Despite the growing awareness of the important ecological functions and values provided by coastal and estuarine wetlands, wetland degradation continues worldwide due to increasing anthropogenic disturbances. Chongming Dongtan wetlands, adjacent to Shanghai, the largest city and industrial and trading port in China in rapid urban expansion and socioeconomic development are currently threatened with biodiversity reduction, wetland loss, contamination, and invasion of exotic plant.

Land use change is one of the main stress factors on ecosystems near urban areas. We analysed land use dynamics within Xochimilco, a World Heritage Site area in Mexico City. We used satellite images and GIS to quantify changes in land use/land cover (LULC) from 1989 to 2006 in this area, and a Markov projection model to simulate the impact of different management scenarios through to 2057. The results show an alarming rate of urbanisation in 17 years. LULC change runs in one direction from all other land use categories towards urban land use.

Ulaanbaatar's (UB) population has swollen from half a million in 2001 to approximately 1.2 million in 2011, accounting for over 40 percent of the country's population. This trend is likely to continue as economic growth is increasingly concentrated in UB. With its growing population and concerns in rising inequality, the city is facing increasing pressure to maintain and expand service provision (especially infrastructure). The local tax on wages is expected to continue to provide substantial revenues to the UB government, which will assist the growing demand for services.

This paper presents and analyses land use changes in the periurban areas of Meknes, Morocco, focusing on disappearing fertile and productive farmland. Although identified by the Moroccan public policies, the concern for periurban farmland protection is not the government's first priority. It remains behind economic development and housing of low-incomes. In Meknes, where land tenure remains very complex, urban growth is impacting high-quality-soil farmland while the land market is characterised by increasing farmland values and weak public policy regulation.

Durante las últimas décadas en América del Sur se dieron grandes revoluciones  agrarias en varios países, inmensas movilizaciones y revueltas sociales de campesinos e indígenas por la consolidación de sus territorios, avances legales nacionales y regionales importantes. También está clara una tendencia a la urbanización como expresión de “modernidad” y como la búsqueda de acceso a recursos y servicios que no llegan a las comunidades más lejanas. No cabe duda que los avances son mérito de las organizaciones sociales y la institucionalidad que la acompaña.

This housing policy in developing
countries, conjectures and refutations article discusses
housing policy in developing economies. It examines recent
research findings in light of earlier arguments as to the
benefits of more market-oriented approaches. It also looks
at whether the recommendations of earlier work have been
refuted or developed in subsequent analyses and policy
measures. In particular, it reviews the empirical analysis

The rapid urbanization in many
developing countries over the past half century seems to
have been accompanied by excessively high levels of
concentration of the urban population in very large cities.
Some degree of urban concentration may be desirable
initially to reduce inter- and intraregional infrastructure
expenditures. But in a mature system of cities, economic
activity is more spread out. Standardized manufacturing

This paper analyzes real estate market dynamics over the past decade in the city of Ahmedabad, India, with a view to improving the living conditions of the large population living in slums. The paper combines census data, the National Sample Survey, and slum household surveys to review the demand side of the market. Satellite photography was used to estimate the production of both formal and informal housing over the past ten years. Analysis of the execution of the development plan for the Ahmedabad region and town planning schemes shows how the system of housing supply has evolved.

The land privatization process in Mongolia mainly concerns residential land. The process is considered to perform slowly. The deadline for free allocation of residential land was extended from 2005 to 2013. Still, the number of families that have acquired private landownership during that period is low. This paper aims to take a closer look at the operational process in Ulaanbaatar. The paper finds that, when citizens apply, in a majority of cases the legal deadline to be granted a land-ownership right is actually met.

Cities emerge from the spatial concentration of people and economic activities. But spatial concentration is not enough; the economic viability of cities depends on people, ideas, and goods to move rapidly across the urban area. This constant movement within dense cities creates wealth but also various degrees of unpleasantness and misery that economists call negative externalities, such as congestion, pollution, and environmental degradation.

Inexorable urbanization and formalization have been the expectations in development discourse. Indeed, measures of urbanization and formalization have been provided and used as indicators of development. But while urbanization has proceeded apace in developing countries, formalization has slowed significantly over the past quarter century. These disconnect raises questions for development analysis and development policy. Why did one expect urbanization and formalization to go together in the first place?

This study investigates the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral highway project on the urban and rural growth of Indian manufacturing. The Golden Quadrilateral project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. The study uses a difference-in-difference estimation strategy to compare non-nodal districts based on their distance from the highway system. For the organized portion of the manufacturing sector, the Golden Quadrilateral project led to improvements in both urban and rural areas of non-nodal districts located 0-10 km from the Golden Quadrilateral.