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Introduction: Infrastructure projects or development activities often generate a loss of biodiversity and reduce the quality of the environment's services to human societies. Fortunately, many of these impacts can be reduced, controlled, or compensated through mitigation, rehabilitation, and compensation measures, which usually rely on the environmental legal framework of the countries or states where they are implemented. This review provides a theoretical vision of using environmental compensation as a legal/technical instrument integrated into natural environment management. Methodology: We reviewed the global literature on the subject using the GoogleScholar and SciELO reference search engines using various indicators in English and Spanish. Results: We found 244 references on environmental compensation, showing a clear increasing pattern in the last decade. Environmental compensation constitutes a legal/technical instrument that allows offsets for environmental losses and often is part of the Environmental Impact Studies regulated by the state. Several methodological strategies are used to establish compensatory actions, each of them based on one of four possible approaches: economic, ecological, political, and cultural. The ecological equivalence between the impacted environmental elements and compensation is sought within the ecological approach, ensuring no net loss. Thus, this approach allows the incorporation of multiple criteria for the evaluation of damage and compensation actions: it can be applied in different situations. Nevertheless, compensatory measures are not exempt from criticism. There are situations in which the singularity of the impacted elements makes an adequate compensation for losses impossible. Conclusions: Compensation is highly relevant in environmental management and must favor the universal right to a healthy environment. However, its practical application requires clear procedures and close vigilance to prevent losses or even a net environmental gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The present work aims to quantify and describe the changes that occurred in land use in the city of Goya, Corrientes province, Argentina, between 1990 and 2016, and to analyze the trends that the changes in land use present in this city in relation to its persistence in gaining, losing or maintaining its current surface. To specify the first point, the gains, losses, net changes, total changes, transitions and exchanges experienced by the different categories of use were calculated, based on the methodology proposed by Pontius, Shusas and Mceachern (2004). These metrics were obtained, on the one hand, by means of a cross-tabulation matrix that compares the two aforementioned years, and on the other, by using the Land Change Modeler (LCM) of the Idrisi Software Selva version. For the analysis of the vulnerability of land use change, the methodology proposed by Braimoh (2006) was used, which is based on the calculation of indices of gains, losses and net changes in relation to the persistence of each class. The results of the work show, firstly, the dynamics that existed in the territory along 26 years in relation to changes in land use; secondly, they present the analysis of the vulnerability that such uses have in relation to winning or losing surface area, that constitutes relevant information when planning the growth of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Innovación Tecnológica is the property of Instituto de Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)