Spatially land use models are indispensable for sustainable land use planning. This study demonstrates a combined Markov–Cellular Automata model to analyze temporal change and spatial distribution of land use stressed by natural and socioeconomic factors in Saga, Japan. Firstly, area change and spatial distribution of land use are calculated using GIS technology, and then the transition among different land use types is analyzed to obtain the transformation matrices during a period of 1976–2006.

Turkey (Türkiye) lies at the nexus of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Turkey’s location, mountains, and its encirclement by three seas have resulted in high terrestrial, fresh water, and marine biodiversity. Most of Turkey’s land area is covered by one of three biodiversity hotspots (Caucasus, Irano-Anatolian, and Mediterranean). Of over 9000 known native vascular plant species, one third are endemic.

This paper describes the Salt Lake Valley urban flux study that was designed to understand the role of vegetation and urbanization on CO₂ and surface energy fluxes over surfaces typical of urbanized and pre-urbanized land cover in the semi-arid Salt Lake Valley. The eddy covariance technique was applied at two different sites with distinct land forms within an urbanizing mountain basin.

Smart growth is an approach to urban planning that provides a framework for making community development decisions. Despite its growing use, it is not known whether smart growth can impact physical activity. This review utilizes existing built environment research on factors that have been used in smart growth planning to determine whether they are associated with physical activity or body mass.

Simulation of the land subdivision process is useful in many applied and research areas. Planners use such tools to understand potential impacts of planning regulations prior to their implementation. While the credibility of both land-use change and urban growth models would be enhanced by integrating capabilities to simulate land subdivision, such research is lacking in the published literature. Of the few subdivision tools that exist, most are either not fully-automated or are unable to generate realistic subdivision layouts.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers.You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.Naguib MahfouzThis article attempts to provide systematic policy information regarding land use/land cover change in the vicinity of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.

This toolkit is the first of its kind to provide information on promoting and protecting the nutritional status of mothers and children in crises and emergencies. Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to major crises and emergencies. This toolkit aims to improve the resilience of the most vulnerable in times of intensified nutritional needs, most notably pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children less than two years of age.

The primary completion rate for 7 countries-Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Niger-more than doubled between 1991 and 2009. Still large differences persist between rich and poor within countries. In some low-income countries, such as Benin, the completion rates for the richest quintile are 95 percent or higher, but completion rates for the poorest quintile are 35 percent or less. And there is a 9 percentage point gap in the completion rates for boys and girls.

For the last 15 years, the agglomeration of Riga has expanded and one of the most important problems that Riga faces is movement of middle-class people to surrounding municipalities. This tendency is mostly referable to the processes in the USA during the second half of the 20th century. This research has first identified the history and causes of urban sprawl since the earliest times and has compared it with the situation in Riga Region.

The report considers the critical issues providing the context for discussing land issues affecting West Africa as a region. These include the political, social and economic context, colonial legacy and legal plural systems, the operations of regional economic communities and other regional initiatives, impact of demography, migration and urbanization, conflicts and post-conflict issues, as well as shared resources and ecosystems.

This guideline jointly published by The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), in partnership with the Urban Design Lab of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, provides practical tools for city planners and decision makers to reform urban planning and infrastructure design according to the principles of eco-efficiency and social inclusiveness.

En este número nos proponemos estudiar la Asociación Mundial de la Bioenergía y la importante labor llevada a cabo por esta entidad en colaboración con gobiernos y organizaciones internacionales para establecer unos indicadores de sostenibilidad destinados a los proyectos bioenergéticos. También informaremos sobre «Alimentos para las ciudades», una iniciativa integrativa orientada a coordinar las actividades de la FAO en zonas urbanas y periurbanas, y a compartir con otras organizaciones internacionales y de la sociedad civil las mejores prácticas realizadas en este ámbito.