Search

Traditional vineyards in Spain are being upgraded to trellis vineyards. A key question is to what extent the transition to trellis vineyards is compatible with the environmental preservation goals in Special Protection Areas. This paper presents a GIS-based model to assess the suitability of Special Protection Areas for the development of trellis systems. The model was applied in a Special Protection Area for steppe birds in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, a region with the largest concentration of vineyards in the world. The model includes three components: (1) a vineyard structure analysis, (2) an analysis of habitat fragmentation, and (3) a suitability analysis. The results showed that 50.9% of the study area, including 82.1% of the existing vineyards, was classified as suitable for transition to trellis systems. In the remaining unsuitable areas an increase in trellis systems should be avoided. The model is a stepping stone for improving the sustainable land use development of Mediterranean agricultural landscapes. Further research is needed to include wider socio-economic and environmental consequences of modernizing viticulture practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urbanization and industrialization process is replacing large amounts of farmland, which is strongly driven by the country's land finance regime, with the intensified regional/local competition for manufacturing investment opportunities pushing local governments to expropriate farmland at low prices while leasing land at high market value to property developers. The additional revenue obtained in this way, termed financial increment in land value , can drive local economic growth and provide associated infrastructure and other public services. At the same time, however, a floating population of large numbers of inadequately compensated land-lost farmers, although unable to become citizens, have to migrate into urban areas for work, causing overheated employment and housing markets, with rocketing unaffordable housing prices. This, together with various micro factors relating to the party/state's promotion/evaluation system, plays an essential role leading to serious economic, environment and social consequences, e.g., for migrant welfare, the displacement of peasants and loss of land resources, in need of immediate attention. Our question, therefore, is whether such type of urbanization is sustainable. What are the mechanisms behind China's phenomenal urbanization process? From the perspective of institutionalism, this paper investigates the institutional background of the urban growth dilemma and solutions in urban China by introducing an inter-regional game theoretical framework to indicate why the present urbanization pattern is unsustainable. Looking forward to 2030, major policy changes are made from the triple consideration of the floating population, social security and urban environmental pressures. This involves (1) changing the land increment based finance regime into a land stock finance system, (2) the citizenization of migrant workers with affordable housing and (3) creating a more enlightened local government officer appraisal system to better take into account societal issues such as welfare and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary cities are threatened by urban development decreasing the overall environmental quality and fragmenting natural and agricultural landscapes. As a result of this fragmentation the number of Non Urbanized Areas (NUAs) present in urban contexts is dramatically decreasing. These areas include cultivated land, Abandoned Farmlands, Grassland, Woods and Shrubs that are often located at the peri-urban cities' fringes. Among NUAs, farmlands and other forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture provide all three major categories of ecosystem services, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Recently, New Forms of Urban Agriculture (NFUA) have gained increasing attention from researchers for their promising multifunctionality. Incorporating NFUA into the urban environment will thus improve the sustainability of cities, taking advantage of the multiple benefits and services they can provide. This paper presents a method for the characterisation of NUAs in terms of their physical, ecological and social features. These areas are analysed with different criteria and related indicators structured according to a GIS-based Multi Criteria Suitability Model. The proposed model checks the suitability of transformation of the NUAs toward NFUA, thereby enhancing their ecological and social function as well as accessibility and overall connectivity. Different scenarios of spatial configurations for NFUA have been explored with a sensitivity analysis on the values of used indicators. The method was tested for the municipality of Catania, south Italy, an urban context characterised by a relevant shortage of public green spaces and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a proven simulation tool which caters to almost any field of study. The CFD technique is utilized to simulate, analyze, and optimize various engineering designs. In this review, the discussion is focused on the application of CFD in the external atmospheric processes as well as modeling in land and water management. With respect to its application in environmental investigations, numerous CFD studies have been done in the atmospheric processes where generally only the fluid flow characteristics are investigated. The application of CFD to soil and water management is still limited. However, with the present demand for conservation and sustainable management of our soil and water resources, CFD application in this field is fast emerging especially in structure designs of dams and reservoirs where CFD offers fast reliable results with less labor and cost. Every CFD model should be validated in order to be considered accurate and reliable. However, a benchmark or standard procedures in validating CFD models is not yet available. This probably answers why the success of the CFD models is still mostly attributed to the user’s skills and experience. At present, the degree of application of CFD to the agro-environmental field is limited by the computing power and software used, however, the fast ever computing power of PCs continually expands the potential of CFD and can be generally more flexible at accounting for the unique aspects of every CFD project. This allows easy access to conduct simulation studies from simple to complex models. In this paper, after a state of art analysis of the past and present application of CFD in the agro-environmental applications, its future directions were discussed, in order to potentially serve as a guide for researchers and engineers on what project or investigations can be conducted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of agricultural landscapes within Hang-Jia-Hu region (China) from 1994 to 2003 using a set of metrics that relate closely with sustainability. Considerable urban expansion was identified with the total built-ups increasing by 224.7% from 6.99 × 104 ha to 22.7 × 104 ha. The outcomes indicated that, at the whole region scale, agricultural landscapes became lost, fragmented, transformed and isolated as urbanization intensified. Global Moran’s I statistics and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) analysis were employed to characterize the spatial dependence and hotspots for intra-level agricultural landscape changes at two grid scales. Generally, isolation of agricultural patches was a localized problem, while shape transformation of agricultural landscapes was a more regionalized problem; hotspots for lost, fragmentation and irregularity of agricultural landscapes concentrated around urban centers, while those for isolation of agricultural patches appeared in rural mountain areas. Spatial regression models further revealed that changes of agricultural landscapes showed diverging relationships with urbanization indicators for each landscape metric. The character and strength of relationships for each landscape metric were different and changed with scale. While our results of agricultural landscape changes consisted with some theoretical predictions in the literature, they also showed different spatiotemporal signatures of urbanization. Resolving these differences will certainly contribute to the ongoing landscape transformation and sustainability debate. This study demonstrated complexities of relationships between urbanization and agricultural landscape changes, and highlighted the importance of selected variables, spatial and temporal scales and incorporation of spatial dimensions when quantifying these relationships. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental targets are often used in planning for sustainable agricultural landscapes but their impacts are rarely known. In this paper we introduce landscape futures analysis as a method which combines linear programming optimisation with scenario analysis in quantifying the environmental, economic, and social impacts associated with achieving environmental targets, on a landscape scale. We applied the technique in the Lower Murray in southern Australia. Landscape futures models were used to identify specific geographic locations in the landscape for six natural resource management (NRM) actions such that regional environmental targets are achieved. The six potential NRM actions that may be undertaken to achieve environmental targets include remnant vegetation management, ecological restoration, conservation farming, deep-rooted perennials, and the production of biomass and biofuels feedstock for renewable energy generation. We developed landscape futures under four alternative spatial prioritisation policy options and four future climate and commodity price scenarios. The impacts of each landscape future were calculated across a range of environmental, economic, and social indicators. The external drivers, climate change and commodity prices, and internal decisions such as policy options for spatially prioritising NRM actions, both have a strong influence on the costs and benefits of achieving environmental targets. Illustrative results for the cleared agricultural areas in the Mallee region indicate that whilst achieving targets can have substantial environmental benefits, it requires large areas of land use and land management change, and is likely to be costly (up to $348.5 M per year) with flow-on impacts on the regional economy and communities. Environmental targets can be achieved more cost-effectively through spatial planning. Costs can be further reduced if markets are established for carbon, biomass, and biofuels to enable landholders to generate income from undertaking NRM. Landscape futures analysis is an effective tool for supporting the strategic regional NRM policy and planning decisions of how best to set and achieve environmental targets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Much effort is expended toward planning for conservation, natural resource management and sustainable land use in agricultural landscapes. Although often not explicitly stated, the aims of these efforts are often to restore natural capital for the provision of ecosystem services and stimulate multifunctionality in landscapes. However, the scarcity of resources for, and the potential economic impact of, ameliorative actions that restore natural capital necessitates the identification of cost-effective geographic priorities, or hotspots, which provide multiple ecosystem goods and services. This requires the integrated spatial modelling of multiple environmental and economic processes accompanied by clear goals and performance indicators. Identification of hotspots provides guidance for highly targeted land use change that cost-effectively adds to the stocks of natural capital in a landscape. Additionally, the multifunctionality of the landscape can be increased through the provision of multiple ecosystem goods and services. This paper begins by examining data requirements for identifying geographic hotspots for land use change. This study integrates traditionally disparate landscape-scale biophysical and economic data and models. The elements of natural capital considered here are species and ecosystems, soil and water resources, and the atmosphere. It is demonstrated that locating ameliorative actions towards hotspots will be more cost-effective at restoring natural capital and stimulating landscape multifunctionality than a random targeting approach. We calculate these efficiencies using a small set of indicators for assessing aspects of multifunctionality. The focus of this study is the agricultural landscapes of the Lower Murray region of south-eastern Australia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Environmental awareness can be measured by specific environmental items. • Items can be ranked according to the level of agreement/disagreement expressed. • Environmental awareness is affected by some sociodemographic characteristics. • Environmental awareness can be raised by providing pertinent information. The paper focuses on environmental awareness towards the protection of Alpine areas, and presents the results of a research aimed at assessing people's awareness in regards to certain topical environmental issues such as protected areas, ecological connectivity, and wildlife. The study area is the Julian Prealps Natural Park, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Northeast Italy). In order to obtain a measure of "environmental awareness", the Rasch model was applied. It allowed us first to identify which items are most suitable for this. The results obtained show that people are quite aware of some issues, e.g. that wellbeing is related to greener areas and that they can change things to solve environmental problems. We also found that it is easier to agree with items relating to the environment in general than with more specific issues, probably due to a lack of knowledge. However, the provision of pertinent information, in our case on ecological connectivity, can increase the level of environmental awareness. The model also showed that the level varies according to certain sociodemographic characteristics, particularly gender and age. These results could serve as a starting point for planning effective information activities aimed at raising environmental awareness and, possibly, bolstering participation in initiatives for protecting Alpine areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]