The proper delineation of site-specific management zones is very important in the agricultural land management of potentially degraded areas. There is a necessity for the development of prospective tools in management plans to correctly understand the land degradation processes. In order to accomplish this, we present a pedo-geomorphological approach using soil texture, land elevation and flow vector aspects to distinguish different management zones and to discretize soil micronutrients. To achieve this goal, we conducted the study in the Neyshabur plain, Northeast Iran.

Savannas are extremely important socio-economic landscapes, with pastoralist societies relying on these ecosystems to sustain their livelihoods and economy. Globally, there is an increase of woody vegetation in these ecosystems, degrading the potential of these multi-functional landscapes to sustain societies and wildlife. Several mechanisms have been invoked to explain the processes responsible for woody vegetation composition; however, these are often investigated separately at scales not best suited to land-managers, thereby impeding the evaluation of their relative importance.

Companies and governmental agencies are increasingly seeking ways to explore emerging trends and issues that have the potential to shape up their future operational environments. This paper exploits text mining techniques for investigating future signals of the land administration sector. After a careful review of previous literature on the detection of future signals through text mining, we propose the use of topic models to enhance the interpretation of future signals.

Soil erosion determines landforms, soil formation and distribution, soil fertility, and land degradation processes. In arid and semiarid ecosystems, soil erosion is a key process to understand, foresee, and prevent desertification. Addressing soil erosion throughout watersheds scales requires basic information to develop soil erosion control strategies and to reduce land degradation. To assess and remediate the non-sustainable soil erosion rates, restoration programs benefit from the knowledge of the spatial distribution of the soil losses to develop maps of soil erosion.

The growing awareness of the negative impact of agriculture on the natural environment creates social expectation towards the reduction of this impact through the pro-environmental activities of farmers. Agri-environmental programmes are one of the key instruments of EU agricultural policy aimed at encouraging farmers to do so. Due to their voluntary nature and involvement of farmers in these activities, there has been a scientific discussion for a long time on the factors determining the participation of farmers in these programmes.

Mining is an important source of revenue for many developing countries, however, the social, environmental and economic impacts of mining are often poorly monitored. The recent transition of a gold mine in Western Tanzania—from large-scale gold mine under private, multinational ownership, to medium-scale public and national owned mine with limited life length offers a prime opportunity to understand the implications of changes in ownership and scale on the local economy and community well-being.

The accelerated exploration of sub-surface mineral resources across much of Africa has created the need for proper administration of sub-surface land rights. The trend world-wide is a separate cadastre for mining.

Artisanal and small-scale mining affects the quality and components of the environment in the Batouri area in different ways. Activities interfere with air, soil, water, fauna and forest resources. This study seeks to assess the impacts of mining on the environment using a combination of spatial analysis, questionnaires administration and Leopold’s grid of impact assessment. The impacts of mining on physical environment include air pollution by emission of dusts and fumes from engines, soil and subsoil degradation by earthworks and release of wastewater containing chemicals from companies.

Este documento examina la relación entre las comunidades y el sector minero energético en Colombia en el siglo XXI, destacando la violencia política y las violaciones de derechos humanos como problemas persistentes. Se enfoca en la victimización de líderes sociales y la impunidad que perpetúa la violencia, especialmente en áreas mineras. Propone el diálogo regional y el desarme de los grupos armados como soluciones para un desarrollo sostenible y respetuoso de los derechos humanos.