The assessment of the value of ecosystem services is a valuable tool for biodiversity conservation that can facilitate better environmental policy decision-making and land management, and can help land managers develop interventions to compensate for biodiversity loss at the patch level. Previous studies have suggested that it is appropriate to assess the value of biodiversity for conservation planning by considering both the condition of the landscape and the spatial configuration of adjacent land uses that can be reflected as a proximity effect.

Green infrastructure (GI) is a strategic planning instrument to achieve sustainable development. The main functions of GI are to protect biodiversity and safeguard and enhance the provision of ecosystem services (ES). In this paper we present the development of a semi-quantitative place-based method, aiming at assessing GI based on the provision potential of all main ES. Our method combines a wide spectrum of GIS data with expert assessments. Here we focus especially on how interaction with experts and local and regional actors impacted the method development.

Spatial planning aimed at multifunctional agriculture can be seen as a negotiation process on environmental, social and economic aspects of land use. Complexity arises due to the high number of stakeholders and due to the limited knowledge, which is often organized along disciplinary divides. This paper sets out from the premise that the role of agronomy in such land use planning processes can be strengthened by approaches that allow multi-objective and multi-scale evaluation of spatially explicit land use alternatives.

Indonesia has experienced rapid land use change over the last few decades as forests and peatswamps have been cleared for more intensively managed land uses, including oil palm and timber plantations. Fires are the predominant method of clearing and managing land for more intensive uses, and the related emissions affect public health by contributing to regional particulate matter and ozone concentrations and adding to global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Watering is known to convert deserts into oases. However, information on how irrigation brings changes in physical and chemical properties of soils in a desert biome is not yet known, though pertinent to land use planning. This study reports influence of irrigation and cropping sequence on physico-chemical properties of soils in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India.

The hyper-arid conditions, low inherent soil fertility, water scarcity, and marginal water quality collectively constrain the local agriculture production in Abu Dhabi, UAE. To achieve this, an integrated suitability assessment was conducted considering soil resources, relief/slope, and water resources and forms the focus of the present study. The soils were classified using Soil Taxonomy (ST).

This paper presents a method to quantify cultural ecosystem services (ES) and their spatial distribution in the landscape based on ecological structure and social evaluation approaches. The method aims to provide quantified assessments of ES to support land use planning decisions. A GIS-based approach was used to estimate and map the provision of recreation and aesthetic services supplied by ecosystems in a peri-urban area located in the Basque Country, northern Spain.

In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there was analysed the experience of state regulation of agricultural lands rotation in foreign countries. There were determined the key aspects of functioning of developed market of agricultural lands, which should be accounted and controlled by organs of state authority. There were systematized multiple forms and methods of state intervention into market rotation of lands. On this basis there was developed the purpose, tasks and methods of regulation of land rotation for the developing market of lands in the Republic of Belarus.

A study to characterize the distribution of vehicle related air pollution in proximity to a major arterial road was undertaken to inform local land use planning and policy regarding separation distances that could help reduce exposure for new sensitive land use development. Measurements of criteria air contaminants were made at ground level, 10 m, 30 m, and 60 m from curb side, and at 9 m height, 10 m from curb side along a traffic corridor carrying over 34,000 vehicles per day. Pollutant decay with distance or height was not statistically significant for O₃, CO, or SO₂.

To ensure the implementation of sustainable land development, strengthen ocean preservation, and conserve coastal resources, and encourage management of land use, the Construction and Planning Agency in Taiwan recently passed “The Draft of National Land Planning Act” and “The Draft of Coastal Act.” These acts effectively extend the utilization and management of land to territorial sea and coastal areas.

California ranchers in urban Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and in rural Tehama County, were surveyed to examine effects of increasing development, land use change, and attrition of the ranching community on their commitment to ranching, and to assess land conservation program acceptability. Questions were about practices, reasons for ranching, and what influences ranching's future. Ranchers share much in common. Most enjoy ranching, "feeling close to the earth," living in a "good place for family life," and the camaraderie in the ranching community.

CONTEXT: In addition to biodiversity conservation, California rangelands generate multiple ecosystem services including livestock production, drinking and irrigation water, and carbon sequestration. California rangeland ecosystems have experienced substantial conversion to residential land use and more intensive agriculture.