urban expansion and agriculture intensification are relevant drivers in land degradation (ld)processes in europe due to net loss of land, soil sealing, landscape fragmentation and other negative effects on the environment. this paper explores changes (or “trajectories” of change) in land use and cover (lulc) and their relationship with the consumption of soils in emilia-romagna (northern italy)...

Construction in urban areas usually results in compacted soil, which restricts plant growth and infiltration. Nutrients may be lost in storm runoff water and sediment. The purpose of this study was to determine if existing lawns benefit from aeration and surface compost additions without the negative impact of nutrient loss in runoff. Four sets of lawns were compared, with or without compost pl...

One of the most basic classification tasks is to distinguish bare-soil areas from urban region. Bare-soil plays an important role in the ecosystem. It could be the reason of dust storms and the indicator of urban expansion. It is also important to monitor the bare-soil areas, but there was no good idea to automatically extraction bare-soil areas using existing method. In this work, a new barene...

[1] A reduction in surface water quality in urban watersheds due to nonpoint source phosphorus (P) loading has prompted municipalities to consider management practices to reduce P loss from landscapes. However, locating P source areas can be time consuming and expensive. Use of distributed models allows delineation of P source areas and focused management strategies. Using the spatially distrib...

Body size is an important feature of an animal that is linked with its life history, morphology, physiology and ecology. Understanding the association between body size and habitat type of an animal and the underlying causes for this are important for determining their distribution. The present study examines the association between body size and habitat types of tiger beetles in Sri Lanka and ...

Introduced species dominate the terrestrial isopod fauna in most inland habitats of North America, including urban landscapes. These non-native species are often very abundant and thus potentially play a significant role in detritus processing. We monitored isopod assemblages in an urban forest for a year to examine the relationship between surface activity and abiotic environmental factors, an...

Greenhouse gas emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the major factors causing global climate change. Urban green space plays a key role in regulating the global carbon cycle and reducing atmospheric CO2. Quantifying the carbon stock, distribution and change of urban green space is vital to understanding the role of urban green space in the urban environment. Remote sensing is a valuable a...

There is a worldwide growing concern about soil pollution by a wide range of contaminants due to their increased accumulation caused by expeditious industrial and urban development in recent decades. This issue is of special interest because of the danger toxic metals may pose to food quality and human health when they enter the food chain. The present study was undertaken to determine the impa...

The upper layer of forest soils (0-20 cm depth) were collected from urban, suburban, and rural areas in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China to estimate the distribution and the possible sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Total concentrations of PAHs in the forest soils decreased significantly along the urban-suburban-rural gradient, indicating the influence of anthropogenic...

A precipitation pattern scheme was combined with Koppen climate classes to form a five-class Global Climate Scheme for Urban Climate Studies (GCS/UCS) that explains observed diurnal variations of urban heat island (UHI) magnitude in different climatic zones. The validity of this scheme was demonstrated using urban/rural micrometeorological field measurements obtained during summer and winter in...