The present study has two aims, to provide a further contribute to the literature on land market, and to highlight the possible relationships between some macroeconomic factors affecting the land values trend in Italy and in Sicily. The data obtainable from the available information sources in the field were collected and processed. More in detail, in the first part of the paper a reference scenario is described through the presentation of the general features of agricultural land market, relying upon the specific scientific literature.

The article highlights the benefits of adopting the practice of long-term planning with the aim of helping decision makers and politicians to include scenario thinking in the process of determining food security in Israel, 2050. This study addresses the question of food security, a step that is in contrast with agricultural planning considerations of the past that have mainly focused on maximizing profits or relied on a closed mathematical model.

Abstract: The article attempts to define the relevant yardsticks that can be used to delineate the end of the transition process or, alternatively, a second stage in the post-socialist economic transformation into market capitalism. A first benchmark is EU accession, but it does not apply to non accession transitional economies. Moreover, a delay is going to appear between accession and the full benefit of common policies – a second transition period will open in May 2004. Convergence criteria are likely to postpone the end of transition for decades, if not for ever.

Pernambuco‟s countryside, which is founded in a process of exploration base on acute land concentration, predominance of sugar cane monoculture and slavery legacy, is characterized by a socioeconomic structure that incites social tensions related to work relations. It‟s in this context that Cavalo Marinho‟s manifestation emerges, expressing a symbolic discourse about the reality. This research tries to understand how typical work relations are represented on a specific Cavalo Marinho‟s plot, transcribed by Oliveira (2006).

Background: Goods distribution by containers has opened new opportunities for them in the global supply chain network. Standardization of transportation units allow to simplify transport logistics operations and enable the integration of different types of transport. Currently, container transport is the most popular means of transport by sea, but recent studies show an increase in its popularity in land transport.

This paper aims to assess the state of the agricultural global sustainability and the role that, with respect to the objective, can develop the characteristics of the land factor. The results show, at farm level, a trade-off between environmental and socio-economic sustainability in terms of altitude, of some productive potential of the land and in correspondence with an enlargement of the farm size. Moreover, the land factor plays a potential role also in terms of improvement of the global sustainability; a result this, that attributes great relevance to the land values.

This paper presents a review of the presentations and synthesis of the discussion during a Symposium on ‘Transformation
of rural-urban cultural landscapes in Europe: Integrating approaches from ecological, socio-economic
and planning perspectives’ held at the European IALE conference 2009 in Salzburg, Austria. The symposium
addressed an extended and much debated subject of the landscape dynamics in Europe. The papers presented
during the symposium showcased a broad spectrum of cutting edge research questions and challenges faced by

In the appraisal of the market value of the properties are applied two important surface indexes: the market surface ratio of the secondary surfaces and the ratio of the site value to total value (allocation method).

To discriminate between the contributions of ecosystems and the human subsidies to agricultural systems,
we propose using an additional terminology to bring clarification into the controversial discussion about i)
ecosystems versus agrosystems and ii) ecosystem services versus agrosystem services. A literature review
revealed that with the exception of some very recent publications, this has not yet been sufficiently
reflected, neither within the scientific nor in the policy discussion. The question remains whether to spoil

There is a rapidly growing body of literature on the theory about the ecosystem service concept and the practical assessment of
ecosystem services in different contexts ranging from natural to urban environments. Yet, where does the concept reach its limits?
This paper critically reflects the application of the ecosystem service concept in urban environments illustrating the handling of
urban structures (incl. built-up areas) and the risk that the normative principle of the concept could be missed. It is shown that in

This study explores the influence of incidence of poverty and plot-level perception of soil degradation, on soil conservation behaviour of small subsistence farmers in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The study results confirm that poverty in assets significantly reduces the probability of soil-conservation efforts as measured by use of stone/soil bund structures in the highlands of Ethiopia.

The set of models available to predict land use change in urban regions has become increasingly complex in recent years. Despite their complexity, the predictive power of these models remains relatively weak. This paper presents an example of an alternative modeling framework based on the concept of a Markov chain. The model assumes that land use at any given time, which is viewed as a discrete state, can be considered a function of only its previous state.