Soils are the biggest carbon store in the world (1500Gt, e.g. 1.5×10²¹g). The European Commission indicates the accounting of soil organic carbon (SOC) variations in space and time as the first step in the strategy for soil protection. It is indeed necessary in evaluating the risk of soil organic matter decline and soil biodiversity decline, and when evaluating the role played by soils in global CO₂ accounting. Previous maps of SOC variations in Italy did not consider the direct effect of climate. There is a marked inter-dependence between SOC and climate.

Managing urban growth in the current rapid urbanization process has become a key issue for land use policy in transformation China. This paper maps and assesses the performance of urban containment strategies in China, looking at the case of Beijing over a 19-year period (1990–2009). The analysis shows that to a large extent containment strategies perform well in terms of concentrating urban growth in planned suburban areas and promoting compact development.

Elandskloof was the first land restitution case in post-apartheid South Africa in which the government returned land to a community. The communal property association became dysfunctional, and the courts placed it under government administration. In its haste to return land to the community in the aftermath of the apartheid system the state did not set up comprehensive planning and consultative processes within government institutions, the beneficiary community and NGOs before returning the land.

Mediterranean ecosystems are global hotspots of biodiversity threaten by human disturbances. Growing evidence indicates that regeneration of Mediterranean forests can be halted under certain circumstances and that successional stages can become notoriously persistent. The Mediterranean sclerophyllous forest in central Chile is been largely transformed into savannas dominated by the invasive legume tree Acacia caven as result of interacting management and ecological factors.

This study quantified, across a landscape in Eastern Finland, the influence of administrative land-use and technical land-form constraints on timber production. Spatially explicit data about the nature conservation areas, land use plans and steep slopes were integrated with Multi-source National Forest Inventory (MS-NFI) data. The Finnish forestry model MELA was used in the calculations related to updating forest data and estimating different scenarios of timber production with and without constraints.

Environmental targets are often used in planning for sustainable agricultural landscapes but their impacts are rarely known. In this paper we introduce landscape futures analysis as a method which combines linear programming optimisation with scenario analysis in quantifying the environmental, economic, and social impacts associated with achieving environmental targets, on a landscape scale. We applied the technique in the Lower Murray in southern Australia.

High nutrient loads are a widespread problem for many rivers and river catchments and cause damage to various ecological assets. Negative effects can be mitigated by changes in land management such as land use changes and/or implementation of intervention measures such as – amongst others – the construction of artificial wetlands and water treatment plants.

This study was applied in Edirne province Havsa district. For determination of land use efficiency of Havsa, satellite image and GIS were used. For this purpose the data of General Directorate of Rural Services which belongs to 1993 year, ASTER satellite images which belongs to 2008 year and topographic maps were used. For performing calculations in ERDAS software unclassified classification applied and 15 classes were formed. For performing supervised classification field work applied.

Changes of agricultural land use often induce changes in hydrological behavior of watersheds. Hence, effective information regarding runoff responses to future land use scenarios provides useful support for decision-making in land use planning and management. The objective of this study is to develop a methodology to assess land use change scenario impacts on runoff at the watershed scale. This objective implies translating qualitative information from scenarios into quantitative input parameters for biophysical models.

The U.S. Clean Water Act requires compensatory mitigation for wetland and stream damage through restoration of damaged aquatic ecosystems. We evaluate the North Carolina's Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP), a state agency responsible for compensatory mitigation. We compare communities gaining and losing aquatic resources during mitigation, finding new types of socioeconomic disparities that contradict previous studies of mitigation program behavior.

Following the national policy, the Department of Agriculture of Thailand has implemented a crop diversification program in several provinces of the country. This study, which was conducted in Nakhon Pathom Province, analyzed the extent of crop diversification and its determinants using primary information collected from 245 farm households using a structured questionnaire, and from selected farmer leaders and agricultural development officials. The study also assessed the effects of crop diversification on income and the inputs used.

Carbon stocks were assessed in three archetypal forest ecosystems in the province of Salta, Argentina, namely Yungas, Chaco, and shrublands located around Chaco. Over a total area of about 7000 m2, detailed measurements of woody biomass were conducted using structural information such as diameter at breast height (dbh), total height, and stem height. At the same time, the wet weight of herbaceous, shrubs, and litter was registered within that area. Soil samples were also collected to determine parameters such as bulk density and organic carbon.