Functional urban areas (FUA) have became an important component of polycentric settlement structure of all European countries. FUAs have been defined as labour market basins, composed on large city and its surrounding areas (commuting zones). The very spatial and economic concept formed the foundation of old industrial regions. Old industrialized regions with all the spatial challenges and economic problems could be also perceived as a specific type of functional urban area. In Poland, National Spatial Development Concept 2030 (NSDC 2030 2013) describes restructuring and revitalization of degraded areas and cities in terms of spatial policy measures addressed to the supporting of cohesion in problematic areas. That is why integrated revitalization programs of functional urban areas may become key instrument of regional spatial policy and urban strategies. In response to the problems of degraded land and related land-use conflicts, it can significantly help in establishing valuable solutions, as well as ensuring connections between environmental, social and economic needs in the development of functional urban areas.

The development of linear infrastructure increases the degree of fragmentation of natural areas and has a negative impact on biodiversity and the range of available ecosystem services. The basic competing land use model is expanded to include infrastructure development. The extended model leads to the conclusion that due to the dual impact of the infrastructure (lowering the value of ecosystem services and increasing the private rents to developed land), the size of the natural area in the long-term equilibrium will be lower compared to the basic model. The preservation of nature ceases to be profitable enough. Infrastructure also reduces the marginal costs of conversion and thus increasing the volume of natural land being converted at avery moment along the transition path. If the decisions on optimal management of natural areas and infrastructure development are undertaken together, the result is a lower density of the infrastructure network and a larger ecosystem area in the steady state.

Land cover change (LCC) is important to assess the land use/land cover changes with respect to the development activities like irrigation. The region selected for the study is Vaal Harts Irrigation Scheme (VHS) occupying an area of approximately 36, 325 hectares of irrigated land. The study was carried out using Land sat data of 1991, 2001, 2005 covering the area to assess the changes in land use/land cover for which supervised classification technique has been applied. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) index was also done to assess vegetative change conditions during the period of investigation. By using the remote sensing images and with the support of GIS the spatial pattern of land use change of Vaal Harts Irrigation Scheme for 15 years was extracted and interpreted for the changes of scheme. Results showed that the spatial difference of land use change was obvious. The analysis reveals that 37.86% of additional land area has been brought under fallow land and thus less irrigation area (18.21%). There is an urgent need for management program to control the loss of irrigation land and therefore reclaim the damaged land in order to make the scheme more viable.

To investigate and assess the effects of land use and its changes on concentrations of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Fe) in the tributary of drinking water reservoir catchment, soils of different land use types (forest, arable land, meadows and pastures, residential areas), suspended sediment and bottom sediment were collected. Heavy metals were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). The metal distribution pattern was observed, where Zn and Cd could be considered as main metal contaminants. The variation in the concentration level of Zn and Cd in studied soils showed the impact of pollution from anthropogenic activities. Also some seasonal variations were visible among the suspended sediment and bottom sediment samples which could be associated with land agricultural practices or meteorological conditions. The sediment fingerprints approach used for determining sources of the suspension in the catchment showed (Kruskal-Wallis H test, p<0.05), that only Mn and Ni were not able to be distinguished among the potential sediment sources. A multiple linear regression model described the relationship between suspended sediment and 4 types of soil samples. The results related suspended composition mostly to the samples from the residential land use. Considering the contemporary trend of observed changes in land use resulting in conversion of agricultural areas into residential and service structures these changes can be essential for the contamination of aquatic environment. This situation is a warning sign due to the rapid industrialization, urbanization and intensive agriculture in this region what can significantly affect the drinking water quality.

This paper presents results of object-oriented classification of Landsat ETM+ satellite im-age conducted using eCognition software. The classified image was acquired on 7 May 2000. In this particular study, an area of 423 km2 within the borders of Legionowo Community near Warsaw is considered.

Prior to classification, segmentation of the Landsat ETM+ image is performed using panchro-matic channel, fused multispectral and panchromatic data. The applied methods of classification en-abled the identification of 18 land cover and land use classes. After the classification, generalization and raster to vector conversion, verification and accuracy assessment are performed by means of vis-ual interpretation. Overall accuracy of the classification reached 94.6%. The verification and classifi-cation results are combined to form the final database.

This is followed by comparing the object-oriented with traditional pixel-based classification. The latter is performed using the so-called hybrid classification based on both supervised and unsuper-vised classification approaches. The traditional pixel-based approach identified only 8 classes. Com-parison of the pixel-based classification with the database obtained using the object-oriented ap-proach revealed that the former reached 72% and 61% accuracy, according to the applied method.

Climate, land use, and land cover change can propagate alteration to the watershed environment. The interaction be-tween natural and human activities probably accelerates the change, a phenomenon that will generate serious environmental problems. This study aims to evaluate the change in the hydrological regime due to natural and human-induced processes. The study was conducted in Brantas watershed, Indonesia, which is the largest watershed in East Java. This area is populat-ed by more than 8 million inhabitants and is the most urbanized area in the region. An analysis of rainfall time series use to shows the change in natural phenomena. Two land-use maps at different time intervals were used to compare the rapid de-velopment of urbanization, and the discharge from two outlets of the sub-watersheds was employed to assess hydrological changes. The indicator of hydrological alteration (IHA) method was used to perform the analysis. The daily discharge data are from 1996 to 2017. The research results show an increase in flow (monthly, 1-day, 3-day, 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day flows) in the two sub-watersheds (Ploso and Kertosono) from the pre-period (1996–2006) to the post-period (2007–2017).

The development and urban planning affects the general spatial order. Continuously increasing chaos is caused, among other thing, by granting construction permit based on Zoning and Land Use decision. It’s one of the reason why communes do not pass Area Development Plans. Presented research determines the exact reasons this phenomenon. The article also analyses, based on case studies, the unlawful, unsupervised adoption of Zoning and Land Use decisions.

The need for effective and rational use of land, protection, and preservation of its qualitative state (as the agricultural land soil) is due to some negative details, namely, more than a third of the land is eroded, half of which are black soil in particular, which have an average level of nutrient supply, a lot of contaminated abandoned or overdented land. The acuteness of this problem, which has developed with regard to the protection and preservation of the land qualitative state, has become particularly relevant. The solution to this problem requires truly effective methods of influence. One of such methods is the surveillance of ecological and economic monitoring of land. The article analyzes the ecological and economic factors and factors influencing the monitoring and surveillance of land in Ukraine. Perspectives and objectives for improvements in land monitoring are highlighted. The paper discloses a theoretical synthesis and new approaches to solving the problem of environmental management, which can participate in the development of innovative economic and environmental factors of rational land use, which will contribute to enhancing the transition of Ukraine to the model of sustainable land use. The purpose of this work is a scientific analysis of the various organizational factors of monitoring and surveillance of agricultural land in relation to the current legislation in Ukraine.

The transformation processes that occur in the technical, informational, and economic spheres of the regions require the development of new conceptual approaches to the development of a full-fledged land use system based on an analysis of the problems of using underground real estate. Determination of the features of land use of underground real estate is based on a quantitative basis, which is built on a systematic, integrated approach. Indicators that determine the condition and use of underground real estate are of particular importance for the development of the approach. A method of estimating a generalized indicator of the use of underground real estate in the system of land use of regions based on an integrated approach, which includes the method of expert assessments by applying qualitative indicators characterizing the status and level of use of underground real estate, considering urban, spatial, investment and innovation legal and safety features is developed. The assessment results of the integrated indicator of underground real estate land use, as well as the results of the assessment by region, showed a low level of use of underground real estate in the land use system of the regions. It is determined that most of the lands in the regions have low levels of underground real estate use. Besides, there is a need to increase the use of underground real estate by developing appropriate methodological recommendations.

In order to ensure the territorial development of land use in the region, there is a need to change the trajectory of spatial and urban planning factors. The ways for implementation of the proposed system measures are defined in the article. For investment and environmental indicators, the integrated indicator of territorial development of land use in the region, depending on their change, is predicted. The article presents the results of forecasting the integrated indicator of land use territorial development in the region based on the growth of systemic investment factors and the results of forecasting the integrated indicator of land use territorial development based on the growth of systemic environmental factors. Practical scientific-based recommendations for ensuring the territorial development of land use in the region by applying the results of its integrated assessment and modeling are proposed. Developed recommendations made it possible to form directions and build the basis for ensuring the territorial development of land use in the region. The development of methodological recommendations for ensuring the territorial development of land use in the region is based on the results of the study of the influence of systematic spatial, urban, investment, and environmental factors on the integrated indicator of land use territorial development.