana
Vincent Kodjo Avornyo, UDS, Tamale, Ghana
Priyanka Jamwal, ATREE, Bengaluru, Indien
A. Sathish, UASB, Bengaluru, India

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Project A04 will analyse the status quo and spatio-temporal changes in supply and demand functions driving material flows in rurban systems of Ghana and India, representing many intertwined characteristics of rural and urban features. It addresses how and to what degree the interdependence within and between rurban spaces depends on and affects provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. Comparative field work will be conducted in the coastal metropolis of Accra in Ghana, and in Bengaluru, a globally connected landlocked hub in South India. Using a combination of field and documentary surveys, agronomic experiments, (satellite) image analysis, and modelling, we will identify and quantify material flows, use, and cycling frameworks for selected natural resources in rurban spaces. Agricultural inputs and outputs such as soil, nutrients, water, crop yields, and fodder are biological resources relevant for the food system, and governing regulating and provisioning ecosystem services. Agronomic field experiments will support broader assessments of crop yields under different management conditions. Based on warehouse, administrative, and waste picker records, we will follow a supply chain approach and monitor food flows from harvest and subsequent processing to waste production and dumping (cooperation with A03, B02). In cooperation with A03, this approach also allows real-time monitoring of the fate of micro- and nano-plastics from rurban waste environments in the soil-water system. Mineral resources investigated are constituents of mining systems that supply building materials for (r)urban construction. Backwards satellite monitoring of mining locations and their re-use for irrigation will allow to assess mining effects on supporting, provisioning, and cultural ecosystem services. Our diachronic approach will allow us to compare key landscape features of rurban systems over the last four decades. In Phase 2 we plan to expand activities to secondary rurban spaces such as Tamale in Ghana and Dehradun in North India.

Project leaders:
Andreas Bürkert, Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, Universität Kassel;
Soubadra Devy, ATREE, Bengaluru, India, and DITSL, Witzenhausen, Germany
Brigitta Schütt, Physical Geography, Freie Universität Berlin

International partners:
Akua O. Britwum, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Martin Oteng-Ababio, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
George Nyarko, UDS, Tamale, Ghana
D.C. Hanumanthappa and Mudalagiriyappa, UASB, Bengaluru, India
Sheetal Patil, ATREE, Bengaluru, India

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