Polasky et al. 2008. Where to put things? Spatial land management to sustain biodiversity and economic returns. Biological Conservation 141: 1505-1524.

Groot et al. Exploring multi-scale trade-offs between nature conservation, agricultural profits and landscape quality - A methodology to support discussion on land-use perspectives. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 120: 58-69.

Do you have any soil maps of your area. That would be very important, and a good place to start. Soil and topography are going to be essential to the flow of water, and the stability and productivity of soil.

Polasky et al. 2008. Where to put things? Spatial land management to sustain biodiversity and economic returns. Biological Conservation 141: 1505-1524.

Groot et al. Exploring multi-scale trade-offs between nature conservation, agricultural profits and landscape quality - A methodology to support discussion on land-use perspectives. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 120: 58-69.

Do you have any soil maps of your area. That would be very important, and a good place to start. Soil and topography are going to be essential to the flow of water, and the stability and productivity of soil.

You can come up with a systemic map of the new area, see how the components of the new location interact with each other and then you can have a clear view and understanding of how these new residents will impact on these components. With this knowledge, then can you make effective decision/policies as to how to put the land and its components to effective sustainable use while ensuring systems efficiency. (Read more on "systems thinking" approach)  

Do an environmental impact assessment of the new area. Use the data you have to see if conceptually it can build up a sustainable settlement, in EIA you will use the physico-chemical, biological, ecological, social and economic factors. You can try using a simple RIAM matrix for that.

The agro-ecological decisión support system  MicroLEIS DSS  (De la Rosa et al., 2004) could be a very apropriate methodology to follow the land evaluation process for agricultural land use planning.

Wendy, the only soil map I have is a database from the National Agriculture Research System, in 1:100,000. I'll check if there's any other better resolution map.

D. de la Rosa, is the MicroLEIS adequate for tropical regions? Can I set the parametres up?

I thank you all for the tips and as soon as posible I'll check all the articles!

Best regards

João

Hi Joao,

If you want to plan the best way to sustainably manage the resources, you need to include the users of the resources themselves.  You can google Community based Natural Resource Management for lots of information.  The best practical compilation of a theory in action I have seen is the book edited by Charles Breen available in electronic form for about 2$ US.  I use this as a back ground resource in teaching extension officers who are destined to be facilitators of development through the use of agriculture.  Also - read around systems thinking approach as Kwamina suggested and complexity theory (that will however, unsettle you in terms of the "usual" cause/effect relationships and how you have been trained to deal with them)

The name of the book is:  Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Southern Africa, An Introduction, Edited by Charles Breen

Ask the people what they want.

I find Polasky et al. 2008. Where to put things? Spatial land management to sustain biodiversity and economic returns. Biological Conservation 141: 1505-1524. quite useful for your area of interest.

Decisions about the site planning of settlements typically involve the application of multi-criteria algorithms. Using GIS-based decision-making processes, the work aimed at designing a suitability map depicting the sensitivity of landscape to settlements, by inserting interactive effects of several contributing factors and constraints. 

The purpose of building-up a multi-criteria evaluation model is to enhance decision-making by combining a set of criteria to achieve a single composite, which is the basis for the decision.

I find a book and a paper that could be useful for you:

Land and Natural Development (LAND) Code: Guidelines for Sustainable Land Development

Diana Balmori, Gaboury Benoit

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470049847.html

A Spatial Multi-Criteria Model for the Evaluation of Land Redistribution Plans

http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/1/3/272/pdf

Best regards,

Luís Quinta-Nova

Agroecosystems are humanly managed natural systems where in human subsidies it with energy of their labour, that of draft animals or chemical energy and also with manure or energy derived chemical fertilizers and water. Some plants are highly demanding on these resources and some are no so demanding. Therefore, first step in developing an agrosystem is to select plants that are less demanding on resources in the given geographical situation.

I thank you all for contributing and I share this article with those who still don't know it.

"From climate-smart agriculture to climate-smart landscapes"

http://www.agricultureandfoodsecurity.com/content/pdf/2048-7010-1-12.pdf

João, please consider this text http://tinyurl.com/qx75uxq. We had some experience on settlement in Cerrado/Pantanal border. Technological sharing in sustainability and funding after settling seem far important than spatial planning alone. We idealize people are self-propelled after induction, but the experience shows that this is untrue. In Brazil, most of settlers lost their agricultural skills, comes from cities. And, in general, they are more political engaged "to grow" than willing to remain small sustainable producers. For the success of a settlement, more people engaged on sustainable principles is the most relevant critical point. So, try to include core sustainability principles (self-powering, recycling, sharing) in your planning.

Ivan, very nice work you have made! I totaly agree with you that self-powerig, among other sustainability principles are important steps towards sustainable communities.

I also think that each settlement has its own characteristics, so sharing experiences is very important to elucidate how to deal with different people. In my case, most families don't come from cities and there is an extension group working with the community since 2010, with focus sustainable agriculture.

thanks!

Ivan, very nice work you have made! I totaly agree with you that self-powerig, among other sustainability principles are important steps towards sustainable communities.

I also think that each settlement has its own characteristics, so sharing experiences is very important to elucidate how to deal with different people. In my case, most families don't come from cities and there is an extension group working with the community since 2010, with focus sustainable agriculture.

thanks!