Physical Geography and Environmental Change (Kuhn)Head of Research Unit Prof. Dr.Nikolaus J. KuhnOverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & CollaborationsProjects & Collaborations OverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & Collaborations Projects & Collaborations 40 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 Prospecting Technologies Challenge - Technology Maturation - ARISE Research Project | 1 Project MembersImported from Grants Tool 4696287 Contribution to the Swiss science exploitation of the CLose-UP Imager on the ExoMars 2022 rover mission Research Project | 2 Project MembersThe close-up imager CLUPI is one of the instruments that will be onboard ESA's "Rosalind Franklin" rover, searching for signs of life in the framework of the joint ESA-Roscosmos "ExoMars 2022" mission. CLUPI will acquire high-resolution images essential to investigate the geology of Mars, selecting samples with a high potential to contain biomarkers. This project includes CLUPI- science validation/training activities aimed at optimizing the scientific return of the instrument during the primary mission on Mars (e.g., determining the ideal lighting conditions and positions relative to rock surfaces, developing drive paths and imaging options enabling the identification of rock types and mineralogy,...). These simulations will be mostly carried out in the "Marslabor" of the Uni Basel, a state-of-the-art Marsyard. The project will also include the development of new image analysis approaches (e.g. using software for determining size and shape of rock forming particles or rock structures such as thickness and patterns of laminae). Starting from the third year of the project, the PhD candidate will have the opportunity to participate in the primary mission and contribute to the interpretation of the images that will be acquired on Mars. Interactions with the Space Exploration Institute of Neuchâtel (headed by Dr. Jean-Luc Josset, PI of the CLUPI instrument), the Naturhistorisches Museum Bern (affiliation of the CLUPI Co-PI Prof. Beda Hofmann), plus collaborations with the international CLUPI science team are foreseen in this highly multidisciplinary project. Trinationale Kooperationsplattform für Nachhaltigkeitsinitiativen, Einrichtungen Sozialer Arbeit und nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Unternehmen Research Project | 4 Project MembersTRICOP aims to build a cooperation platform that connects sustainability initiatives, businesses and social work institutions, opening up spaces for trinational cooperation and innovation. There are numerous possibilities for networking, such as linking urban gardening with day centres for people with mental illnesses or marginalized groups such as refugees. TRICOP is conceived as a trinational study and cooperation project of the University of Basel and the EH Freiburg and is funded by the Intercantonal Coordination Office at the Regio Basiliensis (IKRB) as representative of the Swiss Confederation within the framework of the New Regional Policy and the Canton of Basel-Landschaft. This project is realized through various student project at the EH Freiburg and the University of Basel. Specifically, through different seminars and workshops students learn different skills to research and identify various cooperation potentials, using literature/internet research, interviews or focus groups. Accompanying this, concrete cooperations are initiated by contacting actors, setting impulses for trinational cooperations and, as far as possible, consolidating them within a cooperation platform. The aim of the project is that the online platform functions as a networking/communication and search platform through which potential cooperation partners can be found and networked. Learning for Exchange - Winter-Summer School Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available Food democracy and meta-organizations Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe purpose of the project is to create a consortium of researchers from the Upper Rhine (UHA, UdS, Basel and Fribourg), to respond to an INTEREG and ANR project contributing to the "food and food systems" axis (environmental sciences field) and "innovation/inequality, discrimination" (human and social sciences field). A group of ten researchers from four EUCOR universities (UHA, UdS, Basel and Freiburg) are already collaborating on research about food democracy issues: how actors (citizens, social movements, institutions, urban farmers, associations, consumer activists, agricultural producers, business foundations) are mobilizing and organizing to promote an alternative agri-food model (Deverre & Lamine 2010). Meta-organizations are new meeting places in which these actors try to restore a social link, responsibility and justice between producers and consumers (i.e., fair prices for both parties, maintenance of peasant agriculture) and towards the environment (Allen, FitzSimmons, Goodman, 2003). Computational Sedimentation Modeling Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available Jijiga One Health Initiative (JOHI) Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available ExoMars CLUPI Operation Testing Research Project | 4 Project MembersCLUPI (CLose Up Imager) is a camera system installed on ESA' ExoMars rover designed to acquire high-resolution, colour, close-up images of outcrops, rocks, soils, drill fines and drill core samples. The visual information obtained by CLUPI will be similar to what a geologist would get using a hand lens. The information will be used to identify rocks types and potential biosignatures in those rocks. Nikolaus Kuhn is part of the CLUPI science team. This allows the members of his Physcial Geography and Environmental Science Research Group exclusive access to the data generated by CLUPI after the landing of ExoMars on Mars in March 2021. The preparation of the use fo CLUPI during the ExoMars mission is conducted in the framework of an extensive operations testing in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. A Flight Representative Test Model (FRTM) is provided by the Science Directorate of the European Space Agency to the the CLUPI Science Team lead by Prof. Jean-Luc Josset of the Space Exploration Institute in Neuchâtel. This SRTM will be used for operation testing and mission preparation in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. The cost of CLUPI are an estimated 10 million Euro and paid by the Swiss Space Office. The SRTM provided to the Marslabor of the University of Basel costs approximately 500'000 Euro. Space in Time: Landscape narratives and land management changes in a Southern African cross-border region Research Project | 4 Project MembersThe areas on both sides of the Orange River (the present border between Namibia and South Africa) constitute the historical region of Namaqualand. The bi-national region's land and patterns of resource use have experienced profound changes over the last 200 years; amongst them is the region's inclusion into the global trade systems in the 19th century, and the South African apartheid and segregation politics in the 20th century. Today, large-scale nature conservation and agriculture projects are the driving forces behind a further restructuring of the region, in which large parts of the population are poor. This project examines the history of these changes in land use and the land claims that are based on them. We aim to show how this history affected the landscape, and how the landscape has reflected these changes. We will develop and apply a multidisciplinary methodological approach that we call a "landscape archive". Such an archive should consist of representations of the landscape (e.g. written and oral descriptions) and of representations in the landscape (e.g. sediments or ruins). We aim to create a tool that provides for the complexity of the history of land uses and land claims, and that enables to scrutinize claims on land and resources presently formulated by powerful nature conservation organisations and global companies. The project brings together researchers from the fields of social sciences, humanities, and natural science, which are based in South Africa, Namibia, and Switzerland. It contributes to on-going socio-political debates regarding land uses and land rights, and to a conceptual and methodological discussion of space, archives and digital humanities. South African cropland dust emission risks: physical thresholds, environmental and socio-economic impacts Research Project | 6 Project MembersSouthern African dust sources have been well documented, feature some of the world's dustiest regions, and disperse dust throughout the subcontinent and beyond. The west coast of South Africa produces dust from coastal pans, river valleys, and deltas in both the Namib and Northern Cape regions. Further East, mine tailings in and around Johannesburg (Gauteng province) are among the most studied dust sources in South Africa due to systematic monitoring efforts and immediate impact on nearby urban air quality. However, few studies have drawn attention to dust originating from South Africa's extensive farmland. These areas appear to be most productive in early summer at the onset of the rainy season as part of cold pool outflows from convective storms over the Free State and Northern Cape. Such ground level events have often been reported by the media, but have gone unmonitored due to their association with cloud and rain events. These associations are different from most other dust events that produce elongated plumes during the clear winter months, particularly in Namibia and Botswana, and disperse throughout the region. Nevertheless, the use of Meteosat MSG clearly suggests that southern African events are not infrequent and not insignificant in extent. Exposed agricultural lands are thus important dust sources in South Africa, and the supply of fine dust material may be even more pronounced during drought cycles. Such events represent a loss of soil mass at the site of origin, but also impact ecosystem services further afield and, potentially, contribute to climate change. Microbial and chemical contaminants transported by dust from cropland add to the public health concerns with dust originating from farms and reaching urban areas. The research questions of this four-year project thus are: (i) what are the environmental thresholds for generation of dust (wind, soil moisture soil crust) in relation to farmland management? and, (ii) to what extent do farmland dust sources impact ecosystem services, public health, and potentially climate? This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by using a holistic and interdisciplinary approach spanning geomorphology, land management, and microbiomics. A Swiss - South African partnership of four institutions (University of Basel, Agricultural Research Council, University of Cape Town, and University of Pretoria), which encompasses the necessary expertise, has been formed to conduct this research. The objectives of the project are (i) to identify the spatial and temporal pattern of dust emissions from agricultural land in South Africa, (ii) to determine the environmental boundary conditions for dust emission on South African cropland identified as dust sources, (iii) to identify the impact of land management practices on dust emission and ecosystem services losses, (iv) to identify microbiomics air contamination due to dust, and (iv) to synthetize the above information and produce holistic knowledge on dispersal, impact of dust and thresholds to inform policy in farming systems. Activities and methods will be divided in five interconnected work packages (one WP per objective), using remote sensing of Meteosat and MODIS satellite imagery to identify and quantify dust sources emitted from farmland (WP1), using a rain and wind tunnel simulator to determine crust formation and dust physical boundaries (WP2), using leaf area index and interviews to identify biophysical and management attributes (WP3), using dust samples to determine microbial population phytogenetics, including impacts of the transport of microorganisms, whether suspended in aqueous aerosols or adsorbed to mineral (dust) particles (WP4), and using the results of WP1-4 for a synthesis leading to publish holistic scientific contributions on South African cropland dust emissions, identify farmland management best practices, and inform policy. Dust emission is a growing issue affecting soil mass losses, ecosystem services, public health, and climate change. Understanding dust emission dynamics originating from farming in drylands is crucial not only to prepare and respond to the aforementioned impacts, but also to secure food production in the best possible conditions using marginal lands, a resource becoming increasingly important for food security of a warming planet. 1234 1...4 OverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & Collaborations
Projects & Collaborations 40 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 Prospecting Technologies Challenge - Technology Maturation - ARISE Research Project | 1 Project MembersImported from Grants Tool 4696287 Contribution to the Swiss science exploitation of the CLose-UP Imager on the ExoMars 2022 rover mission Research Project | 2 Project MembersThe close-up imager CLUPI is one of the instruments that will be onboard ESA's "Rosalind Franklin" rover, searching for signs of life in the framework of the joint ESA-Roscosmos "ExoMars 2022" mission. CLUPI will acquire high-resolution images essential to investigate the geology of Mars, selecting samples with a high potential to contain biomarkers. This project includes CLUPI- science validation/training activities aimed at optimizing the scientific return of the instrument during the primary mission on Mars (e.g., determining the ideal lighting conditions and positions relative to rock surfaces, developing drive paths and imaging options enabling the identification of rock types and mineralogy,...). These simulations will be mostly carried out in the "Marslabor" of the Uni Basel, a state-of-the-art Marsyard. The project will also include the development of new image analysis approaches (e.g. using software for determining size and shape of rock forming particles or rock structures such as thickness and patterns of laminae). Starting from the third year of the project, the PhD candidate will have the opportunity to participate in the primary mission and contribute to the interpretation of the images that will be acquired on Mars. Interactions with the Space Exploration Institute of Neuchâtel (headed by Dr. Jean-Luc Josset, PI of the CLUPI instrument), the Naturhistorisches Museum Bern (affiliation of the CLUPI Co-PI Prof. Beda Hofmann), plus collaborations with the international CLUPI science team are foreseen in this highly multidisciplinary project. Trinationale Kooperationsplattform für Nachhaltigkeitsinitiativen, Einrichtungen Sozialer Arbeit und nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Unternehmen Research Project | 4 Project MembersTRICOP aims to build a cooperation platform that connects sustainability initiatives, businesses and social work institutions, opening up spaces for trinational cooperation and innovation. There are numerous possibilities for networking, such as linking urban gardening with day centres for people with mental illnesses or marginalized groups such as refugees. TRICOP is conceived as a trinational study and cooperation project of the University of Basel and the EH Freiburg and is funded by the Intercantonal Coordination Office at the Regio Basiliensis (IKRB) as representative of the Swiss Confederation within the framework of the New Regional Policy and the Canton of Basel-Landschaft. This project is realized through various student project at the EH Freiburg and the University of Basel. Specifically, through different seminars and workshops students learn different skills to research and identify various cooperation potentials, using literature/internet research, interviews or focus groups. Accompanying this, concrete cooperations are initiated by contacting actors, setting impulses for trinational cooperations and, as far as possible, consolidating them within a cooperation platform. The aim of the project is that the online platform functions as a networking/communication and search platform through which potential cooperation partners can be found and networked. Learning for Exchange - Winter-Summer School Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available Food democracy and meta-organizations Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe purpose of the project is to create a consortium of researchers from the Upper Rhine (UHA, UdS, Basel and Fribourg), to respond to an INTEREG and ANR project contributing to the "food and food systems" axis (environmental sciences field) and "innovation/inequality, discrimination" (human and social sciences field). A group of ten researchers from four EUCOR universities (UHA, UdS, Basel and Freiburg) are already collaborating on research about food democracy issues: how actors (citizens, social movements, institutions, urban farmers, associations, consumer activists, agricultural producers, business foundations) are mobilizing and organizing to promote an alternative agri-food model (Deverre & Lamine 2010). Meta-organizations are new meeting places in which these actors try to restore a social link, responsibility and justice between producers and consumers (i.e., fair prices for both parties, maintenance of peasant agriculture) and towards the environment (Allen, FitzSimmons, Goodman, 2003). Computational Sedimentation Modeling Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available Jijiga One Health Initiative (JOHI) Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available ExoMars CLUPI Operation Testing Research Project | 4 Project MembersCLUPI (CLose Up Imager) is a camera system installed on ESA' ExoMars rover designed to acquire high-resolution, colour, close-up images of outcrops, rocks, soils, drill fines and drill core samples. The visual information obtained by CLUPI will be similar to what a geologist would get using a hand lens. The information will be used to identify rocks types and potential biosignatures in those rocks. Nikolaus Kuhn is part of the CLUPI science team. This allows the members of his Physcial Geography and Environmental Science Research Group exclusive access to the data generated by CLUPI after the landing of ExoMars on Mars in March 2021. The preparation of the use fo CLUPI during the ExoMars mission is conducted in the framework of an extensive operations testing in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. A Flight Representative Test Model (FRTM) is provided by the Science Directorate of the European Space Agency to the the CLUPI Science Team lead by Prof. Jean-Luc Josset of the Space Exploration Institute in Neuchâtel. This SRTM will be used for operation testing and mission preparation in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. The cost of CLUPI are an estimated 10 million Euro and paid by the Swiss Space Office. The SRTM provided to the Marslabor of the University of Basel costs approximately 500'000 Euro. Space in Time: Landscape narratives and land management changes in a Southern African cross-border region Research Project | 4 Project MembersThe areas on both sides of the Orange River (the present border between Namibia and South Africa) constitute the historical region of Namaqualand. The bi-national region's land and patterns of resource use have experienced profound changes over the last 200 years; amongst them is the region's inclusion into the global trade systems in the 19th century, and the South African apartheid and segregation politics in the 20th century. Today, large-scale nature conservation and agriculture projects are the driving forces behind a further restructuring of the region, in which large parts of the population are poor. This project examines the history of these changes in land use and the land claims that are based on them. We aim to show how this history affected the landscape, and how the landscape has reflected these changes. We will develop and apply a multidisciplinary methodological approach that we call a "landscape archive". Such an archive should consist of representations of the landscape (e.g. written and oral descriptions) and of representations in the landscape (e.g. sediments or ruins). We aim to create a tool that provides for the complexity of the history of land uses and land claims, and that enables to scrutinize claims on land and resources presently formulated by powerful nature conservation organisations and global companies. The project brings together researchers from the fields of social sciences, humanities, and natural science, which are based in South Africa, Namibia, and Switzerland. It contributes to on-going socio-political debates regarding land uses and land rights, and to a conceptual and methodological discussion of space, archives and digital humanities. South African cropland dust emission risks: physical thresholds, environmental and socio-economic impacts Research Project | 6 Project MembersSouthern African dust sources have been well documented, feature some of the world's dustiest regions, and disperse dust throughout the subcontinent and beyond. The west coast of South Africa produces dust from coastal pans, river valleys, and deltas in both the Namib and Northern Cape regions. Further East, mine tailings in and around Johannesburg (Gauteng province) are among the most studied dust sources in South Africa due to systematic monitoring efforts and immediate impact on nearby urban air quality. However, few studies have drawn attention to dust originating from South Africa's extensive farmland. These areas appear to be most productive in early summer at the onset of the rainy season as part of cold pool outflows from convective storms over the Free State and Northern Cape. Such ground level events have often been reported by the media, but have gone unmonitored due to their association with cloud and rain events. These associations are different from most other dust events that produce elongated plumes during the clear winter months, particularly in Namibia and Botswana, and disperse throughout the region. Nevertheless, the use of Meteosat MSG clearly suggests that southern African events are not infrequent and not insignificant in extent. Exposed agricultural lands are thus important dust sources in South Africa, and the supply of fine dust material may be even more pronounced during drought cycles. Such events represent a loss of soil mass at the site of origin, but also impact ecosystem services further afield and, potentially, contribute to climate change. Microbial and chemical contaminants transported by dust from cropland add to the public health concerns with dust originating from farms and reaching urban areas. The research questions of this four-year project thus are: (i) what are the environmental thresholds for generation of dust (wind, soil moisture soil crust) in relation to farmland management? and, (ii) to what extent do farmland dust sources impact ecosystem services, public health, and potentially climate? This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by using a holistic and interdisciplinary approach spanning geomorphology, land management, and microbiomics. A Swiss - South African partnership of four institutions (University of Basel, Agricultural Research Council, University of Cape Town, and University of Pretoria), which encompasses the necessary expertise, has been formed to conduct this research. The objectives of the project are (i) to identify the spatial and temporal pattern of dust emissions from agricultural land in South Africa, (ii) to determine the environmental boundary conditions for dust emission on South African cropland identified as dust sources, (iii) to identify the impact of land management practices on dust emission and ecosystem services losses, (iv) to identify microbiomics air contamination due to dust, and (iv) to synthetize the above information and produce holistic knowledge on dispersal, impact of dust and thresholds to inform policy in farming systems. Activities and methods will be divided in five interconnected work packages (one WP per objective), using remote sensing of Meteosat and MODIS satellite imagery to identify and quantify dust sources emitted from farmland (WP1), using a rain and wind tunnel simulator to determine crust formation and dust physical boundaries (WP2), using leaf area index and interviews to identify biophysical and management attributes (WP3), using dust samples to determine microbial population phytogenetics, including impacts of the transport of microorganisms, whether suspended in aqueous aerosols or adsorbed to mineral (dust) particles (WP4), and using the results of WP1-4 for a synthesis leading to publish holistic scientific contributions on South African cropland dust emissions, identify farmland management best practices, and inform policy. Dust emission is a growing issue affecting soil mass losses, ecosystem services, public health, and climate change. Understanding dust emission dynamics originating from farming in drylands is crucial not only to prepare and respond to the aforementioned impacts, but also to secure food production in the best possible conditions using marginal lands, a resource becoming increasingly important for food security of a warming planet. 1234 1...4
Prospecting Technologies Challenge - Technology Maturation - ARISE Research Project | 1 Project MembersImported from Grants Tool 4696287
Contribution to the Swiss science exploitation of the CLose-UP Imager on the ExoMars 2022 rover mission Research Project | 2 Project MembersThe close-up imager CLUPI is one of the instruments that will be onboard ESA's "Rosalind Franklin" rover, searching for signs of life in the framework of the joint ESA-Roscosmos "ExoMars 2022" mission. CLUPI will acquire high-resolution images essential to investigate the geology of Mars, selecting samples with a high potential to contain biomarkers. This project includes CLUPI- science validation/training activities aimed at optimizing the scientific return of the instrument during the primary mission on Mars (e.g., determining the ideal lighting conditions and positions relative to rock surfaces, developing drive paths and imaging options enabling the identification of rock types and mineralogy,...). These simulations will be mostly carried out in the "Marslabor" of the Uni Basel, a state-of-the-art Marsyard. The project will also include the development of new image analysis approaches (e.g. using software for determining size and shape of rock forming particles or rock structures such as thickness and patterns of laminae). Starting from the third year of the project, the PhD candidate will have the opportunity to participate in the primary mission and contribute to the interpretation of the images that will be acquired on Mars. Interactions with the Space Exploration Institute of Neuchâtel (headed by Dr. Jean-Luc Josset, PI of the CLUPI instrument), the Naturhistorisches Museum Bern (affiliation of the CLUPI Co-PI Prof. Beda Hofmann), plus collaborations with the international CLUPI science team are foreseen in this highly multidisciplinary project.
Trinationale Kooperationsplattform für Nachhaltigkeitsinitiativen, Einrichtungen Sozialer Arbeit und nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Unternehmen Research Project | 4 Project MembersTRICOP aims to build a cooperation platform that connects sustainability initiatives, businesses and social work institutions, opening up spaces for trinational cooperation and innovation. There are numerous possibilities for networking, such as linking urban gardening with day centres for people with mental illnesses or marginalized groups such as refugees. TRICOP is conceived as a trinational study and cooperation project of the University of Basel and the EH Freiburg and is funded by the Intercantonal Coordination Office at the Regio Basiliensis (IKRB) as representative of the Swiss Confederation within the framework of the New Regional Policy and the Canton of Basel-Landschaft. This project is realized through various student project at the EH Freiburg and the University of Basel. Specifically, through different seminars and workshops students learn different skills to research and identify various cooperation potentials, using literature/internet research, interviews or focus groups. Accompanying this, concrete cooperations are initiated by contacting actors, setting impulses for trinational cooperations and, as far as possible, consolidating them within a cooperation platform. The aim of the project is that the online platform functions as a networking/communication and search platform through which potential cooperation partners can be found and networked.
Learning for Exchange - Winter-Summer School Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available
Food democracy and meta-organizations Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe purpose of the project is to create a consortium of researchers from the Upper Rhine (UHA, UdS, Basel and Fribourg), to respond to an INTEREG and ANR project contributing to the "food and food systems" axis (environmental sciences field) and "innovation/inequality, discrimination" (human and social sciences field). A group of ten researchers from four EUCOR universities (UHA, UdS, Basel and Freiburg) are already collaborating on research about food democracy issues: how actors (citizens, social movements, institutions, urban farmers, associations, consumer activists, agricultural producers, business foundations) are mobilizing and organizing to promote an alternative agri-food model (Deverre & Lamine 2010). Meta-organizations are new meeting places in which these actors try to restore a social link, responsibility and justice between producers and consumers (i.e., fair prices for both parties, maintenance of peasant agriculture) and towards the environment (Allen, FitzSimmons, Goodman, 2003).
ExoMars CLUPI Operation Testing Research Project | 4 Project MembersCLUPI (CLose Up Imager) is a camera system installed on ESA' ExoMars rover designed to acquire high-resolution, colour, close-up images of outcrops, rocks, soils, drill fines and drill core samples. The visual information obtained by CLUPI will be similar to what a geologist would get using a hand lens. The information will be used to identify rocks types and potential biosignatures in those rocks. Nikolaus Kuhn is part of the CLUPI science team. This allows the members of his Physcial Geography and Environmental Science Research Group exclusive access to the data generated by CLUPI after the landing of ExoMars on Mars in March 2021. The preparation of the use fo CLUPI during the ExoMars mission is conducted in the framework of an extensive operations testing in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. A Flight Representative Test Model (FRTM) is provided by the Science Directorate of the European Space Agency to the the CLUPI Science Team lead by Prof. Jean-Luc Josset of the Space Exploration Institute in Neuchâtel. This SRTM will be used for operation testing and mission preparation in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. The cost of CLUPI are an estimated 10 million Euro and paid by the Swiss Space Office. The SRTM provided to the Marslabor of the University of Basel costs approximately 500'000 Euro.
Space in Time: Landscape narratives and land management changes in a Southern African cross-border region Research Project | 4 Project MembersThe areas on both sides of the Orange River (the present border between Namibia and South Africa) constitute the historical region of Namaqualand. The bi-national region's land and patterns of resource use have experienced profound changes over the last 200 years; amongst them is the region's inclusion into the global trade systems in the 19th century, and the South African apartheid and segregation politics in the 20th century. Today, large-scale nature conservation and agriculture projects are the driving forces behind a further restructuring of the region, in which large parts of the population are poor. This project examines the history of these changes in land use and the land claims that are based on them. We aim to show how this history affected the landscape, and how the landscape has reflected these changes. We will develop and apply a multidisciplinary methodological approach that we call a "landscape archive". Such an archive should consist of representations of the landscape (e.g. written and oral descriptions) and of representations in the landscape (e.g. sediments or ruins). We aim to create a tool that provides for the complexity of the history of land uses and land claims, and that enables to scrutinize claims on land and resources presently formulated by powerful nature conservation organisations and global companies. The project brings together researchers from the fields of social sciences, humanities, and natural science, which are based in South Africa, Namibia, and Switzerland. It contributes to on-going socio-political debates regarding land uses and land rights, and to a conceptual and methodological discussion of space, archives and digital humanities.
South African cropland dust emission risks: physical thresholds, environmental and socio-economic impacts Research Project | 6 Project MembersSouthern African dust sources have been well documented, feature some of the world's dustiest regions, and disperse dust throughout the subcontinent and beyond. The west coast of South Africa produces dust from coastal pans, river valleys, and deltas in both the Namib and Northern Cape regions. Further East, mine tailings in and around Johannesburg (Gauteng province) are among the most studied dust sources in South Africa due to systematic monitoring efforts and immediate impact on nearby urban air quality. However, few studies have drawn attention to dust originating from South Africa's extensive farmland. These areas appear to be most productive in early summer at the onset of the rainy season as part of cold pool outflows from convective storms over the Free State and Northern Cape. Such ground level events have often been reported by the media, but have gone unmonitored due to their association with cloud and rain events. These associations are different from most other dust events that produce elongated plumes during the clear winter months, particularly in Namibia and Botswana, and disperse throughout the region. Nevertheless, the use of Meteosat MSG clearly suggests that southern African events are not infrequent and not insignificant in extent. Exposed agricultural lands are thus important dust sources in South Africa, and the supply of fine dust material may be even more pronounced during drought cycles. Such events represent a loss of soil mass at the site of origin, but also impact ecosystem services further afield and, potentially, contribute to climate change. Microbial and chemical contaminants transported by dust from cropland add to the public health concerns with dust originating from farms and reaching urban areas. The research questions of this four-year project thus are: (i) what are the environmental thresholds for generation of dust (wind, soil moisture soil crust) in relation to farmland management? and, (ii) to what extent do farmland dust sources impact ecosystem services, public health, and potentially climate? This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by using a holistic and interdisciplinary approach spanning geomorphology, land management, and microbiomics. A Swiss - South African partnership of four institutions (University of Basel, Agricultural Research Council, University of Cape Town, and University of Pretoria), which encompasses the necessary expertise, has been formed to conduct this research. The objectives of the project are (i) to identify the spatial and temporal pattern of dust emissions from agricultural land in South Africa, (ii) to determine the environmental boundary conditions for dust emission on South African cropland identified as dust sources, (iii) to identify the impact of land management practices on dust emission and ecosystem services losses, (iv) to identify microbiomics air contamination due to dust, and (iv) to synthetize the above information and produce holistic knowledge on dispersal, impact of dust and thresholds to inform policy in farming systems. Activities and methods will be divided in five interconnected work packages (one WP per objective), using remote sensing of Meteosat and MODIS satellite imagery to identify and quantify dust sources emitted from farmland (WP1), using a rain and wind tunnel simulator to determine crust formation and dust physical boundaries (WP2), using leaf area index and interviews to identify biophysical and management attributes (WP3), using dust samples to determine microbial population phytogenetics, including impacts of the transport of microorganisms, whether suspended in aqueous aerosols or adsorbed to mineral (dust) particles (WP4), and using the results of WP1-4 for a synthesis leading to publish holistic scientific contributions on South African cropland dust emissions, identify farmland management best practices, and inform policy. Dust emission is a growing issue affecting soil mass losses, ecosystem services, public health, and climate change. Understanding dust emission dynamics originating from farming in drylands is crucial not only to prepare and respond to the aforementioned impacts, but also to secure food production in the best possible conditions using marginal lands, a resource becoming increasingly important for food security of a warming planet.
