Spatially organized distribution patterns of species and communities are shaped by both autogenic processes (neutral mechanism theory) and exogenous processes (niche theory). In the latter, environmental variables that are themselves spatially organized induce spatial structure in the response variables. The relative importance of these processes has not yet been investigated in urban habitats.

Urbanization and climate change will define much of the 21st century. Urbanization leads to improvement in standards of living, and through the increased density and service delivery efficiency of cities, higher growth can be achieved with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Cities and urban agglomerations house more than 50 percent of the global population and contribute more than 70 percent of Global greenhouse (GHG) emissions. As the share of urban population grows, sustainable urban development emerges as an essential component in addressing climate change.

The tsunami that originated from the Indian Ocean in 2004 wreaked massive destruction, killing more than 130,000 people and displacing half a million individuals in Aceh, Indonesia. More than 800 kilometers of coastline was affected, and close to 53,795 land parcels were destroyed. The land administration system sustained significant damage because documentation of land ownership was washed away along with people's houses and other possessions in the affected communities. Physical boundary markers, including trees and fences, also disappeared.

The Indonesian economic quarterly reports on and synthesizes the past three months' key developments in Indonesia's economy. Its coverage ranges from the macro economy to financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development. It is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, business leaders, and financial market participants, and the community of analysts and professionals engaged in Indonesia's evolving economy.

This report discusses the key findings and recommendations emerging from a pilot Citizen Report Card (CRC) on water, sanitation, and sewerage services in Karachi. This initiative comes, on one hand, in the wake of deteriorating services, weakened community interfaces and accountability structures, poor revenue generation and dysfunctional governance structures and, on the other, an emergent consensus to bring in far-reaching institutional reforms that should move beyond financial and technical imperatives.

In the fi rst part of the article we give an account of the urban transformations that took place in Latin American cities, especially in Argentina, with the implementation of neoliberal politics since the seventies. We assume that neither the architectural facts, let alone urban

Con base en una encuesta comparativa a asentamientos irregulares y conjuntos de "vivienda social" de la Región Metropolitana de Santiago, caracterizamos la decisión de vivir en estos "campamentos" como orientada a combinar dos objetivos generalmente excluyentes: mejorar la localización dentro de la ciudad y acceder a una vivienda formal en propiedad. El que los campamentos se sigan recreando a pesar de la masiva producción de unidades subsidiadas por el Estado, y el que la mayoría de sus residentes no estén bajo la línea de la pobreza, avalan esta conclusión.

Se analizan las relaciones existentes entre temperaturas urbanas y concentraciones de material particulado a una escala que representa la totalidad de la ciudad, destacando su división en dos zonas bien delimitadas, que ubicadas al oriente y poniente de la misma, durante los días de ocurrencia de las peores condiciones de contaminación atmosférica.

El presente trabajo de investigación pretende analizar el surgimiento de los Nuevos Asentamientos Urbanos (NAU) en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, y los procesos de expulsión que el propio Estado genera hacia esta población, poniendo énfasis en el proceso de desalojo que el Gobierno de la Ciudad (GCBA) impulsó hacia el NAU Costanera Sur Rodrigo Bueno. Los Nuevos Asentamientos Urbanos constituyen una modalidad de hábitat popular que adquiere fuerza a partir de la crisis de 2001, sin embargo no son reconocidos por el GCBA para la implementación de políticas de urbanización.

This assessment report of strategies for the Montpellier case study presents three territorial levels: the Agglomeration, three communes in the context of agriculture dynamics and one commune which is involved in a flood protection plan. This study follows the general framework of the module 3 in the PLUREL project, which proposes to use criteria to assess the strategies and describe the regional level of performance in front of issues or challenges located in the urban fringe.

This assessment report of strategies for the Montpellier case study presents three territorial levels: the Agglomeration, three communes in the context of agriculture dynamics and one commune which is involved in a flood protection plan. This study follows the general framework of the module 3 in the PLUREL project, which proposes to use criteria to assess the strategies and describe the regional level of performance in front of issues or challenges located in the urban fringe.