Opportunities and Constraints of Land Management in Local and Regional Development


Book Description

Land Management is normally embedded in a complex legal context, which frequently consists of contradictory objectives, such as: strengthening of rural areas, satisfying the need for affordable living and commercial space, protecting environment and health, supporting transport infrastructure development, and preserving the landscape. Land management can be understood as a process that comprises coordination of such activities while managing the use and the development of land resources. It can be counstrained by the land use specifications resulting from spatial planning process. Along with this, the legal framework often contains generally formulated concepts and open standards, which provide a range of opportunities for realization while balancing the different interests. In this process it is important if and how both constraints and opportunities are recognised by the actors. In this volume this topic is examined from various aspects: first the problems in promoting mutual understanding between researchers and the general public, but also among scientists of different disciplines; second the success requirements of land management instruments as well as unfortunate experience caused by land use changes; third covering land management costs by absorbing value increase and other trade off aspects; and fourth supporting land management by providing geodata with low-cost methods.




Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply


Book Description

In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity. The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions. The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.




Land Use and Spatial Planning


Book Description

This book reconciles competing and sometimes contradictory forms of land use, while also promoting sustainable land use options. It highlights land use planning, spatial planning, territorial (or regional) planning, and ecosystem-based or environmental land use planning as tools that strengthen land governance. Further, it demonstrates how to use these types of land-use planning to improve economic opportunities based on sustainable management of land resources, and to develop land use options that strike a balance between conservation and development objectives. Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem services rises. Food security issues, renewable energy and emerging carbon markets are creating pressures for the conversion of agricultural land to other uses such as reforestation and biofuels. At the same time, there is a growing demand for land in connection with urbanization and recreation, mining, food production, and biodiversity conservation. Managing the increasing competition between these services, and balancing different stakeholders’ interests, requires efficient allocation of land resources.







Forest Fragmentation


Book Description

The book contains 15 chapters and provides an overview and synthesis of forest fragmentation and its influences on key ecological processes and vertebrate productivity. Land use practices and their effects on vertebrate populations and productivity are discussed and examples of several planning approaches to address landscape-level management effects are described.