The zhoushan islands, China, and Galapagos Islands, Ecuador: Island sustainability and forces of change

Abstract:

We conceptualize islands along a resource conservation-economic development gradient that represents a diversity of island forms and functions, which are shaped and reshaped by exogenous and endogenous dynamics and social-ecological processes of change. Islands are increasingly linked to the expanding human dimension and tied to mainland forces, including population migration and tourism, through the processes of globalization. Conservation and development efforts, even for protected areas, require continued vigilance in monitoring social, terrestrial, and marine subsystems of islands that are acted upon by episodic events as well as continuous forces of change. Manifested at local to regional scales, islands support local people and communities, protected areas, iconic species and iconic landscapes/seascapes, regional development, and national and international tourism as well as residents who are attracted to islands for jobs in the burgeoning global tourism industry. We compare the Zhoushan Islands of China and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador through examples drawn from both island archipelagos to describe a conceptual model of island development associated with the expanding human imprint on islands, local resource endowments, resource conservation, and economic development. We also describe the application of LANDSAT imagery to monitor land cover/land use change within the human use zones of the Galapagos Islands (i.e., coastal communities and the agricultural highlands) as well as MODIS data to assess changing conditions in the Galapagos Marine Reserve associated with El Niño conditions and the changing patterns of sea-surface temperatures and marine productivity over time and space as context to the challenges of economic development and resource conservation.

Año de publicación:

2017

Keywords:

• Island sustainability
• Zhoushan Islands
• Satellite remote sensing
• Galapagos islands
• Land cover/land use change

Fuente:

scopus