Rural Planning from an Environmental Systems Perspective

About this book

This book synthesizes knowledge from several fields that are crucial to sustainable rural development: the physical environment, biological and agricultural production, rural sociology and economics. It takes a systems perspective incorporating systems analysis, landscape analysis and soil, water, and land planning. "Rural Planning from an Environmental Systems Perspective" is directed toward graduate students and professionals, providing a source of information and concepts for those concerned with land and water policies and practice. It presents an integrated approach using practical and applicable models and methods and takes a middle position between an elementary conceptual approach to land and water management and a highly mathematically advanced treatise based exclusively on system modeling. The book is based on almost twenty years of experience in teaching a course on rural planning and the environment at the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies in Zaragoza, Spain. The authors are specialists from universities, research institutions and companies in Europe and North America.

Contents

I. Introduction: Planning as a Way of Achieving Sustainable Development * II. Bases for Resource Interpretation and Valuation in Land Planning. Information Systems for Rural Planning. Role of Land Surface Relief in Land-Use Allocation. Climate as a Factor in Regional Planning. The Hydrological Cycle and the Role of Water in Mediterranean Environments * Evaluation of Soils for Land-Use Allocation * III. Production Systems. Habitat Conservation. The Natural Systems: Potential Production and Forest Management. The Agricultural System: Potential Production and Environmental Consequences * IV. The Human Use of Rural Space. Human Organization in Rural Areas. Rural Development Engineering and Laborers of Development * V. Rural Economics and Economics of Natural Resources. The Farm and Rural Community as Economic System. Introduction to the Economics of Resource Use in Planning. Public Policies, Markets and Externalities * VI. Systems and Land Planning Analysis. Land Use Allocation and Environmental Impact Assessment in Land Planning. Systems Analysis as a Tool for Rural Planning. Rural Planning: A Case Study.

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