Geographic information system (GIS) technology has become a valuable tool for environmental science professionals. By incorporating GIS into college-level course curricula, agricultural students become better qualified for employment opportunities. We have developed a case study-based laboratory exercise that introduces students to GIS and the Natural Resource Conservation Service soil survey geographic database for evaluating land use issues associated with septic systems.

The Fossa Bradanica in Basilicata (S Italy) is affected by almost 15% permanent Pleistocene and Holocene gullies. In the past decades climate versus land use management have dramatically increase both the soil loss rate and the muddy-flooding frequency. In this paper the impact of global change on soil production rates and erosion/deposition dynamics at medium-time scale (1949–2000) for two permanent gullies (Fosso Lavandaio and Fosso San Teodoro) has been studied.

The species richness of hedges in an agricultural landscape may be determined by the environment and by the spatial processes which occur in that landscape. Here, we divided the environmental predictors into three groups: site conditions, hedge stand and landscape structure. We determined their independent and joint effects on the richness of four guilds of herbaceous species in 92 hedge stands in a north-Mediterranean intensive agricultural landscape.

The importance of the landscape as a tourism asset is well known, and the significance of perceptions of landscape is increasingly being recognized in policy and planning, in Europe thanks largely to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention. The abandonment of agricultural land is one of the ongoing processes of landscape change that are having a profound impact not only in Norway – the subject of this article – but across Europe.

Kenya is home to many sacred natural sites, including forests, mountains and rivers. Indigenous communities have upheld their role and responsibilities, passed down over centuries by their ancestors as custodians of these places through time. The 5391 hectares in the Nyambene forest in central Kenya is a sacred site to the Ameru people, a community/tribe living on the northeastern slopes of Mt. Kenya. The forest is a resource from which customs, spiritual practices, and governance systems are derived to protect the territory as a whole and maintain its order, integrity and well-being.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) redistribution by soil erosion is fundamental to the C cycle and is a key component of global soil C accounting. Widespread conversion of cropland to forest and grassland and the adoption of conservation agriculture (minimum-till and no-till practices) worldwide and particularly in China since 2000, may have reduced wind erosion and increased SOC storage and ‘avoided’ CO2 emission.

Increasingly, the characteristics of nitrogen (N) loading have been recognized to be critical for the maintenance and restoration of water quality in agricultural watersheds, in response to the spread of water eutrophication. This paper estimates N loading and investigates its influencing factors in ten small watersheds variously dominated by forest and agricultural land use types in the subtropics of China, over an observation period of 23–29 months.

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.