The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how territorial identity, expressed through immaterial and material heritage, especially folklore and traditional crafts, can be a means of economic sustainable development in rural areas. As a case study, we choose the Land of Călata (Hu. Kalotaszeg), a region from North-Western Transylvania, Romania, focusing on two of its best-known villages: Izvoru Crișului (Hu. Körösfő) and Sâncraiu (Hu. Kalotaszentkirály).

This article aims to contribute to current discussions about ‘making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ (SDG 11) by linking debates that are currently taking place in separate containers: debates on the ‘global land rush’ and the ‘new urban agenda’. It highlights some important processes that are overlooked in these debates and advances a new, socially inclusive urbanization agenda that addresses emerging urban land grabs.

Urbanization is a driving force for growth and poverty reduction. Globally, over 80 percent of economic activity is concentrated in cities, and cities are essential for lifting millions of people out of poverty through the opportunities that density and agglomeration can bring with jobs, services, and innovation. However, if not carefully managed and planned for, the benefits of urbanization are not realized and can result in congestion, slums, pollution, inequality and crime. City competitiveness is an important part of successful urbanization.

Central America is undergoing an important transition. Urban populations are increasing at accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges for development, as well as opportunities to boost sustained, inclusive and resilient growth. Today, 59 percent of the region’s population lives in urban areas, but it is expected that 7 out of 10 people will live in cities within the next generation.

Globalisation and urbanisation trends in developing countries present both opportunities for growth and development on one hand while contributing to the complex myriad challenges of managing urbanisation on the other hand. Cities and urban areas play a critical in the development of a country. They provide platforms that incorporate intense combination of economic, cultural and political factors of a country or region. Nairobi city is Kenya’s economic capital and is a major economic hub in Africa.

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This study, however, identifies a deeper reason: African cities are closed to the world.

Cette étude, menée à l’est de la ville de Lomé (capitale et plus grande ville du Togo), met en évidence la dynamique spatiale des cultures maraîchères en réponse à la pression foncière. Des images satellitaires TerraMetrics des archives Google Earth des années 2002, 2008 et 2014 ont été retenues pour l’analyse de l’évolution des périmètres maraîchers. Une enquête de terrain fondée sur des questionnaires semi-structurés a été menée pour identifier les stratégies des maraîchers. Les coordonnées géographiques des points d’observation ont été relevées à l’aide d’un capteur GPS.

As in many other developing countries, cities in Bangladesh have witnessed rapid urbanization, resulting in increasing amounts of land being taken over and therefore land cover changing at a faster rate. Until now, however, few efforts have been made to document the impact of land use and land cover changes on the climate, environment, and ecosystem of the country because of a lack of geospatial data and time-series information.

Urbanization is a global phenomenon with still unknown consequences for vegetation dynamics of urban ecosystems, especially in subtropical areas of developing countries. In this paper we analyze the vegetation productivity trend associated to urban densification and urban expansion during the last decade, in twelve cities of northern Argentina. We used time series analysis of MODIS-NDVI images to reconstruct the phenological patterns to retrieve a productivity trend under three spatial classes of urban dynamics: (1) urban, (2) expansion and (3) periphery.