Contents

**Preface XIII**



Chapter 14 **Unlikely Alliances in the Battle for Land and Water Security: Unconventional Gas and the Politics of Risk in NSW,**

Contents **VII**

**Australia 287** Meg Sherval


Chapter 14 **Unlikely Alliances in the Battle for Land and Water Security: Unconventional Gas and the Politics of Risk in NSW, Australia 287** Meg Sherval

Chapter 6 **Land Acquisition and Use in Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Food and Livelihood Security 91**

**Development 111**

**VI** Contents

Patchareeya Chaikaew

Raed Najjar

Yue

Daniela Manuschevich

**Section 3 Land-Use Planning for Environmental, Economic and Social**

Chapter 7 **A Visual Quality Prediction Map for Michigan, USA: An Approach to Validate Spatial Content 113** Rüya Yilmaz, Chung Qing Liu and Jon Bryan Burley

Chapter 8 **Assessing Land-Use Changes in European Territories: A Retrospective Study from 1990 to 2012 131**

António Neves Lousada and Patrícia Escórcio

Chapter 9 **Land Use Change Monitoring and Modelling using GIS and**

Chapter 10 **The Amazonia Third Way Initiative: The Role of Technology to**

**Unveil the Potential of a Novel Tropical Biodiversity-Based Economy 183** Ismael Nobre and Carlos A. Nobre

**Section 4 Land-Use Strategies, Dynamics and Policies 215**

Chapter 11 **Planning, Power, and Politics (3P): Critical Review of the**

Chapter 12 **A Critical Assessment of the Adaptive Capacity of Land Use Change in Chile: A Socio-Ecological Approach 241**

Chapter 13 **Comparative Approaches in Managing Wetland Environments**

**China, and Chinese Sponge Concept Case Studies 263**

**and Land Uses: Rainbow Lake in Michigan, Guangzhou City in**

Zhen Wu, Jon Bryan Burley, Chun-Hua Guo, Na Li, Yiwen Xu and Zhi

**Hidden Role of Spatial Planning in Conflict Areas 217**

Isaac B. Oluwatayo, Omowunmi Timothy and Ayodeji O. Ojo

José Manuel Naranjo Gómez, Luis Carlos Loures, Rui Alexandre Castanho, José Cabezas Fernández, Luis Fernández-Pozo, Sérgio

**Remote Sensing Data for Watershed Scale in Thailand 165**

Preface

sometimes this is not true.

Landscape planning is generally described as a multi-disciplinary field that incorporates several branches of knowledge, considering at the same time science, technology, and art. In this scenario, each and every single landscape and planning specialist should be perceived as someone who is able to promote the definition of land use, thus enabling landscape alter‐ ations that should ensure sustainable development, while protecting the environment, pre‐ serving natural and cultural assets, and improving people's quality of life. Unfortunately,

In this regard, the transformation of landscapes worldwide has raised global concerns, in‐ creasing the need to rethink landscape planning and protect the environment. This is especial‐ ly true for previously developed areas that are now abandoned or underused. Instead of consuming green lands, the brown and grey lands need to be redeveloped and given new life, achieving a more sustainable urban setting. In this sense, although landscape reclamation plays a very important role for societal development, the continuous use of green fields con‐ tinues to have deep economic, social, and ecological impacts that require special attention. The new environmental paradigms associated with globalization, progressive climate change, and increasing food production needs will intensify the entropy and the instability in most of the existing natural land. This reality creates the perfect momentum to assess these issues. The present book aims to highlight the opportunities and challenges associated with the de‐ velopment of new sustainable landscapes, considering current and future challenges related to land use change, planning, and development, considering not only the different sustaina‐

bility pillars, but also the impacts these changes might have in each one of them.

on planning, ecosystem, and landscape design.

tural and socioeconomic issues in planning and design processes.

This book covers a wide range of research domains and issues associated with land use change and redevelopment such as public involvement, landscape quality assessment, land use resilience, land policies, urban planning, and landscape reclamation, among others. The book covers a wide range of topics related to land use change and planning, assessing the impact of contemporary needs and constraints and landscape management strategies both

As a landscape architect and agronomic engineer with research interests deeply related to the field of sustainability, landscape planning and design, my main investigation goals are directly connected to fitting design to the needs and desires of contemporary life, addressing in equal measure society, the natural landscape, heritage and culture, and economic issues. I believe landscape planning is increasingly missing a vision towards future planning proc‐ esses that differ from many contemporaries in its philosophical grounding in the social as well as creative matrices, calling for a comprehensive view of the different components of landscape design, acknowledging the need for an interrelated analysis of the ecological, cul‐

**Luís Carlos Loures**

Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, Portugal
