When we use the urban metabolism model for urban development, the input in the model is often valuable landscape, being the resource of the development, and output in the form of urban sprawl, as a result of city transformations. The resilience of these “output” areas is low. The lack of resilience is mainly caused by the inflexibility in these areas where existing buildings, infrastructure, and public space cannot be moved when deemed necessary.

Urban growth has had unprecedented consequences on environmental sustainability and anthropogenic activity. The eroding coastlines throughout the world are subject to the massive expansion of urban areas and the accountability of sustainable hinterland landscapes. The Golden Horseshoe is Canada’s fastest growing region extending from the Niagara Peninsula and one of the most active economic regions in North America. This paper adopts a combined assessment of land use change and transitions in the coastal stretches of the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

IDMC's report explores the challenges in providing sustainable housing assistance to informal urban settlers displaced by disasters. It looks at nine case studies from Asia, America and Europe.

The report identifies the difficulties faced by urban informal settlers in receiving long-term housing assistance in post-disaster situations. Informal settlers are more exposed and vulnerable to displacement and are more likely to be relocated and excluded from the provision of durable housing assistance.

n recent decades, many cities and towns around the world have seen dramatic population growth, with significant inflows from rural areas. People forcibly displaced by armed conflict, violence or natural disasters have moved to urban areas in search of greater security, better access to basic services and greater economic opportunities.

Displacement continues to rise in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. But the good news is that this year’s Global Overview shows a steady decline in IDP numbers in Africa, dating back from 2004. This positive trend gives us hope. Indeed, the African continent remains at the forefront of policy development in support of IDP rights. In 2009, the African Union adopted the Kampala Convention – the first ever instrument for the protection and assistance of IDPs to bind countries across a whole continent.

Women face many problems with regard to land inheritance and land rights in Kenya. Individual and community land ownership do not favour women. The reason for this is that ownership of land is patrilineal, which means that fathers share land amongst sons, while excluding daughters. This practice is traditionally widespread and partly accepted although it goes against the interest of women and is prohibited by the constitution.

O ritmo migratório rural-urbano é frequentemente superior à taxa de crescimento natural dapopulação citadina, em resultado da procura de oportunidades de emprego por parte daspopulações rurais, o que reflecte (e cria novas) pressões sociais e económicas.Ao longo deste texto procura-se compreender os factores que levam as populações de origemrural a migrar para a cidade de Maputo, assim como compreender as dinâmicas de relacionamentodas mesmas, uma vez na cidade, com o seu universo de origem.

Cities and Urban Areas play a crucial role as engines of development as well as centers of connectivity, creativity, innovation, and as service hubs for the surrounding areas. Kenya has experienced unprecedented urban growth. At independence the urban population was about 8%. This had grown to be about 40% by 2015. It is projected that by year 2030 at least half of the Kenyan population will be urbanized. The rapid rate of urbanization exerts increased pressure on authorities to meet the needs of growing urban populations.

The story of urbanization in Kenya should be one of cautious optimism. As an emerging middle-income country with a growing share of its population living in urban areas and a governance shift toward devolution, the country could be on the verge of a major social and economic transformation. How it manages its urbanization and devolution processes will determine whether it can maximize the benefits of its transition to a middle-income country.

Đổi Mới, the name given to the economic reforms initiated in 1986 in Vietnam, has renewed the party-state’s ambitious scheme of industrialization and has intensified the process of urbanization in Vietnam. A large area of land has been converted for these purposes, with various effects on both the state and society. This article sheds light on how land conversion has resulted in farmers’ resistance and in what way and to what extent it has transformed their livelihoods in the transitional context of contemporary Vietnam.

Urban structural units (USUs) are work (or similar) units in urbanized areas. In this study, USUs based on urban land use and land cover were used to explain and compare urban ecological conditions within Beijing. This study focused on the spatial pattern of land use for different USUs in urban areas. The results showed that 453 USUs belong to 12 primary USUs and to 38 different secondary USUs. The percentage of built-up area was highest in those regions with hotels, and lowest in areas with cemeteries.

Flood regulation is a widely valued and studied service provided by watersheds. Flood regulation benefits people directly by decreasing the socio-economic costs of flooding and indirectly by its positive impacts on cultural (e.g., fishing) and provisioning (e.g., water supply) ecosystem services. Like other regulating ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, water purification), flood regulation is often enhanced or replaced by technology, but the relative efficacy of natural versus technological features in controlling floods has scarcely been examined.