Robert Fish

Environmental decision making and an ecosystems approach Some challenges from the perspective of social science

This paper explores issues of theoretical design and application arising from ecosystem service based approaches to natural resource management. Conserving ecosystem services is now a key normative goal of environmental decision making, but the implications of embracing this concept are still little understood. In this paper I highlight two recurring and cross-cutting aspects of an ecosystems approach around which credible treatments of ecosystem services can be realized, not only in theory, but also in practice: first, the need to think ‘holistically’ about how any given project, proposal or plan would impact on service provision and human well-being; and, second, the need to manage ecosystem services in relation to wider stakeholder values, needs and priorities. While thinking about decision making from the perspective of ecosystem services is no panacea for sustainability, the paper points to a number of social science issues that interdisciplinary researchers could usefully address in these two contexts if they are to harness this concept in creative and critically engaged ways.

Putting together ruralities: towards a symbolic analysis of rurality in the British mass media

Abstract In recent years rural geography has become increasingly sensitised to the significance of rurality as a cultural construct. This paper examines the production and reception of mediated representations of rurality: that is, it focuses on senses of the rural conveyed by mass media such as television. The paper discusses claims that images of rurality can be understood as socio-spatialisations. It then focuses on the rurality of British rural drama programmes, and particularly on three such drama series: Dangerfield, Heartbeat and Peak Practice. Drawing together a textual analysis of these programmes with research on their production and consumption, we explore the rurality produced through these television dramas, paying particular attention to the presence, and absence, of idyllic notions of the countryside. We suggest that while these programmes do enact idyllic constructions of rurality, their rurality is not simply reducible to this. We will also highlight how these programmes may also enact particular social identities, including, but not exclusively, those of class. We argue in particular that the three drama series can be read as conveying, in a range of ways, senses of middle-classness. The overall argument of this paper is hence that the mediated ruralities of British rural drama programmes are enactments of social and spatial imaginaries, the complexity and effect of which are often ignored in their textual reduction to a middle class idyll.

Valuing local knowledge as a source of expert data: Farmer engagement and the design of decision support systems

Engagement with farmers and landowners is often undertaken by the research community to obtain information relating to typical land, livestock and enterprise management and generally centres on responses to questionnaire surveys. Farmers and land managers are constituted as expert observers of ground-level processes and provide diverse information on farming practices, enterprise economics and underpinning attitudes towards risk. Research projects designed to inform policy and practice may rely on such data to understand better on-the-ground decisions that can impact on environmental quality and the rural economy. Such approaches to eliciting local-level expert knowledge can generate large quantities of data from which to formulate rules relating to farm enterprise types. In turn, this can help to inform the structure of Decision Support Systems (DSS) and risk-based tools to determine farming practices likely to impact on environmental quality. However, in this paper we advocate the need for integrated farmer participation throughout the whole research process - from project inception through to community qualitative validation and legitimation - and thus not just for the elicitation of questionnaire responses. With farm questionnaire surveys being adopted widely by the research community, it is an opportune time to highlight a recent case study of the Taw catchment, Devon, UK. This serves as an example of co-construction of a DSS via a co-ordinated and integrated approach to expert elicitation with a farmer questionnaire survey as a central methodology. The aim of the paper is to detail the core aspects of an iterative cycle of participatory environmental management and DSS development for water quality protection and consider the multiple benefits of co-ordinated programmes of engagement with the farming community in this process.

Scale appropriate modelling of diffuse microbial pollution from agriculture

The prediction of microbial concentrations and loads in receiving waters is a key requirement for informing policy decisions in order to safeguard human health. However, modelling the fate and transfer dynamics of faecally derived microorganisms at different spatial scales poses a considerable challenge to the research and policy community. The objective of this paper is to critically evaluate the complexities and associated uncertainties attributed to the development of models for assessing agriculturally derived microbial pollution of watercourses. A series of key issues with respect to scale appropriate modelling of diffuse microbial pollution from agriculture is presented, and these include: (1) appreciating inadequacies in baseline sampling to underpin model development; (2) uncertainty in the magnitudes of microbial pollutants attributed to different faecal sources; (3) continued development of the empirical evidence base in line with other agricultural pollutants; (4) acknowledging the value of interdisciplinary working; and (5) beginning to account for economics in model development. It is argued that uncertainty in model predictions produces a space for meaningful scrutiny of the nature of evidence and assumptions underpinning model applications around which pathways towards more effective model development may ultimately emerge.

Establishing relative release kinetics of faecal indicator organisms from different faecal matrices

Aims:  A laboratory assay for comparative characterization of various faecal matrices with respect to faecal indicator organism (FIO) release using, artificial rain water.

Modelling the cost-effectiveness of mitigation methods for multiple pollutants at farm scale

Reductions in agricultural pollution are essential for meeting nationally and internationally agreed policy targets for losses to both air and water. Numerous studies quantify the impact of relevant mitigation methods by field experimentation or computer modelling. The majority of these studies have addressed individual methods and frequently also individual pollutants. This paper presents a conceptual model for the synthesis of the evidence base to calculate the impact of multiple methods addressing multiple pollutants in order to identify least cost solutions for multiple policy objectives. The model is implemented as a farm scale decision support tool that quantifies baseline pollutant losses for identifiable sources, areas and pathways and incorporates a genetic algorithm based multi-objective procedure for determining optimal suites of mitigation methods. The tool is generic as baseline losses can be replaced with measured data and the default library of mitigation methods can be edited and expanded. The tool is demonstrated through application to two contrasting farm systems, using survey data on agricultural practices typical of England and Wales. These examples show how the tool could be used to help target the adoption of mitigation options for the control of diffuse pollution from agriculture. The feedback from workshops where Farmscoper was demonstrated is included to highlight the potential role of Farmscoper as part of the farm advisory process.

Uncertainties in the governance of animal disease: an interdisciplinary framework for analysis

Uncertainty is an inherent feature of strategies to contain animal disease. In this paper, an interdisciplinary framework for representing strategies of containment, and analysing how uncertainties are embedded and propagated through them, is developed and illustrated. Analysis centres on persistent, periodic and emerging disease threats, with a particular focus on cryptosporidiosis, foot and mouth disease and avian influenza. Uncertainty is shown to be produced at strategic, tactical and operational levels of containment, and across the different arenas of disease prevention, anticipation and alleviation. The paper argues for more critically reflexive assessments of uncertainty in containment policy and practice. An interdisciplinary approach has an important contribution to make, but is absent from current real-world containment policy.

Development and testing of a risk indexing framework to determine field-scale critical source areas of faecal bacteria on grassland

This paper draws on lessons from a UK case study in the management of diffuse microbial pollution from grassland farm systems in the Taw catchment, southwest England. We report on the development and preliminary testing of a field-scale faecal indicator organism risk indexing tool (FIORIT). This tool aims to prioritise those fields most vulnerable in terms of their risk of contributing FIOs to water. FIORIT risk indices were related to recorded microbial water quality parameters (faecal coliforms [FC] and intestinal enterococci [IE]) to provide a concurrent on-farm evaluation of the tool. There was a significant upward trend in Log[FC] and Log[IE] values with FIORIT risk score classification (r^2 = 0.87 and 0.70, respectively and P < 0.01 for both FIOs). The FIORIT was then applied to 162 representative grassland fields through different seasons for ten farms in the case study catchment to determine the distribution of on-farm spatial and temporal risk. The high risk fields made up only a small proportion (1%, 2%, 2% and 3% for winter, spring, summer and autumn, respectively) of the total number of fields assessed (and less than 10% of the total area), but the likelihood of the hydrological connection of high FIO source areas to receiving watercourses makes them a priority for mitigation efforts. The FIORIT provides a preliminary and evolving mechanism through which we can combine risk assessment with risk communication to end-users and provides a framework for prioritising future empirical research. Continued testing of FIORIT across different geographical areas under both low and high flow conditions is now needed to initiate its long-term development into a robust indexing tool.

Farming Livelihoods and Landscapes: Tensions in Rural Development and Environmental Regulation

Abstract European rural development scholars have been preoccupied with how to understand the pace and scope of rural landscape change, as increasingly liberalized market economic policies and stringent environmental mandates shape contemporary landscapes and livelihoods. Recent efforts to document and theorize the new practices occurring in rural landscapes have produced two competing explanatory frameworks of rural change, one of which asserts a paradigm shift in rural development based around new agri-food networks and the expansion of non-agriculturally related activities in the landscape, while the other argues there is more continuity than change in current practices. The paper presents a case study of livestock farming in Devon, southwest England, a region where agriculture is central to the iconography of the area and yet is under threat by environmental and economic challenges. Based on in-depth interviews and extensive surveys with nearly 80 farmers in a catchment in Devon, we find that most of the changes farmers are making in response to these challenges are agri-centric ‘coping strategies’ embedded within a productivist framework, rather than constituting a new paradigm of rural development.

Seasonal persistence of faecal indicator organisms in soil following dairy slurry application to land by surface broadcasting and shallow injection

Dairy farming generates large volumes of liquid manure (slurry), which is ultimately recycled to agricultural land as a valuable source of plant nutrients. Different methods of slurry application to land exist; some spread the slurry to the sward surface whereas others deliver the slurry under the sward and into the soil, thus helping to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of two slurry application methods (surface broadcast versus shallow injection) on the survival of faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) delivered via dairy slurry to replicated grassland plots across contrasting seasons. A significant increase in FIO persistence (measured by the half-life of E. coli and intestinal enterococci) was observed when slurry was applied to grassland via shallow injection, and FIO decay rates were significantly higher for FIOs applied to grassland in spring relative to summer and autumn. Significant differences in the behaviour of E. coli and intestinal enterococci over time were also observed, with E. coli half-lives influenced more strongly by season of application relative to the intestinal enterococci population. While shallow injection of slurry can reduce agricultural GHG emissions to air it can also prolong the persistence of FIOs in soil, potentially increasing the risk of their subsequent transfer to water. Awareness of (and evidence for) the potential for ‘pollution-swapping’ is critical in order to guard against unintended environmental impacts of agricultural management decisions.