Remote sensing data is routinely used in ecology to investigate the relationship between landscape pattern as characterised by land use and land cover maps, and ecological processes. Multiple factors related to the representation of geographic phenomenon have been shown to affect characterisation of landscape pattern resulting in spatial uncertainty. This study investigated the effect of the interaction between landscape spatial pattern and geospatial processing methods statistically; unlike most papers which consider the effect of each factor in isolation only.

Applying a difference‐in‐difference approach with propensity score matching, we examine the impact of participation in the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) scheme on cereal farm incomes in eastern England. We assess the extent to which impacts are related to a) the source of income affected – whether only from agricultural or total business income; b) the channel of the impact – through land use and/or labour input; and c) the level of impacts through time. In addition, we assess the appropriateness of the level of the ELS payment.

The distributed hydrology soil vegetation model (DHSVM) is applied in the 107 km² Nam Mae Rim watershed (NMRW) in northern Thailand. Simulations using land cover scenarios for 1989 and 2002, extreme deforestation, and forest, each run with and without roads, show that roads have very small effects on the mean water fluxes, but significantly increase peak flows for all land cover scenarios. The magnitude of the road effect on peak flow depends on the land cover context in which the roads are placed.

Understanding how landscape, host, and pathogen traits contribute to disease exposure requires systematic evaluations of pathogens within and among host species and geographic regions. The relative importance of these attributes is critical for management of wildlife and mitigating domestic animal and human disease, particularly given rapid ecological changes, such as urbanization.

Remotely-sensed images and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data were integrated into the SLEUTH cellular automata (CA) model to analyze land-use/land-cover dynamics in Chiang Mai city and its surrounds. The land-use and land-cover statistics, obtained from GIS data base and satellite images from 1952, 1977, 1989 and 2000 revealed rapid increased in urbanization during these periods. To understand the underlying causes of land-use and land-cover dynamics, remote sensing, GIS and modeling techniques were applied.

In this study, we have attempted to develop a land suitability model for saffron, an agronomic crop, which is economically viable, environmentally bearable and socially equitable at Khost Province of Afghanistan. The objective was to determine different land suitability classes for saffron cultivation using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS). A decision tree was developed encompassing the physical, economic and social criteria.

Outdoor water use is a key component in arid city water systems for achieving sustainable water use and ensuring water security. Using evapotranspiration (ET) calculations as a proxy for outdoor water consumption, the objectives of this research are to quantify outdoor water consumption of different land use and land cover types, and compare the spatio-temporal variation in water consumption between drought and wet years.

Over the past decades, the vast limestone mountain areas in southwestern China have suffered greatly from karst rocky desertification (KRD), which is a unique type of desertification caused by irrational land-use practices and has drawn increasing attention of international academic community. Characterizing soil erosion in this region is the key to understanding the escalating KRD problem and finding solution to it. The authors applied leveling method to study soil erosion process in the Huajiang Karst Canyon area between 1999 and 2003, and tried to relate it to KRD expansion.

This paper reports on the performance of the red-listed Primula scandinavica, endemic to Scandinavia. The study took place in Jotunheimen, Norway. We evaluated occurrence, density and sexual reproduction variables (number of fertile individuals and number of seed capsules). Habitats were registered as land-cover categories (historical and current; broad habitat types) and habitat patch classes (semi-natural and natural; fine-grained habitat types).

Despite the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which brought to an end 20 years of civil warin the Sudan, this country continues to experience smaller-scale conflicts, particularly aroundaccess to and control of natural resources. Some observers lay the blame for this onethnopolitical or tribal divisions.

The effects of agricultural practices on runoff water quality are a major concern worldwide, particularly where there is the potential to cause harm to aquatic ecosystems receiving the runoff. Cropping land has been identified as a major source of pollutants in the Fitzroy Basin, the largest catchment discharging into the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon. However, knowledge of pollutant generation rates in runoff from the dryland cropping (grains) industry's best management practices (BMPs) on Vertisol soils is limited, partly due to the scarce distribution of these soils worldwide.