Water policies have a great impact upon different types of resources (water, land and soil resources; infrastructure and facilities; financial resources; environmental knowledge and information; etc.). They involve many individual or collective actors (users, managers, public or private companies, associations, etc.) as well as rules and norms of behavior that these actors are the recipients or agents. Complex systems, if any, these policies have several kinds of effects, expected and unexpected, direct and indirect effects, societal, economic, environmental and eco-systemic.

This study investigates the process of globalization over the past decades as a process of technological progress in computer science and communication and as transformation in the world economic order. It identifies the political and economic causes of globalization and their impact on the social sphere of developing nations. In past decades social inequality has widened in these countries and their large cities. This article also identifies lifestyle changes in the city of São Paulo and their consequences in urban land occupation and use.

Los gobiernos locales desarrollan una amplia gama de políticas fiscales o regulatorias inspiradas en la idea de que el incremento en el valor de la tierra puede ser utilizado en beneficio de la comunidad, esto es, en la recuperación de plusvalías inmobiliarias. Este trabajo compara las experiencias de recuperación de plusvalías en América del Norte (Estados Unidos y Canadá) y América Latina, discutiendo las razones que han llevado a la utilización de distintas herramientas y los diferentes resultados y grados de éxito obtenidos en su implementación.

Na cidade contemporânea, o ambiente construído vem se modificando, observandose a presença de áreas em transformação de uso e esvaziamento. Em São Paulo, a transformação do ambiente construído mediante esse processo, frente à dinâmica de ocupação do solo e reconfiguração de áreas pela via do mercado imobiliário, parece se consagrar como a principal força de produção do espaço urbano, apesar da existência de instrumentos urbanísticos de indução do desenvolvimento da cidade, articulado pela regulação do poder público municipal.

The short review of the space protection efficiency in European countries and in Serbia has been given. The role of instruments and measures of land policy and corresponding combinations of stimulative and destimulative instruments of economic and fiscal policy, with provision of programming and other support in efficient space protection and reservation in European countries has been investigated.

The implementation process of the Syracuse’s Master Plan is characterized by the widespread use of “urban negotiation”. The Muni- cipality has drawn up a protocol aimed at obtaining areas for facilities and public infrastructures in different areas basing on the rule of the transfer of a portion of land in return for the building permission for the remaining part. Since these areas are variously cha- racterized, the negotiation process may not be fair to Municipality or convenient to land owners.

Resumen

In many cities of Brazil, social inequality is illustrated by violence, poverty, and unemployment located next to luxurious residential towers and armored passenger cars. In the face of this situation, the National Movement of Urban Reform encouraged the inclusion of the social function of property in Brazil's new constitution of 1988. Surface rights represent an urbanistic instrument in the city statute that is best aligned to the constitutional principles and urban policies.

Se analiza la relevancia de los servicios ambientales de los corredores fluviales en el ámbito de la planificación urbana sustentable, al tenor de la realidad y falencias de los instrumentos territoriales vigentes en esta temática.

Se identifican los patrones del crecimiento urbano de la ciudad de Chillán (Chile Central), el uso del suelo asociado a cada uno de ellos y los factores que guían el proceso de expansión urbana. Se cuantificaron los cambios en la superficie urbana construida en un período de 57 años (de 1943 hasta el 2000). Entre 1997 y el año 2000, se analizó el cambio en relación con el uso del suelo, la densidad de población y la condición socio-económica de los hogares. Se utilizaron fotografías aéreas, SIG (Arcview 3.2 y Arc-Info N.T) e índice de análisis espacial (Spatially Explicit Landscape Index).

The settlement of P.T.E., the Multifunctional Centre to serve the Nautical and Technological District of North-East Sardinia, situated on a stretch of coastline north of the Gulf of Olbia, forces us to think about what kind of relationship could be established between the architecture and surrounding environment, strongly characterized on an urbanistic and landscape level. The extension of the productive area denotes the hard strokes of the intensive anthropization of the land, in one of the most beautiful and evocative places in the Gulf.