Sustainable Environmental Planning Research Articles

Predicting land use and land cover change dynamics in the eThekwini Municipality: a machine learning approach with Landsat imagery

ABSTRACT Monitoring and providing accurate land use and land cover (LULC) change information is vital for sustainable environmental planning. This study used Landsat imagery from 2002 to 2022 to create updated LULC change maps for the eThekwini Municipality. Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) were used to conduct these LULC classifications, with XGBoost achieving the highest accuracy (80.57%). The generated maps revealed a significant decrease in cropland and an increase in impervious surfaces. As such, this research established a framework for continuous LULC mapping and highlighted Landsat 9’s potential in LULC classifications.

High-resolution estimates of water availability for the Iberian Peninsula under climate scenarios

Water availability is of paramount importance for sustainable development and environmental planning, specifically in regions such as the Iberian Peninsula, renowned for diverse landscapes and varying climatic conditions. Due to climate change, understanding the potential impacts on water resources becomes essential for effective water management strategies. This research effort aims to assess future potential water availability for the Iberian Peninsula in different climate scenarios, employing cutting-edge water resource modelling techniques integrated within a geographic information system (GIS) framework. In this study, potential water availability is defined as the annual demand for water that can be satisfied at a specific point in the fluvial network with certain reliability. An ensemble of state-of-the-art climate models is utilised to project runoff for the Iberian Peninsula during the mid- and late-twenty-first century periods. These climate projections were subsequently processed using the GIS-based water resource management model, WAAPA, to derive potential water availability under a range of realistic hypotheses. The results indicate that anticipated shifts in precipitation patterns will lead to alterations in hydrological regimes across the region, significantly impacting future water availability. By using GIS-based methodologies, we can facilitate the identification of vulnerable areas susceptible to changes in water availability, offering spatially explicit information along the main rivers of the Iberian Peninsula for decision-makers and stakeholders. High-resolution spatial outputs from this research and detailed water availability estimates serve as valuable input for integrated water resource management and climate change adaptation planning. By combining advanced GIS-based hydrological modelling with climate scenarios, this research presents a robust framework for assessing water resources amidst a changing climate, applicable to other regions struggling with analogous challenges. Ultimately, our study provides vital insights for policymakers and stakeholders, empowering them to make informed decisions and devise adaptive measures to ensure sustainable use of water resources despite uncertain future climatic conditions.

Understanding the impact of urban heat islands on crime: insights from temperature, population density, and green canopy cover

Emergent literature suggests that micro- and macro-climates influence criminal behaviour; a complex phenomenon that is still incipient in theory development. This mixed-method research starts with a systematic review of the literature on the theoretical premises that urban heat islands amplify aggressive behaviour and crime. Further, it discusses the potential implications of the relationship between the environment and social outcomes on the design and planning of urban environments. A meta-synthesis was conducted to explain the correlations between patterns of criminal behaviour and thermal (dis)comfort. This correlation is to relate fundamental urban design principles to socially sustainable communities that dissuade violence and crime, and otherwise show poorly designed spaces do propagate criminal behaviour. Cross-validation was undertaken using a case study of Midland, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Data involves population demographics, temperature, and crime statistics relating to Offences against the Person. Analysis focused on homicide, assault, threatening behaviour, and robbery. The findings imply a positive correlation between long-term temperature, crime, population density, and green canopy cover. Variables of climate (e.g., short-to-long-term climate-related stressors) and crime types also show non-linear association. Nonetheless, forecasting the future of violence and trends of crime through attributes or potential impacts of heat and urban canopy cover on the built environment will inform sustainable social development policy, environmental planning, development strategy, designers, and planners. Recommendations are made around these in relation to making urban communities adaptive to the impacts of global warming and future densification.

Revolutionizing Solar Power: Enhancing Transmission Methods for Space-Based Systems

Energy has been the first and foremost priority of human beings since the industrial era and afterwards. We have always focused on using minimum energy and saving it as much as we can considering the impacts of our technological advancements on our environment. This has played a crucial role in space exploration as well which, with time, has a lot of benefits. The usage of energy in our day-to-day lives has been increasing exponentially, adversely affecting our biosphere, which is estimated to increase more in the coming time. The need of the time is to minimize this energy input and switch ourselves to more natural and ever-lasting energy generation methods. Outer space exhibits everything that humanity depends upon. So, it is beneficial to utilize something directly from the space itself and not the non-renewable fuels. By providing the necessary energy, space-based solar power technology will aid in the pursuit of sustainable objectives and environmental planning. As a result, research on space-based solar power has gained prominence in the aerospace industry. Solar energy is often captured by solar collectors or the light structures of solar arrays in SBSP, and electronics devices then transform it into another kind of energy, such as microwave or laser, for transmission to Earth. Compared to other energy sources, the microwave is safer for living things. A lot of people who are interested in space and creating new ideas have been drawn to the concept of producing solar electricity from space.

Evaluation of solid waste disposal service management and its impact on the environment using the SR index in AL Karrada district and AL Shua’la district

Solid waste poses a great challenge to the countries of the world, due to its impact on human life, whether health, environmental or economic, and solid waste management is one of the most important of those challenges (generation, collection, transportation, treatment, and final disposal) and it requires sustainable environmental planning, and effort Mechanical and human (mechanics and workers), which are linked in a direct relationship with a group of variables, including demographic factors such as population size. This research deals with the evaluation of solid waste disposal service management and its impact on the environment. Districts were selected from the city of Baghdad from the Karkh side and the Rusafa side, which are (AL Karrada district and AL Shua’la district) trying to answer the research problem, which included the efficiency and adequacy of the waste disposal service and its impact on the environment in study area The research relied on field surveys, personal interviews with stakeholders, and data analysis to find out the reality of the study. The research found through the index of the total ranks that there is a clear disparity between AL Karrada district and AL Shua’la district area in the management of solid waste, and environmental pollution, Where Karrada district achieved a high level and achieved rank 5, while Al-Shula neighbourhood achieved a low level, achieving a rank of 4. The research concluded that the Shula area suffers from environmental pollution, while the Karrada district is less polluted. The reasons for this discrepancy are attributed to weak administrative experience, lack of financial allocations, poor planning and failure to keep pace with technical developments for sustainable solid waste management. The research found a relationship between population size and waste volume in the two study areas.

The Need to Articulate Historic and Cultural Dimensions of Landscapes in Sustainable Environmental Planning—A Swedish Case Study

Ignoring the historic and cultural dimensions of landscapes makes environmental planning unsustainable, which in the long run, will have a negative impact on both the environment and society. This paper examines the work and perceptions of practitioners with a focus on the role of historic and cultural landscape dimensions and their relation to the recent implementation of the ecosystem service framework in sustainable environmental planning. Semi-structured interviews with officials at local and regional planning levels in a Swedish case study showed that the historical landscape forms the basis for environmental work. Respondents expressed an integrated view of the landscape, and historic and cultural landscape dimensions were considered important in the initial planning process. However, several challenges existed later in the planning process and final decision-making, such as conceptual ambiguities, unclear policy and assignments, limited cross-sectorial coordination and lack of awareness, knowledge, resources and other priorities. The results also show that the respondents worked regularly with intangible landscape dimensions, which can be defined as cultural ecosystem services, but they do not label them as such. Furthermore, established knowledge and expertise of heritage planning was not activated in the implementation of the ecosystem service approach. We conclude that historic and cultural landscape dimensions are not ignored in practice, but there is a need to articulate these aspects more clearly in order to achieve sustainable environmental planning. There is also an unexplored opportunity to connect skills and create new forms of cross-sectorial collaboration between heritage planning and the ES approach.

Assessing the impact of spatio-temporal land cover changes on land surface temperature using satellite data in Beas Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

Here, the impact of spatio-temporal Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULC) on the variations of Land Surface Temperature (LST) has been estimated using Landsat 7 ETM+, Landsat 8 TIRS/OLI and Sentinel-2 data for Beas basin of Kullu district, Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). Also, the relationship of various remote sensing indices such as NDVI, NDSI, NDBI and NDMI with LST were established using coefficient of correlation to monitor the role of natural ecosystem alteration on LST. LST was calculated using Single Window algorithm (SW) for eight major land cover categories extracted from Landsat-7 ETM+ and Landsat-8 (Path-147 and Row-38) Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) data for October, 2000 and October, 2020 respectively. LULC change detection revealed that there was a huge increase in agricultural land including orchard expansion of 123 % during the year 2020 than that of 2000. Also there’s a sharp increase of 40.63 % in settlement areas which includes the tourism activities. These are the significant factors for the changes in LST. Further, it shows that negative correlation with the strong correlation coefficients of R2 = 0.7072 and R2 = 0.5642 between NDSI and LST in Pre-winter season of 2000 and that of 2020 respectively. Whereas, the correlation between NDVI and LST showed positive correlation with the coefficient of R2 = 0.2577 in 2000, which increased to R2 = 0.5959 in 2020. This positive relationship highlighted the fact that an increase in LST provides favourable conditions for the vegetation growth in the valley during the pre-winter season 2000 and 2020 respectively. The main outcome of the paper, we believe, will be helpful in analysing the dynamics of land cover changes and sustainable environmental planning in the Beas Valley, which is crucial for livelihood sustainability of the people residing in the already fragile IHR.

Civil society’s digitized approach to environmental planning. The case of environmental associations’ e-participation platform in Berlin

In the dawn of innovative digital tools for communication and information exchange the civil society has apparently taken a step forward into this new direction. This paper explores the process for enhancing E-participation in environmental planning and making relevant government decision-making democratically accountable. Environmental issues are dealt in the civil society context with reflexivity that incorporates lay and local knowledge. The case study emphasizes on the BLN e.V e-participation platform “Umwelt-Beteiligung-Berlin” and discusses the extent and impact of Environmental Associations involvement in sustainable environmental planning. BLN e.V was created as a hub for all Berlins registered Nature conservation/Environment protection associations as well as citizens’ initiatives on environmental projects. The platform was developed in cooperation with the nature conservation associations recognized in Brandenburg and Lower Saxony. BLN working group is supported by volunteers in the Federal Ecological Volunteers Service (ÖBFD). The paper analyses the case study impact and concludes by discussing how the concept can be proliferated on EU, national, regional and local level and the prospects of future research.

Perceived Importance and Bundles of Ecosystem Services in the Yangtze River Middle Reaches Megalopolis, China

In this study, a survey with 4,580 residents in the Yangtze River Middle Reaches Megalopolis, central China, was conducted to assess the perceived importance of local ESs. Then, principal component analysis was used to identify their perceived coincidence (i.e., ES bundles), and an automatic linear model was used to reveal how the perceived ES importance and ES bundles were associated with socioenvironmental factors, including demographics, environmental awareness, and living environment. Our results showed that the provisioning ESs, especially water supply, had relatively higher perceived importance. There was no significant difference in perceived ES importance and ES bundles between experts and ordinary residents; thus, experts may recommend practices that meet the local residents’ wishes in the YRMRM. In addition, we disclosed three bundles of perceived ES (i.e., green environment service bundle, ecological stability service bundle, and grain service bundle), which encompassed ES from different ES categories. Potential tradeoff existed in different ES bundles, mainly due to the divergent preferences of different residents. For example, residents with more bus services near the residence tended to perceive green environment service bundle as more important, but perceive ecological stability service bundle as less important. This study adds important first-hand empirical data to the field of the public preferences of local residents for a region of high economic and ecological importance in China, which could provide more information and scientific basis for socially just and sustainable region environmental planning and management.

Variação Temporal da suscetibilidade erosiva no município de Boa Esperança, Sul de Minas Gerais

Currently, water erosion is one of the main problems affecting soils. It is influenced by several parameters, including land use and occupation, relief and soil classes. Determining effective actions for soil conservation depends on the researchers' ability to analyze, in an integrated manner, the main factors related to soil erosion so that they can be identified as critical and auxiliary decision-making areas. Many studies on erosion are carried out using combinations of these variables through geoprocessing and remote sensing techniques. In this study, a multi-criteria analysis was used to identify a susceptibility to water erosion in the municipality of Boa Esperanca, located in the south of Minas Gerais, seeking to understand how changes that occur in land use affected the susceptibility of the region. For this, the authors combined the parameters of land use and occupation, relief, and soil classes during 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2018. The research results showed that a study area has medium susceptibility to water erosion in most territories. The year 2018 has the highest rates of erosive susceptibility. Given the analyzes developed and the results obtained, the contribution of multi-criteria analysis to this type of study and the usefulness of the water erosion susceptibility map for sustainable agricultural and environmental planning is evidenced.

TOURISM IN LIGHT OF APPLYING THE CRITERIA OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING SIWA OASIS CASE STUDY

The eco-tourism sector represents one of an important sectors that contributes toan effective role in economic progress and pushing its wheel forward significantly reducing poverty for the local population; in addition to the further development and development of environmental tourism habitats and the surrounding areas. The ecotourism that is compatible with the criteria of environmental balance and the principles of sustainability is a phenomenon that everyone seeks to achieve because of the great benefits that it provides for human comfort and contribute to sustainable development and encourage investment in productive projects for the local community while protecting the environment and the biological and cultural diversity of tourist areas. Environmental tourism has now become a promising market in the world, but Egypt, despite its tourism potentials, especially in Siwa Oasis has not yet gained from what is commensurate with its natural, civilizational and cultural heritage; and despite the efforts made by the Egyptian Ministry of Environment to activate environmental tourism And that includes formulating a national strategy for managing ecotourism, developing its goals in a sustainable manner, and protecting its natural and cultural resources in a way that reflects lasting benefits for citizens, but ecotourism has not achieved its desired goals. The research aims in its entirety to reach a number of effective policies to stimulate environmental tourism in Egypt, especially in the Siwa Oasis region in light of the application of sustainable environmental planning standards and general frameworks of the Egyptian Ministry of Environment's strategy for managing ecotourism and developing its purposes يمثل قطاع السياحة البيئية أحد القطاعات الهامة الذى يساهم بدور فعال فى التقدم الإقتصادى ودفع عجلة نحو الأمام والحد بشکل ملحوظ من الفقر للسکان المحليين, هذا بالإضافة إلى زيادة التطوير والتنمية فى مواطن السياحة البيئية والمناطق المحيطة بها . وتعتبر السياحة البيئية المتوافقة مع معايير التوازن البيئي ومبادئ الإستدامة هى هدف يسعى إليها الجميع إلى تحقيقها لما فيها من الفوائد الجمة والتى منها توفير الراحة للإنسان والمساهمة فى التنمية المستدامة وتشجيع الإستثمار فى المشاريع الإنتاجية للمجتمع المحلى مع حماية البيئة والتنوع البيولوجى والثقافى للمناطق السياحية. ولقد أصبحت الأن السياحة البيئية تمثل سوقا واعدا على مستوى العالم إلا أن مصر رغم ما تمتلکه من مقومات سياحية وخاصة فى منطقة سيوة لم تصل الي المکانة التي تتناسب وامکاناتها من تراث طبيعى وحضارى وثقافى. ورغم الجهود الذى قامت بها وزارة البيئة المصرية لتنشيط السياحة البيئية والتى منها صياغة إستراتيجية وطنية لإدراة السياحة البيئية وتنمية مقاصدها بأسلوب مستدام وحماية مواردها الطبيعية والثقافية بما ينعکس نفعا دائما على المواطنين الا ان السياحة البيئية لم تحقق اهدافها المنشودة, وقد توصل البححث الي ضرورة صياغة سياسات وطنية واستراتيجيات لتنمية السياحة البيئية تکون متوافقة مع الأهداف العامة للتنمية المستدامة ومعايير التخطيط البيئي المستدام وذلک من خلال التشاور الواسع مع المعنيين, والعمل علي تنشيط السياحة البيئية المستدامة بما يقلل من الاثار السلبية علي النظام البيئي يلزم عمل مسوحات ودراسات مستمرة لتقييم الأثر البيئي الناتج عن تلک الممارسات للمقاصد السياحية.

Re-Naturing the City: Linking Urban Political Ecology and Cultural Ecosystem Services

In the last few decades European industrial cities have experienced major transformations which have implied the need to rethink the role of nature. Re-naturing the city, reconnecting urban planning and nature and enhancing sustainability, means taking into account ecosystems and biodiversity through a social approach to nature which reconsiders nature as a social product and re-examines city–nature relationships, the way Urban Political Ecology (UPE) suggests. This paper focuses on the Brescia Quarry Park, a suburban space that until just a few years ago was characterized by mining activities. This area has now been transformed into a re-naturalized area and is projected to become one of Europe’s largest re-naturalized protected urban areas. These transformations are signs of a profound change in the urban metabolism. In fact, the community has struggled for many years for the recognition of the value of the area in ecological and cultural terms. Therefore, an approach was adopted based on Urban Political Ecology, which is useful to study how the socio–natural relationships change and how an exploited and degraded land can become a relevant natural area from the local community’s point of view. This approach also allowed us to study conflicts due to unequal power relations and strategies developed by the community to reduce these conflicts. Particular interest was given to the participatory processes which have driven these transformations and to the role played by the different actors involved through top-down and bottom-up approaches. So, we decided to combine UPE and participatory action research—PAR and create a participatory map of the Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) in the Park. Attention was given to understanding the practices of the stakeholders and benefits for the community. This involvement allowed us to represent the complexity of the re-naturalized urban landscape which was analyzed through the changes in natural, urban and rural features that emerged. During the process, the interaction between citizens and experts was fundamental in co-producing an analysis of the placemaking of urban landscapes and in revealing the socio–ecological interactions of the stakeholders with these places. The results of the mapping process represent a first step towards promoting sustainable environmental planning and management based on the involvement and empowerment of the local population.

Fractional vegetation cover estimation in southern African rangelands using spectral mixture analysis and Google Earth Engine

Grasslands are under continuous threat of conversion and subsequent degradation, which has a detrimental impact on grassland productivity and grazing capacity, affecting the livestock industry. Fractional vegetation cover as indicator of grassland condition and productivity has been extensively researched, however, existing approaches and products are limited with respect to accessibility, affordability, applicability, and transferability. This study evaluated the use of publicly available satellite imagery, spectral mixture analysis and cloud geoprocessing technologies for dynamic, continuous, and accurate estimation of FVC for sustainable management. A linear spectral mixture model was developed, calibrated, and implemented in Google Earth Engine using Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 imagery. Model accuracy and spatial and temporal transferability were evaluated using existing benchmark products and field data. It was found that Sentinel-2 performed the best using a feature combination of the SWIR2 band and the NDVI, EVI, MSAVI2 and DBSI indices. Accuracies were further improved by dividing the woody and bare endmembers into subclasses. The approach proved both spatially and temporally transferable, thus this research provides a robust approach to FVC estimation using limited field data and open source remote sensing imagery. The combination of this research with further grassland productivity modelling could prove valuable for sustainable environmental and economical rangeland planning and management.

Forest Cover Change and Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Community Forest in Mechinagar and Buddhashanti Landscape (MBL), Nepal.

The community-based forest management program has been successful in the conservation of forest cover in Nepal. We investigated forest cover change for the Mechinagar and Buddhashanti Landscape (MBL) area within the Jhapa district, Nepal, during 1990-2019 using Landsat images and GIS tools and valuated the major ecosystem services (ES) of Kalika Community-managed Forest (KCF) within the MBL landscape using the economic approach-market price method (revealed price). Land cover analysis of the MBL area indicated that over the study period, there were increases in urban/built-up areas, forest, and tea plantations, and declines in cultivated land, shrub, barren land, water body, and grassland areas. In particular, forest cover increased by 8.6% from 41.5 sq.km to 45.1 sq.km, due to the conversion of 3.9 sq.km cultivated land and 2.4 sq.km shrub into forest cover. KCF, the selected case study area for ES valuation, has been successful in providing noticeable economic benefits from provisioning and cultural services. Of the provisioning services, wood and timber make the largest contribution with an average revenue collection of Nepali Rupees (NRs) 3091.4 thousands followed by non-timber forest products (NRs 883.1 thousands) and firewood (NRs 524.3 thousands), respectively, while ecotourism-based income is also important (NRs 458.4 thousands) and is increasing in later years. As monitoring forest cover in a rapidly changing landscape and evaluating the ES of the community-managed forest cover are imperative for sustainable environmental planning and policy formulation, these research outputs are expected to be a significant benchmark for planners, policy makers, and future researchers.

Dynamic Spatial Model of Non-Domestic Waste Transport in Strategic Areas

The development of strategic areas that are taking place in several cities and districts in Indonesia is one of the solutions to the problem-solving approach instructed by the central government to develop the economy. However, along with the development of physical development and infrastructure in this strategic area, environmental problems began to emerge, especially solid waste. Increased community activity is one of the triggers for this increasing environmental problem. This research is a literature study that will answer the problem, what digital tools (applications / software) in a dynamic spatial model can support the final performance and what outputs can be obtained in its use. The method used is a qualitative method, research data is obtained from secondary data, several journals or articles that reveal about solid waste management. Data analysis was performed using descriptive analytical techniques. The mapping software application will simulate the determination of the location of waste collectors, visual representation of transportation routes, and optimization of transportation issues in order to provide economic and environmental benefits by reducing travel time, distance, fuel consumption, and pollutant emissions. The dynamic spatial model shows that the ArcGIS simulation results can be used as a strong basis for measuring the overall optimal route in solid waste management and dealing with dynamic changes in the future. Incorporating planning details on paper with real-world boundaries allows for realistic comparisons, for the application of sustainable environmental planning.

Spatial prediction of shallow landslide: application of novel rotational forest-based reduced error pruning tree

Landslides are a form of soil erosion threatening the sustainability of some areas of the world. There is, therefore, a need to investigate landslide rates and behaviour. In this research, we introduced a novel hybrid artificial intelligence approach of rotation forest (RF) as a meta classifier based on reduced error pruning tree (REPTree) as a base classifier called RF-REPTree, for landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) in the Kalaleh watershed, Golestan Province, Iran. Some benchmark models, including the open-source Java decision tree (J48), naive Bayes tree (NBTree), and REPTree were used to compare the designed model. A total of 249 landslide locations were identified and mapped. The group was split into training (70%) and testing (30%) data for modelling and reliability analysis. Based on a literature review and multi-collinearity tests, 16 landslide conditioning factors (LCFs) were selected. Of the LCFs, the topographical position index (TPI) had the highest correlation with landslide occurrence. The LSM produced by RF-REPTree revealed that nearly 29% of the study areas have high to very high landslide susceptibility (LS). Statistical analysis of the model results included the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), the efficiency test, the true skill statistic (TSS), and the kappa index. ROC demonstrated that the AUC values of RF-REPTree, REPTree, J48, and NBTree models were 0.832, 0.700, 0.695, and 0.759 for succession rate curves and 0.794, 0.740, 0.788, and 0.728 for prediction rate curves, respectively. Therefore, all models were judged to be acceptably accurate for LSM. Among the LS models, the RF-REPTree model achieved the highest accuracy, followed by REPTree, J48, and NBTree. The results of LSM can be used to target the mitigation of landslide hazards and provide a foundation for sustainable environmental planning.

Sustainability and Resilience in Smart City Planning: A Review

Urban planning is recognized as an interaction between the state and society, which aims to articulate public policies in the territory, facilitating their administration in favor of greater development and well-being of society. However, this interaction becomes complex because consumption demands increase, and the carrying capacity of the urban ecosystem to supply them is exceeded, hindering its sustainable functionality. With this overview, it becomes relevant to study urban planning from a sustainable environmental planning perspective, based on four topics: urban planning, sustainability, resilience, and smart cities, which are developed throughout the document by means of a chronological study. A bibliometric study was used through a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) adjustment to 87 articles, supported by VOSviewer®, which allowed for the construction and visualization of the co-occurrence networks of key words extracted from the selected articles. Likewise, 16 documents more were used for the co-occurrence analysis. The main result is to consider cities with a complex systems approach that works like a gear; the relationship between inter-urban and intra-urban processes is the key factor that allows for an understanding of their synchronization; therefore, deepening of each of these topics is crucial to the ideal of a territorial administration involving time scales and adaptive cycles, allowing for the provision of new tools for concepts such as carrying capacity and the measurement of the ecological footprint.

Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin

Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations.

Population Estimates from Orbital Data of Medium Spatial Resolution: Applications for a Brazilian Municipality

In recent decades, there has been an increase in the search for more detailed information on population dynamics, given the growing demand for more sustainable economic, social, and environmental planning. The dissemination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has contributed to the development of methodologies for the field of population estimates for small areas. To support more sustainable policies, this study aims to evaluate the capacity and contribution of the orbital images (Landsat ETM+) for the production of post-census population estimates for the municipality of Contagem, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Firstly, models were built using the average of the reflectance of the spectral bands of the Landsat 7 ETM+ for each special intra-municipal unit, called the census sector, as explanatory variables for the population density. Secondly, this study constructed models that use the reflectance and the distributed population at the level of the pixels of the images. All models were tested through internal validation procedures, external validation, and comparative analyses with post-census estimates. Internal validation presented excellent results (below 7%), while in external validation, the method at the level of the pixels presented consistent results, below 1% relative error. These results provide useful clues and can help policymakers in the development of more sustainable and effective public policies, insofar as population estimates are extremely important for the planning of any society.

Geophysical analysis of landscape polystructures

The objective identification of landscape cover units is very important for sustainable environmental management planning. The article proposes a method-algorithm for describing the formation of landscape structures, which is based on the classic landscape analysis and applies the parameters of geophysical fields. The main driving forces of all structure-forming processes are the gradients of gravitational and insolation fields, parameters of which were calculated using the digital elevation models and the GIS-technologies. A minimum number of principal parameters are selected for typological and functional classification of landscapes. The number and importance of parameters were identified basing on the results of numerical experiments. Landscape classifications elaborated on the basis of standard numerical methods take a fundamental geophysical value. In this case, a concept of polystructural landscape organization is logical: by selecting different structure-forming processes and physical parameters, different classifications of landscapes could be elaborated. The models of geosystem functioning are closely related to their structure through boundary conditions and relations between parameters. All models of processes and structures are verified by field experimental data obtained under diverse environmental conditions.