There is a growing consensus in the international community about the impact of the transformative power of urbanization. The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, containing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consolidates our vision of urbanization as a tool, and an engine, for development, as reflected in SDG Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

A wide variety of settlement systems exist, ranging from small villages to large metropolises. However, spatial analyses are typically confined to the mere presence or absence of built-up land and the changes therein, while more subtle differences between various settlement systems are ignored. In this paper we study the spatial distribution of Chinese settlements in terms of their built-up land, cluster density and cluster size, as well as their changes between 1990 and 2010.

Ethiopia’s rapidly growing urban centers are facing an unprecedented level of demand for urban land
and housing. How can Ethiopia supply urban land in an efficient and equitable fashion to accommodate
growing demand from industries and individuals for diverse uses? How can existing residents and
incoming migrants afford adequate shelter to survive and thrive in fast growing cities? The Ethiopia
Urban Land Supply and Affordable Housing Study aims to provide practical solutions to these
questions.

The demand for energy has been growing worldwide, especially in India partly due to the rapid population growth and urbanization of the country. To meet the ever-increasing energy requirement while maintaining an ecological balance is a challenging task. However, the energy industry-induced effect on population and urbanization has not been addressed before. Therefore, this study investigates the linkages between energy, population, and urbanization.

The Neighbourhood Planning and Design Guide is a comprehensively updated and revised version of its predecessor, the Guidelines for Human Settlement Planning and Design, commonly known as the Red Book. The Red Book, published in 2000, was preceded by a series of guideline documents aimed at improving the quality of settlement planning and design.

Climate change affects poor and marginalized communities first and hardest. Particularly in cities, a lack of access to basic services, a long history of unsustainable urban development, and political exclusion render the urban poor one of the most vulnerable groups to climate induced natural hazards and disasters. Yet strategies focused on reducing these people’s vulnerability to climate change often overlook crucial differences in their needs and situations.

Long-term planning and an efficient system of land administration and management have played a critical role in Singapore’s transformation from a colonial port to highly liveable global city.

Este artigo surgiu das inquietações a respeito do que Henry Lefebvre em 1968 chamou de ‘direito à cidade’. Segundo o autor o trabalhador tem o direito de usufruir das qualidades e benefícios que a vida urbana proporciona. Apesar de válido, tal questionamento exclui as pessoas trans no que diz respeito ao direito à cidade. Compreende-se por pessoas trans o conjunto heterogêneo formado por travestis, por homens e mulheres transexuais. Ou seja, pessoas que vivenciam o gênero de maneira diversa ao que foi de socialmente imposto ao nascimento.

The papers in this volume take a city perspective and provide both a critical reflection of and a pragmatic response to what cities are able to do given their current mandate and powers. The first paper begins by considering what the TOD agenda means for the urban poor. It questions whether TOD can adequately address the existing land challenges in South African cities, given the politics of land inequality and the skewed property markets.

The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Goal11, one of the 17 SDGs, is about all of these dimensions, with a specific focus on urban areas and settings. This synthesis report is the first publication showing the progress, challenges and opportunities of global monitoring of this Sustainable Development Goal.