The expansion of Open World Video Games (OWVGs) has seen the emergence of multiple new fictional worlds. This type of video game is characterized by total immersion in a world built for the players entertainment. What videogames developers want when players enter an OWVG is that they could feel like if they were open a door to an entirely new world and leave the real world behind. These virtual worlds manifest as a complement, an alternative, or the successor to the physical universe, and in some way continue the philosophical tradition of possible worlds begun by Leibniz. Accustomed to ‘surviving’ in hostile environments, millions of people continued to improve their skills in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while locked in their homes. Once the pandemic seems to start to be left behind, the paper analyzes the virtual worlds created by the video games and the relations between the pandemic and these fictional worlds.

The development of the chicken value chain in The Gambia has immense potentials to lead to the modernisation of agriculture and creating employment for young people and women. Chicken can be raised throughout the year in most parts of The Gambia. With increasing populations, environmental degradation and loss of rangelands, chicken is easier to producer than other livestock, such as cattle and small ruminants. The development of the chicken value chain in The Gambia is also mainly constrained at commercialisation. Commercial farmers in The Gambia are not able to compete with cheap import. Critical inputs such as day-old chicks and feed are imported. Most farms are operating below 40% capacity and only less than 4% utilisation of the available processing capacity. At full capacity and with some needed investments along the value chain, The Gambia has the capacity to meet the demand for chicken and eggs. 88% of the value chain actors believe that the imposition of tariffs on chicken imports will lead to the upward transformation of the chicken value chain being able to employ at least 10% of the Gambian population.

In a globalised economy, metropolises seem to have an ‘extra gear’ compared to other urban centres: they attract the most skilled businesses, drive innovation in many fields and can count on material and immaterial assets that foster greater resilience to adverse events of various kinds. Against this backdrop, what lies ahead for medium-sized cities (MSCs)? This paper focuses on the case of Northern Italy and explores employment trends between 2012 and 2020 in 189 MSCs with a population of between 20,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. Using a descriptive approach, we investigate the evolutionary trajectories of these cities and their varying specialisations, over a period marked by a moderate recovery of the Italian economy following the Great Recession and by a further setback caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, in terms of employment performance, the 189 cities in question were less dynamic than the metropolises, but it is nevertheless necessary to look at their individual circumstances in detail. Furthermore, the work shows significant differences between the MSCSs of the North-West and North-East in evolutionary trajectories and specialisation profiles. The most problematic situations also relate to cities with hub status in the wider context and are not focused only where there is a production structure linked to industry.

It is well known that the size of initial loans approved by private lending agencies (banks, credit unions etc.) corresponds with the median income of the location of the individual, it also corresponds with gender. We wanted to show if it was the case with the PPP. We use standard machine learning techniques such as Lasso and found statistically significant association between gender of business owner and size of initial loan approvals for the State of Arkansas, and Least Squares Regression and Decision Tree regression to find a somewhat tenuous relationship between median income and initial loan approval amount and finally a strong association with the size of business. This has important applications for the equity of access to credit for marginalized peoples.

Air pollution is a global issue, and the transportation sector is recognized as the third-largest contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Vehicles emit a range of chemical compounds as a direct result of the combustion process. The nature and quantity of these emissions depend on the vehicle's characteristics, road, and local weather conditions. As a result, these emissions require special attention due to the adverse effects contributing to global warming and significantly impacting human health. In this regard, diagnosing and monitoring air quality is crucial for understanding the nature and quantity of emissions generated by various sources. However, in developing countries, the necessary inputs, and data for conducting such analyses are not always available. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to estimate emissions specifically generated from road operations. To achieve this, HDM-4 calculation tool is utilized to quantitatively estimate these emissions. This tool was applied in Baja California, Mexico, on the Centinela-La Rumorosa highway. The results obtained show that annually, 372.5 tons of pollutant emissions are generated, composed of HC, CO, CO2, NOx, Par, SO2, and PB, covering a mere 128 kilometers of length within a state road network spanning 11,429 kilometers. This highlights the necessity of implementing strategies to reduce emissions or the environmental impact generated by vehicular operations on roads in developing countries.

This investigation delves into an examination of the growth dynamics observed in Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) and Silicon Glen in Scotland, with a specific focus on their energy, environmental, and economic management. The aim is to predict and evaluate the latest advancements and applications of technology. In terms of energy, CTSP focuses on Taiwan's supply security and green transformation challenges, while Silicon Glen emphasizes Scotland's wind energy generation technologies. Both regions are committed to the development of renewable energy and smart grids. Regarding environmental aspects, CTSP and Silicon Glen prioritize environmental protection and sustainable development by implementing measures for environmental monitoring. In terms of economic management, CTSP, and Silicon Glen serve as key technology industry hubs This investigation delves into an examination of the growth dynamics observed in Central Tai-wan Science Park (CTSP) and Silicon Glen in Scotland, with a specific focus on their energy, environmental, and economic management. The aim is to predict and evaluate the latest advancements and applications of technology. In terms of energy, CTSP focuses on Taiwan's supply security and green transformation challenges, while Silicon Glen emphasizes Scotland's wind energy generation technologies. Both regions are committed to the development of renewable energy and smart grids. Regarding environmental aspects, CTSP and Silicon Glen prioritize environmental protection and sustainable development by implementing measures for environmental monitoring. In terms of economic management, CTSP, and Silicon Glen serve as key technology industry hubs in Taiwan and Scotland, respectively, attracting numerous high-tech and startup enterprises. Various means facilitate the growth of industries and foster innovations in different industrial spheres. Important factors contributing to this growth include policy support, availability of research materials, and provision of infrastructure. This research paper compares the successful case studies of two industrial parks, along with their environmental and economic management strategies. It explores the management principles that ensure the sustainable development and economic growth of industrial parks, aiming to assist decision-makers and relevant stakeholders in evaluating the sustainable development planning of industrial parks.

For a number of years heritage resources have suffered the negative effects of tourist pressure. Overtourism has been generating a wide-ranging debate on this issue. This work focuses on the strategies and measures adopted to address overtourism during the last 30 years in heritage attractions, which are much less studied than urban heritage centres. Specifically, it analyses measures relating to the management of site capacities, based on the concept of tourist carrying capacity, using the content analysis as a methodology. We have used the Alhambra in Granada as a case study, as one of the most visited Spanish World Heritage Sites. The results obtained reflect a strong consensus on the need to introduce measures to restrict tourist activity, although these measures imply a great effort in terms of management and tend to be taken advantage of by some stakeholders for their own benefit. The extensive time frame of the measures adopted allows us to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of dealing with overtourism by using capacity management strategies, and to extract useful conclusions for other heritage sites with similar problems.

This study evaluates the accessibility of primary care physicians (PCPs) in Eastern Quebec using an enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) methodology. The E2SFCA methodology considers both the population supply of PCPs and the travel time between PCPs and dissemination areas, and was found to be effective in identifying possibly underserved areas. The availability of primary care services is contingent upon the presence of adequate road infrastructure, and populations residing in areas with limited access to main road networks may experience compromised access to primary care. The study concludes that the E2SFCA methodology can facilitate the identification of areas experiencing a shortage of PCPs, and this information can be used to inform the development of regional medical workforce programs and support the establishment of rural residency initiatives.

Cropland abandonment is a widespread phenomenon with an increasing trend around the world, including China. Cropland abandonment is the result of a multi-scale and multi-factor nested structure, in order to comprehensively identify the individual and background effects, the study explores the causes of the differences in farmland abandonment levels at two levels: farm household and village, based on a hierarchical linear model. The results show that: (1) 83.63% of the differences in farm abandonment rates are differences in farm households while 16.37% are differences in their villages; (2) whether head of household is healthier, per capita cropland area, ratio of transferred farmland, possession of large-scale agricultural production machinery or livestock for agricultural production, ratio of agricultural income, and whether there are village cadres have a significant negative impact on abandonment rates at the farm household level; while at the village level, commuting distance, whether it is a suburb of a large or medium-sized city, topography of the village is plain or not, and ratio of the number of people in agricultural production in the village have a significant positive impact on abandonment rates, while whether it has experienced land expropriation has a significant positive effect on the abandonment rate; (3) commuting distance weakens the negative correlation between the ratio of transferred cropland and the ratio of agricultural income and the abandonment rate; whether it is a suburb of a large or medium-sized city strengthens the negative correlation between whether it owns large-scale agricultural production machinery or livestock and the abandonment rate; whether the topography of the village is plain weakens the negative correlation between the possession of large agricultural production machinery or livestock for agricultural production and the agricultural income ratio and the abandonment rate; ratio of the number of people in agricultural production in the village weakens the negative correlation between the ratio of transferred cropland and abandonment rate; and whether the village has experienced land expropriation strengthens the negative correlation between the ratio of agricultural income and abandonment rate.

The use of bioethanol in cooking is not new, but until recently its application has been confined exclusively to small scale projects. However, a new bioethanol cooking utility in Kenya has now reached mass market adoption, serving more than 950,000 households with cooking fuel since launching in late 2019. Its success was made possible by a significant investment in technology to facilitate safe, convenient and affordable fuel distribution. It is funded by climate finance which is based on bioethanol fuel replacing charcoal used for cooking, a leading cause of African defor-estation. This development has been so recent that it has not widely been discussed in the academic literature. More broadly, the health, environmental and economic impacts of bioethanol for cooking have not been systematically assembled in one place. This article details what is known about the impact of bioethanol for cooking, how and why bioethanol for cooking was able to suddenly reach commercially viable scale in spite of the challenges it faced. It also discusses implications for further scaling of clean cooking fuel solutions.

This article deals with the governance of common goods within regeneration projects of UNESCO heritage sites. The main objective is to evaluate the existence of conditions that prove the con-temporary function of common goods as drivers of strategic regeneration of complex territories with high cultural value. The research identifies some of the strategic planning policies implemented for the historical centre of Naples and analyses their proactive function in the enhancement, conser-vation and reuse of built commons. The expected result is to contribute to the debate on the cultural planning of the territory, aimed at the diversification of services and the fight against the process of touristisation. Through desk research and consultation of primary sources, a brief outline is given of the historical process that led to the birth of the "Great UNESCO Project" in the historical centre of Naples. The paper then analyses the "Discipline of the common goods - Principles for the govern-ance and management of the commons in the city of Naples", defining its addresses, opportunities and limitations as a contribution to relational, oriented and sustainable strategic territorial planning.

Repeated fires cause peatlands to degrade. Fire management has been carried out, but fires continue to occur, especially during the dry season. Through social capital that applies in the community based on the local wisdom of the Banjar people in environmental management, it is hoped that peatland fires can be overcome in this area. This research aims to analyze the social capital of the Banjar people in mitigating land fires based on local wisdom and the environment. The sample in this study was 250 people who live in an area prone to fires on peatlands in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. There are three variables in this study, namely Trust (T), Network (N) and Norm (N). There are 33 Likert scale questions (1-4, strongly agree-strongly disagree). We also conducted interviews with 20 members of the Fire Care Community (MPA) to obtain information about the social capital of the Banjar community in mitigating land fires. The analysis used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study results show norms have the greatest influence on disaster mitigation of peatland fires compared to trust and social networks. Norms in the community in the form of values from peatlands, rules, norms and sanctions regulate the community more to deal with the problem of peatland fires than trust and social networks

As a follow-up to previously published research, this paper examines the responses of a group (n=185) of professional and volunteer firefighters directly involved in fighting extreme wildfire events of the 2017 summer season in Portugal. The data used in this research stem from two open-ended questions in response to a web-based survey: i) lessons learned and ii) proposals for improving the Civil Protection service. The replies were qualitatively examined. Participants exhibit incomplete awareness of extreme wildfires, and their only answers are i) the improvement of both the current organization and the technical and human resources of the suppression model (question 1), and ii) the increase in human and material resources, the single command, the in-dependence from Civil Protection and the valorization of experience, as the main aspects for the improvement of Civil Protection (question 2). Little attention is given to prevention and to the concept of control capacity, respectively. The answers to both questions showcase scarce knowledge of the paradigm shift in reference to the prevention model. The ratios of missing re-plies to both questions were 32.43% and 47.57%, respectively. The work stands out for its novelty and originality, as to our knowledge there is a total lack of similar works in all European Union literature.

The role of geodata technologies in humanitarian action is arguably indispensable in determining when, where and who needs aid before, during and after a disaster. However, despite the advantages of using geodata technologies in humanitarianism (i.e., fast and efficient aid distribution), several ethical challenges arise including privacy. The focus has been on individual privacy, however, in this article we focus on group privacy whose debates has recently gained attention. We approach privacy through the lens of informational harms that undermine autonomy of groups and control of knowledge over them. Using demographically identifiable information (DII) as a definition for groups, we first assess how these are derived from geodata types used in humanitarian DRRM. Secondly, we discuss four informational harm threat models: (i) biases from missing/underrepresented categories, (ii) the mosaic effect – unintentional sensitive knowledge discovery from combining disparate datasets, (iii) misuse of data (whether it is shared or not); and (iv) cost-benefit analysis (cost of protection vs. risk of misuse). Lastly, borrowing from triage in emergency medicine, we propose a geodata triage as a possible method for practitioners to identify, prioritize, and mitigate these four group privacy harms.

This paper intends to delve deeply into the current understanding of the ways in which the transition from a central-based economy to an economy relying on free competition, has led to changes in the big urban centres, bringing about a change in the relationships with the suburban areas. The authors take into account the high population density, the lack of space and the elevated price of terrains inside the big cities, hence urban functions migrate beyond the administrative boundaries, thus favouring the process of suburbanization. Within this context, commercial forces are shifted, migrating from the centre to the urban peripheries, or even outside them. This research is based on a comprehensive process of participative investigation (2012-2022) in Bucharest, Ro-mania’s capital city. The research relies on field investigation, statistical and quantitative analyses and bibliographical sources. The conclusions rely primarily on the idea that political changes cannot be separated from economic, cultural and environmental ones, highlighting globalizing flows and the development of big cities. Industrial activities, strongly developed within a central-based economy, have significantly declined, partly compensated for by the development of the tertiary sector and of commercial services, in particular, leading to a functional reconversion of the urban peripheries and of suburban areas. The conclusions suggest that it is very important to be highly careful towards the dilemmas and provocations ensuing from uncontrolled urban growth, therefore several measures of urban planning should be taken with a view to achieving a better co-operation between urban stakeholders and those from the metropolitan areas so as to attain some common objectives in infrastructure in order to reach an integrated regional development.

Agroforestry with a sustainable model of production is considered to be an effective solution to the unsustainability of the existing model in agricultural production, and it is also an important topic for ecosystem services and sustainable development goals to improve human well-being. In addition, existing literatures confirm that the importance of forest functions in increasing agricultural production and maintaining agro-ecological sustainability. The "rice-fish-duck-forest" is an important representative of the agroforestry complex ecosystem because of its unique management mechanism and characteristic social culture. As a result, "rice-fish-duck-forest" ecosystem services are beginning to be studied. In the absence of a systematic scientific understanding of the ecosystem services of "rice-fish-duck-forest", there are potential challenges to its sustainable development. This study thoroughly analyzed the current literature on rice-fish-duck-forest ecosystem services in order to have a more thorough grasp of it and to be more sustainable. This research found that research on the ecosystem services of "rice-fish-duck-forest" involves four themes: "regulational", "ecology", "economy", and "socio-culture". Deforestation, socio-cultural marginalization, and Low community management participation are the three main issues facing the "rice-fish-duck-forest" ecosystem service. To address these issues, this paper builds a framework for the sustainable development of rice-fish-duck-forest ecosystem services within the context of current management frameworks for agriculture and forestry, and further discusses its relevance to the Sustainable Development Goals. This study will provide a theoretical decision-making guide for the transformation of agriculture to agroforestry and the sustainable development of agroforestry.

The study proposes planning independent children's mobility through geoinformation technologies for listening to children. This research assumes that children’s values and expectations must be considered in city planning. A bibliographic review identifies 15 indicators which make spaces safe and attractive for children to circulate and play. Thematic maps of the indicators are prepared, integrated by Multicriteria Analysis by Weights of Evidence, according to the hierarchical importance of each variable. The definition of weights considers the opinion of children and technicians. Consultation with children is carried out by Mapping Volunteers (VGI), Consultation on Hierarchy, Geodesign of Ideas for the area and Artistic Workshop. In the technical study, the query applies the Delphi method. It uses the VGI – Volunteered Geographic Information – web-based platform, where children record places of topophilia and topophobia, while technicians map the presence of 15 indicators. The set of information is made available on a web-based platform of SDI – Spatial Data Infrastructure, in which there are resources for a Geodesign workshop when ideas for the area are elaborated through negotiation and co-creation. The product is a transformation design for the area through urban design and parameterisation of uses.

This essay critically discusses the integration of queer theory into human geography while emphasizing its ties to the principles of traditional geography. The need for a separate sub-discipline called queer geography is questioned. At the same time, legitimate concerns about possible departures from the fundamental goals of geography and the risks of anachronistic interpretations in applying modern concepts to historical landscapes are acknowledged. In this discourse, we strongly advocate for values such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and international human rights. It is important to emphasize that it is not the intent of this essay to denigrate campaigns for feminism or equality or to disparage the scholarship that emerges from the application of queer theory. On the contrary, we recognize the emergence of gender theories out of a need to advance social justice approaches. We believe that traditional human geography, itself, is capable of comprehensively examining space, time, and the complexity of human experience and offering workable solutions within its established framework. We therefore believe that the inclusion of queer theory can be harmoniously integrated into the contours of human geography, eliminating the need for a separate sub-discipline while preserving the integrity and purpose of the discipline.

This paper examines the importance of choice of cooking fuels in wellbeing, analysing relationships between the proportion of population with primary reliance on different types of fuels for cooking (predictor variable), and key wellbeing indices (outcome variables) - Personal Health, Social Life, Civic Engagement, Life Evaluation, Negative Experience. By combining two global datasets from Gallup and WHO, the study adds to current evidence by taking a global perspective. Controlling for demographic factors such as income per capita, age, education level, employment, etc., regression modelling of these relationships show that clean cooking fuels are influential in all of the key wellbeing indices with the exception of the Life Evaluation Index. Among the key wellbeing indices, Personal Health and Negative Experience Indices are the most strongly influenced by choice of clean cooking fuels. By adding access to electricity as an additional predictor variable, the analysis highlights the potential for integrating eCooking into national electrification plans as part of sustainable energy transitions, given that health outcomes (Personal health and Negative experience indices) appear to be as closely linked to choice of cooking fuels as to access to electricity.

This study examines the geopolitical dynamics of water conflicts in Central Asia, with a specific focus on Uzbekistan and its neighbors. Drawing upon a mixed methods approach within the framework of political geography, the research investigates the interactions among regional nations and the implications of population growth, agricultural industrialization, and economic competition, which heavily rely on shared irrigation systems and watersheds. The study establishes clear research objectives aimed at evaluating the water crisis in the region, addressing challenges in water management, and analyzing contentious issues. By uncovering historical and contemporary factors influencing water conflicts, regional power dynamics, and the complexities of water governance, the study highlights the potential for conflict, regional instability, and disruptions to peace resulting from population growth and economic competition within shared watersheds. The study concludes by providing recommendations to enhance regional cooperation, promote sustainable water management, and foster peacebuilding efforts. These recommendations draw on “soft power theory” and advocate for collaborative approaches. The findings of this research offer valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in water management and regional cooperation amid evolving geopolitical challenges. By contributing to informed decision-making and promoting strategies for sustainable development in the region, this study aims to support efforts toward effective water resource management and long-term stability in Central Asia. The implications of this research extend beyond the immediate region, serving as a reference for other areas facing similar water-related conflicts and providing a foundation for future studies in the field of geography.

Daniel Yergin’s “The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations” is a remarkable and groundbreaking work that addresses the ever-changing global energy landscape and its profound geopolitical implications. In this modest book review, we aim to offer a fresh perspective by re-examining the core issues from the standpoint of political geography. The aim of this article is twofold: to enrich the existing literature on political geography and to provide valuable insights to students of geography to broaden their knowledge in this field.

Space syntax can be potentially applied for the evaluation of quality of user flows particularly in solving problems of sustainable projects in spaces intended for users to move around. This study aims to analyze the concepts of pedestrian flows (open and closed) by space syntax based bibli-ographical approach on a global scale, demonstrating the capability of improvements in Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs) as applied to the architecture of sustainable flows. Scopus theoretical reference bases were used, which are directly related to the theme of space syntax in open and closed spaces. Frequency analyzes were carried out, applying the content analysis, to identify words with a degree of similarity, related to “space syntax: flow in urban environ-ments” and “space syntax in closed built systems”, in relations to the SDGs. The results show that pedestrian flows identified in the literature aid to understand the global production on space syntax in open and closed spaces, directed to user flows in the built environment, where many environments of flows in the built space analyzed become unsustainable because they do not present full flow efficiency. In our study on space syntax, the following central terms were identified: pedestrian movements (open urban systems) and space (closed built systems), which allows a better understanding of the flows, highlighting the importance of the urbanist architect on the functionality of user flows in sustainable architectural projects on a global scale. The most frequent categories for open environments were the terms space and form and for closed envi-ronments were space and flow.

For the first time in human history the majority of people no longer live in a rural environment. According to the United Nations, over 50% of the global population now lives in cities. The abandonment of the rural environment has grave consequences for society in general, as these areas are healthier places to live, produce the food we all depend on, and are an important factor for preserving biodiversity and environmental sustainability. In this paper we will provide a historical overview of rural repopulation models and analyse a number of models currently being applied in several countries in Europe and Latin America. We will also offer observations on a pilot repopulation project called “Habita Tierra” currently being developed. The common characteristics of different repopulation models prompted us to develop a model based on active listening and accompaniment of people and local agents as well as other important factors. Rural depopulation in Spain involves a number of interrelated problems, one of the most salient being the aging rural population. The average farmer in Spain is 61 years of age. There is also the problem of gender imbalance in rural areas, where women enjoy few opportunities or alternatives. In turn, low fertility rates, increasing stress on limited public healthcare, education and transpor-tation resources, a lack of cultural activities and poor connectivity are also factors driving rural depopulation. The only group which is increasing the rural areas in Spain are immigrants, who now account for 10% of the rural population, often performing the agricultural, fishing and livestock farming ac-tivities abandoned by native residents. This group, along with young people, and women of all ages and the programs which support them may offer a solution to the challenge of depopulation. The paper concludes with a list of the key features of successful repopulation programs, drawn from a comparison of historic and contemporary models.

This book review addresses the contribution of Tim Marshall’s “The Power of Geography”. The purpose of this essay is to highlight the significant role of geography in shaping political landscapes, alliances, and global affairs through the book review. What is new about this essay is its accessible presentation of complex geopolitical concepts, making it a valuable resource for students of geography and readers interested in global politics. Through the analysis of case studies and historical background, the book illuminates the interplay between physical landscapes, territoriality, and power dynamics. The findings highlight the continuing influence of geography on nations, regional identities, and the evolving global order.

This article, inspired by Dr. Jürgen Essletzbichler’s chapter namely “Locating Location Models” in The SAGE Handbook of Economic Geography (2011), delves into the legacy and significance of location theory. By examining its integration of historical analysis and theoretical abstraction, the study highlights the crucial role played by historical and geographical contexts in shaping spatial patterns. It emphasizes the importance of complementing abstract models with historical analysis to gain a deeper understanding of real-world spatial phenomena. Acknowledging the delay in the development of location theory attributed to the dominance of the German historical school, the article recognizes its enduring value and resurgence in the realm of modern evolutionary economic geography. Ultimately, the abstract underscores the contributions of location theory to our comprehension of spatial dynamics and its potential for further advancements in the field of economic geography.

The concept of "Eco-authoritarianism", although appeared in the 1970s, through the writings of Robert Heilbroner, William Ophuls etc., but Eco-authoritarianism as a theory has emerged very recently [1]. In this era of global environmental degradation and rampant defacement of green space in the rapidly expanding cities of developing countries especially in India, historical sites of green belts, or eco-space developed by royal dynasties or colonial rulers are still preserved by eco-authoritarianism and cultural praxis. A lot of such heritage sites and built-up eco-spaces have faded out over time but at the same time, huge numbers are still present due to the imposition of restrictions by the state or national government or statutory organizations. Built up eco-space under Burdwan Raj Dynasty during the 18th and 19th centuries is still preserved almost in its original form due to the eco-authoritarianism outlook of the present stakeholder (The University authority mainly and the Forest Department). People of this urban unit not only feel proud of such built up eco-space; they also give credit to the university authority for maintaining the legacy of the Raj Dynasty. This investigation attempts to capture not only the role of authoritarian legacy for the preservation and conservation of eco-space in the urban context but also clarify the benefits of this eco-space regarding the cultural ecosystem services and outlook of urbanites towards nature. To portray this, both the qualitative and quantitative methods have been applied to glean the whole perspective.

This article examines the application of Keynesian theory in economic geography, focusing on regional development and reducing inequalities. The objective is to highlight the relevance and benefits of applying Keynesian principles in addressing spatial economic challenges. The novelty lies in examining the intersection of Keynesian economics and geography, which offers insights into regional planning, infrastructure development, and cluster formation. The results show how policymakers and researchers can use Keynesian theory to promote balanced growth and improve living standards. The keywords for this article are Keynesian theory, economic geography, regional development, disparities, and policy interventions.

Design guidelines and the Design Review Panel (DRP) are crucial components in ensuring consistent and high-quality design within masterplan sites. This study focuses on New Zealand, examining the challenges faced by industry partners in adapting to masterplanned design guidelines. The case study centers on Hobsonville Point, the largest Government lead masterplan community in New Zealand, which promotes sustainable and higher-density living—an uncommon concept in the country. We conducted interviews with 18 key stakeholders involved in the development of Hobsonville Point. The results show that the DRP provides flexible judgments and insightful information that better accommodates individual development characteristics than the strict numerical standards specified in design guidelines. This study underscores the importance of DRP in producing good design outcomes, especially when they are involved at the very beginning of the design process. Additionally, we took note of stakeholder concerns about DRP members' expertise and the possible effects of high turnover rates on the design process. To strive for continual improvement, future empirical studies on the DRP process are encouraged to enhance proficiency and dependability. Design guidance should be prioritised to ensure climate-related design is implemented to promote sustainable urban development.

This book review essay looks at Tim Marshall’s “Prisoners of Geography” and its in-depth examination of the interplay between geography and international politics. The aim is to highlight the book's key themes, including geopolitics, borders, trade routes, geopolitical conflict and colonial legacies. Through insightful analysis and engaging text, Marshall uncovers the central role that geography plays in shaping our world. The book’s continuing relevance is underlined by its links to significant global events and the author’s forward-looking questions. By recognising the practical factors that influence decision-making, rather than the purely ideological, the book offers a fresh perspective on current political and economic turmoil. The examination of the influence of geography and the call for increased international cooperation makes it a valuable resource for students of geography and anyone interested in political geography and globalisation.

This paper investigates the physical/virtual dynamics when constructing an immersive environ-ment for medieval courtyard houses in Historic Cairo. Using a VR Lab at a university campus, the paper analyzes a courtyard that symbolizes social resilience and community bonding at the newly rehabilitated Bayt Yakan. The courtyard is reconstructed as a Mixed Object through 3D documentation and scanning the space to develop a photogrammetry and VR experience. The results show that the sense of presence is perceived through a combination of factors and juxta-positions of the real and the virtual including: 1) architectural aesthetics, 2) intangible elements and 3) socio-cultural activities in space. Based on the pilot case study, the paper concludes with proposing a “Geospatial Framework for Immersive Environments and Social Sustainability” that is transdisciplinary, pluralistic and expansive in nature to encompass the multiple narratives of the contested past, and overlay the material and immaterial sustainable features embedded in historical contexts, where the Mixed Reality paradigm becomes an enabler for multiple voices, tools and mediums.

The development of subterranean non-motorized traffic infrastructure, commonly referred to as the underground pedestrian system (UPS), has become increasingly necessary in densely populated megacities worldwide as a means of advancing the Sustainable Development Goal 11, which aims to promote sustainable cities and communities. To improve the overall spatial performance, it is imperative to decipher the fundamental formation mechanism of sustainable underground pedestrian systems (SUPS) that is simultaneously influenced by spatial morphology and pedestrian behaviors. Thereby, two representative case studies, namely Wujiaochang UPS and Loushanguanlu UPS located in Shanghai, were selected for an in-depth investigation. This study employed correlation and regression analysis to examine the impact of spatial configuration variables and spatial attribute factors on pedestrian flow distributions in distinct SUPSs. The findings indicate that the variables of Betweenness, as measured by both Euclidean and Angular metrics, along with the presence of metro station locations and commercial space connected by UPS, are the three most significant factors influencing pedestrian behaviors in both scenarios. The disclosure has been made that Wujiaochang UPS is seamlessly integrated into a comprehensive three-dimensional pedestrian network both above and below ground. On the other hand, it appears that Loushanguanlu UPS exhibits a greater degree of self-sufficiency as an underground system. This study aims to elucidate the mechanism underlying the development of SUPSs, thus offering effective guidance for the implementation of three-dimensional walking systems in cities that prioritize sustainability.

Glacial meltwater has been lifeline of agriculture in Gilgit-Baltistan for centuries which is being effected by the climatic changes and associated challenges. The government line institutions and development agencies have been investing to sustain and further extend the cultivated areas by leveraging the available glacial meltwater source. However, approximately 13% arable land, laying mainly along river banks, has limited access to glacial meltwater. Moreover, already cultivated areas also need alternate and sustainable irrigation water supplies to insurefood security. Hence, there is need to explore more potential options to address these challenges and bringing arable land under irrigation for regional prosperity and environmental gains. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and its partners piloted solutions for aforementioned issues in Gojal, District Hunza. These solutions included river water lifting through solar and Hydraulic Ram Pumps, uphill water storages and application through drip irrigation systems. In order to assess the technical and economical viabilities of these piloted systems, a semi-structured questionnaire survey, field observation visits to collect data and economic assessment studies were carried out in Morkhun and Khyber. Both piloted systems have been proven as climate resilient, adaptable, environment friendly and economically viable. The cost to benefit ratio for solar powered drip irrigation and Hydraulic Ram Pump drip irrigation systems are 2.96 and 4.21 respectively, with payback period of 9.21 and 8.25 years respectively. The drip irrigation systems at Khyber and Morkhun sites have exhibited excellent hydraulic performance with Coefficient of Uniformity 92.61 and 93 % respectively. However, the field application efficiency of drip irrigation systems estimated for Khyber and Morkhun sites are 85.24 and 88.88% which are lower than the optimal value mainly due to lesser water holding capacity. The Hydraulic Ram Pump can lift four times more water to greater height, while comparing to solar pump of approximately similar capacity and higher capital costs. Both water lifting systems have some limitations and requires local customization for sustainable use.

The links between rural and urban have often been the subject of study in Portugal. Nevertheless, the asymmetries between rural and urban have not ceased to increase over the last decades, contributing to an imbalance of economic, social, and territorial dimensions between regions. In order to counter this trend, policies to attract the population and tourism have been endorsed but have not been sufficient to promote territorial cohesion. This makes it necessary to rethink the capacity and the potential of rural territories in terms of mobilising their resources and, through them, promoting new and/or renewed relations with urban territories. This article aims to explore and map the links between urban and rural areas by analysing the routes taken by agri-food products, from production to marketing, with the support of a spatial analysis, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). For that, we analysed a set of specialised and/or gourmet shops in Oorto and Lisbon, and their relations with the territories from which the commercialized agri-food products come. Most of these products originate in the inland rural regions of the country, and there is a clear geographical connection between the shops analysed and specific territories. Thus, it was possible to verify the increase in interest and consumption of agri-food products of rural origin and the spontaneous increase of this type of shop in the cities analysed, as well as identify the target audience of the shops and the spatial influence they have in the respective cities. These shops, in addition to selling agro-food products, are also promoters of rural territories in an urban environment.

The coastal zone, situated at the sensitive interface between land and sea, serves as a pivotal area of extensive human economic activities. As one of China's economic special zones, Xiamen exemplifies the comprehensive trajectory of coastal governance in China. This research adopts an interdisciplinary approach grounded in historical geography and political ecology, employing data collection methods encompassing historical literature, field surveys, and interviews. The research findings indicate that:(1) The year 1994 witnessed the pivotal role played by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in connecting Jimei Peninsula from a local context to the international arena, thus signifying a momentous turning point in the process of scale reconstruction. However, the subsequent implementation of the Coastal Exclusion Policy in 2002 had detrimental consequences, leading to the disintegration of the local scale, the erosion of maritime culture, and the disregard for the livelihood security of displaced coastal populations.(2)The Coastal Exclusion Policy serves as an instrumental tool for implementing scale politics, while its functional realignment has had profound implications for the coastal zone, encompassing economic transformation, ecological degradation, and the marginalization of the socio-cultural fabric that intertwines humans and the coastal environment.

Given the significant role of the Ningxia Urban Agglomeration along the Yellow River in reshaping the urban network and promoting coordinated development in the upper Yellow River region of China, this paper takes enterprise flow as the explicit manifestation of the regional urban network. Based on the data of registered enterprises from 2005 to 2021, combined with the interlocking network model, social network analysis method, and spatial panel econometric model, this paper interprets the evolution of the regional urban network structure and its influencing mechanisms through the different types of enterprise flow. The results indicate the following: (1) The external network is primarily focused on outflow investments towards North China, East China, and Northwest China. The overall inflow sources form a multi-origin structure dominated by North China and East China. The Jinfeng and Xingqing serve as core hubs for enterprise exports in the external network and destinations for incoming enterprises. However, in the Productive manufacturing connections, a spatial organizational pattern driven by multiple cities has formed. (2) In the internal network, a concentric connection structure centered around the Jinfeng and Xingqing has formed. The Productive service connections are relatively active, while the Productive manufacturing connections are relatively concentrated between the Jinfeng, Xingqing, Ningdong, and Lingwu. However, there is an imbalance in the spatial connections within the urban agglomeration network and an incomplete hierarchical system of network nodes. (3) In the external network, the main feature is the absorption of external elements to foster development momentum. In the internal network, the Jinfeng and Xingqing serve as contact and radiation sources, influencing various nodes. However, their driving capacity is weak. (4) The market demand and coordinated development both demonstrate significant promoting effects on the connections within the external and internal networks. The sluggish adjustment and transformation of regional industrial structure have resulted in a temporary negative inhibitory effect on the development of transformation. The negative impact of urban investment activities and the positive impact of government management are reflected within the internal network. (5) The improvement of urban management and service functions, as well as external borrowing, can promote the connection in different network. However, the borrowing economic activity can have a negative impact in different networks. (6) Industrial agglomeration can promote enterprises connections in different networks and generate significant spatial spillover effects.

The integration of transportation systems with land use through the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) model can effectively promote sustainable development in cities. By increasing the intensive use of land within the supply capacity of urban public transportation, this model can comprehensively improve the efficiency of urban transportation and land use, while also addressing problems such as traffic congestion and environmental pollution. To implement this model, a "Node-Place-Function" (NPF) framework is proposed based on the coordination degree between rail transit and land use in Qingdao. A comprehensive evaluation system is constructed to quantitatively assess the TOD level and comprehensive development level of land use around rail transit stations from three dimensions. By applying the NSGA-II genetic algorithm, a land use allocation optimization model is developed to maximize rail transit station accessibility, land economic benefits, and environmental comfort. The research results guide other cities in China to implement TOD in land use planning and promote coordinated development between urban rail transit and land use.

This study explores the geopolitical dynamics of water conflicts in Central Asia, focusing on Uzbekistan and its neighboring countries. Using a mixed methods approach within the framework of political geography, the research analyzes interactions among regional countries and the implications of population growth, agricultural industrialization, and economic competition, which heavily rely on shared irrigation systems and watersheds. It establishes research objectives, evaluates the water crisis, addresses challenges in water management, and examines contentious issues like hydropower, resource hegemony, and ethnic conflict. Also, the study uncovers historical and contemporary factors influencing water conflicts, regional power dynamics, and the complexities of water governance. The findings highlight the potential for conflict, regional instability, and disruptions to peace resulting from population growth and economic competition within shared watersheds. The study concludes with recommendations to enhance regional cooperation, sustainable water management, and peacebuilding, drawing on soft power theory and advocating for collaborative approaches. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in water management and regional cooperation amid evolving geopolitical challenges, contributing to informed decision-making, and promoting strategies for sustainable development in the region.

The railway infrastructure has played a crucial role in urban development since its inception in the 19th century. This article aims to show how the transformations resulting from the implementa-tion of this transport system have had a particular impact on the city of Istanbul, considering a technical, an engineering and the heritage perspective. To achieve this, an exhaustive review of collected drawings, articles and reports has been carried out since 2012, while starting to work on the architectural coordination of the project. These documents reflect how the Marmaray project covers different aspects, such as materials, signage, civil protection and landscaping. The results obtained demonstrate how a railway infrastructure project not only improves the technical and operational efficiency of traffic in the city, but also protects the natural and historical heritage. As a main conclusion of this investigation, it highlights the necessity for proper coordination between technical interventions in the infrastructure and a comprehensive and integrated strategy that encompasses both the heritage and the urban landscape of Istanbul.

Land use is an embodiment of human socioeconomic activities and represents a bridge between these activities and natural systems. Through social activities, humans transform land use to promote social and economic development and improve production, living conditions, and eco-logical functions of land. Rural residential land represents a space for rural residents to reside in and exhibits spatial characteristics that evolve over time, which is proof of rural socioeconomic development. This paper observes rural residential land in 21 cities on the Grand Canal and analyses its spatial differentiation. Then, it explores the driving factors of this land using spatial grid analysis and the geographic detector model. Lastly, it proposes three different forms of rural residential land based on the results. The study found that: (1) the change of rural residential land in the northern part of the Grand Canal was more volatile than that in the southern part. The change of rural residential land from 1990 to 2020 conformed to the pattern of cultivated land - rural residential land - urban construction land; (2) Based on the driving factors of rural residen-tial land, the land is divided into one-dimensional cities, two-dimensional cities and three-dimensional cities. Circular, linear, and scattered cities of different sizes were affected by socioeconomic factors, transportation accessibility, and the natural environment, respectively; and (3) Finally, according to the spatial differentiation characteristics and the driving factors of rural residential land, the study proposes the construction of three types of villages through the strate-gies of constructing large-scale villages, relocating and reconstructing new villages, and con-structing high-quality villages, respectively. Enhancing the scientific planning of rural residential land and its efficiency can offer the protection of agricultural land and the integration of urban and rural areas in the new era.

Management of Australia’s largest river system, the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is controversial, addressing conflicting demands from stakeholders, including irrigators, the agriculture industry, indigenous groups, and the environmental lobby. Oversight is concentrated in a single agency, the MDB Authority, but climate change and the water market have contributed to uncertainty over the Basin’s environmental sustainability. This paper reports on preliminary research in South Australia’s Riverland, one of Australia’s most important wine, citrus, nuts, and stone fruit production areas. It focuses on the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT), supplying water to irrigators, primarily horticulturalists. It investigates the chief risks perceived and future-plans in face of concerns over variable water flows and economic uncertainty. Using sequential mixed methods, a questionnaire survey supplied information from a sample of irrigators, covering land use, on-farm environmental actions, risks, decision making, recent and proposed changes to farm management, and attitudes to the MDB Plan and the water market. Focus groups and interviews then enabled key topics to be addressed in greater depth. The RIT’s contribution to river restoration is highlighted, with its plans for additional on-farm water stewardship investigated. There are high levels of uncertainty regarding future viability of smallholdings, including unintended consequences from the water market (e.g., increasing areas under water hungry almonds), the role of water brokers, and environmental viability of the river system linked to climate change. More optimistic voices point to increased diversity of production, resilience of the local horticultural industry, and new entrants in the form of hobby and part-time producers.

Extreme heat is a climate, public health, and environmental justice issue. This case study examined public transit exposure and vulnerability to extreme heat by investigating the microenvironment, land cover characteristics, and social vulnerability of heat-vulnerable bus stops in Knoxville, Tennessee. The community’s temperature and Heat Index information, bus stop point data, land cover characteristics data, and the microenvironment of bus stops (i.e., trees and shelters) were processed and mapped with ArcGIS Pro. The pictures of the microenvironment of the bus stop were collected from Google Maps, and the social vulnerability of the area where the bus stops are located was investigated by analyzing the Center for Disease and Prevention's Social Vulnerability Index. Results found that the most heat-vulnerable bus stops were concentrated in West Knoxville, South, North, Northeast, and Northwest Knoxville. In addition, the most heat-vulnerable bus stops were concentrated in commercial complexes and areas a large number of systematically marginalized populations reside.

Abstract: Floods can be defined as one of the most frequent and destructive disasters, that cause significant damage to people, while droughts present significant challenges in first place to most vulnerable communities. In consequence, state public policies are essential to manage the risk in the face of both phenomena and contribute to the construction of resilient communities. As a request of the National Water Commission of Mexico (CONAGUA) for the Regional Water Plan (PHR), we designed and applied a methodology based on virtual consultation fora in conjunction with digital survey tools to understand the population's perception of these phenomena. The workshops were organized in the five municipalities of Baja California Sur. Then, we performed an interdisciplinary analysis that combines hydrological considerations with the most critical social, economic, environmental, and law components, applying the PESTEL analysis. The results indicate that there is a clear and widespread awareness that floods and droughts increase the risk to the livelihoods of the population; however, there are deficiencies in different areas, which complicates risk management. Timely information and the inclusion of communities in mitigation and adaptation proposals would allow for achieving more successful cases with the efforts to minimize vulnerabilities and increase the resilience of the population in the face of a changing climate. This must be a collaborative work of the entire society, governmental, social, and private stakeholders.

The health of urban citizens is defined by how their living environments are planned, built, and operated. These complex relations between health and the characteristics of built environments require system-orientated thinking and transdisciplinary interventions, yet have mainly been addressed using conventionally narrow sector-based approaches. This paper investigates the opportunities and challenges of the Vietnamese Green Building Movement (GBM) based on a transdisciplinary approach, with attention to additional health benefits of green buildings that are currently under-researched, while highlighting building users’ perspectives. Focusing on the perspectives of high-rise building residents, the paper examines transdisciplinary insights collected from six thematic webinars, expert interviews, and, in particular, from a household survey conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Among other findings on opportunities and challenges for the Vietnamese GBM, the paper points out a challenging mismatch between the high importance homebuyers place on green building health benefits, and the focus of GBM stakeholders on GB energy-saving benefits- which are not necessarily homebuyers’ most pressing concerns. With this evidence-based inquiry, the paper concludes that improved health and well-being should be considered co-benefits of green buildings, along with energy efficiency. Importantly, this paper also brings attention to the necessity of a systemic and transdisciplinary approach in both academic and practical efforts toward the implementation of SDG3- to “ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all ages”- and SDG 11- “to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.

Abstract: The internationally accepted goals of eliminating climate gas emissions implies substantial investments in renewable energy (RE) facilities. This will inevitably lead to major impacts on landscapes. Landscape concerns linked to RE facilities are already leading to controversies in many local communities. In this article, we focus on the question of landscape democracy related to the establishment of RE facilities. Based on recommendations from the European Landscape Convention, an analytical framework is presented identifying three main dimensions of landscape democracy, followed by an overview of arrangements, procedures and methods that are or may be used to encourage democracy. The procedures and methods are analysed based on examples from Denmark and Norway. This is followed by an analysis of decision levels with a special focus on the principle of subsidiarity. Finally, recommendations are presented to strengthen landscape democracy in relation to the installation of RE-facilities.

: The paper aims to present a conceptual framework for developing territorial development strategies based on crowdsourcing technologies to enhance intangible heritage, setting this framework within the context of Italian inner areas defined by a policy framework oriented towards the territorial development of marginal areas. For this reason, the work intends to provide the necessary background information for the development of such strategies, examining the technological aspects, a precise definition of the concept of intangible heritage, the application of a socially innovative strategy for marginal territories, and a framework of strategic actions necessary to implement solutions capable of involving local communities from the bottom up and ensuring a widespread redistribution of the benefits in the development of these technologies. The paper's objective is, therefore, to bridge the gap between different debates: technological innovation, the enhancement of intangible heritage, and territorial development based on socially innovative strategies, providing a key information framework for experts and scholars who intend to approach these topics or develop projects based on these tools and objectives.

The contribution of academics and researchers to the discussion around sustainable rural development planning and its impact on rural communities has grown exponentially in recent years. Understanding trends in sustainable rural development research requires considering the different factors involved and affecting people from a holistic approach. This review examines, through bibliometric studies, the scientific knowledge generated on sustainable rural development planning in the last 50 years, analyzing 6,895 articles published in journals between 1970 and 2020. The results reveal the existence of three clusters and an important growth is observed to respond to the continuous needs in relation to sustainable rural development. This research shows the evolution of a new approach for the planning of sustainable rural development projects in postmodernity: Working with People (WWP). This WWP model, as a conceptual framework from social learning has been validated as a novel proposal in numerous contexts. The bibliometric analysis shows an evolution "From Putting the Last first" to "Working with People in Rural Development" research and the contributions of influential teachers such as Chambers and Cernea. These bibliometric analyses demonstrate the correct approach of WWP model, and open new fields of research in the planning of sustainable rural development projects.

Peri-urban forests often have extensive networks of greenways that allow for outdoor recreation. However, information associated with these greenways often does not include their degree of naturalness, which is usually reduced to descriptions of flora and fauna and often overlook the factors that reduce naturalness. Therefore, in some cases, the naturalness of these greenways is not as high as expected. Having a quantification of their naturalness would be useful, especially for hikers interested in appreciating and enjoying nature. Additionally, this information would help outdoor recreation managers to design trails or decide which ones to promote as "greenways". The objectives of this study are (1) to design a method to calculate and map the naturalness of greenways using two approaches, one based on perceptual fieldwork and the other on Geographic Information Systems (GIS); (2) to apply the designed method to a specific greenway; and (3) to compare both methodological approaches. The results show that, for the greenway studied, the naturalness scores obtained are low in all three types of analyses used. Around 70% of the greenway sections in the GIS visibility analysis and 80% in the GIS proximity analysis have a low naturalness index, while this value is reduced to 40% with the fieldwork analysis. Although the results of the GIS approach (proximity and visibility) generate naturalness indices and spatial patterns that are very similar, they differ significantly from those derived from the fieldwork analysis. The discussion of the results suggests that the three methodologies used are valid for analysing the degree of naturalness of the trails, but if used together, it would be possible to add flexibility to the type of variables incorporated in the analysis.

In recent decades, particularly intense changes have occurred in Spanish urban areas. This is the result of demographic and urbanizing transformations that have led to a change in the city model. The predominance of compact forms has been replaced by the growing prominence of urban sprawl. Structures are now more extensive, characterized, in turn, by fragmentation and notable consumption of land in the peripheries. In medium-sized cities, the municipalities bordering the central cities have concentrated the processes of suburbanization and periurbanization. This paper addresses the process of change for 34 cities and their urban areas located in inland Spain. A proposal is made for the delimitation and characterization of urban areas, taking the municipality as the unit of analysis. At the methodological level, six variables are used, analyzed by means of multicriteria statistical techniques combined with the use of GIS tools. An Urban Transformation Index (ITU) has been developed that synthesizes urbanizing, demographic and socioeconomic dynamics. In the territorial area, the 20-minute isochrone is used as a reference. In the temporal domain, the period of analysis addresses the events of the first two decades of the twenty-first century.

The aim of this paper is to provide a new perspective on the conditions for the multiple dimensions of concerns, and to understand why some wind power projects run smoothly while others lead to unexpected outcomes due to local resistance. The paper described how multiple community concerns about wind power project planning can be described using conflict management theory and by using different procedures to handle tangible and intangible concerns. Policy recommendations are given on how: to minimise overflowing and the risk of the conflicts; to avoid “boxing” community concerns in categories; to give more attention to the intangible and less calculable concerns; to secure appropriate and early planning with proactive involvement of local communities.

Appropriate governance structures are extremely important for the fishery dependent communities to develop integrated territorial development strategies and adaptive capacity to change, including the climate one. This paper assesses to what extent fisheries co-management schemes (e.g Fisheries LAGs, being regional/local governance instruments in fishing communities) are strengthening sustainability. The latter includes improving energy efficiency, promoting renewable energy sources (RES), coping with climate crisis, minimizing environmental impacts, and promoting sustainable blue economy. For detecting policy aspects of aligning climate neutrality and sustainable blue economy, the research lens focuses on the Greek Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) given that these are mostly located in coastal/marine and insular territories with significant blue growth potential. To map and assess their capacity and efficiency in pursuing Green Deal objectives, a co-development process with FLAG managers was put in place. The results and findings of this process reveal the scarcity of sustainability and blue economy related strategies. Key conclusion is that transition to a post-carbon blue economy on a local level, requires the understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of fisheries co-management schemes. The latter, being multi-sectoral structures, may boost dialogue and cooperation to harmonize local development strategies and EU policies. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) as an evolutionary governance process itself, can be a driver for making FLAGs evolve, and strengthen commonization and blue justice and equity for fishers.

Identifying productive, profitable and less risky cropping systems is important for sustaining farm-based livelihoods in the context of climatic uncertainties and market volatility in many developing nations. Reductionist field crop research identifies the best-bet solutions based on treatment replicates at a single point in time, which may not account for price instability under climatic uncertainties and volatile markets. Keeping this in mind, we estimated productivity, profitability and weather-related risk from eleven different rice-based cropping systems (eight existing and three potential systems) in the coastal region of West Bengal, India. Information on the crop management practices, yield and prices of the component crops of these eleven cropping systems, under ’best,’ ’normal’ and ‘worst’ situations (scenario), were collected through a ques-tionnaire survey on50 farms of Gosaba Block, West Bengal, India. Irrespective of the scenarios, the rice-lathyrus systems, followed by rice-onion and rice-lentil systems recorded the lowest rice-equivalent yields and system yields. However, the highest rice-equivalent yields and system yields were recorded for rice-chilli systems, followed by rice-tomato and rice-potato-green gram systems. Per hectare total paid-out cost (TPC) of rice-tomato systems was higher, followed by rice-chilli, rice-potato-green gram and rice-potato systems. However, irrespective of seasonal conditions (best, normal and worst), rice-chilli systems gave a higher net return followed by rice-tomato and rice-potato-green gram systems. The rice-fallow system recorded the lowest value for both parameters. Under the worst seasonal conditions, the rice-onion system gave a negative net return. Under all the scenarios, the highest B:C ratio was observed for rice-chilli, rice-tomato, rice-potato-green gram and rice-potato systems. The cumulative probability distribution of the rice-tomato system showed first-degree stochastic dominance over other systems and the rice-chilli system showed second-degree stochastic dominance over the rest of the systems. Only the rice-onion system had a small chance (< 1%) of a negative net return, while the rest of the cropping systems were highly likely to get a positive net return. Taking productivity, economics, and risk assessment of different rice-based systems into account, rice-vegetable systems, especially rice-tomato and rice-chilli among the existing systems and rice-potato-green gram system among the potential systems, can be recommended for sustainable intensification in these coastal saline tracts of the region. We also discuss additional socio-economic factors explored by in-depth in-terviews with the farmers, which might influence the adoption and upscaling of these cropping systems in the region.

Urban vitality, understood as a key factor for the achievement of cities’ sustainability, shows a strong relationship with urban morphology. The city theorist Jane Jacobs suggested morphologi-cal aspects to promote vital cities already in the 1960s, which remain valid in the present. How-ever, few studies in the Andean region quantitatively exemplify this. This paper aims to test the measurement of urban vitality in a neighborhood of Quito, Ecuador, called La Mariscal, inte-grating Jacobs’ approach. In particular, three urban vitality indexes are evaluated with the appli-cation of GIS software using cadastral data obtained from the municipality and field data col-lection. Results show that the context-based previous knowledge and the scale of analysis are es-sential factors in the configuration of dimensions, indicators, and spatial representation of any urban vitality index. In the study area land use mixture, contact opportunity, and accessibility dimensions are fundamental. Regarding indicators, the incorporation of the informal small-scale commerce, the quality of sidewalks, the street slope, and the good-conditioned street furniture is recommended. Finally, a hybrid representation (raster and vectorial) is suggested to precisely measure urban vitality at a block scale. Altogether, by providing a comparative approach, we in-tend to bring a useful framework for researchers and planners to study urban vitality in Andean cities.

Heritage conservation area designation is often resisted by communities due to concerns with overly strict regulations for property alterations and negative impacts on property values. This paper addresses these concerns by examining Freemans Bay and Onehunga – two Special Character Areas (SCAs) in Auckland, New Zealand. A property value analysis was used to assess the impact of SCA designation on property values and an online questionnaire survey gathered information on homeowners’ experiences and levels of satisfaction with living in an SCA. The results indicate that designated SCA properties have higher average values than non-designated properties and homeowners are overwhelmingly satisfied with living in a SCA. The main benefits are a sense of community and having certainty around the look and feel of their neighbourhood into the future. The main issue identified by respondents is the requirement for Resource Consent. The majority of people who had gone through the process found it to be a negative experience because of the high cost in terms of time and money. A historic urban landscape approach to the development of management plans and design guidelines is recommended to improve the implementation of the Special Character Areas in Auckland and beyond.

This article aims to investigate gaps in the law and policies on e-waste management in communi-ties of Thailand and suggests a guideline for improving, developing, and designing legal measures and state policies for more effective enforcement of the law on e-waste management in communities. The findings reveal that the currently applicable law of Thailand lacks effective approaches and rules for e-waste management. Also, there is not any implementation of key envi-ronmental principles for e-waste management in communities, such as the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) that requires manufacturing companies to take part in being responsible for disposal ex-penses or the Public Participation principle that requires users, manufacturers, distributors, and government agencies to take parts in disposing e-waste. As a result, problems of e-waste in com-munities of Thailand have been continuously increasing. According to such problems, the authors suggest that legal measures on e-waste management in communities should be specifically de-signed by implementing key environmental principles as a basis in determining formats and guidelines of e-waste management, especially participation of all sectors that can help in solving and reducing e-waste in communities that is harmful to health, sanitation, and environment.

Abstract Most Asian countries like South Korea have transformed themselves from poor agrarian nations into one of the fastest-growing industrialized economies in the world. Rural transformation poses great challenges to rural people and areas, but also it also provides great opportunities for sustainable rural development. The evolution of South Korea's rural policies is embedded through the different national institutions with different sectors. Diversification of rural economic opportunities may further extend to the industries for economic development in rural regions alongside efforts to improve living. Examining the rural transformation in South Korea, mainly the rural development with land, agriculture, truism, politic,s and strategy they used that shaped the structure of the rural transformation and its activities over time and Ethiopia takes lessons is the objective of the study. Document analysis is a tool for achieving information. Ethiopia takes lessons from South Korea from the general sector of rural development to the particular agricultural development sector, rural truism development, land reform which is the core asset for the world people, health care reform, and market and trade transformation (indicates that the base for developed country development was trade reform from import to export), rural job employment transformation (which have the multidimensional impact to the development of nation) and rural political transformation are the basic areas of rural transformation in which Ethiopia focused to do. The country can grow with the integrated/ collaborative work of the stakeholders. The government of Ethiopia applying a functional regional strategy to shape the socio-economic and cultural changes of the rural people and working with civil societies and other non-governmental stakeholders must be the primary tasks

Streets are an essential element of urban safety governance and urban design, but they are designed with little regard for possible gender differences. This study proposes a safety perception evaluation method from the female perspective based on street view images (SVIs) and mobile phone data, taking the central city of Guangzhou as an example. The method relies on crowdsourced data and uses a machine learning model to predict the safety perception map. It combines the simulation of women's walking commuting paths to analyse the areas that need to be prioritised for improvement. Multiple linear regression was used to explain the relationship between safety perception and visual elements. The results showed the following: 1) There were differences in safety perceptions across genders. Women gave overall lower safety scores and more dispersed distribution of scores. 2) Approximately 11% of the streets in the study area showed weak perceived safety, and approximately 3% of these streets have high pedestrian flows and require priority improvements. 3) Safe visual elements in SVIs included the existence of roads, sidewalks, cars, railways, people, skyscrapers, and trees. Our findings can help urban designers determine how to evaluate urban safety and where to optimise key areas. Both have practical implications for urban planners seeking to create urban environments that promote greater safety.

The present paper investigates the determinants of the country’s modernisation through the lens of its citizens. A combination of the ‘hard’ determinants of country’s modernisation (effectiveness of digitisation, infrastructure, environment and interoperability of natural resources; behaviour in line with environmental trends of the EU) and ‘soft’ (interest in opportunities and benefits of renewable energy) was investigated. It was revealed that even for some developed countries, the ‘hard’ determinants have a greater impact on country’s modernisation compared to the ‘soft’ ones. A representative cross-sectional survey of 1015 respondents and a factor coupled with a network analysis served as the main research instruments. Lithuania served as a geographic setting for the research.

Residents’ perceptions on ecosystem services (ESs) provided by urban green spaces (UGSs) are vital for developing sustainable cities. However, there has been limited research on this issue in Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to assess Malaysians’ perceptions on ESs provided UGSs and how their perceptions are influenced by different socio-demographic factors. We used a structured online questionnaire and obtained 645 responses on 16 ESs from regulatory, cultural, and supporting ES categories. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regressions were used for data analysis. In general, city dwellers have high positive perceptions on ESs provided by UGSs. Their perceptions for global climate regulation, noise buffering, pest regulation, spiritual, and research and education services would likely to significantly increase as they grow older. Households with moderate income have significantly greater perceptions of microclimate regulation, air filtration and aesthetic services. Having non-tertiary level education would significantly lower their perceptions of global climate and microclimate regulation, spiritual, aesthetics, and recreational services. Tertiary educated residents with non-environmental degrees also showed similar associations. Infrequent visits to UGSs would likely to significantly reduce the perception of global climate regulation, noise buffering, runoff reduction, erosion control, spiritual, and aesthetics services. People living far (>5km) from the UGSs also have significantly lower perceptions of microclimate regulation, air filtration services. Suggestions are made to incorporate ESs related content in pre-university curriculum and establishing small parks in neighborhoods to improve knowledge and uses of UGSs. These findings would assist urban planners designing environmentally sound urban policies and thereby improving human wellbeing in the cities.

The power of the river does not always work to the benefit of living things; rather, it has the ability to destroy human society and has negative effects on the environment. River Teesta has a prodigious significance on the riverine dweller and its changing precarious behaviour has repercussions on the lives of millions. Utilizing satellite images and 41 years of temporal analysis, the mapping of channel extraction and channel shifting has been demonstrated. Delineating the exact channel boundary is a laborious operation, but MNDWI technique is really valuable in this situation to produce valuable results. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze the Teesta River's active flow line migration trend and channel migration behaviour. A particular river's oscillating character over time has both beneficial and detrimental power, destroying important resources for environmental sustainability and human society while also providing fertile mother earth as a source of wealth. As a result, another goal of the current study was to determine how vulnerable riverine residents were. A livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) based on the riverine inhabitants' exposure, sensitivity, and capacity for adaptation was created. According to the findings, the river's erratic behaviour is putting the people who live beside it in danger. Therefore, it is vitally necessary to implement a capable management strategy to stop bank failure at the Teesta-Dharala confluence in order to save the riverine residents.

Indigenous knowledge is proven to be one of the foundations of sustainable land and marine management. While indigenous knowledge is acknowledged as of important factors on maintenance of biodiversity of the planet, it also ensures the sustenance of social and economic system of indigenous community. To facilitate the application of indigenous knowledge on management of customary forest in Indonesia, since 2012, the Government of Indonesia has been providing formal access for indigenous communities to their forests to maintain forest sustainability and to enhance the welfare of indigenous community. Nonetheless, the achievement of sustainable development goals in the scope of forest and conservation area management is threatened by various competing interests and power imbalance, which mostly leads to conversion of naturally vegetated area, as well as the inability of the community to integrate new economic opportunities to its institution. Moreover, the Government of Indonesia has not been regulating the involvement of indigenous community on the management of conservation area. Most importantly, such a program provides no reference on indigenous community, especially on the assessment of authenticity of indigenous community’s forest. Cultural space methodology may fill the aforementioned gaps. The methodology was developed based on the notion of cultural space and land administration, particularly the people-and-land/marine space relationship. Moreover, such a methodology was also constructed based on the experiences of agricultural and maritime communities in Indonesia on the administration of their territories. The methodology provides a procedure to convert information on the interrelation of indigenous community, its cultural space in forest and conservation area, and indigenous knowledge into geospatial information and data that represent the cultural space unit as a geographic feature. Therefore, such methodology may be utilised to assess the authenticity of a long-existing relationship between a community, especially an indigenous one, and its land, particularly that serves conservational function.

Since the mid-20th century, tourism has become a strategic activity for the economy of the Balearic Islands, causing profound social, territorial and environmental transformations. This fact challenges local society, which must be aware of its environment in order to better face the future challenges posed by this economic activity. With this goal, the official curriculum has been analyzed, making it possible to ascertain the approach with which this subject is taught by the administration and what objectives are set. Furthermore, a review was carried out of the contents of geography textbooks in the third year of ESO and the second year of Baccalaureate, which correspond to the educational stages in which tourism aspects appear. The results obtained represent a fundamental strategic diagnosis in order to improve the teaching and learning of this key activity for the Balearic Islands, giving it more importance and adapting its approach to the current times.

The size of the home is considered the most critical issue affecting the quality of life. This can be measured by the quality of the house and its environment. This paper highlights the housing quality index at the urban axis level in Bistrita-Nasaud county and the impact of socioeconomic activities on the index. The Household Quality of Life Index (HQLI) was calculated based on 11 variables. Household quality of life comprises two distinctive indices: the Housing Conditions Index (HCI) and the Asset Possession Index (API). The study found a variation in the housing condition variables across the urban focus areas. The impact of the socioeconomic environments is disproportionately dependent on the social-economic profile of the urban environments that make up the Urban Axis and the related economic activities that take place in the area of influence in the administrative-territorial units and the variability of the Housing Conditions Index This can be measured by the quality of the house and its environment. This paper highlights the housing quality index at the urban axis level in Bistrita-Nasaud county and the impact of socioeconomic activities on this index. The study area comprises territories in the municipality of Bistrita. The socio-economic context of the area has been the basis for understanding the patterns of evolution identified in the urban landscape, and being a driver in ongoing urban transformations and processes. The impact of the socio-economic is disproportionate to the socioeconomic profile of the urban environments that make up the Urban Axis and the economic activities related to the economic activities taking place in the catchment area in the administrative-territorial units, hence the variability of the Housing Conditions Index which is a system Housing Quality Indicator (HQI) is a tool for measuring and evaluating housing systems based on quality and not just cost.

There is a growing consensus that to effectively adapt to climate change, cities need user-friendly tools and reliable high-resolution biophysical and socio-economic data for analysis, mapping, modeling, and visualization. This study examines availability of various types of information used in climate adaptation plans of 40 municipalities with population less than 300,000 people in the United and in France, probing into the choice and usage of relevant information by small municipalities. We argue that non-climatic spatial data, such as population demographic and socio-economic patterns, urban infrastructure, and environmental data must be integrated with climate tools and datasets to inform effective vulnerability assessment and equitable climate adaptation planning goals. Climate adaptation plans frequently fail to address the existing structural inequalities and environmental injustices in urban infrastructure and land use. Adaptation methodological approaches should be reassessed in the context of much needed societal transformation. Lessons learned from our studies offer valuable insights for potential development of the national and state-level climate adaptation information services for cities.

Land includes vegetation and water bodies and provides the basis for human livelihoods through primary production, the supply of food, freshwater, and multiple other ecosystem goods and services. The last three decades have recorded frequent drought events as well as rapid population growth, which has resulted in often negative land use and land cover change (LULCC) in the Sahel of Sub-Saharan Africa. In order to propose sustainable land management strategies, it is important to investigate the rate of LULCC and its driving factors in specific locations. This study investigated the case of Wocoro municipality in Mali using a combined approach of remote sensing, Geographical Information System, and focus group discussions. Satellite images and local people's perceptions on LULCC and drivers were collected and analyzed for the years 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. We found that the study area faced a severe decrease in wooded savannah with an increase in farmland and settlement directly or indirectly related to the rapid population growth, high cotton price (which encouraged cropland expansion), drought, firewood extraction, and charcoal production, which was exacerbated by poverty. There is a need to promote integrated land management strategies that consider current and future livelihoods needs and preserve the health of the environment for the benefits of future generations.

Rural environment has experienced changes as a result of Covid-19, which encourage the introduction of sustainability in education. However, the representation of rurality in school geography and in the 2030 Agenda are factors that continue to present rurality as a concept opposed to urban spaces. The objective was to investigate the perception that the student has about the rural environment from an instrument and his drawings to understand if the explanation of it allows to introduce elements related to sustainability in educational projects. The quantitative research approach allows analyzing the psychometric properties of an instrument to measure the perception of the rural environment of a sample of 300 fifteen-year-old students from Brazil, Colombia and Spain. Those school knowledges that idealize rurality warn of the pedagogical difficulties to promote the teaching of rurality from sustainability criteria and condition the formation of students from a citizenship committed to social problems. This study is important because it diagnoses the elements that intervene in the teaching of rurality from school geography and provides some suggestions to include sustainability in educational projects.

As a form of protection, a nature park is often created to protect and valorise natural and cultural heritage in peripheral rural areas. However, in terms of multi-functionality, new nature parks are incorporated into traditional productive activities, such as recreational and tourist activities, which sometimes compromise sustainability. The research objective is to study the relationship between tourism and sustainability in the Nature Parks of “Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche”, “Sierra Norte de Sevilla” and “Sierra de Hornachuelos” that makes up the Dehesas de Sierra Morena Biosphere Reserve in Andalusia, Spain. Therefore, selective interviews have been carried out with the stakeholders to establish their perception of sustainable tourism and the presence of dominant discourses. The main conclusions indicate (1) the presence of different dominant discourses on sustainability, namely the conservationist and mercantilist ones, with the prevalence of the economic dimension; (2) poor awareness and adaptation to the context of global change; and (3) the presence of competitive relationships that generate difficulties for the governance of sustainable tourism.

The rainfall study in the long term is essential for climatic change understanding and socioeconomic development. The main goal of this study is to explore the spatial and temporal variations of precipitation in different time scales (seasonal and annual) in Cameroon. The Mann–Kendall and Pettitt tests were applied to analyze the precipitation variability. On temporal plan, the different regions of Cameroon have recorded significant drops in annual rainfall that Pet-titt's test generally situates around the 1970s. The decreases observed for the northern part of Cameroon regions are between –5.4% (Adamawa) and –7.4% (Far North). Those of west-ern part regions oscillate between –7.5% (South-West) and –12.5% (West). The southern part of Cameroon regions recorded decreases varying between –4.3% (East) and –5.9% (Center). On spatial plan, the divisions of the northern, western and southern parts of Cameroon respectively recorded after the 1970s (a pivotal period in the evolution of precipitation on temporal plan), a precipitation decrease towards the South, the South-West and the West. This study's findings could be helpful for planning and managing water resources in Cameroon.

This paper seeks to explore some of the issues to be welcomed but also warned against in general but also specified from an illustrative sample of ‘smart’ projects that caused outcomes that were neither ‘smart’ nor ‘resilient’. These give pointers to a ‘thirdspace’ as a descriptor of the most advanced application of sustainability thinking regarding relational spatial development planning. This contribution examines difficulties in delivering both ‘smart’ and ‘resilient’ responses of interest or value to citizens confronted with recurring crises that derive directly or with implications for sustainability issues. Identified are constraints and issues acting as obstacles to governance, management ‘layering’ and ‘learning’ causing failures of many weak or never-delivered projects. Critiques of static, or worse ‘magical’ thinking are increasingly invoked in consequence. In the analysis of ‘live cases’ all these problems showed up ‘in real life’. The author was pleased that his mentor, the late UCLA planning theorist Ed Soja’s application of the idea of ‘Thirdspace’ received prescient vindication from the results of this adjudication.

Refugee subject position is an evolving topic of contention in the world today with increased migrant and refugee mobilities. Urban refugee spaces are often segregated in the form of colonies, ethnic villages, even ghettos, embodying institutionalised discourses of apathy and violence. These spaces only occupy the cracks and margins of the normative, formal city, as appropriations of inhospitable natural terrains and urban systems. The paper discusses how refugees compete for resources for survival as “bio-political” subjects and are often held summarily responsible for causing ecological stress in host environments. After the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent, millions of Hindu Bengali refugees from East Pakistan flooded the Eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Kolkata particularly drew millions for better livelihood prospects. Facing government apathy and local violence, East-Bengali refugees appropriated the urban fringes of Kolkata and claimed their right to urban space through the political act of squatting or Jabar-Dakhal. The intent of this paper is to investigate and map the spatial distribution of East-Bengali refugee squatters and elaborate on how they transformed the terrain and distributed resources through self-management tactics. This spatial history case-study attempts to uncover locational data from archival government records, existing academic literature and fieldwork to visualise where the 145 pre-1950 and the 123 post-1950 Jabar-Dakhal colonies were located in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area. This case of successful refugee self-settlement is qualitatively read in relation to the major areas of ecological stress in Kolkata. One of the UN sustainable development goals is to make cities and human settlements ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. This paper hopes to encourage further studies of urban refugee self-settlement and local integration as a viable but complex socio-political-environmental process.

The importance of small urban green areas has increased in the context of rapid urbanization and densification of the urban tissue. The analysis of these areas through remote sensing has been limited due to the low spatial resolution of freely available satellite images. We propose a timeseries analysis on 3 m resolution Planet images, using GEOBIA and vegetation indices, with the aim of extracting and assessing the quality of small urban green areas in two different climatic and biogeographical regions – temperate (Bucharest, Romania) and mediterranean (Athens, Greece). Our results have shown high accuracy (over 91%) regarding the extraction of small urban green areas in both cities, across all analysed images. The timeseries analysis showed consistency in location for around 55% of the identified surfaces throughout the entire period. The vegetation indices registered higher values in the temperate region, due to the vegetation characteristics and the planning of the two cities. For the same reasons, the increase in vegetation density and quality, as a result of the distance from the city centre and the decrease in the density of built-up areas is more obvious in Athens. The proposed method provides valuable insights in the distribution and quality of small urban green areas at city level and can represent the ground basis for many analyses, currently limited by poor spatial resolution.

The article describes the methodology of the experimental analysis of operational and cost-effective assessment using geographic information system (GIS) technologies, as opposed to the assessment of the tourism potential of the nature of the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan using long term and costly classical approaches. Based on the ArcGIS (10.8) grid index approach of 20 natural geographical indicators of the valley, such as geographical location, relief, climate, hydrographic and biological, the level of tourism comfort was determined and the location of 6 tourist-recreation zones were defined. The level of accuracy of the tourist-recreational zones all situated utilizing GIS technologies was confirmed by field-expedition approaches.

Human trafficking is the third most lucrative form of trafficking in the world (just behind drugs and counterfeit goods). Multiple outbreaks of unrest between October 2016 and August 2017 in the Rakhine State of Myanmar triggered around 745,000 influxes of Rohingyas crossing into Bangladesh through the border boundaries at Teknaf and Ukhiya sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar. In this regard the media confirmed that over a thousand Rohingya people particularly women and girls were victims of human traffickers. This research aims to explore the underlying cause of human trafficking (HT) during emergency response and seeks how the knowledge and capacity of the refugee, local administration and law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh can be improved in promoting counter trafficking (CT) and safe migration processes. In order to achieve the objectives, this research starts with reviewing acts, rules, policies and action plans of the Government of Bangladesh on the HT, CT and safe migration processes. Then, a case study method has been applied to present ongoing the CT and safe migration programs of a NGO called Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) that received funding and technical support from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) for this purpose, the research in this paper will later evaluate the effectiveness of the program through conducting key informant interviews (KII) and focus group discussion (FGDs) with beneficiary and non-beneficiary participants from refugees, law-enforcing agencies (LEA) and non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) in Teknaf, and Ukhyia sub-districts in Bangladesh. Thus, this research identified program level strengths and weaknesses in relation to the CT, and safe migration process and provide key directions how they can be improved.

This article aims to identify the current development of cross-border tourism between Vietnam and China. The paper analyzes the perception and strategy of cross-border tourism development in the two countries, especially in the context of China’s implementation of the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). The article emphasizes that Vietnam and China have recently made efforts to promote cross-border tourism development. At the same time, Vietnam and China see cross-border tourism development as a significant part of comprehensive border cooperation between the two countries. However, the development plans for cross-border tourism between the two countries are still mainly on the desk, not yet implemented effectively. Thus, its achievements are relatively modest. Besides, the article emphasizes that the interests of the people living in the border area, especially the Vietnam side, are almost “forgotten” in the development of cross-border travel between the two countries. Besides, the article also analyzes the challenges that the two sides are facing, especially the Vietnam side, in promoting the development of cross-border tourism between the two countries.

Social sustainability is the major concern of planners and local officials when urban renewal projects are being conducted. Extreme individualism can potentially cause conflicts of interest, making urban renewal in Western cities fraught with various types of social risks. As a country with deep-rooted socialist tradition, urban renewal projects in China are influenced by collectivist culture and show different features from those of the West. The objective of this research is to investigate how different stakeholders in urban redevelopment projects, including local residents, social organizations, the local state, and developers, interact with each other and how the associated social risks are hedged against. Using a recent well-known project in the city of Guangzhou, the authors attempt to present the latest progress in social risk management in China. With the support from a government-sponsored project, the authors have conducted a questionnaire-based survey and year-long follow-up fieldwork. Using ATLAS.ti software, we found that that “residents’ demand”, “status of collaboration”, and “degree of trust” are the keys to risk management. The results of an ordered probit model show that residents are worried about the overall planning, the relocation timetable, and whether their personal needs are taken into account. It is also indicated that the timely disclosure of project information, high-quality public participation, and a reasonable compensation plan can possibly boost the support rate. The authors suggest that utilizing China’s collectivist culture could be an effective way to mitigate social risks, and residents’ personal interests should also be respected.

Albanian migration has always reflected a family character, be that before 1945 when Albania was not yet completely isolated, as well as after 1990 when borders were reopened. This feature characterized all types of movement, internal or international, permanent or seasonal migration, return migration or transnational movements, and remigration. The role of the family has been very important in making decisions regarding migration and answering questions from why to how to migrate, from when to where, whom to ask for help or how to invest remittances. Based on the case study of a rural area in Northern Albania, The Administrative Unit of Dajç, this article explores in detail the roles of family and kinship on decisions regarding return migration, the re-adjustment process, remigration or transnational life. By exploring the role of the family context in remigration and vice-versa the article reflects that the family biography – including the lifestyle, plans for the future or expectations - has changed due to previous migration experiences or challenges and difficulties when returning to the home country. It demonstrates how individual decisions to migrate or to ‘return home’ are negotiated and supported within families making transnational life a family project. The article adopts a new approach in the Albanian Migration Studies which may be implied on broader areas for further research in the future.

The eutrophication caused by excessive total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) emissions has been widely concerned by the whole society. Studies have revealed the relationship between land use and TN and TP, but the relationship between land use compound topographic position and TP and TN was seldom studied. Therefore, Spearman correlation and redundancy analyses were used to reveal the relationship between land use compound topographic position and TN and TP based on the monthly data of 28 water quality sampling sites and the land use data of 2013 and 2016 in the lakes of Guizhou Plateau. The results show that the nutritional state of the HBA watershed is medium. The trophic level index (TLI) value and TN concentration were high during flood, while TP concentration was high in dry period. The TN concentration in the tributaries was higher than that in the reservoir area. Construction and valley were the sources of the pollution, whereas forest land and gentle slope were the sink. According to the”source-sink”effect, the optimal zoning of land use was completed, and the urban land pollution govern area should be strengthened firstly. This paper can provide decision support for water environment management and sustainable development decision-making.

The analysis of the human movement patterns based on the mobile network data makes it possible to examine a very large population cost-effectively, and led to several discoveries about human dynamics. However, the application of this data source is still not common practice. The goal of this study was to analyze the commuting tendencies of the Budapest Metropolitan Area using mobile network data and propose an automatized alternative to the current, questionnaire-based method. Commuting is predominantly analyzed by the census, but that is performed only once in a decade in Hungary. To analyze commuting, the home and the work locations of the subscribers are determined based on their appearances during and outside the working hours. The home locations were compared to census data at a settlement level. Then, the settlement and district level commuting tendencies were identified and compared to the findings of census-based sociological studies. It has been found that commuting analysis based on mobile network data strongly correlates with the census-based findings, even though home and work locations have been estimated by statistical methods. All the examined aspects, including commuting from sectors of the agglomeration to the districts of Budapest and demographic distribution of the commuters, show that mobile network data can be an automatized, fast, cost-effective, and relatively accurate way of commuting analysis, that could provide a powerful tool to the sociologists interested in commuting.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the initial focus on handwashing measures have again highlighted the importance of water access as an essential service in protecting human health. Yet, especially in southern cities, uneven geographies of water access – often mediated by fragmented and unequal infrastructure systems – may hamper the fight against infectious diseases. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 presented a dilemma for water providers as well as residents in water-deprived urban areas as they had to adhere to new hygiene standards and requirements, despite limited access to basic water infrastructure. Therefore, a deeper understanding of pandemic urban waterscapes – the infrastructure and governance systems as well as everyday practices and technologies – is necessary for ongoing debates on (post-) pandemic or zoonotic cities. In our paper, we focus on changes in urban (water) governance and government water projects in Nairobi since early 2020. We show that Covid-19 has contributed to changes in Nairobi’s waterscape but only in conjunction with recent changes in the city’s overall governance structure. However, if these waterscape changes lead to greater equity in water access, and if they have helped to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, is more than questionable.

Due to rising global warming and climate change, biodiversity protection has become a critical ecological concern. The rich biodiversity zones are under threat and are deteriorating, necessitating national, regional, and provincial efforts to safeguard these natural areas. The effective conservation of National Parks and Nature-protected Areas helps to improve biodiversity conservation, forest, and urban air quality. The continuous encroachment and abuse of these protected areas have degraded the ecosystem over time. While exploring the geophysical ecology and biodiversity conservation of these areas in West Africa, Kainji National Park was selected for this study because of its notable location, naturalness, rich habitat diversity, topographic uniqueness, and landmass. The conservation of national parks and nature-protected areas is a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation globally. This study is aimed at the target of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, 2030- Climate Action, targeted at taking urgent action towards combating climate change and its impacts. The study captures both flora and fauna that are dominant in the study area. The 15 identified tree species were selected from over 30 species with 563,500,000 (an average of 3,700,000 in each sample frame) trees for every tree species/type with a total of 63% tree green canopy cover. The study areas divided into three zones were randomly sampled within a stratum of 25x25km frames divided into 150 sample frames for proper analyses using the i-Tree Eco v6.0.23. The following microclimatic data were captured and analyzed; photosynthetically active radiation, rain/precipitation, temperature, transpiration, evaporation, water intercepted by trees, avoided a runoff by trees, potential evaporation by trees, isoprene and monoterpene by trees. This study also further discusses the tree benefits of a green, low carbon, and sustainable environment within the context of biodiversity conservation considering carbon storage, carbon sequestration, hydrology effects, pollution removal, oxygen production, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There is a quick need for remotely-sensed information about the protected areas at regular intervals and government policies must be strict against illegal poaching, logging activities and other hazardous human impacts.

Land tenure security is important for achieving a number Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of this paper was to investigate variation in land tenure security across three districts located in different geographical regions of Uganda. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey data collected in early 2019. The findings show that Kanungu district found in South-Western Uganda had significantly higher levels of land tenure security as compared to Nakasongola (Central) and Nwoya (Northern). Research findings have implications on further study and benchmarking land governance systems in Kanungu. Furthermore, they have implications on implementation of government and donor land titling or registration programs in terms of priority areas. They further sheds light on the importance of accounting for geographical context in land tenure studies.

Disaggregated population counts are needed to calculate health, economic, and development indicators in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), especially in settings of rapid urbanisation. Censuses are often outdated and inaccurate in LMIC settings, and rarely disaggregated at fine geographic scale. Modelled gridded population datasets derived from census data have become widely used by development researchers and practitioners. These datasets are evaluated for accuracy at the spatial scale of the input data which is often much courser (e.g. administrative units) than the neighbourhood or cell-level scale of many applications. We simulate a realistic "true" 2016 population in Khomas, Namibia, a majority urban region, and introduce realistic levels of outdatedness (over 15 years) and inaccuracy in slum, non-slum, and rural areas. We aggregate these simulated realistic populations by census and administrative boundaries (to mimic census data), and generate 32 gridded population datasets that are typical of a LMIC setting using WorldPop-Global-Unconstrained gridded population approach. We evaluate the cell-level accuracy of these simulated datasets using the original "true" population as a reference. In our simulation, we found large cell-level errors, particularly in slum cells, driven by the use of average population densities in large areal units to determine cell-level population densities. Age, accuracy, and aggregation of the input data also played a role in these errors. We suggest incorporating finer-scale training data into gridded population models generally, and WorldPop-Global-Unconstrained in particular (e.g., from routine household surveys or slum community population counts), and use of new building footprint datasets as a covariate to improve cell-level accuracy. It is important to measure accuracy of gridded population datasets at spatial scales more consistent with how the data are being applied, especially if they are to be used for monitoring key development indicators at neighbourhood scales with relevance to small dense deprived areas within larger administrative units.

Public green and open spaces fulfil various social, ecological, economic, and aesthetic roles, which complement each another, but can also compete with one another. COVID-19 pandemic catalysed multiple societal changes, including citizens’ perception, needs and expectations posed towards urban green spaces. This article discusses the extent to which the temporally and geographically changed patterns of experiencing these natural spaces also influenced users’ perception and behaviour as well as their appreciation of the conservation areas. The study is based upon two surveys carried out in the greater metropolitan region of Vienna, the capital city of Austria. A quantitative survey (representative online panel) among Viennese population (n=1012), as well as qualitive interviews with experts responsible for conservation areas, administrators of federal parks, along with NGOs representatives were carried out in spring and summer 2021. Our study shows the changed use of urban and suburban large green spaces and conservation areas: first, from the perspective of those responsible for the areas as well as the visitors. Both perspectives supplement one another. They highlight also changed perception of urban citizens towards green spaces during COVID-19 pandemic. An increased importance of time spent in nature (68%) and possibility to visit large green areas (67%) was reported by Viennese citizens. Also, higher recognition of green spaces located close to home was observed among 69% of the respondents. Thus, the presented study contributes to the ongoing international discussion on the transition of societal needs and its effects on urban green spaces induced by the pandemic. Presented results deliver solid arguments highlighting the need of urgent transformation towards a more sustainable, resilient and healthy urban space.

Poor households are more likely less resilient under climate change, risks of productive assets, social-related shocks, and decline of land productivity. The ability to deal with household resilience against poverty under the uncertain condition of risk is limited in the highlands of Ethiopia. The study aims to identify determinants of household resilience to livelihood insecurity under the crop-livestock mixed farming systems in Goncha district, Northwest highlands of Ethiopia. Primary data were collected by conducting face-to-face interviews among 280 households using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test and structural equation modeling were used to analyse the data. The results disclosed that sustainable management of the farming systems, cultivation of more fertile farmland, saving performance, diversification of income-earning activities, intensification of livestock husbandry practices, access to irrigation, and familiarity with practical technologies were found to be significant determinants at p<0.001 to household resilience of smallholder farmers. Social network development and tree plantation were explained household resilience to livelihood insecurity at P<0.01 and P<0.1 significant levels, respectively. The study concluded that scaling up sustainable management of the farming system and practical technologies, enhancing saving behavior, promoting income diversification, and intensifying agroforestry are significant for household resilience to livelihood insecurity of smallholders across agro-ecologies.

In this research, the accessibility in the footpath-level walkability condition of old core cities of India has been assessed, considering Central Kolkata, India as a case. Post-2015, after the implementation of Goal Number 11 of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (i.e. Sustainable Cities and Communities), the significance of universal mobility has globally manifolded in the walkability sector. This research has been done in theoretical, ideological, and methodological patterns using Architectural Planning Research for promoting Universal Mobility in old Indian cities. The variables (categorical) used in this research are related to pedestrian infrastructure. The categorical variables are: 1) Building Typology of Stretch, 2) Footpath Dimensions, 3) Temporary Encroachment, 4) Permanent Encroachment, 5) Bus Stop, 6) Metro Rail Entrance, 7) Railings, 8) Storm Water Drains, 9) Public Toilet, 10) Trash Bins, 11) Street Lights, 12) Flooring, 13) Manholes, 14) Kerb, 15) Pedestrian Crossing, 16) Street Furniture, 17) Safety and Security, and 18) Additional Inclusive Features like signage. This research shows that the footpath stretches in Central Kolkata, India are inadequate in terms of ideal accessibility. In addition to this, the result of this research portrays complexities in the adaptability of accessible walkability-related considerations; thereby suggesting a new accessibility audit format for old core Indian cities for achieving Universal Mobility standards in the future. The authors also propose quantitative methods to conduct future research in the same domain.

There is an increased interest in the district-scale energy transition within interdisciplinary research community. Agent-based modelling presents a suitable approach to address variety of questions related to policies, technologies, processes, and the different stakeholder roles that can foster such transition. This state-of-the-art review focuses on the application of agent-based modelling for exploring policy interventions that facilitate the decarbonisation (i.e., energy transition) of districts and neighbourhoods while considering stakeholders’ social characteristics and interactions. We systematically select and analyse peer-reviewed literature and discuss the key modelling aspects, such as model purpose, agents and decision-making logic, spatial and temporal aspects, and empirical grounding. The analysis reveals that the most established agent-based models’ focus on innovation diffusion (e.g., adoption of solar panels) and dissemination of energy-saving behaviour among a group of buildings in urban areas. We see a considerable gap in exploring the decisions and interactions of agents other than residential households, such as commercial and even industrial energy consumers (and prosumers). Moreover, measures such as building retrofits and conversion to district energy systems involve many stakeholders and complex interactions between them that up to now have hardly been represented in the agent-based modelling environment.

Industrial green technology innovation has become an important content in achieving high-quality economic growth and comprehensively practicing the new development concept in the new era. This paper measures the efficiency of industrial green technology innovation and regional differences based on Chinese provincial panel data from 2005 to 2018, using a combination of the super-efficient SBM model for considering undesirable outputs and the Dagum Gini coefficient method, and discusses and analyses the factors influencing of the industrial green technology innovation efficiency by constructing a spatial econometric model. The results show that: firstly, the industrial green technology innovation efficiency in China shows a relatively stable development trend, going through three stages: " stationary period", " recession period " and "growth period ". However, the efficiency gap between different regions is obvious, specifically in the eastern > central > western regions of China, and the industrial green technology efficiency innovation in the central and western regions is lower than the national average. Secondly, regional differences in the efficiency of industrial green technology innovation in China are evident but tend to narrow overall, with the main reason for the overall difference being regional differences. In terms of intra-regional variation, variation within the eastern region is relatively stable, variation within the central region is relatively low and shows an inverted 'U' shaped trend, and variation within the western region is high and shows a fluctuating downward trend. Thirdly, the firm size, government support, openness to the outside world, environmental regulations and education levels contribute to the efficiency of industrial green technology innovation. In addition, the industrial structure hinders the efficiency of industrial green technology innovation, and each influencing factor has different degrees of spatial spillover effects.

Green innovation has become an important combination of high-quality economic growth and sustainable development of ecological environment. In this paper, the super-efficiency network SBM model is used to measure the two-stage green innovation efficiency of industrial science and technology R&amp;D and achievement transformation in 30 provinces and cities from 2009 to 2019, and exploratory Data Analysis (ESDA) and spatial econometric model are used to investigate the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of green innovation efficiency. The results show that: firstly, the overall efficiency of industrial green innovation is low, and the efficiency of scientific research and development and achievement transformation has experienced three stages of "upward-declining-revitalized period". The low efficiency of achievement transformation is an important factor hiding the improvement of the efficiency of industrial green innovation. Secondly, The industrial green innovation efficiency gradually increases from northwest to southeast, forming a centralized "line" and "block" distribution. The high efficiency area is still concentrated in the eastern coastal region, and the balanced development trend is obvious in the central and western regions. Finally, openness has a positive impact on the two-stage green innovation efficiency; Industrial structure and government investment in science and technology have a positive impact on the efficiency of science and technology research and development, but have no significant effect on the efficiency of achievement transformation. Enterprise size has a positive effect on achievement transformation efficiency, but has no significant effect on R&amp;D efficiency. Environmental regulation has a positive impact on R&amp;D efficiency and a negative impact on achievement transformation efficiency.

Local Productive Systems (hereinafter LPS) based on agro-food industries constitute alternative models of development in peripheral rural areas that are subject to internal and external dynamics and processes. The main objective of the research is to investigate the processes and their consequences on four SPLs based on the Iberian Pig Transformation Industry (hereinafter LPS-IPTI) in SW Spain: Fregenal de la Sierra, Higuera la Real, Cumbres Mayores and Jabugo. Using secondary data, a comparison is made between 2002 and 2020 to establish the changes, causes and consequences on the LPS-IPTI studied. The results obtained indicate (1) business and territorial concentration of LPS-IPTI; (2) productive and territorial specialisation in standardised products and quality products; (3) simplification of industrial processes; (4) loss of employment, especially female; (5) external control of companies in the sector which, accordingly, results in the loss of prominence of local actors in favour of foreign companies, reduced social capital and the progressive loss of ownership of the LPS.

The threat of fine particulate matter concentration (PM2.5) is increasing globally, Tackling this issue requires an accurate understanding of its trends and drivers. The article investigates the PM2.5 characteristics of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000-2018 based on multiscale geographically weighted regression(MGWR), and the results show that（1）previous studies based on classical MGWR models may be somewhat unstable, while MGWR can reflect the scale of influence of different variables on the dependent variable, and its regression results are more reliable.（2）PM2.5 is very sensitive to carbon emission(CE) factors, and there is a high degree of spatial heterogeneity, and the influence scale of location is the smallest among all variables, close to the municipal scale.（3）In 2000, the constant term all, IS, OFT, CE, and LT positively affect PM2.5, while GDP (jurisdiction) and UR negatively affect PM2.5; in 2010, the constant term all, GDP (jurisdiction), IS, OFT and LT positively affect PM2.5, while UR and CE negatively affect PM2.5; in 2018 the constant term all, IS, OFT and CE factors positively affect PM2.5, and GDP (jurisdiction), UR and LT negatively affect PM2.5.

Farm fragmentation is the occurrence of numerous and often discontinuous land parcels associated with a single farm. Farm fragmentation is considered to be a defining feature of Northern Ireland’s (NI) agricultural landscape, influencing agricultural efficiency, productivity, and the spread of livestock diseases. Despite this, the full extent of farm fragmentation in cattle farms is not well understood, and little is known of how farm fragmentation either influences, or is influenced by, different animal production types. This study describes and quantifies farm fragmentation metrics for cattle enterprises in NI, presented separately for dairy and non-dairy production types. We find that 35% of farms consist of five or more fragments, with larger farms associated with greater levels of farm fragmentation, fragment dispersal and contact with contiguous farms. Moreover, this was particularly evident in dairy farms, which were over twice the size of farms associated with non-dairy production types, with twice as many individual land parcels and twice as many fragments. We hypothesise that the difference in farm fragmentation and farm size between dairy and non-dairy production types is associated with the recent expansion of dairy farms after the abolition of the milk quota system in 2015, which may have driven the expansion of dairy farms via the acquisition of land. The high levels of land fragmentation, fragment dispersal and contiguous contact observed in NI cattle farms may also have important implications for agricultural productivity and epidemiology alike. Whilst highly connected pastures could facilitate the dissemination of disease, highly fragmented and parcellised land could also hamper productivity via diseconomies of scale, such as preventing the increase of herd sizes or additionally, adding to farm costs by increasing the complexity of herd management.

The aim of our study is to utilise longitudinal and representative national data to explore the extent that the association between the fast food environment and overweight in adolescents is confounded by neighbourhood deprivation. Longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study for England were obtained for waves 5 (ages 11/12; 2011/12; n=13,469) and 6 (ages 14/15; 2014/15; n=11,884). Our outcome variable was overweight/obesity defined using age and sex-specific International Obesity Task Force cut points. Individuals were linked, based on their residential location, to data on the density of fast food outlets and neighbourhood deprivation. Structural Equation Models were used to model associations at both ages and explicitly test for confounding. While we found some evidence for an association between the number of fast food outlets and overweight, any associations disappeared following accounting for the confounding nature of neighbourhood deprivation. Neighbourhood deprivation was consistently associated to overweight, with adolescents who resided in deprived areas more likely to be overweight. Results were largely consistent depending on different methodological decisions. Our findings suggest that policy efforts should prioritise focusing on tackling the social determinants of excess body mass which will be more effective than interventions aimed at the built environment.

(1) Background: Cameron County, which is located in the Rio Grande Valley, holds historical records for storm surges with noticeable property damage, fatalities, and injuries; (2) Methods: using storm surge hazard datasets from the National Oceanic and Atlantic Agency (NOAA), and American Community Survey (ACS) 2019 datasets and Geographic Information System (GIS), the study estimates at-risk population and their socio-demographic attributes; (4) Conclusions: Estimated water levels of a storm surge could be reached up to 5 feet in category 1 event, 9 feet in category 2, 17 feet in category 3, and above 20 feet in category 4 and 5. In the category 5 event, there is an estimated 37% (159,659) of the total county’s population (434,294) will be under flooded water. Suggestions are made to better prepare and successfully evaluate.

This paper presents a theoretically and methodologically grounded GIS-based model for the measurement and mapping of an index of living conditions in urban residential areas across Sweden. Further, the model is compared and evaluated using the Swedish Police’s assessment of crime-exposed areas. The results indicate that geographically measured vulnerable living conditions overlap to a large extent with the areas assessed to be crime-exposed by the Swedish Police. Over 61% of the police-defined crime-exposed areas are characterized by vulnerable living conditions. The results also show that the overlap is not perfect and that there are vulnerable areas that are not included in the police’s assessment of crime-exposed areas, but which are nonetheless characterized by vulnerable living conditions that could negatively affect the development of crime. It is also proposed that the model and the mapped index of living conditions provide a more well-grounded scientific basis for the police's assessment work. As a first step, the Swedish police have implemented the model and the mapped index in the work process employed in their annual identification of crime-exposed or at-risk areas. In addition to assisting the police, the model and the mapped index could also be used to support other societal actors working with vulnerable areas.

This article is an effort to scrutinize the role of Information Technology development in the chronological transformation of Urban Planning domain using the exploratory research approach. In this research, it is argued that the theoretical and practical understanding of Urban Planning should absorb and integrate the bright outcome of the rise of Information and Technology to foster congruent future urban development. The article addresses the trends of transformation in the urban planning domain through the myopic lens of the expansion of information and communications technology era followed by investigating the key drivers shaping the interaction between modern-day urban planning and information technology considering both the dark and bright sides into account.

The scarcity of surface water resources in the dry season in the Kilinochchi district increases the demand for freshwater. Therefore, the existing groundwater resources should be managed to overcome the situation. Several authors worldwide have published studies on the delineation of potential groundwater zone. However, only a few studies addressed the delineation of potential groundwater zones in the Kilinochchi district. This study aims to delineate potential groundwater zones in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka using integrated Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, and Analytic Hierarchy Process techniques. Groundwater potential zones are demarcated for the Kilinochchi district by overlaying thematic layers: geology, geomorphology, land use/land cover, soil types, drainage density, slope, lineament, and rainfall. Saaty's scale was applied to the assigned weights of the chosen thematic layers and their features. The thematic layers were integrated into a Geographic Information System, and a weighted overlay analysis is carried out to delineate groundwater zones. Thus the resultant map is categorized into five different potential zones: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. It was found that the very high groundwater potential zone is mainly found in the north-eastern part of the study area covering 111.26 km2. The upper north-western, middle, and eastern parts of the study area fall within the high groundwater potential zone covering about 507.74 km2. The moderate groundwater potential zones (309.89 km2) mainly occurred in the western part, and the extreme west part of the study area falls under low (207.78 km2) and very low (59.12 km2) zones. The groundwater potential map was validated with the existing seventy-nine wells, which indicated a good prediction accuracy of 81.8%. This research will help policymakers better manage the Kilinochchi district's groundwater resources and gives scope for further research into groundwater exploration in the area.

Properties of spatially explicit data are often ignored or inadequately handled in machine learning for spatial domains of application. At the same time, resources that would identify these properties and investigate their influence and methods to handle them in machine learning applications are lagging behind. In this survey of the literature, we seek to identify and discuss spatial properties of data that influence the performance of machine learning. We review some of the best practices in handling such properties in spatial domains and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. We recognize two broad strands in this literature. In the first, the properties of spatial data are developed in the spatial observation matrix without amending the substance of the learning algorithm; in the other, spatial data properties are handled in the learning algorithm itself. While the latter have been far less explored, we argue they offer the most promising prospects for the future of spatial machine learning.

Satellite-based broad-scale (i.e., global and continental) human settlement data offer foundational information for diverse applications spanning climate hazard mitigation, sustainable development monitoring, spatial epidemiology, and demographic modeling. While many human settlement products report exceptional detection accuracies above 85%, there is a substantial blind spot in that product validation is typically centered on large urban areas rather than rural, small-scale settlements that are home to 3.4 billion people. In this study, we make use of a data-rich collection of 30 refugee settlements in Uganda to produce a targeted assessment of small-scale settlement detection by four broad-scale human settlement products: Global Human Settlements Built-Up Sentinel-2 (GHS-BUILT-S2), World Settlement Footprint (WSF), High Resolution Settlement Layer (HRSL), and Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3). We measured each product’s areal coverage within refugee settlements, assessed product detection accuracies in comparison to an independent dataset of 317,416 refugee settlement building footprints, and examined agreement between products. For refugee settlements established before 2016, the human settlement products had a low median F1-Score (F1) of 0.24, a high median false alarm rate of 0.59, and tended to only agree at locations of highest building density. Individually, WSF entirely overlooked 8 of the 30 study refugee settlements (median F1=0.17); GHS-BUILT-S2 underestimated the building footprint area by a median 50% (F1=0.15); GRID3 overestimated the building footprint area by a median 280% (F1=0.38); and HRSL underestimated the median area by 7% (F1=0.34). All products suffer from low detection accuracy and high false alarm rates, but GRID3 and HRSL, based on 0.5 meter resolution imagery, offer better detection accuracy than GHS-BUILT S2 and WSF, which are based on 10-30 meter resolution imagery. These results show that human settlement products have far to go in providing an accurate depiction of small-scale refugee settlements and would benefit from incorporating refugee settlements in training and validation of broad-scale human settlement detection.

Spatial planning holds a key role in preventing or mitigating the impacts of climate change on both cities and rural areas, taking a forward-thinking and holistic approach to urban and regional development. As such, spatial planning deals with challenges occurring at different scales and across sectors. The international literature points out the need for horizontal and vertical cooperation to tackle climate change impacts. While there is abundant knowledge regarding the challenges related to climate change at different spatial levels, procedural integration into planning frameworks and practice is currently under-researched. This paper presents a novel theoretical framework that integrates various steps towards a holistic, integrative and adaptive climate proofing process. An iterative process was used for conceptual development, based on literature review followed by external feedback meetings and two workshops with the core team of planning experts responsible for exchange across federal states. By specifically addressing the challenges relating to cross-regional and cross-sectoral planning, this novel framework attempts to (i) facilitate a hierarchy of measures, (ii) maximise co-benefits for various adaptation purposes and climate change mitigation and (iii) foster the long-term institutionalisation of integrative processes across sectors, planning areas and policy levels.

This article analyses three recent shifts in what [1] called the geography of ‘Big Things’ meaning the contemporary functions and adaptability of modern city centre architecture. We periodise the three styles conventionally into the fashionable ‘Starchitecture’ of the 1990s, the repurposed ‘Agritecture’ of the 2000s and the parodising ‘Parkitecture’ of the 2010s. Starchitecture was the form of new architecture coinciding with the rise of neo-liberalism in its brief era of global urban competitiveness prevalent in the 1990s. After the Great Financial Crash of 2007-8 the market for high-rise emblems of iconic, thrusting, skyscrapers and giant downtown and suburban shopping malls waned and online shopping and working from home destroyed the main rental values of the CBD. In some illustrious cases ‘Agritecture’ caused re-purposed office blocks and other CBD accompaniments to be re-purposed as settings for high-rise urban farming, especially aquaponics and hydroponic horticulture. Now, Covid-19 has further undermined traditional CBD property markets causing some administrations to decide to bulldoze their ‘deadmalls’ and replace them with urban prairie landscapes, inviting the designation ‘Parkitecture’ for the bucolic results. The paper presents an account of these transitions by reference to questions raised by urban cultural scholars like Jane M. Jacobs and Jean Gottmann to figure out answers in time and space to questions their work poses.

Urban cities are the major drivers of economic growth and development. Economic growth and development however results in considerable land cover land use dynamics. This study assessed the dynamics in land cover land use that have occurred in New Braunfels, Texas in the last 7 years (2013 - 2020) to observe areas in the city that had experienced considerable shifts in land cover and land use. A 30-meter resolution Landsat images were used to examine possible changes in land cover land use. New Braunfels was observed to have experienced significant changes in land use especially in developed areas. This change can be attributed to the influx of people into the city, contributing to the need for increased urban development. Analysis of this study shows that about 16% (about 553 hectares) of forest land cover class and 28% (about 1,139 hectares) of grassland class in time 1 (August 31, 2013) changed to built-up land use class in time 2 (November 5, 2020). A limitation to this study was that of the spatial resolution of images used. Higher spatial resolution images could impact the producers, users, and overall accuracy assessment. Results from this study can aid in supporting better decision-making for sustainable urban development and climate change mitigation.