M. N. Murty, A. K. Haque, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, Mani Nepal, Md Rumi, Shammin
{"title":"The Challenges of Climate Change and Community Resilience","authors":"M. N. Murty, A. K. Haque, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, Mani Nepal, Md Rumi, Shammin","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1045","url":null,"abstract":"This timely and important edited volume is dedicated to Professor Karal-Goran Maler (1939–2020), who, along with Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University, founded the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). The volume consists of 29 chapters organized into 8 thematic sections, featuring contributions from 70–odd authors affiliated with SANDEE. Their scholarly focus is on exploring how various communities belonging to rural and urban ecosystems in South Asia attempt to tackle climate change challenges by developing long-term resilience","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"17 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72610099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Assignment of Individual Property Rights Improve Forest Conservation Outcomes?","authors":"Sandip Chand, B. Behera","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.709","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.709","url":null,"abstract":"The past few decades have seen significant changes in the governance of forests in India. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights on Forest) Act (FRA), 2006, was a landmark act passed in the Indian Parliament to assign individual property rights over forest resources that have been de facto used by local communities. This paper examines whether the assignment of individual property rights results in positive outcomes for forest conservation using village-level forest patta (forest land title) and census data from Bankura district in West Bengal. Vegetation Continuous Fields data has been used to measure the change in forest cover from 2006 to 2012. The results show that the percentage of forest patta land in the village, distance to markets, the existence of pucca roads, and the presence of forest protection committees (FPCs) are negatively and significantly related to forest degradation, implying improvement in forest conservation outcomes. The presence of tribal people, a larger population, and higher literacy rate are positively associated with forest degradation, meaning that they have an undesirable impact on forest conservation outcomes...","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90126644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political Economy of Farming in India","authors":"Budhaditya Das","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77138670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring Impermanence","authors":"G. Chakraborty, Hassan Momin","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.808","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"109 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79600302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Pressing Problem","authors":"Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.1010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.1010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135306022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Mondal, Nilanjan Das, R. Banerjee, S. Batabyal, S. Gangopadhyay, Harisankar Ray, Nivedita Biswas, S. Mandal
{"title":"Investigating the Health of a Rice Field Ecosystem Using Thermodynamic Extremal Principles","authors":"A. Mondal, Nilanjan Das, R. Banerjee, S. Batabyal, S. Gangopadhyay, Harisankar Ray, Nivedita Biswas, S. Mandal","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.925","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the dynamic behaviour of a rice field ecosystem and aims to define its integral features using the stability concept of an ecological goal function. This function is based on the extremal principles of thermodynamics, which assume that certain energetic processes of ecosystems—such as the rate of exergy destruction—are directed by the self-organizing informatics of the systems towards maxima or minima. \u0000In our study, we exploit the availability of substantially long time-series data relating to a rice field ecosystem to gain an evocative understanding of its growth trajectory in light of the thermodynamic principles. We accomplished this by constructing a model based on the STELLA 9.0 software and calculating the extremal values of growth rates (storage) and those of exergy destruction and entropy creation. The results showed that the values of both maximum dissipation and maximum exergy progressed apace with that of maximum storage till the maturation of rice and became stable thereafter, whereas maximum residence time and maximum specific dissipation values initially decreased before their asymptotic rise. A similar pattern was also observed for the maximum specific exergy. However, the maximum power dissipation curve followed a highly fluctuated course before becoming stable on the maturation of rice.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"66 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91003543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Attributing Vegetation Recovery During the Indian Summer Monsoon to Climate Drivers in Central India","authors":"V. Chandel, Tejasvi Chauhan","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.927","url":null,"abstract":"Increasing droughts and heat waves as a result of global warming pose a major threat to forests and croplands in India. Monitoring the dynamics of vegetation during a drought and its recovery is essential for the Indian socio-economy and biodiversity. We investigate vegetation recovery from a stressed state in the pre-monsoon (May) period to the end of the monsoon period (September). We then attribute net change during the monsoon period to climate drivers such as temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture. To delineate non-linear interactions, we use an information-theoretic metric to understand the relative association of climate variables with vegetation productivity on a daily scale. We found that pre-monsoon vegetation stress is influenced by soil moisture (r = 0.8, p < 0.01), which is driven by variations in temperature and precipitation. During the monsoons, precipitation contributes to vegetation recovery from pre-monsoon stress through soil moisture recharge while inhibiting vegetation productivity by limiting the amount of radiation available for photosynthesis. Linear regression shows the significant negative dependence of vegetation recovery on precipitation (β = –0.7, p < 0.01) and positive dependence on soil moisture (β = 0.4, p < 0.1) indicating radiation limitation on photosynthesis...","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83707011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measurement of Vulnerability to Climate Change in Char Areas","authors":"M. Saikia, Ratul Mahanta","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.679","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.679","url":null,"abstract":"Threats caused to the environment and human life by climate change have become an urgent issue. Climate change often aggravates hazards in a given area and has harmful effects on the people residing there. Affected by massive floods, land erosion, and the destruction of agricultural lands, char people live a risky life. Char dwellers are among the communities that suffer the most as a result of the effects of climate change. Few studies discuss the vulnerabilities of communities living in char areas to climate change. This paper attempts to summarize the existing research. It also discusses data-related issues in the measurement of vulnerability to climate change. It ends by raising some policy-related considerations.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85225289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Elements and Possible Constraints for a Smooth Energy Transition in India","authors":"R. Kacker, Nidhi Srivastava","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.893","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.893","url":null,"abstract":"The Prime Minister of India laid down a target for India at COP 26—to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. Realizing this target depends upon a transition away from fossil fuels towards non-fossil-fuel alternatives. This Commentary highlights the main constraints in this attempt at transitioning to an energy mix that has a greater share of renewables. It is noted that while the share of solar and wind in installed capacity has increased significantly, there has been no corresponding decrease in the share of coal. In absolute terms, coal-based capacity has also shown significant increase. The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of India as communicated to the UNFCC was revised in August 2022 in view of the progress made and now includes a target of increasing the share of non-fossil-fuel sources to 50% of installed capacity. In addition, in the recently released Draft National Electricity Plan (DNEP), a target of...","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87165956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exergy Analysis","authors":"Tejasvi Chauhan, V. Gaur","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i1.914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.914","url":null,"abstract":"This paper argues for a continuing exploration of Nature’s organizing principles that sustain prolonged homeostasis of the earth’s ecosystems punctuated by forceful transitions to new emergent states. Ecosystems develop and maintain a dynamically stable state by transacting energy and materials with the surrounding flows to keep reversing their continual fall to the ground state. Conversely, the elevation of any component of the ecosystem above the ground level may be regarded as a measure of its functional efficiency. This measure, called exergy, can be calculated for an eco-subsystem based on knowledge of the energy and material fluxes that thread it and, most importantly, of where the ground level happens to be. Admittedly, it is not straightforward to quantify these figures, and the departure of assumptions from reality will inevitably translate into errors in the calculated exergy figures. However, the variance may be estimated by analysing the results of an ensemble...","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79345202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}