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Environmentally Sensitive Areas constitute the principal policy instrument for rewarding farmers as providers of environmental goods and services in the EU. This study examines two Scottish ESAs and considers whether the environmental benefits resulting exceed the costs and whether money is being targeted in a way which maximises the benefits. The study examines two main aspects of the public's perceptions of the benefits of the ESA policy: • the public's preferences for different landscape and conservation features within the ESA, and • the public's monetary valuation of the benefits of the scheme (using the Contingent Valuation Method). The individual features which are eligible for grant support under the ESA scheme are generally in accord with public preferences. It is clear from this study that, in principle, a high level of support for the ESA scheme exists amongst members of the public in the Loch Lomond and Stewartry areas. However, in practice, the way that the scheme has operated in the past has focused on an unduly narrow range of environmental services. Furthermore, those features commanding the greatest input of expenditure generate low levels of benefit to the public. If the primary aim were to maximise the monetary value of environmental gains resulting from a given level of expenditure, then an adjustment in the allocation of funding between different policy elements would seem to offer considerable potential for increasing the resulting consumer benefits. Furthermore, the current levels of expenditure on the policy are well below the mean willingness to pay for the policy stated by residents and visitors in the study sites.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2005.

In the spring of 2004, a synergistic team of professors, practitioners, and graduate students coalesced in a graduate planning studio at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) with the greatest of ambitions: to craft a “Plan for America,” through the year 2050. Their work led to a megaregional revival, weaving the work of Jean Gottman, old regionalists like Benton MacKaye, and New Regionalists like Peter Calthrope into a new perspective on regional planning. In the brief period that followed, a flurry of megaregional research was produced by scholars at Penn, Georgia Tech, the University of Texas at Austin, the Regional Plan Association, and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. But nearly a decade into this megaregional revival, old questions about the concept continue to simmer while many new questions emerge, which begs the question: what exactly has this flurry of megaregional research settled? How exactly are megaregions defined and delineated? Do they even have fixed boundaries? Assuming a consensus emerged on how to define and delineate the space, how could such a large and unwieldy scale be governed? Are megaregions functional economic units or merely a product of poorly regulated sprawl development over vast expanses? If they are indeed functional units, how are they interacting or competing with one another for growth, development, and finite public resources? The answers to these questions have been, well, elusive. This thesis begins to remedy this glaring gap in the literature by conducting semi-structured interviews with the key informants credited with leading the conception and evolution of megaregional thought in the U.S. With their aid, this thesis begins to contextualize the provenance, the evolution, the barriers to progress, and the potential future trajectories of the megaregional construct. One of these potential future trajectories – megaregional economic development – is explored between the nation’s only physically linked pair of megaregions: the Texas Triangle and Gulf Coast. In the final chapter of this thesis, recommendations drawn from these analyses are made for the research, the pedagogy, and the practice of planning for megaregions. Together, this triptych of recommendations outlines a path towards a megaregional future. / text

Shelterbelts were established in the Canadian Prairies as a means to protect soil from wind erosion. Knowledge gaps remain about shelterbelts' ecosystem services to the agro-landscape, hence hiding farmers' trade-offs in a changing agriculture. This research first investigated shelterbelts' effect on soil biological activity and fertility. Soil samples were collected in September 2012 from sheltered and non-sheltered fields in the Rural Municipality of Stanley, Manitoba. Results showed that shelterbelts promote higher soil biological activity, potentially correlated to the enhanced organic matter and micro-climate adjacent to shelterbelts. A survey was then conducted to explore shelterbelts' cultural services to the local community. Results indicated that while shelterbelts were perceived to significantly benefit community well-being, they were mainly recognised for agricultural functions. We conclude that shelterbelts are a significant element of both supporting and cultural ecosystem services, contributing to the prairie agro-system resilience. Further research and quantification of shelterbelts' socio-ecological services is recommended.

Die Broschüre berichtet über Entwicklung und Erprobung nutzungsintegrierter Schutzmaßnahmen für gefährdete Vogelarten. Alle Maßnahmen sind grundsätzlich geeignet, die Bestände von Rebhuhn, Kiebitz und Feldlerche positiv zu beeinflussen. Die Akteure wurden für Belange des Artenschutzes sensibilisiert, ihre Zusammenarbeit gestärkt. Für Landwirte, Naturschützer, Jäger und Behörden stellt die Publikation eine Grundlage dar, um Schutzmaßnahmen umzusetzen.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 5 uppsatser och 1 bildbil.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.