Land-based production provides societies with indispensable goods such as food, feed, fibre, and energy. Yet, with economic globalisation and global population growth, the environmental and social trade-offs of their production are ever more complex. This is particularly so since land use changes are increasingly embedded in networks of long-distance flows of, e.g., material, energy, and information.

The extent of land affected by degradation in Uganda ranges from 20% in relatively flat and vegetation-covered areas to 90% in the eastern and southwestern highlands. Land degradation has adversely affected smallholder agro-ecosystems including direct damage and loss of critical ecosystem services such as agricultural land/soil and biodiversity. This study evaluated the extent of bare grounds in Nakasongola, one of the districts in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda and the yield responses of maize (Zea mays) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to different tillage methods in the district.

Given the scarcity of land resources in most Chinese cities, the fragmentation of construction land use is a greater constraint than expansion for urban sustainability. Therefore, there is an urgent need to quantify the fragmentation level of construction land use for planning and managing practices. This study focuses on residential land use, which is one of the most important types of construction land use within built-up urban areas.

The land tenure reform is the key to sustainable development in rural China. Without challenging the collective ownership of land, the land shareholding cooperative (LSC) system came into being and is being strongly endorsed by the authority: It re-collectivizes the contracted land from peasants and enables better regional planning and large-scale modern agricultural production. This paper studies a specific LSC (Shanglin LSC in the Sunan region of the Yangtze River Delta) based on our fieldwork.

While an increase in the size and number of conservation areas is expected as part of global environmental commitments, at the same time, Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement, or PADDD, is becoming more frequent worldwide. This paper analyzes the causal relationships between land claims and human settlements on the one hand and the downsizing process of a protective forest in southeastern Ecuador on the other.

Forests are under pressure from land use change due to anthropogenic activities. Land use change and harvest are the main disturbances of forest landscape changes. Few studies have focused on the relative contributions of different disturbances. In this study, we used the CA-Markov model, a land-use change model, coupled with a forest landscape model, LANDIS-II, to simulate dynamic change in Taihe County, China, from 2010 to 2050. Scenarios analysis was conducted to quantify the relative contributions of land use change and harvest.

When developing land to meet various human needs, conducting assessments of different alternatives regarding their sustainability is critical. Among different alternatives of land-use, devoting land to bioenergy is relatively novel, in high demand, and important for addressing the energy crisis and mitigating carbon emissions. Furthermore, the competition and disputes among limited land-use for bioenergy and the combination of food production and housing are tense. Thus, which alternative of land-use is more sustainable is an important question, yet it is still under-investigated.

During the different period of architectural design designers attempt to achieve a high level of life quality for all users Architecture and urban planner want to provide a style of design which not only achieves different function for different users with respect to their ethnicity ability age sex capability position and lifestyle but also improve the friendly environment throughout responsive legislation based on longterm planning Although the styles are considered some indicators it is ignored the other important characteristics Therefore the existing styles never achieve the standard le

The Chinese have lived in singleextendedfamily courtyard houses in many parts of China for thousands of years The earliest courtyard house found in China was during the Middle Neolithic period 50003000 BCE The courtyard form signifies Chinese quest for harmony with nature and in social relationships However the 20th century was a significant turning point in the evolution of Chinese courtyard houses this paper provides an overview of this transition It starts by briefly introducing traditional Chinese courtyard houses and their decline since 1949 it then examines the emergence of new courty

Aesthetics is the philosophical study of art and natural beauty and it is indicated by the feelings of pleasure or displeasure which comes from visual and aural elements and artefacts Hence aesthetics depends on the animate or inanimate organization which can be perceived either subjectively or objectively This aesthetic element is uniquely present in the traditional buildings and modern buildings of the southwestern part of Nigeria This study is set out to evaluate and bring into limelight the aesthetic characteristics of traditional buildings and that of the modern buildings how one style

This paper reports on a detailed analysis of the metabolism of the Island City of Mumbai should the Indian Governments proposal for smart cities be implemented It focuses on the environmental impact of increased population density achieved by demolishing existing mediumrise 35 storey housing and replacing it with the proposed highrise 4060 storey towers The resulting increase in density places a burden on the demand on such things as electricity and water and simultaneously increases the output flows of drainage solid waste and greenhouse gas productionAn extended urban metabolism analysis

This article aims at following the traces of the transformation of public sphere in Turkey through its manifestations on urban public spaces with the case study of Taksim Square In this attempt the article illustrates how Taksim square as a public space has been shaped by struggles between different ideologies discourses political decisions and daily activities taking place at personal interpersonal local national supranational and global scales Through this way this article also aims at understanding how these contestations at different scales are affecting people individually and collecti