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Protective Pathways: Connecting Environmental and Human Security at Local and Landscape Level with NLP and Geospatial Analysis of a Novel Database of 1500 Project Evaluations

Author

Listed:
  • Nathan Morrow

    (School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA)

  • Nancy B. Mock

    (School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA)

  • Andrea Gatto

    (College of Business & Public Management, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou 325060, China
    Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime ME4 4TB, UK
    Centre for Studies on Europe, Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC), Baku AZ1001, Azerbaijan)

  • Julia LeMense

    (Independent Researcher, New York, NY 10009, USA)

  • Margaret Hudson

    (Independent Researcher, Denver, CO 80203, USA)

Abstract

Localized actionable evidence for addressing threats to the environment and human security lacks a comprehensive conceptual frame that incorporates challenges associated with active conflicts. Protective pathways linking previously disciplinarily-divided literatures on environmental security, human security and resilience in a coherent conceptual frame that identifies key relationships is used to analyze a novel, unstructured data set of Global Environment Fund (GEF) programmatic documents. Sub-national geospatial analysis of GEF documentation relating to projects in Africa finds 73% of districts with GEF land degradation projects were co-located with active conflict events. This study utilizes Natural Language Processing on a unique data set of 1500 GEF evaluations to identify text entities associated with conflict. Additional project case studies explore the sequence and relationships of environmental and human security concepts that lead to project success or failure. Differences between biodiversity and climate change projects are discussed but political crisis, poverty and disaster emerged as the most frequently extracted entities associated with conflict in environmental protection projects. Insecurity weakened institutions and fractured communities leading both directly and indirectly to conflict-related damage to environmental programming and desired outcomes. Simple causal explanations found to be inconsistent in previous large-scale statistical associations also inadequately describe dynamics and relationships found in the extracted text entities or case summaries. Emergent protective pathways that emphasized poverty and conflict reduction facilitated by institutional strengthening and inclusion present promising possibilities. Future research with innovative machine learning and other techniques of working with unstructured data may provide additional evidence for implementing actions that address climate change and environmental degradation while strengthening resilience and human security. Resilient, participatory and polycentric governance is key to foster this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathan Morrow & Nancy B. Mock & Andrea Gatto & Julia LeMense & Margaret Hudson, 2022. "Protective Pathways: Connecting Environmental and Human Security at Local and Landscape Level with NLP and Geospatial Analysis of a Novel Database of 1500 Project Evaluations," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:1:p:123-:d:723374
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Yanqiang Du & Pingyang Liu & Shipeng Su & Linyi Zhou, 2022. "The Sharing of Costs and Benefits of Rural Environmental Pollution Governance in China: A Qualitative Analysis through Guanxi Networks Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Luigi Aldieri & Andrea Gatto & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2023. "Panel data and descriptor for energy econometrics – an efficiency, resilience and innovation analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1649-1656, April.
    3. Guadalupe Pérez & Jorge M. Islas-Samperio & Genice K. Grande-Acosta & Fabio Manzini, 2022. "Socioeconomic and Environmental Aspects of Traditional Firewood for Cooking on the Example of Rural and Peri-Urban Mexican Households," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-30, July.
    4. Vincenzo Rusciano & Andrea Gatto, 2022. "Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Use and Perceptions of Metropolitan Agricultural Parks—Evidence from Milan and Naples of Urban and Environmental Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Jifei Zhang & Shuai Zhang, 2022. "Assessing Integrated Effectiveness of Rural Socio-Economic Development and Environmental Protection of Wenchuan County in Southwestern China: An Approach Using Game Theory and VIKOR," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-17, October.

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