Journal of Natural Environment

Investigating the effect of Socio-economic Disturbance Resulting from human activities on Landscape Ecological Function using HANPP index (Case Study: Qazvin Province)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Planning and Design, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University

2 Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Sustainability as a turning point in the reciprocal and harmonious relationship between society and nature has made the environment as a third dimension to play the role, alongside with economics and society. One of the important problems for scientists at present is to identify the suitable indicators to make decisions and to study the relationships and interactions between society and nature. Material and Energy Flow Accounting (MEFA) based on socioeconomic metabolism approach provides an important analytical framework for the interaction of society and nature. This research aimed on evaluating the human disturbance using Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) and its methodology as well as the effect of landscape structure on energy flows which effects landscape function. HANPP as one of the MEFA indicators has gotten more attention of various researchers due to its function on a variety of global to local scales. The results of this study showed that Qazvin province has 90.658 million GJ Net Primary Production potential (NPP0) and from this potential, the real production is only 34.552 million GJ NPPact. As a matter of fact, only 9.446 million GJ remain in nature as NPPuh to meet the biodiversity needs from NPPact in Qazvin province, and the rest are harvested by humans and entered in the social system as NPPh. As a result, just 10.42% of Qazvin's potential net primary production is spent on biodiversity and the rest is either destroyed or consumed by humans. The results of this study can be used to gain a systematic insight into landscape and socio-ecological system analysis in order to preserve biodiversity needs, along with human needs.

Keywords

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Journal of Natural Environment
Volume 73, Issue 3
December 2020
Pages 471-484