title: Investigating the impact of Tourism on forest cover in the Annapurna conservation area through Remote Sensing and Statistical Analysis

authors: Chaplin, James Andrew

subjects: Nepal

abstract: Tourism is Nepal’s largest industry giving people in rural areas an alternative to subsistence farming. Tourism can have an impact on the forest cover of a region as trees provide firewood for cooking and heating and timber for building accommodation. In 1986 the Annapurna conservation area project was started to ensure that tourism was managed sustainably, which includes minimising the impacts on the forest cover. This study assesses the impacts of tourism on the forest cover in the Annapurna region by comparing Landsat images from 1999 and 2011.  This was achieved through spectral classification of different landcover and assessing the change in forest cover in relation to increasing distances from tourism villages. A major problem with remote sensing in mountainous regions such as Nepal is shadow caused by the relief. This issue was addressed by only assessing areas which were free from shadow, which in effect meant a sample was used rather than the whole study region. The results indicate that there has been an 8 per cent reduction in overall forest extent, but this change varies by region.  In the northern drier regions there has been a net increase in forest cover, while in the southern regions there has been a net reduction in forests. The influence of tourism facilities on forest is also variable. Around each of the sample tourism villages there was a general trend of decreasing removal of forest at greater distances from each village, which indicates tourism does have a negative impact on forests. However, there was an opposite trend in the northern villages that were well inside the conservation area.

text: Investigating the impact of Tourism on forest cover in the Annapurna conservation area through Remote Sensing and Statistical Analysis Tourism is Nepal’s largest industry giving people in rural areas an alternative to subsistence farming. Tourism can have an impact on the forest cover of a region as trees provide firewood for cooking and heating and timber for building accommodation. In 1986 the Annapurna conservation area project was started to ensure that tourism was managed sustainably, which includes minimising the impacts on the forest cover. This study assesses the impacts of tourism on the forest cover in the Annapurna region by comparing Landsat images from 1999 and 2011.  This was achieved through spectral classification of different landcover and assessing the change in forest cover in relation to increasing distances from tourism villages. A major problem with remote sensing in mountainous regions such as Nepal is shadow caused by the relief. This issue was addressed by only assessing areas which were free from shadow, which in effect meant a sample was used rather than the whole study region. The results indicate that there has been an 8 per cent reduction in overall forest extent, but this change varies by region.  In the northern drier regions there has been a net increase in forest cover, while in the southern regions there has been a net reduction in forests. The influence of tourism facilities on forest is also variable. Around each of the sample tourism villages there was a general trend of decreasing removal of forest at greater distances from each village, which indicates tourism does have a negative impact on forests. However, there was an opposite trend in the northern villages that were well inside the conservation area.

year: 2013

title: Interacting with and through a digital library collection: commenting behavior in Flickr's the commons

authors: Cunningham, Sally Jo

subjects: computer science

abstract: There is growing interest by digital collection providers to engage collection users in interacting with the collection (e.g. by tagging or annotating collection contents) and with the collection organizers and other users (e.g. to form loose "communities" associated with the collection). At present, little has been documented as to the uptake of these mechanisms in specific collections, or the range of behaviors that emerge as users bend existing facilities to their own needs. This paper is one step in that direction: it describes the social information behaviors exhibited in a cultural heritage photography collection in The Commons on Flickr, and suggests implications for digital library design in response to these behaviors.

text: Interacting with and through a digital library collection: commenting behavior in Flickr's the commons There is growing interest by digital collection providers to engage collection users in interacting with the collection (e.g. by tagging or annotating collection contents) and with the collection organizers and other users (e.g. to form loose "communities" associated with the collection). At present, little has been documented as to the uptake of these mechanisms in specific collections, or the range of behaviors that emerge as users bend existing facilities to their own needs. This paper is one step in that direction: it describes the social information behaviors exhibited in a cultural heritage photography collection in The Commons on Flickr, and suggests implications for digital library design in response to these behaviors.

year: 2013

title: Everyday experiences of racism: Suppressing Māori cultural expressions in mental health

authors: Southey, Kim Marie

abstract: Tēnā kautau i runga i ngā tini āhuatanga o te wā.

This publication has been produced as part of the He Kokonga Ngākau Fellowships, an initiative of Te Atawhai o Te Ao that seeks to support and contribute to our research projects, and grow Māori research capability that promotes Kaupapa Māori research. These fellowships have been established to support Māori postgraduate students, practitioners, community researchers, and writers in their writing on kaupapa that have relevance to our organisation and wider community.

Dr Kim Southey (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kuia) draws on her doctoral research on re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of being, and deconstructing the notion of mental illness. This
publication focuses on how Māori and Indigenous expressions within the mental (and wider) health system are suppressed and restricted by a dominant (western) worldview. Dr Southey posits that the western insistence on representing things in the world through rational, logical explanations impacts on Māori cultural understandings, limiting how we can express ourselves. This is viewed by Dr Southey as a form of institutional racism.

text: Everyday experiences of racism: Suppressing Māori cultural expressions in mental health Tēnā kautau i runga i ngā tini āhuatanga o te wā.

This publication has been produced as part of the He Kokonga Ngākau Fellowships, an initiative of Te Atawhai o Te Ao that seeks to support and contribute to our research projects, and grow Māori research capability that promotes Kaupapa Māori research. These fellowships have been established to support Māori postgraduate students, practitioners, community researchers, and writers in their writing on kaupapa that have relevance to our organisation and wider community.

Dr Kim Southey (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kuia) draws on her doctoral research on re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of being, and deconstructing the notion of mental illness. This
publication focuses on how Māori and Indigenous expressions within the mental (and wider) health system are suppressed and restricted by a dominant (western) worldview. Dr Southey posits that the western insistence on representing things in the world through rational, logical explanations impacts on Māori cultural understandings, limiting how we can express ourselves. This is viewed by Dr Southey as a form of institutional racism.

year: 2022