This study aims at establishing an approach for the analysis of urban growth dynamics to support urban planning decisions in Egypt. This approach is based on the UPlan model. It acknowledges the lack of historical land use detailed data in most of the Egyptian cities and is heavily based on socioeconomic and land use patterns collected from field surveys and census data. The model is tested on Wadi El Natrun city, an urban agglomeration located on the agricultural fringes of the Nile River. Several scenarios are generated based on changes in a set of attractors, discouragements, and masks.

Land use change can have a strong impact on soil carbon dynamics and carbon stocks in urban areas. Due to rapid urbanization, large areas of land have been paved, and other areas have undergone rapid land use change. Evaluation of the impact of urbanization on carbon dynamics and carbon stock (30 cm) has become an issue of urgent concern. The soil carbon dynamics, due to rapid land use change in Tianjin Binhai New Area of China, have been simulated in this paper using the RothC model.

Central India hosts one of the largest repositories of archaeological sites in the world having a semi-arid climate and distinct eco-geography which is prone to rapid change due to human activities. This paper discusses the changes in land use and land cover for the past twenty-three years in the region altering the rich cultural heritage, revealing by the presence of numerous painted rock-shelter sites in the region. The land cover and land use changes in terms of deforestation, urban growth and development and sandstone mining have been evaluated in the present study.

Safe and sustainable management of waste presents a major challenge in cities in the Global South. For decades farmers in the peri-urban interface (PUI) have used biodegradable components of urban waste as inputs into their farming practices. Evidence from Kano, Nigeria; Kumasi, Ghana; Hubli-Dharwad and Kolkata, India reveals in rare detail how urban waste reuse plays an important role in the livelihood strategies of lower-income families nd while waste farming also contributes significantly to urban food security.

Land-use land-cover change is one of the most important and direct drivers of changes in ecosystem functions and services. Given the complexity of the decision-making, there is a need for Internet-based decision support systems with scenario evaluation capabilities to help planners, resource managers and communities visualize, compare and consider trade-offs among the many values at stake in land use planning.

Despite the fact that urban farming is widespread in many African cities there is not yet a clearly defined view on how to deal with these activities in urban planning and management. On the basis of field interviews in the rapidly expanding metropolitan area of Kampala (Uganda) three different urban farming types were identified: subsistence farming, garden farming and commercial farming. These three urban farming types have their own spatial organisation logic and each interact in a specific way with urban expansion.

Urbanization increases impervious area, generates pollution and transforms the configuration, composition and context of land covers and thus has direct or indirect impacts on aquatic systems. Detecting land use-water quality relationships is of significance for both urban sustainable development and environmental risk management.

Socioecological theory, developed through the study of urban environments, has recently led to a proliferation of research focusing on comparative analyses of cities. This research emphasis has been concentrated in the more developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere (often referred to as the “Global North”), yet urbanization is now occurring mostly in the developing world, with the fastest rates of growth in sub‐Saharan Africa.

An effective and efficient planning of an urban growth and land use changes and its impact on the environment requires information about growth trends and patterns amongst other important information. Over the years, many urban growth models have been developed and used in the developed countries for forecasting growth patterns. In the developing countries however, there exist a very few studies showing the application of these models and their performances.

The coastal region of Southern Italy’s Caserta province, known as the Litorale Domitio (Domitia coast) has been subjected to increasing pressure from unsustainably fast economic and urban growth in the last century, that resulted in a induced serious land degradation. To obtain a comprehensive picture of the ecological status of the Domitia coastal zone (Campania, Southern Italy), a holistic methodology has been applied. Sedimentological, geochemical, and biological analyses of the surface sediments and water samples were performed along the submerged beach.

Soil contamination by heavy metals has become a widespread dangerous problem in many parts of the world, including the Mediterranean environments. This is closely related to the increase irrigation by waste waters, to the uncontrolled application of sewage sludge, industrial effluents, pesticides and fertilizers, to the rapid urbanization, to the atmospheric deposition of dust and aerosols, to the vehicular emissions and to many other negative human activities.

The urbanization has been significantly created wide scope of employment opportunities through manifold services sector. The mobility or migration of rural people has changed the social and economic condition of the landless labour of the rural area. In this case study migration of the village young of East Midnapore district of West Bengal who were from landless labour families with a little education has been noted. Their social and economic position had been remarkably changed within 3-5 years.