Environmental Change in Mountains and Uplands

by Beniston, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780340706381
• ISBN10: 0340706384
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers

Summary

Mountain environments are often perceived to be austere, isolated and inhospitable. In fact, these areas are of immense value to mankind, providing direct life support to close to 10 per cent of the world's population, and sustaining a wide variety of species--many of which are endemic to thisenvironment.Environmental Change in Mountains and Uplands provides a detailed account of the fragile and marginal physical and socio-economic systems which make up the world's mountain regions. Discussing the direct and indirect impacts of human interference on environmental ecosystems, it then turns to thesocial and economic consequences of such environmental change--both upon the mountain environment itself and upon the populations who depend on mountain resources for their economic sustenance.The book includes a review of possible policy implications for adaptation and mitigation strategies in a global context. Working within a broad temporal scale, it draws upon paleoenvironmental records to document past changes which have occurred in the absence of major anthropogenic influences, aswell as utilising modelling as a means to assessing future environmental change.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix
List of tables	xi
List of boxes	xii
Acknowledgements	xiii
Mountains and uplands: an introduction	1	(16)
Chapter Summary	1	(1)
Mountain regions of the world	1	(1)
Importance of mountain regions to humankind	2	(2)
Current environmental and socio-economic information and statistics	4	(1)
Environmental stresses: the emergence of the human factor	5	(7)
Global enviornmental change: fundamental issues	12	(5)
Characterization of mountain environments	17	(43)
Chapter Summary	17	(1)
Climate	17	(8)
Hydrological systems	25	(1)
Mountain cryosphere	26	(3)
Soils	29	(2)
Ecological systems and biodiversity	31	(4)
Human environments	35	(3)
Data for research on Mountain environments	38	(3)
Past environmental change in mountains and Uplands
Chapter summary	41	(1)
Introduction	41	(1)
Proxy data: reconstructing the past	41	(4)
Enviornmental change in the distant past	45	(1)
Mountain environments during the last major glaciation	46	(1)
Mountain environments during the Holocene	47	(7)
Climatic change in the Twentieth century	54	(6)
Modelling approaches to assess enviornmental change	60	(20)
Chapter Summary	60	(1)
The significance of modelling	60	(1)
Spatial and temporal scales	61	(2)
Global and regional climate models	63	(5)
Semi-empirical methods and statistical downscaling techniques	68	(1)
Ecosystem models	69	(3)
Integrated Assessment models	72	(3)
Limits and range of application of models	75	(5)
Possible future changes in mountain environments	80	(21)
Chapter summary	80	(1)
Natural forcings	80	(3)
Causal mechanisms of anthropogenic pressures on the environment	83	(4)
Environmental pollution	87	(3)
Land-use changes	90	(4)
Climatic change	94	(7)
Impact of enviornmental change on natural systems	101	(17)
Chapter summary	101	(1)
Challenges for impact assessments	101	(1)
Impact on hydrology	102	(4)
Impacts on the mountain cryosphere	106	(2)
Extreme events and their impacts on geomorphological features	108	(2)
Impacts on ecological systems	110	(8)
Socio-economic impacts of enviornmental change in mountain regions	118	(31)
Chapter summary	118	(1)
Introduction	118	(2)
Mountain agriculture	120	(5)
Human health	125	(5)
Tourism	130	(5)
Hydro-power and other commercial activities	135	(2)
Conclusions: adaptation strategies and policy
Chapter summary	137	(1)
Introduction	137	(4)
Adaptation strategies	141	(1)
Policy response	142	(6)
End note	148	(1)
References	149	(16)
Index	165