Agricultural land suitability evaluation for crop production is a process that requires specialized geo-environmental information and the expertise of a computer scientist to analyze and interpret the information. This paper presents ALSE, an intelligent system for assessing land suitability for different types of crops in tropical and subtropical regions (e.g. mango, banana, papaya, citrus, and guava) based on geo-environmental factors that automates the process of evaluation and illustrates the results on an attribute table.

This study integrates analysis of wood charcoal assemblages with climate proxies, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data sets in hyper-arid Wadi Sana, Yemen, to address the availability and use of wood fuels by South Arabian hunter-herder groups from the Early Holocene (8000–7700� cal. B.P.) to Middle Holocene (6900–4800� cal. B.P.) periods.

This work compares the effects of neoliberal and post-neoliberal land-use policies on forest cover along the Corredor Bioceánico of southeastern Bolivia to determine if rates of agriculturally driven forest clearance have changed since the Morales’ administration came to office in 2005. Satellite image analysis, supported by semi-structured interviews with farmers and representatives of key institutions, shows that deforestation for commercial agriculture in Santa Cruz continues and has increased in certain “hotspots”.

Impervious surfaces are the result of urbanization that can be explicitly quantified, managed and controlled at each stage of land development. It is a very useful environmental indicator that can be used to measure the impacts of urbanization on surface runoif, water quality, air quality, biodiversity and microclimate. Therefore, accurate estimation of impervious surfaces is critical for urban environmental monitoring, land management, decision-making and urban planning.

Based on an extensive survey of woodland visitors in Wallonia, south Belgium, we examined a wide range of individual-, residential- and destination-level variables for their associations with the distance travelled for woodland leisure on foot, by bicycle and by car. For each transport mode, explanatory bivariate analyses were conducted firstly to identify potential correlates of the distances travelled. Then, cross-classified multilevel analysis was performed to build estimation models for the trip distance.

In dem vorliegenden Beitrag werden am Beispiel des Landes Hessen die Entwicklungsperspektiven von Forstbetriebsgemeinschaften aufgezeigt. Die strukturelle Bedeutung derartigerZusammenschlüsse für die hessische Forstwirtschaft ist auch daraus ersichtlich, dass gegenwärtig etwa die Hälfte der hessischen Waldfläche auf forstwirtschaftliche Zusammenschlüsseentfällt. In einem ersten Untersuchungsschritt werden anhand von theoretischen Überlegungen aus der Institutionenökonomie Optionen für die zukünftige Ausrichtung der Forstbetriebsgemeinschaftenbeleuchtet.

If tropical farmers cannot be provided with sustainable land‐use systems, which address their subsistence needs and keep them gainfully employed, tropical forests will continue to disappear. We looked at the ability of economic land‐use diversification – with reforestation of tropical “wastelands” as a key activity – to halt deforestation at the farm level.

Since 1982, the New Castle County Superior Court in Delaware has promoted mediation, which attempts to resolve filed conflicts prior to trial. This paper evaluates how spatial land-use conflicts channel through mediation and litigation. Data suggest that mediations fail because one of the key disputing parties does not play a direct role in mediation and litigation. The data then inform a predictive model of litigated outcomes in which disputants share in the responsibility for conflict.

The water shortage in the Yellow River, China, has been aggravated by rapid population growth and global climate changes. To identify the characteristics of streamflow change in the Yellow River, approximately 50 years of natural and observed streamflow data from 23 hydrological stations were examined. The Mann-Kendall and Pettitt tests were used to detect trends and abrupt change points.

This paper develops a structural econometric model of agricultural land use and production based on the joint multi-output technology representation introduced by Chambers and Just (1989). Starting from a flexible specification of the farm profit function we derive land use allocation, inputapplications, crops yield and livestock number equations in a joint and theoretically consistent framework.

This study addresses the question, ‘How can remaining forests be conserved when these are already individually privatized, and when the people prefer landuses other than forestry?’ These changes in landuse and forest ownership are demonstrated through a case study of a village in Ifugao, Philippines. A rapid and continued conversion of forest into agricultural land is observed, particularly for vegetable farming. Traditionally, most of the village total land area was under communal land ownership, but now almost half is under de facto private ownership.