Like land before the industrial revolution, in the present global economy much knowledge is being enclosed in private hands. In this paper we argue that these enclosures have become a major factor in specialization among firms and among countries: both are forced to specialize in the fields that are not restricted by the enclosures of the others. We use data on 26 OECD countries over the 1978-2006 period.

The consumption of natural, agricultural and forest soils that follows urban growth and infrastructural development is responsible for the fragmentation of the open spaces and the ecological connections, and for the functional disorganisation of the territory, bringing relevant environmental, economic and social impacts. The quality and quantity of this consumption relates to the ability to manage, at the different scales, a global phenomenon.

E nvironmental planning is an instrument for the operationalisation of the precautionary principle in environmental law and, to this end, must rely on maps depicting the spatial patterns of ecological attributes of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and of environmental change effects, respectively. In this context, different mapping techniques are presented by example of three case studies covering terrestrial, coastal and marine environments. The first case study was selected to demonstrate how to compute an ecological land classification of Germany by means of CART.

Housing prices in the Lyon Urban Area are simulated with the land use framework UrbanSim interacting with transportation model. We focus on the Real Estate Price Model of the UrbanSim framework. This OLS regression model of housing prices is calibrated using a nine-year back-casting period. The calibrated model, applied in simulation, provides price dynamics similar to actual one in the centre of Lyon. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates the model’s ability to capture changes in employment accessibility on price dynamics.

In recent years, the media impact of the damage from electromagnetic fields generated by high voltage power lines on human health has grown considerably. Hence, judges increasingly require the assessment of the compensation concerning the land depreciation for the “perception” of the health risk from land market operators, regardless of the land use and the ascertainment of the health damage.

The nature of different activities in production, agriculture as well as distribution and consumption section, called as expansionist activities, largely influence the ability of the land. Production of consumable material, which is required for increasing population in various areas, and their attractions make it possible to earn more profit and it causes a significant pressure on soil and water resources and can threaten environmental pollution and human food security.

The paper presents empirical studies on the appreciation of nature and landscape in the Eastern Ore Mountains (Saxony, Germany) by tourism service providers (TSP) and visitors. Attractive landscape and experience of nature are the most important reasons to visit this region and to spend leisure time there. Particularly mountain meadows, raised bogs and mixed forests are highly appreciated. Deforestation, industrial development and the decline of biodiversity would reduce attractiveness for visitors.

This study investigates the economic impact of a land tax implemented under the Local Government Municipal Property Rates Act No. 6 of 2004 on commercial farms using five case studies with five-year data sets in the Mtonjaneni and Umgeni municipal districts of KwaZulu-Natal.

During the symposium “Ecosystem Services at the Landscape Scale” from the EU-IALE conference 2009, several
challenges for future research on approaches to use the concept of ecosystem services at the landscape scale were
identified, focussing on the need for integration. Three main research directions were discussed, (i) the definition
of the potentials and limitations of the ecosystem service approach for landscape analysis, (ii) the identification of

The upper treeline of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is renowned as a sensitive indicator of climate change and variability. By use of megafossil tree remains, preserved exposed on the ground surface, treeline shift over the past millennium was investigated at multiple sites along the Scandes in northern Sweden. Difference in thermal level between the present and the Medieval period, about AD 1000-1200, is a central, although controversial, aspect concerning the detection and attribution of anthropogenic climate warming.

The present study aims to provide a further contribution to the knowledge about the mechanism of price formation concerning olive orchards and vineyards in a land market of south-west Sicily. Firstly the main characteristics of a sample concerning 42 land properties recently sold in Partanna territory were surveyed and afterwards their relationships between the most relevant among them and the correspondent market prices (both total and unitary sales prices) were investigated through the Multiple Regression Analysis.

The research aim to test the information collected through the Italian FADN survey to analyze the characteristics of Italian land market and was referred to accounting year 2009. The value of land is estimated according to the criterion of the most probable market value and is related to an administrative area and a quality culture. Given the similarity of information obtained, the results have been compared with data of  the INEA survey on Land Market published on the website Institute.