Recent increases in the price of oil have generated much interest in biofuel development but the social and environmental impacts of large scale adoption of biofuels at both regional and national scales remain understudied, especially in developing economies. Although the recent swings in prices for oil may slow down these surges in supply and demand, production of biofuels from food remain profitable above $50/barrel making the biofuel market viable.

This paper examines the preservation of farmland through purchasable development rights. In a comparison of the estimated costs and benefits associated with the development of open space from 1982 to 1992, we show that these programs may provide a net benefit to society. An econometric model is employed to address the question of what factors explain both the creation of these programs and the magnitude of farmland preservation.

Abstract: A principal contributor to soil erosion and nonpoint source pollution, agricultural activities have a major influence on the environmental quality of a watershed. Impact of agricultural activities on the quality of water resources can be minimized by implementing suitable agriculture land-use types. Currently, land uses are designed (location, type, and operational schedule) based on field study results, and do not involve a science-based approach to ensure their efficiency under particular regional, climatic, geological, and economical conditions.

Projects aiming at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) still account for a small share of the voluntary carbon market. Indeed, although carbon buyers claimed REDD credits to be the most desirable ones, and despite the steps forward for a REDD+ approval under the UNFCCC, REDD+ project development appears problematic. Good governance is often a prerequisite for the development of a REDD+ project.

As urban development continues to encroach on the natural and rural landscape, land-use planners struggle to identify high priority conservation areas for protection. Although knowing where urban-sensitive species may be occurring on the landscape would facilitate conservation planning, research efforts are often not sufficiently designed to make quality predictions at unknown locations. Recent advances in occupancy modeling allow for more precise estimates of occupancy by accounting for differences in detectability.

Socioeconomic growth and urban change have been an increasing concern for decision makers in recent decades. The monitoring, mapping, and analysis of agricultural land use change, especially in areas where urban change has been high, is crucial. The collision between traditional economic activities related to agriculture in tourist areas such as the Algarve and current demand for tourism infrastructures in urban regions is also leading to loss of economic activity.

The latest theories on the governance of water resources point to the need to adopt integrated approaches, allowing the mediation of conflict between public and private interests by building consensus to include the participation of stakeholders and civil society in formulating and implementing policies, thereby ensuring their legitimacy. Models of governance have particular relevance in the context of estuaries, because of the complexity associated with them.

Accurate estimates of annual nutrient loads are required to evaluate trends in water quality following changes in land use or management and to calibrate and validate water quality models. While much emphasis has been placed on understanding the uncertainty of watershed-scale nutrient load estimates in naturally drained systems, few studies have focused on artificially drained landscapes in the Midwestern US and Canada.

Landslide susceptibility mapping is essential for land use planning and decision-making especially in the mountainous areas. The main objective of this study is to produce landslide susceptibility maps at Safarood basin, Iran using two statistical models such as an index of entropy and conditional probability and to compare the obtained results. At the first stage, landslide locations were identified in the study area by interpretation of aerial photographs and from field investigations.

Simulation of the land subdivision process is useful in many applied and research areas. Planners use such tools to understand potential impacts of planning regulations prior to their implementation. While the credibility of both land-use change and urban growth models would be enhanced by integrating capabilities to simulate land subdivision, such research is lacking in the published literature. Of the few subdivision tools that exist, most are either not fully-automated or are unable to generate realistic subdivision layouts.

In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there were presented theoretical statements and methodical approaches to the improvement of the use of lands and organization of the territory of agricultural organizations in conditions of ecologization of land use. There were formulated the notion and tasks of improvement of the use of lands of agricultural organizations.