Madelene Ostwald

Parkland NPP now and in the future - Distinguishing parkland net primary production in Sudano-Sahel using in situ measurements and high resolution remote sensing for scenario building.

Agroforestry parklands are the main source of food, fodder and fuel for subsistence farming communities in the Sudano-Sahel - one of the most food insecure regions in the world. This land use system integrates crop and livestock production in agricultural lands with a significant tree cover. The total annual output (as food, fodder and tree products) of these system is referred to as Net Primary Production (NPP). Recent analyses show that the demand for NPP in the region is rapidly increasing while the supply remains nearly constant. In this project we will study factors controlling NPP with the aim to enable optimization of land management and production capacity.

Our project, building on an experienced multidisciplinary group with the ambition to employ a PhD student from Burkina Faso, will provide novel agro-ecological knowledge critical to parkland management. We will i)quantify NPP supply of the three main parkland components; crops, trees and grasses, and relate it to several controlling factors, ii)develop a system for national scale NPP monitoring using free and high resolution satellite data, iii)build scenarios of future NPP supply and demand guided by our NPP assessments, population projections, climate scenarios and land stakeholder dialogues, iv)interact with land users and policy actors in workshops for evaluating feasibility of scenarios, hurdles and ways forward, and v)disseminate results through posters, YouTube-films and flyers in local languages.

The AgriFoSe2030 programme targets the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 - "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" in low-income countries. We synthesise and translate existing science into policy and practice, and develop capacity to achieve this.

Linköping university oversees the Challenge 2: Agricultural productivity and ecosystem functions.

See Youtube clip from colleague Dr Josias Sanou from INERA on parkland management in Burkina Faso:

Climate adaptation together is an applied research project on climate adaptation measures in existing urban areas led by IVL. The project designs and tests a collaboration model with local contracts in order to secure the implementation of nature-based climate adaptation measures in Malmö.

Climate adaptation together is carried out in collaboration between policy and climate adaptation researchers at IVL and Linköping University, the knowledge center Green Roof Institute, officials at the City of Malmö as well as property owners in Malmö and insurance companies.

The collaboration takes place in the form of a 'policy lab' where joint deepening of knowledge about nature-based and site-specific climate adaptation measures is exchanged with insights into the availability, responsibility and financial valuation of climate risks and measures of various stakeholders. The 'lab' is used to test different designs of local climate adaptation contracts. In addition to possible contract models, the project must contribute knowledge to decision-makers regarding issues of responsibility and measures for climate adaptation of existing buildings.