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Forests and Water: Analyzing the Links, Catching the Value and Designing the Governance

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2018) | Viewed by 10409

Special Issue Editors

Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, Viale dell’Università, 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy
Interests: forest policy and economics; marketing of forest products and services; economic assessment of natural resources; payments for ecosystem services; forest-product supply chains; responsible forest management and corporate social responsibility tools applied to forestry
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry TESAF, University of Padova | UNIPD, Padova, Italy
Interests: forest economics; forest policy; forest certification; forest ecosystem services; markets for forest products/services; corporate social responsibility; governance of natural resources
Dep. “Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali” Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
Interests: social innovation in rural areas; multilevel governance and environmental network governance; forest policy and economics; evaluation methods, tools and indicators; participatory approaches in tourism development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests play a crucial role in the hydrological cycle: they influence the amount of water available and regulate surface and groundwater flows, contribute to the reduction of water-related risks, help preventing desertification and salinization, and supply a high proportion of the world’s accessible fresh water for multiple uses and needs.

This Special Issue will comprise a selection of papers addressing the link between forest ecosystems, their management and the delivery of water-related services, with a specific focus on their economic and governance dimensions. Research papers will address (1) links between forests, their management and the delivery of water services, (2) economic methodologies for the assessment of the service value, (3) socio-economic benefits from forest-related water services, (4) innovative solutions for internalising forest-related water services, and (5) governance of forest-related water resources and services, including new institutional arrangements, management of conflicts and equity in the distribution of benefits getting from their marketing.

The Special Issue will build on a balanced mix of papers covering multiple topics like evidence of the role of forests in enhancing water services, economics of forest-related water services, assessing and mapping of socio-economic benefits from forest-related water services, innovative market-based mechanisms for marketing forest-related water services, governance of forest-related water services, trade-offs and synergies within different forest-related services, drivers and barriers for the development of successful initiatives in the field of forest-related water services.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Davide Pettenella
Dr. Mauro Masiero
Prof. Laura Secco
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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

  • environmental and forest economics;
  • payments for ecosystem services;
  • governance of forest-related water resources and services;
  • socio-economic benefits;
  • forest management;
  • forests and water quality;
  • forests and water-related risks

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Article
Coastal Forests and Groundwater: Using Case Studies to Understand the Effects of Drivers and Stressors for Resource Management
by Timothy J. Callahan, Devendra M. Amatya and Peter A. Stone
Sustainability 2017, 9(3), 447; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030447 - 18 Mar 2017
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5286
Abstract
Forests are receiving more attention for the ecosystem goods and services they provide and the potential change agents that may affect forest health and productivity. Highlighting case examples from coastal forests in South Carolina, USA, we describe groundwater processes with respect to stressors [...] Read more.
Forests are receiving more attention for the ecosystem goods and services they provide and the potential change agents that may affect forest health and productivity. Highlighting case examples from coastal forests in South Carolina, USA, we describe groundwater processes with respect to stressors and potential responses of a wetland-rich forested landscape, the roles that this area has served, and the need for water resource data to inform forest management decisions. Forested lands in the southeastern U.S. coastal plain provide a rich set of goods and services for the region, and in one case, the Francis Marion National Forest acts as a buffer to urbanization from the surrounding Charleston metropolitan area. Information from two decades of studies in the forested watersheds there may inform scientists and managers in other coastal forested systems. The common hydrological theme in this region, which has a higher average annual rainfall (1370 mm) than the annual potential evapotranspiration (PET = 1135 mm), is a shallow (<3 m) water table condition that supports a large range of natural wetlands and also creates management challenges across the region. Modest changes in the position of the water table can lead to either groundwater flooding and concomitant management challenges for forest services, or ecosystem stresses related to dry conditions in wetlands during times of below-normal precipitation or due to groundwater withdrawal. Development pressures have also stressed forest resources through the extraction of materials such as timber and sand mining, and the conversion to housing construction materials. These areas are also targeted for land development, to meet housing demands. In this paper, we discuss the role of groundwater in coastal forests and highlight opportunities for collaborative studies to better inform forest resource management. Full article
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Review
The Inclusion of Forest Hydrological Services in the Sustainable Development Strategy of South Korea
by Jean-Lionel Payeur-Poirier and Trung Thanh Nguyen
Sustainability 2017, 9(8), 1470; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081470 - 19 Aug 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4814
Abstract
In the last decade, the South Korean government has implemented an unprecedented series of plans and policy actions to promote sustainable development, including the National Strategy for Green Growth. Some of these initiatives were direct responses to the evolving challenges in the water [...] Read more.
In the last decade, the South Korean government has implemented an unprecedented series of plans and policy actions to promote sustainable development, including the National Strategy for Green Growth. Some of these initiatives were direct responses to the evolving challenges in the water sector, and put forest hydrological services into perspective. To a certain extent, water was managed within a wider environmental context through the combination of forest and water management. However, the efforts to enhance forest hydrological services did not correspond to the immense potential of forests for the achievement of sustainable water management. We present a comprehensive and current view of the major challenges and opportunities related to forest hydrological services in South Korea. We identify key forest hydrological services in view of the major biophysical, environmental, and economic challenges in the water sector. We propose guidelines for the enhancement of forest hydrological services and for a better inclusion of these services in South Korea’s sustainable development strategy. An increased contribution of forests to the provision of high-quality water in sufficient, regulated amounts, and to the preservation of a safe environment in regards to natural hazards is imperative for the long-term development of South Korea. Full article
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