Cette thèse a été bâtie sur l’hypothèse que les espaces interstitiels, secteurs en situation de marginalité et faiblement métropolisés, sont plus dynamiques qu’il n’y paraît de prime abord. Notre travail montre que la construction actuelle des statistiques tend à sous-évaluer la réalité urbaine de ces régions. Or, les petites villes sont une des clés du maintien, voire du renouveau, de territoires. Reconstituées selon des limites cohérentes, en tenant compte des communes de banlieue, les petites villes sont toujours des noeuds de résistance dans ces milieux particuliers : 78% d’entre elles sont en hausse démographique et 88% bénéficient d’un marché du travail florissant entre 1999 et 2006. En outre, il apparaît qu’un réseau christallérien structure encore le sud Massif Central, même si des modifications à la base sont survenues. Un constat quasi identique s’observe en Castille/Estrémadure, autre espace interstitiel. L’outil comparatif a permis de mettre en évidence les traits invariants qui décrivent les petites villes, mais également de souligner quelques différences, notamment sur le plan de l’aménagement du territoire. Ceci nous amène à une réflexion plus poussée sur les politiques publiques françaises. Certaines villes ont décliné, pour maintes raisons, et n’assurent plus une fonction d’organisation et de commandement de l’espace. Cette situation interroge les politiques publiques actuelles menées, notamment leur logique égalitaire. La solution ne consisterait-elle pas plutôt en une politique volontariste d’aménagement du territoire à destination, prioritairement, des villes les plus porteuses d’avenir, dans le cadre d’un renforcement des Régions ? / This thesis is founded on the hypothesis that interstitial spaces, i.e. peripheral andless citified zones, are more vibrant than they seem at first glance. Our research shows that the way current statistics are constructed tends to underestimate the urban reality of these regions. However, small towns play a key role in maintaining and even renewing territories. Reconstructed according to coherent borders, by taking into account suburban communities, small towns consistently represent pockets of resistance in these special environments : 78%are expanding demographically and 88% benefitted from a thriving labour market from 1999 to 2006. Moreover, it seems that a Christallerian network is still shaping the southern part ofthe Massif Central, even if basic changes have occurred. And almost identical phenomenonwas observed in another interstitial space, Castile/Estremadura. A comparative tool enabledus to reveal the invariant traits that describe small towns, but also to emphasise several differences, notably in terms of land management. This led us to examine French publicpolicy more closely. Certain towns have declined, for a multitude of reasons, and no longer fulfil the function of organising and controlling space. This situation challenges current public policies, notably their egalitarian rationale. Would it not be better to reinforce regions by adopting aproactive land management policy focused on the towns with the most promising future ?

This research develops a methodology for determining farm scale land managementunits (LMUs) using soil sampling data, high resolution digital multi-spectral imagery (DMSI) and a digital elevation model (DEM). The LMUs are zones within a paddock suitable for precision agriculture which are managed according to their productive capabilities. Soil sampling and analysis are crucial in depicting landscape characteristics, but costly. Data based on DMSI and DEM is available cheaply and at high resolution.The design and implementation of a two-stage methodology using a spatiallyweighted multivariate classification, for delineating LMUs is described. Utilising data on physical and chemical soil properties collected at 250 sampling locations within a 1780ha farm in Western Australia, the methodology initially classifies sampling points into LMUs based on a spatially weighted similarity matrix. The second stage delineates higher resolution LMU boundaries using DMSI and topographic variables derived from a DEM on a 10m grid across the study area. The method groups sample points and pixels with respect to their characteristics and their spatial relationships, thus forming contiguous, homogenous LMUs that can be adopted in precision agricultural applications. The methodology combines readily available and relatively cheap high resolution data sets with soil properties sampled at low resolution. This minimises cost while still forming LMUs at high resolution.The allocation of pixels to LMUs based on their DMSI and topographic variables has been verified. Yield differences between the LMUs have also been analysed. The results indicate the potential of the approach for precision agriculture and the importance of continued research in this area.

Infiltration, the process of water movement through the soil surface is one of most important hydrological processes to be considered in watershed management. The process depends on rainfall, soil, vegetation and topographic conditions. The last three variables can be influenced by human land-uses. This study is concerned with the influence of landuse types (categories) on infiltration at the upper Ciliwung watershed of West-Java, Indonesia. Sixty six infiltration measurements were carried out in 5 types of land-uses i.e. natural forest, agriculture, settlement, productive (old) tea and new tea plantation areas. The measurements were done using ring infiltrometers. The data obtained were expressed in the form of Philip's equation I = st1I2 + At, where I is cumulative infiltration; S is sorptivity; t is time; A is a parameter which was calculated from saturated hydraulic conductivity (K). Crown cover, slope gradient and soil variables such as soil moisture, organic carbon content, total porosity, bulk density were also analysed from each of the 66 sites. The results of the study shows that land-use types have significant influence on these soil variables and on infiltration. Crown cover and human activities in term of land management are among the most important factors which affect soil condition. These variables mostly influence total porosity of soil which is the most important variable to determine sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity. High percentage of crown cover and less human activity in forest area result in high accumulation of litter and humus and high total porosity of soil. On the other hand, settlement and new tea plantation areas have comparatively low crown cover and more frequent human activity which result in soil compaction. Discriminant function analysis of land-use categories shows that the soil under forest is very distinct from the soils under other land-use types. However, the soils under the remaining land-use types are more similar to each other, especially between the soil of settlement and tea plantations. The rank of infiltration rate from the highest to the lowest magnitude is as follows; natural forest, agriculture, productive tea plantation, new tea plantation and settlement areas. Infiltration rates under natural forest and agriculture are significantly different from each other as well as from those in the last three land- use types. However, there are no significant differences in infiltration rates among the last three land-use types. The result of this study also provides basic information for landuse management and further research in order to solve soil and water conservation and management problems in the watershed.

The intensive nature of land uses in the Strzelecki Ranges poses significant threats to landscape values and water quality. A comprehensive catchment strategy was developed based on sustainability science concepts incorporating the careful management of landscape values, proper land management approaches, and government policy and legislative change to ensure that agriculture, forestry and other land uses become sustainable in this sensitive environment. The readily measurable water quality indicators of turbidity, flow, electrical conductivity, and water temperature were used to determine the impacts of the major land uses in the Strzeleckis. From a water quality perspective, there was a trend of decreasing water quality with increasing intensity in land management. However, from a total sediment load perspective, the forest area contributed the highest total sediment load due to higher volumes of steam flow suggesting that natural processes in the Strzeleckis may remain the principal mechanisms for sediment movement within the catchment. An incidental but significant finding was extensive bioturbation along the riparian zone of the plantation area, the extent of which was not observed in the other catchments. This finding suggested that bioturbation may have been the most significant contributor to poorer water quality flowing from in the plantation catchment. The project developed insights into the major environmental processes active in the upper catchment of the Morwell River. Understanding of the contributions to total sediment loads from natural erosional processes and bioturbation, findings related to the impacts on water quality from agricultural practices, and encountering negligible impacts from conservative timber harvesting practices demonstrate that catchment management approaches need to be tailored to achieve sustainability in land uses across the landscape. Key recommendations include the re-establishment and protection of riparian zones in agricultural catchments, the careful assessment and setting of stream buffer zone widths for timber harvesting operations, and the need for further work to map the extent of natural processes such as bioturbation and stream bank erosion. To mitigate these issues, government policy and legislation will need to focus on the preservation and enhancement of the Crown land riparian zones. Recommended changes to current administrative land management arrangements for these sensitive areas include a move from licensing riparian zones for agricultural practices such as grazing to conservation.

Ecosystem services, or the benefits humans obtain from natural ecosystems, have long been recognized as critical to human health. Efforts have been taken by many to determine the non-market values of these services but few have offered a direct market valuation. Increasing awareness, scarcity, and regulation have fostered transactions, and markets are emerging that can allow for direct valuation and could provide landowners the opportunity to merchandise this natural capital. This paper provides a valuation and comparison, as a case study, of a traditional management scheme, including the marketing of fiber and recreational leases, and an ecosystem services management scheme, including the marketing of fiber, recreational leases, carbon sequestration, watershed services, and biodiversity. The traditional forest management scheme had an estimated present value at three pricing scenarios ranging from “pessimistic” at $538,714.63 to “optimistic” at $868,528.27 for the entire 3,976-acre project area. The ecosystem services management scheme had an estimated present value at three pricing scenarios ranging from “pessimistic” at $621,508.61 to “optimistic” at $1,363,628.13 for the entire 3,976-acre project area. This paper concludes that even in these early stages of ecosystem markets, an ecosystem services management scheme may offer more revenue to landowners than a traditional management scheme.

From the Proceedings of the 1975 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 11-12, 1975, Tempe, Arizona / The response of saltcedar (Tamarix pentandra Pall.) to several antitranspirants was evaluated in laboratory, greenhouse and small -scale field studies using potted plants. Anti - transpirants may provide a treatment alternative to the eradication of saltcedar thickets for water salvage objectives. Transpiration rates were reduced by 23 to 44 percent for 7 to 20 days in the greenhouse, and by 18 to 32 percent for 2 to 8 days in the field. No serious damage to the plants was apparent. One of the most effective antitranspirants considered for a hypothetical saltcedar thicket and a hypothetical operational treatment program, based on estimated cost data, would result in reallocated water costing approximately 55 dollars per acre foot for a single treatment. About 19 acres of saltcedar thicket would have to be treated to provide one acre -foot of reallocated water in this case.

Almost for 50 years Lithuania was under the military power of occupational army which made a harm which cannot be rebuilt. After the soviet army left it left huge harmed areas, the injured and polluted the soil, the destroyed forests, the depredated surface of the vegetation behind it. That is why the evaluation and renovation of the ecological shape of the military areas lately has been one of the most actual problems of environment protection. In defining the impact of the military activities on the ecosystem stability in the Lithuania Gaižiūnai and Kairiai military ranges was chosen for the investigation. On the first chapters of this thesis it is made a review on the scale of the military use of the nature and ecological consequences in Lithuania during Soviet times, the experience of foreign. The landscape mechanical transgression, the condition of the plants and the animals, the preserve abode of the Gaižiūnai and Kairiai military ranges were evaluated in the experimental analytical part. Using the PHOENICS software a model of the situation was formed to determine an influence of walls on the wind velocity and soil protection from the deflation. According to the results, protective walls can be recommended as one of the most effective means of decreasing the wind velocity which also helps to improve the environmental state and ensure its stability The results and conclusions are received – is important information on the vegetation’s shape on the military grounds and... [to full text]

For the first time it has been conducted an integrated research of possibilities to apply different kinds of fatty wastes for biodiesel fuel production. For this reason esterification process of oil an fat rich of free fatty acids by using acid catalysts and further transesterification of the obtained product until standard requirements for biodiesel fuel have been fulfilled. Intersolubility of different components of multi-component biofuel systems, and limits of stability were investigated. Emissions of the biodiesel fuel were analyzed and fuel biological decomposition in the environment was studied. Life cycle parameters of the suggested biodiesel fuel production process were determined.

Restoration of Lithuanian independence, land reform, radically changed farming structure and strawberry growing potential has conditioned an increase of modern strawberry plantation. Irrigation is a rather important precondition for the commercial cultivation of fruit and berries in Lithuania. The new farm structure requires new, mainly small-scale irrigation systems. Strawberry water consumption and the soil water dynamics during strawberry growing period stated performing pilot research and additional yield which had been got because of the irrigation influence allows to measure optimal irrigation regime of the strawberry based on research. The aim of the work was to investigate dynamics of strawberry evapotranspiration in the Middle Lithuania and in the course of experiments, with respect to development peculiarities and productivity, to determine optimal irrigation regime for the strawberry grown in loamy soils. In the summary is presented strawberry evapotranspiration results maintaining optimal soil moisture conditions with irrigation; analysis of reference evapotranspiration methods; determination of their interaction degree and evaluation of the possibilities to introduce reference evapotranspiration models in calculation of the evapotranspiration of strawberries; quantitative evaluation of the influence of meteorological factors on the amount of the water consumed by strawberries and analysis of strawberry evapotranspiration calculation methods; evaluation of soil... [to full text]

In the final paper of master studies there is analyzed exploitation efficiency of drainage systems. The methods of mathematic statistics were used in the research – filing of the data, clustering, and methods of the graphical expression of the research data. By the research of the efficiency of the maintenance of the drainage in Kaunas district it was determined how the efficiency of the maintenance of the drainage is changing when planting various agricultural plants in the drained land. The structure of the crop according to the specific constitution is fluctuating each year. It is stated that fastest pay off of the invested finances into the maintenance of the drainage in the repaired area, when growing sugar beets or potatoes. The profit got from these plants covers maintenance expenses within one year. Quite good results are got when growing flax. Reconstruction works of the drainage system in Kaunas district were started in 1964. The biggest part of reconstruction was done in 1996 4311ha. Reconstruction works were fast performed until 1999 afterwards because of the lack of the finances these works get slower.