InhaltsangabeIntroduction. The Rural Areas of the World.- 1 Methodological Notes on Analysis, Synthesis and Management.- 2 The Measuring Process in Rural Analysis.- Part I. Elements of the Analysis: 3 Environmental Elements in Rural Analysis.- 4 Dynamics and Processes of the Environmental Elements.- 5 Anthropic Elements in Rural Analysis.- 6 Dynamics and Processes of the Anthropic Elements.- Part II. The Rural Mosaic of the World. A Geographical Synthesis: 7 A Synthetic Approach.- 8 A Cartographic Overview of the Agrarian World.- 9 Regional Issues in the Rural Areas of the World.- Part III. Rural Management - The Applied Approach: 10 Approaches to Management.- 11 Management Tools: Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Expert Systems.- 12 The Concept of Rural Quality of Life.- 13 The Rural Areas in the Structure of the Territory.- 14. Rural Planning and Sustainability.- 15 Involving People in the Process.- 16 The Decision Guidelines Making.- 17 Public Participation and Information Technologies.- 18 Global Change Issues in Rural Planning.- 19 Public Dissemination Tools: An Example for Inventories.- 20 A Rural Plan.- Appendix. Templates for a Rural Project.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- Color Plates.

Dr Francisco J. Tapiador is senior scientist in Earth Sciences and lectures in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UCLM (Toledo, Spain). He graduated in Geography and holds a master's degree in Cadastral Cartography and a PhD in Physics. He has worked as professional geographer in large regional development projects, developing both guidelines and policies for regional and rural planning, and implementing geographical information and management systems. His research in rural issues spans from Climate Change to Historical GIS and Remote Sensing, having written more than 50 research papers in the last 5 years. His findings have been published in highly cited journals (Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Geophysical Research Letters and International Journal of Remote Sensing, amongst others). He has been a visiting scholar at the universities of Barcelona (Spain), Cambridge (UK) and The Sorbonne (France).

Introduction. The Rural Areas of the World.- 1 Methodological Notes on Analysis, Synthesis and Management.- 2 The Measuring Process in Rural Analysis.- Part I. Elements of the Analysis: 3 Environmental Elements in Rural Analysis.- 4 Dynamics and Processes of the Environmental Elements.- 5 Anthropic Elements in Rural Analysis.- 6 Dynamics and Processes of the Anthropic Elements.- Part II. The Rural Mosaic of the World. A Geographical Synthesis: 7 A Synthetic Approach.- 8 A Cartographic Overview of the Agrarian World.- 9 Regional Issues in the Rural Areas of the World.- Part III. Rural Management - The Applied Approach: 10 Approaches to Management.- 11 Management Tools: Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Expert Systems.- 12 The Concept of Rural Quality of Life.- 13 The Rural Areas in the Structure of the Territory.- 14. Rural Planning and Sustainability.- 15 Involving People in the Process.- 16 The Decision Guidelines Making.- 17 Public Participation and Information Technologies.- 18 Global Change Issues in Rural Planning.- 19 Public Dissemination Tools: An Example for Inventories.- 20 A Rural Plan.- Appendix. Templates for a Rural Project.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- Color Plates.