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Earth
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Terraced Landscapes as Models of Ecological Sustainability
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Terraced Landscapes as Models of Ecological Sustainability

A special issue of Earth (ISSN 2673-4834).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (11 January 2022) | Viewed by 6709

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Lucija Ažman Momirski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, Zoisova 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: terraced landscapes; land use; measures against erosion; construction of terraces; urban planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Timmi Tillmann

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, University of Coventry, Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, Coventry CV8 3LG, UK
Interests: terraced landscapes; local and indigenous ecological knowledge systems; agroecology; quantum agriculture; participatory methods and facilitation tools for group events and conferences
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Raimund Rodewald

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Director of Swiss Foundation for Landscape Conservation (SL-FP), Schwarzenburgstrasse 11, 3007 Bern, Switzerland
Interests: landscape aesthetics; assessment of landscape; landscape planning; landscape policies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of man’s oldest but also most efficient adaptations to harsh living conditions has been the terracing of steep mountain slopes in various climate areas on all continents. Creating terraced landscapes has made large sloping areas productive and has conserved soil, water, and ecosystems. Awareness of terraced landscapes is growing considerably at the global, European, and national levels. Research, academic studies (e.g., World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life (Varotto, Bonardi, Tarolli (2019)), civil initiatives (e.g., International Terraced Landscapes Alliance (ITLA)), important recognitions (e.g., terraced landscapes listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites), and various documents about terraced landscapes have intensified in recent decades. Terraced landscapes worldwide have been exemplary experimentation sites for the domestication of food crops all over the world.

Ecological sustainability has been embedded in the terraced landscape system since the beginning: Erosion was prevented, land use diversified, biodiversity enriched, and water used or diverted.

The planetary boundaries (PB) approach seeks to define an evolving understanding of Earth system functioning and resilience (Steffen et al., 2015). The special issue of the journal Land aims to extend the previous findings of the PB perspective and focus primarily on two additional premises: that terraced landscapes are models of ecological sustainability and that actors involved in terraced landscapes play a supporting and crucial role in this process, either as residents or builders of terraced areas. We want to emphasize the protagonist role of the local actors and their knowledge heritage in the definition of ecological sustainability as well as the design of the models for future action in terraced landscapes looking from the perspective of mountains vs. the perspective of the plains.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome in this special issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: All aspects of land use and land cover change in terraced landscapes; Terraced land-related issues in climate, ecology, environmental, and earth sciences; Land management, including the application of ecosystem service approaches to terraced landscapes; Livelihoods, food security, and supply chains related to terraced land issues; Soil-sediment-water systems of terraced areas; Planning, conservation, and management of terraced landscapes; Archaeology of terraced landscapes; Urban contexts and urban-rural interactions of terraced landscapes; and Interactions between terraced lands and climate.

We are pleased to invite you to submit research that address these issues and we look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Land.

Prof. Lucija Ažman Momirski
Dr. Timmi Tillmann
Prof. Raimund Rodewald
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. Earth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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

  • terraced landscapes
  • ecological sustainability
  • erosion
  • land use
  • biodiversity
  • water
  • agronomy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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18 pages, 6133 KiB  
Article
Role of Agricultural Terraces in Flood and Soil Erosion Risks Control in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
by Modeste Meliho, Abdellatif Khattabi, Asmae Nouira and Collins Ashianga Orlando
Earth 2021, 2(4), 746-763; https://doi.org/10.3390/earth2040044 - 11 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4008
Abstract
Terraced farming play several roles, from improving ecosystem services to enhancing associated population livelihoods. In this study, we were interested in evaluating the roles of mountain terraces in controlling floods and erosion risks, in particular in the Ourika watershed, located in the High [...] Read more.
Terraced farming play several roles, from improving ecosystem services to enhancing associated population livelihoods. In this study, we were interested in evaluating the roles of mountain terraces in controlling floods and erosion risks, in particular in the Ourika watershed, located in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco. Rainfall simulation tests were conducted to measure infiltration, runoff and initial abstraction, while the Cesium-137 isotope technique was used to quantify soil loss. The results highlighted high infiltration for dense forests (78.00 ± 2.65 mm/h) and low for rangelands (27.12 ± 2.82 mm/h). For terraces, infiltration was found to be about 70.36 ± 0.56 mm/h, confirming the role of terraces in promoting infiltration. The runoff coefficient obtained was lowest for dense forests, followed by cultivated terraces, and highest for rangelands (62.71 ± 3.51). Thus, outside dense forests, infiltration and runoff were significantly very high and low, respectively, for agricultural terraces compared to other land use. The assessment of soil erosion rates showed a significant soil loss for rangelands compared to the agricultural terraces, further underlining the role of terraces in soil conservation. Terraces in the Ourika watershed, by increasing water infiltration, reduce the rate of surface runoff, and consequently, flood risks and soil degradation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Terraced Landscapes as Models of Ecological Sustainability)
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12 pages, 4739 KiB  
Article
Examination of Susceptibility to the Deficiency of Soil Water in a Forested Agricultural Area
by Wiktor Halecki and Stanisław Łyszczarz
Earth 2021, 2(3), 532-543; https://doi.org/10.3390/earth2030031 - 28 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2059
Abstract
Mountainous regions present numerous obstacles to agriculture. These include the terrain, which is associated with surface erosion, as well as surface runoff, which washes away plant nutrients and weak soil. Spatial analysis is currently used in the study of various stochastic variables, especially [...] Read more.
Mountainous regions present numerous obstacles to agriculture. These include the terrain, which is associated with surface erosion, as well as surface runoff, which washes away plant nutrients and weak soil. Spatial analysis is currently used in the study of various stochastic variables, especially those of high priority for soil water properties. Small watershed and basin-scale models were used to simulate the quantity of surface run-off, groundwater and predict the environmental impact of land use and land management practices. A new generation of the distributed hydrological models has greatly broadened simulation fields to soil and water diversified situations. The study also measured declines in slope and grain size distribution, factors impacting surface erosion and surface runoff. Multivariate statistics (canonical analysis) showed that soil moisture was most correlated both with agricultural land and forests, which is why it was used to create the model of spatial distribution. The model showed that salinity has the smallest forecast error in modeling, and thus best corresponds with the soil moisture. It is important to make a correct diagnosis of soil properties, and the degree of degradation. The assessment of the physiographic parameters of a basin will contribute to the development of proper usage and determine the quality of the water in the soil, which will be essential for forest resources and agricultural land in mountain areas exposed to surface erosion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Terraced Landscapes as Models of Ecological Sustainability)
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