The Multi Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias
(MDF) and the Java Reconstruction Fund (JRF) have played
significant roles in the remarkable recovery of Aceh, Nias
and Java, following some of the worst disasters in Indonesia
in recent years. The MDF and the JRF, which is patterned
after it, are each considered a highly successful model for
post-disaster reconstruction. This paper presents lessons
from the MDF and JRF's efforts to facilitate

Apart from a few oil exporters,
Sub-Saharan Africa consists of a large number of low-income
countries, many of which are highly dependent on oil imports
as a source of primary energy. The purpose of this study is
to provide information on a number of aspects of energy and
oil use in these countries, with a view to highlighting the
vulnerabilities of the different countries against sustained
or even increasing oil prices, and explore some of the

By Anthony Piaskowy, Communication and Urban Specialist for USAID's Land Tenure and Property Rights Division.

Em 2009, o Centro Terra Viva (CTV) publicou o Guião de Consultas Comunitárias, como parte do seu esforço em melhorar a aplicação da legislação sobre terras e outros recursos naturais. O guião resultou de várias pesquisas de campo realizadas pelo CTV e outras organizações que trabalham na área de Terras.

Le présent arrêté précise les conditions de délivrance du permis de construire en République du Bénin en application du décret n°2014-205 du 13 mars 2014, portant réglementation de la délivrance du permis de construire en République du Bénin. Met en oeuvre: Décret n° 2014-205 du 13 mars 2014 portant réglementation de la délivrance du permis de construire en République du Bénin. (2014-03-13)

The urban transition that has emerged over the past quarter century poses new challenges for mapping land cover/land use change (LCLUC). The growing archives of imagery from various earth-observing satellites have stimulated the development of innovative methods for change detection in long-term time series. We tested two different multi-temporal remote sensing datasets and techniques for mapping the urban transition.

We describe a future land cover scenario construction process developed under consultation with a group of stakeholders from our study area. We developed a simple geographic information system (GIS) method to modify a land cover dataset and then used qualitative data extracted from the stakeholder storyline to modify it. These identified variables related to our study area’s land use regulation system as the major driver in the placement of new urban growth on the landscape; and the accommodation of new population as the determinant of its growth rate.

In the United States, urbanization processes have resulted in a large variety—or “continuum”—of urban landscapes. One entry point for understanding the variety of landscape characteristics associated with different forms of urbanization is through a characterization of vegetative (green) land covers. Green land covers—i.e., lawns, parks, forests—have been shown to have a variety of both positive and negative impacts on human and environmental outcomes—ranging from increasing property values, to mitigating urban heat islands, to increasing water use for outdoor watering purposes.

China is rapidly urbanizing and will inevitably face trade-offs between promoting economic growth through further urbanization and protecting fertile farmland against accelerated urban expansion. This paper presents how this dilemma is being addressed in one of the most rapidly urbanizing regions in China, the Pearl River Delta (PRD), by means of assessing urban growth and farmland dynamic, as well as their complex relationships.

Agriculture and its conflicts is a traditional debate in contemporary rural geography, associated with the organization and transformation of cultural landscapes by social groups. One of the most important areas of research is the perspectives and responses of farmers on the urban-rural fringe. The problems associated with land use change and the varying influences on new uses of traditional landscape introduce renovating and permanent elements to the management, responses and perspectives of farmers: extensification, changes in the organization of farm, relocation, etc.

This review paper focuses on research schemes regarding urbanity and urbanization, and brings together both cultural and physical approaches. First, we review the cultural and social construction of urbanity (as related to urbanization) in Germany. In the early 20th century, urbanity was mainly the result of identity derived from a historical perspective in cities.

Cities present significant opportunities for new landscape perspectives that can help inform conservation and development decisions. Early in the twenty-first century, the majority of the planet’s population became urban as more people lived in city-regions for the first time in our history. As the global population increases, so does this urbanization. The environmental challenges of population and urban growth are profound. Landscapes represent a synthesis of natural and cultural processes. Cities are certainly cultural phenomena. Historically, cities provided refuge from nature.