Collaboration Initiation Project between Germany and South Korea on the topic: “Hydro-ecological basis and future projections for re- and afforestation efforts under climate change”

Keywords

Afforestation and Reforestation (A/R), land degradation, A/R scenarios, hydrological modeling, water availability, tradeoff, Impact assessment, climate change, Remote Sensing and GIS

Countries

Germany and South Korea

Summary

Afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects have been implemented through United Nations conventions and national initiatives worldwide for combating land degradation and contributing to climate change mitigation while generating products of commercial value. Next to these recognized benefits, published studies have indicated a growing number of cases where A/R resulted in negative hydrological outcomes, including critical declines in groundwater tables, depletion of soil water, and reduced annual runoff and water yields. These adverse hydrological effects introduce considerable trade-offs with the A/R benefits and reduce the appeal for A/R, particularly considering the future projections of water precarity due to climate change. Aligning the A/R interventions with water availability in the landscape while considering the climate change impacts require spatially distributed decision support tools to advise hydrologically feasible A/R planning and aid the sustainable A/R efforts. This bilateral project aims at (i) conducting an exchange between scientists from Germany and South Korea with relevant expertise in (agro)forestry, hydrological modeling, remote sensing and GIS as well as land degradation and climate change analysis in various geographical regions and (ii) Achieving an improved understanding of impacts of A/R activities on regional water balances, as well as the opportunities provided by interdisciplinary analyses for A/R projections under climate change.

Objectives
Formation of an international, interdisciplinary functional working group consisting of experts in agroforestry, water resources management, climate change, land degradation, remote sensing and geospatial technologies for analyzing past experiences and informing future A/R efforts in the changing climate environment

Methodology

Organization of thematic workshops, research visits between ZEF and Korea University, and special issues in peer-reviewed journals.

Main Cooperation Partners

• Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany
• Agroforestry Systems and Ecology Lab, Korea University, South Korea

Main Funding Partners

German Research Foundation (DFG) and National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea

Publications

Project’s Special Issues in Journals:

Implications of Climate Change on the Sustainable Management of the Water–Forest Nexus
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/special_issues/Water_Forest_Nexus

Sustainable Innovations in Natural Resources Management Using Earth Observation Data and Geospatial Technologies
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/Earth_Geospatial_Technologies

Duration of the Project

01 / 2022 – 05 / 2024