Christine Fürst

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg | MLU · Vice-Rectorate for Research

In Europe, various conservation programs adopted to maintain or restore biodiversity have experienced differing levels of success. However, a synthesis about major factors for success of biodiversity-related conservation programs across ecosystems and national boundaries, such as incentives, subsidies, enforcement, participation, or spatial context...

Climate change, population growth, rapid urbanization, shifting dietary patterns, and economic development pose significant challenges to food security, particularly in the Global South. Addressing these challenges involves efforts aimed at sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI), especially for smallholder farmers in marginalized regions. H...

Ecuadorian ecosystems experience high pressure due to anthropogenic activities and climate change. Despite the need of regular monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES), attempts to assess the current and future interdependencies of BES and landscape changes are still lacking. This study suggests a spatial assessment of the capacity o...

Humans are significantly impacting ecosystems worldwide. Scientists of the IPBES Global Assessment are therefore calling for a transformative change that includes all aspects of society in order to address drivers of biodiversity loss. However, these calls are rather abstract, and thus it remains unclear how this goal can be achieved. With this con...

While urban growth management has shown varying degrees of success in curbing urban land expansion, their effects over time and across urban land uses remain largely unexplored. We used nationwide longitudinal data and difference-in-difference models to assess the effect of construction land quotas on changes in residential, industrial, commercial,...

Agricultural-land use policies play a crucial role in shaping agroecological landscapes globally. The evidence suggests that some of these policies tend to have undesired feedback/trade-offs, particularly about coastal resource use and conservation planning. The present study explores how agricultural policies influence land use/ land cover (LULC)...

Urbanization is a key driver of coastal habitats degradation in West Africa. Habitat restoration is strongly advocated to mitigate urbanization impacts in West African coastal areas. However, knowledge on the application of scenarios to envision land use patterns and ecosystem services (ES) supply in this region is still lacking in scientific liter...

Agricultural productivity is expected to decrease under changing climate conditions that correspond to the stability of West African food systems. Although numerous studies have evaluated impacts of climate variability on crop yields, many uncertainties are still associated with climate extremes as well as the rapid population growth and correspond...

Settlement expansion and commercial agriculture affect landscape sustainability and ecosystem service provision. Integrated landscape approaches are promoted to negotiate trade-offs between competing land uses and their reconciliation. Incorporating local perceptions of landscape dynamics as basis for such negotiations is particularly relevant for...

The landscape in southwestern Ghana faces rampant modification due to socio-economic activities, posing threats to ecosystem service provision and environmental sustainability. Addressing these threats involves empowering land-use actors to design landscapes that offer multiple benefits concurrently. This study employs a geodesign framework, integr...

Climate change affects both the natural (ecological) and manmade (social) systems across the continents. In the Central Himalaya, renowned for its diverse altitudes, climates, landforms, biodiversity, ethnicities, cultures, and farming systems, complex interactions occur between social and ecological subsystems. The research employs the socio-ecolo...

Increasing land use and land cover change and climate change have considerable impacts on urban green spaces and their ecosystem services. These impacts result in a loss of urban green space and particularly weaken the climate resilience of urban populations. Landsat imagery data from 1990 to 2020 were used to track the spatio-temporal dynamics of...

Agricultural productivity is expected to decrease under changing climate conditions that correspond to the stability of West African food systems. Although numerous studies evaluated food production gaps or impacts of climate variability on crop yields, many uncertainties are associated with climate extremes, but also rapid population growth and th...

This research finding is aimed at modelling and characterize the spatiotemporal trajectories of landscape change between the 1984 and 2060 periods. The satellite image spectral information was segmented into seven LULC classes using a hybrid approach of image spectral recognition. The supervised classification technique of Support Vector Machine (S...

Land degradation is a pivotal environmental concern, bearing substantial impacts in the Gidabo river basin (GRB) in Ethiopia, prompting a critical need for effective mitigation strategies. In this study, we aimed to assess the dynamics of land degradation pathways in the context of change in climate and land use. The identification of potential ero...

Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) change has inhibited sustainable development for the last millennia by affecting climate, biological cycles, and ecosystem services and functions. In this regard, understanding the historical and future patterns of LULC change plays a crucial role in implementing effective natural resource management. This study aimed to...

Food security is adversely affected by challenges posed by changes in land use and land cover (LULC). LULC change impacts ecosystem functions and services, leading to migration of people, particularly rural dwellers. This paper uses multispectral satellite remote sensing, net migration data, household survey, stakeholders’ meetings, Focus Group Dis...

Land-use changes such as settlement and commercial agricultural land expansion heavily influence the sustainability of landscapes and ecosystem service (ES) provisioning. Land managers and decision-makers are becoming increasingly concerned about the consequences of land-use change and advocate for integrated approaches to landscape sustainability....

Recent global and regional assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) show that Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) are under an alarming threat due to the continuing loss of biodiversity. These assessments call for increasing conservation efforts and a more sustainable use of biod...

Rapid expansion of built-up land is widespread and often does not follow established zoning regulations. This non-conforming expansion of built-up land may exacerbate social and environmental problems and has emerged as an important sustainability concern. In this study, we first evaluated the non-conforming expansion of built-up land to zoning in...

As one of the most fertile ecosystems on earth, mangrove forests provide many goods and services for humanity. Mangroves are located in the south of Iran on the coasts of Sistan and Baluchistan, Hormozgan and Bushehr provinces, which include two species of Harra (Avicennia marina) and Chandal (Rhizophora mucronata) The purpose of this study was to...

The Western Himalaya are experiencing and epitomizing growing urbanization trends due to rapid population and tourism rise across the Indian Himalayan region. The pace and process of urban development in these regions are largely unplanned and unregulated; consequently, the altered landscape composition and configuration are influencing key ecologi...

To make a significant contribution to halt global biodiversity losses, a worldwide breaking down of the IPBES findings at national scales is indispensable. So far, in some world regions and countries, this process is at the very beginning. Iran is a country with many different ecosystem types and high biodiversity. Still, the concept of ecosystem s...

Das Konzept der Ökosystemleistungen bietet eine Möglichkeit, um Natur und Landschaft zu schützen und nachhaltig zu nutzen. In Planungsprozessen kann es genutzt werden, um die Leistungen des Naturhaushaltes zu bewerten, mit anderen Interessen abzuwägen und transparentere Grundlagen für Entscheidungen bereitzustellen. Wenn Ökosystemleistungen als zen...

Over the past few decades, climate change and urban expansion have strongly affected vegetation dynamics and overall carbon sink capacity of Himalayan ecosystem. However, the contribution of these two key factors on varying spatio-temporal scales in Himalayan landscapes still lacks in profound analyses. The present study takes Dharamsala and Pithor...

Women are disadvantaged across all stages of academic publishing. In science, contribution to editorial boards of journals is evidence of a high reputation within a specialty or field. Therefore, the low presence of women on editorial boards can be considered a disadvantage indicator for women in academia. This study aims to highlight the gap in wo...

Land use/land cover change (LULCC) is an important driver of ecosystem changes in coastal areas. Despite being pervasive in coastal Ghana, LULCC has not been investigated to understand its effects on the potential for coastal landscapes to supply ecosystem services (ES). In this study, the impacts of LULCC on the potential supply of ES by coastal l...

Migration in West Africa has been taking place for centuries for different reasons. Many dimensions of migration remain insufficiently documented and poorly understood. In particular, factors of migration in destination areas and areas of origin are still lacking comprehensive analysis. In this paper, we bring a new perspective to the model of push...

Measuring the simulation skill of regional climate models (RCMs) is vital in selecting the best performing model that can be used for climate change studies. To that end, the performance of eleven Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) Africa RCMs were evaluated against observed datasets from 1991 to 2005 over Gidabo river bas...

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) is a major “river source” and “ecological source” in China, as well as South Asia and Southeast Asia, and is a typical plateau region. Studying the evolution characteristics and ecological effects of the production-living-ecological space (PLES) of the QTP is of great practical significance and theoretical value for...

Regulation services are the benefits for human well-being obtained from the performance of ecosystems, for instance in terms of carbon sequestration, nitrogen fixation or weed control. The aim of the presented study was to evaluate regulating ecosystem services and their dependency on the genetic diversity of the faba bean as a key staple food in N...

Land use/land cover change (LULCC) studies are gaining prominence among environmentalist and land use planners. This is due to the effects of LULCCs on natural ecosystems and livelihoods. In the coastal landscape of south-western Ghana, there exist knowledge gaps in the variations in size and intensities in LULCCs and the degree of change among lan...

Complex migration processes are pervasive on the African continent and are intrinsically linked to ongoing demographic, social, economic, and ecological changes. To better understand the complexity of these processes, there is a need for more and better data and knowledge on the flows, the drivers, and the effects of migration. Earth Observation is...

Complex migration processes are pervasive on the African continent and are intrinsically linked to ongoing demographic, social, economic, and ecological changes. To better understand the complexity of these processes, there is a need for more and better data and knowledge on the flows, the drivers, and the effects of migration. Earth Observation is...

The western Himalaya is one of the most climate-sensitive and ecologically vulnerable ecosystems of the world. In the recent past, the region has undergone rapid alterations owing to climate change and paced urbanization. These alterations have significantly impacted Terrestrial Net Primary Productivity (TNPP) of the region. The present study takes...

ContextArtificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly developed over the past several decades. Several related AI approaches, such as Machine Learning (ML), have been applied to research on landscape patterns and ecological processes.Objectives Our goal was to review the methods of AI, particularly ML, used in studies related to landscape ecology and the...

Solid waste management is one of the most important environmental issues worldwide, particularly in MENA countries. The present study was carried out in the city of Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. This urban area is marked by an increase in waste flow combined with a demographic surge. In order to investigate waste production and its drivers,...

The increasing impacts of built-up land expansion on sustainable development have heightened the use of spatial planning as a policy tool to contain built-up land expansion. However, causal evidence for the effect of spatial planning on built-up land expansion has largely remained unexplored. In this study, we used a difference-indifference model w...

Industrial growth and development are among the integral components of economic development in developing countries such as Iran. Markazi province in the central part of Iran is one of the most prone areas for industrial progress due to its geopolitical location, proximity to the capital and major cities, and access via Iran’s western corridor. Ove...

The overall objective of this study was to investigate urban infill development policies as a good solution to counteract urban sprawl and protect the peri-urban area of Ardabil in Northwestern Iran. In this context, we used a mixed methodology (two quantitative methods). Landsat imagery, including a patchy Landsat ETM+ for the year 2000 and a Land...

The economic development, livelihood and drinking water of millions of people in the central plateau of Iran depend on the Qarah-Chay River, but due to a lack of inappropriate monitoring, it has been exposed to destruction and pollution. Consequently, an assessment of the river’s water quality is of utmost importance for both the management of huma...

Before the UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Historical Companion enables professionals, scholars, and students engaged with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to develop a richer understanding of the legacies and historical complexities of the policy fields behind each goal. Each of the 17 chapters tells the decades or centuries-old backst...

Natural ecosystems are declining and fragmenting globally at unprecedented rates. Fragmentation of natural ecosystems leads to decline in functions and services with severe impact on people. In Ecuador, despite establishment of the nationwide ecosystem classification, this baseline information has not been fully exploited to generate a monitoring s...

Forest conservation is of particular concern in tropical regions where a large refuge of biodiversity is still existing. These areas are threatened by deforestation, forest degradation and fragmentation. Especially, pressures of anthropogenic activities adjacent to these areas significantly influence conservation effectiveness. Ecuador was chosen a...

This paper synthesizes the contemporary challenges for the sustainability of the social-environmental system (SES) across a geographically, environmentally, and geopolitically diverse region – the Asian Drylands Belt (ADB). This region includes 18 political entities, covering 10.3% of global land area and 30% of total global drylands. At the presen...

Ecuador belongs to the megadiverse countries of the world. However, the high diversity in species, ecosystems and their services are under threat by land use changes, invasive species, overexploitation, pollution and climate change. There is a need to monitor, manage, protect and improve biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) in Ecuador; however...

Das Konzept der Ökosystemleistungen hat großes Potenzial, Natur- und Artenschutz in der breiten gesellschaftlichen Debatte stärker zu verankern. Es verdeutlicht als Bewertungsrahmen den Nutzen von Naturleistungen im weitesten Sinne und wird bezüglich seiner Reichweite und seiner notwendigen Operationalisierung für die räumliche Planung intensiv dis...

Modeling land use land cover (LULC) change is crucial to understand its spatiotemporal trends to protect the land resources sustainably. The appraisal of this study was to model LULC change from 1985–2050 owing to the business-as-usual scenario (BAU) in Gidabo River Basin (GRB) located in the Main Ethiopian Rift Valley. Different dependent and inde...

Poverty alleviation is a global challenge that concerns particularly developing countries, and its reduction has been identified as the first Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Poverty is a multidimensional and place-oriented phenomenon that cannot be determined with monetary and strict indicators. It also is interrelated with many factors, inc...

The present study intends to understand and disclose the role of information infrastructure in climate change adaptation and its underlying barriers in the communities of socio-ecological system (SES) in the Central Himalaya. The study makes use of primary data in its research methodology which comprises the use of questionnaires, oral interviews,...

Dear colleagues, The open access journal CLIMATE (ISSN 2225-1154) is pleased to announce that we have launched a new Special Issue entitled "Climate Change - Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Urban Contexts." For more information on the issue, please visit the Special Issue website at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/climate/special_i...

One of the most important parameters for economic growth is industrial development in many developing regions like Iran. The Markazi province in the center of Iran is one of the most important industrial areas in the country, where unplanned economic development in recent decades has led to many social and environmental problems. Accordingly, the m...

Lake Urmia, one of the world’s largest salt lakes, is rapidly losing water and drying up. This environmental hazard has raised concerns about the consequences and impact on the surrounding communities. In this paper, we use a futuristic view (horizon of 10 years based on medium-term planning) to identify the main environmental drivers in the surrou...

Das Konzept der Ökosystemleistungen kann helfen, Umsetzungsdefizite der räumlichen Planung zu bewältigen und den Schutz und die nachhaltige Nutzung von Natur und Landschaft zu fördern. Die vielfältigen Erkenntnisse zur Anwendung in Deutschland wurden bisher jedoch noch nicht systematisch zusammengebracht und ausgewertet. Der vorliegende Beitrag ste...

Spatial planning has been globally developed as a policy tool to govern built-up land expansion. However, causal evidence of the effect of spatial planning on built-up land expansion is limited, which raises doubts on the credibility of spatial planning and hinders theoretical developments in land-system science. We evaluated the effect of the Majo...

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) in Southwestern Ghana evoke a strong sense of attachment of local land users to the landscape. Hence, their supply is necessary for a balanced socio-ecological system. This study explored the potential supply of cultural ecosystem services (science/education, spiritual, tourism, health and recreation benefits) unde...

This paper examines the effects of decreasing the water level of Lake Urmia on migration and geographical distribution of the population in the eastern coastal settlements in Northwestern Iran. Initially, we considered the migration statistics from 2006 and 2016, compiled by the National Statistics Office. Then, by using kernel density estimation i...

The theory-practice gap (TPG) is well known in the environmental realm, referring to disconnects between knowledge generated through scientific research and the needs, expectations, and practices of knowledge users for environmental decision-making and practice. While the presence of the TPG is well established, we have yet to fully implement mecha...

West African land use systems have been experiencing one of the fastest transformations in the world over recent decades. The Sudanian savanna is an interesting example, as it hosts the cultivation of some crops typical of the Guinean savanna as well as some of the Sahel. Therefore, this region is likely to experience further changes in its crop po...