Changes in land use and land tenure can influence both physical fragmentation and ownership fragmentation of landscapes, with implications for biodiversity. In this study, we evaluated changes in land use and land tenure in the Tijuana River Watershed, a region of high biodiversity and endemism, following the implementation of a new Agrarian Law which allowed for privatization and sales of communal land (ejidos) beginning in 1992. In order to understand changes in land use and cover, we constructed maps from aerial photographs and Aster images and measured changes between 1994 and 2005.

Understanding how landscape, host, and pathogen traits contribute to disease exposure requires systematic evaluations of pathogens within and among host species and geographic regions. The relative importance of these attributes is critical for management of wildlife and mitigating domestic animal and human disease, particularly given rapid ecological changes, such as urbanization.

Vector borne diseases are a threat to human health. Little attention has been paid to the prevention of these diseases. We attempted to identify the significant wetland characteristics associated with the spread of chikungunya, dengue fever and malaria in Kerala, a tropical region of South West India using multivariate analyses (hierarchical cluster analysis, factor analysis and multiple regression).

Urban sprawl is threatening the limited highly fertile land in the Nile delta of Egypt. Landsat TM satellite images of 1984, 1992 and ETM+ of 2006 have been used to study the impact of urban sprawl on agricultural land of the Northern Nile delta, Egypt. Visual interpretation using on screen digitizing and change detection techniques were applied for monitoring the urban sprawl. Combining the land capability map and the urban thematic layer using GIS made it possible to point out the risk of urban expansion on the expense of the highly capable soil class.

CO₂ consumption by chemical weathering is an integral part of the boundless carbon cycle, whose spatial patterns and controlling factors on continental scale are still not fully understood. A dataset of 338 river catchments throughout North America was used to empirically identify predictors of bicarbonate fluxes by chemical weathering and interpret the underlying controlling factors. Detailed analysis of major ion ratios enables distinction of the contributions of silicate and carbonate weathering and thus quantifying CO₂ consumption.

Urbanization is becoming increasingly important in terms of climate change and ecosystem functionality worldwide. We are only beginning to understand how the processes of urbanization influence ecosystem dynamics and how peri-urban environments contribute to climate change. Brisbane in South East Queensland (SEQ) currently has the most extensive urban sprawl of all Australian cities. This leads to substantial land use changes in urban and peri-urban environments and the subsequent gaseous emissions from soils are to date neglected for IPCC climate change estimations.

Using an analysis of aerial photographs from 1942, 1985 and 2004 we assessed the impact of changing land tenure and land-use regimes on the cover of thicket vegetation on the Grahamstown commonage. Land-use impacts were examined by comparing plant species composition within three vegetation types between sites incorporated into commonage for different lengths of time and sites outside the commonage. Results showed that thicket cover increased by 87% between 1942 and 1985 but declined by 11% between 1985 and 2004.

Landscapes in urban areas especially in developing countries are under pressure due to increasing population of urban dwellers and un-directed spread of city boundaries. Sound urban environment plays important aesthetic, ecological, cultural, social and engineering roles beneficial to the people. To support better management of vegetated sites, it is necessary to understand the spatial configuration at the landscape scale and changes that have occurred.

In Mediterranean Europe, wood-pasture landscapes with oak woodlands as emblematic ecosystems are undergoing rapid land-use change, which may threaten their legacy as hotspots of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and cultural heritage. The objective of this study was to quantify land cover changes and transitions as well as the dynamics of oak woodland patterns and densities over 50 years in two municipalities at the center and edges of Quercus macrolepis distribution in Northern Lesvos (Greece).

This study aimed determining the effectiveness of active green space opportunities (parks, children's gardens, sport and playgrounds) in the Upper Northwest Urban Development Area of Adana. Existing active green spaces were obtained as green space values per capita and indexed at the neighborhood level. The effectiveness of active green space opportunities for each neighborhood were estimated by the distances between centers of neighborhoods and the threshold distance between any active green space and the furthest residential housing.