Urbanisation, Land Use, Land Degradation and Environment

Contents: Foreword/Fazil Necdet Ardic. Preface/Munir Ozturk, Ahmet Ruhi Mermut and Ali Celik. Introduction/Arun P. Kulshreshtha. 1. The role of communication technologies for access to environmental information and environmental policies: perspective of European Union/Mustafa Okmen and Serhat Bastan. 2. The role of communication technologies for access to environmental information and policies: perspective of Turkey in the process of adaptation to the European Union/Serhat Bastan and Mustafa Okemen. 3. Drinking water system, isolation zones and pressure management strategy in Denizli/Mahmud Gungor, Umit Canturk and Sule Vardar. 4. Integrating environment into land use planning through strategic environmental assessment: a case study on environment plans in Turkey/P.N. Say. D. Colakkadioglu and S. Ozyurt. 5. Land degradation, urbanization and biodiversity in the Gexiz Basin-Turkey/Munir Ozturk, Mustafa Okmen, Salih Gucel, Aykut Guvensen and Ali Celik. 6. Land degradation in Sri lanka and necessity of mitigation/M.A.K. Munasinghe. 7. Land-use conflicts in Kenya: diverse and potential solutions/Joyce W. Ngure, Mwangi Githiru and Urbanus Mutwiwa. 8. Country status reports on land use, land degradation and environment in Mauritius/Cecily Cyparsade. 9. Land degradation, land use, urbanization and enviornmnet-country report for Myanmar/May Thae Su Moe. 10. Soil protection techniques from erosion in the sloppy lands of Vietnam/Ngo Thi Loan and Luu Nam Phuong. 11. Erosion, pollution and urbanization in agricultural lands of Turkey/H. Samet and Y. Cikili. 12. G-EIS: global environmental information system and Egypt’s lands degradations/Wafik Noseir. 13. Effective criteria and indices of desertification and effect of agricultural management on land degradation in Iran/Gh. Zehtabian and H. Khosravi. 14. Urban ecology of Edirne-Turkey/R. Yilmaz, M. Ozturk, S. Sakcali, S. Gucel and M. Karakuyu. 15. Promoting sustainable urban livelihoods thorugh sustainable utilization of natural resources in urban and peri-urban areas of the Eastern Cape, South Africa/L.L. Sombalo. 16. Computation of urban heat Island created due to changes in land cover and land use: case study of Twin cities of Pakistan/Saroop Shahid, M.A. Baig, U. Khattak and Adnan Zahoor. 17. Environmental effects and mitigation measures of urban road TAG (Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep) Highway in Adana City/Muzaffer Yucel, Nurgul Konakli, Aysel Guzelmansur and Deniz Colakkadioglu. 18. An investigation on pedestrians in Denizli City, Turkey within the framework of urbanization/Yetip Pazi Murat and Sabit Kutluhan. 19. Paradox of Halophyte utilization as Biofuel resources and land sustainability/Mohammad Kafi and Munir Ozturk. 20. Restoring Saline habitats: identification and name changes in Halophytes of the Arabian Peninsula/S.A. Ghazanfar. 21. Halophytes as medicinal plants/Muhammad Qasim, Salman Gulzar and M. Ajmal Khan. 22. Biochemical indicators of salinty tolerance in the Halophyte prosopis strombulifera are differentially affected by NaCl and Na2SO4/Analia Llanes, Mariana Reginato, Gabriela Palacio and Virginia Luna. 23. An overview of Halophyte plant diversity from Salt Lake Area, Konya, Turkey/G.N. Tug, A.E. Yaprak and M. Vural. 24. Biodiversity and threats of natural ecosystems in Iran: a case study from Golestan National Park, NE Iran/H. Akhani and R. Khoshravesh. 25. Characterizing and screening oil degrading microbes for land and Beach reclamation in Indonesia/Dwi Susilaningsih, Theresia Umi Harwati, Yuki Kasai, Kazuya Watanabe, Fumiyoshi Okazaki, Shigeaki Harayama, Yantyati Widyastuti and Bambang Prasetya. 26. Resources use optimization in main food legume crops production in River Nile State (Rns) of Sudan/Elgilany a. Ahmed, Hamid H.M. Faki and Hashim A. Elobeid. 27. An investigation on the intestinal parasites and their larval stages on vegetables and fruits of Mosul City/Zohair I.F. Rahemo and Mohammad H. Mahmood. 28. Effects of continuous thermophilic and mesophilic treatments on maturity of Corncob compost and reducing of composting time/M. Kianirad, M. Muazardalan, Gh. Savaghebi, M. Farhbakhsh and S. Mirdamadi. 29. Green House gas emissions from cement manufacturing industry and mitigation measures: Tanzania country report/Dugushilu Mafunda.

Land primarily refers to geographic locations and has been the cause of many conflicts and disputes. It also refers to natural resources, river and water masses and discords over their use. For instance, water bodies in a region that has been deforested or has eroded will have different water quality than those in areas that are forested. Land use information can be used to develop solutions for natural resource management issues such as salinity and water quality. Similarly, environmental pollution, especially in urban areas, is one of the biggest challenges the world faces today with serious economic and health implications. Further, in the developing and developed countries alike, urbanization encroaches on productive land and natural habitats. Thus land degradation in many ways results in misery for the local population and destruction of valuable ecosystem making it highly desirable to use integrated and holistic techniques for the planning and management of land resources in order to ensure the long term quality of the land for human use, prevention or resolution of social conflicts related to land use and conservation of ecosystems of high biodiversity.

This publication is comprised of the papers reflecting the views and experiences of scholars and policy makers that were deliberated upon during an international conference on Urbanisation, land use, land degradation and environment organized by the NAM S&T Centre, at Denizli, Turkey during 18-22 August 2008 jointly with the Pamukkale University and the Turkish Scientific and technological Research Council (TUBITAK). The information presented here would hopefully serve as a useful reference material for the concerned policy makers and scientists working on issues relating to land and environmental management.