Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.9
3.2
Journals
Land
Special Issues
Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing and Cultural Ecosystem...
share announcement

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: closed (15 December 2024) | Viewed by 7956

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jan Petzold

E-Mail Website
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
Dr. Aleksandra Kosanic

E-Mail Website
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

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 626 KiB  
Article
Tool Used to Assess Co-Benefits of Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Ecosystems for Human Wellbeing: Second Validation via Measurement Application
by Karmele Herranz-Pascual, Paula Anchustegui, Carolina Cantergiani and Ioseba Iraurgi
Land 2025, 14(1), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14010203 - 20 Jan 2025
Viewed by 852
Abstract
In recent years, nature-based solutions have been used in urban regeneration interventions to improve the adaptation and resilience of these places, contributing to improved environmental quality and cultural ecosystem functions, including people’s physiological, social, and mental health and wellbeing. However, when it comes [...] Read more.
In recent years, nature-based solutions have been used in urban regeneration interventions to improve the adaptation and resilience of these places, contributing to improved environmental quality and cultural ecosystem functions, including people’s physiological, social, and mental health and wellbeing. However, when it comes to the assessment of psychological wellbeing and social benefits (psychosocial co-benefits), the existing evidence is still limited. To contribute to the advancement of knowledge on nature’s contribution to people in relation to this type of benefit, it is necessary for us to develop and test assessment tools to contribute to the development of a robust nature-based solutions monitoring framework. In this paper, the second phase of the validation of a psychosocial co-benefit assessment tool for nature-based urban interventions is presented. This tool is structured around two dimensions: the perceived health and wellbeing and social co-benefits. The first validation was carried out with experts using the Delphi method. The second validation presented in this paper was based on a sample of users, evaluating a set of eight urban spaces at different levels of naturalisation and openness. The results indicate that the tool is sensitive to the differences in naturalisation and openness in the public urban places analysed. The most relevant contextual variables to explain the psychosocial co-benefits are openness, the surfaces covered by tree branches, the water surface area, and naturalisation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing and Cultural Ecosystem Services)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

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 - 7 Jan 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2766
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
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing and Cultural Ecosystem Services)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure A1

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
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3015
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
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing and Cultural Ecosystem Services)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop