Forests are experiencing significant changes; studying geographic patterns in forests is critical in understanding the impact of forest dynamics to biodiversity, soil erosion, water chemistry and climate. Few studies have examined forest geographic pattern changes other than fragmentation; however, other spatial processes of forest dynamics are of equal importance. Here, we study forest attriti...

In this paper we consider the classical problem of dividing a land among many agents so that everybody is satisfied with the parcel she receives. In the literature, it is usually assumed that all the agents are endowed with cardinally comparable, additive, and monotone utility functions. In many economic and political situations violations of these assumptions may arise. We show how a family of...

More than one-third of the earth is characterized by arid and semi-arid climate and desertification phenomenon in these areas has been intensified in recent decades. This study aims to investigate the trend of desertification using vegetation indices and Iranian Model of Desertification Potential Assessment (IMDPA) in Abarkooh Plain, Yazd province, Iran. The satellite images (Landsat images in ...

1. Definitions 1.1. Types of Aridity 1.2. Levels of Aridity 2. Paleoperspective 3. People and Land Use in Arid Lands 3.1. Foragers/Hunter–gatherers 3.2. Agriculturists 3.3. Pastoralists 4. Geomorphology of Arid and Semiarid Lands 5. Biological Diversity in Arid Lands 5.1. Arid and Semiarid Lands Plants and their Uses 5.2. The Future of the Conservation of Wild Plants in Arid Regions 6. Climatic...

Hydrological status and water table fluctuations are directly related to land use and/or land cover (LULC) changes in each area. In this research, the impact of LULC changes on groundwater quantity and quality of Khan-Mirza Plain, in the northern Karun watersheds, was investigated. For this purpose, Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellite images and ETM and OLI sensors were employed to prepare the L...

The area under pulse production has decreased continuously for the last 10 years in Bangladesh. With the expansion of irrigation facilities, the area allocated to production of cereal crops has increased significantly, while pulses have been pushed to marginal lands of low productivity. Additional production of pulses can be achieved by (1) increasing productivity through improved varieties, (2...

In 1995, the Philippines officially adopted Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) as its strategy for sustainable forest management in recognition of the urgent need to put “social fences” in open access forests and forest lands. CBFM was conceptualized to partly respond to the issue of the state as being the biggest “absentee landlord” by recognizing de-facto resource management of communit...