We assess the spatial and intertemporal change patterns of farmland prices using per hectare minimum willingness to accept (WTA) sales and rental prices in Malawi. We use three rounds of nationally representative household farm panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS), collected in 2010, 2013 and 2016. We study price changes by splitting the sample in quintiles based on distance from the nearest major city, building on the von Thünen theory and urban growth model. Generally, WTA land prices decrease with distance from urban areas.

This paper presents five design prototypes for cool urban water environments developed in the 'Really cooling water bodies in cities' (REALCOOL) project. The REALCOOL prototypes address an urgent need: urban water bodies, such as ponds or canals, are often assumed to cool down their surroundings during days with heat stress, whereas recent research shows that this is not always the case and that urban water bodies may actually have warming effects too. There are, however, indications that shading, vaporising water, and proper ventilation can keep water bodies and their surroundings cooler.

A wide variety of settlement systems exist, ranging from small villages to large metropolises. However, spatial analyses are typically confined to the mere presence or absence of built-up land and the changes therein, while more subtle differences between various settlement systems are ignored. In this paper we study the spatial distribution of Chinese settlements in terms of their built-up land, cluster density and cluster size, as well as their changes between 1990 and 2010.

US cities are at the forefront of the sustainable development challenge. They contain 80% of the country’s population, and therefore have the capacity to make or break SDG achievement (US Census Bureau 2016). But, while crucial to SDG attainment, they Executive Summary cannot accomplish this alone. While 80 percent of US residents live in urban areas, only 3 percent of land is urban; rural and urban areas are deeply interconnected (US Census Bureau 2016).

The Sustainable Development Report 2019 – Mediterranean Countries Edition is a synthetic review of the fourth edition of the Sustainable Development Report 2019, including integrated contents and tables editing, specifically focusing on 23 Mediterranean countries. It was drafted by a team of experts of the University of Siena – Santa Chiara Lab, as hosting institution of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the Mediterranean Area (SDSN-Mediterranean), in an effort to raise awareness on the SDGs and foster the implementation of transformation strategies.

This 2019 SDG Index and Dashboards Report for European Cities (prototype version) provides an overview of the performance of 45 capital cities and large metropolitan areas on the Agenda 2030 and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by global leaders in September 2015 at the UN Sustainable Development Summit.

The coordination relationship between land urbanization and population urbanization is crucial for achieving sustainable development under economic transition. Moreover, the balance between land urbanization and population urbanization is essential to guarantee the urbanization process of an entire city. This paper empirically analyzes the interaction between land urbanization and population urbanization in Nanchang from 2002 to 2017 based on the coupling coordination model (CCM).

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Singapore’s present status of importing over 90 per cent of its domestic food consumption needs is a result of the city-state’s deliberate industrialisation policy to transform from third world to first over the past decades, reducing the farmlands for food production from about 15,000 hectares in the 1960s to about 600 hectares today to make room for higher value-adding industries.

À partir d’une enquête ethnographique dans les quartiers populaires de la banlieue de Dakar, cet article explore la construction progressive de toute une conceptualisation autour des inondations comme objet d’action publique. Il montre notamment comment les différentes formes de problématisation ont produit des référents pratiques et moraux qui permettent aux acteurs impliqués localement de se coordonner entre eux ainsi qu’avec l’État, ce qui amène à une certaine régulation des actions.

The National Urban Assessment for Armenia provides a snapshot of the country’s urban sector and offers insights to achieving prosperous and sustainable cities. Armenia is highly urbanized, with the population concentrated in Yerevan and its surrounding areas given the capital’s geopolitical, economic, and cultural legacy. Opportunities exist to develop well-planned infrastructure along with balanced resource distribution among Yerevan and other cities, while leveraging Armenia’s cultural and environmental assets.

A new wave of agricultural commercialisation is being promoted across Africa’s eastern seaboard;by a broad range of influential actors – from international corporations to domestic political and business elites. Growth corridors;linking infrastructure development;mining and agriculture for export;are central to this;and are generating a new spatial politics as formerly remote borders and hinterlands are expected to be transformed through foreign investment and aid projects.

Two new papers by Sandra Bhatasara and Kirk Helliker on land occupations in Shamva and Bindura Districts;Mashonaland Central;are analysed. They offer nuanced accounts of what happened. As previous studies have shown;the story is not straightforward. Includes history and memory;organising occupations;the occupiers;rise of the party-state;why does this history matter? Concludes that together these two papers shed important light on the land occupation period.