Jérôme Dupras

Urban Sprawl and Ecosystem Services: A Half Century Perspective in the Montreal Area (Quebec, Canada)

Abstract Urban sprawl is central to the issues surrounding sustainable urban development. It generally leads to multiple impacts on land-use change, including loss of sensitive natural areas, farmland and fragmentation of ecosystems, which negatively impact the production of a wide range of ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we evaluate the value of ES provided by forests, croplands, grasslands and wetlands. Four spatial analyses of the Montreal Metropolitan Region (Quebec, Canada) are used over a period of 45 years at 15 year intervals (1966, 1981, 1994 and 2010). We demonstrate that despite a variety of management strategies, urban sprawl continues to have negative impacts on ES economic value over time.

The value of wetlands in Quebec: a comparison between contingent valuation and choice experiment

ABSTRACT This study aims to evaluate the non-market values of ecosystem services generated by wetlands in southern Quebec. To accomplish this, we evaluated the value of wetland services related to (1) habitat for biodiversity, (2) flood control, (3) water quality and (4) climate regulation. Two non-market valuation methods are proposed, contingent valuation and choice experiment. Our study aims to measure both the populations willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland preservation and restoration and to understand which environmental attributes and socioeconomic characteristics motivate peoples responses. We also compared the results of the two methods. Our conclusion suggests that the two methods provide statistically convergent WTP values, both in total value and in relative importance for different attributes involved. Our result also confirms the coefficient equivalence between the estimation models using the data from the two methods.

Towards the Establishment of a Green Infrastructure in the Region of Montreal (Quebec, Canada)

Through the analysis of semi-structured interviews held with key actors involved in the planning of the Greater Montreal region, we seek to understand the conditions that could lead to the establishment of a green infrastructure for the city. This article first describes the regions environmental and political context and then analyzes the opportunities, constraints, advantages and disadvantages in the implementation of this type of project. We conclude that experts favor an approach leading to ecological connectivity, but they underline several obstacles that could hinder its implementation.

The new Green Revolution: Sustainable intensification of agriculture by intercropping

Satisfying the nutritional needs of a growing population whilst limiting environmental repercussions will require sustainable intensification of agriculture. We argue that intercropping, which is the simultaneous production of multiple crops on the same area of land, could play an essential role in this intensification. We carried out the first global meta-analysis on the multifaceted benefits of intercropping. The objective of this study was to determine the benefits of intercropping in terms of energetic, economic and land-sparing potential through the framework of the stress-gradient hypothesis. We expected more intercropping benefits under stressful abiotic conditions. From 126 studies that were retrieved from the scientific literature, 939 intercropping observations were considered. When compared to the same area of land that was managed in monoculture, intercrops produced 38% more gross energy (mean relative land output of 1.38) and 33% more gross incomes (mean relative land output of 1.33) on average, whilst using 23% less land (mean land equivalent ratio of 1.30). Irrigation and the aridity index in non-irrigated intercrops did not affect land equivalent ratio, thereby indicating that intercropping remains beneficial, both under stressful and non-stressful contexts concerning moisture availability. Fertilisation and intercropping patterns (rows and strips vs. mixed) did not affect land equivalent ratio. Although intercropping offers a great opportunity for intensification of existing agricultural lands, many challenges need to be tackled by experts from multiple disciplines to ensure its feasible implementation.

Perceptions of Small Private Forest Owner’s Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity to Environmental Disturbances and Climate Change: Views from a Heterogeneous Population in Southern Quebec, Canada

A study on the perception of vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change (CC) was realised among 27 small private forest owners (SPFOs) of a region in southern Quebec. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with SPFOs of diverse profiles to better understand their perception of environmental disturbances and their needs to improve forest management in relation to global change and more precisely to CC. The main purpose of the research was to better understand whether perceptions of vulnerability and adaptive capacity to CC can constitute a barrier to proactive actions toward adaptation. Qualitative data shows a spectrum of attitudes and perceptions which highlight how SPFOs identify different potential and actual disturbances and assess the risk they represent for their forest-based activities. It shows how place-based experiences of environmental disturbances shape perceptions of vulnerability and capacity to adapt to disturbances. Factors such as access to financial resources and perceived resilience of forest ecosystem influence perceived adaptive capacity. Most SPFOs who participated in the research do not perceive their forest or forest-based activities to be vulnerable to CC, which may constitute a barrier to proactive adaptation to CC. The awareness of CC as a general phenomenon does necessarily translate into adaptation in forestry practices. Yet, many participants expressed a need for better access to knowledge and financial support to improve adaptive capacities to CC and broader environmental or economic stressors.

Neoliberal performatives and the ‘making’ of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

This paper argues that Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) serve as a neoliberal performative act, in which idealized conditions are re-constituted by well-resourced and networked epistemic communities with the objective of bringing a distinctly instrumental and utilitarian relationality between humans and nature into existence. We illustrate the performative agency of hegemonic epistemic communities advocating (P)ES imaginaries to differentiate between the cultural construction of an ideal reality, which can and always will fail, and an external reality of actually produced effects. In doing so, we explore human agency to disobey performative acts to craft embodied and life-affirming relationships with nature.

From mixed farming to intensive agriculture: energy profiles of agriculture in Quebec, Canada, 1871–2011

This article presents an energy analysis of Quebec agroecoystems at five periods of time: 1871, 1931, 1951, 1981, and 2011, calculating for each year the various energy flows and their resulting Energy Return on Investment (EROI). In the nineteenth century, Quebec agroecosystems were typical examples of historical organic agriculture, with a low dependence on external Inputs but a high dependence on biomass reused, mainly livestock feed and crop seeds. Following the full industrialization of Quebec agriculture by the 1960s, there have been massive injections of external inputs, but also steadily rising amounts of biomass reused due to livestock specialization and the decoupling of domesticated animals from crop farming. As a result of this transformation, the energy efficiency of agroecosystems diminished, despite the significant increases in both final produce and area productivity that were achieved.

The Economic Value of the Greater Montreal Blue Network (Quebec, Canada): A Contingent Choice Study Using Real Projects to Estimate Non-Market Aquatic Ecosystem Services Benefits

This study used a contingent choice method to determine the economic value of improving various ecosystem services (ESs) of the Blue Network of Greater Montreal (Quebec, Canada). Three real projects were used and the evaluation focused on six ESs that are related to freshwater aquatic ecosystems: biodiversity, water quality, carbon sequestration, recreational activities, landscape aesthetics and education services. We also estimated the value associated with the superficies of restored sites. We calculated the monetary value that a household would be willing to pay for each additional qualitative or quantitative unit of different ESs, and these marginal values range from

Using contingent valuation and choice experiment to value the impacts of agri-environmental practices on landscapes aesthetics

0.11 to

A framework towards a composite indicator for urban ecosystem services

15.39 per household per unit. Thus, under certain assumptions, we determined the monetary values that all Quebec households would allocate to improve each ES in Greater Montreal by one unit. The most valued ES was water quality (