There are relatively few Federal environmental regulations that influence agricultural production in the US. However, many local and state environmental rules may influence the management practices on US farms as might interactions between urban population centers and agricultural producers. Detailed analysis of corn farms gives insight into these relationships and suggests that stringent envir...

Introduction ............................................................................................... 437 I. The Theory of How Legal Restrictions Affect Land Values ................ 439 A. Land Use Supply and Demand ........................................................ 439 B. Urban Land Models ......................................................................... 440 C. Hedonic Stu...

This paper analyzes the absolute convergence of urban electricity productivity in China during 1990–2011, applying Spatial Error Smooth Transition Auto-regression Model, and examines the spatial effect in convergence process. Then it analyzes the stage characteristics of electricity productivity convergence during the process of electricity market reformation and the conditional convergence whi...

Urban biodiversity conservation often aims to promote the quality of life for urban residents by providing ecosystem services as well as habitats for diverse wildlife. However, biodiversity inevitably brings some disadvantages, including problems and nuisances caused by wildlife. Although some studies have reported that enhancement of nature interaction among urban children promotes their affec...

Greater energy efficiency can be achieved in existing dwellings thanks to longer lifecycles, slow replacement rates, and technical innovations. Many such dwellings are located in dense urban neighbourhoods, where urban renewal projects are undertaken. Local government can encourage the setting of ambitious goals as a stepping stone to realizing energy efficiency goals that achieve high levels o...

Domestic cats (Felis catus) are the most abundant predator in many urban ecosystems, and their ranging behaviour will influence predation rates. To investigate how degree of urbanisation affects cat ranging behaviour, we used Global Positioning System trackers to follow 38 cats in 3 (urban, suburban and peri-urban) residential areas in the large town of Reading, UK. Median home range (95% KE) w...

The expansion of urban areas is currently one of the most important worldwide landscape changes. This process, termed urbanization, has important ecological effects and is known to alter many aspects of the biology of organisms (including birds). However, human-nature interactions can also be affected by this process. We hypothesized that urbanization can particularly affect how intensively we ...

Habitat modelling and predictive mapping are important tools for conservation planning, particularly for lesser known species such as many insectivorous bats. However, the scale at which modelling is undertaken can affect the predictive accuracy and restrict the use of the model at different scales. We assessed the validity of existing regional-scale habitat models at a local-scale and contrast...

BACKGROUND Humans in various cultures have feared snakes, provoking an aversion and persecution that hinders conservation efforts for these reptiles. Such fact suggests that conservation strategies for snakes should consider the interactions and perceptions of the local population towards these animals. The aim of this study was to investigate students' perception of snakes and if attitudes and...

To assess the effectiveness of urban energy conservation and GHGmitigation measures, a detailed Longrange Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) model is developed and applied to analyze the future trends of energy demand and GHG emissions in Xiamen city. Two scenarios have been designed to describe the future energy strategies in relation to the development of Xiamen city. The ‘Business as Usual’...