Társadalmunk gazdasági fejlődése a természeti erőforrások használatára épül. A földtulajdon és a földhasználati rendszer hatékonysága hazánkban és az EU-ban is a figyelem középpontjában áll. A birtokstruktúra és a földhasználat döntően befolyásolják a gazdálkodás eredményességét. A Kormány a Nemzeti Földalap létrehozásával gátat kíván szabni a földspekulációnak. Vidéken a föld racionális használata megkerülhetetlen. A kritikus gazdasági helyzetű térségekben a mezőgazdasági tevékenység – mint a megélhetés egyetlen forrása – felértékelődik.

Provision of clean freshwater is an essential ecosystem service that is under increasing pressure worldwide from a variety of conflicting demands. Water yields differ in relation to land‐cover type. Successful resource management therefore requires accurate information on yields from alternative vegetation types to adequately address concerns regarding water production. Of particular importance are upper watersheds/catchments, regardless of where water is extracted.

The damage exerted by warfare on the physical landscape is one, of many, anthropogenic impacts upon the environment. Bombturbation is a term that describes the impacts of explosive munitions upon the landscape. Bombturbation, like many other forms of zoogeomorphology, is a disruptive force, capable of moving large amounts of sediments, and denuding landscapes to the point where changes in micro and mesotopography have long-term implications.

There is a growing demand for improving the measurement of forest resources, with more frequent updating and better information on environmental variables. We explore the cost efficiency of a stratified two-stage design using area sampling to estimate the forest plantation and native forest areas in southern Chile. Analytical expressions for the approximate mean square error of combined and separate ratio estimators are derived applying Taylor linearization.

Total belowground C allocation (TBCA) accounts for a large fraction of gross primary production, it may overtake aboveground net primary production, and contributes to the primary source of detrital C in the mineral soil. Here, we measure soil respiration, water erosion, litterfall and estimate annual changes in C stored in mineral soil, litter and roots, in three representative land uses in a Mediterranean ecosystem (late-successional forest, abandoned agricultural field, rain-fed olive grove), and use two C balance approaches (steady-state and non-steady-state) to estimate TBCA.

Studies of the modern relationship between pollen, vegetation and land-use are essential to infer past human impact on vegetation from pollen records. Nevertheless, such investigations are relatively few in China. We present here a study of pollen assemblages from sediment samples collected from irrigation pools in the Tuoliang and Qipanshan catchments in northern China.

Shoreline changes along the south Gujarat coast has been analyzed by using USGS Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.3. Multi-temporal satellite images pertaining to 1972, 1990, 2001 and 2011 were used to extract the shoreline. The High water line (HTL) is considered as shoreline and visual interpretation of satellite imageries has been carried out to demarcate the HTL based on various geomorphology and land use & land cover features. The present study used the Linear Regression Method (LRR) to calculate shoreline change rate.

Temperate humid grazing lands are an important component of the landscape of the northeastern United States, as well as of the economy of this region. Unlike their European counterparts, little is known about the basic ecology of managed grasslands in this region. During an 8-year survey of 28 farms across the northeastern United States, we sampled the vegetation on 95 grazed plots, identifying 310 plant species, and collected data on topography, climate and soils.

Namatala wetland near the town of Mbale in the Eastern region of Uganda is a papyrus wetland that is subject to conversion for agriculture (mainly rice farming) and pollution by wastewater. The main goal of this study was to analyze the ecosystem functions and services of Namatala wetland and their drivers of change, and to suggest directions for sustainable use. Data on climate, hydrology, water quality, population and land use were collected. Stakeholder workshops were organized at national and local levels to identify stakeholder interests in the wetland and conflicts.

Thermal infrared (TIR) remote-sensing techniques have been used to estimate land surface temperatures (LSTs) and to study the relationship between land uses and LSTs. Remotely sensed thermal data provide a time-synchronized dense grid of temperature data, and there has been a growing interest on LSTs in various fields, such as urban climatology and global environmental change. It is also important for urban planning and management practices to maintain thermally efficient urban structures. This article focuses on differences between the estimated LSTs and the measured temperatures.

An interview based survey of farm landowners in the south east corner of Saskatchewan was undertaken to evaluate the provision of wildlife habitat by agriculture. Producers were asked to provide management information regarding a piece of their land that was managed as a unit. Within the past ten years there has been a reduction in the conversion of remaining native land to crop land, an increase in conversion of annual crop land to perennial cover crops, an increase in the use of minimum disturbance (no-till) farming, and a decrease in the use of fire on stubble fields and sloughs.