In the vicinity of a city, farmers are confronted with increasing agricultural land prices and rents along the rural-urban gradient, but they concurrently enjoy the advantages associated with proximityto a larger and wealthier consumer base. We hypothesize that farmers transition fromlow-value, land-intensive \traditional" crops to high-value, labor-intensive \specialized" crops on parcels located closer to urban centers. Once returns to development of a parcel exceed theprofits associated with farming, exurban farmers may sell their land for conversion to urban use.

Groundwater exploration in the Western Doon valley has been carried out to delineate the groundwater potential and groundwater quality zones suitable for domestic purposes based on the integrated use of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The Western Doon Valley, occupying broad synclinal troughs in the evolving fold-thrust system of sub-Himalaya, which is filled by post-Siwalik fluvial and debris flow deposits in the late Quaternary-Holocene.

This work describes the methodological approach used for mapping the potential infiltration areas of the Guaratinguetá watershed (160 km2), situated in Southeastern Brazil. The method is considered a qualitative approach, which takes into account thematic maps (geology, pedology, geomorphology, and land use/land cover) and the precipitation spatial distribution. A group of experts in Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering has applied an infiltration potential scale factor that ranges from 5 (highest influence) to 1 (lowest influence).

Landscapes in urban areas especially in developing countries are under pressure due to increasing population of urban dwellers and un-directed spread of city boundaries. Sound urban environment plays important aesthetic, ecological, cultural, social and engineering roles beneficial to the people. To support better management of vegetated sites, it is necessary to understand the spatial configuration at the landscape scale and changes that have occurred.

A new methodological framework for plant diversity assessment at the landscape scale is presented that exhibits the following strengths: (1) potential for easily standardizable sampling procedure; (2) characterization of disturbance regime; (3) use of selected disturbance descriptors as explanatory variables which probably allow for better transferability than site specific land use types--for example, to evaluate the emerging use of energy plants that pose novel management challenges without historic precedence to many landscapes; (4) analysis of quantitative and qualitative aspects of pla

Land use and land cover changes (LUCC) are recognized as one of the most relevant drivers of biodiversity loss in ecosystems. Through the analysis of satellite images, this article quantifies the LUCC that occurred between 1985 and 2008 in the Colombian Andes. Four submodels of changes were analyzed: deforestation, crop intensification, conversion to pastures, and abandonment.

This paper updates an analysis of returns from major productive land uses in New Zealand carried out in 2008. Trends in profitability over time are shown, and a preliminary investigation of the relationship between land-use change towards forestry (new land planting) and forestry profitability is described.

Land improvements with long pay-back periods are often delayed on leased agricultural land. The delay in improvements has been found to result in land degradation, decreased land productivity and environmental problems. An important question is thus how landowners would respond to regulations and mandates concerning land improvements. Based on a Finnish landowner survey, we analysed landowner choices under certain land improvement regulations, using the currently dominant choice of leasing land for agricultural use as the benchmark.

This paper examines the combined effects of catchment complexity in terms of physiography, land use patterns, and lithology on the export of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved silica from heterogeneous nested catchments in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Using results from water quality monitoring at 24 sampling sites, we determined the first-order controls on these fluxes.

Complexity embedded in coastal management leads to numerous questions as to how inherent spatial and temporal linkages among evapotranspiration (ET), depth to groundwater and land-use/land-cover change (LUCC) could affect the dynamics among these seemingly unrelated events. This article aims to address such unique dynamics in the nexus of physical geography and ecohydrology.