Periurban areas of growing cities in developing countries have been conceptualised as highly dynamic landscapes characterised by a mixture of socioeconomic structures, land uses and functions. While the body of conceptual literature on periurban areas has significantly increased over the past two decades, methods for operationalising these multi-dimensional concepts are rather limited. Yet, information about the location and areal extent of periurban areas is needed for integrated planning in the urban–rural interface.

The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) produces new global spatial information, evidence-based analytics describing the human presence on the planet that is based mainly on two quantitative factors: (i) the spatial distribution (density) of built-up structures and (ii) the spatial distribution (density) of resident people. Both of the factors are observed in the long-term temporal domain and per unit area, in order to support the analysis of the trends and indicators for monitoring the implementation of the 2030 Development Agenda and the related thematic agreements.

Key points

• Global availability of land ownership and land deals data is patchy, but, when available, it has been used by individual citizens, entrepreneurs, civil society, and journalists.

• Over the last decade, a number of responsible data lessons have been learned. These lessons can provide guidance on how to balance transparency and privacy and on how to draw research conclusions from partial data.

Geospatial datasets and analysis techniques based on geographic information systems (GIS) have become indispensable tools in the planning, implementation and evaluation of a wide range of development programmes, including actions addressing sustainable agriculture and rural development. The growing volume of spatially explicit environmental information, combined with the widening utilization of GIS, allows ecological and socioeconomic factors to be integrated more fully into the decision-making process, thus laying the foundation for a holistic approach to development.

While food and nutrition security are issues that national and international organizations are tackling, one of the central problems often overlooked is the essential role of soils in providing nutritious food. Soils are the base for food production and food security. However, the majority of soils are in fair and poor conditions, with the most significant threats being erosion and loss of nutrients.

This report explains TMP Systems’ statistical analysis of how geospatial data showing indicators of local environmental, social and governance (ESG) conditions correlate with tenure risk. The results indicate strong enough correlations between some of these indicators and tenure risk, to support use of the indicators by companies and investors. This work underpins something new and useful, which is Landscope’s ability to provide location-specific risk assessments across many developing countries.

Este manual tiene como objetivo familiarizar a los usuarios de la herramienta FAO-ASIS País con la conversión de datos del Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) a los formatos adecuados para alimentar la herramienta.

The spatial structure of rural areas in eastern Poland is characterized by large fragmentation of privately owned farmland, as well as the scattering of parcels across villages and beyond their boundaries. An important defect is also the unfavourable shape of land parcels, which hampers and sometimes even makes impossible rational management of land in a given area. Shape analysis has been the focus of numerous publications in fields such as geography and ecology, and, more recently, also geodesy.

The possibilities of using the geospatial analysis methods for visualizing land monitoring data and modelling the spatial distribution of the main agrochemical soil indicators are discussed in the article. The research was conducted within the limits of land use of RUP “Uchkhoz BGSHA” (Republic of Belarus, Mogilev region, Goretsky district). The total area of the surveyed territory was 3187.0 hectares. The geospatial analysis of the spatial distribution of humus, mobile phosphorus, mobile potassium and pHKCl was carried out using the Geostatistical Analyst module of the ArcGIS software.

Determining areas affected by forest succession is one of the main tasks aimed at shaping rural areas. Effective determination of the parameters of the dynamics of forest succession in areas used for agriculture is the basis for understanding the phenomenon of land cultivation abandonment. Understanding it allows to implement a proper policy limiting the negative effects of giving up agricultural production. There are many methods to determine forested areas. The most popular group of the methods includes those that rely on the use of LiDAR data.

This eco-type map presents land units with distinct vegetation and exposure to floods (or droughts) in three villages in the Barotseland, Zambia. The knowledge and eco-types descriptions were collected from participatory mapping and focus group discussions with 77 participants from Mapungu, Lealui, and Nalitoya. We used two Landsat 8 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (TM) images taken in March 24th and July 14th, 2014 (path 175, row 71) to calculate water level and vegetation type which are the two main criteria used by Lozi People for differentiating eco-types.

Challabamba en Cusco y Quilcas en Huancayo son dos zonas contrastantes con alta biodiversidad de variedades de papa. El presente estudio tuvo por finalidad evaluar la distribución espacial de la biodiversidad de papa mediante el mapeo participativo. Se determinaron las áreas de siembra de papa, el número de variedades de papa existente en la comunidad, el rango altitudinal de siembra por categoría varietal, la frecuencia de las variedades de papa, y la dinámica espacial-temporal de las zonas de siembra de papa en el territorio de las comunidades campesinas.