Land Management is normally embedded in a complex legal context, which frequently consists of contradictory objectives, such as: strengthening of rural areas, satisfying the need for affordable living and commercial space, protecting environment and health, supporting transport infrastructure development, and preserving the landscape. Land management can be understood as a process that comprises coordination of such activities while managing the use and the development of land resources. It can be counstrained by the land use specifications resulting from spatial planning process. Along with this, the legal framework often contains generally formulated concepts and open standards, which provide a range of opportunities for realization while balancing the different interests. In this process it is important if and how both constraints and opportunities are recognised by the actors. In this volume this topic is examined from various aspects: first the problems in promoting mutual understanding between researchers and the general public, but also among scientists of different disciplines; second the success requirements of land management instruments as well as unfortunate experience caused by land use changes; third covering land management costs by absorbing value increase and other trade off aspects; and fourth supporting land management by providing geodata with low-cost methods.

This book reconciles competing and sometimes contradictory forms of land use, while also promoting sustainable land use options. It highlights land use planning, spatial planning, territorial (or regional) planning, and ecosystem-based or environmental land use planning as tools that strengthen land governance. Further, it demonstrates how to use these types of land-use planning to improve economic opportunities based on sustainable management of land resources, and to develop land use options that strike a balance between conservation and development objectives. Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem services rises. Food security issues, renewable energy and emerging carbon markets are creating pressures for the conversion of agricultural land to other uses such as reforestation and biofuels. At the same time, there is a growing demand for land in connection with urbanization and recreation, mining, food production, and biodiversity conservation. Managing the increasing competition between these services, and balancing different stakeholders’ interests, requires efficient allocation of land resources.

Land is the integrating component of all livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water (rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global population and economy has resulted in the unintended mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. 'Sustainable Land Management' provides strategic focus to the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) components of the World Bank's development strategies. SLM is a knowledge-based procedure that integrates land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustaining livelihoods and the environment. This book, aimed at policy makers, project managers, and development organization, articulates priorities for investment in SLM and natural resource management and identifies the policy, institutional, and incentive reform options that will accelerate the adoption of SLM productivity improvements and pro-poor growth.

Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies provides integrated and practicable solutions that aid planners and entrepreneurs in the design and optimization of food production-distribution systems and operations and drives change toward sustainable food ecosystems. With synthesized coverage of the academic literature, this book integrates the quantitative models and tools that address each step of food supply chain operations to provide readers with easy access to support-decision quantitative and practicable methods. Broken into three parts, the book begins with an introduction and problem statement. The second part presents quantitative models and tools as an integrated framework for the food supply chain system and operations design. The book concludes with the presentation of case studies and applications focused on specific food chains. Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies will be an indispensable resource for food scientists, practitioners and graduate students studying food systems and other related disciplines. - Contains quantitative models and tools that address the interconnected areas of the food supply chain - Synthesizes academic literature related to sustainable food supply chains - Deals with interdisciplinary fields of research (Industrial Systems Engineering, Food Science, Packaging Science, Decision Science, Logistics and Facility Management, Supply Chain Management, Agriculture and Land-use Planning) that dominate food supply chain systems and operations - Includes case studies and applications

The peer reviewed papers in this new volume of the European Academy of Land Use and Development (EALD) inform about investigations on the common subject «land management» – due to the interdisciplinary nature of the EALD from very different views. The spectrum of contributions covers regulations, governance and the implementation of land management as well as the assessment of relevant data supporting these tasks. Various approaches, methods, systems and understanding of the government’s role in the different countries of Europe are highlighted. Committed to sustainability, the articles give evidence that Europe provides an experimental field for land management issues, and they enable to increase knowledge of new practices, to verify them and to learn from each other.

Foreword. Nature and scope. Overview of the planning process. Steps in land-use planning. Methods and sources.

The governance structures in urban and regional development have undergone processes of transformation since the medieval period, resulting in them becoming increasingly decentralised, diversified, and centred about "middle-class values". An essential part was played by the initial concepts of land ownership and planned land use. These were then complemented by additional items from land taxation to the concepts that began to evolve during the 20th century, including diverse elements such as land economics and social responsibility. This volume concentrates on a diverse range of topics centering on the relationships between governance and the organization of entities within both urban and rural areas. The essays indicate that the development of systems of governance runs parallel to and reflects the indelible print humankind has made upon all forms of landscape. Over time various forms of governance evolved, but in the course of the last century they also became more accountable. Together this resulted in a continual process of evolving boundaries and territories, of political changes, and of the subsequent divisions between urban and rural areas as well as urban subdivisions. In addition to this complex mixture of land and spatial planning issues, we are faced today with rapidly changing demographic profiles across all of Europe – and not the least with the emerging awareness of how social responsibilities impact this issue. Even though this volume cannot provide all the answers to the many complex problems, together the essays present a stimulating, interdisciplinary approach that challenges conventional thoughts in European land and spatial planning.

This paper assesses the nature of land administration service delivery in Nigeria using data collected from three sets of participants in land administration processes: 76 service providers, 253 beneficiaries, and 172 professionals. The data were collected from eight states selected from the six geopolitical zones of the country—Cross River, Benue, Bauchi, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna, and Lagos states, plus the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja). These were chosen because they are considered to have advanced land administration systems. Our findings show that land registration processes in Nigeria take a long time: nearly 80 percent of beneficiaries and 41 percent of professionals responded that land registration took more than two years to complete after first apply-ing. This difference between beneficiaries and professionals may stem from the fact that many professionals, who gener-ally are better educated, may know more about the application process than do beneficiaries and are able to navigate the process more efficiently. Land registration information guidelines seem to be rarely available to the public. Consequently, the dominant means of access to land administration institutions is through direct contact. Coordination among govern-ance structures put in place by states for land administration also was found to be poor, especially in Bauchi and Enugu states, where very low levels of cooperation on issues related to land administration reforms were observed.

Niger understands the need to adopt a long-term strategy capable of optimizing natural and human resources to promote sustainable economic and social development and inclusive growth. The government has renewed planning efforts in the preparation of three principal strategic documents. These three strategic planning tools are complementary, and the government is committed to implementing them so that they interact with each other synergistically while ensuring dynamic linkages between short-, medium-, and long-term programs.