land degradation due to soil erosion has been well pointed out as one of the most serious ecological and economic problems that some such south asian countries including iran are faced with. although high investment has been made, particularly in introduction of soil conservational mechanical practices, the level of acceptance of these practices has been low and while a high rate of erosion con...

Habitat loss threatens large mammals worldwide, and their survival will depend on habitat in human-dominated landscapes. Conservation planners thus face the challenge to identify areas of least conflict with land use, yet broadscale species distribution models rarely incorporate real landscape patterns nor do they identify potential conservation conflicts. An excellent example of such conservat...

The study assessed soil erosion features in hilly agricultural watersheds in central Sichuan Province, China. Relationships among area percentages of land covers, soil erosion modulus, soil loss rate, and area percentage of erosion in the watersheds were examined by multivariate regression analysis. The first two regression models were constructed with area percentages of land covers as indepen...

Water resources play a vital role in human life and agriculture irrigation, especially for agriculture-dominant developing countries and regions. Improving agricultural water use efficiency has consequently become a key strategic choice. This study, based on Zhangye City’s economic characteristics and data, applies a static Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model with a constant elasticity o...

1. Suitability of the local habitat (‘habitat filtering’) and dispersal between stream reaches determines the composition of insect communities, and urban land use may affect both processes. While urban streams are often poor habitats for insects and dispersal between them is often hindered, conservation and restoration activities generally focus solely on the local (in-stream) environment. 2. ...

Lake areas in Chinese urban fringes are under increasing pressure of urbanization. Consequently, the conflict between rapid urban sprawl and he maintenance of water bodies in such areas urgently needs to be addressed. An integrated GIS-based analysis system (IGAS) for supporting and-use management of lake areas in urban fringes was developed in this paper. The IGAS consists of modules of land-u...

Uncovering magnitude, trend, and spatial pattern of land cover/land use changes (LCLUC) is crucial for understanding mechanisms of LCLUC and assisting land use planning and conservation. China has been undergoing unprecedented economic growth, massive rural-to-urban migration, and large-scale policy-driven ecological restoration, and therefore encountering enormous LCLUC in recent decades. Howe...

Forest cover transitions in the developing tropics are conditioned by agricultural change. The expansion, intensification, and diversification of agricultural land uses are tied to regional economic/environmental regimes and decisions of local farming households. Land changescienceandagrariansystems research sharean interest in the drivers of household strategies, land use impacts, and typologi...

The moist temperate Himalayas, as one of the major ecological zone of Pakistan, deserve specific attention to the conservation of environment and the sustainable development of natural resources. During the last hundred years, the area has been subjected to major structural changes leading to a decrease of about fifty per cent of the potential forest area. The decrease in forest cover, combined...