If distinguishing between spatial planning systems and practices, the latter reflect on the continuity and perspective of planning cultures and are concerned with the values, attitudes, mindsets and routines shared by those taking part in concrete planning processes. Some recent studies demonstrated comparative assessment of European spatial planning. Thus, the coexistence of continuity and change, as well as convergence and divergence concerning planning practices, was delineated.

Ifugao province of the Philippines has a traditional muyong forest system that supplies water and prevents soil erosion of the world-famous Ifugao rice terraces. The socio-political structure of Ifugao has been the key to the maintenance and communal use of land, as well as the muyong forest, without causing excessive damage to the land. Recently, the Ifugao is facing various challenges viz. deforestation, slash-and-burn, introduction of commercial rice, and climate change.

Intensification of rainfed agriculture in the Ethiopian highlands has resulted in soil degradation and hardpan formation, which has reduced rooting depth, decreased deep percolation, and increased direct runoff and sediment transport. The main objective of this study was to assess the potential impact of subsoiling on surface runoff, sediment loss, soil water content, infiltration rate, and maize yield.

Turbulent periods of transition from socialism to neoliberal capitalism, which have affected the relationships between holders of power and governing structures in Serbia, have left a lasting impact on the urban spaces of Belgrade’s cityscape. The typical assumption is that the transformation of the urban form in the post-socialist transition is induced by planning interventions which serve to legitimize these neoliberal aspirations.

The planting of sand-binding vegetation in the Qinghai Lake watershed at the northeastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau began in 1980. For this paper, we took the desert on the eastern shore of Qinghai Lake as the study area. We analyzed a variety of aged Hippophae rhamnoides communities and aeolian activities, and we discuss the relationship between them. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) With an increasing number of binding years, the species composition became more abundant, natural vegetation began to recover, and biodiversity increased year by year.

This article is a contribution to the current debate on the concepts of land use planning and riparian zone
conservation. It discusses some of the major theoretical and conceptual issues that impact on the
practice of planning and conservation of riparian zones within the City of Nairobi. A conceptualization of
planning and conservation of riparian zone as well as the linkage between the two is discussed as the
paper critically seeks to identify some of the planning and conservation strategies in place, policy, legal

Land-use history, not readily available
for most places, remains the weakest link in nearly all
studies of historic vegetation change, in Africa as well
as other places in the world. Notwithstanding,
communities hold a great wealth of knowledge on the
processes and events influencing change on the land
they occupy. The Lambwe Valley, southwestern Kenya,
has a multi-ethnic population of settlers from the early
1950s. These people have seen the transformation of
an initially forested area with diverse challenges to

Soil indicators may be used for assessing both land
suitability for restoration and the effectiveness of restoration
strategies in restoring ecosystem functioning and services. In
this review paper, several soil indicators, which can be used
to assess the effectiveness of ecological restoration strategies
in dryland ecosystems at different spatial and temporal
scales, are discussed. The selected indicators represent the
different viewpoints of pedology, ecology, hydrology, and
land management. Two overall outcomes stem from the review.

Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) in Ghana combine conservation and development objectives and were introduced in the year 2000. In some cases, they have connected collectors of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) nuts with certified organic world markets, which can be understood as a ‘market-based’ approach to conservation. This paper examines how the benefits of this approach are distributed and argues that shea land formalization is crucial to this process. It makes this argument by drawing on interviews within two communities bordering Mole National Park.

Since China’s reform and development commenced, in the context of rapid urbanization and coordinated regional development, Chinese cities with a close geographic proximity and social ties have gradually formed an integrated city development model. As a new phenomenon in China’s urbanization process, existing research on China’s integrated cities mainly focuses on typical case studies, and most research has been limited to literature reviews and theoretical analyses.

The increasing scale of urbanization and human activities has resulted in the fragmentation of natural habitats, leading to the reduction of ecological landscape connectivity and biodiversity. Taking Nanping as the study area, the core areas with good connectivity were extracted as ecological sources using a morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and landscape connectivity index. Then the ecosystem service functions of the ecological sources were evaluated based on the InVEST model.

Rock glaciers are common forms of relief of the periglacial belt of many mountain structures in the world. They are potential sources of water in arid and semi-arid regions, and therefore their analysis is important in assessing water reserves. Mountain structures in the north-east of Yakutia have optimal conditions for the formation of rock glaciers, but they have not yet been studied in this regard. In this article, for the first time, we present a detailed list of rock glaciers in this region.