Culture and identity in a society can be represented in the architecture and the meanings intertwined with it. In this sense, the architecture and design are the interface for transferring meaning and identity to the nation and future generations. Persian gardens have been evolved through the history of Persian Empire in regard to the culture and beliefs of the society. This paper aims to investigate the patterns of design and architecture in Persian gardens and the meanings intertwined with their patterns and significant elements such as water and trees.

The South African government provides access to agricultural land for people not adequately represented in the agricultural sector.  However, the government lacks sufficient funds and institutional infrastructure to provide post-settlement support to the settled developing farmers. A farmer-to-farmer mentorship programme between established and developing farm types has been identified as an institutional arrangement that could complement the government’s efforts.

This study aims at presenting a conceptual model for landscape management in the Himalayan region of India,
using quantitative/mathematical approach. Keeping in view the requirement, (based on fifteen years empirical
field work in the Himalayan region and as well as literature survey) the MODAM (Multiple Objectives Decision
Support Tools for Landscape Management) model along with linear programming approach was adopted with a
view to presenting additional methodological perspectives on interdisciplinary landscape research. The work has

Within the framework of the project „Flood Prevention and Nature Conservation in the Weisseritz area“ („HochNatur“),
a method including landscape metrics was developed and applied to assess and to compare different land
use scenarios with regard to flood prevention and nature conservation. For the analysis, two sub-catchments strongly
differing in land use within the Weisseritz catchment (Eastern Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany) were selected. The

The paper begins from testing a renewed interest by the Italian legislator about aspects of land ownership, and examines recent proposals of regulatory measures presented in the years 2012 and 2013. Therefore are taken into account the law projects concerning the so called ‘Consumption’ of agricultural land, presented to the Parliament by the Italian government either in September 2012 then in June 2013, following the election of the new Parliament in the Spring of 2013.

RESUMEN Este trabajo analiza la influencia de algunas características espaciales sobre los precios por noche de casas rurales en Gran Canaria. Se estimó para ello un modelo de precios hedónicos que incluye en su formulación ciertos atributos espaciales de la casa, tales como el número de vecinos en un radio determinado. Estas variables fueron calculadas por medio de un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG). También se analizaron otros factores incluidos tradicionalmente en estos modelos, como las características estructurales de la casa y la distancia a lugares de interés.

Long-term field studies in the scope of a multidisciplinary project in southern Ecuador revealed extraordinary high species
numbers of many organismic groups. This article discusses reasons for the outstanding vascular plant diversity using a
hierarchical scale-oriented top-down approach (Grüninger 2005), from the global scale to the local microscale. The global
scale explains general (paleo-) ecological factors valid for most parts of the humid tropics, addressing various hypotheses

Long-term erosion forecast can completely misinterpret in extreme events in plain regions. Flow paths are well
represented in the plain using digital elevation models in the 1-m grid (DEM1). The scale of the erosion process
models and the elevation models is comparable. With it instruments are available to improve the erosion simulation.
Simulations, based on (R)USLE family and bigger grid width, are relevant for regional overviews, to the clarification
of small scale relevant linear erosion forms, however, unsuitably.

Recently, droughts have become widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, including in Mongolia. The ground surface condition, particularly vegetation coverage, affects the occurrence of dust storms. The main sources of dust storms in the Asian region are the Taklimakan and Mongolian Gobi desert regions. In these regions, precipitation is one of the most important factors for growth of plants especially in arid and semi-arid land. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between precipitation and vegetation cover dynamics over 29 years in the Gobi region.

Organized transhumant pastoralism has contributed to shaping the cultural landscape of many countries. It has affected areas designated for grazing, temporary and permanent shelters, and towns. Through the analysis of historical maps and recent information, in a temporal range from 1652 to 2014, this study focused on changes in land cover and conservation status of one of the main Italian transhumance paths, namely the Tratturo Castel di Sangro-Lucera. Although there are some areas where this drove road is still recognizable, it is mostly identifiable only through a few tangible signs.

Common approaches to mapping green infrastructure in urbanised landscapes invariably focus on measures of land use or land cover and associated functional or physical traits. However, such one-dimensional perspectives do not accurately capture the character and complexity of the landscapes in which urban inhabitants live. The new approach presented in this paper demonstrates how open-source, high spatial and temporal resolution data with global coverage can be used to measure and represent the landscape qualities of urban environments.

This study uses a combination of remote sensing data, field interviews and observations, and landscape indices to examine the dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC), identify their driving forces, and analyze their effects on the landscape of Abaya-Chamo Basin (ACB) between 1985, 1995, and 2010. The results reveal that the landscape of ACB has changed considerably during the past 25 years between 1985 and 2010. The main changes observed imply a rapid reduction in shrubland (28.82%) and natural grassland (33.13%), and an increase in arable land (59.15%).