A new phytoplankton-based index was designed to respond to the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements concerning the assessment of lake ecological status. The “Indice Phytoplancton Lacustre” (IPLAC) is a multimetric index, taking into account biomass, abundance and species composition of communities. The first metric is based on the total phytoplankton biomass (MBA), the second on the abundance and taxonomic composition (MCS) of 165 indicator taxa. The IPLAC was developed on 2 independent databases, one for the calibration and the second for the validation of the metrics.

We present an approach to regional environmental monitoring in the Northern Eurasian grain belt combining time series analysis of MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data over the period 2001-2008 and land cover change (LCC) analysis of the 2001 and 2008 MODIS Global Land Cover product (MCD12Q1). NDVI trends were overwhelmingly negative across the grain belt with statistically significant (p[Symbol: see text]0.05) positive trends covering only 1% of the land surface.

With an ever expanding population, potential climate variability and an increasing demand for agriculture-based alternative fuels, accurate agricultural land-cover classification for specific crops and their spatial distributions are becoming critical to researchers, policymakers, land managers and farmers. It is important to ensure the sustainability of these and other land uses and to quantify the net impacts that certain management practices have on the environment.

FLogA (Fire Logic Animation) is a set of methods and an interactive, Web-based, user-friendly software tool which allows the user to draw a forest area on the map anywhere in Europe, insert fire ignition points, generate on the fly all input data layers required for a wildfire simulation, and then simulate and animate the behavior of the evolving fireline under different weather conditions. FLogA utilizes only publicly available non-proprietary data, software libraries and Web services. It adopts a distributed, open, service oriented architecture that is easy to maintain and extend.

Pakistan is an agricultural country with an increasing interest for hydropower. Water management problems such as sedimentation and evaporation have been of high concern for surface water reservoirs for many years. Therefore, groundwater storage through subsurface dams could be promising, especially considering the monsoon rainfall and seasonal river flows in Pakistan. The paper aims to develop and test a methodology to locate suitable sites for construction of subsurface dams using spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA) in the northern parts of Pakistan.

Impact of anthropogenic activities has led to significant changes in riverbeds over a period of time. The objective of the study was to monitor the land use land cover (LULC) of Yamuna riverbed in Delhi and to assess the changes due to natural and anthropogenic activities. The maximum likelihood classification was carried out by using March 1977, April 1999, April 2002 and February 2009 imageries. An overall accuracy of LULC classification of 2009 imagery was around 88.6% based on ground truth data.

Landscape indicators, when combined with information about environmental conditions (such as habitat potential, biodiversity, carbon and nutrient cycling, and erosion) and socioeconomic forces, can provide insights about changing ecosystem services. They also provide information about opportunities for improving natural resources management. Landscape indicators rely on data regarding land cover, land management and land functionality.

We examined the influence of riparian vegetation on macroinvertebrate community structure in streams of the Upper Thames River watershed in southwestern Ontario. Thirty-three μ-basins (129–1458 ha) were used to identify land cover variables that influenced stream macroinvertebrates. Micro-basins represented the entire drainage area of study streams and were similar in stream order (first, second) and land cover (agricultural or forest; no urban). We described the structure and composition of riparian vegetation and benthic macroinvertebrate communities at the outflow reach.

Human activity such as the development of slope land around watersheds has dramatically affected the ecological environment in Taiwan. This situation has been aggravated by heavy precipitation from typhoons in the summertime. The results include serious soil erosion and mass movement in the Shih-men Reservoir watershed.

Context Primates are one of the most charismatic and widely studied vertebrate groups. However, the study of new world primates in green patches within urban areas has been neglected. Such primates have been viewed as a source of human–animal conflict; however, their ecological importance to urban ecosystems and their role in human well being is poorly understood. Aims To increase understanding of both ecological and socioeconomical factors affecting the distribution, density and group sizes of urban marmosets in a large Brazilian city (Belo Horizonte).

Automatic land-cover identification using remote-sensing images is essential for agricultural management and monitoring, which is an ongoing challenge. For permanent crops, which are of great importance economically and environmentally, it becomes even more challenging mainly due to the varying statistics of orchards such as the existence of different orchard types, different crown sizes even for the same type, different distances between orchards among various fields and overlapping crowns.

Context Reptiles, especially snakes, can cause a fear reaction in the public and are, therefore, a good model to examine human–wildlife conflicts. Human city dwellers often respond to the presence of snakes or other reptiles by calling out the responsible agency for animal control, which has to mediate the situation. Aims To determine how the temporal and spatial occurrence of human–reptile conflicts were associated with environmental conditions and socio-economic factors in a large Brazilian city (Belo Horizonte).