Founded on the core notion that we have reached a turning point in the governance, and thus the conservation, of ecosystems and the environment, this edited volume features more than 20 original chapters, each informed by the paradigm shift in the sector over the last decade. Where once the emphasis was on strategies for conservation, enacted through instruments of control such as planning and 'polluter pays' legislation, more recent developments have shown a shift towards incentive-based arrangements aimed at those responsible for providing the environmental services enabled by such ecosystems. Encouraging shared responsibility for watershed management, developed in Costa Rica, is a prime example, and the various interests involved in its instauration in Java are one of the subjects examined here.

Although the development of remote sensing techniques focuses greatly on construction of new sensors with higher spatial and spectral resolution, it is advisable to also use data of older sensors (especially, the LANDSAT-mission) when the historical mapping of land use/land cover and monitoring of their dynamics are needed. Using data from LANDSAT missions as well as from Terra (ASTER) Sensors, the authors shows in his book maps of historical land cover changes with a focus on agricultural irrigation projects.

The kernel of this study was whether, how and to what extent applying the various remotely sensed data that were used here, would be an effective approach to classify the historical and current land use/land cover, to monitor the dynamics of land use/land cover during the last four decades, to map the development of the irrigation areas, and to classify the major strategic winter- and summer-irrigated agricultural crops in the study area of the Euphrates River Basin.

This volume is a cogent empirical analysis of the interplay between a region's natural amenities and its socioeconomic evolution. It focuses on the rural sectors of America's Intermountain West region, which lies between the Cascades and Sierra Nevada mountains to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east. Coherently structured and meticulously detailed, it adds much to our understanding of the ways an area's forests, lakes, mountains, parkland and historic attractions affect residents' sense of well-being as well as the sociodemographic and economic changes they experience. The book examines patterns of growth and change linked to the emergence of 'New West' conditions, assessing their implications for the wider community as well as discussing the impact these trends could have on the consumption of natural resources. It also points to ways in which communities and their development can be managed sustainably. The tight geographical focus of this valuable resource ensures a depth of analysis which can be applied to similar regions worldwide. Based on a large-scale, random-sample survey of both full-time and seasonal residents, it provides a much-needed overview of the macro-level economic, demographic, and social transformations affecting rural communities in America. As such, the book has relevance for all researchers concerned with rural development, the changes impacting rural landscapes, and natural resource management.

Information provision is increasingly being used as a regulatory tool. The US Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program required facilities that handle threshold amounts of specific chemicals to report yearly their releases and transfers of these toxic substances. The TRI data have become the yardstick by which regulators, investors, environmental organizations, and local community groups measure company environmental performance. This book, which was originally published in 2005, tells the story of the TRI from its origin and implementation to its revision and retrenchment. The mix of case study and quantitative analysis shows how the TRI operates and how the information provided affects decisions in both the public and private sectors. The lessons drawn about the operation of information provision programs should be of interest to multiple audiences.

Urbanization drastically alters the ecosystems structure and functions, disrupts cycling of C and other elements along with water. It alters the energy balance and influences climate at local, regional and global scales. In 2008, urban population exceeded the rural population. In 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban centers. The number of megacities (10 million inhabitants) increased from three in 1975 to 19 in 2007, and is projected to be 27 in 2025. Rapid urbanization is altering the ecosystem C budget. Yet, urban ecosystems have a large C sink capacity in soils and biota. Judicious planning and effective management can enhance C pool in urban ecosystems, and off-set some of the anthropogenic emissions. Principal components with regards to C sequestration include home lawns and turfs, urban forests, green roofs, park and recreational/sports facilities and urban agriculture.

This important and insightful book provides, for the first time, a broad presentation of ongoing research into public participation in landscape conservation, management and planning, following the 2000 European Landscape Convention which came into force in 2004. The book examines both the theory of participation and what lessons can be learnt from specific European examples. It explores in what manner and to what extent the provisions for participation in the European Landscape Convention have been followed up and implemented. It also presents and compares different experiences of participation in selected countries from northern, southern, eastern and western Europe, and provides a critical examination of public participation in practice. However, while the book's focus is necessarily on Europe, many of the conclusions drawn are of global relevance. The book provides a valuable reference for researchers and advanced students in landscape policies and management, as well as for professionals and others interested in land-use planning and environmental management.

The proposed book is a sequel to volume 1-4 of Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases. The first volume, Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases was edited by M. Joseph Sirgy, Don Rahtz, and Dong-Jin Lee and published in 2004 by Kluwer Academic Publishers in the Social Indicators Research Book Series (volume 22). The second volume, Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases II was edited by M. Joseph Sirgy, Don Rahtz, and David Swain and published in published in 2006 by Springer in the Social Indicators Research Book Series (volume 28). The third and fourth volumes, Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases III and Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases IV, were edited also by M. Joseph Sirgy, Rhonda Phillips, and Don Rahtz and published in 2009 by Springer in the ISQOLS Community Quality-of-Life Indicators Best Cases Book Series (volumes 1 and 2).

In the second edition Steve Kesler (University of Michigan) has been added as an author to rewrite some chapters. The motivation for this revised edition is to more intensively address economic issues that surround the exploitation of mineral resources. This emphasis gives the book a unique character. With these sections "Metals and Society" deals with issues that pervade much of current science reporting the rate of exploitation of natural resources, the question of when or if these resources will be exhausted, the pollution and social disturbance that accompanies mining, the compromises and challenges that arise from the explosion of demand from China, India and other rapidly developing countries, and the moral issues that surround mining of metals in lesser developed countries for consumption in the first-world countries.

With its dual character, the book will be useful as an introductory text for students in the earth sciences and a reference volume for students, teachers and researchers of geography, economics and the social sciences.

"

The work synthesizes past and current research on the quality of urban life that has been done internationally. It emphasizes the contributions of the urban environment to the overall well-being of residents living in urban areas ranging in scale from small cities and their hinterlands to metropolitan regions. By urban environment, we mean the socio-physical aspects of urban living ranging from individual dwellings and neighbourhoods to public services (i.e. transportation, rubbish collection, etc.) to neighbours and community organizations. The work emphasizes not only perceptions of and behaviours within urban environments but the actual conditions to which individuals are responding. That is, the research covers both the subjective and behavioural aspects of urban living but also the objective conditions which drive them.

The work that has been underway is theoretically driven and will contribute to knowledge in several academic disciplines. At the same time, it is designed to inform public policy and planning in each setting.

This book stems from a long period of collaborative research between the editors, research colleagues, and their graduate students. It als draws on collaborative research with international scholars investigating aspects of urban quality of life in their respective settings. Many of these efforts parallel work initiated by the editors in metro Detroirt and in southeast Queensland. It involvesresearch that incorporated theoretical and methodological appraches to the conceptualizing and measuring quality of life. The book will cover research designs that are based on both the analysis and modelling of aggregate secondary data and thecollection, analysis and modelling of primary survey data on subjective urban quality of life. It also covers the interface of survey data with spatial objective data using GIS techniques.

The book will comprise chapters which: 1) provide an overview of theoretical perspectives on the study of urban quality of life; 2) present research designs for the collection of data to measure and model QoL domains; 3) provide a series of case studies of urban QoL in a number of around the world."

The thesis is an original and novel contribution to land use/land cover change analysis using methods of geosimulation and agent-based modeling. The author implements several traditional methodologies of land use change by means of remote sensing and GIS techniques. An Agent-Based Model was developed in order to simulate land use change in the Tehran metropolitan area, comparing the outcomes of each particular methodology. All methods are compared, and advantages and disadvantages discussed.

This book argues that the concepts of 'neoliberalism' and 'neoliberalisation, ' while in common use across the whole range of social sciences, have thus far been generally overlooked in planning theory and the analysis of planning practice. Offering insights from papers presented during a conference session at a meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Boston in 2008 and a number of commissioned chapters, this book fills this significant hiatus in the study of planning. What the case studies from Africa, Asia, North-America and Europe included in this volume have in common is that they all reveal the uneasy cohabitation of 'planning' - some kind of state intervention for the betterment of our built and natural environment - and 'neoliberalism' - a belief in the superiority of market mechanisms to organize land use and the inferiority of its opposite, state intervention. Planning, if anything, may be seen as being in direct contrast to neoliberalism, as something that should be rolled back or even annihilated through neoliberal practice. To combine 'neoliberal' and 'planning' in one phrase then seems awkward at best, and an outright oxymoron at worst. To admit to the very existence or epistemological possibility of 'neoliberal planning' may appear to be a total surrender of state planning to market superiority, or in other words, the simple acceptance that the management of buildings, transport infrastructure, parks, conservation areas etc. "beyond" the profit principle has reached its limits in the 21st century. Planning in this case would be reduced to a mere facilitator of 'market forces' in the city, be it gentle or authoritarian. Yet in spite of these contradictions and outright impossibilities, planners operate within, contribute to, resist or temper an increasingly neoliberal mode of producing spaces and places, or the revival of profit-driven changes in land use. It is this contradiction between the serving of private profit-seeking interests while actually seeking the public betterment of cities that this volume has sought to describe, explore, analyze and make sense of through a set of case studies covering a wide range of planning issues in various countries. This book lays bare just how spatial planning functions in an age of market triumphalism, how planners respond to the overruling profit principle in land allocation and what is left of non-profit driven developments.

Unlike books that focus solely on methods, The Craft of Collaborative Planning provides a detailed guide to designing and managing all aspects of the collaborative process, advocating for making collaborative work the norm. Beginning with a discussion of the political and legal context of collaborative practice in UK land use planning systems, The Craft of Collaborative Planning tracks a path through the challenging task of process design and working with various groups and individuals. Taking into account the great need for coherent organizational approaches, Bishop outlines evaluation and learning from the collaborative process for the future. Jeff Bishop brings to his writing an exemplary career focused on bringing various parties together to generate creative and widely supported plans and projects. With its focused discussion of UK engagement practices, and detailed outline for making a better collaborative process, The Craft of Collaborative Planning is an essential read for practitioners and decision-makers seeking to bring communities together with creative solutions to spatial planning, design, and development.

Unlike books that focus solely on methods, The Craft of Collaborative Planning provides a detailed guide to designing and managing all aspects of the collaborative process, advocating for making collaborative work the norm. Beginning with a discussion of the political and legal context of collaborative practice in UK land use planning systems, The Craft of Collaborative Planning tracks a path through the challenging task of process design and working with various groups and individuals. Taking into account the great need for coherent organizational approaches, Bishop outlines evaluation and learning from the collaborative process for the future. Jeff Bishop brings to his writing an exemplary career focused on bringing various parties together to generate creative and widely supported plans and projects. With its focused discussion of UK engagement practices, and detailed outline for making a better collaborative process, The Craft of Collaborative Planning is an essential read for practitioners and decision-makers seeking to bring communities together with creative solutions to spatial planning, design, and development.

This volume is the proceedings of the conference entitled "Manpower Planning and Organization Design" which was held in Stresa, Italy, 20-24 June 1977. The Conference was sponsored by the NATO Scientific Affairs Division and organized jointly through the Special Programs Panels on Human Factors and on Systems Science. Two Conference Directors were appointed with overall responsibilities for the programme and for policy, and they were assisted in their tasks by a small advisory panel consisting of Professor A. Charnes (University of Texas), Professor W.W. Cooper (Carnegie Mellon University, now at Harvard University) and Dr. F.A. Heller (TavistQck Institute of Human Relations). Professor R. Florio of Bergamo kindly agreed to become Administrative Director and, as such, was responsible for all the local arrangements. The Conference Directors were further assisted by "national points of contact" appointed from each of the member countries of NATO. These national representatives played a substantial part in the search for participants and in the collection and trans mission of the various conference communications. Although full details of the national points of contact are included in the Appendices, special tribute must be paid to the UK point of contact, Brian Smith of the Civil Service Department. He very capably shouldered the additional burdens of maintaining conti nuity and resolving problems during the absence in Canada of Don Bryant in the particularly demanding two months preceding the Conference."

This book, entitled Advances in Spatial Data Handling, is a compendium of papers resulting from the International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (SDH), held in Ottawa, Canada, July 9-12, 2002. The SDH conference series has been organised as one of the main activities of the International Geographical Union (IGU) since it was first started in Zurich in 1984. In the late 1990's the IGU Commission of Geographic Information Systems was discontinued and a study group was formed to succeed it in 1997. Much like the IGU Commission, the objectives of the Study Group are to create a network of people and research centres addressing geographical information science and to facilitate exchange of information. The International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, which is the most important activity of the IGU Study Group, has, throughout its 18 year history been highly regarded as one of the most important GIS conferences in the world.

Various environmental issues are related to urban activities. Through the growing recognition of the necessity to develop sustainable urban mana- ment, the University of Tokyo established the Center for Sustainable Urban Regeneration (cSUR) in July 2003. A research program at the cSUR was designed to create an integrated approach and to provide knowledge for s- tainable urban regeneration with the aid of a global network of researchers and professionals, and to coordinate the international research alliance made up of leading academic institutions worldwide. As part of the program, several studies have been conducted focusing on urban environmental problems in Asian megacities such as Tokyo, Taipei, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Bangkok. The following topics in particular were selected for integrated and strategic research supported by researchers from the fields of architecture, civil engineering, and environmental engineering: -Integrated analysis of the urban atmospheric environment and its re- tionship with control of indoor air conditions in East and Southeast Asian countries -Dynamic behavior of urban non-point pollutants in coastal envir- ments The research contains interesting intensive field-monitoring data on the coastal environment and the urban air environment. Topics also include state-of-the-art environmental monitoring and simulation analysis in urban areas. Key aspects of the research in advanced monitoring and the appli- tion of environmental numerical simulation were selected for inclusion in this book. Integrating the monitoring and modeling of urban environments is essential for engineers to identify and investigate environmental problems and their solutions.

This book is the provisional result of more than 10 years of continued discussion with friends and colleagues from neighbouring disciplines. Although only a small minority ofthe millions of GIS users on this planet are geographers, it seems that somehow, geographers are a kind ofnatural contact persons for historians, archae- ologists, economists, social scientists or others who are looking for appropriate ways ofworking with spatial data. We received constant encouragements and many valuable suggestions from our colleagues. Particularly we wish to thank the members ofthe GIS Study Group of the German Association of Geography (AK GIS) as well as the participants of a workshop in June 2000 on "Mapping Europe's historic boundaries and borders" which was generously sponsored by the European Science Foundation. Among the individuals we owe special appreciation are Humphrey Southall and Ian Gregory (The Great Britain Historical GIS Programme, University ofPortsmouth), Michael Goerke (European University Institute, Florence), Konrad Pierau (Center for His- torical Social Research, University of Cologne), Bernhard Holfter (Forderverein Historische Grundkarte, Leipzig) and Stephan Riediger (Department of History, University of Mannheim).

This provocative collection of essays challenges traditional ideas of strategic s- tial planning and opens up new avenues of analysis and research. The diversity of contributions here suggests that we need to rethink spatial planning in several f- reaching ways. Let me suggest several avenues of such rethinking that can have both theoretical and practical consequences. First, we need to overcome simplistic bifurcations or dichotomies of assessing outcomes and processes separately from one another. To lapse into the nostalgia of imagining that outcome analysis can exhaust strategic planners' work might appeal to academics content to study 'what should be', but it will doom itself to further irrelevance, ignorance of politics, and rationalistic, technocratic fantasies. But to lapse into an optimism that 'good process' is all that strategic planning requires, similarly, rests upon a ction that no credible planning analyst believes: that enough talk will miraculously transcend con ict and produce agreement. Neither sing- minded approach can work, for both avoid dealing with con ict and power, and both too easily avoid dealing with the messiness and the practicalities of negotiating out con icting interests and values - and doing so in ethically and politically critical ways, far from resting content with mere 'compromise'. Second, we must rethink the sanctity of expertise. By considering analyses of planning outcomes as inseparable from planning processes, these accounts help us to see expertise and substantive analysis as being 'on tap', ready to put into use, rather than being particularly and technocratically 'on top'.

One of the main problems and aims of nature conservation in Europe is to protect semi-open landscapes. The development during the past decades is characterized by an ongoing intensivation of land use on the one hand, and an increasing number of former meadows and pastures lying fallow caused by changing economic conditions on the other hand. In several countries the estabishment of larger "pasture landscapes" with a mixed character of open grassland combined with shrubs and forests has been recognized as one solution to this problem. The book gives an overview of the European projects concerning to this topic - nature conservation policy and strategies, scientific results and practical experiences creating large scale grazing systems.

Currently, spatial analysis is becoming more important than ever because enormous volumes of spatial data are available from different sources, such as GPS, Remote Sensing, and others.

This book deals with spatial analysis and modelling. It provides a comprehensive discussion of spatial analysis, methods, and approaches related to human settlements and associated environment. Key contributions with empirical case studies from Iran, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, and Japan that apply spatial analysis including autocorrelation, fuzzy, voronoi, cellular automata, analytic hierarchy process, artificial neural network, spatial metrics, spatial statistics, regression, and remote sensing mapping techniques are compiled comprehensively. The core value of this book is a wide variety of results with state of the art discussion including empirical case studies.

It provides a milestone reference to students, researchers, planners, and other practitioners dealing the spatial problems on urban and regional issues.

We arepleased to announce that this book has been presented with the 2011 publishing award from the GIS Association of Japan.
We would like to congratulate the authors

"

Ayla Neusel The idea of holding an International Women's University ifu as part of the EXPO 2000'W orld Exposition was born in Lower Saxony in the mid-1990s. In 1992, Lower Saxony's then Minister of Science Helga Schuchardt had set up a Women's Research Commission that in 1994 presented its report with the programmatic title "Promoting Women's Interests Means Academic Reform - Women's Research Means a Critique of Science". A spin-off, so to speak, of this commission's was nd the idea of a women's university as an EXPO project. The 2 Lower Saxony Women's Research Commission (1995-1997) stated: "From 15 July until 15 Oc- tober, an International Women's University is to be Q~ganised offering an interdis- ciplinary, international, multimedia, postgraduate study programme". Initially conceived as a purely research-oriented university, ijiJ evolved into an academic project for women scientists on an international scale. The ifu concept was based on the (self-) image of science as an ongoing, evolving, forward- looking research project. The unique concept of the International Women's University as an academic reform project was founded on three key principles: 1. Problem Orientation of Teaching and Research The choice of the globally relevant controversial issues Work - Information - Body - Migration - City - Water and the idea of addressing these issues from the perspective of the natural and engineering sciences, the humanities and so- cial sciences as well as art, consciously focusing on questions of practical rele- vance, gave rise to a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary approach.

Resilience is increasingly becoming a catchword in current discussions about urban and regional development. While there has been a strong research focus on sustainability, there is a lack of understanding of the processes and factors that make cities and regions more vulnerable and others more resilient, for example, when dealing with climate change, demographic decline and ageing, as well as economic crises. The German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy 2010 sheds some light on this by discussing examples of how actors deal with change. On the one hand, concepts are described and analysed which are oriented towards increasing urban regional resilience, for example regarding energy consumption, climate change, and urban decline. Moreover, institutional aspects are discussed. On the other hand, barriers for using the concept of resilience in planning are described and suggestions are made about how to deal with these barriers in strategic planning.

Landforms constitute boundary surfaces between different components of the earth system (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, pedosphere, lithosphere). At these locations most of the human activity on earth takes place. This central position evokes a bi-directional interaction with the other spheres of the earth system. S- tial landform structures strongly affect processes of other earth system components. At the same time, the land-surface is shaped by the in uence of these processes impacting geomorphologic processes and landform morphometry. These interactions are the focus in the Research Training Group 437 "Landform - a structured and variable boundary layer" at the University of Bonn in Germany. Funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) the Research Training Group is a multidisciplinary research programme for postgraduate studies. Disciplines involved in this programme include: biology, c- matology, computer sciences, geodynamics, geology, geomorphology, geophysics, hydrology, mathematics, meteorology, pedology, and remote sensing. These diff- ent disciplines offer various scienti c approaches, theories, methods and data for the study of landforms within their speci c paradigms. Over a period of ten years (1998-2008) more than 25 PhD projects have been completed. Dedicated to ongoing and completed research activities of the Research Training Group an international symposium titled "Landform - structure, evolution, process control" was held at the Department of Geography, University of Bonn, in 2007.

Community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators continue to gain attention and interest in their use as many communities and regions design and apply them. Evolving from early use as data systems, indicators are increasingly being integrated into overall planning and other public policy activities. Their use is found not only in monitoring and evaluation applications, but also in the context of increasing citizen partici- tion in guiding communities towards achieving desired goals. Indeed, the emphasis in many indicator applications now includes linking actions to outcomes - making sure that the indicators are integrated, useful and effective in helping communities address QOL issues. The use of QOL indicators to consider a full spectrum of c- munity and regional well-being is exciting and the focus on integration is certain to bring new and innovative applications to the forefront. This is the third book in a series covering best practices in community QOL indicators. Each volume presents individual cases (chapters) of communities at the local or regional levels that have designed and implemented community indicators programs. In Volume I, we present eight chapters from a variety of contexts - from the county level in the U. S. , to the large megalopolis of Sao Paulo, to looking at a cross section of communities throughout Europe. Also included are three chapters from Canada, a leader in applying community indicator systems.

The 21st century has seen the beginnings of a great restoration effort towards the world's forests, accompanied by the emergence of an increasing literature on reforestation, regeneration and regrowth of forest cover. Yet to date, there is no volume which synthesises current knowledge on the extent, trends, patterns and drivers of reforestation. This edited volume draws together research from leading researchers to explore reforestation and forest regrowth across the world, from multiple dimensions - including ecosystem services, protected areas, social institutions, economic transitions, remediation of environmental problems, conservation and land abandonment - and at different scales. Detailing the methods and analyses used from across a wide range of disciplines, and incorporating research from North, South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Europe, this groundbreaking book provides a global overview of current trends, explores their underlying causes and proposes future forest trajectories. The first of its kind, the book will provide an invaluable reference for researchers and students involved in interdisciplinary research and working on issues relevant to the biophysical, geographic, socioeconomic and institutional processes associated with reforestation.