2023/11/07 [演講] Environmental Seminar 2023 Autumn Series

Time: 11/6  13:20-14:20
Speaker: Dr. Chyi-Rong Chiou (邱祈榮) (School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University)
Title: Biodiversity conservation challenges and opportunities
Venue: Global Change Research Centre 2F room G202
Abstract: With biodiversity as the core, the ecosystem formed is the basis for the survival of human society. Fulfilling the material needs of human life and improving the quality of life through different ecosystem services is also a matter of health and safety. However, when providing services to human society, human beings fail to treat nature well due to their needs, resulting in serious damage to biodiversity and long-term risks to human survival.
In view of this, the Convention on Biological Diversity has been established internationally since 1992, hoping to reverse the decline of biodiversity, and hope that from 2023 onwards, it can begin to reverse the decline and begin the positive restoration of nature, and achieve the vision of harmonious coexistence with nature by 2050.  The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Canada at the end of 2022, adopted the Global Biodiversity Framework to set out the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity and 203023Global goals, actively carry out a new page of biodiversity conservation. Among them, the 30X30 target is proposed: it is hoped that the protected area of land and sea areas will reach 30% by 2030, and it is also hoped that enterprises can target natural dependence and impact issues related to risks and opportunities and take measures to address them.
 
Time: 11/13 12:30-13:30
Speaker: Dr. Yoshi Wada (Plant Science, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
Venue: Global Change Research Centre 2F room G202
Title: Recent Advances in Coupled Human-Natural Systems Modeling
Abstract: In recent decades, there has been a dramatic rise in the development and application of new
concepts, models, remote sensing and in-situ observations, and technology in representing coupled human-natural systems. The concept of socio-hydrology has brought a new interface of people and water in hydrology. Satellite observations have been producing unprecedented amounts of information across the globe, while isotopic information has been revealing hidden patterns in important hydrologic processes such as transpiration and groundwater age affected by human water management worldwide. Rapid advances of process based large-scale models have provided worldwide assessments of coupled human-natural systems in hydrologic processes such as irrigation, human water management, groundwater depletion, and water quality. Historically, models to represent coupled human-natural systems include process based hydrological models, system dynamics models, and agent-based models (ABMs), integrated assessment models (IAMs) and Earth system/climate models. Among these models, various processes of human and natural components have been represented with varying degrees of complexity, e.g. irrigation, water use, reservoir management, groundwater, associated feedback among one another. Some relevant components are greatly simplified or treated as external drivers, e.g. ecosystem, economy, population dynamics, human behavior. In addition, the dynamic feedback among human and natural system processes is relatively limited or typically modeled as one-way in existing models. In the last decade, in AGU journal, Water Resources Research, there has been a gradual shift in the number of publication toward socio-economic oriented hydrologic research from physical hydrology. There are also more than 100 papers published in Water Resources Research with the keyword of ‘machine learning’ in the last five years. Recognizing that advancements in coupled human-natural systems modeling continue to be driven by developments in scientific interests, technology and digital innovation, and societal needs, it is worthwhile to reflect some of emerging and future frontiers in in coupled human-natural systems modeling. One important question is whether these advances are providing enough future perspective and tangible means towards societal demands. Various international mechanisms such as UN SDGs, IPCC, IPBES, UNCCD define water as a key cross cutting issue to achieve the overall targets, however, some of the water resources indicator used come from a few decades ago and groundwater resources and the feedback among water-ecosystem-economy have been rarely addressed explicitly in those international mechanisms. It is therefore an important question how we are advancing coupled human-natural systems modeling and what the future directions are. In this presentation I would like to reflect recent advances in coupled human-natural systems and raise some important questions for our hydrologic community.
 
Time: 11/27 12:10-13:10
Speaker: Wee Cheah (Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences Universiti Malaya)
Venue: Global Change Research Centre 2F room G202
Title: Mangrove and blue carbon research in Malaysia
Abstract: Malaysia is home to one of the highest coverage of mangroves in the world. Unfortunately, Malaysia is also one of the top countries losing its mangroves due to various human activities such as coastal development, conversion to oil palm plantation and aquaculture ponds. The importance of mangrove mostly in terms of coastal protection, nursery ground to fishes has always been highlighted to decision makers in Malaysia. However, this does not stop the destruction of mangrove forests in Malaysia not until 2016 when Malaysia rectified the Paris Agreement in Nov 2016 aiming to reach net zero emission of green-house gases (GHGs) by 2050. Since then, restoration and conservation of mangrove forests has regained its popularity among the relevant stakeholders such as policy makers, scientists as well as the industry players mostly for the value of its blue carbon; the carbon stored in the hypoxic soils of the mangrove forests. This talk will focus on the state of mangrove and blue carbon research in Malaysia and its challenges.