Estonian and Latvian rural inhabitants enjoy many factors enhancing the quality of life, such as the peace and quiet of the countryside, fresh food and rural activities. However, these benefits are insufficient to overcome poor employment prospects in rural areas. Place-shaping practices have transformative powers that are instrumental in achieving sustainable change in communities.

Green infrastructure (GI) is a strategic planning approach that can contribute to solutions for ecological, social, and environmental problems. GI also aims to conserve natural and semi-natural landscapes and enhance ecological networks. Within the scope of spatial planning, urban and rural landscape units can be integrated through GI planning. In this study, we propose a method to calculate the landscape potential and map GI in the lower Büyük Menderes River Basin, Turkey.

There is a risk of salinity and degradation in soil structure due to excessive irrigation in the GAP-Harran Plain. The purpose of the research is to determine farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for applications of sustainable agricultural land usage practices to avoid salinization in soil based on irrigation problems related to the demands of the farmers’, their needs, and which factors affect their willingness to accept payment. The basic material of the research was obtained through face-to-face questionnaires from farmers who were selected by a method of simple random sampling in 2018.