The country of Spain is representative of land change processes in Mediterranean member states of the European Union (EU). These land change processes are often triggered by European, national and sub-national policies and include widespread land abandonment and urbanisation trends, as well as an increase in land use intensities accompanied by strong exploitation of water resources. The Mediterranean is part of the dryland ecoregion, which is particularly vulnerable to ecosystem degradation.

Bi-weekly water quality data from seven monitoring stations located within Tahtali Watershed, İzmir, Turkey and digital land use/land cover data of the same watershed are analyzed in this study. To examine the changes in land use associated with urbanization, the satellite images of the main pool of the Tahtali reservoir prior to filling and subsequent to filling, respectively, are analyzed. Aerial photos of the basin taken in 1995 (October) are compared with images taken in 2005 (November) from the IKONOS satellite through use of several GIS techniques.

This work describes a methodology for Strategic Environmental Assessment of urban areas in Latin America based on the recently approved European Planning Directive, and applies it to the Metropolitan Area of Concepción (Chile). The method is based on the Land Suitability Index (LSI), a cartographic GIS-based index originally developed for the region of Barcelona (Spain) and aimed at determining the suitability of each point in a region for urban development, considering three sub-indexes: (i) Naturalness, (ii) Ecological Connectivity and (iii) Natural Risk.

We examined the utility of nutrient criteria derived solely from total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in streams (regression models and percentile distributions) and evaluated their ecological relevance to diatom and algal biomass responses. We used a variety of statistics to characterize ecological responses and to develop concentration-based nutrient criteria (derived from ecological effects) for streams in Connecticut, USA, where urbanization is the primary cause of watershed alteration.

Urban land development substantially alters the terrestrial carbon cycle, particularly the net primary productivity (NPP), from local to global scales. However, limited attempts have been undertaken to elucidate the differences in NPP between pre- and post-urban land development in China. In this paper, the terrestrial NPP after urbanization in China was assessed by using the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach (CASA), toward which a calibration was conducted for adapting this model on the fine-scale application.

Coyotes (Canis latrans) have expanded to live in urban areas with limited natural habitat. A year long coyote howl survey combined with geospatial information systems (GIS) was applied to locate populations within a metropolitan region, to determine the habitats where coyotes most frequently occur, and to estimate group sizes within this urbanized region. Surveys were conducted along the perimeters of natural areas and urban-residential communities.

Extensive groundwater withdrawals in urban areas may cause water shortages, land subsidence, and water quality problems. The Quetta Valley is the largest population center in Balochistan province in western Pakistan. This area is arid and groundwater is the main water source for domestic and agricultural use. This work presents global positioning system (GPS) data and assessment of spatial and temporal variations in water levels. GPS data from two stations from mid-2006 to the beginning of 2009 show subsidence rate of 10� cm\year.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) does not distinguish between natural and human drivers, and between active and inherited desertification. Partly as a result of these ambiguities the UNCCD has attracted a low level of international attention. As the Spanish case study shows, this vagueness hinders the implementation of effective strategies to combat this global challenge.

The Land Transformation Model (LTM) is hierarchically coupled with meso-scale drivers to project urban growth across the conterminous USA. Quantity of urban growth at county and place (i.e., city) scales is simulated using population, urban density and nearest neighbor dependent attributes. We compared three meso-scale LTMs to three null models that lack meso-scale drivers. Models were developed using circa 1990–2000 data and validated using change in the 2001 and 2006 National Land Cover Databases (NLCD).

Urbanization is increasingly becoming a widespread phenomenon at all scales of development around the globe. Be it developing or developed nations, all are witnessing urbanization at very high pace. In order to study its impacts, various methodologies and techniques are being implemented to measure growth of urban extents over spatial and temporal domains. But urbanization being a very dynamic phenomenon has been facing ambiguities regarding methods to study its dynamism. This paper aims at quantifying urban expansion in Delhi, the capital city of India.

Conservation easements (or conservation covenants) are commonly conceptualized as acquisitions of sticks in a ‘bundle of rights’ and are increasingly implemented for wildlife conservation on private lands. This research asks: (1) What are the possibilities and limitations of the conservation easement approach to wildlife conservation in contrasting rural and periurban regions? and (2) How does analysis of conservation easements differ when examining property as a bundle of rights or alternative metaphors?

Human conversion of land cover alters biotic communities and sets the stage for ongoing change as species interact within new environments. We studied the response of a native forest specialist, the Pacific wren (Troglodytes pacificus), to immediate and ongoing environmental changes facilitated by urbanization. We found evidence of a synergistic effect of native land cover loss followed by increased aggressive interactions with a native generalist, the Bewick’s wren (Thryomanes bewickii), resulting in the decline of Pacific wrens in urbanizing environments.