Groundwater is widely recognized as the most significant water resource for irrigation and drinking purposes in the extremely-arid inland river region. However, land use is a major force altering the hydrological processes over a range of temporal and spatial scales. Therefore, understanding the interaction between land use and groundwater processes will definitely contribute to formulate a regional sustainable development strategy and recognize the impact of land use on the groundwater flow regime in the Tailan River basin.

The paper presents the use of indicators in a site-specific assessment method for strategic environmental assessment in regional land use planning (here: SEA-REP). It is explained with the example of the state of environment indicator ‘LUCCA 4—Urban Areas at Risk of Flooding’, how SEA as a decision-aiding instrument can contribute to the prevention of conflicts with policy for adaptation to climate change. The method begins with the determination of impact factors for SEA.

This investigation was conducted for both constituting an urban land use planning and criticizing the appropriateness of the uses with respect to ecology by taking into consideration the ecological factors in the centre and the periphery of Çanakkale city. A method based on "Maximum Values Map Approximation Method" was used in this present study. A suggested land use map of the study area was constructed for these usage types according to the arrangements of their priorities by the experts.

The European Landscape Convention is the first international agreement to deal with all aspects of landscape planning, protection, and management. It emphasizes transparency, democracy, and good governance as integral parts of ‘landscape’. The ELC may inspire member states of the Council of Europe to develop better tools for planning land use and the environment; however its utility in practice is still largely untested. This article considers the relevance of the ELC to a major land use conflict in Europe today: the development of wind power.

Human activities are radically changing natural land cover and increasing the delivery of soil, organic compounds, nutrients, toxic agrochemicals and other contaminants to aquatic ecosystems. The eutrophication of streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and costal zones is one of the most important consequences of human activities. In this study we assessed the trophic status of 28 wadeable stream reaches of the Santa Lucía basin, an important economic region of Uruguay. We developed a Trophic State Index of Benthic Invertebrates (TSI-BI), the first of its kind for South American lotic systems.

Surface runoff and associated erosion processes adversely affect soil and surface water quality. There is increasing evidence that a sound understanding of spatial-temporal dynamics of land use and management are crucial to understanding surface runoff processes and underpinning mitigation strategies. In this review, we synthesise the effects of (1) temporal patterns of land management of individual fields, and (2) spatio-temporal interaction of several fields within catchments by applying semivariance analysis, which allows the extent and range of the different patterns to be compared.

1. The progression of approaches in systematic conservation planning from representation to representation and persistence has greatly enhanced its potential applicability to freshwaters. However, conceptual frameworks that consolidate principles for incorporating persistence into freshwater conservation planning are still lacking. 2.

Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) are employed as compulsory instruments to meet standards on EU water quality. Farmers operating in NVZs face a number of restrictions on agricultural activity and a greater requirement for record keeping in relation to timing and quantities of nitrogen inputs used. This paper presents results of a survey into the attitudes and values of farmers within the designated Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) in Scotland. A typology based on perceptions towards water quality management was developed using factor and cluster analysis techniques.

Competition for land between agriculture and urban uses is a global problem. Until recently, planners and policy makers have relied on regulatory ‘command and control’ planning approaches; however, there is growing interest in the use of market-based instruments to address natural resource management issues in complex and highly contested peri-urban environments. Tradable development rights are one type of market-based instrument. While tradable development rights have been used extensively in the United States, their application in Australia has been limited.

The article summarizes the land relations in the Baltic countries: the features of the land policy, lands' relationships and land use planning in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the XVII-XIX centuries.

Climate change, food crises and deterioration of the environment create immense challenges in water management. In the Netherlands land subsidence, high population density and intensity of land use aggravate these problems. Increased awareness of these problems and civil society's participation in the discussions complicate these challenges. The Netherlands' Government Service for Land and Water Management (DLG), an organisation specialising in integrated land development, has tackled these problems at a regional/local scale.

Recent land cover change estimates show overall decline of tropical forests at the regional and global scales caused by multiple social, cultural and economic factors. There is an overall concern on the prevailing land use practices, such as shifting cultivation and extraction of forest materials as agents of forests losses, but also new, emerging land uses are threatening tropical forests. Understanding of the long-term development and driving forces of forest changes are needed, especially at local levels where many decisions on forest policies and land uses are made.