Land use/cover change (LUCC) is often the cumulative result of individual farmer's decisions. To understand and simulate LUCC as the result of local decisions, multi-agent systems models (MAS) have become a popular technique. However, the definition of agents is not often based on real data, ignoring the inherent diversity of farmers and farm characteristics in rural landscapes. The aim of this paper is to describe an empirical method that defines an agent typology and allocates agents into the different agent types for an entire region.

Assessment of sand encroachment in Kuwait using Geographical Information System (GIS) technology has been formulated as a Multi-Criteria Decision Making problem. The Delphi method and Analytical Hierarchy Process were adopted as evaluating techniques, in which experts' judgments were analyzed for objectively estimating and weighting control factors. Seven triggering factors, depicted in the form of maps, were identified and ordered according to their priority.

The increase of coastal problems as a result of rapid developments and changes brought new planning and management needs into the agenda. The Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) concept developed under the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) includes solutions towards the sustainable use of coastal areas in the Mediterranean Region. Antalya is the province of Turkey with the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. Side- Manavgat coasts of the province are privileged areas with their natural beaches, sand dune forests, rivers and natural and historical relic sites.

Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) are employed as compulsory instruments to meet standards on EU water quality. Farmers operating in NVZs face a number of restrictions on agricultural activity and a greater requirement for record keeping in relation to timing and quantities of nitrogen inputs used. This paper presents results of a survey into the attitudes and values of farmers within the designated Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) in Scotland. A typology based on perceptions towards water quality management was developed using factor and cluster analysis techniques.

Competition for land between agriculture and urban uses is a global problem. Until recently, planners and policy makers have relied on regulatory ‘command and control’ planning approaches; however, there is growing interest in the use of market-based instruments to address natural resource management issues in complex and highly contested peri-urban environments. Tradable development rights are one type of market-based instrument. While tradable development rights have been used extensively in the United States, their application in Australia has been limited.

Land-use land-cover change is one of the most important and direct drivers of changes in ecosystem functions and services. Given the complexity of the decision-making, there is a need for Internet-based decision support systems with scenario evaluation capabilities to help planners, resource managers and communities visualize, compare and consider trade-offs among the many values at stake in land use planning.

Volcanic ash-derived soils are important globally for their C sequestration potential and because they are at risk of compaction and degradation due to land use change. Poorly or non-crystalline minerals impart enormous capacity for soils to store and stabilize C, but also unusual chemical and physical properties that make quantifying meaningful soil C pools challenging.

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of tourists' preferences concerning oyster farming in Arcachon Bay (France). Considering that heritage is an important aspect of oyster production and also a factor of sustainable territorial governance issues – as Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) supposes–, we set out to establish which forms of oyster farming tourists in this coastal area value. The choice experiment method is applied in order to analyse individual preferences.

The article summarizes the land relations in the Baltic countries: the features of the land policy, lands' relationships and land use planning in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the XVII-XIX centuries.

The need to develop approaches for risk-based management of soil contamination, as well as the integration of the assessment of the human health risk (HHR) due to the soil contamination in the urban planning procedures has been the subject of recent attention of scientific literature and policy makers. The spatial analysis of environmental data offers multiple advantages for studying soil contamination and HHR assessment, facilitating the decision making process.

The ways society use and occupy space occur in multiple dimensions; however, the ways we manage and administer space relies on two-dimensional information representations (2D). The legal ambiguity and administrative limitations inherent in such practices are becoming increasingly pronounced within land administration especially for urban areas.

A methodological protocol of strategic environmental assessment was developed to incorporate the valuation of ecosystem services in land use plans. The protocol was applied in rural land planning at Balcarce, a department representative of the Southeast Pampas Region (Argentina). The ecosystem services approach was used as valuation criteria of the 14 principal ecosystems classified in the studied area, where agricultural is the predominant economic activity.