Since China's economic reform in the late 1970s, Shanghai, the country's largest and most modern city, has experienced rapid expansion and urbanization. Here, we explore its land‐use and land‐cover changes, focusing on the impacts of the urbanization process on air and water quality, local climate, and biodiversity. Over the past 30 years, Shanghai's urban area and green land (eg urban parks, street trees, lawns) have increased dramatically, at the expense of cropland.

The structure of agricultural production and spatial patterns of agricultural land use in Europe are expected to face major changes over the next decades due to changes in global trade, technology, demography and policies. This paper presents a set of 25 scenarios comprising information on quantitative land use changes in Europe. The scenarios have been selected from studies with different foci, operating on both different spatial scales and different time horizons.

There exists gender bias in resource ownership in many parts of Kenya with women being more disadvantaged. Resource ownership and control within the household has differential impacts on the health and overall well-being of male and female members. This paper examines intra-household resource ownership and how it affects nutrition and health status of household members. Data from a household survey containing detailed gender-disaggregated information on resource ownership as well as food and anthropometry were collected from a rural Kenyan district and used in the analysis.

This study examines the socio-economic and financial performances of irrigation projects under the Ogun-Oshun River Basin and Rural Development Authority (O-ORBRDA) in Nigeria. Primary data on the farming activities of the project farmers during the 2001/02 seasons and the projects' records for the period of 1995/96 to 2001/02 were summarised into socio-economic and financial performance indicators. In the Sepeteri Project, a revenue recovery level of 96% was estimated. The project is not financially viable as only 29% of its recurrent expenditure is covered.

This paper presents a range of future, spatially explicit, land use change scenarios for the EU15, Norway and Switzerland based on an interpretation of the global storylines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that are presented in the special report on emissions scenarios (SRES). The methodology is based on a qualitative interpretation of the SRES storylines for the European region, an estimation of the aggregate totals of land use change using various land use change models and the allocation of these aggregate quantities in space using spatially explicit rules.

Changes in rural areas, such as depopulation and land abandonment, but also intensification and loss of biodiversity, usually proceed very slowly yet are often irreversible. A scenario study (called EURURALIS) was carried out by Wageningen University and Research Centre in combination with the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP) to stimulate the strategic discussion among both national policy makers and policy makers at the European Union level on the future of Europe's rural areas and the role of policy instruments.

Despite great successes in crop research for the developing world, many poor farmers in marginal areas have not benefited. There is increasing recognition that crop research can and should benefit these farmers. This paper reviews some of the key technical issues related to the challenge of formulating and carrying out crop research that is targeted, relevant and appropriate to these farmers, with a particular emphasis on crop improvement. It examines the reasons that underpin the lack of research impacts, and some of the key challenges and tools available to make this happen.

Ruraal landgebruik en waardeconflicten

Dit rapport vormt een naslagwerk bij de Natuurbalans 2006. Het geeft een overzicht van de gegevens die het LEI in opdracht van het Milieu- en Natuurplanbureau ten behoeve van de Natuurbalans 2006 heeft geïnventariseerd en geanalyseerd. De aandacht gaat daarbij uit naar veranderingen in het landschap tussen 1990 en 2005, met een focus op de dynamiek in grondgebruik en grondgebruikers in het landelijk gebied in de afgelopen 15 jaar. Trefwoorden: landschap, ruimtegebruik, dragers landelijk gebied, ontwikkelingen landelijk gebied.