Extensive groundwater withdrawals in urban areas may cause water shortages, land subsidence, and water quality problems. The Quetta Valley is the largest population center in Balochistan province in western Pakistan. This area is arid and groundwater is the main water source for domestic and agricultural use. This work presents global positioning system (GPS) data and assessment of spatial and temporal variations in water levels. GPS data from two stations from mid-2006 to the beginning of 2009 show subsidence rate of 10� cm\year.

Efficient management and conservation of natural habitats requires a thorough knowledge and sustained monitoring of their ecological quality. In recent years, several methods have been developed to assess the local conservation status in the field. These typically combine estimates of coarse-scale indicators, such as tree and grass encroachments, with very fine-scale indicators that require precise fieldwork, such as the number of key species present. We first tested whether coarse-scale field characteristics can provide information on fine-scale indicators.

The authors researched changes in specific habitat types in areas considered to be the most important in Croatia for protection of endangered bird fauna during the period 1990–2000. The analysis focused on four areas in the continental part of Croatia (Danube and Drava River alluvium, Pokupsko depression, Sava River basin, Upper Drava River basin) and four areas in the Mediterranean part (Neretva River estuary, NW part of North Dalmatia, Paško field, Lake Vrana). For the classified habitat types, changes in Corine land cover databases in 1990 and 2000 were analysed.

This study established the possibility of rapid evaluation of land cover structure and situation using as an example the Temelin Nuclear Power Plant (Czech Republic) emergency zone. The composition, surface representation and spatial distribution of crop species in the area of interest were assessed on the basis of satellite data analysis (Landsat 5 TM). The supervised classification method of Landsat data yielded 92% accuracy of classification into the land cover classes.

This paper addresses two important issues for large Mediterranean city regions: the differential impact of compact urban ‘growth’ and low-density ‘sprawl’ on land cover changes (LCCs), and their final effect on changing land cover relationships (LCRs). The urban expansion of Rome (Italy) during the last 50 years and the related LCCs were investigated as a paradigmatic example of compact versus dispersed urban development.

Land use change has a major impact on goods and services that our environment supplies for society. While detailed ecological or biophysical field studies are needed to quantify the exact amount of ecosystem service supply at local scales, such a monitoring might be unfeasible at the regional scale. Since field scale monitoring schemes for ecosystem services or ecosystem functioning are missing, proxy based indicators can help to assess the historic development of ecosystem services or ecosystem functioning at the regional scale.

Pixel-based and object-oriented processing of Chinese HJ-1-A satellite imagery (resolution 30 m) acquired on 23 July 2009 were utilized for classification of a study area in Budapest, Hungary. The pixel-based method (maximum likelihood classifier for pixel-level method (MLCPL)) and two object-oriented methods (maximum likelihood classifier for object-level method (MLCOL) and a hybrid method combining image segmentation with the use of a maximum likelihood classifier at the pixel level (MLCPL)) were compared. An extension of the watershed segmentation method was used in this article.

Land use change and landscape patterns have a large effect on land productivity and ecosystem biodiversity. Based on geographical information system technology and remote sensing data related to land use and land cover of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai (Jiang-Zhe-Hu area), we analyzed patterns of landscape change and predicted land use dynamics using the CA-MARKOV model. We also analyzed the conversion rate and area among landscape classes using the CA-Markov model.

In this article, a new index, the visible and shortwave infrared drought index (VSDI), is proposed for monitoring both soil and vegetation moisture using optical spectral bands. VSDI is defined as , where ρ represents the reflectance of shortwave infrared (SWIR) red and blue channels, respectively. VSDI is theoretically based on the difference between moisture-sensitive bands (SWIR and red) and moisture reference band (blue), and is expected to be efficient for agricultural drought monitoring over different land-cover types during the plant-growing season.

The impact on temperature of the urban growth in central Mexico from 1993 to 2009 and the sensitivity of forecast to change in land cover are studied using high resolution numerical simulations. The mesoscale atmospheric Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) uses Global Land Cover Characteristics (GLCC) data created from NOAA-AVHRR satellite images from 1992 and 1993.

Anthropogenic changes in land use and cover (LULC) in stream catchments can alter the composition of riparian plant communities, which can affect ecosystem functions of riparian areas and streams from local to landscape scales. We conducted a study to determine if woody plant species composition and abundance along headwater streams were correlated with categorical and continuous LULC and environmental variables along an urban-to-rural gradient.

During the last few decades, land use changes have largely affected the global warming process through emissions of CO₂. However, C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems could contribute to the decrease of atmospheric CO₂rates. Although Mediterranean areas show a high potential for C sequestration, only a few studies have been carried out in these systems. In this study, we propose a methodology to assess the impact of land use and land cover change dynamics on soil organic C stocks at different depths.