Land carrying capacity (LCC) explains whether the local land resources are effectively used to support economic activities and/or human population. LCC can be evaluated commonly with two approaches, namely ecological footprint analysis (EFA) and the index system method (ISM). EFA is helpful to investigate the effects of different land categories whereas ISM can be used to evaluate the contribut...

The ability to incorporate and manage the different drivers of land-use change in a modeling process is one of the key challenges because they are complex and are both quantitative and qualitative in nature. This paper uses Bayesian belief networks (BBN) to incorporate characteristics of land managers in the modeling process and to enhance our understanding of land-use change based on the limit...

Buffer strips on agricultural land have been shown to protect surface water quality by reducing erosion and diffuse pollution. They can also play a key role in nature conservation and flood risk mitigation as well as in the design of bioenergy landscapes resilient to changes in climate, environmental pressures from intensive agriculture and policy developments. Use of conservation buffers by fa...

Maize and wheat are main field crops on arable lands in Croatia. According to the data of the State Bureau for Statistics (Statistical Yearbook 2011) in the five-year period (2006-2010) mean used agricultural land in the category arable land and gardens in Croatia was 867123 ha. Mean harvested areas of maize (298412 ha) and wheat (176794 ha) occupied 55% of used arable land of the country. Majo...

We organized a crowdsourcing experiment in the form of a snapshot sampling campaign to assess the spatial distribution of nitrogen solutes, namely, nitrate, ammonium and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), in German surface waters. In particular, we investigated (i) whether crowdsourcing is a reasonable sampling method in hydrology and (ii) what the effects of population density, soil humus conte...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) contents are controlled partly by plant inputs that can be manipulated in agricultural systems. Although SOC and N pools occur mainly in the topsoil (upper 0.30 m), there are often substantial pools in the subsoil that are commonly assumed to be stable. We tested the hypothesis that contrasting long-term management systems change the dynamics of SOC an...

While Canada ranks second in the world in terms of national land area, its most productive arable land is limited in extent. These lands are also under pressure due to rapid urbanization, especially in the high growth areas of southern Ontario, the CalgaryEdmonton corridor and the lower Fraser River valley of British Columbia. Currently, a program is underway in the Earth Sciences Sector of Nat...

One of the objectives of agricultural development in Botswana is the increase of agricultural productivity in both arable and livestock production in order to increase farm incomes and thus help to make agriculture a sustainable activity. This paper looks at the challenges that Botswana faces in meeting this objective while minimizing any land degradation that may accompany the process of incre...