A methodology is developed to relate urban growth studies to distributed hydrological modeling using an integrated approach of remote sensing and GIS. This linkage is possible because both studies share land-use and land-cover data. Landsat Thematic Mapper data are utilized to detect urban land-cover changes. GIS analyses are then conducted to examine the changing spatial patterns of urban growth. The integration of remote sensing and GIS is applied to automate the estimation of surface runoff based on the Soil Conservation Service model.

Agricultural land values and cash rental rates in South Dakota, by region and by state, are primary topics of this report. The target audience are farmers and ranchers, landowners, ag professionals (lenders, rural appraisers, professional farm managers), and policy makers interested in ag land market trends. This report contains results of the 2011 Farm Real Estate Market Survey, the 21st annual SDSU survey developed to estimate ag land values and cash rental rates by land use in different regions of South Dakota.

Among the remaining tropical forests of lowland Latin America, many are inhabited by indigenous peoples, and the sustainability of their land uses is a point of heated debate in the conservation community. Numerous small-scale studies have documented changes in indigenous land use in individual communities in the context of expanding frontier settlements and markets, but few studies have included larger populations or multiple ethnic groups.

In the last settler’s syndrome, each new settler wants the area to remain as it was on their arrival. Newcomers’ preferences often differ from long-term residents, and conflicts arise. To explore land use issues among various groups, a survey of opinions on mountain views was developed and administered to Watauga County residents in western North Carolina. Watauga County provides an interesting case study, because it is a growing area with an influx of newcomers along with long-time residents.

In India, land resources have reached a critical stage due to the rapidly growing population. This challenge requires an integrated approach toward harnessing land resources, while taking into account the vulnerable environmental conditions. Remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) based technologies may be applied to an area in order to generate a sustainable development plan that is optimally suited to the terrain and to the productive potential of the local resources. The present study area is a part of the middle Ganga plain, known as Son-Karamnasa interfluve, in India.

The Central Asian countries are particularly affected by the global climate change. The cultural and economic centers in this mostly arid region have to rely solely on the water resources provided by the rapidly melting glaciers in the Pamir, Tien-Shan and Alay mountains. By 2030, the available water resources will be 30 % lower than today while the water demand will increase by 30 %. The unsustainable land and water use leads to a water deficit and a deterioration of the water quality.

The article aims to analyze suitability of land selection for cultivation of sugar beet in Slovakia in the period from 2008 to 2012. The results confirmed, that there are enough soils suitable for sugar beet growing in Slovakia. The area of sugar beet cultivation is conditioned by the presence of only two sugar rafineries, which are in operation, in Sered and Trencianska Tepla. The most productive soils in the climatically most suitable areas of Slovakia are chosen for growing sugar beet.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is influenced by land use and management. Here, the carbon (CO₂-C) budgets of a managed forest (spruce), a grass site and a crop site (crop rotation) have been compared to examine the effects of different management practices on net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and net biome productivity (NBP). This approach enables a more comprehensive carbon budgeting as it takes into account carbon exports and imports for particular land uses.

Determining soil nutrient distribution is critical to identify sites which are at risk of N and P loading. Equally important are determining factors that influence such distribution (e.g. land use, land management, topography, etc.). In this research, soil nutrient distribution and its influencing factors were studied in a small-scaled watershed in the purple soil region of Sichuan Province, China. The watershed is 1.3km² with a complex land management system including agriculture and forestry.

Driven principally by government regulation and societal expectations, mining companies around the world are seeking to mitigate the environmental impacts of mining through mined land rehabilitation programs. The ultimate goal of rehabilitation is to establish an acceptable and sustainable post-mining land use. Mining companies worldwide face the challenge of specifying just what a sustainable post-mining land use will be.

Scholars of pastoralism often refer to changes of pastoral land tenure as ‘encroachment.’ The New Zealand case of pastoral land tenure reform suggests that this is incorrect for several reasons. First it takes the point of view of the pastoralist, which introduces unnecessary bias. Second, it assumes that all changes in land tenure are situations in which the state, or another powerful agent, takes land away from the less powerful pastoralists.