Rapid urbanization has accelerated farmland transfer in China, which in turn has increased the cultivation intensity of non-grain farmland (NGF). The aim of this paper was to analyze the spatial patterns of non-grain farmland (NGF) at municipal-level cities in China from 2000 to 2014, and explore the influence of urbanization and farmland transfer on the spatial patterns of non-grain farmland (...

Natural gas has become more and more important in the world energy market with the change of energy consumption structure and consumption subjects. This paper applies the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model to study the nonlinear relationship between natural gas consumption and economic variables of emerging economies, and the empirical results show that: (1) There is a non-linear r...

OBJECTIVE To assess levels, trends and gaps between the poorest and the richest in selected health and human development indicators in Bangladesh. METHODS Data for selected indicators associated with sociodemographic characteristics among ever-married women, contraception use, child vaccination, antenatal care practices and health conditions were extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and ...

Land cover data are often used to examine the impacts of landscape alterations on the environment from the local to global scale. Although various agencies produce land cover data at various spatial scales, data are still limited at the regional scale over extended timescales. This is a critical data gap since decision-makers often use future and long-term land cover maps to develop effective p...

There is an increasing ascendency and importance placed on 'ecological thinking' when reflecting on cities. Last year the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook (CBO, 2012) was launched, promising a " global assessment of the links between urbanization, biodiversity, and ecosystem services " with a foreword by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon commending the study to " all who have a stake in creating ...

Urban spatial expansion characteristics are the responses of urbanization acts on the geographical space. Analyzing the characteristics can reveal the process of urban expansion and mechanism which is one of useful methods to find out the sustainable land use strategy balancing development and protection. In this paper, two main methods have been deployed in analyzing the spatial expansion char...

Municipal infrastructure is a fundamental facility for the normal operation and development of an urban city and is of significance for the stable progress of sustainable urbanization around the world, especially in developing countries. Based on the municipal infrastructure data of the prefecture-level cities in China, municipal infrastructure development is assessed comprehensively using a FA...

Urbanization in developing world is unprecedented, and in coming few years the number of urban dwellers is expected to exceed rural dwellers. In India, due to unprecedented and unplanned urbanization the slum areas in urban society are rapidly increasing posing serious threat to sustainable development of the country. The objective of the present study is to map out major slum areas of an urban...

With the rapid development of Chinese economy, many negative effects of land use transitions under the pressure of rapid urbanization on local ecological system and environment have occurred. This paper examines the dynamic patterns of land use in Tianjin Binhai New Area experienced rapid urbanization, using high-resolution Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) data in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2010, and soc...

This commentary examines how specific sustainable development goals (SDGs) are affected by antimicrobial resistance and suggests how the issue can be better integrated into international policy processes. Moving beyond the importance of effective antibiotics for the treatment of acute infections and health care generally, we discuss how antimicrobial resistance also impacts on environmental, so...