Spatial planning is connected with speculations in real estate market, which deepens the process of urban sprawl. Adequate land management supporting  free market – both investment decision of businesses and location decisions of households – is necessary if amorphous city growth is to be prevented. A change, or even information about change in the local plan determines decisions in the real estate market. On the basis of the studies conducted it can be said that the factor causing the greatest value increment is the possibility of development.

The “demanio trazzerale” (herd way regional property) in Sicily constitutes a significant quota of the territorial social capital, due to its historical and cultural origin.
A recent law draft considers its new and diverse potentiality to be assumed in the re-planning of the territory at inter-municipal scale, but some criticalities concern the calculation of the legitimization corresponding sale price.

Here we describe an economic development programme termed ARISE – an acronym for African Rural Initiatives for Sustainable Environments.

This study investigates today’s plant species richness and composition in cultivated and recently abandoned
arable land of Kosovo. Relationships between these aspects of vegetation and both environmental features
and agricultural management measures are studied at the regional and plot scale. In 2006, 432 vegetation relevés
with a standard plot size of 25 m² were recorded in cultivated fields. In 2007, data collection focussed on 41 plots
in arable fields that had been abandoned the year before. With respect to the environment, data analysis accounts

In the ten years 1903-1913 Arrigo Serpieri delivered the lessons of rural economy and evaluation in the Technical Superior Institute of Milano, following his teacher Vittorio Niccoli.

Peninsula effects - decreasing richness with increasing distance along peninsula lobes - have been identified for
many taxa on large peninsulas. Peninsula effects are caused by differences in colonization and extinction predicted
by island biogeography or by environmental gradients along the peninsula. We compared species-area regressions
for cove patches (i.e., mainland) to regressions for lobe patches (i.e., on peninsula tips) for wet meadow birds
along a highly interdigitated shoreline (northern Lake Huron, USA). We conducted analysis both with and without

The relationships between patterns and processes lie at the core of modern landscape ecology. These dependences
can be quantified by using indices related to the patch-corridor-matrix model. This model conceptualizes
landscapes as planar mosaics consisting of discrete patches. On the other hand, relief variability is a key factor for
many ecological processes, and therefore these processes can be better modeled by integrating information concerning
the third dimension of landscapes. This can be done by generating a triangle mesh which approximates

Mountain timber lines are relevant in the context of land abandonment and climate change. For Switzerland,
GIS-compliant delimitations of the tree line and the forest line are still lacking. Recent high-resolution landcover
information offers new possibilities for GIS-based approaches. In a Swiss-wide study, an analysis based
on slope zones was combined with a moving-window analysis to assess tree and forest line altitude, using
topographic data. The tree and the forest lines were delimited at the upper altitude reached by a tree or closed

The general trend of climatically-driven treeline advance is modified by regional, local and temporal variations. Treelines will not advance in a closed front parallel to the shift of any isotherm to higher elevations and more northern latitudes. The effects of varying topography on site conditions and the after-effects of historical disturbances by natural and anthropogenic factors may override the effects of slightly higher average temperatures. Moreover, the varying treeline-forming species respond in different ways to a changing climate.

Neste estudo foram analisados os programas de fomento florestal das empresas do segmento de celulose. O objetivo é identificar a participação do fomento florestal no suprimento de madeira e as dimensões definidas nos contratos desses programas. Para o estudo utilizou-se o referencial teórico da nova economia institucional, particularmente a teoria dos contratos incompletos de longo prazo e dos custos de transação. Utilizou-se a abordagem qualitativa da pesquisa exploratória e descritiva.

The high variety of ecosystem service categorisation systems, assessment frameworks, indicators,
quantification methods and spatial localisation approaches allows scientists and decision makers to harness
experience, data, methods and tools. On the other hand, this variety of concepts and disagreements among
scientists hamper an integration of ecosystem services into contemporary environmental management and
decision making. In this article, the current state of the art of ecosystem service science regarding spatial

This article presents the architecture, features, and operating mode of a DSS (Decision Support System) aiming to assist entrepreneurs and managers in the process of location decision making. The research assembled concepts derived from theory, findings of empirical studies, together with open GIS (Geographical Information System) software and data, and modelled them into a DSS software tool, according to an original methodology and design.